From: ast2r@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Andrew Symons Troth)
Subject: Re: Hellblazer's Still Not That Great
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 18:53:41 GMT

In article <93025.190157DCC117@psuvm.psu.edu> <DCC117@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>In article <1993Jan23.214426.13044@udel.edu>, lintz@balin.cis.udel.edu (Brian
>Lintz) says:
>>
>>In article <93023.152004DCC117@psuvm.psu.edu> <DCC117@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>>   Anybody think Constantine partied a
>>>  little TOO hearty in #63?  I mean, all
>>>  of a sudden everybody's toking.  What an
>>>  influence this could have on impressionable
>>>  young minds.
>>
>>Are you saying you have a problem with the marijuana,
>>but not with the alcohol? Despite the legal status of
>>both substances, overall alcohol is worse than marijuana.
>
>  Says who? For years I've listened to potheads trying to
> convince people of this, but I'm not convinced.  I think
> marijuana has much more serious effects on your brain
> chemistry.  But I guess that's not important for some

Would you care to back that statement up with scientific evidence?
(personally I have not researched it, but my impression is
that there is a great deal of disagreement among those who
have studied the relative effects of various drugs. And
information from proponents of both sides of the issue, IMHO,
is to be taken with a grain of salt; conflicting moral and
ideological stances result in a great deal of propaganda).

> people.  However, it is for me, because I like to be able
> to use higher-order thinking skills on a regular basis.

That is a heavy-handed, sarcastic generalization that, to me,
indicates closed-mindedness. If you want your ideas to be taken
seriously, don't insult by implication.

> I know plenty of people who drink a lot but still manage
> to get good grades and accomplish stuff.  On the other
> hand, most pot users I know have really fucked their
> lives up because of pot.  Some of them have tried to
> quit because they knew it was making them stupid.

Sure, I know people who've fucked up their lives with pot. I 
also know people who use pot and are doing quite well. I also
know people who have seriously fucked up their lives with
alcohol and other drugs. And people who have fucked up their
lives because of sex. And people who are chronic failures but
use no drugs at all. It's the person, not what he puts in his
body, that makes the difference. Weak and insecure people are
the most likely to encounter negative effects from drug use, but
they are also the most likely to engage in it in the first place.
(these are empirical, not scientific, observations on my part).
That, however, should not be taken as a universal. I also have
witnessed far more people become far more addicted to legal 
substances such as alcohol and tobacco (which is the single most
addictive drug I have seen people take) than I have seen become
addicted to pot.

>
 By the way, it stays in your system a lot longer than
> alcohol, and you can stay screwed up for a long time.


>  Oh, and didn't anybody out there learn anything
> from "Dangerous Habits"? Hint, hint?

If you're referring to the fact that smoking can cause
lung cancer, you need to realize that tobacco and cannabis
are very different substances. Tobacco is more addictive
and, I believe (although I confess I may be wrong), more
carcinogenic. Again, it's difficult to discern accurate
information in the midst of propaganda and a lack of
adequate research due to the fact that pot is illegal.     

>
>  I just don't see anything behind the legalization movement
> besides a desire to get high.
>
Speaking as a believer in legalization who does not smoke pot
or use any other illegal substance (and doesn't plan to when
they do become legal), let me state what I see as the goals
of legalization: 1) increased accuracy and availability of
information about drugs, with no moral judgment attached. 2)
Feasible government monitoring of the import and export of the
substances in question. 3) Elimination, by allowing true price
competition, of the obscene profit involved in trafficking drugs,
thereby removing most of the motive for illegal trafficking, as well
as of the temptation for inner-city youths to choose drugs as the only
available way to make serious money. We need to give them other options
as well as take this one away.

The war on drugs is not winnable. Its costs are enormous in both
momey and lives. The more drug users and suppliers are are
persecuted, the more entrenched and unwilling to change they will
become. Drugs will not go away, no matter how many people we arrest,
convict, or kill. They are a fact of life, and this country's
murderous denial of that fact is a cause for shame.

>>Besides, this is a mature readers comic. Technically,
>>impressionable young minds shouldn't be reading it anyway.
>>
>>Brian Lintz
>>lintz@udel.edu

cheers,
	ast