Cannabis Should NOT Be Treated Like Alcohol Or Tobacco

Source from:  marijuana.com 11/02/2007

It seems that many activists (not all but many) haven't shaken off the reefer madness scares themselves. They want to half-ass the reverse of pot's demonization by comparing it to alcohol and tobacco. However there is absolutely no comparison between alcohol and tobacco vs cannabis. Yet activists want to concede with prohibitionists to a certain extent by having the same regulations (sin taxes, legal ages, ect.). Some even want its legal age to be the same as alcohol (21)........have you lost your mind? I mean no offense but seriously, alcohol is far more toxic and dangerous than weed could ever be. Alcohol itself is more intoxicating than most illegal drugs and is more comparable to cocaine and heroin. And of course tobacco is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet.......heroin for example has a 20% addiction rate while tobacco has a 90% addiction rate. Cannabis is basically non-addictive. For those who think cannabis should be treated like alcohol and tobacco, would you except the same regulation on caffeine? Caffeine produces far more harms than cannabis.......more overdoses and over 10,000 deaths related from being triggered by caffeine (ulcers, irregular heartbeat leading to heart failure, ect.), and yet there are no regulations on it. For example, many parents are worried that without a legal age kids will have uncontrolled access to cannabis. Yet these same parents don't care that a can of caffeinated soda is equivalent to an adult dose for a child. And coffee of course is easily within their reach, meaning many kids dose themselves with many times dosages their body needs while parents don't usually care as much. The reasons are pretty simple why many adults care so much.......they unconsciously haven't gotten rid of all the reefer madness propaganda with them. After all cannabis is illegal and in the most tightly controlled category.......even if they see this as bullshit.......they don't want to take any chances and thus become more primal and irrational if young people and cannabis are brought up. I'm not saying kids should use cannabis......I personally think children should stay away from ALL psychoactives (including caffeine of course) until their bodies have fully developed. But it is hypocrisy to have a reefer madness reaction to a younger person taking cannabis while not having the same reaction towards caffeine consumption. And the more people say cannabis is like alcohol and tobacco the less people will buy its safety. Many people don't like what alcohol and tobacco have already done for society.......why would they want another alcohol and tobacco-like product to "corrupt" their children? After all to them it seems like cannabis contains a combined alcohol-tobacco harm package. It's smoked like tobacco, and produces a noticeable degree of "intoxication"......so why would they want this double-wammy to replace the other two? Even if cannabis smoking is nothing like tobacco smoking and the "intoxication" of cannabis is nothing like alcohol intoxication. Activists should instead point out that cannabis is less harmful than caffeine, instead of half-assing cannabis to the status of alcohol and tobacco. Enditem