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Originally Posted by hotshot1
^^ I think it is a gateway drug in that when you realize the bullshit "drugs are bad" nonsense is just wrong after you smoke/eat pot without any repercussions, then you might think other drugs might not be as bad... drugs like meth and heroine, which are absolutely harmful.
The thing that's important is having everyone more educated.
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The whole 'gateway drug' is bullshit. People who want to use will use what's available. When you're a kid and you can't get cigarettes or alcohol because they're too strictly controlled, they'll get pot. You're a kid in highschool, it's a serious pain in the ass to get booze or smokes unless you've got an older sibling who'll hook you up. But you find a guy to hook you up with weed, and you're set. Of course you're going to find more people who aren't of legal age who are using pot--it's the drug that's easiest to find and dealers seriously don't care about how old (or young) you are.
You want to make sure that kids can't get drugs? Regulate it. People always say "Oh, if you legalize it, then little kids will be smoking it and the world will end!". I got news for you: THEY ALREADY ARE BECAUSE IT'S EASIER TO GET THAN BOOZE. You go to 4/20 at the VAG, and you'll see a damned good chunk of kids strutting around acting like they're the shit. You've got potheads who think it's cool that kids are getting hooked up and will help them get high. You regulate pot and you'll eliminate a chunk of the problem in a few years as things get cleaned up.
I completely and totally agree with education, but one of the problems I have with education is those people who say that "Pot is just as bad as heroin or cocaine". Anyone who's had experience with pot will understand why that kind of comment makes me laugh so hard. Pot, more than anything, is comparable to booze. You ask someone who enjoys a beer or a scotch if they're addicted to alcohol, they'll say no. You ask them if they'll give up booze for a year--hell, even six months--and they'll give you this "weeeeeeeeeeeeellllllll.....". Funny, that's what people who smoke pot say. But if you ask them to give it up for a week. Two. Even a month if you push it, they can do it.
They won't have the shakes. They won't be freaking out. They won't be stressing telling everyone how long it's been (sometimes to the hour) how long it's been since they last had a drink or a toke.
Well, most won't. Some will. And THOSE people are addicted.
I'm not saying that drugs aren't bad (alcohol and tobacco included). But I will say that the rhetoric around pot (especially compared to alcohol and tobacco) is blown hugely out of proportion.
My grandpa was a pharmacist back in the '40s and '50s. You know what he gave you when you had a stomach ache and weren't eating? Heroin. Oh, and also if your skin needed some clearing up: tonic of heroin. The coca-cola that he drank as a youth before the depression? Laced with cocaine.
Drugs are bad. Drugs should be kept out of certain hands. People need to be educated that drugs are bad. But the people who should be deciding these things are doctors after extensive scientific research. Control of these things need to be taken out of the black market and regulated (private or public, don't care), so that we can at least get a bit of a handle on the problem.
Cops will often issue announcements about problems with drugs on the street: overly high potency, cut with problematic and/or poisonous materials--they'll often say "The major reason you shouldn't take illegal drugs is because you don't know what's in them". The solution? Dispense them from a pharmacy at a government-regulated level! Why not just say "The maximum strength of heroin or cocaine that you can purchase is 10%, and you can only purchase X amount within Y period of time from a regulated area, and you'll have to provide a certain type of ID to ensure you're not purchasing more than you should."
Is there anyone here who isn't currently using heroin or cocaine who'd start just because it's legal? I'm pretty sure that the legal punishments are not at the front of our minds when we think about the downsides to drugs. There are nutjobs out there who say that "the law is the only thing stopping doctors from snorting coke before they do operations, or judges from injecting heroin before they judge a case". I'm pretty sure that's bullshit. We've all developed moral compasses; we just need to make sure that the education we give future generations will be proper so that they can develop their own.