I have seen far more destruction caused by alcohol and alcoholism, so I think it’s unfortunate that there are so many people still under the influence of propaganda that’s soooooooo old and misguided. I think a lot of people think users are like spicoli, and have spent countless hours smoking ditch weed and just getting dumb. There seems to be strains for just about any kind of buzz you want. Focus even.
I had a good discussion (prompted by this thread) about pot with my 20 Y.O. daughter. She thinks pot will be legal throughout the USA in the near future. She has some concerns because she believes it reduces motivation/ambition. I can't argue with that too much. However, after further discussion, I became clear that the people she knew of (from HS) who were pot smokers were true "pot heads" - the guys who like to stay stoned 24/7 (or at least waking hours).
So, it is not necessarily old propaganda that provides this image, it is also the heavy duty pot heads!
I live in a hard-core right wing conservative area, so the casual pot users are discreet. I wonder what the image of pot is in less conservative areas where the weekend and occasional weekday smokers are also known as pot smokers.
However, I see three draw-backs to using pot:
1) It can be a motivation killer, if abused (by abused, I mean partaking in excessive amounts)
2) Pretty sure it is a carcinogenic when smoked, but I always preferred the buzz I got from eating it, so edibles is an easy out on this.
3) My understanding is smoking at a younger age has physiological effects. The chemicals introduced into your body from pot act as a calming agent (probably why so many vets with PTSD use pot). The consequence is, if it is being provided artificially, your body does not fully develop the ability to generate the natural calming agent that is part of our natural chemical balance. 26 is the age at which this ability is fully developed. What I don't know is how much pot it takes to make a significant impact on this. Also, it makes intuitive sense to me that you would be less susceptible to this at 24 than you were at 16, but I don't know that to be factual.
Nonetheless, as has been discussed, abusing pot has much less consequence than abusing alcohol.
Also, we have mostly only been considering the effect on the person using the drug. But if you consider how the behavior of the person high on pot affects others, vs drunk, pot is golden! I'm pretty sure nobody gets stoned and then beats his kids and/or wife the way some alcoholics do! My police Lt. girlfriend
so prefers responding to a call about people getting stoned to people getting drunk. The pot smokers are so mellow, apologetic, and friendly, she always hated to bust them (as was her duty). The drunks are, more often than not, belligerent and confrontational (they would not have been reported if they were not annoying someone).
Fortunately, the current (last 2 years) rules the police force is using on campuses in GA leaves it up to the officer to decide whether to arrest or write a misdemeanor in the case of possession of pot (below the threshold amount to be considered a dealer). Not a great call because there is inconsistency - some of the older guys on the force are inclined to arrest anyone with pot while others would not arrest unless there was some hazard to their actions.