@toomuchcoffee911: My favorite facts on Above the Influence, and my responses to them:
They say: “Smoking marijuana also causes some changes in the brain similar to those caused by long-term use of cocaine and heroin.”
I say: Do you know how much weed you’d have to smoke to get the same effects? Cocaine and heroin are also more concentrated forms of chemicals and are taken into the bloodstream in completely different ways. That sounds like ati.com is throwing around the names of hardcore narcotics to scare people and give anti-marijuana advocates fuel for their fires. You can use statistics to say ANYTHING, if you word it the right way.
They say: “Research found that students with an average grade of “D” or below were more than four times as likely to have used marijuana in the past year as students who reported an average grade of “A.””
I say: I had a 3.7 in high school, and my average GPA in college has been a 3.82. Just because unmotivated students use marijuana doesn’t mean that everyone who does is unmotivated. That is a logical error in terms of their syllogism. If you look at statistics regarding marijuana use on college campuses, some of the highest academically ranked universities and colleges have some of the largest numbers of students who use marijuana, including Brown University, an Ivy League institution, who was named the “Highest” Campus in the country a few years ago.
They say: “Students who have smoked marijuana within the past year are more than twice as likely to have cut class than those who did not smoke, while health problems associated with using marijuana can keep students from attending school due to illness.”
I say: The only classes I missed in high school, being a smoker, were due to a flu-like illness that put me in the hospital for a day. It is possible that health problems due to smoking could potentially keep a student out of class, but how many instances of this are there, really? I have yet to encounter any student trying to use the excuse that their marijuana-related emphysema kept them out of class. The main health issues related to marijuana use are lung related, which could also occur due to tobacco use and second-hand smoke, and I have yet to hear of a teenager missing class for that. Yes, there are always the extremes (that one kid who has smoked five packs a day since he was ten years old is not the norm), but the majority of students smoking weed do so in smaller quantities. One joint may contain more carcinogens than a cigarette, but you don’t go through a pack of joints in under a day (that would just be a huge waste of weed, because one’s ‘high’ has an upper threshold).
They say: “Also, some weed is laced with cocaine, PCP, and even chemicals like formaldehyde…”
I say: Yeah, if you ASK for that. Dealers aren’t going to sell you something laced, because that’s a waste of money on their part. They aren’t trying to trick you for shits and giggles; this is their business. The only way you would unknowingly smoke weed laced with something is if you are smoking with people who wouldn’t tell you that their weed is laced. If you’re handling your own bud, you are in control of that.
They say: “Myth: Everyone’s smoking pot.”
I say: I wouldn’t smoke pot just because everyone else is, and it works the other way too. I’m not going to not smoke because other people don’t. The logic is silly regardless of which way it’s going, and I have the self- confidence and assurance to make my own choices of what I want to do with my body, whether “people” are doing it or not.
They say: “Myth: You can’t get addicted to marijuana.”
I say: Anything, in excess, is mentally addictive, whether it’s a drug, tv, food, shoplifting, or what have you. The science is that marijuana causes no physical addiction, like heroin and cocaine and other “hardcore” drugs. People can have addictive personalities and such, but that doesn’t mean that all smokers will be addicted.
They say: “Each year, more teens enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined.”
I say: I’m sure that is the case. Maybe because most teens haven’t been exposed to most of those other illicit substances, and maybe because most teens are willing to try marijuana and not other illicit substances. Once again, that doesn’t mean that everyone will become dependent on marijuana if they smoke it. Honestly.
I’m not saying we should smoke all day, every day. Some people don’t want to smoke, and I’m just fine with that. Just because I smoke doesn’t mean you have to; I’m just asking that you don’t try to limit my activities because you don’t want me to. I’m not hurting you, I’m not hurting your friends, family, relatives, children, or anyone you know, I’m only effecting myself. Leave me be, please.
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