^^^ see, this makes a point I stated earlier.
I don't even know where to start with this, so we'll go from the top down.
the above poster (Simo98) is OBVIOUSLY someone who supports marijuana use, but does so using opinion instead of facts.
A perfect example is me stating that I have seen people smoke marijuana and become violent. The poster has no idea what I have seen, but calls it ridiculous. (I am trying to overlook the fact that in doing so is in a sense calling me a liar.)
Then he goes on to say that "normal pot smokers are at home on a couch, and not in bars
First things first, there are no facts unfortunately (not enough anyway), very little unbiased research has been performed on any illegal drugs, and so anything you read will be heavily slanted, one way or the other.
I am not trying to call you a liar, rather I said I believe exactly what you are saying and am simply trying to explain the behaviour. I said that the behaviour you described does not fit with the general consensus of what the effects of the drug in question are, and as such it doesn't make a lot of sense. The best explanation I can come up with is you are encountering a small and unusual demographic of pot smokers (who seem to also be moneyless drug dealing wife beating morons) and that your experience is not overall representative of the stoner population.
Here is the deal. He makes his own assessment of what he believes the "normal" smoker to be the standard by which he wants them judged. He bases his statement on what I have personally seen, as being ridiculous, on his own assessment. Which of course is the assessment of a pot smoker, and therefore subject to personal bias.
I do see where you are coming from here, however I certainly get the feeling that you are playing devils advocate in more ways than one. You said you have seen a fair amount of drug use, would you describe the people you have dealt with whilst working as "normal" pot smokers yourself?? Or do you want to avoid the question again?
In doing this he sets a standard of behavior for all "normal" pot smokers. If there is such a standard and all pot smokers act the same, then all smokers drive and do other things which endanger society while using drugs. If there is no standard of behavior, and people do act upon individual impulses when high, then his assessment of the normal pot smoker is in error, and he therefore cannot claim that my post was ridiculous without contradicting himself. It is either one way or another. Either there is a standard and typical way for all users to act, or it effects each person differently. You do not get to use one argument for one situation, and then change it to support your interests in another. Even by stating that a "normal" smoker acts in a certain way, you admit that there are those who are abnormal. That means that not everyone can be categorized, and therefore you cannot call behavior ridiculous until you have considered every single contingency
What you are doing here seems to be a prime example of a logical fallacy often referred to as a "false dichotomy", or the black and white fallacy.
You assume that either all pot smokers act exactly the same, or that they act completely different, and you say that for one to be true the other must be false.
Everyone is an individual, and things effect them differently, drugs are hugely prone to this, more so than anything else I can think of off the top of my head. However I am going to try and use an analogy to explain this, lets take sunlight for example; For some people it evokes a feeling of comfort, others find it intolerable. Some people's skin will burn red and peel, and others skin will turn brown. Unless you have some very strange medical condition, it's still gonna make you hot. There are many factors that influence how sunlight effects people, Genetics is one, the persons life experiences are another, and of course how that person happens to be feeling at the time has a big effect on what sunlight makes them feel.
The same with drugs. There are direct physical effects that effect everyone in a very similar way, and then there are thousands of other effects, especially the psychological effects, that can vary hugely dependent on the individual.
There are plenty of outliers and unusual effects, particularly behavioural effects that are going to vary hugely as the drug has an effect on peoples psyche, which is hugely different from person to person, however there is most certainly a "norm" and there are most certainly predictable effects from the drug, any drug.
Starting to make sense?
Then he goes on to say that marijuana is often mixed with other drugs...This was not something he should have said, at all. This is an admission that marijuana is a gateway drug to harder drugs. If he knows this, and other marijuana smokers know this, he has just stated that marijuana smokers knowingly indulge in the use of harder and more dangerous drugs. If his statement of "normal" behavior supports this, he further hurts the case for marijuana smokers, yet he goes on to say that he sees no validity to the theory that marijuana is a gateway drug. This is yet another contradiction in his own statements, that does nothing but hurt his claim when it is carefully considered
Alright, I really have no idea what you are trying to get to here? Did you even read my post? Do you want to address the actual points I made?
You think that just because some drug users also smoke Marijuana, that every who smokes weed will start doing other drugs?
I'm not sure how to respond to this, or how to point out how outrageous that logic is. Lets try this using the same logic: People who don't wear their seatbelt also probably drive cars. Therefore everyone who drives a car doesn't wear their seatbelt.
Furthermore, one person who admits to driving a car, said that other people who don't wear a seatbelt also drive cars. That makes it true!!
I could go on and on picking this apart, but it is pointless. I think I will give the kid the benefit of the doubt, and believe that he was under the influence when typing that...because the alternative is not encouraging
Hah, yeah, I am probably just too high to be a reasonable human being, you should probably just ignore everything I say and consider it "stoner babble" or something.
But really, I read your other post about your views on marijuana, and it seems we pretty much agree. People can smoke what they want and so long as they are not hurting anyone directly other than themselves, they should be able to keep on doing it. It just so happens that this is my opinion when it comes to all other drugs, and probably everything else in the world.
