gateway drug?

I have been reading several articles about marijuana being a gateway drug. This means that by using marijuana you make yourself more likely to start using other more dangerous drugs. I don't entirely agree with this theory. Using marijuana does not in any ways mean that you will move on to other drugs. I think that nicotine and alcohol and even caffeine are the first steps to drug addictions, not marijuana. Marijuana has not been proven to be addictive, but these other legal drugs are. I think that the government for some reason has targeted marijuana as the drug that is giving our country most problems. I believe that it is considered a gateway drug because it is the most common illegal drug. Most people drank milk before they drank alcohol, so it must be milk that makes people drink alcohol. Of course that seems ridiculous, but that is how I feel like they treat marijuana. The government 1.2 billion dollar a year anti-drug budget to me is going to waste. Instead of focusing on marijuana, focus on drugs that are damaging and ruining peoples lives. I know more people messing up their lives hooked on prescription pills, than destroying their lives abusing weed. The anti-marijuana campaign statistically was recently show to be non-effective anyway. Statistics show that marijuana use has increased in our country. It just seems like a waste to me to target marijuana as the main cause of drug problems in this country when to me it is obviously not.

Effects of marijuana vs. Effects of alcohol

Effects of marijuana vs. Effects of alcohol
(Names have been changed to protect the innocent-or guilty, I guess)

Based on personal experience, I believe that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. However for some reason alcohol is legal in this country and marijuana is not. I had some experiences with marijuana when I was younger, and I never did anything violent or irresponsible as a result. It did have several effects on me; however, I don’t think that it is nearly as dangerous as alcohol.

One particular evening I witnessed several good examples that demonstrated the differences between the effects of alcohol and marijuana. I was playing video games at my friend’s apartment after work with two other friends, Otis and Milo. It wasn’t that late when Otis, Milo, and I decided to leave. We decided to smoke in the parking lot outside of the apartment before we left. After we had smoked a while in my car Otis and Milo got so hungry they begged me to take them for food. They rode with me, so I drove them to get food. We went to McDonalds down the street, and tried to order food without laughing too much. We didn’t succeed at not laughing, but we did somehow succeed at ordering the food. We pulled around, got the food and left McDonalds. As we were pulling out Otis asked if we could stop at KFC too. I just busted out laughing thinking that he could not be serious, but he was serious. After some begging on his part I pulled into the KFC drive thru and again tried to order food again without laughing. I managed to get the food ordered correctly, so I pulled around. As soon as we got the food and left there Milo, now finished with his McDonalds, asked to stop at Taco Bell. I ended up stopping at three fast food restaurants right in a row. It felt to me a “munchies” scene from a movie like Half Baked. Thankfully that was the last fast food stop we made.

After all that I ended up stopping at Circle K on the way to my house to get a slushy to drink. While I was waiting in the checkout line I noticed a man in the parking lot belligerently yelling into a pay phone outside. I couldn’t hear what he was saying inside, but it was obvious that he was drunk by the way he could barley keep his balance. He began to quickly pace back and forth in front of the store. The clerk informed the few people in line that the cops were already on their way to talk to the man. The police arrived just as I was buying my slushy, and the guy continued to make a scene, yelling something about finding a woman. The cops were trying to talk and calm the guy down when I left. I brought Otis and Milo back to my house so they could finish consuming their food, and I could enjoy my delicious slushy.

By now it was around one in the morning, but my roommate wasn’t around. Several minutes later a cop car pulled up, and to my surprise my roommate got out of the back seat. Otis and Milo began to get paranoid at the site of the police walking up to my door. They knocked on the door and I answered. They asked “do you know him”, pointing to my roommate, and I answered “yes, he lives here.” They responded “well, he’s yours now.” I asked what happened, and they told me about picking him up outside a bar. Apparently he was pissing in the street and didn’t have a ride home. I told the two officers that he would be fine now. The cops left and my roommate stumbled in and sat down. I assumed he had drank way too much, and when began to speak I found that I was exactly right. His sentences were a jumbled mess of swear words, mostly featuring various forms of the “f” word. After a few minutes he began to beg me to take him to McDonalds. After some persistence I gave in and got ready to take him to McDonalds. While in the drive thru at McDonalds for a second time that night, I noticed a guy in the car behind us had a beer in his hand. There was a woman with him driving the vehicle. Then while I was ordering food the guy started yelling something. His words were slurred so I couldn’t tell what he was saying. It did however sound very similar to the language my roommate was currently speaking (a mixture of incoherent swears.) After ordering the food I pulled ahead to the window, and suddenly the car pulled around me past the drive through window. The guy got out of the vehicle with the beer bottle still in his hand and tried to get in the door. Obviously since it was two in the morning the door was locked. He literally slammed his beer into the ground and started to punch the glass door. When he couldn’t break or even crack it he climbed back into his car and they drove away. Everyone in McDonalds had stopped working and they were staring at the door in disbelief. When the girl at the window handed me the food I mentioned that perhaps they should get that guys food order right next time. She half smiled and said “yea, he was not very happy”. I drove home and went to bed, I had experienced enough for one evening.

Reflecting on that entire night has led me to believe that the effects of alcohol are more dangerous than the effects of marijuana. Using my story as an example, I think alcohol obviously has a potential to cause more negative effects on people than marijuana. I do honestly believe that both can be abused by people. Both can potentially take over and ruin a person’s life. I know people who have lost their jobs due to alcohol or marijuana. Both can be dangerous, but why is one legal and the other not. Alcohol influences many people to become violent, angry, and dangerous. I have never seen marijuana cause someone to attack McDonalds because their food order was wrong, or influence them to piss in the street. Alcohol was once outlawed in this country but then it was legalized again. Based on the dangers of the two, shouldn’t the same be done with marijuana?

why drink and drive when you can fly high?

Several people have commented comparing marijuana to alcohol. I think that most people that have any knowledge or experience with both would agree that alcohol is the more dangerous of the two. Alcohol was once outlawed in this country. I think once the government realized that they could tax it, they legalized it. I think its funny how most people perceive alcohol compared to marijuana. advertisement is a great example. Commercials on TV with alcohol show attractive people having a blast drinking together. I recently saw a cartoon anti-weed commercial where a guy smokes weed, and an alien comes and takes his girlfriend. I don't really know what they were trying to say except that smoking weed will have a negative effect on you. Alcohol, which was once outlawed because of its dangers, has been embraced in our society. I wonder if the same would happen to marijuana if legalized? I honestly believe that alcohol often brings out the worst in people. The effects of marijuana are far less dangerous, but in out society i believe it is perceived more dangerous for some reason. I think many people associate drugs as one big problem. Therefore, marijuana is lumped in with heroin, crack, and other far more dangerous illegal drugs. I don't think most people realize that marijuana is not addictive, and it's not as dangerous as alcohol. Our country has legalized alcohol, will legalization of marijuana be in our country's future? I don't see it happening soon due to the community's perception of marijuana.

problems with legalizing drugs

There are a lot of theory's involving drug legalization and crime rate. If you look at the statistics for the prohibition, crime rate went up until the year that alcohol was legalized again. Many people think the crime rate would actually drop as a result of drug legalization. Organized crime would certainly suffer if drugs were legalized. Gangs and foreign cartels would no longer have a product to sell without competition. Obviously there would be no drug violation arrests(possession or using). Theoretically there would be less crimes by drug addicts trying to get money for their next "fix." The drugs that they are addicted to would most likely be much cheaper and easily accessible. The problem arises that if all drugs were legalized there would be more addicts. Having a higher rate of drug addicts might cause more crimes as a result of people being too messed up on drugs. Studies have shown that drug users (including alcohol and tobacco) are more likely to commit a crime than non users. If legalized would our society be overrun and destroyed by addictions? The question arises, if legalized how many people would use addictive, potentially dangerous drugs. Would there be a significant increase if the drugs were made easily accessible. I'm not sure that is a chance that we should take. If use of dangerous drugs increase due to legalization would the amount of crimes eliminated override the amount of crimes created. perhaps, but would our society be a safer place. Many people believe that it would be. I think that we have to look at societies that have legalized drugs, and decide if we want a community like theirs.

breif summary on law

most laws involving marijuana differ among states. there are a number of states today where medical marijuana is not allowed, but there are also states where it is allowed medically. the first government regulating of marijuana started in 1925. Transfer of marijuana became illegal in 1937 unless it was for medical or industrial use (in those cases it was heavily taxed). From 1952-1970 congress made mandatory 2-10 year sentencing for first time marijuana possession. The DEA was formed in 1973 to regulate drug trafficking. Recently state laws have have become less severe regarding marijuana possession. it will be interesting to see if this pattern continues in the future.

blog possibilities

I am currently a student at Ohio State. Over the course of this quarter this blog will be discussing the possibility of marijuana being legalized in the United States. I will be looking into how other countries laws involving marijuana differ from the laws in the United States. I will also look into when these laws were established, and why they were established. I will discuss my feelings towards this subject over the course of the next few weeks. hopefully this blog will help shed some light on the current laws and believes. I hope that this blog will help you develop and influence your opinion on this subject.