I was motivated by some of the other drug related threads to make this one. I am just curious to see what the general attitude towards marijuana is on this website. I am personally very comfortable with marijuana as a drug and think it is unrightfully bashed in many cases. Prescription medication is actually becoming, or has already become, a far bigger problem in terms of the potential health risks and the resulting effect on "the kids" or our culture in general.
I have smoked marijuana at least twenty times and can say that I have only had one bad experience, which lasted for thirty minutes at the most. Some people I know have had worse experiences, but nothing major compared to my own experiences with other drugs and stories I have heard about other drugs from close friends. I highly recommend smoking marijuana over alcohol consumption because, compared to alcohol, marijuana is less harmful to your body, it causes less aggressive behavior (i.e. you are less likely to fight someone, do something risky, or even drive), and you aren't hung over the next day.
I personally believe smoking marijuana can help widen your perspective on the world as well based on the uniqueness of the experience, although I do not recommend it become a regular habit, like any other drug or drug or substance. It is a very calm drug that generally makes me feel much more in touch with the other people around me than when I am drinking. I think everyone should try marijuana at least once, because it really isn't dangerous and there is absolutely no danger of overdose, not to mention the fact that it has no physically addictive properties.
I think the primary reason it can act as a "gateway drug" is because it is a illegal. You have to buy it illegally from a dealer who often sells other drugs. People who do smoke often come into contact with people who do other drugs too because they are marginalized, much like cigarette smokers are in today's society.
I am including a link to a study done that evaluates the danger level of the major drugs in terms of the deleterious effects on the body and the cultural repercussions of the drug, i.e. its effects on families and on crime rates. Even if you never intend to smoke marijuana or try any other drug, I highly recommend reading the article because it is extremely informative.
World's most dangerous drugs according to a study done by the British Medical Journal, Lancet:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17760130/
For those who mentioned drugs not on here, such as crack and PCP, crack is a subcategory of cocaine and PCP is closely chemically related to ketamine. If the list included all the analogs of drugs and their relatives it would be ridiculously long.
For those who care, the drugs I have tried in chronological order are alcohol, marijuana, salvia, and LSD. I would never, ever, ever, recommend salvia, but all of the others I would recommend. I had the worst experience of my life while smoking salvia. LSD is not something you should joke around with either, and I have only tried it once. I have heard from many people that LSD is relatively tame AS LONG AS you are smart about it and don't take too much if you are unexperienced with the drug. Salvia is a legal hallucinogen, which makes no sense considering how potent it is compared to a drug like marijuana.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
LEAGUE
