Slip - No I would not bend over backwards to get my leg over if I could and have in fact spent none of my life doing the same.
Hades - I survived high school by keeping my head screwed on tight instead of being an idiot. Also by not mixing with those ghastly shallow so called "popular" people and instead mixing with an intelligent friendship group. Also might have helped that I go to an all girls graofftopicr school.
Xen - Firstly, I said one person I know it turns violent. Secondly, I haven't assumed that all the things I don't like about that group of people are due to cannabis. I said I hate their entire lifestyles which include usage of caanbis and are affected by their usage of cannabis. Not everything is down to the actual drug either, but there exists a whole culture (at least where I live) around the usage of cannabis which those who use it are drawn into and it affects their lives. Thirdly, I don't care that those professional people are good in their jobs and faithful to their families, I believe that what they are doing is wrong no matter how morally upstanding they may be in the rest of their lives. Fourthly, wasters who don't do cannabis are simply that and people who fit the description I gave but don't do cannabis are just idiotic jerks obviously. Fifthly, I deplore all forms of smoking tobacco, not just drug smoking. Sixthly - you know nothing about my life, my friends or my family so how can you possibly judge whether or not I have no understanding of the subject?
Rag - So are you attempting to deny the fact that the majority of people drink responsibly? Are you attempting to justify usage of drugs just because people drink alcohol? That argument just doesn't stand up. That's like saying "oh well, people do really bad things all the time so it's okay if I do a little bad thing". That in no way justifies it. And I'm not saying that drinking that much of alcohol is good either - people should not drink so much that they get violent.
Moosey has the matter precisely in hand. Those are the people I've seen and who I know. If my experiences with them colour what I think about the issue of drugs, well I can hardly be unaffected by what I've seen, and frankly it's no one else here's business what encounters I've had with it. I've met none of these other "exemplary" cannabis users who otherwise live their lives right - which I've alright stated, I don't care because I believe that doing cannabis in the first place is wrong no matter how else you live your life.
Xen - *amused smile* Are you suggesting that I myself am one of these "robots" with "good grades and good jobs" that "screw up society"? I'll admit so far I get good grades, but I don't know about a good job. The job I'm looking to do after completely a uni course is really down there at the bottom of the list of graduate jobs in terms of money making. A lot of my acquaintances are going off doing something to do with Economics or IT or City Planning or one of those other notoriously boring courses, and their reason for doing is because it leads into a well paid career. The very idea of my following that same route is like a nightmare for me, as I have said many times on these forums. Not just because I find the concept of such greedy materialism (along with money-grabbing) so abhorrent, but also for myself I would find it horrific to pursue such a dull standard-issue white-collar life. I can't stand the idea of spending my entire life shut up in some clinical office behind a big desk piled high with papers which just get pushed from one department to the next and a dead end job always the same day after day. That way of life seems so suffocating to me. It would crush my spirit. The thought makes me recoil in revulsion. And as it happens I campaign against the extinction of species and the destruction of natural habitat, despise American Idol and all reality shows, and don't agree with baseless wars.
TheDarkJester - *gives TDJ a weird look* Firstly, I move in different circles dear. Secondly, do you think I'd want to go? To suffer the people I despise for a whole night grunting at each other and going "yeah... nah... whateva... innit... didja hear about Lee and Sarah the over noite?". That would be like my idea of Hell. Thirdly, I'd probably prefer a good five hour session of TKD training. Fourthly, I make it a policy never to attend "parties". I only go to bars and clubs.
Hades - 'fraid I don't watch Family Guy, and I said I got drunk, didn't I? Geez, doesn't everyone know about my drunken 18th b'day escapades over Training Camp by now? I just don't drink myself to violence or casual sex.
...
I had one friend who I used to be pretty close with. She was a bright girl, she had a bright future. She wanted to be involved in some type of Science degree at university. Then about 3 years ago she started meeting the wrong kind of people who put all sorts of pressure on her to take up cannabis like they did. She gave in. Pretty soon she also started taking up regular smoking and was constantly going to this bar after school every night and coming home completely smashed, and was going off having casual sex with a whole string of unmemorable anonymous guys. During this time she underwent a total personality change. All the things she used to value she suddenly abandoned in favour of all the things she used to deplore. She became surly at school, irritable, her work slacked off, she didn't care about her studies, she was only ever constantly thinking about getting out of school and getting back to her new friends and that bar where she could drink and smoke and get a fix. Two years ago she unwantedly became pregnant (a whole different story of stupidity) during her AS Level year and obviously the guy who was the father didn't want to know. She miscarried, but shortly afterwards dropped out from her studies after having just scraped the first year of a two year course. Now she lives in a council flat somewhere on a bad estate and works in Tescos as a checkout girl and spends all her free time with these new friends drinking and smoking cannabis and having casual sex. She used to be my best friend when we were younger. She no longer associates with her old circle of friends and I haven't spoken to her for two years.
She's just one case, one person who I used to be very close with and whose ever worsening spiral of degradation I've witnessed. If I had all day, I could tell you about many more cases, but I don't, and also I don't care to disclose any further details about the personal ways this has affected my life.