I wonder what you guys would think of my social group…they drink beer, and whiskey, and vodka, plus smoke pot and also use psychedelics like acid, mescaline and even bizarre “research chemicals” like something called “2CI” with alarming regularity. All are on the fast track to professional careers and one was just offered a $250,000-a-year job at age 27.
They won’t be on the fast track for long. The pot is harmless but the rest of that stuff catches up to you eventually, especially the alcohol.
You think grown adults, professionals, don’t smoke pot or drink??? I’m not sure what you are saying with your post? Being offered a 250k job at 27 does not mean that person quits drinking or smoking pot…often, they don’t quit at all. Only difference is now they can afford the 500 an ounce hydroponic…
As for this thread in general - I know a lot of people who are 40+ who smoke pot. Non of them act the way the OP says. All of them are professionals. Some own boats. At the marina my boat is slipped at, I can point to half a dozen boats whose owners puff regularly.
What was described in the op tends to change when people age, at least in my experience. I don’t drink anymore, but I my friends do and non of them act that way. I have no idea if they used to or not. Personally, I don’t care if they did. I don’t hang with people who get obliterated, one way or the other, so I guess it’s a moot point.
There’s a much more entertaining test of drunk vs. stoned abilities on Virgin Radio.
http://www.virginradio.co.uk/djs_shows/shows/geoff/drunk-v-stoned.html
The potheads missed a great opportunity to make a bong out of a spinnaker and some rigging. Extra points for accidentally setting it on fire and thinking it was hysterical.
I have friends who have been smoking pot all their lives, and friends who have been drinking hard all their lives. The potheads look none the worse for wear. The drunks are slowing down and slurring their speech and are definitely showing the signs of having their brains pickled for 20 years.
We legalized the wrong recreational drug.
Well, I don´t know if there really is a way in which pot smokers smoke pot, in the sense of it being an appropriate amount.
Drinking, since it´s been a part of society for some time, is easier to measure in terms of drinking reasonable amounts. A person who gets drunk every day obviously has a problem, but a person can drink every day and not be a drunk.
Moderate pot smoking affects people in different ways than moderate drinking, in my expirience. People who have, say one or two drinks tend to be more social, but will not be hindered or become lazy if they need to get something done.
Pot, on the other hand works in different ways. Someone who somkes half a joint, or a full joint of weed might actually become lazy or too laid back and tend to procrastinate to do things. I´ve seen this happen to many people. This is not always the case, as I do know some people who do smoke pot everyday and still go about there day without problems. But with what I´ve seen smoking pot should be left for times in which you will not be doing anything that requires quick thinking or actions that are not meant to improve the state of your high. For example some people that smoke pot like walking around a nice park or other nice looking areas.
I still think that pot is much less harmful than drinking, especially when big amounts of both come into play. I also confess that I like the pot feeling much more than being drunk, and I think pot can certainly expand your mind and be enlightening an times. But the fact that society has a `measuring stick´as to what amount of drinking is okay, versus pot, moderate drinking seems to be less hindering than moderate pot smoking on a daily basis and speaking in general terms, of course.
I have to disagree with that. A single mixed drink hinders one’s faculties and reflexes more than half a joint. I’ve done a lot of “experimentation” in my time, and nothing, not even acid, has impaired me more than alcohol. Aside from meth, I think alcohol is the most destructive drug there is.
Amen. And what **Radegast ** said.
I have to disagree with that.
I´ve rarely, if ever, smoked half a joint and been able to do the things I need to do in work, or other areas that are not meant to be for fun and enjoyment.
Of course, if you have a big glass of a mixed drink on a completley empty stomach, then you will not be able to do things very well. But the same case with a light meal in your stomach does not make me feel unable to perform non-fun tasks.
Of course every person is different, and these are my observations and reactions to both substances.
But I´ve always been suprised by this board when people say that they know others who can smoke a whole joint and still be able to perform work-related tasks.
In my opinion the weed they smoke has to be regular, as in, it will get you high, but not really high or stoned.
Roughly 70% of the people I know who smoke pot get really high.
Must be the strength of the weed.
Again, I must press on the issue that I like weed much more and I think that it is much less harmful than alcohol, both in large amounts, but in moderation, at least for me, alcohol is more managable, but less pleasurable.
Having witnessed heroine, pills, alcohol, coke addiction from the point of view of a counselor at a rehab…Alcohol is like the chinese torture of a thousand cuts. It’s abuse slowly, cuts away at your entire being: from your personal relationships, cognition to physical body - slowly kills you.
Heroine, and others can be OD’d on much quicker. Of course you can OD on alcohol, but the rate of OD-ing on heroine, pills, coke etc…etc… is much higher than alcohol. But in my opinion, alcohol is the worse - because it’s legal.
Missed the edit window:
I think this is a **very important ** aspect of both substances:
I also think that getting an alcohol buzz and a slight high from weed is also very different. For me, getting a light alcohol buzz makes me feel good, but I can pretty much do anything well. For me, getting a little high just makes me sleepy and I don´t really enjoy it.
Getting drunk is fun for like 45 minutes, then becomes shitty. Getting high is amazing for me, as I enjoy everything around me 5 times more.
There is no other level of drinking for me above drunk, otherwise I will throw up and pass out. Getting extremely high, many times, is lots of fun, and dosent leave you with a headache. Problem for me is, sometimes smoking too much pot makes me have nasty panic attacks.
I think you may have missed the point of my post…
What I’m trying to say - pretty explicitly - is that you can grow up and have a career and also keep smoking pot. For the record, many of these guys are slowing down a little as they’re growing up, and limiting their recreation to mainly pot and a little hard booze now and then.
There are lots of different kinds of pot and different kinds of “highs.” I once smoked “Jack Herer” and it was the most “up” high I’ve ever had…I was totally motivated, talkative, physically active…it was a totally clean, non-drowsy, “enlightening” high. No laziness at all. Other stuff I’ve smoked has just made me feel as if I’m melting into the chair I’m sitting in…like this drawing by R. Crumb. It varies.
Drunks vary also. Beers make me hyper, aggressive and arrogant. Whiskey makes me mellow and eventually tired. (I’ve heard other people say they have the opposite reaction.) Wine tends to make girls hornier than other kinds of alcohol but maybe that’s just a psychological effect of the fact that wine is “classier” than other kinds of booze.
Ah, Ok…I misunderstood.
This is also true. There are different kinds of buzz for Alcohol, and many different types of high for weed.
But in general, one can state that a little bit of alcohol will make you more socially outgoing, it will make you feel more relaxed and so on. As amounts inrease then you get slurred speach, blurred vision then you move on to getting dizzy, getting the spins etc.
Weed, in general, will make you more mellow and less likely to engage in physical activity. As you smoke more, things look more intense music sounds better, etc.
Of course, there are some strains of weed that are crazy. I once had this cali bud that floored me for 1 hour and a half, just looking at the floor tile thinking all types of thoughts. This other bud I got from a friend was extremely visual high, didn´t make me feel lazy, until I started coming down and was very fun.
But in general, one can safely make certain statements about both drugs.
This whole post is asinine.
Uh, no.
More like “beer drinkers so hungover they can’t even stomach the thought of food, three are out in the side yard retching”.
Meanwhile, “pot smokers forgot half the ingredients but still cooked up an amazing spread and did some damn creative shit with what they had on hand”.
And: “both groups show up 3 hours late for sailing.” Beer drinkers got 2 DUIs on the way home from the marina. Pot smokers sailed around all the marina all day, never realizing that they’d left the anchor down".
I couldn’t agree more. 
I think everybody knows functional/dysfunctional pot smokers/beer drinkers.
Re: the OP and some of the comments:
This is mostly based on a true story of, “Let’s go stay at pot head’s/beer drinker’s house and go sailing the next day.”
All of the beer drinkers used to be heavy pot smokers, until about their mid-twenties.
Most of the beer drinkers are male, most of the pot heads are female. That made me appreciate the person who said, “Maybe for the pot heads it’s about visiting and sorta sailing, while for the beer drinkers it’s about sailing and sorta visiting.” Spot on and I appreciate the insight.
As for driving sailing/drunk, 12 drinks in a 12 hour drinking day would be a lot for one of the beer drinkers (we’re old).
If you’re responsible for driving/sailing you either don’t drink, don’t drink as much (wait till we hit camp/home) and you quit drinking several hours before.
Both groups cook well, the beer drinkers just tend to have this, “Iron Chef” competition of who can bring/make the best food.
Anyway, I probably should have put this in MPSIMS.
whistlepig
I’ve never had a fistfight with a doper. I’ve never been threatened by a doper. I’ve never held a doper’s head while he pukes.
Those things are not true of drinkers I’ve hung out with.
I’ve gotta say, “Hell, yes!” to this. I definitely don’t need pot to be lazy. 
So wait, you post a heavily biased story with an apparent agenda. It isn’t even completely true, and has pertinent facts left out besides. Why would you do that? For a reaction?
A better place might be on a floppy disk at the bottom of your sock drawer.