Kellogg's drops Phelps like a bag of wet cement...

[Amelia G]

It's hard to say. I think that many kids, especially ones that go to those prestigious schools are pushed into it by their over-achiever parents. Because they have been coached their whole lives into being smart and ambitious, when they get out on their own and get to be under their own control, they overdo it in the opposite direction.

it's the chicken and the egg scenario, but I have a hard time believing that pot is going to turn someone into something that they weren't already.

But then admittedly my experience is not with high-achievers, it's with high school drop outs, or at best community college.

Anything done in excess can impact someone's personality or be generally bad for you. Too much protein can cause kidney damage. Too much calcium can paradoxically cause bone loss and even osteoporosis.

Brain chemistry impacts how someone feels and behaves or psych drugs would not be a multi billion dollar business. Different people are attracted to excess for different reasons. Some people are unhappy with their own performance or behavior but feel helpless to stop it and some are thoroughly pleased that too much of everything is just enough.

Some people are capable enough that it doesn't much matter what they do in their off time or how much of it, they are still going to win more gold medals than anyone else.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

There are people who can snort smack, get mildly high, not vomit, not overdose, not suffer any ill effects any worse than a standard hangover, and quit whenever it is convenient.

There are people who can smoke pot, get mildly high, not overeat, not laugh at anything which isn't funny, and still show up for work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and raring to go the next day.

Anti-drug crusaders always present the worst case scenario. I think it should all be 100% legal, taxed like any business, regulated for purity like any food or medicine, etc. If some people end up with problems, that's just Darwinism.

I used to have a housemate who developed a real problem with No Doz because she was snorting it, pretty much not sleeping, and looking for religion in (this is the inexplicable part) old Pink Floyd albums. But there is a Starbucks on practically every block in every major population center.

It totally baffles me that so many people who are pro pot legalization will defend their point of view by pointing out that alcohol and cigs are legal . . . and then turn around and claim that marijuana is not a drug like cocaine or heroin. Uhm, judge not drug-user, lest ye be judged.

All that said, no, I do not think casual pot smoking will decrease someone's ambition in any notable way, any more than casual use of just about any drug is going to make a major difference in behavior beyond while someone is actively on it. Although one doesn't really have the mental image of the successful stockbroker smoking pot with his comrades in arms before driving more huge money-making deals through . . . what's the drug one thinks of there?

Basically because pot isn't as addictive. I'm not saying you can't get addicted, but cocaine and heroin, on the whole, is alot more addictive....And alot more expensive for those that use it more than moderately.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

It's hard to say. I think that many kids, especially ones that go to those prestigious schools are pushed into it by their over-achiever parents. Because they have been coached their whole lives into being smart and ambitious, when they get out on their own and get to be under their own control, they overdo it in the opposite direction.

it's the chicken and the egg scenario, but I have a hard time believing that pot is going to turn someone into something that they weren't already.

But then admittedly my experience is not with high-achievers, it's with high school drop outs, or at best community college.

From my experience with pot, I can tell you that I went to a good state school college that was not easy to get into (I carried a A- average in high school and still wasn't sure if I was going to get in)...Then when I went to college I maintained a B+ average(for a good three years).....Until I started smoking pot alot. I finally quit college, got a shitty job and had no ambition for probably a good three years. I actually stayed at my job for all of those 3 years before getting fired. After that I quit smoking pot for a month and a half, so I good have a nice clean pee test. I got another job and without the pot in my system, all of a sudden I "cared" about making it in the job force and haven't looked back. No, I was not just some dumb stoner to start out with. I'm the first one to say YES, it killed my ambition. It did and when I stopped smoking it I got it back.

Vonnegut says in one of his books "Everything in moderation". I live by those words. Yes, I'm not an Angel when it comes to vices and yes, every now and again I do smoke a little pot, but I believe if you do vices in moderation, you can never go wrong.

That's my 2 cents, and I'm sticking to it.

[bohoki]

it serves them right for outbidding "general mills" makers of wheakies the disgusting cereal that gives you 5 pound dumps

kellogs rules i phisically can't live with out corn pops

[Amelia G]

Basically because pot isn't as addictive. I'm not saying you can't get addicted, but cocaine and heroin, on the whole, is alot more addictive....And alot more expensive for those that use it more than moderately.

I live in Los Angeles where a few phone calls can probably get a person delivery of whatever. I know way more people who use pot habitually than who use cocaine or heroin habitually and not because they wouldn't know where to find the others or can only get a prescription for the pot. Are they addicted? Am I addicted to iced soy lattes? I can go for months without them, but I always eventually start drinking some sort of caffeinated beverage again. A lot of it is the psychological start to my day as much as what the caffeine physically does.

As expense is directly proportional to both risk and demand, decriminalizing all of that stuff would immediately drastically decrease the cost. Although I don't think expense should be a factor. Are we going to have Michelob be legal but criminalize Stella Artois because fewer people could afford to drink it at unhealthily large levels every single day?

[Morning Glory]

Are we going to have Michelob be legal but criminalize Stella Artois?

Yes, but that's only because I think it's not a very good beer and highly overated. see comparisons to Heineken.

[Amelia G]

Yes, but that's only because I think it's not a very good beer and highly overated. see comparisons to Heineken.

Sam Adams Pale Ale then perhaps?

[Morning Glory]

Ok, works for me. haha

[Ajax Knucklebones]

I live in Los Angeles where a few phone calls can probably get a person delivery of whatever. I know way more people who use pot habitually than who use cocaine or heroin habitually and not because they wouldn't know where to find the others or can only get a prescription for the pot. Are they addicted? Am I addicted to iced soy lattes? I can go for months without them, but I always eventually start drinking some sort of caffeinated beverage again. A lot of it is the psychological start to my day as much as what the caffeine physically does.

As expense is directly proportional to both risk and demand, decriminalizing all of that stuff would immediately drastically decrease the cost. Although I don't think expense should be a factor. Are we going to have Michelob be legal but criminalize Stella Artois because fewer people could afford to drink it at unhealthily large levels every single day?

Well...Habitual and addicted are two different things. I know alot of friends who smoked plenty of pot all the time when I was young. When they finally quit, they didn't have the shakes, sweats, and vomiting like alot of people getting off cocaine and heroin. I've known people like that also. I think the withdrawals from each drug are very different from each other. Thus creating a more stigma of those drugs being seen as worse than pot. Maybe you know some people who had no problem getting off coke or heroin, but the friends I've had, had harder times quitting heroin and coke than the ones I've known who quit pot. The one's on heroin and coke also had experienced more times of falling off the wagon and getting all addicted to them all over again...In a very short period.

[grebo]

the founder of the Kellogg Company was W.K. Kellogg
he was a nut obsessed with bowel habits, he recomended daily enemas

[Morning Glory]

Ok, works for me. haha

[Amelia G]

Well...Habitual and addicted are two different things. I know alot of friends who smoked plenty of pot all the time when I was young. When they finally quit, they didn't have the shakes, sweats, and vomiting like alot of people getting off cocaine and heroin. I've known people like that also. I think the withdrawals from each drug are very different from each other. Thus creating a more stigma of those drugs being seen as worse than pot. Maybe you know some people who had no problem getting off coke or heroin, but the friends I've had, had harder times quitting heroin and coke than the ones I've known who quit pot. The one's on heroin and coke also had experienced more times of falling off the wagon and getting all addicted to them all over again...In a very short period.

I guess I think it does not make sense to assume that every person who uses an illegal drug is clearly addicted to it. Some people will have problems quitting whatever they become addicted to. Some people get addicted to avoiding stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk. Is it pathology when a children's game becomes a compulsion? Yes, but I think it is pathology if someone really can't go without a puff or a snort or a piece of broccoli on occasions when it is important. I also think that, if there were less stigma associated with having a problem with a drug, then people would be more likely to seek help when they needed it.

[keiko]

And the fucked up part is: the way i heard it, the picture didn't even show phelps smoking out of the piece, but just holding it.

they come down so hard on pot in this country. you never see adds on tv about not doing heroin or meth but there's at least one ad per show that is all about how to be above the influence of weed. it makes me nauseous that something as simple as a plant, or even what is essentially a modified vase, can cause so much trouble, when the real danger is brushed off.

~K

[Morning Glory]

you never see adds on tv about not doing heroin or meth

~K

They used to. There was the ever popular: "no one ever says, 'I want to be a junkie when I grow up!' " and of course the "this is your brain on drugs" although it was rather vague and the analogy didn't really make much sense. I know that Henry Rollins did an anti-meth add. "Do meth and I'll come to your house and kick your fucking ass!" (Ok, so that's not really what it said, but that's what I got out of it.) I've seen a lot of anti-meth ads on bus stops and other public written media, which is kind of odd to me. I guess they figure that if you are a meth head you probably already pawned off your TV.

[Aza]

I have faith in this most current incarnation of our government to finally make the logical decision to quit funding the "war on weed." They're not changing anyone's minds for all the money they're spending on "anti-marijuana" advertising; most of us dedicated potheads just poke fun at them between bong hits. Meth, heroin, crack, coke... sure, keep these things as "off the streets" as possible by whatever means possible. Weed, on the other hand, is a waste to try to war against, and hardly worth it.

If the government doesn't want to wake up completely and realize that they'd completely CURE the national deficit by legalizing and taxing the stuff, I'm hopeful to say that they're at least making progress towards not caring as much about it anymore.