[Calgaryborn]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Well if you only witnessed it once, than that sounds scientific enough for me. I'm sure it has nothing to do with it being easier to hide drinking, which is why you never see it.

Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Try to focus here. You asked me about personal experiences and I answered the question. Also, the alcoholics I worked with did manage to refrain from drinking while at work. Booze isn't easy to hide if your working out of a truck.

Originally Posted by HOOT

Marijuana isn't addictive and people don't turn into addicts because they smoke pot. 1 in 100 marijuana users use cocaine, 1 in 104 use crack. What an epidemic!

People don't get physically addicted to marijuana but, there is a psychological addiction which can make it hard to quit.

Originally Posted by HOOT

Marijuana doesn't cause brain damage. Maybe step back from your blind hate for the drug and information you learned in the 70's and see what information is out in 2011 about marijuana and it's effects on the brain and body.

Marijuana does harm developing brains. It also will change ones personality.

Originally Posted by HOOT

Yes smelly Marijuana is harder to conceal than booze in a bottle. Try again. Smoke a joint and walk past one and tell me how conceal it is compared to sneaking in a sip of vodka.

Smoke it outside and then have a cigarette right after. If your still paranoid about the smell use a little febreze. Your arguement about pot being harder to conceal is false. One guy can bring enough marijuana to keep 5 or 10 guys wasted for a whole shift. He can hide it in his pocket. A drunk might hide a mickey in his jacket pocket or lunch kit but, it would need to be his personal supply which means he would probably have to hide it. Beer the most common drink of choice is pretty much impossible to hide in reasonable quanities.

Originally Posted by HOOT

You also have zero trust in the youth of our nation if you honestly believe legalizing marijuana will somehow turn them into alcoholic drug addicts because it's legal. What a stupid stance to take, when studies have shown otherwise.

No what I'm saying is increased access to marijuana which legalization would no doubt cause will make it much easier for youths to make a bad decision. Studies which amount to surveys can be made to tell you anything you want to hear but, that doesn't mean they are accurate. It is like anything else; easier access will result in more experimentation.

How many smokers first cigarette came from their parent's pack or drink came from their parents cabinet?

Originally Posted by HOOT

Do you think drugs go out of your system as soon as you wake up the next day? If someone smoked pot on Friday, got tested on Monday, they wouldn't be "clean" so they would be fired. I'm not saying these people smoke on the job.

Yes but, if your not addicted then reason should tell you it isn't wise to smoke on Friday because it will cost you your job. If your psychological addiction is such that you can't refrain then perhaps you might be a risk of smoking up on the job. You should get help.

Originally Posted by HOOT

Some of the smartest and most successful people on the planet smoke/smoked pot. It has no harm to society, unlike the drugs they ignore that cause addicts and problems in our society. The only reason marijuana is a problem is because the government makes it one, inflates the cost of it and puts money into organized crime.

There is no link between smoking pot and intelligence or success. Smokers who succeed do so despite their crutch.

Originally Posted by HOOT

Spend as much money as you want tracking it down (the USA has tried spending $53,000,000,000 since the war on drugs was introduced), put people in jail for longer and you are only playing into growers and dealers hands and giving them more and more money. Ask the police chief in Kelowna how his fight is going, it is estimated that they could bust a grow house every day for a year and not even put a dent into the problem, do you think stricter penalties would solve that problem? I don't!

I've already outlined why the war on drugs has failed and where the money would be better focused. Certainly in B.C. the penalties for growing and trafficing are far too small. The money is too attractive and the consequences of getting caught are too small.

Originally Posted by HOOT

But take away their profits by offering it like alcohol and cigarettes and you see that number drop drastically. Of course you will still see some underground things like cigarettes but the profits won't be there. I know someone who sells illegal cigarettes and makes pennies compared to the tens of thousands a grower makes.

I don't like the government making profits on the doping up of its citizens. I see a conflict there. Sure the government makes huge profits on booze and tobacco but, they both are a negative in our society.

Originally Posted by HOOT

I get it, you support organized crime, you encourage higher penalties increasing the profits for them. As I have said in the past I don't care either way, it is readily available for me legal or illegal, I have tons of friends who make their living from it who otherwise would have to pay taxes for money made if it was legal, or maybe get a real job. They have no problem making $30k every 2 months for watering some plants.

I would like to see your friends go to jail for a very long time for their contribution to the stupifying of our nation.

Originally Posted by HOOT

The War on Drugs has never worked, will never work and it is nothing more than the government wasting our tax money chasing something they can't control. It's a plant, god put it on the planet for a reason, no?

Spoken like a true stoner: It's too hard-it can't be done!

If government changed its focus it could be wiped out in a generation.