October 6, 2006

"Good news for aging hippies."

"Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease."

ADDED: This story makes me think of the old line, "You can't fire me, I quit." I'm not going to let some disease destroy my intellectual powers, I'm going to make an idiot out of myself with drugs.

14 comments:

Mr. Forward said...

"Can't lose what you ain't never had."
Muddy Waters

goesh said...

- excuse me while I kiss the sky (J.H.)in celebration..

AllenS said...

Unfortunately, they will always be able to remember all of the stupid stuff they did when high.

Anonymous said...

This isn't going to be another one of those "rational basis" discussions, is it?

KCFleming said...

I guess that explains why the stoners did so well in high school.

Wow, man.

Joe Clifford Faust said...

How can they tell?

Ron said...

Well, at least they can forget for reasons they understand instead of reasons they don't!

Meade said...

Bad news for aging hippies: "Those afflicted with [the habit of smoking pot] suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills."

Meade said...

Badger, I was just riffing on a line out of Ann's linked-to article, something which Unknown Pundit (directly above) no doubt fails to find humorous.

Revenant said...

The WOD doles out injustice to hundreds of thousands annually in this country

Just because the War on Drugs is stupid, costly and destructive doesn't mean that potheads aren't, for the most part, a bunch of annoying losers. Prohibition was stupid, costly, and destructive too, but it is still rare to find an (practicing) alcoholic you'd want as a friend, family member or coworker.

I'm not talking about people who smoke a joint every now and then (ahem), but about people who get high on a regular basis. They're just as worthless as alcoholics, and also have the annoying habit of tending to vote for Ralph Nader.

To put it another way, the stereotypes and jokes at their expense would be funny if real flesh and blood people weren't going to jail for possession of dried plants

To put it yet another way, the fact that people are willing to risk prison time just to get high is, itself, pretty damned funny to those of us who haven't got a psychological dependency on the stuff.

Revenant said...

They don't beat their wives, molest children, drive drunk, or kill their brain cells half as fast as alcoholics.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the first three things are true and the fourth is actually a plus. It doesn't change the fact that potheads, like all addicts, neglect their friends, spouses, jobs, and children, and in doing do both produce a lot of misery and cost society a lot of capital, human and monetary.

Stoners who stick to marijuana alone are not a problem

Yeah, actually, they are. And the unwillingness of some legalization activists to admit that simple, undeniable reality is one of the main reasons the majority of society doesn't trust any of us. Why should they believe rational arguments against the war on drugs when you mix them in with arguments nobody who's ever known a stoner can take seriously? You say "The war on drugs is expensive and harms our rights" and they think "this is true". You add "and besides, there's nothing wrong with people who get high constantly" and they think "oh wait, nevermind, this man's an idiot".

Revenant said...

Yes siree, that is a real rib tickler fer shure...... as you've proven your superior sense of humor, I've got some Soviet gulag jokes you'll just love....

Oh, yes, it's exactly like the Soviet Gulags. That's just the sort of sane, rational attitude that's sure to convince people that the war on drugs is a bad idea.

Sheesh. This is why we still *have* a war on drugs. Because too many of the people who oppose it are people, like you who are completely out of touch with reality. For every calm, rational opponent of the war on drugs we get a fifty who sound like street corner crazies.

JorgXMcKie said...

The stoners I've known (from the late 60s thru not that long ago) seemed to already exhibit the symptoms of Alzheimer's. (There you go unknown pundit, a joke in poor taste at multiple unfortunates.)

I'm in favor of the legalization of most 'recreational' drugs by the consensual (bad stuff like PCP should be illegal in the same way moonshine is -- you can't trust it). However, I also believe in holding people responsible for idiocies committed while 'under the influence.'

Jokes about druggies will exist (either above- or underground) so long as druggies continue to do stupid things *because* they're druggies).

Meade said...

Don't bogart that olive oil, my friend....