And I have known more than one long term pot smoker. Not all of them went to harder drugs, but it is a gateway drug.
one thing i can remember is some of these guys in the 70's were stoned almost 24hours a day. Their lives didn't end well, and they didn't accomplish much.
I kind of feel the same about alcohol.
For all the talk about how pot is no worse than alcohol, respectfully that's bull. I know very few people that don't drink a beer or a glass of wine every now & then, and the ones that won't drink are the strict southern baptist types, they're teetotalers because their religion demands it. There are some drunks but the vast majority of people I know drink small amounts of alcohol on a recreational basis and are well functioning members of society, some of them really high achievers.
I don't know any occasional recreational pot users, every pot smoker I've ever known has either quit cold turkey or gone on to become a lethargic leech on society. Some of the ones that wouldn't quit the pot eventually moved on to cocaine or meth. Some I knew are dead from it.
I know it's chic and fashionable nowadays to equate pot with alcohol. Looking at the Malia Obama thread about her smoking pot and the "it's no big deal" responses shows that there are many here that want to downplay the dangers. Ironically, from a libertarian point of view I agree with legalizing it, I don't think it's any of the government's business what someone puts in their body. From a societal point of view, however, we're in for a lot more social problems as pot becomes more accepted. Just like when unwed motherhood became socially acceptable we ended up with a huge welfare roll, uncontrolled pot usage is going to result in the same situation. I already know about a half a dozen "disabled" people around my community that are milking the welfare system for all it's worth. Their only real disability is that they sit around stoned all day.
