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?