To me, Marijuana is about as safe/dangerous as alcohol. I actually dated a girl who was on the honor roll and top saxaphonist (sp?) in the state...yet smoked as much as twice a day for several years. I also broke up with her because outside of school she did absolutely nothing with herself, and any cognition she had in the classroom was void elsewhere...
I've known quite a few people who smoke occassionaly with no harmful effect and are productive.
For every one of those productive smokers, I've known at least two total dead-beat burn-outs.
Countless people drink alcohol responsibly to no ill effect, yet quite a few die from people under the influence of alcohol. I've only known of less than a handful of alcoholics in my life, and all of them were middle-age and used the bottle to escape their own failures.
I've experienced functioning users from both specturms, and seen it destroy both ends as well. To me, they're one in the same. The main difference is that alcohol tends to be alittle more volitile and obvious in effects, whereas marijuana just makes people......stop.....completely.
As long as marijuana were under the same regulation as alcohol, I wouldn't have a problem with it being legalized.
