Reply #35: believe me

[qazplm]

as a defense attorney, I have quite a bit of first hand knowledge of the effects of marijuana.

The idea that pot doesnt impact judgment that much is absolutely silly.

From wikipedia:

Cognitive effects

* Varying amounts of paranoia and anxiety in some users<17>
* Loss of coordination and distorted sense of time <18>
* Impairment of short-term memory in some users
* Auditory or visual hallucinations at high doses in some users
* Induced sense of novelty
* Increased awareness of sensation, including visual stimulation, music, taste, and sexual pleasure
* Increased mental activity, like metacognition and introspective or meditative states of mind
* Relaxation or stress reduction
* Mild entheogenesis (e.g. per Rastafarian users, more "Jah-Vibrations")



Behavioral effects

* Paramnesia, repetitiveness and ambiguation
* Initial wakefulness followed by drowsiness and lassitude ("burnt out")
* Gain or loss of some inhibitions
* Varying degree of euphoria, ranging from feelings of general well-being to lengthy pointless laughter

These are not things I would want a teenager to have happen to them. It's a prime situation for unprotected sex, for poor and risky choices and behavoir, and it certainly sounds to me like impairment. I am sure YOU may feel that YOU are not impaired that much. Kudos for you if true.

As for surveys, those things are wildly inaccurate. However if you want to talk about them:

"the proportion of youths aged 12 through 17 who consumed any alcohol within the previous month has dropped from 50% in 1979 down to 19% in 1998, according to the federal government's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse."

Many kids do not drink at all, or try it once or twice and stop. Even in college a Duke study found that 66% of college age kids given a breathlyzer test on Friday through Sunday evenings had zero percent alcohol in their systems coming home from parties or going out.

The idea that everyone does it so we have to concede that is a bit disingeunous.