Ball of Confusion: Coconut Tequila: ttyymmnn: Plus it's good for asthma. And I don't need this medical (^) study. I lived it. I smoked weed and stopped my asthma medication.

Money quote: The effects of smoked marijuana on acute, experimentally induced bronchoconstriction and hyperinflation noted in the present study extend our previous observations of significant bronchodilatation and reduction in hyperinflation in resting patients with stable bronchial asthma (3).

I wish I knew someone around here to get some from then, I would kill not to have to know where my inhaler is at every second of the day just in case my lungs decide to stop working. I can't even go for walks much anymore because i make it about 2 blocks then everything closes down.

one word for you: advair. if you're constantly reaching for albuterol, you're doing it wrong.

I don't have a regular doctor due to my insurance being short on PCPs who will take it, end up going to the urgent care for everything while I'm on a waiting list, all they'll give me is albuterol.

cryinoutloud: CheekyMunky: reklamfox: What those people didn't see is the YEARS my father spent heavily drinking himself into a stupor every day.

Uh... what? He drank himself stupid every day because he was an alcoholic for all those years. That's what alcoholism is.

You are biased, reklamfox because of what you grew up with. I don't blame you for being bitter. But you don't know what addiction feels like.

I was a drunk from the first time I had a bottle of Boone's Farm. I remember it well--I was staggering all over the place, my friend had given up and was just sitting on the ground, and I took her bottle and finished it too. Since that first time I drank every single time I got a chance.

Right before I went into rehab, my mother told me, "I think you just drank yourself into being an alcoholic." Now that hurt--do you think we choose to fark up our lives like that? I didn't go to college and almost flunk out because I loved farking up my life and being a sloppy drunk all the time, when everybody else was having the time of their life in college, planning their lives and accomplishing all kinds of things.

My mother also told me that she had no idea where my alcoholism had come from, since there were no alcoholics in her family (only about half of them, and the rest are crazy. And she's gone through a couple of heavy drinking periods herself.) Never underestimate the power of denial, or of genetics.

Own up to your mistake, fool! Alcoholism didn't cause you to drink, YOU caused your drinking and became an alcoholic because you would not stop drinking. Your brain didn't make you do anything -- mind and body are not separate entities -- and neither did your genes.

All these anecdotes, perceptions, and experiences... We all choose how to feel, there is not some easy escape out of the decisions we make in life. No "genetic disposition" that takes the choice out of your hands, no addiction/substance to use as a crutch -- there are choices and consequences, and this is really what the letter to the daughter was spelling out (pretty plainly, too).

We've been living in an age of too much control, and that control has only birthed distrust and an aversion to authority (in some cases). Marijuana is the poster boy for this. Everything we've been told about it for the last near 100 years has been a lie and now it's up to personal accountability, choice, and a knowledge of the consequences that forms our perception of the stuff.

Hopefully weed will only be the first thing to open that door.

pwhp_67: trancemission: Perhaps there's something wrong with his brain so he can't help it now, but it's a bit fatalistic to say he couldn't help it from the start.


Possibly. There could be a few moments or many moments for all I know where they have to think they're going down a dark road. But really, if you could become lucid for even just a day, and realize that you're on the brink of losing EVERYTHING: money, job, house, family, health, everything that you want and like - how could you not seek help unless the power of denial was keeping those moments foggy?

People like us who aren't addicted watch a documentary or something and we can't imagine waking up in a puddle of our own piss, unemployed, looking like death warmed over, and having our only concern be where when and how we're going to get our next fix. We just can't comprehend it.

I think there has to be something going on in that person's mind that is making them oblivious...

From personal experience, I was not oblivious. I just needed a drink. I did not want a drink, I needed a drink. Any recovered (please note I did not say recovering) alcoholic will tell you that they had a moment in their life where it became very clear to them that they were completely screwed. They could no longer go on drinking, and they could not stop. Then and only then can an alcoholic ask for help. That is the bottom. Not losing cars, houses, families, jobs, or whatever. We call it incomprehensible demoralization. Not a nice place to find yourself in.

Mort_Q: Big_Fat_Liar: If smoking pot helps you escape from reality, that's not pot you're smoking.

I'd like you to clarify what you mean.

Are you suggesting that it can't help you escape from reality 'cause it's not a hallucinogen?

/It make TV watchable
//that certainly helps me escape from reality.

I can't argue with the TV thing. Just saying you don't leave, as in escape, reality from marijuana any more than you do after having a few beers, even if it does make a nice way to end a rough day. Pot isn't something where you will be incapable of comprehending reality.

By "you", I am refering to a normal person not suffering from severe emotional problems, dumbassitotis, or anything like that.

mekkab: thinks_on_feet: Regnad Kcin: reklamfox:
..........
So, yeah, STFU and DIAF, idiot.

Cocain blocks dopamine receptors. Deep into a cocain binge, *NOTHING* else feels good anymore. You don't take this into account. Your argument needs retooling; there IS medical evidence of a temporary shift in brain chemistry.

HIS POINT IS THAT YOU CHOSE TO ALTER YOUR BRAIN IN THE FIRST PLACE. A person with cancer did not make a choice.

/you fail

Devil's Playground: Actually, you have probably known two "Heavy Drinkers" who made the decision on their own. A true alcoholic can not do that. Also, you may have noticed that I do not use the word disease. In the book of Alcoholics Anonymous the word disease is used just once. We have a malady. There have been many studies that show that an alcoholic processes ethyl alcohol differently.

No, I know 2 people who self-identify as alcoholics, by which they mean that once they start drinking, they absolutely cannot control themselves or their drinking. They realize that they should not ever drink again, so they don't.

This sounds like the definition of an recovering alcoholic to me. Note that neither of them just up and decided to quit - there were false starts on both their parts. Also, I'd say the genetic component is definitely there - they are father and son.

Finally, of course an alcoholic can make the decision to quit on their own. Even for alcoholics who quit with support from AA, ultimately it comes down to their own decision. No one is following them around 24-7, preventing them from having a drink. They may feel more able to make the decision with the support of other like-minded individuals, but it's still their decision.

ham006: Most people that have never tried pot don't PRIMARILY because it is illegal

This is a very dubious claim. Again, in the absence of data, I can only speak from personal experience with people I know, but I think an awful lot of people who try drinking start well before it's legal for them to do so. And most of the people I've met who aren't interested in pot don't give a rat's ass about its legality - they were just less curious about pot than they were turned off by potheads.

Karma Curmudgeon: thinks_on_feet: It's psychological.

Here you go. 23,100 scholarly articles on the link between genetics and additction. (new window) And when you're done disproving those, you should let the American Psychiatric Association know because they're under the impression that approximately 50% of the causes of addiction are genetic in nature. Happy reading!

And which study shows that you WILL be a CRACK head if you NEVER CHOOSE TO PICK THE DAMN PIPE UP?

PainInTheASP: Coffee is a neccesary part of the wake-n-bake.

I call it the Suburban Speedball...Starbucks double espresso and Dr. Dre OG Kush. Hurry up and sit down.

J.Garcia'sRightMiddleFinger: Slaves2Darkness: We have no sympathy for you. Those of us who have lived with parents who were drunks or addicts have no sympathy for other drunks or addicts. Personally if you are a drunk or drug addict I just wish you would man up and kill your self. The world is better off without you. Yeah I'm very bitter about the subject.

I must have missed where he impacted anyone other than himself. Get off your high horse bitter man.

That is because you are unobservant ignorant self absorbed retard who will never understand the pain and suffering that addiction inflicts on others, particularly those who can not defend themselves.

But you come to expect such things form an addict.

Fundamental Thereom Of Farkulus: J.Garcia'sRightMiddleFinger: Slaves2Darkness: We have no sympathy for you. Those of us who have lived with parents who were drunks or addicts have no sympathy for other drunks or addicts. Personally if you are a drunk or drug addict I just wish you would man up and kill your self. The world is better off without you. Yeah I'm very bitter about the subject.

I must have missed where he impacted anyone other than himself. Get off your high horse bitter man.

no shiat. go to al-anon. you are a bigger loser than your drunk parents.

Bigger loser? That would be hard, but I guess I could come over to your house, kill your kids, set fire to your house, and pass out in your front yard. At least then I will have equaled the antics of my parents.

psh smoking weed is only a problem if you're bad at it.

/good at it
//really, really good

J.Garcia'sRightMiddleFinger: reklamfox: Thats the difference, people with cancer or Alzheimer don't get that choice. Drug addiction is 100% preventable. Stopping the drug abuse cycle is very difficult but that alone shouldn't ensure it a "disease" label. You can halt the course of your addiction with very strong self control. It's a choice.

Your choice argument regarding the medical definition of a disease is deeply flawed. If an alcoholic gets cirrhosis (sp?) or a chain smoker gets lung cancer, are they not diseases due to the fact that they were caused by choices? If I avoid vitamin C like the plague and get scurvy, is it not a disease because I chose to avoid vitamin C? If I lie in the sun 60 hours a week as a pasty white guy and get melanoma, is it not a disease because I chose to put myself in a situation? I could come up with dozens more examples but I think my point is obvious... A hardcore alcohlic or a heroin addict will become extremely ill mentally and physically if their drug is taken away from them cold turkey. A non-addict will not have this reaction in the absence of the same substances. Addiction is a disease.

But the CHOICE isnt the disease, the DISEASE is the RESULT of the choices. A genetic or personality that has a predeliction toward addiction is NOT the disease. I may a have genetics that say i have heart disease. My CHOICES will make that happen or not. If an addict CHOOSES to stop after the first drink(not talking after 20 years of use) or not to start they can.

I am genetically predisposed to obeseity, I CHOOSE to stay off the Ho-Hoes and twinkies. THAT is a CHOICE.

Slaves2Darkness: Fundamental Thereom Of Farkulus: J.Garcia'sRightMiddleFinger: Slaves2Darkness: We have no sympathy for you. Those of us who have lived with parents who were drunks or addicts have no sympathy for other drunks or addicts. Personally if you are a drunk or drug addict I just wish you would man up and kill your self. The world is better off without you. Yeah I'm very bitter about the subject.

I must have missed where he impacted anyone other than himself. Get off your high horse bitter man.

no shiat. go to al-anon. you are a bigger loser than your drunk parents.

Bigger loser? That would be hard, but I guess I could come over to your house, kill your kids, set fire to your house, and pass out in your front yard. At least then I will have equaled the antics of my parents.



Your parents killed you and then passed out in your front yard? Wow, that's amazing.

Slaves2Darkness: That is because you are unobservant ignorant self absorbed retard who will never understand the pain and suffering that addiction inflicts on others, particularly those who can not defend themselves.

woah, some grumpy munchkin woke up on the wrong side of the bed today!

If more people on this thread smoked weed, I bet the bitterness would lower considerably.

Slaves2Darkness is emo.

/that is all

trippdogg: Dear Daughter,

Drugs are rarely dangerous until money or its equivilant are involved. If you only do drugs that are given to you freely by someone you are certain is not looking for something in return, your drug karma will be positive, your use extremely infrequent, and you will have very little to worry about.

Also, don't smoke crack and never trust a tweaker.

Dad

Too funny, any girl that gets drugs given to them, it is NOT given FREELY, something will be wanted if not expected in return. MAYBE not the first time but soon and frequently. How many out there just buys the UGLY girl in the bar a drink without thinking "maybe at bartime....". Don't set your daughter up for bartime.

Devil's Playground: reklamfox: Chickenpox is a disease even though some people get it and some people don't, and it can be cured.

Alcoholism is classified as a disease for a reason. Mainly because the people who have studied it, treated it, and devoted a significant portion of their professional lives to understanding it know a little more about it than you do...

All I know is what I've seen growing up with an alcoholic for a parent. Over and over people have told me "Well you should pity him because he's sick from a disease". Why? What those people didn't see is the YEARS my father spent heavily drinking himself into a stupor every day. It took effort for him to become a homeless alcoholic bum. Thats why I say it's a choice. Call me ignorant all you wish, but I simply fail to see how drug addiction is classified as a disease. My father could have put the bottle down and gotten his life back at any point. The side affects of that "disease" were all 100% preventable. I know there are plenty of other farkers who agree with me.


O.K., You're ignorant. I was raised with an alcoholic mother, and I am an alcoholic as well. Saying that your father could have put the bottle down on his own is proof of your ignorance of alcoholism. I lost every thing I had, and still was not willing to let go of the bottle. Luckily, my one and only remaining friend got a member of A.A. involved, and I learned about why I drank. An alcoholic's mind tells him or her that it is O.K. to take just one little drink. They can handle it this time. However, our physical makeup is different from those who do not have the disorder. Something clicks when we take alcohol into our system, and we lose the ability to stop or moderate. Period. I, by the way have been sober since June 2,2001. I am one of the lucky ones. My mom? No longer with us.

So, YOU CHOSE TO PUT THE BOTTLE DOWN. Doesn't matter what brought you to that point, you CHOSE. YOU CHOOSE EVERYDAY NOT TO PICK IT BACK UP. Now if that cancer patient would just CHOOSE to be well.

JonnyJustice: It is not a plant. It is a weed. However, your high-school "Dazed and Confused" logic is not lost on us.

0/10, troll-o-rama. And fark you anyway.

I am not saying that an alcoholic is making a choice that is as easy to make as someone NOT addicted. I am saying ultimately it IS A CHOICE. If your choice has taken you to the point that the addiction has ALTERED your physiology to the point where it becomes PHYSICALLY dangerous to JUST STOP, you may need help, but YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE to accept that help. CHOICE.......

Jument: Phil Herup: It is a plant. It has been on Earth for eons.

That's a farking stupid argument and I hate you for using it. Arsenic and uranium have been around a lot longer than pot. Should we all eat arsenic sammiches and stick uranium up our butts? Bobcats and killer whales are 100% natural as well. Should we try to cuddle with them?

EABOD plz.

And only ONE of the natural substance you mention has never been the DIRECT cause of death-pot. So if you are going to compare them to other NATURAL things lets make them REAL comparisons of NATURAL things.

Close2TheEdge: gadian: Shakespeare's Monkey: Generalizations are useless; yes there are wake and bakes that are reliable and run their own business. But, anyone can ruin their life by overindulging in an intoxicant and then making poor life decisions. I have a family member who is in his early 30s and smokes every day. He works as a clerk in a DvD store and has held that job for over ten years. Some will find this funny, cue the clerks references, but it hurts me to see him just float in the nothingness. I can't even tell his mom what the problem is, because I'll lose his trust. And so it goes, I love him though.

It sounds like you're the one who wants / needs him to do more. Sounds like your problem, not his. Let him have his life, such as it is. Steady employment in a seemingly menial position is not 'poor life choices' for many people.

It is a poor life choice if he was capable of much more. Yes, the world does need DVD store clerks, but it also needs scientists, teachers, and politicians who are actually smarter than rocks. When people don't reach their potential because of life circumstances, that's tragic. When they don't reach their potential because of smoking weed, that's just plain retarded.

Who the fark are you to lay down rules about what people do with their time on earth? What worthless, psycho philosophy makes simple pleasures a crime?

Weed haters are just worthless amateur dictators, one and all. You and your expectations can go to hell.

Nothing like a self-righteous piece of scare tactics that I hope has the exact opposite effect of what you wanted, douche.

KentuckyBob: Nice diversion in highschool and when arcades were all the rage.

But at 40+ seeing friends who are in the stoner category just makes me scratch the noggin' and wonder why.

Maybe it's because they are mature enough to realize that they don't need to give a fark what you think about it. Maybe they are adults and have realized that their own pleasure and satisfaction is not dependent on your approval.

People like to feel good. People have a right to pursue happiness. Weed is a harmless pleasure for millions, maybe tens of millions of people. Why is this so hard for people to accept?

ham006: Devil's Playground: reklamfox: Chickenpox is a disease even though some people get it and some people don't, and it can be cured.

Alcoholism is classified as a disease for a reason. Mainly because the people who have studied it, treated it, and devoted a significant portion of their professional lives to understanding it know a little more about it than you do...

All I know is what I've seen growing up with an alcoholic for a parent. Over and over people have told me "Well you should pity him because he's sick from a disease". Why? What those people didn't see is the YEARS my father spent heavily drinking himself into a stupor every day. It took effort for him to become a homeless alcoholic bum. Thats why I say it's a choice. Call me ignorant all you wish, but I simply fail to see how drug addiction is classified as a disease. My father could have put the bottle down and gotten his life back at any point. The side affects of that "disease" were all 100% preventable. I know there are plenty of other farkers who agree with me.


O.K., You're ignorant. I was raised with an alcoholic mother, and I am an alcoholic as well. Saying that your father could have put the bottle down on his own is proof of your ignorance of alcoholism. I lost every thing I had, and still was not willing to let go of the bottle. Luckily, my one and only remaining friend got a member of A.A. involved, and I learned about why I drank. An alcoholic's mind tells him or her that it is O.K. to take just one little drink. They can handle it this time. However, our physical makeup is different from those who do not have the disorder. Something clicks when we take alcohol into our system, and we lose the ability to stop or moderate. Period. I, by the way have been sober since June 2,2001. I am one of the lucky ones. My mom? No longer with us.

So, YOU CHOSE TO PUT THE BOTTLE DOWN. Doesn't matter what brought you to that point, you CHOSE. YOU CHOOSE EVERYDAY NOT TO PICK IT BACK UP. Now if that cancer patient would just CHOOSE to be well.

And the point I am trying to stress is that yes, I made a choice to put the bottle down. However,that choice in and of itself was not enough. I attended my first A.A. meeting in Feb. 1998. As I stated before, I finally got sober in June of 2001. Why did it take so long? I wanted more than anything to just stop. I was physically going to die if I didn't. Finally, I gave up trying to quit and took some very important actions that allowed me to quit. In the nearly nine years I have been sober, I have worked with dozens of men who have made the decision to quit, yet only eight of them have. None of them were high bottom drunks. They all were at the bottom of the barrel physically and materially. Three of those who did not get sober are now dead. Two by their own hand, one in a bad crash that also killed two children. These guys had decided that they wanted to stop. I will not work very long with a new person who has not shown me he has an honest desire to stop, but these guys all picked up that bottle after a period of abstinence when the alcohol was not in their system. Why?
And by the way, I do not choose every day to not drink. I have literally had the desire to drink removed. I have thought about drinking more today than I have in years. And my "higher power" is not some god in the heavens that keeps me safe from myself, rather the strength I have received from the thousands before me who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

Kozmopoliskepticalopsis: Slaves2Darkness: Fundamental Thereom Of Farkulus: J.Garcia'sRightMiddleFinger: Slaves2Darkness: We have no sympathy for you. Those of us who have lived with parents who were drunks or addicts have no sympathy for other drunks or addicts. Personally if you are a drunk or drug addict I just wish you would man up and kill your self. The world is better off without you. Yeah I'm very bitter about the subject.

I must have missed where he impacted anyone other than himself. Get off your high horse bitter man.

no shiat. go to al-anon. you are a bigger loser than your drunk parents.

Bigger loser? That would be hard, but I guess I could come over to your house, kill your kids, set fire to your house, and pass out in your front yard. At least then I will have equaled the antics of my parents.



Your parents killed you and then passed out in your front yard? Wow, that's amazing.

The weed made them do it.

I also would like to say that I am not anti booze or anti drug. I believe that every one should be able to enjoy them. That is not why I have been posting. I just want those of you who say alcoholism is a choice to see that no, it really isn't.

Dead-Guy: gadian: Shakespeare's Monkey: Generalizations are useless; yes there are wake and bakes that are reliable and run their own business. But, anyone can ruin their life by overindulging in an intoxicant and then making poor life decisions. I have a family member who is in his early 30s and smokes every day. He works as a clerk in a DvD store and has held that job for over ten years. Some will find this funny, cue the clerks references, but it hurts me to see him just float in the nothingness. I can't even tell his mom what the problem is, because I'll lose his trust. And so it goes, I love him though.

It sounds like you're the one who wants / needs him to do more. Sounds like your problem, not his. Let him have his life, such as it is. Steady employment in a seemingly menial position is not 'poor life choices' for many people.

hah! anyone doing that kinda' work at 30 is a loser with no safety net, and/or secretly independantly wealthy. Just because you make the same mistake of having no concept of how to prepare for your future, doesn't make it good for others to do the same thing..

Whatsamatter pothead? all the smoky stuff steal away your future? Pothead plus clerk for 10 years at 30? that equals poor life choices.. Throw-in that he lives with his mom, and you get nothing but trouble.

Gee.. what's a midlife crisis? You gonna learn all about it.. ;)

/Super troll is blantant and offends by having a different world view. He doesn't care about your feelings any more than you care about his... He's just hoping to be someone's wake-up call..

Wake up call to what? Being a clueless a**hole?
Isn't it funny how almost all the weed haters here are the kind of people that somehow picked up this weird idea that the rest of the world is required to give a shiat about their opinions and live up to their arbitrary standards?
One day you will realize that there are millions of rational, intelligent people who simply choose not to be status-obsessed douchebags. We choose to enjoy our lives instead of fretting about some jerk's opinions about our choices. We hear you, we see you, and we do not want to be you.

Canned Tamales: Weed is a harmless pleasure for millions, maybe tens of millions of people. Why is this so hard for people to accept?

Because there really is the danger that if "too many" people end up smoking it, our rather rigid and antiquated system might, like, change into something more bearable and pleasant because people are sick of doing the rat race.

The horror.

Don't you all know how to tell who the weed smokers are? There the ones whose "pants are encrusted with semen from constantly masturbating when not able to find a rape victim" or something like that.

Seriously though I am a nearly daily smoker (when I can get it). I don't really care if anyone else wants to do it just as long as they don't care about what I'm doing. I got my degree, my job, my 401K and all that shiat. I don't wake and bake anymore because of work but I like to do it in the evenings (not like I was doing anything anyway). Not really concerned about my health, I'm pretty sure the cigarettes will kill me first. I just wish they would legalize the shiat and tax the hell out of it so I could just pick up a pack of J's at the local convenience store along with my Marlboros.

CheekyMunky: I'm all for legalization of pot, if only to take the glamor out of it. From what I've seen - which is a lot - stoners love to think of themselves as enlightened counter-cultural rebels. They're not. They just like sucking on a flaming plant that makes them stupid.

I don't have a problem with doing stupid, unproductive things, but rarely have I seen a group display such reverence for it, or denial of its uselessness. Go to any campus on a Saturday night and watch the drunken frat boys. Okay, so maybe there's a reverence there. But they know damn well they're being idiots, at least, and if any of them decide they actually want to do something with their lives, they'll recognize that they have to leave it behind. Of course, by then some of them might find that they can't... but then they'll probably be properly ashamed of their alcoholism, keeping it behind closed doors.

So legalize it, and now when you're baked, you're not sticking it to the man, you're just dropping out of life for a while. Be honest about it, and lose the worship. Then maybe you won't feel the need to embrace it so completely, to identify yourself with it, and when it comes time to grow up, you'll find it easier to let go of.

The time and money no longer wasted by law enforcement would be nice too.

CheekyMunky: RockofAges: It's true. Talking about how awesome beer is, that's obviously stupid too. Which is why Fark loves doing it, and has several awesome beer threads on a monthly basis.

You apparently missed my entire second paragraph. Keep on tokin'.

God, where does Fark drag up all these dry idiots? You sound like a bitter nerd. It might be time to loosen the clip-on tie for a bit, poindexter.

Going to point right back to this, right after...

Final word - altered states of human consciousness can be very fun, and in some cases truly enlightening. Just because you fail to realize / comprehend this due to your own narrow knowledge base and/or experience doesn't make the rest of us "counter-cultural rebels".

Oh, the irony! Responding to a perceived assumption about yourself with a blatant assumption about me! Brilliant.

For the record, not that it matters, I was a bartender for years. Ever worked in a bar? Been part of that social scene? There's a whole smorgasbord of deviant behavior to take part in. And I did. Drank quite a bit in the process, and that was just the start. But here's my point, which you seem to have missed - I was never under any delusions that I was wasting my time with it. All I was doing was having a few experiences, a little fun, while I figured out what the hell I wanted to do with myself. And when I did figure it out and it came time to get down to it, I walked away and got real.

Today I rarely drink, even on my nights off, because I've got too much to do and need to be sharp for it. The stoners I know - and I live in Madison, so please tell me more about how little experience I've had with stoners - have a much harder time letting go, because somewhere in the back of their minds they believe that what they are doing is somehow special or essential to their functionality. For a very few, who knows, maybe that's somehow true. For the rest... they're holding themselves back. That's all. Just like I did for years, when I didn't know what I'd do otherwise.

/Even though I like to think of myself as one, in my fantasies!
//Why don't you go on fantasizing about how awesome you are compared to those shiftless losers who are committing the crime of "having more fun than you are" and "not giving a shiat what some pocket-protector wearing dork thinks about your personal life".

Your desperate - and wildly inaccurate - ad hominems are hilarious.

Yet another clueless douche who got this weird idea that other people need to pay attention to his personal standards and outlook.

Weed brings many millions of people pleasure. It is an end in itself for them. Your approval is not necesasary. Maybe someday you will be mature enough to accept this simple, obvious truth. If some are "holding themselves back" in your opinion, it is quite possibly a rational choice they have made. They chose to not be you. Your experience and your choices are irrelevant to them.

RockIsDead: Escapism.

Because your life sucks and you're too chickenshiat to face it.

/suicide is more noble

I like how your handle accentuates what a pompous idiot you are. So what shiatty, oops, I mean obviously superior music do you waste your sober time with? Or are you always too busy doing all those wonderful, heroic things that make up the life of every weed hater, such as being a douchebag on fark?

Canned Tamales: I like how your handle accentuates what a pompous idiot you are

You must be new here...

CheekyMunky: Headso: That's what it looks like from the outside looking in?

I'm right smack in the middle of it. And I'm talking about the full-on stoners. The ones who wear dreads and Che shirts, hemp necklaces and marijuana leaf pins. The scene in Dazed and Confused where Slater asks "are you cool, man?" and ultimately scoffs and walks away perfectly captures an attitude that I've seen repeated over and over. It may not be you, but it's definitely out there. And it's ridiculous.

Almost as ridiculous as whiny biatches whining about it and acting like it's a major issue in their lives. Get over yourself, the rest of us already have!

CheekyMunky: Headso: CheekyMunky: it's definitely out there. And it's ridiculous.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, dog collar guy.

I addressed the collar in a previous post, and again will reiterate: I was at a Halloween party in Vegas. It was time explicitly set aside to leave responsibilities behind for a while. I don't drink daily, I don't walk around in dog collars daily, and I have never looked at that experience as evidence that I am somehow more open-minded than people who wouldn't do something like that.

I'm sorry, gentlemen, but that pic is not the coup de grace you want it to be.

No, it isn't. You being a judgmental whiny idiot with the maturity of a middle-schooler is the coup de grace.

Devil's Playground: I also would like to say that I am not anti booze or anti drug. I believe that every one should be able to enjoy them. That is not why I have been posting. I just want those of you who say alcoholism is a choice to see that no, it really isn't.

Devil's Playground, congratulations on winning your battle.

Only in the States is weed still such a big deal.

Fallout Boy: Only in the States is _______ still such a big deal.

Fill in the blank:

Weed
Socialized medicine
Climate change
Income Tax
Hetero Marriage
...
...
...

And folks wonder why the rest of the world laughs at us.

Johnny Bananapeel: Go Ask Alice:

Win and double win. Hope she's got those brownies ready!

Slaves2Darkness: cryinoutloud: CheekyMunky: reklamfox: What those people didn't see is the YEARS my father spent heavily drinking himself into a stupor every day.

Uh... what? He drank himself stupid every day because he was an alcoholic for all those years. That's what alcoholism is.

You are biased, reklamfox because of what you grew up with. I don't blame you for being bitter. But you don't know what addiction feels like.

I was a drunk from the first time I had a bottle of Boone's Farm. I remember it well--I was staggering all over the place, my friend had given up and was just sitting on the ground, and I took her bottle and finished it too. Since that first time I drank every single time I got a chance.

Right before I went into rehab, my mother told me, "I think you just drank yourself into being an alcoholic." Now that hurt--do you think we choose to fark up our lives like that? I didn't go to college and almost flunk out because I loved farking up my life and being a sloppy drunk all the time, when everybody else was having the time of their life in college, planning their lives and accomplishing all kinds of things.

My mother also told me that she had no idea where my alcoholism had come from, since there were no alcoholics in her family (only about half of them, and the rest are crazy. And she's gone through a couple of heavy drinking periods herself.) Never underestimate the power of denial, or of genetics.

We have no sympathy for you. Those of us who have lived with parents who were drunks or addicts have no sympathy for other drunks or addicts. Personally if you are a drunk or drug addict I just wish you would man up and kill your self. The world is better off without you. Yeah I'm very bitter about the subject.

Speak for yourself. My dad was an alcoholic and I had much sympathy for him. Same for my husband who has been sober for ten years.

Reading your posts I suggest you get yourself to an Al-Anon meeting and seriously think about getting yourself some psychological counseling. You have some serious issues to work out.

The self styled pot expert is a Troll.

goodwynn: The self styled pot expert is a Troll.

Or a stoner who's almost out of weed.

Gets me grouchy too, having to bug someone to sell me a bag.

CheekyMonkey: jessicat: Weed motivated me to get things done so I could smoke and relax.

Typical stoner rationalization. Imagine how much more productive you could have been, without the weed and the relaxing.

Seriously, though, I've found that weed can make me more productive at certain things. For instance, I don't like painting, and I don't do a good on the trim - my patience wanes, since I just want to get it over with. However, after a hit or two, I can paint trim for hours, if necessary, and the job will be done faster and better, as I'm not rushing to finish and having to redo sections.

I wouldn't toke up while writing code at work, cutting firewood with a chainsaw, or carving a wooden spoon, but for painting trim, it's the bomb.

You seem to flip between semi-reasonable and complete douche in a single post. Somebody else smokes and finds it beneficial. It is not a rationalization for your benefit. It's just a fact that YOU have problems with something, and some other people don't. YOUR weakness. YOUR problem. Quit being such a douche.

whidbey: Fallout Boy: Only in the States is _______ still such a big deal.

Fill in the blank:

Weed
Socialized medicine
Climate change
Income Tax
Hetero Marriage
...
...
...

And folks wonder why the rest of the world laughs at us.

Well, to be fair, they aren't all laughing. A lot of them want to kill us.

Maybe they're laughing at us and they want to kill us.

It's possible.

cptjeff:Phil Herup: It is a plant. It has been on Earth for eons. Now, in this small window of time in human history, some people have decided that you can't even posses this plant.

It is no different than a rose or a sunflower, or even a spot of crab grass. Except this one is illegal.

It is only illegal because some authoritarians have said it is. These same authoritarians have said that the tobacco plant is OK, and it is OK to ferment plants to make a toxic poison known as alcohol.

But you can't have this plant. If it grew on your property you could lose everything including your freedom.

The Founding Fathers would be pissed. One of them particularly so.

I know Washington made 140 proof rye whiskey, but for the life of me I can't recall if it was Jefferson or GW that grew the Hemp.

I do remember that it was industrial hemp though, not the smokable. Somehow, even that is illegal.

Weed is illegal because industrial hemp was seen as a threat to paper and fabric industries.

somewhat proud to say i smoked pretty regularly through grad school, and am the proud owner of a fancy phd.

ah, california, how i miss your laws.

sparrow794: whidbey: Fallout Boy: Only in the States is _______ still such a big deal.

Fill in the blank:

Weed
Socialized medicine
Climate change
Income Tax
Hetero Marriage
...
...
...

And folks wonder why the rest of the world laughs at us.

Well, to be fair, they aren't all laughing. A lot of them want to kill us.

They hate us for our freedoms. Right?