My 2 cents

the problem with pot

04/27/2007
The problem with pot

My older sister introduced me to the wonders of pot smoking, on my 13th birthday. The years which followed, were some of the best times of my life. By the time I joined the army, I had developed a tendency to purchase and use roughly a ½ ounce of the wonderful leafy gift from heaven, each week.

When I joined the army I went on a pot sabbatical, shying from the use of it, for fear of loosing the career I had always wanted. Quitting was no big deal. I probably went through 15 seconds of withdrawal, accompanied with the easily shrugged off urge to take a hit when friends were smoking it. Completely unlike the nagging need, and mood swings associated with quitting cigarettes.

Nine years later I got married, and left the army. Looking back on it, it was my biggest mistake, as I loved serving my country, but the life style wasn’t especially great for keeping a marriage together.

Both my wife and I partook in the occasional use of pot. We had good and bad times, none of which would have been affected either way had we not smoked it. When our marriage ended nine years later, it was over her infidelity, not pot.

I quit smoking pot when I got my CDL drivers license. Another career driven decision, and haven’t touched it in many years.

AOL published an article about the dangers of smoking the weed today, and having used it, and quit, I find myself in a position of some authority on the subject, and therefore must speak out in defense of a poor little plant which has gotten a bad rep over the years.

Now I’m not saying everyone should go out and smoke a joint. That would be irresponsible of me. What I am going to do is include an excerpt of the above mentioned article, and draw attention to the one phrase that makes this article, and the study it was drafted for, meaningless. Then I’ll add a few words of personal observations, on pot and another drug which is legal and, as far as I am concerned, far more dangerous.



Note the excerpt below:

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Adminstration, marijuana was involved in 242,200 visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2005. This means that the patient mentioned using marijuana and does not mean the drug directly caused the accident or condition being treated, SAMHSA says.

You will no doubt note the last sentence of this article.

I would like to see their figures on alcohol.

After a bit of research I have found that in the United States in 2005 there were 254,000 motor vehicle accidents , where the police reported alcohol was a contributing factor. Of those 16,855 accidents included fatalities.

Now I’m not saying that it’s safer to smoke pot and drive then it is to drink a few beers and do the same. I am saying that you will note that the AOL article states that their figure is the total hospital emergency room visits concerning mention of marijuana. I realize this figure is probably low as only a fool would mention he smoked a joint before he climbed the ladder to trim the branch off a tree. Whereas the figures I show are only the national figures on alcohol related car accidents, an have nothing to do with the guy who mowed his foot off on a Sunday morning after drinking a couple beers. If this were the case, my figure would definitely be larger.

Also I would like to see the statistics on how many police arrests were made nationally, for the same year, involving parent or spousal abuse, where Marijuana was a contributing factor, along side those cases where alcohol has been a factor.

After a brief search I found tons of information on the relationship between alcohol use and parental/ spousal abuse, and absolutely NOTHING on marijuana’s relationship to the same.

I also found an article stating that 2/3rds of rapes on collage campuses are alcohol related. (Usually the female has consumed some amount of alcohol before the rape occurred.) And no statistics to show that pot had dulled a woman’s senses enough to make raping her easier.

From my own personal experience, I have NEVER smoked so much pot that I couldn’t recall events which happened on the following day, although I have wondered how I got home after a night out with the guys drinking beer. I have NEVER smoked so much pot that I became ill, although I have leaned over the toilet bowel and regurgitated beer. I have NEVER smoked pot and been involved in a fist fight, but I’ve been arrested for barroom brawling. No matter what the circumstances, I don’t abuse women, but I have seen many a woman beaten after her partner has had a few too many.

Having read this post, and my earlier posts, you may note that I don’t seem to be any dumber then the average person. I may have lost a few brain cells, but I think you’ll agree that my thoughts are clear and concise. As far as short term memory loss, this I can give no opinion on that, as it has always been my habit to disregard Items of conversation which have little or no meaning in the day to day running of my own affairs. So if you ask me what you said last night, it’ll be because I consciously chose not to remember that portion of our conversation do to irrelevance, not because my short term memory has been affected by smoking pot.

I would love to read feedback on this article, so if you have an opinion ,one way or another please feel free to leave your comments.