xXGeckoXx said:
Some drugs really have no side effect. I don't somoke weed but I like to be informed and there are just no downsides, I can't find any dangers and the only risk is mild psychological disturbance.
Weed certainly does have some side effects.The psychological effects seem to be an increased chance for some mental issues like schizophrenia or epileptic fits. Inhaling any kind of smoke = bad. Period.
So far for the theoretical issues, let's skip over to anecdotal evidence. I'm Dutch, 19, have done about a year of art school - all leading to a certain familiarity with soft drugs. I like to smoke it myself, but there's no denying that it does have side effects.
- If you're smoking on an anywhere near regular basis you'll continuously be slightly dazed - let's say you're operating at 95% mental capacity for a day or two after you've smoked at least a full joint. It stacks if you do it more often. It's not very noticeable at non-regular use, but my close friends and family can tell whether I've been blowing lately.
- The part about an increased chance to trigger flash backs and epileptic fits is not political mumbo jumbo - happily I don't have any first-hand experience, but last year a friend of mine did a forced cold turkey because he got a 3 minute flashback in the middle of the street, and after that started getting flashbacks every single time. And "flashbacks" is not referring to rosy nostalgia about the good old times here - they're pretty major mindfucks.
This by no means is a "don't do drugs kids!" speech - I'm rather heavily in favor of the legalisation of marihuana, but that does not mean you should be telling yourself it's not harmful. It very definitely is. Probably less so than alcohol, but that doesn't make it kindergarten entertainment material.
Ok. Rant over. What was the OP again? Ahh, yea, a "why the hell do you do it when you know it's stupid? =S"
I'll make up for the first part of the post, and be pretty short here. Let's divide it into four categories.
- Alcohol: I enjoy the taste of good wine, beer, or whiskey, but I don't find it funny being drunk. It's even less amusing to be the only one sober in a company of drunks.
- Tobacco: It's expensive, and quite frankly it stinks. The taste just isn't worth those downsides. Can't really say I've been thinking "oh noes, I'd get lung cancer!"
- Soft drugs: It's a social lubricant which generally leads to fewer embarrassing youtube videos afterwards. It also works rather calming, so it's a nice thing to do at the start of a holiday. Due to above-mentioned reasons never closer than a week before anything important.
- Hard drugs: I'm not a thrill-seeker, and I'm not stupid. At least not about that.
On the whole I'm pretty sure I'd rather have regrets about doing something than about
not doing something.