Trend? Hardly. It happens, but is not as widespread as after school specials would like you to believe.

Oh, and it happens ONLY because it's illegal. That's like saying it should remain illegal because it supports drug dealers and gets people killed over drug deals gone wrong. Issues that dissolve once legal.

And Pan, I can't take seriously any report that says "Zero or nearly zero". It's one or the other and if they're being that vague, it makes the whole thing highly suspect. Sorry, I prefer hard data to support my causes, not spin.

I don't consider myself to be an expert, and perhaps the seminar presented at the school my kids go to was trying to scare us (and I was scared, believe me - the organization was called "Not my Child"), but they said it is actually a growing trend that is far more prevalent than known to the common user.

I would say it that sort of thing doesn't happen that often - simply because that's something people are going to be paying extra for. It's not something they're going to give away by accident. Not that I condone MJ for teens though.

For consenting adults though? What's the big deal? It's so similar to alcohol - can be used for good or evil.

Well, there's a patently false-on-its-face statement if ever there was one.


How can a trend remain invisible to the common user? Um, I smoke a lot of pot (ok, not nearly as much as I used to ... you couldn't call it a lot nowadays). I'd have noticed if there was a trend ... ever in the 30 years I've been smoking - to lace marijuana with other drugs. Pure bullsh!t scare tactics worthy of 1950's parastupidnoia.

Girl I knew in high school smoked a joint laced with something else. Ended up with permanent brain damage. She presented very similar to a stoke victim. Mostly paralyzed on one side. Had to relearn how to eat, talk, basic functions. It was very sad.

Like I said, I'm no expert. I am not a drug user so I haven't the desire to research beyond what I've been told.

you mean like they did with tobacco?

The problem with the libertarian argument in favor of legalization is that it is not truly libertarian. I have very few, if any, cases involving violent or property crime where the defendant did not have a background of substance abuse, if not necessarily in his short life than in his parents'. When the call is for locking these people up for life after their nth offense, the cry is usually for more treatment programs, etc., not leaving them to the consequences of their "choice."

I have no problem with having drugs illegal as a conceptual matter. Ideally, the decision is based on weighing the potential social harm against the impingement on the freedom to be an idiot, which seems to be the only freedom we cherish these days. It's like a speed limit. The main argument against criminalization in this area to me is that criminalization has spawned a huge criminal enterprise. However, I'm not sure that eliminating the number of people killed in drug wars would not be outweighed by the number of people who, no longer deterred by criminal sanction, kill themselves using drugs.

And, of course, there is the whole alcohol conundrum.

And what if it's an equal amount, Stangler? Wouldn't it be "better" to have 10 people commit suicide than have the same 10 people be murdered?


Besides, I believe it's everyone's right to take their own life, and they are in charge of their own life. It's no one's right to take another person's life.

I don't have a problem with marijuana legalization, provided that there are strict laws about not operating vehicles or machinery (or showing up to work) stoned.

Though I've smoked it a few times in my life, I don't particularly enjoy it. I find myself using less and less "medication" the older I get (including alcohol/drugs/food/TV/etc) and more and more things that put me into action instead, like exercise, or journaling, or fresh air. Call me new-agey if you want, but I'm feeling pretty good lately.

I'm not really interested in any other drugs being legalized, though. I don't want something as destructive as meth or heroin to be easily-accessible. Sure, anything can be misused - but reading, for instance, Freakonomics' chapter on crack... I just don't really want to encourage destructive behavior with things that can be so easily destructive.