Bloomberg: Trying to legalize marijuana "is perhaps the stupidest thing we've ever done".

[Rollo]

42. Nothing makes a substance more attractive to kids than to make it illegal...

Especially when they find out it's no big deal in terms of effects...

I have a good friend who grew up in India. We were motorcycling buddies. He is Sikh.

I noticed that while he seemed to enjoy alcohol, he shunned pot. I asked why. He said in India, alcohol is illegal. But pot is legal. He said that pot smokers in India tended to be the lowest classes. So he turned his nose up at it.

I'm not saying the reverse is true here, as well have skid-row drunks and pot-head homeless people. But I think most would agree that while alcohol can kill, it seems impossible to get stoned enough to perish. Granted they are two very difference substances, and abuse of either should be discouraged. But laws making pot illegal are ineffective and counter-productive.

Me? I'm a cheap drunk. Often at night at home I can't even finish one beer. A half-glass of wine with dinner generally does it for me. There's a fine line between the soothing and calming effects of a small amount of alcohol (it is classed as a depressant), and the deleterious effects (slower reaction times, loss of inhibitions, impaired judgement, falling down drunk). I avoid crossing that line. Perhaps having an alcoholic parent served as a life-long warning. I've seen up close how it can destroy a person.

I haven't smoked pot for decades. I had my fling with it in my youth and finally decided the negative side effects outweighed the novelty of its high. But I suspect that if it had been legal all along, my use of it would have been much less, for less time, if at all.

Your mileage may vary.