Do Mind Altering Drugs Make You Cool?

[Marajade]

Kids that think drugs make you cool/smart/think out of the box/etc should stop and listen to the other side as well. (Yeah, some do. But it seems like the majority, or at least the most vocal ones tend to dismiss opposing arguments too quickly.) Most parents today grew up in the 60's and 70's, when pot was extremely widespread. If they warn you about the dangers of it, it's probably based on at least some personal experience.

Hey, lets stop and take a look at the people I used to smoke up with! It's been four years now, I'm sure they're doing swell!

Dead
Dead
Dead
Dead
Divorced and two miscarriages at the ripe old age of 21.
Arrested and thrown in jail. Now because of the marks on his record, it's tough for him to get any decent job.
Cleaned up and joined the navy
Cleaned up and joined the air force
Dropped out of school
Cleaned himself up after a few years and went to college

Man, what a bunch of winners. Hey, notice how the ones that went on to do something with their lives also quit smoking? What an odd correlation! Not to mention two of my friends that never used drugs or alcohol now have steady government jobs and are financially stable. Wow, I wonder what happened there!

Am I saying wake and bake kills? No. But do I think it's going to lead you down the path of success? Hell no.

Huh, Everyone I knew who smoked up in high school must've been doing it wrong.

4th year university
4th year university
4th year university with honors
Graduated university with 3 year degree with honors and just started his career (Biochem)
Doing church volunteer work in Africa somewhere

They all still smoke, tho the guy in Africa might not, since I've not actually seen him in a year or so.

People forget that on average its a specific type of person who uses drugs and lets them wreak their life. They're the people that look to it to escape their shitty life or to try and fit in with a group of people, rather than those who use it for recreation only.

Just like alcohol. I know some people who drink ALOT when they go out somewhere, and get really smashed. But its because they enjoy it, and do it for social occasions. They don't sit at home in front of the TV with the Jack Daniels bottle trying to forget about the fact that they got fired because they came to work drunk.


The flipside of that is that it makes a good excuse for people to clean up their crappy life, and they feel better because they can blame the alcohol or the drugs rather that the fact that they're idiots to begin with. Which isn't bad, because they still end up fixing their life up and doing something meaningful, but they didn't suddenly get better because they stopped smoking the dope.

Also, lol@Uzor's comment about there being a reason they're illegal and alcohol isn't. There is, but its not the one you think it is.

 

[Trippyhippy]

Huh.

Drugs don't make anyone cool. There isn't a certain type of person that does drugs. None of the generalizations mentioned anywhere in this thread even cover a majority of any group they speak of.

And being "cool" is a very loosely defined idea. To most of the people I know, being cool explicitly means it's ok to use/talk about drugs around them. To other people things like line dancing is cool. Obviously, there are many people that would reject both of those ideas as being cool.

Also, I have met many people that smoke pot that could charitably be described as uncool, and uncharitably described as ignorant shit eating cock sniffers. There are many different kinds of drugs, and therefore many different kinds of drug users. Let me assure everyone potheads, crackheads, and alcoholics are very far removed from each other. For that matter, there are many many different kinds of potheads (probably the others too, but I am most familiar with this group).

Most people just use drugs to run from their problems. Some use out of curiousity, others use because (some) drugs are fun to use.

But all in all, like I said, using drugs doesn't make anyone cool. Being cool makes you cool. Like me. I'm just fucking cool.

 

[Daveman]

I've met some people that talk about pot like it makes them awesome and they want the whole world to know

Is it just me finding irony in this statement and who's making it?

 

[Excalibur]

Of your environment or on a national or a global scale?

If it's a environmental one as in community maybe that's the case, but if the other two latter then I'd doubt it, proof please.

I'm talking about anyone with an open mind that does drugs.

Education does this too :[.

So, I'll share a story in reply to Excalibur. (background information)
I like to think I am smart. I know my friends are. A person surrounds their self with friends similar in many aspects to their self, right? Eh, guess thats the modest method of beating around the bushes. I am an intelligent American that loves to discuss politics, global warming, techno babble, and future technology such as Fusion energy and Quantum Computing. I am a geek - gogo me!

What does this point out? Simply an exception to an invalid correlation between pot smoking and intelligence. It may indicate a certain 'open mindedness' to you Excalibur, so let me digress once more.

The Valedictorian at my High School was an Honors student, with the same AP courses as myself, who graduated HS with a 4.0 GPA. I had a 3.76 GPA. She turned out to be an alcoholic, and I was not. Therefore, I shall conclude Alcohol, too, will make you smarter. I am not mocking your anology, but I am hoping to point out the fallacy.

Another girl that took the same AP courses as myself, is a fucking pot head. She did AP Calc, AP English, and AP History baked. She is an intelligent person that I would love to see have the right to smoke pot because she knows the difference between being impaired or in full control of her faculties.

It's posts like these that are only proving my point. All you sober people don't seem to know how to fucking read. If you had read my first post, you would have realized that I said when I say "smart", I'm not talking about book smarts. Drugs can make you smart in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with brain cell count. Education cannot teach you the things drugs can, classrooms and books cannot teach you the things drugs can. The only parallel I've ever personally seen to drugs is religion. Religion can help you learn some of the same sort of things drugs can help you learn.
Let me also clarify that I'm not talking about pot. Pot does not give you new insights, pot does not teach you about yourself and others, smoking pot only teaches you how to smoke pot(and maybe how to avoid the police). Pot is simply there for you to get high, that's all it does. Smoking pot for any other purpose is fucking retarded. Pot smokers may be smarter than a non-smoker because they do other drugs and live in the drug culture, but that's about it.

There's only one aspect of 'smart'? Smart is an trite and overused expression, do you mean wisdom or intelligence? Either category has many varying degrees of proficiency.

or do you mean it by honesty= smart? How do you define smart?

I'm talking about wisdom. How do I define being smart? I define a smart person as being a good person(morally). Someone who knows how to use common sense. Someone who can think for themselves and doesn't follow blindly simply because it's what everyone else is doing, someone who knows what they believe and why they believe it. Someone who knows how to contemplate life beyond themselves. Someone who knows how to self-reflect. Someone who knows how to look at an argument from the perspective of all parties. Someone who's conscious of their fleeting time here and who knows not to let a good opportunity pass them by. Someone who knows how to consider others. Someone who knows that they aren't God, that they can be wrong and aren't afraid of admitting when they're wrong. Someone who can see the good in everything. Someone who's grateful every day of their lives for everything they have and knows how lucky they are just to be alive. And above all, someone who watches South Park.*

Most of these things are lessons I've learned from a drug trip or the result of being a Christian(either from the Bible or my pastor or what have you)(wow, that's not a common sentence). And yes, I realize that you can learn all these things without drugs, many people have. However, most people I know don't learn most of these sort of lessons until their late 20's at best, I learned most of this shit when I was 15 when I started doing drugs. And I'm still learning, I don't think we ever stop learning. And ONCE AGAIN, I never said that taking drugs will teach you anything, I just said it can. If you deny even that much, you can go fuck yourself in your closed up little world. And ONCE AGAIN, the potential for revelation really depends on the drug and the individual.





*I know some of you that don't know me very well would have taken that one seriously, and I really don't wanna see any posts about how retarded that was to say. I know it was retarded, that's why I said it. I find stupid shit funny.

 

[Arctyrael]

I know what book smarts are. I have them.
I know what good old fashioned dumbassery is, and by the most intelligent people in the world. *cough Al Gore*

Read my post again before you spew conceited notions. I can't prove my street smarts here, just like you can't prove yours. You tell me pot makes you street smart, and I'll tell you just listening to people makes you street smart. Pot has nothing to do with anything other than getting high. There is no valid correlation to what you're saying.

That is my point. I'll repeat it again in vain, there is no correlation of 'street smarts' to drugs. Drugs don't provide you with the knowledge, I'd maybe bite at the idea that your environment offers you the chance to learn if you're aren't so baked to understand the implications.

 

[Bajaratt]

I'm talking about anyone with an open mind that does drugs.

Even ignoring retarded statements like "drugs make you smarter," you do not have to do drugs to have an open mind. The sheer stupidity of the statement almost beats that of the intelligence one you made earlier, but that's already been smashed to bits, even with all of your back tracking.

Hell, from what you've posted in this thread, you seem to have one of the more closed minds in here. You're the only one using absolutist terms that have absolutely no bearing in reality(I'm talking actual reality, not whatever you're seeing when you're high). If that's too confusing, go toke up or whatever it is you do to "make yourself smarter," and maybe then you'll be able to understand.

On topic: the only people who try to protray an image of "drugs make you cool" are usually the losers who can't escape them and tend to fuck up their life. Most people don't give a shit what you do in your spare time, and they sure as hell don't care for your advertising. Unless you're one of the morons who's recruiting, people are pretty indifferent.

 

[Excalibur]

Even ignoring retarded statements like "drugs make you smarter," you do not have to do drugs to have an open mind.

You're the only one using absolutist terms that have absolutely no bearing in reality(I'm talking actual reality, not whatever you're seeing when you're high).

Read my post again before you spew conceited notions. I can't prove my street smarts here, just like you can't prove yours. You tell me pot makes you street smart, and I'll tell you just listening to people makes you street smart. Pot has nothing to do with anything other than getting high. There is no valid correlation to what you're saying.

Holy fucking shit, you guys are stupider than I thought. You guys seriously must be fucking retarded. Read what I quoted you on, and then read what I said one more time and let me know if you catch it, cause I'm not repeating myself anymore. You'll just have to work on your reading comprehension skills before we continue this any further.

And Baja, I'm oh so flattered you sigged me, but if you're gonna do it do it right. I wasn't talking about pot when I said that, I was talking about certain drugs, "drugs" is fine. And capitalize the fucking e, I at least gave you that much.

 

[Solan]

Seriously, how does smoking dope make you cool?

From a pot head like myself, I don't believe that smoking pot makes me cool. To be honest, I do smoke pot because I enjoy it. It allows me to unwind after being in a very stressful situation, make movies/video games more enjoyable, and even sometimes allows me to figure out problems because my mind is more opened I guess.

I don't want to make this seem like the only reasons I smoke, I also do it to have a fun time with friends. Some people get drunk, some people sit at home and play checkers, I smoke weed.

As a kid I always thought that pot heads were bad people, that they robbed banks and shit. But now that I have 'become' one, I have realized that pot heads are some of the most relaxed cool, calm, and collective people you can meet a lot of the times. Sure their are those circumstances like you mentioned Excim about the your ex-coworker who almost killed his kid. But I'm sure he was on a lot more than weed to get angry and almost kill someone.

If I had a choice to hang around harsh stoners (weed, salvia, shrooms users) or like harsh alcoholics, I'd stay the hell with the stoners, just because they don't get all angry and defensive when they use to much of something.

I used to be a pretty casual stoner, but that was during summer when my only responsibility was at a shitty job that I could go to wasted and still pull off. Hell back in the summer when I still worked in the dish pit at my old job, I worked with this guy named Dylan. He was basically my main dealer who I bought off of a lot and he would get high every hour on the hour, because for the sole reason that he would work better when he was high. The only manager who knew about it didn't care because it made him work better, he would be able to work a Sunday morning (12-8) rush by himself and make out better than most 2 team people.

That is my point. I'll repeat it again in vain, there is no correlation of 'street smarts' to drugs. Drugs don't provide you with the knowledge, I'd maybe bite at the idea that your environment offers you the chance to learn if you're aren't so baked to understand the implications.

Sorry, but that is an extremely retarded post. Different drugs can give you different feelings, different intakes on life, and different knowledges about things. Saying that drugs don't provide you with knowledge is just a completely biased thing to say.

Drugs send you to an altered state of mind which has been though of as a way of seeing your final utopia, whether that be heaven, or whatever depending on what you believe in.

Even though this doesn't have anything to do with drugs I'll just bring it up because it is kind of hand in hand sort of. People believe that drugs and other such things that give you an altered sense of reality (like a epileptic seizure like Simon has in Lord of the Flies) bring you closer to God. When Simon goes into his seizure state in LoTF he confronts the Lord of the Flies, in a way that no one could have.

I use this to prove that drugs are there for more than to just get you high. People use them in spiritual reasons, medical and others.

Although this is completely my viewpoint on things, don't quote me on anything saying this is solely what I believe in, calling me a huge stoner, etc because I would rather not have people think of me that way. Even though I understand by me posting it I understand that I am kind of throwing myself into the fire for criticism. But this is just my viewpoint.

 

[Excalibur]

Is it just me finding irony in this statement and who's making it?

no, I find it ironic too.

 

[Mishaela]

Sorry, but that is an extremely retarded post. Different drugs can give you different feelings, different intakes on life, and different knowledges about things. Saying that drugs don't provide you with knowledge is just a completely biased thing to say.

As it's been said multiple times before, it doesn't give you knowledge about sh-!t. You may stop and think of things from a different angle and grow to appreciate certain things differently. You may come into realization of something, but you learn absolutely nothing. No one in given history has lit up a joint and suddenly *pop* cure for cancer! *pop* a healthy preservative for foods!

No. People don't magically learn the answers to things. They don't magically obtain actual knowledge like it's some kind of IQ pill. All it does is make them pause and check things out from a different angle which, shock to you or not, doesn't require drugs to do in the first place. This enormous miracle effect people seem to praise isn't even exclusive to drugs, they could actually just stop and think for themselves and wind up with much of the same result.

If people want to smoke, by all means. But really, thinking that it's some kind of necessity to expand one's own sense of opinion or outlook on the world is just seriously undermining their own potential.

 

[Uzor]

Also, lol@Uzor's comment about there being a reason they're illegal and alcohol isn't. There is, but its not the one you think it is.

I don't think I've ever mentioned the reason drugs are illegal, so I don't really know how you could know the reason I apparently think, is wrong.

It's posts like these that are only proving my point. All you sober people don't seem to know how to fucking read. If you had read my first post, you would have realized that I said when I say "smart", I'm not talking about book smarts. Drugs can make you smart in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with brain cell count. Education cannot teach you the things drugs can, classrooms and books cannot teach you the things drugs can. The only parallel I've ever personally seen to drugs is religion. Religion can help you learn some of the same sort of things drugs can help you learn.
Let me also clarify that I'm not talking about pot. Pot does not give you new insights, pot does not teach you about yourself and others, smoking pot only teaches you how to smoke pot(and maybe how to avoid the police). Pot is simply there for you to get high, that's all it does. Smoking pot for any other purpose is fucking retarded. Pot smokers may be smarter than a non-smoker because they do other drugs and live in the drug culture, but that's about it.


I'm talking about wisdom. How do I define being smart? I define a smart person as being a good person(morally). Someone who knows how to use common sense. Someone who can think for themselves and doesn't follow blindly simply because it's what everyone else is doing, someone who knows what they believe and why they believe it. Someone who knows how to contemplate life beyond themselves. Someone who knows how to self-reflect. Someone who knows how to look at an argument from the perspective of all parties. Someone who's conscious of their fleeting time here and who knows not to let a good opportunity pass them by. Someone who knows how to consider others. Someone who knows that they aren't God, that they can be wrong and aren't afraid of admitting when they're wrong. Someone who can see the good in everything. Someone who's grateful every day of their lives for everything they have and knows how lucky they are just to be alive. And above all, someone who watches South Park.*

Actually, school can teach you that. At least in Sweden. Schools put a lot on focus on their students being able to look at a problem from different angles in order to solve a problem. And I'm not religious. The rest of the things you claim drugs teach you, I learned myself, or from my parent's, or school. Maybe I was just able to focus enough to actually learn them.

Holy fucking shit, you guys are stupider than I thought. You guys seriously must be fucking retarded. Read what I quoted you on, and then read what I said one more time and let me know if you catch it, cause I'm not repeating myself anymore. You'll just have to work on your reading comprehension skills before we continue this any further.

And Baja, I'm oh so flattered you sigged me, but if you're gonna do it do it right. I wasn't talking about pot when I said that, I was talking about certain drugs, "drugs" is fine. And capitalize the fucking e, I at least gave you that much.

We're just stupider then you think because we don't agree with you. Apparently those drugs of yours didn't make you as open minded as you seem to think.

 

[Elemmire]

There's always the "its illegal, I'm cool if I do it" complex. Just another trend for the cattle to follow in their search for self-importance.

this is exactly one reason WHY it should be legalized. Not to mention releasing the 70% of prisoners that are in jail just because of doing drugs (or selling) which wastes so much money of the tax payers -_-

 

[Excim]

this is exactly one reason WHY it should be legalized. Not to mention releasing the 70% of prisoners that are in jail just because of doing drugs (or selling) which wastes so much money of the tax payers -_-

I don't think pot should be illegal, but this is the most idiotic reason to have legalize anything. Sorry Ellemire, but legalizing something just so people *won't* want to do it sounds pretty reckless to me.

or with the marijuana one, he should have said "all cool white people", .

The reason I created this thread, was because all too often I have seen this generalization made by people who smoke. I guess it got under my skin a bit, since I've had some really bad experiences with people who smoke dope. In my experience, they have all lied and stolen from me, and in one instance I had to kick a girl out of my house because she was selling from there when I was at work.

Now, am I saying that all potheads, or any other rec drug users lie, steal, and betray? Absolutely not, I don't know everyone. All I wanted was a simple explaination for a seemingly common view from my standpoint, as to why smokers think all other smokers are fucking top shit.

 

[K. Ishitar]

I'm talking about anyone with an open mind that does drugs.




It's posts like these that are only proving my point. All you sober people don't seem to know how to fucking read. If you had read my first post, you would have realized that I said when I say "smart", I'm not talking about book smarts. Drugs can make you smart in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with brain cell count. Education cannot teach you the things drugs can, classrooms and books cannot teach you the things drugs can. The only parallel I've ever personally seen to drugs is religion. Religion can help you learn some of the same sort of things drugs can help you learn.
Let me also clarify that I'm not talking about pot. Pot does not give you new insights, pot does not teach you about yourself and others, smoking pot only teaches you how to smoke pot(and maybe how to avoid the police). Pot is simply there for you to get high, that's all it does. Smoking pot for any other purpose is fucking retarded. Pot smokers may be smarter than a non-smoker because they do other drugs and live in the drug culture, but that's about it.



I'm talking about wisdom. How do I define being smart? I define a smart person as being a good person(morally). Someone who knows how to use common sense. Someone who can think for themselves and doesn't follow blindly simply because it's what everyone else is doing, someone who knows what they believe and why they believe it. Someone who knows how to contemplate life beyond themselves. Someone who knows how to self-reflect. Someone who knows how to look at an argument from the perspective of all parties. Someone who's conscious of their fleeting time here and who knows not to let a good opportunity pass them by. Someone who knows how to consider others. Someone who knows that they aren't God, that they can be wrong and aren't afraid of admitting when they're wrong. Someone who can see the good in everything. Someone who's grateful every day of their lives for everything they have and knows how lucky they are just to be alive. And above all, someone who watches South Park.*

Most of these things are lessons I've learned from a drug trip or the result of being a Christian(either from the Bible or my pastor or what have you)(wow, that's not a common sentence). And yes, I realize that you can learn all these things without drugs, many people have. However, most people I know don't learn most of these sort of lessons until their late 20's at best, I learned most of this shit when I was 15 when I started doing drugs. And I'm still learning, I don't think we ever stop learning. And ONCE AGAIN, I never said that taking drugs will teach you anything, I just said it can. If you deny even that much, you can go fuck yourself in your closed up little world. And ONCE AGAIN, the potential for revelation really depends on the drug and the individual.





*I know some of you that don't know me very well would have taken that one seriously, and I really don't wanna see any posts about how retarded that was to say. I know it was retarded, that's why I said it. I find stupid shit funny.

This is going to be long-winded....


This really sounds more like a bash really than an answer, are the people that you personally know that do drugs that are smarter than sober people based on a environmental, national, or global scale?

"...Anyone with an open mind that does drugs."

I could interpret that as one person thinking that everyone does drugs or one person is the world and what they do is representative of it. Giving benefit of the doubt and saying that it's not what you meant.

Are we stupid because we don't agree with you? Should we just say drugs are awesome and excal rocks in order for you not consider us stupid anymore or in the first place? Maybe we should all bown down and kiss your ass. Sorry, lol, but a different view on things isn't always that bad, maybe it's your close-mindedness that feeds that self-righteous attitude and keeps you from listening to others that follow their own beat.

I think Trippy has had better posts in the past on his own philosophy, which was much more intelligent and wise than your own, that I rated up for because I was ignorant of the fact that so many other possibilities exist for the drug. I do not agree, but it was an educated response. Another thing I learned that just because you use X does not mean you use Y and Z because of personal experiences, I admit that I lumped them together, which was wrong. Your posts just sound like you're talking out of your ass and you're spewing names in case we think otherwise.

Try giving the other side a bit of respect before you call us idiots and then try to preach your view; if you don't it just turns them off at the sight of the insult and consider you, ignorant. I don't think the drugs were resposnible for that(maybe they furthered it?), I think that's just your personality. I say this because my friends who were druggies did not doubt me for my view and respected it as I did the same to them. Hell, maybe you 'need' more pot to reach that conclusion or true meditation.

You don't exactly know any of us very well either or any of the experiences we had; for example, I'd like to call Arc's experience of the woman who did drugs but was amazing at life bull, but that is not something I have knowledge of or have to right to discriminate about, as a result it should be considered accordingly to his character and weighed properly. After weighing I think it's somewhat believable because I knew a friend in FFXI that was pot and graduated with a 3.5 GPA. Parrallels of the same circumstance, no?

Who writes the books on drugs? Is it too far-fetched to say that people that may have used them in the past but cleaned up or a psycologist(sp?) taking care of multiple clients with some sort of drug usuage background couldn't apply? You make it seem like there's a distinction of race or some sort.

Excal, when you become 'smart', wise, or gain intelligence...where is it stored? You're sacrificing potential storage, important faculties,etc. for a quicker insight that may or may not happen when you can go without and think by yourself or with others of the likes that will happen without detriment.

Finally religion, I personally believe that morals are relatively easy to achieve without either it or drugs, although the basic morals are derived from religion regardless, so it's just a loop. Why are drugs capable of becoming moral? What was your thought process that led you to the conclusion? It is very easy to take a part of a book and memorize it instead of reading a whole book(parrallel to morals and religous text). It's not that hard to sit back and think, if it is possible to reach a deep understanding then what use is there for drugs?

 

[Arctyrael]

As I can see this is turning into another emo pot thread, I think I'll just stand back and laugh that it is illegal. Not that I care, I just like the fact people get emo over it.

Enjoy.

 

[Elemmire]

I don't think pot should be illegal, but this is the most idiotic reason to have legalize anything. Sorry Ellemire, but legalizing something just so people *won't* want to do it sounds pretty reckless to me.

I said it was one reason but I really don't like that 70% of the prisoners (that's a LOT of prisoners and A LOT of fucking tax payer money) is due to drug related things. That's a waste imo.

And there is some truth to the not wanting to do it if it was legal.. look at Europe to America in terms of drinking.. they can drink as young as they want, I know there are more reasons but one thing is that because it isn't illegal it's not considered cool, heh.

But yes, my main reason for legalizing such drugs would be to release so many prisoners that really shouldn't be there cause they had possession of said drug. Now, if the did something while on the drug such as assault, murder, and whatnot.. then yes they should be in prison. But don't crucify someone because they might do something on a drug when there's no guarantee they will.

 

[Negorissimo]

Don't do drugs! You won't perform well sexualy under the influence anyways...

 

[Morcheeba]

I want to say this is all I have to add but I have a feeling I will be back (fair warning K)

My parents are long time pot "users", I very rarely smoke for my own reasons. I think my parents are right in never hiding it from myself nor my brother growing up. That would have taught us it is acceptable to hide things and be deceitful which it's not. Instead they instilled in us the importance of taking care of your responsibilities and being responsible adults and make the best decisions possible. From them I learned that A: pot doesn't destroy your ability to function in society and/or in your family. My parents always paid their rent/mortgage. We always had food, clothes and all other necessities as well as extra curricular activities we may have wanted to participate in. That being said, when they worked a damn hard day they would come home and relax and maybe enjoy a couple joints, "Natures Valium" my mother says. Nothing wrong with that, some ppl drink, I think drinking can be much more damaging than pot as a whole. I do however think it has an effect on SHORT TERM memory. I enjoy a doob once in a while, it's always good for a laugh, and if I can't make it to the gym to beat on a punching bag after a hard day a toke can definitely help relieve stress!!

Smoke on People <3 (keep in mind, I LOVE being canadian)

And to add to the above, I have never seen a fight break out between a bunch of people stoned as I have people on pretty much any other substance (other than those touchy feely rot your brain cell chemical SHIT)

 

[Shyrra]

Answer: No

I think it's funny though, that Excal talks about thinking that pot makes people more open-minded, yet he's the most close-minded person that QCDN has, lol.

 

[Excim]

I want to say this is all I have to add but I have a feeling I will be back (fair warning K)

My parents are long time pot "users", I very rarely smoke for my own reasons. I think my parents are right in never hiding it from myself nor my brother growing up. That would have taught us it is acceptable to hide things and be deceitful which it's not. Instead they instilled in us the importance of taking care of your responsibilities and being responsible adults and make the best decisions possible. From them I learned that A: pot doesn't destroy your ability to function in society and/or in your family. My parents always paid their rent/mortgage. We always had food, clothes and all other necessities as well as extra curricular activities we may have wanted to participate in. That being said, when they worked a damn hard day they would come home and relax and maybe enjoy a couple joints, "Natures Valium" my mother says. Nothing wrong with that, some ppl drink, I think drinking can be much more damaging than pot as a whole. I do however think it has an effect on SHORT TERM memory. I enjoy a doob once in a while, it's always good for a laugh, and if I can't make it to the gym to beat on a punching bag after a hard day a toke can definitely help relieve stress!!

Smoke on People <3 (keep in mind, I LOVE being canadian)

And to add to the above, I have never seen a fight break out between a bunch of people stoned as I have people on pretty much any other substance (other than those touchy feely rot your brain cell chemical SHIT)

People can argue whether or not smoking pot is good, bad, or indifferent all day, since both sides have good and bad points.

The aim of this discussion was about the "brotherhood" you seemingly join while you are a smoker, and where the hell it comes from.