Yea thats wat i mean you can definately drink alcohol at any age i think but not with the idea of getting drunk, because come on we probably had alcohol. And the wole pregnant ting, my friends friend got pregnant with twins at 15 so i thought thaty was too young. Also i am not saying to wait before your married for sex i'm simply staing why people just dont follow beliefs of god anymore, I would definately would wit a girlfriend if we were both ready, im talking about people who purpouselyy go out wit the idea of bringing a guy home no matter what. Now smoking and weed i dont think they as bad as each other, i think weeed is much worse. Anyway I know im never gonna get involved with drugs or smoking.

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ok...this is going to be a kinda long post because I want to reply to a lot of what other people said.

But, before I get to that, let me quickly explain where I'm currently comming from. I'm currently 20 years old. The first time I ever drank alcohol with the intent to get drunk I was 13 or 14. The first time i ever smoked ganja (marijuana) was at age 15. I lost my virginity at the age of 16. Honestly, the only one of those that I regret now is that I had sex that young. But that's not because of the physical act--that's because of the ammount of emotional bonds that it created...and that it made breaking up twenty times worse.

Now for the alcohol vs ciggeretts vs marijuana question. There are a few ways you can judge the distructive effects of a substance, one of them would be to analize the number of deaths directly resulting from use. So here are the relavent statistics. I'm going to use the stats from america because they are easily accessible. These numbers represent the average number of deaths per year based on the past 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.

Tobacco: 340,000 to 450,000
Alcohol (including 50% of all related highway deaths and 35% of all related murders): 150,000+
Illicit Drug Overdose (including intentional ODs): 3,800 to 5,200
Marijuana: 0


Marjuana, like all hallucagens, is not physically addictive--but it has the potential to become mentally addictive. Then again, so does virtually anything else. Sunshine, friends, chai tea (mMmmM), sex, etc etc etc. Both alcohol and ciggerettes are both mentally and physically addictive.


1) Amen. I've been using marjuana (as well as a few other substances) off and on for five years now. I'm currently a junor in college and hold a 3.78 GPA.

2) Quite true. There are stupid people engaged in virtually any activity...but that doesn't mean it's representative of the group at large. Also worth noting is that defferent people have different levels of self control. I know a few people who do coke two or three times a year and are perfectly fine, non addicted, individuals. Then again I know alot more than that who have seriously f***ed up their lives using it. It is the user's responcibility to make sure they can handle a substance. And if they can't, then it's no one's fault but their own.

3) Don't belittle your own opinion man. Keeping an open dialouge is wonderful...and you can't do that without conflicting points of view.


Could you please elaborate about why you think that?

 

 

 

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People getting pregnant at a young age isnt really a suprise anymore those days. Whether if they like it or not, responsibility would have to come into play here, whether if the recipient decides to have the baby or not. I guess it's the curiousity of some of today's teens.

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I have to say that I've experimented with some drugs.. When I was 15 I moved to Texas, and the first people I met were potheads. And the stupid kind at that. We smoked a lot, I thought it was fun then, and I still think I had fun then, but I wouldn't go back to doing it. I tried oxycontin, hydrocodeine, weed, freon, and a couple of other things, but I got out of the crowd fast when school started.

Sex? Not until I'm married, but I can still do sexual things without sex. Religion + the percent of teenagers worth AIDS = not worth it.

Alcohol? Yeah, I have it every once in a while, probably twice a month, but not too much.

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I think that teens getting pregnant are incredibly moronic, and hurt the human race's population (and the quality of those alive in the population). Natural Selection is extinct -.-

But as far as drugs, alcohol, and smoking goes I haven't had any except a bit of alcohol (cuz us Jews love wine at services. I stick to grape juice mostly, but...). Anyone who is stupid enough to experiment with these things are... well, stupid. It is really sad, though. I have seen several of my friends get sent to rehab this year alone, and I just turned 15. Lots of my friends are doing stuff, too, and I know it. I see people smoking right outside of school while they walk to the bus, for God's sake!!! It's horrible.

And yeah, they're all stupid. I wish they hadn't made the decisions they had, and they will be scared for life because of it.

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...could you please elaborate on that (e.g. use some actual evidence to back up those claims)? Because, atleast to me, those seem like flagrently uninformed and ignorant generalizations.

It's fine to disagree with other peoples actions and opinions--as a matter of fact I'd strongly encourage it (thinking for yourself is one of the best things you can do)...but please make actually coherent well thoughtout arguments; instead of baseless naive comments.

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I really dislike this sex before marriage belief, because sex was once considered to be a very spiritual thing, a way of getting closer to god; then along came the Christians who decided that it was sinful. I'm not into casual sex, I think that it's perfectly okay for teenagers to have sex, its all a normal part of life - although most kids having sex at 12 and 13 are definitely not emotionally mature enough for it, and the fact that they think they are just proves this.
Getting pregnant at this age is pretty stupid though because your body is still growing and it is harder to cope with the extra pressures of pregnancy and child birth. Not to mention the emotional/social/physcological pressures of motherhood at such a young age.

I don't have such a problem with smoking and weed, it's very common and people can still live quiet normal lives.

Finally I think that the media is too blame for exposing kids to sex and drugs at such a young age. Our society tends to use sex to sell everything and I reckon its discusting; especially all these hip hop artists with their sexy video clips. YES, ESPECIALLY THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!!! AND MTV! ok ok gotta calm down...
I think it especially has a bad influence on young girls, who feel pressured to dress/act like sex objects ar such a young age to be accepted by guys.
If only the media accepted the fact that women are not born with silicone chests, and let girls know that it's ok to wear clothes....

LET THE CHILDREN HAVE THEIR INNOCENCE!!!

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We can never stop the negative impacts on children, drugs and alcohol will always exist in our lives. They cant be banned or avioded. Personally i believe that there is nothing we can do about it. In our society today we should be stricter - We should be stricter and have more control of our children. We can't stop this impact on happening - but we can prevent our next generation by making them aware of why not to takes these things.

In the netherlands its still legal to sell drugs - its pretty much as alcohol or tobacco there. If the bannation of drugs will be accomplished in the netherlands - it would be much harder to achieve drugs in other countries - however, there will always occur black business - drugs will always be a part of our lives if we donšt do anything about it now!

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Alcohol.. is everywhere. Its impossible to avoid, especially as you get older and you have the odd friend who is legal to buy/drink it, and they buy it for everyone else as well. I don't understand why someone would drink, but its their choice.. just seems like a way to spend/waste money and make a complete fool of yourself. I guess it has to have some appeal to it, so its other peoples choice if they want to. Even if you don't drink, you have to get used to being around people who are, because otherwise you'll end up stuck inside a house your whole life.

Drugs. Drugs are worse. Someone said earlier that weed was the worst. Weed is definately not the worst - if anything, thats the best of the drugs available. Drugs make you do weird things, its best to avoid them..

As for sex, as long as its not a ridiculously young age (12-13ish), then I don't really see what the problem with it is. Its that persons choice. It doesn't cost money (assuming its within a relationship), its not addicting, its actually good for you.. I just never saw what the big problem with premarital sex was, assuming a stable relationship was present.

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*looks confused* Didn't you just contradict yourself there?


A few quick points: 1) Only marijuana is decrimnalized (note that i didn't say "legalized," which is entirely different) in the Netherlands--no other "drugs" (except ciggeretts and alcohol) are. 2) Most of the marijuana around doesn't come from the netherlands. Ofcourse it highly depends on where you live, but here in the US almost all of it comes from Canada, within our own borders, and from mexico in the southern states.

Now that we're finished with that, lets examine the levels of marijuana usage in the United States compared to the netherlands. The statistics I'm going to use (cited below) are from 2001, but I'm sure you'd find very similar results if you looked into the newer surveys.

Percentage of individuals, twelve and older, who have ever tried marijuana:
The United States: 36.9%
The Netherlands: 17.0%

Percentage of individuals, twelve and older, who have used marijuana within the last month:
The United States: 5.4%
The Netherlands: 3.0%

Source for US statistics: US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I. Summary of National Findings (Washington, DC: HHS, August 2002), p. 109, Table H.1.

Source for Netherland Statistics: Trimbos Institute, "Report to the EMCDDA by the Reitox National Focal Point, The Netherlands Drug Situation 2002" (Lisboa, Portugal: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Nov. 2002), p. 28, Table 2.1.

Put quite simply, prohibition doens't work. It didn't work for alcohol, and it's not working for marijuana. All it does is: put those who choose to buy marijuana into situations where they are exposed to harder drugs, jail hundreds of thousands of people for so called "victimless crimes," waste billions of dollars of tax payers' money, and provide financing for orginized crime. Fun.

If you want to check out a list of some more scientific studies try http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3383.

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