At 7/6/08 12:58 PM, life wrote:
No there isn't. Cannabis shouldn't be blamed for a person's actions. If someone tries driving high then you're introducing a whole new danger: an automobile. It's not the weeds' fault, it's the person that would get into a car while high. I'll predict what you say next: "You just said you drive high". Yes I have before and I'm a complete idiot for doing that. It wasn't a hard thing to do, but I don't ever plan on doing it again. Pure cannabis use with out the introduction of other factors like an automobile shouldn't be counted as a danger because it's the person's fault, not the drug itself. Especially in a country where a much more impairing intoxicant is legally sold.
Great, I wasn't blaming the pot for his actions. I'm blaming pot for creating his inability to drive safely. Did the pot effect his judgment when deciding to drive? Probably, but it's not like you completely loose control when you're high, so he knew what he was doing. I'm only pointing out that the worst thing about it is the fact that it's an intoxicant, and a lot of people don't treat it accordingly.
If you discount the effect that pot has to cause idiots to act foolishly as a negative, then that's your opinion. In the case of alcohol, most parents aren't worried that their kids are going to die from alcohol poisoning, they are worried that they are going to do something fucking stupid when they're drunk. Does that mean we should criminalize alcohol? Hell no, but to say that doing stupid shit when your drunk because your judgment is impaired isn't a negative, to me, is ridiculous. I mean, to say that DUI fatalities are not a negative effect of alcohol consumption... Please.
So, people sometimes do not use their best judgment when high. This certainly isn't a qualification for criminalization, but I personally wouldn't discount it completely, as you seem to.