Touche - “How many times do u need to go to the hood just to get your share?
So yes, it is a gateway to stronger drugs. ”
Government man says its a gateway, SO HE MAKES IT ONE, decriminalize or legalize it and that problem is solved.

The two worst drugs in the developed world are alcohol and tobacco(not including food-heart disease being the biggest killer), yet they are both ok
Alcohol & Tobacco - Good drugs {taxed, making billions every year}
Marijuana - Bad drug {and untaxed}
hmm think about it…….
also Good old George Washington had both a brewery and a crop of cannabis on his farm.

And a statistic done recently said that Marijuana just passed up ALL other oregon crops COMBINE as the biggest earning oregon crop. Sounds to me like someones probably using more. Maybe just in Oregon.

So? Smoke on mates!

I will touch on a couple but I expect you to do your own research. I don’t have the time to lay it all out for you:

A person does not ’suddenly develop schizophrenia’ from smoking marijuana.

The odds of ‘knowing’ someone who developed shizophrenia from smoking marijuana at age 18 are astronomically small, primarily because it is just as improbable that the battery of tests required to make such a diagnosis would even be done. Most likely what you ‘know’ is nothing more than a misinformed person’s own diagnosis … and rumour does the rest.

As for the memory loss theory, there is a very recent study that shows, even heavy smokers return to normal within 30 days of non use, verifying the non-toxicity of this symptom. (A heavy smoker for this study was one who smoked at least a joint a day for a minimum of 13 years. Although the heavy smokers scored worse on memery tests at the beginning of the study [while still smoking marijuana] after 30 days of non use all people scored the same. You can find this study through Google.)

I’ll leave it at that. As the science stands today, there is some pulmonary risk to smoking marijuana but that is really the worst of it. (Pulmonary for this purpose = lungs.)

What the US government has done and continues to do regarding marijuana is absolutely shameful. If people knew the truth they would be outraged. Consider that one pill for a heavy nausea sufferer will cost $30 whereas cannabis does an even better job for about 30 cents. (Referring to strong, anti-nausea medication prescribed to patients such as those undergoing chemotherapy.)

I will mention one more thing before I go. People usually take an anti-marijuana stand because they believe what they’ve been told. In a way, they can’t be blamed. At the same time, when they refuse to educate themselves and see the truth, for that, they must take full blame.

another subject,

Marijuana is a gateway drug…..only because it’s part of the underground market or “black market” It is only a gateway drug because it gets bunched up with everything else under the “illegal” category. If it was legal….it would be just like drinking except not as bad. (but still bad for recreational use)

*Toxins* actually stimulate the immune system. Yep, that’s right, when the immune system detects a hostile invader it revs up in order to counter-attack. Things that lower your immune system are generally either healthful or benign.

One thing you can safely say about cannabis is that has extremely low toxicity levels in humans. To quote the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young: “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is on of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.”

This whole marijuana use leads to amotivational syndrome argument is bullshit, pure and simple. I challenge anyone to demonstrate causality from these simplistic, and probably fictional, anecdotes.

An alternative theory is that instead of cannabis use leading to lack of motivation,
inherently lazy people gravitate to activities that enable and justify their laziness.
You can see this all around you: excessive TV watching, video games, porn addiction, all of these things can be “blamed” for lack of drive and ambition, but it would be
ludicrous to suggest that video games should be outlawed because some lazy asshole ruins his life playing them 18 hours a day.

So here’s an anecdote for you: I know some very successful and highly motivated people, all multi-millionaires, that smoke weed either regularly or semi-regularly. How does that square with your dumbass theories now, bitches?

Sure there’s plenty of unmotivated wankers that smoke weed, but that doesn’t mean that smoking weed makes you lazy. It just means that lazy people will find some reason to remain that way (like getting high every single night instead of expending the energy required to better themselves).

If you’re gonna use cannabis or any psychoactive substance (including alcohol), respect it and don’t let it take over your life. It can be used responsibly, just like any
other drug (yes, I said any, including meth, coke or smack). If it starts to give you
trouble, grow yourself a pair and cut down or quit, but don’t keep doing it for ten
years and then complain that it robbed you of your motivation. You always have a
choice.

Basic reading for the misinformed:

Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence.
Lynn Zimmer & John P. Morgan

Addiction is a Choice
Jeffrey A. Schaler

Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use
Jacob Sullum

The Natural Mind
Andrew Weil

I would say you’re an idiot that doesn’t like to take responsibility for his actions (or inactions), instead chosing to “push” the blame of your failures onto inanimate objects such as weed.

Weed doesn’t make you lazy, not getting off your arse and doing something makes you lazy.