jbe, wrt a previous message on this chain, I'm not a libertarian, except on the civil liberties side. But personally, I got to agree with you on the alcohol versus marijuana violence issue.
It's been many years since I inhaled, and many years since I got drunk. My alcohol consumption is now very modest, an occasional beer. Marijuana, well I got a house now, and given the rather bizarre drug laws I wouldn't want to put it at risk.
But I think the violence point is right on. People smoking marijuana get mellow, people drinking too much get unpredictable. They don't always get belligerent, maybe not even often. But they can and do. When the subject of marijuana comes up, all I can say is I have only fond memories, whereas with alcohol I have memories of many atrocious hangovers. In overall public health effects, is there any detectable damage from marijuana? The damage from alcohol is all too obviously visible.
I have two big problems with the war on some drugs. One is the perversion of the Constitutional ban on unreasonable search and seizure, that holds that carrying large amounts of cash is sufficient evidence of drug dealing to justify seizing the cash, and putting the burden of proof for retrieval on the victim. Then, you have those "drug dealer profiles" that always have skin color at the top of the list.
The other is the complete dishonesty about the harmful effects of drugs, most particularly marijuana. So, smoking marijuana is maybe more harmful than cigarettes, per puff, in terms of cancer threat. So, has anybody ever taken enough puffs of marijuana to come within 3 orders of magnitude of the cigarette puffs taken by an average smoker? Ok, maybe Willie Nelson. . .
You lie to kids, they figure it out soon enough. So Clinton lied about sex, kids figure out soon enough how that works too. The war on some drugs lies are much more pervasive, and much more harmful.
Cheers, Dan. |
