To be fair - if you know you have serious heart problems, you shouldn't be smoking anything. You have to have a pre-existing condition for pot to do something serious in such a manner - it doesn't cause them. The only serious side effects would be from the act of smoking in general, not from the plant. :/ To develop mental problems, you have to smoke out of really stupid objects made of terrible materials for like 10 years straight. (One of my friends smoked for 4 years straight almost every day, out of aluminum cans half the time, and he's in college for Psychology, apparently mental-handicap free. That we can tell, anyway. :p) I do smoke from time to time, but I do it sparingly enough that I can still go to work, school, and accomplish my projects without being a retard. Some people try to actually keep it "recreational" and not turn into what the media portrays as a pothead. :/

My brother cooks Meth and smokes pot and Takes all sorts of other shit like cocaine and exstasy. When he was 14 he left home and I haven't spoken to him since he is now 19. Today he came walking up the state highway all the way to our house and apolygised (spelling) to my mother for all the crap he had done. He has just been accepted into one of New Zealands top universities, He has ADHD and since starting drugs he has become a more emotionally stable person (According to his Psychologist).

Edit - oops, wrong place.

The chemicals in make up causes more deaths per year than pot does. And NZ universities are pretty much open entrance if you're over 21 or finished school. Hardly an accomplishment.

LoL great way to put it.

#129 wins.

Not really vmino. In other countries where pot is legal and causes no problems at all the thing we would probably consider most embarrassing about your country is the way you abuse alcohol and actually seem proud enough of this fact to make embarrassing reality tv about wasted idiots that gets broadcast worldwide.

Wow, I could have sworn it was the whole "entitlement" issue that made people think that American teenagers are jackasses. And I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but the pot heads are not the ones who make anyone else look bad. It is more about kids doing shit like acting like they are better than other people because their parents have money. Then of course they run around in shinny cars that their parents bought them brand new off a car lot, go drinking with their friends, wreck their cars (or just treat them like crap in general) because it won't matter... daddy will buy them a new one! It tends to be this same group of kids that you will see talking shit to adults, starting fights, belittling other people, tormenting other teenagers and (I hate to say it but it's true) these same groups commonly include the teenage boys who feel that they can rape and get away with it.... because they are entitled of course. I think people don't like American teenagers for the same reason they don't like most American's to begin with, American's tend to think they are entitled to have whatever they want.

FYI - those same entitled teens smoke weed. And do so even though they know it's against the law, because they have come up what they consider convincing arguments for why the law shouldn't exist in the first place. That act of putting themselves above the law just goes to further show how entitled they really think they are, and your comment which brushes the pot smoking aside like it's no big deal actually encourages at least that one instance of entitlement. Can you say contradiction?

By the way - I actually completely agree with your point about those entitled teens though. I dealt with those types the most while being an RA at a college in Westchester, NY (if you haven't heard of it, look it up and you'll see why naming the county alone makes my point).

There is a difference between believing that pot should be legal and controlled (just as alcohol is or cigarettes) and feeling entitled. The arguments for the legalization of marijuana are actually very thoroughly researched and are based upon facts. The bottom line is that it is not as harmful as alcohol, and can be either more or less harmful that tobacco depending upon how it is used (amount used, how it is smoked, etc). It also would boost our economy, both by allowing taxation on a product that is already widely sold in this country and also by cutting down on court/jail costs as we would not longer have a huge legal war against it. We would not be wasting the time and money putting people through the system for being caught with a quarter of an ounce of pot for private use (they don't only prosecute people who sell after all) and could actually concentrate on bigger issues such as the drugs that actually are very dangerous to people. I do agree that these same entitled people often make up excuses to justify their actions, but you may notice that their points aren't often valid. They repeat things they've heard, like the idea that alcohol is worse, but don't really know the facts behind it. There is a difference between people who actually believe it should be legalized based upon science and fact and those that feel it should be legalized just because they WANT it when they have no real knowledge of what it does or how it can be harmful when used.