A warning against cannabis

Most heavy pot smokers I have come across are fine if they are currently stoned. It is when they are not stoned and hanging out for their next spot that they tend to be very short fused and irrational, and have a low ability to cope with any form of stress.

This makes them bad neighbors, workmates, friends, and more importantly dangerous parents as far as their children are concerned, as parenting requires a high level of coping skills, something not associated with heavy pot smokers.

I must admit heavy drinkers also have a low ability to cope with stress when they are hungover, but they don't tend to explode and nut off at the first sign of stress as heavy pot smokers do.

I am wondering why the cops never mentioned the methamphetamine this guy was taking.. but no.. lets keepo quiet and show the world how bad cannibis is.

Congratulations, Rosemary. Your increasingly tenuous links from your pet peeves to news events puts you firmly on the list of idiots in the media.

Quote - Its the police who clean up young people etc when they are DRUNK!!! The girl gets raped when she is drunk. You take out the blackmarket of buying and selling pot its alot less harmful to society then what alcahol is. For example you put twenty people in a room and feed them alcahol a fight is bound to happen or someone will get hurt. You feed these twenty people lots of pot and they will laugh be coherent non aggressive and not cause the police any bother that night. Whenever u hear of a fatal crash on the news its alwalys alcahol that is involved not solely drugs!!! And its true if Canabis was legal the poor families affected by thsi hideous situation would not be grieveing!!!!

Not only was this article completely unresearched it was one sided and incorrect. I do not smoke drugs but can say that research has shown how it decreases any violent tendicies and not linked to the police dealing with "who have to deal, day after day, with stoned kids and their abuse". Have you confused alcohol with cannabis? How many abused wives are beaten after their husband smokes some weed? How many teens smoke weed and go for a destructive run into town to beat someone up? This doesn't even support the general image most people have of pot smokers so it is disappointing that Rosemary would say such things.

I know people at my school who do weed and i tell you that anit much of a problem compared to booze. Although weed is easier to obtain for minors than booze, when they find a person willing to sell alcohol to them, they by crates of it. Its not the drinking its how we are drinking. And id much rather do weed than tobacco, its healthier and less addictive. p.s i do not do any drugs or drink.

Mark #68

First question. Are you an idiot?

Answer - Yes.

Fact #1. Possessing cannabis is illegal.

Fact #2. If you are caught posessing cannabis you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law because it is the LAW.

Fact #3. It is not the police's job to decide who is above the law and who is not. They are there to enforce the current law and the current law says that possession of cannabis is illegal.

Fact #4. The taxpayers money to the police force is a sunk cost and therefore there is no waste of money when policing the LAW.

Fact #5. The only waste of tax payers money is when losers like you suggest that these criminals who possess cannabis shouldnt be arrested. Then some police officers who have forgoten their oath to uphold the law just sit around and do nothing. They are not paid to watch crime and do nothing.

Fact #6. You are an idiot.

Jan Molenaar was a ticking timebomb, not arguement from me on that one. But that's the only shread of logic in your story. He was the type of guy who would probably have gone nato if the cops had turned up simply to ask him to turn his stereo down. Cannabis is NOT the issue here, either for Jan or your average teenager. If it was, the only reason the police would have been retcent to enter Jan's home would be for fear of tripping over playstation consoles and pizza boxes. If you want to know why teenagers are so antisocial and hate authority then talk to the police, dont bother to ask teenagers themselves, they don't have a clue. All they know is 8% Diesel Bourbon is $10 a six pack and every text must be signed off with F.T.P. Alcohol is the demon here, that and lack of respect. The former is a product of oversupply, cheap pricing and clever marketing of rtd's and budget spirits, the latter as a direct result of political correctness gone mad in the form of the anti smacking bill, abolition of corporal punishment in schools and single parent families with no male role models. With all due respect Rosemary I suggest you get yourself a good DVD and a quarter pack from KFC, put the knives on and have a couple of spots, but lay off the wine, it's not good for you.

The first paragraph looked really promising. Here here I started to think...then you veered off and made it all about the weed. Pot smokers are not clogging up our A and E departments every Saturday night. Sure, smoking pot is not good for the mental health of a person like Molenaar, nor is any other chemical substance, especially alcohol. To use the situation to rail against the legalise marijuana campaign is ridiculous. If I hadn't seen your name I might think Michael Laws wrote the column.

Typical, ignorant, reactionary drivel. The author of this piece should be thoroughly ashamed at having pontificated on a subject she so obviously does not understand in even the most basic sense. The article is shot through with factual inaccuracy, logical fallacy and sprinkled with the odd downright lie. A truly shoddy standard of journalism.