Sunday, April 06, 2014

If smoking pot is wrong...

If smoking pot is wrong, then taking aspirin is wrong. 
If smoking pot is wrong, then taking Prozac is wrong.

I don't believe doing any of those things is wrong. 

Taking too much aspirin or too much Prozac can be bad for your health. Maybe smoking "too much" marijuana might also be unhealthy- or maybe not. But that is a separate issue, not a matter of right or wrong.

The claim that smoking pot is somehow wrong is among the silliest things I have ever heard anyone espouse.

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8 comments:

  1. Smoking pot is wrong.
    Smoking pot is right.

    A good way to test a statement's worth is to state its opposite. Both of these are worthless.

    When an opinion is codified into law, the codifier is trying to give "worth" to an opinion.

    Dave

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  2. Wrong is a moral judgement, better left in the realm of religion. Does smoking pot (or using any other drug) violate the rights of others, is the question that needs to be answered. There are no mass studies showing that merely using a mind-altering drug leads to the violation of the rights of others... except for the drug alcohol, which is the most violence-causing drug known to mankind. Two other question that the average citizen should ask themselves are 1) what exactly is an inalienable right and 2) how can behavior that does not violate the rights of others be a secular crime? Unfortunately, most people don't think, they react.

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    1. Except, even with alcohol, the effect varies. Most people never become violent when using alcohol- a minority do. So for that minority, using alcohol could be argued to be "wrong" if they can't do so without becoming violent.

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  3. It's funny, drugs/religion. Muslims can use many drugs, hash is very popular in the ME, but alcohol is prohibited as sinful. Wrote a short editorial at SUFA on Colorado's pot legalization.

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  4. On my way to buy a bottle of gin in Morroco, 1980, I smelled hashish smoke on the street. At the store, a dusty bottle of gin had a price tag of $24 (in USA--$4 normally). I didn't buy the gin, returned to my hotel, passing women in burkas--faces covered. At the swanky hotel pool, brittish women were sunning themselves--TOPLESS! Interesting place, no?

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    Replies
    1. Sounds very interesting. Or, at least back then. I wonder if things have changed there since 1980.

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