Aestu wrote:
Battletard wrote:
Ancient imaginary Greek niggaz did drugs in peaceful apathy so we can't let that happen in America. If it happened in a made up dead religion thousands of years ago it could happen in modern day America too.
It's arrogant and bigoted to write something off just because it's foreign, different or old.
I think it has more to do with the "imaginary" part than the foreign, different, and old parts.
Aestu wrote:
Just because the gods are characters in the story in question doesn't mean it's a religious work, or that religion has anything to do with it. Just because a story, idea or way of thinking happens to have religious overtones is no good reason to dismiss it. Religion, like every other aspect of culture, is an adaptation to the conditions of life - and a mostly effective one.
Whether the isle was real or not is irrelevant. Just because the story is old doesn't mean it's wrong; on the contrary, it's something that has stood the test of time. I could give the more recent (and factual) example of the events leading up to the Opium War. Aesop's Fables are pure fiction but we consider them valid as ever, so why haggle over the factual rectitude of this story or any other ancient tale?
Coming from someone who likes to lecture everyone about how the "world has always worked" and denigrates others for believing in a fictional "view of the past" based on secondary sources and not actual fact, this is a facetious and self-serving answer that is little more than a pathetic attempt to push the spotlight off the holes in your argument...not that anyone needs a spotlight to see holes that size.
Pot does make people stupid and lazy. If you smoke it and you're still productive and useful, good for you...if you really are productive and useful. I'm watching someone ruin their life with it right now. It's not the only thing screwing them up, but it's a huge contributing factor. It's ruining that person's relationships with their friends. It affects their work and their attitude at and about work, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose their job in the near future. The biggest problem is that they're completely delusional about how things are and even when you bluntly tell them what they're doing it goes in one ear and out the other.
People who are intent on destroying their lives are going to find a way to do it no matter what kind of roadblocks you throw in front of them. It would probably be better in the long run to just let them do it instead of creating a regulatory system to stop them from doing it that creates a black market that encourages violent criminal enterprise. I'm not saying we should grease the skids so those self-destructive people can launch themselves into oblivion, but legalizing cannabis (and possibly other illegal drugs) would create a safer regulatory environment that would take the criminal element out of the equation. This would probably also make a lot of these drugs cheaper and provide a new tax base--a tax base that could be used to encourage and fund treatment for people to get off those same drugs.
I also believe that part of the allure of drugs for some people is that they're illegal. There's a lot of "rebel without a clue" types that do things just because they're told they shouldn't. Giving them permission to do something lessens their interest in doing it.
Cannabis is bad, but it's no worse than other substances we freely allow the public to access. Legalize it and then put it under the same ridiculous tax and regulatory schemes as alcohol and tobacco and the problem won't go away, but situation will improve.
Zaryi wrote:
You really have no idea what you're talking about

You know Aestu isn't going to let a little thing like that stand in his way.
Your Pal,
Jubber