First, I truly don't have a dog in this fight. I don't use pot, no one I know uses it, and the children of my friends don't. I don't work in the field any more, it doesn't matter to me personally. As far as that goes, I have a few friends who drink, and some of them to excess. And occasionally I'll buy. However, I'm clean and sober these days, and I generally prefer the company of people who aren't fucked up or feel they need to get fucked up.

Some impressions. Listening to the people who know all about marijuana because they use it reminds me of the long discussions we used to have about alcohol in taverns. It's a bit like someone who has been shot explaining they know all about guns, bullets, loads, trauma, transfusions, Emergency Rooms, triage and so on. What they know is how to get loaded and then form an opinion about being loaded. And that's all. Really. And they are good, honest people who believe they know something they don't because they believe what they want to believe. They'd pass lie detector tests. As would I, while saying the exact opposite.

However, saying alcohol is worse is about as feeble an argument as can be made. I don't think any responsible parent let's their kid get away with the old "two wrongs make a right" argument. It says a lot about the marijuana advocate's reasoning on the subject. None of it good.

An impaired driver, for instance, is an impaired driver. The family of a dead innocent person from someone driving under the influence doesn't care if it's weed or booze.

There will be a certain percentage of people who will be taken out by that drug. I really do hope it's limited to the people who advocate the legalizing of marijuana, and not those who believe that society needs to keep guns and other dangerous items out of the hands of children and irresponsible adults. It's like wishing assault rifles, which are fun to shoot, would only harm those who advocate for owning them and their families. Not innocent people.

When smoking marijuana is so important to people that they are willing to jeopardize innocent people to keep using doing it, it's become too important. Someone who has "mostly stopped" is called a "user". Why not stop altogether? One of the stunts I'd pull on occasion was to suggest that I thought someone was an addict. Some people would respond, "Really. I'll be darned. What makes you think that?" And some would scream their heads off. "You don't know me, you've never seen me before, you don't know how I live!!!"

Believe me, I'm not saying anyone is "bad". I used every drug which came my way, I drank enormous amounts and I worked every day. Through the Grace of a Forgiving God I don't believe my condition led me to do any harm outside my family. I have to admit to facing some difficult situations deliberately clean because I was afraid of being loaded. I regarded myself as a nice guy, and I was. Mostly. The people out there doing pot are nice people, everyday, average, decent people. It's just when it comes to the damage it can do they are full of shit.

Some of the assessments I've done were funny. I'm thinking of one that I'll write up.

BTW, nothing personal in this. With the exception of my best friend and my two wives, and my English friend, who are all fine people, the finest people I know are all addicts.

And I'm done with this subject. No one is going to change their mind based upon anything I say. Or what anyone else says, for that matter.

Arf