Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
I know my post is hard to take by someone who doesn't want to see the other side of the argument.
I agree keeping kids busy doing healthy and constructive things is helpful. However, I think your vision of parenting may be a bit idealistic. Sometimes difficult kids come with the best of parents. And many times peer pressure may lead kids astray. Some of the most gifted and independent kids stop talking to their parents in early adolescence. I seem to recall my own son avoided talking to me at about 12, and never started again until he was 24. It was always, "Don't tell me that Dad, I already know that". And he has turned out as good as one could ever expect from a child. I am so proud of him. I like to think his avoidance of drugs, including pot, probably came from our strong stance against drugs in general, including pot, from his early age. I have witnessed other parents, who were not so lucky, see their kids negatively affected by pot, particularly in the 1960's when pot began to replace alcohol...and I am not trying to downplay the negative effects of alcohol.
I honestly think we would be making a big mistake by being too liberal with the use of pot in our society. IMO we should proceed extremely carefully and cautiously in our decriminalization of pot. One always has to weigh the good with the bad, before making a decision.
|
Pot has been illegal for the entirety of both our lives. This has done nothing to discourage its use en masse, especially among young people. As long as we educate the public about the risks of marijuana I doubt you'll see the country sink into the couch.
If you take smoking as a comparable - 64% of all Canadians who have identified as smokers in their lifetime have quit. 60% of teenage smokers were seriously considering quitting in the next 6 months.
Smoking is a rebellious activity. When kids realize it's a stupid way to rebel, the numbers bear out that they stop. Marijuana is far less addictive (I don't agree with those who say it isn't - if nothing else it's very compelling) and I think you undersell self preservation instincts in young people. If you've smoked weed at all, you can acknowledge that it doesn't exactly enhance your cognitive function. So it's not a tough sell that early heavy use of cannabis is detrimental to your brain's development . The point is not to get kids to never do something - it's to get them to understand it's a thing for when they're older. Like alcohol. Like sex. If you're 14, those things are not for you.
The reasons for it being illegal are arbitrary and illogical. It is not a benign substance. It has consequences. We as adult need to be able to make the choice for ourselves, and we need to be able to have a legal avenue to do so.
Cloaking this failure of policy under the guise of protection diminishes the public trust in government. Marijuana use is not and has never been a justifiable reason to incarcerate a human being. That's the argument I refuse to see the other side of.