Drew Griffin
CNN Special Investigations Unit
If you just drove by this house, you would never know what’s inside that walled off garage. But under a stifling Florida sun, the garage is a cool 70 degrees, a constant flow of cool, nutrient-rich water flowing throughout the floor, and illuminated by golden glowing lamps whose radiance bounces off reflective aluminum walls. It is all designed to provide maximum growing potential for the 42 mature marijuana plants evenly spaced in this factory of pot.
After seeing this, my initial reaction is that the fight to eradicate marijuana in this country is hopeless. But does that mean we should give up and legalize pot?
For two weeks, knowing I was assigned to this story, I have been asking that question to the many prosecutors, DEA agents and police I’ve encountered. The overwhelming answer is no. There is no doubt, in the minds of these people who come in contact with users, growers, smugglers and junkies, that marijuana use is terrible for the individuals who engage in it. It is not just a pathway to stronger drugs; it is, in and of itself, a recipe for losers. People who call themselves ‘casual users,’ in the minds of law enforcement, are deluding themselves into believing they are not affected by this drug. They compare it to the drunk who believes he can actually drive better with a few drinks inside.
The bigger question is how to stop marijuana use. The DEA agents who raided this home, could raid similar homes everyday, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still the marijuana would grow. Which is why there may need to be a huge strategic change in our so-called drug war. Anti-smoking campaigns work for tobacco. Why won’t they work for marijuana?
That should really be the focus of our efforts. We shouldn’t be laughing at the lame jokes from comedians talking about harmless weed; we shouldn’t allow rappers to glorify the wonders of living high. If nothing else, we should be telling our children that no matter what it is, putting smoke into your lungs is unhealthy, uncool and in the case of pot, a first step towards a life of a loser.
OK all you pot heads, let me hear it!
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Contact us | Help | Advertising Practices
The "Bullying: It Stops Here" town hall
Anderson answers your questions
The art of booking guests
Well since this is a so called "free" nation. I should be able 2 put whatever i like into my body regardless of what anyone things..smoking cigs isnt illegal and it has killed billions of people the last century...think about all the uses hemp "the cousin plant of pot". there is over a 1000 different uses from hemp from all papers cloths ropes paints all textiles and foods. Hemp has the most fibers found anywhere in nature. Also hemp seeds have a chlesterole burnings effect on the human body which is found no where else in nature and u cant even get high off hemp. You would have 2 smoke a telephone poll sized joint 2 even get high...if they should legalize anything it should be hemp. it takes trees hundreds of years for trees 2 grow it takes hemp 1 year 2 grow....think about that!
"we should be telling our children that no matter what it is, putting smoke into your lungs is unhealthy, uncool and in the case of pot, a first step towards a life of a loser."
That is why we vaporize these days.
Obviously if your going to only research your story through the perspective of various branches of law officials, your going to come out with a one sided conclusion.What ever happened to fair balanced journalism?Oh ya as Bill Hicks would say "better go and burn all your records and cds because most of the bands that made all that great music that has enhanced all of our lives....really fn high on drugs".
People should be allowed to be losers if they want to be. We don't need the government to step in and make us who we are. And when they try, it doesn't work.
This article is just plain ridiculous. I am so tired of hearing "arguments" like this. Is smoking pot unhealthy? Yep, because you are putting smoke into your lungs. Smoking ANYTHING is bad for your lungs. But eating or vaporizing the drug is an excellent alternative. Saying pot smokers are losers is such a sweeping generalization, and those kinds of comments are exactly what fuels the ignorant fire of anti-pot talking heads. It's articles like this that mislead the public about marijuana. We should legalize marijuana, regulate it, tax it, just like tobacco and alcohol, and promote responsible use. Plenty of successful, functional and productive adults use pot, and as long as they are doing so responsibly, what business is it of yours?
And please stop saying that this is a gateway or pathway drug.. this is furthest from the truth. I have never tried any other type of drug before in my life. this article is just not realistic. Period
Being a loser is illegal?
This article is total poo. Why would you take the word of a law enforcement officer.. They are trained to LIE more than anyone. It's a proven fact.. CNN this Program on pot you did, you might as well of saved your time and money, because its garbage. Period..
This is not news. It is commentary, or opinion. If you are looking for an unbiased and factual article on this, and many other subjects, I suggest you look elsewhere. CNN gets more views, comments, and ratings by publishing tripe like this to get people to start arguing. Honestly, all that Mr. Griffin did by writing this "article" was insult the intelligence of the American people. I would take this piece about as seriously as a letter to Penthouse, maybe even less. The only good thing that has come of it is the people who have commented with actual facts, but that is really not enough to justify this type of underhanded brainwashing. No matter your viewpoint, please make an attempt to find out as much factual evidence as possible and make up your own mind. Modern media has a nifty was of influencing peoples opinions and decisions by the way they phrase and present things. Not only is that incredibly offensive but also unethical. I used to trust CNN but those days have long since past.
With concern to David's "Micheal Phelps" argument, Phelps just did poorly in a timed event this past week. His star is falling and to say drug use has nothing to do with it would be ignorant.
It amazes me how many users there are. Even my own parents. It's illegal, enough said. And the arguments of why America has a ban on pot are just smoke and mirrors. It's not just the US who have banned the drug, it's many first world countries and for good reason.
I'm young (mid-20's) and have never smoked it and never will. I've seen what it's done to my friends and family. Complete losers who do nothing but complain about how life isn't fair so they sit and puff up every night. It's pathetic. I don't understand this superiority complex pot smokers have over alcoholics either.
And sure, college educated people can lite up too. My father-in-law is a talented computer engineer. But due to his obsession with pot he gets fired non-stop and shifts from job to job with nothing to show for it. His house is bare, he never once paid child support, and his Christmas gifts are used junk he grabs from his basement. All this despite the fact he often made over 80K in salary. Instead he chose to smoke it all. Way to be a valid member of society!
The unfortunate part of this article, really, is the stereotype presented therein. I’ve always been very impressed with Mr. Cooper’s reporting. However, I am genuinely disappointed by reading this article. Criticizing the ‘casual user’ as one would the habitual abuser is as foolish as categorizing the individual consuming 2 beers on a Friday night alongside the belligerent drunk speeding down the freeway in the wrong direction. Yes, marijuana can pose serious risks to one’s health and wellbeing. As can alcohol. I would think no less of the person relaxing by smoking a little pot than I would of the person relaxing by having a drink. However, both these individuals must exercise responsibility and restraint to not let either drug control and/or harm them.
“Drink Responsibly.” “Smoke Responsibly.” “Report Responsibly.”
Perhaps, Mr. Cooper, a more effective article would be one presenting both sides of the marijuana debate. Compare and contrast the casual user with the addict, the medicinal user, the past user, and the nonuser. At any rate, I still look forward to reading your next blog.
ok it sounds interesting but it.s pretty unreal... first of all marijuana is not a drug. i.m 19 and i do smoke pot. honestly i.ve seen no "pot addicted" people. it.s just harmless from this point of view. i really prefere to have hallucinations in stead of having cirrhosis... so you better use your energy on releaving the serious problems of the alcohol consumption.. have a great "green" day
p.s. i.m not from America but even here are people who think like you unfortunately....
Everyone is smoking for either recreation or medical purposes, and some are losers and some are not. I know a lot of losers that do not smoke cannabis. Why does everything have to be about winners and losers in the US? Look at our economy. Who is the true loser. Even Zimbabwe's growth is 6%. This cannabis engine is here and gaining momentum, plus we have the numbers and the research to prove the right to be so called "losers". .
Nor did you capitalize the W.
While I don't smoke, I don't think it's fair to (so easily) judge all marijuana smokers as losers. It's just as easy to say that people who eat ice cream are a waste of space, or that people who judge others based on habits unrelated to their own are a waste of air.
Although I don't think that everyone should go out there and smoke pot, I do think that people are free to make that decision themselves. By legalizing pot you're not making people smoke it, but you could make it safer for those who chose to smoke it. It also gives you more control over the industry (you know what I mean) by making you the market leader. If it's too strong you can tone it down, if it's flooding the market you can slow it (not stop, because that just leads us back to the start), you can check I.D before purchase, you could even keep track of purchases, the list goes on. By taking the allure of the illegal away from it you'll cut users by a sizable portion, you don't get many speak easy's these days do you? All liquor is bought from stores and is taxed. Kids don't buy booze from a guy in an alley, they get an older sibling/friend/stranger to go into a store an make the purchase. Not only is the money going to the gov (lets face it that's important to them) but the item sold is what it says it is and not goat droppings and tar, and there was not a felony crime committed (I do understand that there is still an underage issue, but in the grand scheme of things would you rather an underage drinking charge or a felony charge clogging up the system. Apply that same principle to the pot trade and you'll soon find that legalization is a smart move. It also unties your hands to use the plant for other much more productive things. You need to look at the front and the back of a thing to get the gist of it, you then need to speak to it. Not blast at it till it submits. USA I'm looking in your direction.
A loser? Really?? Way to back that statement up? Journalism at it's finest... I don't drink alcohol, and I don't call drinkers losers, even though they kill people every minute with thier irresponsible actions. Anderson Cooper should ask for his username and password back so hacks like you don't ruin his name.
It's hilarious to me that people talk so badly about weed as they light up their cigarettes and slowly die of lung cancer.
All other arguments aside, there's no reason cigarettes and alcohol should be legal and weed be illegal (I don't smoke it, and wouldn't even if it was legal.)
If anyone thinks that weed isn't available to everyone who wants it, they're delusional. Legalising, regulating, and taxing it is a logical step that will make the country millions of dollars.
This article is pathetic, and everyone you know should be embarrassed that you wrote it. Also, CNN should fire whoever decided to publish it.
Keep digging your hole of crappy journalism, retards.
Anti-Smoking campaigns help against tobacco?
Who do YOU know who has quit cigarettes because of an ad and not the health problems it can cause?
For six thousand years the people of asia have been utilizing Cannabis, the stalks having a massive value for clothing and rope, with the buds that are left being smoked because they have no other use themselves.
And, if smoking pot makes you a loser, how do you explain THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
It's very sad that you talk about how you spoke to so many dea / police / prosecutors and those who come in contact with..yada yada yada. Yet your end result and conclusion is the professional opinion that pot smokers are losers.
Legalizing being a loser is an interesting thought. You managed to find a job that pays you. can't be that bad.
I'm a professional engineer and I smoke pot. Why don't you take your joke of a 4 year liberal arts degree in journalism and smoke that.
who is the real loser here.
(Notice I didn't end that with a question mark.)
I think the real losers are people that sit on bar stools everyday destroying their livers and lives. I will never understand why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Alcohol causes a plethora of problems that marijuana does not.
This is the absolute worst piece of writing I've ever seen on CNN, and that's saying a whole lot. I'd rip it apart, but I don't even know where to begin.
In this day and age, in this country, anyone that wants to use pot, is using pot, plain and simple, regardless of the fact that is illegal. You are lying to yourself if you think that it's not easily available to get all over this country. So, if pot was made legal, all those same people would still be using pot and all the people that think pot should remain illegal would still not be using it.
People against legalizing it act like it will be so much more available and easier to obtain if made legal and we will have this huge increase in the number of people that are using it. That argument does not hold weight.
Go find me someone that is really interested in trying marijuana but won't because it is illegal, but would if it was legal..... good luck.
Legalization of marijuana makes more sense than shoving pharmaceuticals down our throats and forcing us to watch advertisements almost every other commercial. What I don't get is how the losers who choose pharma drugs don't see the list of side effects that far outweigh the benefits?
Totally wrong. Unbelievable for you to call potheads losers. What about the person who drinks every night, is that good for their body? Has anyone ever stopped to think why so many people are growing pot? Because so many people are smoking it and it is a huge cash crop. With a one time set up you can bring in thousands of dollars just by growing some plants. So why doesn't the government make it legal, tax it, bring the country slowly out of debt, and then let pot join in on the cigarette anti smoking bandwagon. Make it where you have to be 18 or 21 to buy it like cigarettes or alcohol.
You call this journalism?
Yeah. Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Bill Maher, Neil Young, etc., whatta buncha losers. Never amounted to nothin'! They all deluded themselves.
And again, for the millionth time, smoking is not the only method of ingestion, you "reporters"! There is vaporization, tinctures, teas, and other edibles! You are perpetuating public ignorance. Joesph Goebells would be proud.
WEED IS THE BEST DRUG OUT THERE! It's a God given gift. It grew naturally on earth and IT WILL keep GROWING!
Apparently, facts and unbiased investigation are just meaningless and easily-overcome obstacles for those in the "CNN Special Investigation Unit."
Nice hate-mongering and jugdmentalism.
Also, as someone else has already stated, did you happen to interview any LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) members? I highly doubt it. I was just thinking, since you're interviewing the DEA and all, why not ask someone else on the other side of the spectrum? Wouldn't that be the logical way to approach this issue? Sounds to me like you're just another prohibitionist who doesn't care what anyone else thinks, you just buy into the government propaganda like everyone else without considering the harms that the prohibition of marijuana has brought forth for so many years. It's truly a shame
Asking our, for the most part, for-profit criminal justice system (i.e. property seizures, lawyers, cops, drug war funding, private prisons, etc) if cannabis should be legalized is like asking a bank CEO, pre-recession, if there should be more regulations on lending or credit.
It is like asking a republican if tobacco companies should fall under FDA oversight.
It is like asking a democrat if cap-and-trade will combat global warming.
Is everyone who disagrees with you now Drew, as defined by federal law, a criminal? Is there no room for honest debate, or must our freedoms continue to be eaten away by the manipulation of emotion and social stigmatization for arbitrary personal "health" or religious "moral" reasons?
P.S. AND it does not give a hangover. Your body knows!
This was an extremely biased, limited, and lazy report. You're not a good enough reporter at all.
Where's the investigation?
How many DEA agents could you find for this interview, Drew?
There aren't really a whole lot of them and literally none of them have time to talk to you... I doubted paragraph two sentence one from the beginning.
BUT:
Not one sheriff could leave you a quote, Drew?
How about the Lake County prosecuting attorney, Orange County?...
No One?
Did you even go to Florida, dude?
I could personally find law enforcement willing to leave me a statement and their name from Florida over the phone... and I don't work for CNN.
I don't think you ever went to Florida.
I think this "report" is a joke.
Your arguments are absolutely ridiculous. First off, millions upon millions have tried marijuana, including our last three Presidents. So would you consider them losers who led unproductive lives? How about the patients, losers? So if someone has a full time job to provide for his/her family and take care of their responsibilities, they can't make the safer choice to use cannabis on occasion rather than alcohol because it makes them a loser? Oh sure, the police, prosecutors and DEA are really going to want to lose all the money they make from pot cases by making it legal. I really bet they have an open mind and look at the issue from both sides....are you kidding me? Your ignorance is pathetic, are you or are you not supposed to be a journalist who takes an honest, un-biased approach and do interviews from both those who support and don't support the cause. If you did, you would discover there are millions of people who don't even use pot that want to see it legalized. More than half the country, as a matter of fact. There is no reason for you to bash and insult millions of our hard-working, fellow Americans simply because they consume cannabis. I say thumbs down to this Drew Griffin character
Don't take it out on the rest of us "stoners" because you can't get laid.
Pot,marijuana,dope,pothead are all used to portray the cannabis plant and cannabis users negatively.
The term "Marijuana" was not recognized by Americans until the introduction of the Marijuana tax Stamp Act of 1937.
For the past 70 years we have been taught that Marijuana has no medicinal value and should be considered a dangerous mind altering drug.
There are now 13 different states that have enacted Medical Marijuana Bills. Hundreds of thousands of state registered patients rely on this plant as medicine. Including eight federally registered medical marijuana patients.
Most Americans realize that Cannabis is no more dangerous than products we buy at the local grocery store. For example the Cannabis flower is far less toxic than the common potato. Ever heard of solanine?
Yet millions of U.S. risk being robbed,killed, prosecuted,fined,imprisoned, and fired for a personal choice. The choice to use Cannabis in the privacy of one's home. It's time to end this failed war on American citizens.
Sick of Americans Ignorance.
@CNN When someone speaks in favor of legalization. you repeatedly post pics of an unkept male smoking a pinner (more paper than bud) STOP IT!! There are millions of examples of people using water filtration techniques,vaporizers,and medibles.
It's time for some real reporting with unbiased representation of both sides.
The government will allow smoking cigarettes to be legal. And will allow alcohol to be legal. The later has shown some medical uses, i.e. red wine helping the heart or whatever it is. But both of these cause CANCER. Yet they are still legal? Pot is actually used to cure and TREAT symptoms of cancer.
How's that for logical?
I think pickup trucks are for losers... Should they be illegal then?
You don't ban something because losers like it. That's idiotic. There isn't going to be less losers because there is no pot...
Since when does legalization of pot result in legalization of losers?
Too bad we are already a nation of losers for insisting that the war on drugs that we are LOSING should be continued. If we legalized pot, it would make millions of people safer by decreasing the violence associated with it. Those kids in the projects who profit from dealing illegal drugs would not be able to sell at the same rates and would probably not deal any longer.
Get your heads out of the gutter, you conservative LOSERS, it is because of people like you that this pot house exists.
Replace the word pot with booze, grow operation with speak easy, junkies (man I love this one) with... I dunno... flappers? You get more or less an identical article one would find in a newspaper in the roaring 20s about alcohol.
Although comparing marijuana to alcohol is an unfair comparison. After all alcohol is far far worse for the drinker, and society at large, than marijuana. Marijuana is to Alcohol as water is to poison.
Although comparing marijuana to water is an unfair comparison. After all water, if consumed in large enough quantities is toxic and lethal, where there is no lethal dosage of marijuana.
Water is more lethal than marijuana. But I digress.
From your article it says "People who call themselves ‘casual users,’ in the minds of law enforcement, are deluding themselves into believing they are not affected by this drug. They compare it to the drunk who believes he can actually drive better with a few drinks inside." Which is a sentiment you agree with as indicated later in the article.
Law enforcement get large portions of their budget for the sole purpose of fighting drugs. They're paid to think drugs are bad. When marijuana prohibition is repealed, which it will just as it was for alcohol, they're going to lose huge sums of money from their budget.
The line about marijuana users being like "the drunk who believes he can actually drive better with a few drinks inside" is an inane and purely inflammatory statement. It's meant to invoke a comparison of anyone and everyone who imbibes marijuana, all 15 million regular users, to dangerous drunk drivers.
If being drunk behind the wheel is such a terrible plight, why not start with reinstating the prohibition of alcohol? Because we learn from history, however slowly that knowledge takes hold, that prohibition neither works nor is conducive to a free and open society.
Being drunk, high, or in flavor country enjoying a cool menthol blast is not wrong.
I'll repeat that, being drunk or high is not wrong. Being drunk or high in the wrong situations is wrong; but, human beings have been getting drunk ever since some cave man left some grapes out in a jar too long and decided to have a sit. Mankind has been using marijuana for relaxation and for medical purposes for over 5,000 years.
I'm not very interested in hearing what law enforcement individuals, who reap billions ever year from prohibition, feel about marijuana. They're paid to have a negative opinion.
I'm far more interested in hearing what doctors and scientists have to say about it. Do you know what they say? It has been proven, again and again, through countless studies over the last 30 years, and through nearly all of recorded history, that marijuana not only has no long term damaging affects on the user; but, has many beneficial qualities.
The continued prohibition of marijuana saves no one. Not one life is saved. Countless people die every year because of its prohibition, just as countless people died in the streets of Chicago and elsewhere during alcohol prohibition. Continuing the prohibition stops not one criminal. Does nothing to reduce its use. Prohibition is what creates criminals. People don't go down the street with tommy guns running hooch any more, and that's because as a nation we wised up and realized the prohibition of alcohol was strangling our nation.
It's time that we all grow up as a nation. We need to get serious about our problems. The answer is easy. The problems we face are not new. They happened before in the 20s and 30s, and though people once said alcohol would never be legal again, today I can jaunt down to the corner store and pick up a six pack, and no one had to die for me to get it.
Smoking pot does not make you a loser. Someone who drinks is no more or less of a loser that someone who smokes pot. And neither of them is more or less of a loser who abstains from both.
Whether you're sitting at home smoking bowl after bowl, guzzling six pack after six pack, or just cramming your finger up your nose it's not the vice that makes you a loser. It's being a loser that makes you a loser.
@ David Netherlands has a much lower marijuana user rate than the U.S. 17.0% to 36.9%
What a ridiculous blog. Its like when people who don't smoke cigarettes slam smokers because they don't do it. We should not be legislating taste. What ever happened to personal choices and freedom? This blog is extremely judgmental and unprofessional. I'm surprised it was posted. There's thousands of professionals who smoke and do not do any harm to anybody including themselves and around 50 million US users altogether and I'm tired of ignorant people slamming smokers just because it's the status quo. What a triumph of negative marketing and people buying into it because they are ignorant. I'll never stop and neither will millions in every country of the world. I think it's about time to take it to the streets, this is a basic human rights issue.
I've been a CPA for 15 years. Have a family, pay taxes, etc.
I smoke every couple of weeks. However, I take care of all my responsibilities. I even watch CNN.
Does that make me a loser?
I guess all the folks that drink every weekend and blow all their money drinks and cigs are winners.
I THINK IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, THEY CALL THIS "NAME CALLING".
Marijuana is illegal. Just because cigarettes and alcohol are legal doesn't mean people don't die from using them.
Hundreds of thousands die each year from smoking related cancer, alcohol abuse, and cirrhosis of the liver.
Do we really need any more people driving on our roads who are impaired? We have enough already.
I really don't think it's the drug, it's the person. Are people who are lazy more inclined to use pot? Maybe, but I don't think pot creates a lazy person. I think a lot of people assume pot smokers are losers because that is all they are exposed to... the losers that flaunt getting high 24/7. It's very rare you will meet a well spoken pot smoker because they choose to keep their lifestyle under wraps. Why would a successful individual choose to expose their illegal habit... it's just not a wise decision to make.
Dear Drew Griffin,
Your article was factually irrelevant and totally biased. I am not claiming that you were out of line, but perhaps the reason you drew this conclusion is that the people you interviewed have a jobs issue interest in continuing the futile battle to eradicated America's most popular pastime.
Rather than just interviewing prosecutors, DEA and judges, you should have spoken with sociologist, psychologist, and doctors and the like.
Alternatively, as well as interview prosecutors you should have interviewed those who have negative experiences with the marijuana laws. For example, in the mid-nineties Will Foster, a man suffering from degenerative arthritis had a medical 5 by 5 foot grow in the basement of his Tulsa, OK home. He was originally sentenced to 93 years in prison.
If the laws are more harmful than the substance or the behavior of those using it, the laws mus be changed. There is no doubt in the majority of American' minds today that the laws are more harmful and costly to society than the drug.
Please email me back at the email I signed in on so I can provide you with some literature, I will even sign them if you would like.
Sincerely,
Ed Rosenthal
author/activist
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah! This is the best Comedy blog I've read all year!!! Keep up the great work Drew!
This Gpa of 11,is fortinate enough to live in a state where it is legal for medicinal purposes.This allows me to enjoy alternitives instead of pain,and remain out of our over crowded prisons { high % of inmates for marijuana use or possession}. If I lived somewhere else where an American is not allowed this right I could become a loser for my 4 children, wife, and 11 G`children, all of which do not indulge. The losers are the criminals in the streets, because of overcrowded prisons, which make it unsafe for my family and all of yours. Wake up America, its 2009. Luigi
Most opinions here are not from ones who have used marijuana. Therefore, the conclusions drawn are not valid. There are no data which shows that people have been killed on our roads by smokers, or domestic violence as a result of either spouse smoking. Alcohol on the other hand have so mamy recorded facts nationwide yet there is no debate about stopping the sale of alcohol.
Can someone please tell me where the marijuana originated.
Finally, someone with guts enough to call using what it is-loser behavior. The denial I've seen on this site for the last days has been amazing. Sad, but amazing. When I drank alcohol, I thought there was nothing wrong. I thought every behavior surrounding using and codependency were all right. Just because it all started out innocently doesn't mean it ended up that way. It wasn't that I drank every day. It's that when I drank I drank to numb my world (which meant drinking to black out). Looking back, it was really, really loser behavior. And then finally enough people who mattered told me it wasn't cool, that I wasn't, that the drinking wasn't, that even the tranqs my MD gave me to get me off my edge weren't. Finally, it stuck. And for 15 and a half years it has stuck. If you can smoke and drink without it affecting you, think again. Maybe you won't addict. But every time you use, it does play with your brain chemistry. And that is reason enough to stay clean in my book. As we say recovery, a drug is a drug is a drug...
This is one of the worst articles I've ever read on the issue. Marijuana is not a gateway drug, it is a gateway to illegal activity. If marijuana were legal, there would be no access to harder drugs for casual pot smokers. I am an accountant with a large law firm and I smoke pot everyday. I give money to charity and volunteer at my daughters' schools. I don't feel like a loser and since I can string together two coherent thoughts, I already feel like a winner compared to the article writer. Thank God I don't have cable so I don't have to be subjected to this kind of uninformed drivel.