Back in high school, most of my friends smoked weed and drank. As the years went by, everyone grew up and got decent jobs, most have wives and kids. I can only think of one friend who still smokes a little weed, he is a successful plumber with a nice house and 7 kids.
One thing I really remember was the early 80's when Ron and Nancy started the "war on drugs". I'd have guys I knew from high school coming up to me all the time asking me if I knew where they could score some weed. The government crack down on drugs had made it much more difficult to smuggle pot into the country. By the mid to late 80's it seemed like a lot of my friends and people I knew were getting into coke.
It was around this time that crack was invented.
I really don't like coke and I don't like the way coke users act. People on weed are mellow and easy going, cokeheads are pr*cks. I really felt that cocaine use increased big time after the war on drugs started. Because it was more valuable, criminals could make the same profit sneaking much smaller amounts of coke into the country, which was far easier than trying to smuggle in big bales of pot. Pot became more difficult to "score" than some other drugs.
So really, the war on drugs was responsible for the introduction of crack and the more widespread use of cocaine. If anything, the war on drugs a bigger reason for people using harder drugs than pot ever was.
I have had friends who have had substance abuse problems, and with each and every one of those friends, the problem was drinking. A number of my friends have had accidents while impaired, always alcohol. One of my friends died 20 years ago riding his motorcycle while drunk. Looking back I am surprised more of us didn't die, there were some pretty bad accidents involving alcohol with my friends "back in the day".
The fact is that a certain percentage of people are genetically inclined to have problems with intoxicants. Making any of them illegal does not keep these people from abusing intoxicants. It is a disease and should be treated as such.
And adults do not need a "mommy" preaching to us about what we should and shouldn't put in our bodies. Having a drink, a smoke, some weed, even some LSD or other drugs, a double whopper with Cheese, etc. in the privacy of your own home should be a matter of personal choice and free will, not someone in government's!
And by the way, I love beer and an occasional martini or bourbon. I haven't touched anything illegal in around 25 years.
