We've got a nicotine withdrawal and alcohol withdrawal, but no cannabis withdrawal in the DSM-IV, for example. Why? Because it's not physically addictive. And while there is a "cannabis dependence" diagnosis, the DSM says, in its own way, that this diagnosis is deprecated because the clinical significance is not known. IOW, "we've got it in here because we should, but don't use this diagnosis because it's crap."
And while pot may be more harmful than cigarettes, I don't think it's as bad *because* it's not addictive. You won't see many people smoking 10 joints a day, but you WILL see people smoking way more cigarettes than that.
Another thing about these campaigns: it's been shown, repeatedly, that advertisements/campaigns that try to keep people from doing something by scaring them DON'T work. They deter people short term and then they stop working because they realize the scary shit they saw on t.v. doesn't ever really happen. The only way to control something like this is through educating people about it.
That said, I don't think kids should smoke (pot, cigarettes, whatever) because they're not making informed decisions about their health. When they get to the age they can really understand and weigh the pros and cons of the issue, then they should decide. In general, 15 year olds can't do that. Some 30 year-olds can't either. It's a maturity thing, I guess.
Marajuana is the gateway drug because it is. If it weren't around there would be another refered to as the gateway drug.
marijuana is not a gateway drug. it does not cause or lead in itself to other drugs. some people use marijuana, and later try other drugs, not because of something marijuana had done to them, but rather by their own nature and by their own accord. the overwhelming majority of pot smokers don't use harder drugs, although some do smoke cigarettes and/or drink. the amount of people who smoke pot, then go on to coke, heroin or the other "harder" drugs is miniscule.
Marijuana is likely not a gateway drug. RAND did a study not too long ago on this:
Quote:
Instead, the associations can result from known differences in the ages at which youths have opportunities to use marijuana and hard drugs, and known variations in individuals' willingness to try any drugs, researchers found...
"The people who are predisposed to use drugs and have the opportunity to use drugs are more likely than others to use both marijuana and harder drugs," Morral said. "Marijuana typically comes first because it is more available. Once we incorporated these facts into our mathematical model of adolescent drug use, we could explain all of the drug use associations that have been cited as evidence of marijuana's gateway effect."
Experience will tell anyone that the RAND explination is clearly correct.
True. Calling marijuana a gateway drug is like saying "Ice cream trucks cause people to be violent."
Huh? Well, there's more violence in hot areas and there are also more ice cream trucks in hot areas, so ice cream trucks must cause violence. It's that easy.
Nope. That's what we call a spurious correlation. Two things look like they're related, but they're actually caused by a 3rd thing that hasn't been measured.
I agree, I don't think it's a gateway drug, what I should have said...and meant is that I think it's referred to it because it's there and has been used before many other drugs.
Most people I know don't get high 50x and decide they need a more powerful high and move to cocaine. The only possible negative effect it could have is someone smoking and then thinking that weed isn't as bad as it was advertised to be and so maybe cocaine or ecstasy isn't as bad either. At there point I think that it's just maturity, knowledge, and good to have proper health education classes for students. I know my health teacher was very good, and honest...also debunked some 'scare tactics' used in junior high. Health classes are important I think.
I've seen those too. Not as bad, IMO, because they point out specific negative effects of ecstacy. There is some (imperfect) scientific evidence that long-term ecstacy use is very harmful to certain popualtions of neurons. I think they also mention the overheating problem that causes most ecstacy-related deaths. Those are unique to ecstacy, and good reasons to not use it.
The "pregnancy" pot-ad was the funniest of all. We can't run ads telling kids to have safe sex, or to not mix sex and drugs OR alcohol, or even about sex at all, but we'll run ads telling them to watch out for those pot-goggles. I mean beer-goggles. No, pot. Cause pot causes waaay more pregnancies than beer. Which is why pot kegs are staples at frat parties. I mean beer kegs. Damn I'm confused.
Turns out the *one* study back in um... '73, I think, that purported to show chromosomal damage from pot use was overturned as flawed in the 80's. Yet it's still bandied about as fact. *sigh*
My wife kept stating it as fact, I hadn't heard it mentioned in years, so I went and dug up the references, followed the chain back to the original paper, then started looking for citations of that paper, and voila. No serious researcher has cited it as factual in a decade.
yes, yes. pot also causes you to be a satanist, or a socialist. i overheard a guy say to someone else that pot can make you into a gay. let's all fear the reefer. [ahem, pot doesn't causes sterility. it has virtually no known detrimental long term effects. though there might be some unknown knowns in there.]
long term pot use causes elation, particularly while inibriated. where's my joint? o, here it is.
Great song, and I know what your trying to say...but I'm 18. I have no kids of my own. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
Never say never. I am so utterly not the person now that I was at 18, it isn't even funny. Not saying 'never' keeps you from looking like a durned fool later.
Great song, and I know what your trying to say...but I'm 18. I have no kids of my own. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
What kickaha said. You will be very VERY different after college. Trust me.
I'm 18. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
Hehe. hahaha. LOL. You don't have much fun at parties do you?
Hehe. hahaha. LOL. You don't have much fun at parties do you?
From the looks of his post I doubt he goes to many parties...
I think somikng pot is fine in moderation, but a lot of my friends base their whole lives around smoking now which is absolutely ridiculous. They cut school just so they can blaze. Come on, now that's messed up. But if you do it once in a while I really don't see what's so bad about it.
Comments
And while pot may be more harmful than cigarettes, I don't think it's as bad *because* it's not addictive. You won't see many people smoking 10 joints a day, but you WILL see people smoking way more cigarettes than that.
Another thing about these campaigns: it's been shown, repeatedly, that advertisements/campaigns that try to keep people from doing something by scaring them DON'T work. They deter people short term and then they stop working because they realize the scary shit they saw on t.v. doesn't ever really happen. The only way to control something like this is through educating people about it.
That said, I don't think kids should smoke (pot, cigarettes, whatever) because they're not making informed decisions about their health. When they get to the age they can really understand and weigh the pros and cons of the issue, then they should decide. In general, 15 year olds can't do that. Some 30 year-olds can't either. It's a maturity thing, I guess.
Originally posted by ast3r3x
Marajuana is the gateway drug because it is. If it weren't around there would be another refered to as the gateway drug.
marijuana is not a gateway drug. it does not cause or lead in itself to other drugs. some people use marijuana, and later try other drugs, not because of something marijuana had done to them, but rather by their own nature and by their own accord. the overwhelming majority of pot smokers don't use harder drugs, although some do smoke cigarettes and/or drink. the amount of people who smoke pot, then go on to coke, heroin or the other "harder" drugs is miniscule.
"60% of cocaine users report first using marijuana!"
Well yeah, and I bet 100% of them inhaled oxygen before that.
OMG! Oxygen is the true gateway drug! Ban it! BAAAAAAN IIIIIIITTTTTT!
Instead, the associations can result from known differences in the ages at which youths have opportunities to use marijuana and hard drugs, and known variations in individuals' willingness to try any drugs, researchers found...
"The people who are predisposed to use drugs and have the opportunity to use drugs are more likely than others to use both marijuana and harder drugs," Morral said. "Marijuana typically comes first because it is more available. Once we incorporated these facts into our mathematical model of adolescent drug use, we could explain all of the drug use associations that have been cited as evidence of marijuana's gateway effect."
http://www.rand.org/news/press.02/gateway.html
Experience will tell anyone that the RAND explanation is clearly correct.
Originally posted by giant
Marijuana is likely not a gateway drug. RAND did a study not too long ago on this:
http://www.rand.org/news/press.02/gateway.html
Experience will tell anyone that the RAND explination is clearly correct.
True. Calling marijuana a gateway drug is like saying "Ice cream trucks cause people to be violent."
Huh? Well, there's more violence in hot areas and there are also more ice cream trucks in hot areas, so ice cream trucks must cause violence. It's that easy.
Nope. That's what we call a spurious correlation. Two things look like they're related, but they're actually caused by a 3rd thing that hasn't been measured.
Originally posted by sammi jo
Or an anti ecstacy ad?
I saw one of these yesterday.
Most people I know don't get high 50x and decide they need a more powerful high and move to cocaine. The only possible negative effect it could have is someone smoking and then thinking that weed isn't as bad as it was advertised to be and so maybe cocaine or ecstasy isn't as bad either. At there point I think that it's just maturity, knowledge, and good to have proper health education classes for students. I know my health teacher was very good, and honest...also debunked some 'scare tactics' used in junior high. Health classes are important I think.
Knowledge is power
Originally posted by Wrong Robot
I saw [an anti-ecstacy ad] yesterday.
I've seen those too. Not as bad, IMO, because they point out specific negative effects of ecstacy. There is some (imperfect) scientific evidence that long-term ecstacy use is very harmful to certain popualtions of neurons. I think they also mention the overheating problem that causes most ecstacy-related deaths. Those are unique to ecstacy, and good reasons to not use it.
The "pregnancy" pot-ad was the funniest of all. We can't run ads telling kids to have safe sex, or to not mix sex and drugs OR alcohol, or even about sex at all, but we'll run ads telling them to watch out for those pot-goggles. I mean beer-goggles. No, pot. Cause pot causes waaay more pregnancies than beer. Which is why pot kegs are staples at frat parties. I mean beer kegs. Damn I'm confused.
and the "kid with dreams" when I grow up I want to be...blah blah
But I always give 'em the "Randy Twist"....."Don't let dreams get in the way of your drugs", and I prefer my egg BAKED not fried. hehe
Randy
Originally posted by Towel
The "pregnancy" pot-ad was the funniest of all.
Doesn't long-term pot use cause sterility? So it's actually a GOOD way to prevent pregnancy.
My wife kept stating it as fact, I hadn't heard it mentioned in years, so I went and dug up the references, followed the chain back to the original paper, then started looking for citations of that paper, and voila. No serious researcher has cited it as factual in a decade.
Originally posted by pensieve
Doesn't long-term pot use cause sterility?
yes, yes. pot also causes you to be a satanist, or a socialist. i overheard a guy say to someone else that pot can make you into a gay. let's all fear the reefer. [ahem, pot doesn't causes sterility. it has virtually no known detrimental long term effects. though there might be some unknown knowns in there.]
long term pot use causes elation, particularly while inibriated. where's my joint? o, here it is.
Originally posted by giant
Marijuana is likely not a gateway drug.
What is it, then? A dell drug? A sony drug? An apple drug? hp? ibm?
(I hear that long-term pot use turns you into a Cypress Hill fan.)
Originally posted by bunge
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
- Bob Dylan, The Times They are a Changin' (1963)
Great song, and I know what your trying to say...but I'm 18. I have no kids of my own. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
Never say never. I am so utterly not the person now that I was at 18, it isn't even funny. Not saying 'never' keeps you from looking like a durned fool later.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
Great song, and I know what your trying to say...but I'm 18. I have no kids of my own. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
What kickaha said. You will be very VERY different after college. Trust me.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
I'm 18. I don't drink, I don't smoke, never have, never will. I have the right to say that kids are stupid because I am one of them and I witness their stupidity firsthand.
Hehe. hahaha. LOL. You don't have much fun at parties do you?
Originally posted by Barto
Hehe. hahaha. LOL. You don't have much fun at parties do you?
From the looks of his post I doubt he goes to many parties...
I think somikng pot is fine in moderation, but a lot of my friends base their whole lives around smoking now which is absolutely ridiculous. They cut school just so they can blaze. Come on, now that's messed up. But if you do it once in a while I really don't see what's so bad about it.
Originally posted by Barto
Hehe. hahaha. LOL. You don't have much fun at parties do you?
If his handle stands for "Dave Matthews Band" he'll change his ways at his first DM concert.