I have heard many people of all ages make excuses for their "right" to smoke cannibis, also called marajuana, dope, skunk, and a miriad of other names. In this advice I'll call it dope - it's easier to type. 
I'm going to shoot down these excuses
so that when your teenager gives them to you, you know how to respond. If you are a user yourself, you may want to take another look at the realities and realise that what you have believed for so long is just pro-dope propaganda.
It's not addictive like other drugs.
It is commonly recognised that gambling is addictive. If something that contains no external chemical stimulas can be addictive, what stops dope from being addictive? Sure, the chemical addiction to the THC might not be as vicious as that of nicotine or the chemicals in other drugs. However, the chemically induced feelings of relaxation and euphoria can be psychologically addictive, and psychological addictions are harder to break than physical ones.
After a few hours, the nicotine in a tobacco smoker's system is gone. The physical addiction is well and truely broken after a day or two. However, it's the psychological addiction that keeps the smoker craving that next cigarette. The same with alcohol addiction, once the alcohol has been broken down and the person is sober, it's the psychological addiction that gets them drinking again. Dope remains in a person's system for up to three months. The longer the person has been smoking it on a regular basis, the longer it may remain in their system. If alcohol and nicotine can loose the physical addiction so quickly, but the psychological addiction is so strong, why on earth would any one try to claim that dope isn't addictive, when it creates greater mind-altering sensations, remains in the body longer, and can be just as psychologically addictive like any other thing?
To believe that dope can't be addictive is not only ignorant and naive, it's downright absurd.
You can't overdose from it.
It is possible to die as a result of taking too many paracetamol tablets, absorbing too much nicotine, even taking too much vitamin A. THC is just another toxin, and too much of it can cause an overdose. The potential results of a THC overdose include, but are not restricted to:
- Increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, heart attack, death.
- Depression, paranoid psychosis, and mental illness which may be permanent.
These are not very nice things to suffer. One small cone of strong enough dope can be enough to create an overdose - I've seen it happen. Overdose can occur not just from smoking too much, too stong, too fast; but also from absorbing it in other ways, such as by eating too many dope cookies. It's not produced and tested in a strictly monitored and controlled hi-tech laboratory, so exactly how much THC is contained within that little bud is anyone's guess. You don't know how much THC you might absorb, so you have no idea whether or not it might be enough to overdose you.
It doesn't cause the same sort of damage that tobacco smoking does.
One of the greatest causes of damage to lungs with tobacco smoking is simply the heat. We don't notice it much because our lungs don't have heat sensing nerves like our skin does. However, our lungs do have tiny little hairs, called avioli, that are sensitive to heat and are very easily destroyed by hot air. Because the smoke is created by burning the cigarette, and smokers inhale the smoke, the smoke is hot enough to singe and destroy these little hairs; causing significant damage and reducing our lungs ability to keep themselves clean and absorb oxygen. Dope is also most commonly inhaled as smoke, and even when smoked through a water bong, it is still hot enough to create the same damage. Having water in the bottom of a bong makes absolutely no difference with regards to making it any healthier to smoke.
Let's look at a bit of basic high school chemistry for a minute. All organic matter - that's everything that has ever lived - contains carbon. Hence the term "carbon based life forms". Regardless of whether it is tobacco, dope, a gum tree, or a animal carcass - even a jellyfish! - if we burn it, the heat acts as a catalyst for the oxygen in the air (which is needed for the burning process to occur) to bond with the carbon in the substance that is burning. This chemical reaction creates carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) = considered to be the two most harmful chemicals found in a cigarette. So, if dope is plant matter, plant matter is organic, burning organic matter can create CO and CO2, and if CO and CO2 are harmful, how does that make dope harmless?
The tar in tobacco smoking is known to clog up our lungs. What many people don't think about is what that tar really is. It's the oily residue that is created when plant matter is burned, and it contributes a lot towards the colouration of smoke. Tobacco tar is commonly seen as the feint brownish stains on the walls and ceilings of a room where smoking has been common place for a long period of time. We don't notice it much unless we have been involved in the arduous chore of washing it off those walls and ceilings, or we watch those anti-smoking adds on television. However, dope creates a lot more tar than tobacco does. Most people don't realise that, because when talking about dope, it's not called tar - it's called resin. As well as creating a lot of resin, many dope smokers recycle that resin and smoke it too. Just imagine what that is doing to clog up their lungs!
Many people might resort to the arguement that tobacco goes through a chemical process that makes it contain small amounts of harmful, and cancer causing, chemicals. And dope doesn't? Most of the dope that hits the streets now days has been hydroponically grown. The plants have been regularly sprayed with all manner of chemicals to aid in their rapid growth, most of which are extremely toxic. The containers have large warning labels on them about how dangerous the chemicals are. Some of them can't even be handled safely without the person using them wearing fully protective clothing and a gas mask! These chemicals are absorbed by the plants, the residue of these chemicals remains on the plants, and no one washes the plants before drying and processing them. Now days, dope contains about as many harmful chemicals as tobacco, and in some cases, the chemicals are in fact a lot worse and in higher quantities.
According to statistics, more people die from smoking related deaths than from dope smoking related deaths. True or False? We simply can not tell. Most people that smoke dope also smoke tobacco. So when they get sick and go to the doctor, they admit they smoke tobacco but won't admit to the dope. As such, the doctor puts their illnesses and inevitable death down to smoking tobacco rather than linking it to smoking dope. When we also consider that far less people smoke dope, of course the statistics won't read accurately. Simply put, there is no real way of telling how many people have died from dope smoking related illness, as it always get linked to tobacco smoking, and we have no real way of determining how many people smoke dope to begin with. Consequently, trying to say that no one dies from dope smoking related illness is again, ignorant and naive.
It has medical benefits.
Yes it does - it keeps doctors and morticians employed! Seriously though, there is no condition or illness that exists that doesn't have a pharmicudical prescription medication - that has less nasty side effects - available that will treat it far better. Ultimately, it is just another excuse to get high. Many years ago that statement may have held true for a few things, but not any more. Any one that tries to use this arguement has not done any research on the up-to-date medications and treatments used for those conditions and illnesses.
I would certainly hope that the articles that have already been written about this drug have been enough to make people realise that this drug is not a good thing, and that there are very good reasons why it is illegal. I'm hoping that this article will help parents effectively counteract the excuses and reasons that their children will hear about why people think it is okay to smoke dope.
