There are billions of people the world over who believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with smoking marijuana. Some people boast about eating pot brownies or sipping some cannabis tea. What’s wrong with marijuana, they ask. The dangers of marijuana are exaggerated, right? Maybe you’re familiar with the following points put forth by proponents of marijuana legalization:
- Marijuana does not rot your liver the way alcohol does.
- Marijuana does not leave you with a hangover.
- Marijuana is not addictive like alcohol or other drugs.
- Marijuana not only doesn’t harm the lungs, but it actually eases breathing for asthmatics.
- Marijuana helps cancer patients to maintain their body weight by stimulating their appetite.
- Marijuana relieves pressure in the eye for those suffering from glaucoma.
- Marijuana is approved for medicinal use in at least 18 states plus the District of Columbia.
- Marijuana is approved for recreational use in at least two states, Colorado and Washington.
There are plenty of hard-working, productive members of society who smoke marijuana all day long with no ill effects. You may believe that to be true if you love to enjoy your wacky tobacky, but how valid is that belief?
You probably don’t realize how annoying you are to your non-weed-smoking friends. Here are the words of one straight person describer the stoners she knows: “Don’t they realize how annoying they are? They never want to do anything but get high. When they’re high, they think stupid things are funny. When they’re not laughing they’re paranoid about something equally stupid. All of their energy goes into getting their next high, and you can’t really hang out with them anyway, even if you wanted to, because you could get arrested. I’d rather not bother with them.”
That’s not very nice, is it? Want to hear a few funny stories about people getting high?
There’s the 60-year-old man who got high and then fell asleep in his car. Unfortunately, he was actually parked in front of the police station at the University of Colorado when he passed out. When police woke him up, they also found space cake crumbs and a half-smoked blunt. The man was unable to focus properly, repeatedly tried to remove his seatbelt even though he wasn’t wearing one, and couldn’t string words together to form a proper sentence. He was taken to the local hospital for treatment.
Another man posted a question on GrassCity.com describing an auto accident he had. He states that he barely hit another car. That’s not so bad, right? Unfortunately, when he swerved to lessen the impact of his car on the car that he barely hit, another car hit him and was damaged badly. There was a baby in the other car, and it wasn’t hurt, good thing considering it wasn’t in a car seat, right, man? The mother did have a cut on her forehead and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Before the police came, the man and his friend hid their weed, and the police never noticed it. They did get cited for careless driving but the police never did a sobriety test. Yay! His question? He wanted to know if he should stop smoking because of the upcoming court date.
Just recently, a young man spent a Saturday evening with his friends. They sat around a bonfire, getting high and roasting marshmallows. The man noticed an aerosol can in the bonfire. Only someone high would build a fire and not notice a dangerous thing like an aerosol can, right? Well, the young man then reached into the fire to knock the can away. It exploded and he caught on fire, ultimately sustaining second- and third-degree burns over 29 percent of his body.
You can bet that ruined his high.
If you believe that the dangers of marijuana are minimal, just remember that over a half million people in emergency departments report for a cannabis-related injury. Will you be one of them?
