Why are you anti-marijuana? Are you anti-beer and anti-coffee too, and if not I'd be curious to hear your reasoning! Also, out of interest, where are you from?
I was anti-beer for a very, very long time as well (until virtually six months ago), though coffee has always been my vice.
I'm Irish, and I'm fairly young (approaching twenty soon, which puts me very far in the minority on these matters. ;))
Mostly, I simply don't see the point. I understand the need to socialise and the like, and the need for friends. However, I think that if I make friends when I'm in a different state of mind to my ordinary, day-to-day thinking, then are they really my friends?
Furthermore, I don't like having a crutch. I don't think anybody truly needs to get drunk/high/drink a pot of coffee in the morning to get them through the day. If you do, you've probably made some bad decisions and you should think long and hard about where you're going in life.
I also simply hate the stoner mentality. Why the hell would you want to just coast through life? I mean, make something of yourself! Make your parents proud!
I know, however, that I'm painting a large number of people with the same brush here. I know that many of the people who smoke weed sometimes aren't stoners. I have almost no problems with people who smoke weed every once in a while, just as I don't have problems with people who go to the pub sometimes or with people who drink the odd coffee. I do sincerely have problems with people who smoke pot every other night, or every time they hang out with people, or every time they get even a little stressed. (Medical marijuana doesn't count, though, provided naturally that it's actually necessary. I'm not going to judge people when they're in huge amounts of pain.)
The thing is, though, that past this little speech, I can barely defend my arguments. It's not that I just don't get it (though that's definitely a factor), it's also that I simply have an irrational hatred of smoking.
Go easy on me in your rebuttal, I'm only meek. :)
But why do you have problems with that? It appears to me as if have problems with other people who don't fit into your personal view of how one should lead its life. Or is this the only thing?
I personally can completely understand that you don't see the added value for yourself, but I don't get the part where you have an irrational hatred of smoking. It seems like you want to restrict others the choice of leading their lives the way they see fit, without harming others.
Do you have this irrational hatred in other areas too? What do you think about lazy people, for example? Or people who have other religious views than yourself?
Yes. I don't like tattoos (though I love art in general). Don't like piercings either. Can't complain about lazy people (unless it severely impacts me), and I'm perfectly happy with religious people, as long as they don't try to push their views on me. I'm sure I have a bunch more of these things, my ex-girlfriend would probably be very happy to remind me of them.
I'm not about to restrict anybody to do anything. I certainly used to be much worse about this sort of thing (to the point where I didn't speak to my father for about a year until he stopped smoking (that was quite a few years ago now, I think I was ten or eleven)), but since college and since meeting a bunch of new friends with better outlooks on life, I've tried to simply live a drama-free life. One in which I create no hassle for myself or for others, which includes not openly criticising people for their choices like I used to.
However, I won't enter into a relationship with a smoker (even a little bit once a month), heavy drinker, and I'd think long and hard about someone with tattoos. Couldn't really tell you why. Not much of an issue these days either. Game development is such a woman-friendly career choice. ;)
Not sure if I answered your questions there, just typing as I think. :)
I've tried to figure out why this is with me, the closest I've come to it is that I think that humans are pretty good the way they are, no need to poison them or modify them.
I wear no jewelery of any kind, not even a watch and never will, same with you ?
The same is not true for smokers. Smoking <anything> is anti social.
It's useless trying to argue with addicts though. Just surprising there's so many drug users on HN. Sad.
When people drag in the use of force, that's when discussions like this turn venomous. Using force to "protect people from themselves" only serves to erode people's awareness and sense of responsibility for their own choices, not to mention fostering violent organized crime.
It sounds like you, personally, dont mix well with some substances. Or maybe just don't have any experience with them from which you can make a reasoned judgement. It reminds me of my brother, who is anti-everything until he actually experiences it.
People don't have to smoke cannabis, you know - it can also be ingested through food which nullifies the smoking complaint.
I also simply hate the stoner mentality. Why the hell would you want to just coast through life? I mean, make something of yourself! Make your parents proud!
It's refreshing to see that people won't just immediately attack me for the opinion. It's such an uncommon view here, especially in my age group, that I get a lot of flack for it.
Take the DEA controlled substance scheduling which places cannabis as a schedule 1 drug: (1) Schedule I.— (A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. (B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. (C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."
Science can and has refuted all 3 points, yet we're still having debate over the extreme dangers of legalization. Clearly something is irrational here as well when a plant that has not directly killed a single human being or cause violent withdrawal symptoms sits at a higher schedule than opium, cocaine, PCP and benzodiazepines. Even the synthetic THC pharma drug Marinol (Schedule III) can cause death at very high doses.
So long story short... are you behind maintaining status quo hypocrisy purely because of personal reasons?