Is pot smoking evil?!

[Sacred Jellybean]

No offense intended really. Honestly, if you want to do certain things to your body, so long as you stay inside and don't operate heavy machinery while the chemicals are in effect, it's fine I suppose.

I agree on the point of not operating heavy machinery, but I don't see any reason to have to stay inside. What if my cupboards are empty and I have the munchies? ;) I can easily walk to a diner, order food, etc. without disturbing or harming myself or anyone else.

However, when someone goes as far as to suggest completely baseless assertions about it being a path to enlightenment or the key to some weird awareness, or other woo nonsense, that's when I remember that all scientific evidence has shown is that people just sit around with overactive imaginations and certain parts of the brain, such as the sections that allow us to categorize the world around us and mentally create concepts like distinct objects vanish, so you get vapid statements like "I am you, we are all part of everything and it's all seamless MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *cough* AAAAAAAN". It's just a chemical rush, nothing more.

I never suggested this (although I never said I did, to be fair). On the other hand, altering the way your brain thinks *does* allow you to look at things in new ways. I'm not suggesting that grass will enlighten a man, but it will allow him to see things differently. Whether that's useful varies on a case-by-case basis, obviously.

And here's a gem, "don't knock it until you've tried it". Well I can collect sufficient evidence WITHOUT actually trying something to conclude I want no part of it. This is obviously not the same thing, and I in no way am attempting to say that it is as bad or in the same category, but for the purposes of this analogy it works: I can determine just fine from empirical observation the effects of having an arm removed to conclude that I don't want to have anything to do with it. I need not try it to find out if it is "right for me" or whatever nonsense they pass off as "empowerment of the individual" in commercials these days.

Agreed - to each, his own. The problem is, people accept propaganda as conclusions drawn from sound scientific evidence, which simply isn't true in many cases.

As for what it SHOULD be, well, I just don't care enough to actually give an opinion here. I don't give it much thought and honestly you don't seem to be hindered by it, going by what you are saying.

Nope. We'll likely not change each others' opinions, so I think we'll end in a stalemate regardless of how we pursue the debate. :)