<p>Which do you think is more unhealthy? Alcohol is obviously more unhealthy in the short term, but what about the long term? Which is more addictive? Would you legalize pot?</p>
<p>I don't think anybody has ever died of smoking too much pot in one night.</p>
<p>To show ridiculous drug policy is in America, Michael Vick is getting more flak for having a particle of marijuana in his water bottle than Shawne Merriman has gotten for his use of hazardous steroids.</p>
<p>I know it is literally impossible to overdose on pot. The LD50 for THC is about 1,000 times what the typical person smokes in one night. That's why I said alcohol is obviously more unhealthy in the short term. I wanted to get opinions on the long term.</p>
<p>No one has died after ODing on pot (is it even possible?) but plenty of kids die of liver poisoning after drinking too much in one night. Lots of pot heads stop after college is over, while many alcoholics continue to drink for a long time. Pot has worse effects like killing your short term memory, making you apathetic, and in the long term, it destroys your brain (but alcohol does this too). Pot is supposedly worse for your lungs than a cigarette (like one joint = 4 cigarettes or something), but some people smoke a pack a day and I doubt people smoke more than 3-5 grams a day (the serious pot heads). I would legalize pot, but thats just me.</p>
<p>I'd say alcohol is worse than pot. My dad was an alcoholic for awhile, and he got angry very easily and would argue with my mom all the time. I'd just go into my room and lock it. He tries to drink less now.</p>
<p>Pot should be legalized, as long as the user is responsible.</p>
<p>If we outlaw pot, I think we should outlaw football too because of all the severe brain damage that retired players have to live with.</p>
<p>There's no good explanation to why pot is illegal, other than the fact that marijuana is associated with groups that Washington hates: young people, hippies, blacks, etc.</p>
<p>Maybe our generation will legalize it</p>
<p>Alcohol is definitely worse for you both in the long term and short term. But pot is smoked--and smoking anything regularly is No Good. Plus, research has stated that chronic pot use (no pun intended haha) leads to an increased risk of schizophrenia.
I hate to say it, but pot is a gateway drug. It's not addictive at all (alcohol is much more addictive) but it is somewhat addictive in the sense that it might turn you on to further drug use. It might--I'd say most people don't move any "further" down the drug line. But some do and you should be aware of that possible mindset shift.
I wouldn't legalize pot. Pot's benign (much more so than alcohol) but the fact that drug use would spike after legalization is not good--it's not a price I'd be willing to pay (especially because it wouldn't end the serious drug-related crime: that's related to hard drugs, and those ain't ever gonna be legalized).
Part of the reason pot smoking is "safe" is that no one smokes a pack of joints a day--far too expensive. Legalization would lower prices (you can't keep prices artificially high and expect to compete with black market pot) and people would experience the negative effects of smoking. Terrible. But it's a complex issue. We'll see.</p>
<p>Alcohol is a lot more harmful, I think.
I'd legalize weed. I don't drink or do weed etc. but I think that if cigarettes and alcohol are legal and taxed, so should marijuana.</p>
<p>What about eating pot? I know that inhaling smoke isn't good your the lungs, but there was a study recently that showed pot smoke is not carcinogenic.</p>
<p>Eating makes you high faster (havn't tired it, but thats what I hear).</p>
<p>No.......</p>
<p>eating definitely makes you high much slower</p>
<p>Eating it straight won't do **** because you haven't activated the THC. You'd have to mix it with a fat and bake it into those infamous brownies, which are in fact powerful and effective. So yeah you can get high without smoking.</p>
<p>Um, isn't a joint as harmful to the lungs as 10 cigarettes? </p>
<p>Alcohol filters out of the body over time; you need to drink excessive amounts in a short time to cause lasting damage. But with marijuana, as with cigarettes, every use causes permanent damge, however small.</p>
<p>I'd say pot is probably worse. But then again, not as many people use it as do alcohol, and those who do use it rarely use it permanently. It seems like a phase almost. Perhaps it isn't considered as dangerous as alcohol because so fewer people use it. There aren't many marijuana-induced car accidents widely publicized. But anywho, I think pot is probably worse, especially in the long run.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Alcohol filters out of the body over time; you need to drink excessive amounts in a short time to cause lasting damage.
[/quote]
Actually, alcohol can easliy cause liver cirrhosis if abused over a long period of time, and could also lead to esophagus/stomach/liver cancer.</p>
<p>Smoking a blunt is equivalent to smoking 4 cigarettes.</p>
<p>"Um, isn't a joint as harmful to the lungs as 10 cigarettes? "</p>
<p>That's the type of anti-drug propaganda that can be really misleading. Both are bad for your respiratory system in a general sense; if you're an athlete or singer, you should probably limit yourself. I agree that as a general principle smoking things probably isn't a particularly healthy thing to do, but there is no evidence that pot causes lung cancer like tobacco. The UCLA study over the summer was the most recent study to support this. In fact, it's possible that THC actually kills cancerous cells. Don't mix the two up. They're very different.</p>
<p>But alcohol is a poison; it is much, much worse for you. Also, the danger of a drug has nothing to do with how many people use it. A lot less peope shoot up heroin than smoke pot, but heroin is considered way more dangerous.</p>
<p>Wow, just wow.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I hate to say it, but pot is a gateway drug.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why is it a gateway drug? Because it's illegal in the first place, and through buying/dealing marijuana will kids get introduced to the drug underworld. Legalize it, sell it in "square" pharmacies, and it loses its gateway connections. Your argument is essentially "marijuana is bad for you because it's illegal". Geez, why don't we just erect a totalitarian government while we're at it?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Um, isn't a joint as harmful to the lungs as 10 cigarettes?</p>
<p>Alcohol filters out of the body over time; you need to drink excessive amounts in a short time to cause lasting damage. But with marijuana, as with cigarettes, every use causes permanent damge, however small.</p>
<p>I'd say pot is probably worse. But then again, not as many people use it as do alcohol, and those who do use it rarely use it permanently. It seems like a phase almost. Perhaps it isn't considered as dangerous as alcohol because so fewer people use it. There aren't many marijuana-induced car accidents widely publicized. But anywho, I think pot is probably worse, especially in the long run.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Nobody smokes a pack of joints like they do with cigarettes. A joint may be more chemically potent than a cigarette, but people smoke less of it. And using your logic, why shouldn't cigars be illegal? They're like 50 cigarettes in one.</p>
<p>Alcohol filters out over time? Buddy, you need to look at the liver of an alcoholic. And what's this permanent damage you speak of, regarding pot? Is it so extreme that it warrants illegalizing the substance, thus condemning many people to having criminal records?</p>
<p>Face it, the only reason why some harmful substances like cigarettes and alcohol are accepted and marijuana is less so is because people can't think for themselves. Books (for centuries) and films have told us that sophisticated heroes and heroines indulge in smoking and drinking. High society is steeped with smoky images with cocktails all around. Figures of authority are famous for how much they smoked and drank. Companies like Smirnoff and Bacardi spend billions trying to convince generation after generation that alcohol is good, even though thousands of people die directly because of it. What I say for booze peddlers goes triple for the death merchants in the cigarette industry. Yes, marijuana has some coolness attached to it, but there's no slick marketing campaign behind it. It's image is congruent with dirty hippies and grungy stoners, hardly identities that most people aspire to be. </p>
<p>Again, wow, just wow.</p>
<p>You make a lot of good points nbachris. </p>
<p>I think that over time marajuana is worse, but most people quit smoking pot when they are relativley young, unlike alcohol which is usually a lifelong addiction. </p>
<p>Still, I'd rather get drunk than get high just because one is legal and the other isn't (even though I'm underage). </p>
<p>A popular sticker here says: "Because of green harvest, our island's on ice."</p>
<p>Just to clear things up...
"I hate to say it, but pot is a gateway drug...it might turn you on to further drug use. It might--I'd say most people don't move any "further" down the drug line. But some do and you should be aware of that possible mindset shift."
That's what I posted earlier. Note that I did NOT post "Pot is a gateway drug, therefore it is evil and must abolished!!!" I basically said "Pot could cause your mindset/attitude toward drugs to shift...proceed with caution." Sensible, no?</p>