Quote Originally Posted by Dutch Masta
Old world cultures are nothing like the society we have today, and can't be compared in any way.. today, we can't even use alcohol (our legal intoxicant) responsibly, as we can see how many deaths result from drunk driving each day. Teenagers these days want to do drugs, drink, have sex, and party.. and do things they aren't supposed to do. The appeal of something that you are not supposed to do is always there, since the beginning of time. Thats not to say that legalizing marijuana will take away the enjoyment of it, but its something to consider.

our society today can't be compared to those other cultures because radically different laws govern either. this was my original point, that if we had similar laws to those cultures, they would be much more comparable. of couse we can't use alcohol responsibly enough, because of the nature of the alcohol drug. people tend to feel invincible when they're drunk. they're also not as aware of their level of impairment as a cannabis user, who often feels much more impotent to do anything, and more inclined to revert into a smoky shell, apt to cognizant observation. the intrinsic differences of the two make for lack of frame of reference. If someone needs to be attracted to something clandestine, there's always other illicit drugs that provide more of a recalcitrant appeal.

Alcohol was a staple dating back to colonial times. even kids got drunk; poorer families even fed their kids whiskey to give them energy throughout the day owing to the high concentration of calories. when reefer was becoming popular in the early 20th century, it would have been advantageous if america switched to it as a main source of inebriation, but there was a heavy racial stigma in those days, and weed was associated with minorites. not only did common white america have a disdain for it, but racial propagandists invented myths to scare white people away from weed. my point is this: if white america had seen cannabis for what it was, they wouldn't have been relegated to the reckless effects of alcohol, which prompted dutch master to use reference of america's inability to control themselves with alcohol. I think it might be too late to integrate cannabis as acceptable and innocuous hobby for the majority of the US