Why are people okay with alcohol but shocked if you smoke cannabis?

I'd love to legalise marijuana... Not because I want to smoke it but because I want the tax it would attract in our system.

Every person I have met that smokes it has mental issues mainly due to smoking it. Their character definitely changes but not enough for me to care.

What type of mental issues? It seems you have discovered something all the scienfictic research hasn't shown yet

I say all of this as an outside observer btw, I don't drink or toke.

Not toxic except it causes a condition called toxic psychosis.

Says while lying in a hammock with a bottle of bud and fat spliff.

The fumes given off by glasses of alcohol aren't going to cause any long term damage.

Then why are they not worried about the psychological effects of alcohol?

Alcohol is a common cause of psychotic disorders or episodes, which may occur through acute intoxication, chronic alcoholism, withdrawal, exacerbation of existing disorders, or acute idiosyncratic reactions.Research has shown that alcohol abuse causes an 8-fold increased risk of psychotic disorders in men and a 3 fold increased risk of psychotic disorders in women.

Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout. Alcohol reduces a man’s testosterone levels, leading loss of libido, shrunken male genitalia and a general increase in whininess, aggressiveness and rapeyness or small penis syndrome. Alcohol can make people lose their inhibitions and behave impulsively, leading to actions they might not otherwise have taken including self-harm and suicide. Regular drinking lowers levels of serotonin in the brain leading to anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

In the long term alcohol consumption, can profoundly and permanently harm the brain, leading to serious and potentially fatal brain disorders such as as hepatic encephalopathy, Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, alcoholic neuropathy, alcoholic myopathy, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, dementia, alcoholic cerebellar degeneration and other cognitive deficits .

Yeah I am. So, anything else?

Not toxic meaning it won't and can't kill you.

Toxic psychosis sounds scary, but I already linked a review that found that psychosis is almost always acute, rare and only occurs with prolonged abuse, and is also linked to pre-existing mental health issues.

You are what?

Against alcohol.

You don't drink, that's a bit weird, why not?

We live in a society where people abuse alcohol on a regular basis, often weekly. Drunken morons brawl in the streets or wake up with no recollection of the previous night. Alcohol costs the NHS £22 billion per year (and only brings in £8 billion in taxes).

Meanwhile, people are abhorred by the idea that people use cannabis.

Cannabis isn't addictive (alcohol is, moreso than many Class A drugs), it's not toxic (alcohol is toxic, it's not uncommon for people to die of alcohol poisoning), the long-term effects are far less severe than those of alcohol, and it has significantly less of an impact on your decision-making and inhibitions.

Someone who smokes a joint once a month is a waster and a criminal, but someone who gets dangerously drunk every weekend is just having fun.

What leads to this huge paradox in our perceptions of drugs? Why are people so utterly misinformed?

It's bad for my health,

it makes me fall asleep, behaving appropriately is much harder

and I have the same fun without it.

What isn't? Far too much risk paranoia going around.



Fair enough, some people just can't handle their drink I guess.



Of course you can have fun without it but it's not the 'same fun', you're missing out.