I strongly favour legalisation of all drugs. This would allow much better research.
Having said that the knee-jerk denialism that cannabis could possibly cause any harm at all is weird to see on HN.
Speaking of anti-biotics: we really need clear easy to understand information for places that allow antibiotics over the counter, sometimes in single doses not full courses. This would tell people aboutthe harm they are doing to themselves and to the rest of society.
Of course not. But what does this have to do with legalization? Antibiotics and antivirals are legal and controlled, just like marijuana should be.
I had the same thought. There are all sorts of behaviors that could conceivably cause structural changes in various regions of the brain - meditation, writing code for hours every day, moving to the jungle and becoming a hunter-gatherer, using legal drugs like SSRIs, etc. Since very few studies have been made of the neurological effects of various behaviors, we have no idea how common such changes are or whether they're harmful.
Also, what's the definition of "harmful"? We'd probably all agree that something that causes dementia is harmful, but if someone becomes a little worse at concentrating on work but feels better, is that evidence of harm?