# Wanna Get Smashed? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 21, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189 "2004-04-21T07:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bookbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@bookbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookbuster)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/1 "2004-04-21T07:24:13Z")
Let’s get it straight. Alcohol is about the hardest drug that is commonly used recreationally (and yes, I am aware that there are people who snort cocaine recreationally). In other recent threads, and in real life, I meet people who believe that because they only indulge in binge drinking they are on a moral high ground as opposed to people who experiment with the non-tax drugs. I don’t care if you drink. Hell, sometimes I drink too. But you are not better than me. OK? Just drop the attitude and admit it, alcohol is some hardcore shit. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/2 "2004-04-21T08:27:22Z")
Could you spare tuppence for a cup of link? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/3 "2004-04-21T09:44:07Z")
I’m a drinker and a drug taker(hash/pot mostly) with no qualms or hang-ups about either. Drinking is legal. Smoking dope is not. Drinking even to excess(falling over drunk) is basically socially acceptable and legal in Ireland although the government are trying to make it less accepted. So I can understand someone taking a morally superior position because they only drink. Not saying it’s right but it’s understandable. They’re not breaking the law even if they are possibly doing themselves damage. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/4 "2004-04-21T10:56:45Z")
Yeah, civil disobedience is a sure sign of immorality. Rosa Parks should have stayed in the back of the bus. I can understand why law abiding people considered her to be so uppity. And don’t even get me started on that Thoreau guy. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/5 "2004-04-21T11:21:57Z")
“Rosa Parks”?! As for me, I’m more likely to give up my bus seat when I’m smashed, seeing as how I’m using the bathroom every five minutes. Of course, I’m not reading _Walden_ when I’m in there so I’m pretty quick about draining the 'ole dragon, but I try to reserve the bathroom for Gandhi. All that fasting and then the guy scarfes down Indian Food? Trust me on this - You do NOT want to go to the bathroom after that guy. Anywho, what were we talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/6 "2004-04-21T12:10:52Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > Yeah, civil disobedience is a sure sign of immorality. Rosa Parks should have stayed in the back of the bus. I can understand why law abiding people considered her to be so uppity. And don’t even get me started on that Thoreau guy. I rarely take part in pit discussions. Usually I don’t feel a strong enough sense of outrage to bother. However, you have lost a lot of my respect by comparing what Rosa Parks did to people trying to legalise recreational drugs. There is a world of difference, and if you don’t recognize that you diminish what Ms. Parks did, the stance she took, the courage she had. Not every act of civil disobedience is worthy of admiration, not every worthy act of civil disobedience is courageous. Legalise pot or not, I don’t feel strongly about that, but lets diminish the truly noble acts. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/7 "2004-04-21T13:10:58Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > However, you have lost a lot of my respect by comparing what Rosa Parks did to people trying to legalise recreational drugs. There is a world of difference, and if you don’t recognize that you diminish what Ms. Parks did, the stance she took, the courage she had. Not every act of civil disobedience is worthy of admiration, not every worthy act of civil disobedience is courageous. Um, usually I guess I’d snarl at **Libertarian** for hijacking the thread into something that the OP wasn’t talking about. In this case, however, I won’t. It’d be a quite reasonable argument that there’s a huge number of people sitting in jail in the US because of recreational drug use. Getting them out, and stopping the practice of jailing recreational drug users, _is_ directly comparable to what Rosa Parks did. In other words, I think you’re talking out of your ass. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/8 "2004-04-21T14:07:39Z")
Ah. So we’re saying that refusing to accept one’s status as a second-class citizen (third-class, really, considering black women were pretty much bottom of the heap) by committing a rather risky act of civil disobedience… …is the same as smokin’ a joint? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/9 "2004-04-21T14:17:41Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > Ah. > > So we’re saying… “We”? If you’re unable to identify who’s saying what, there’s not much point in the rest of your statement, is there? Have another spliff. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/10 "2004-04-21T14:30:33Z")
> [@Desmostylus](#): > > Um, usually I guess I’d snarl at **Libertarian** for hijacking the thread into something that the OP wasn’t talking about. In this case, however, I won’t. It’d be a quite reasonable argument that there’s a huge number of people sitting in jail in the US because of recreational drug use. Getting them out, and stopping the practice of jailing recreational drug users, _is_ directly comparable to what Rosa Parks did. > > In other words, I think you’re talking out of your ass. You are mistaken. Rosa Parks took a stand on a matter of race. Being born to any race is not a matter of choice. Choosing to break the law, whether or not you agree with the law, IS a matter of choice. They can’t be compared on an equal level and it is you who are talking out your ass. If, by being born into a race, your rights are restricted, that is unjust. If you don’t see the difference, you are also a fool. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/11 "2004-04-21T14:44:48Z")
Desmo may be many things, but fool is not one of them. Drug laws are most oppressive of people who happen to be born into a race, especially a black or hispanic one. The prison population is overwhelmingly black and hispanic, and a significant number of those are victims of the War on Americans I Mean Drugs. Rosa Parks was not thinking about her race when she refused to move; she was thinking about her dignity. You are the one who demeans what she did by trivializing her actions into a play of the race card. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/12 "2004-04-21T15:03:03Z")
[QUOTE=Libertarian] Rosa Parks was not thinking about her race when she refused to move; she was thinking about her dignity. QUOTE] The problem I have with this comparison is that it assumes that Ms. Parks was just a black woman that got fed up and did something heroic. That may be the case, but she is also a woman that had long been an activist for civil rights, and was part of a larger comprehensive plan to smash Jim Crow in the South. She was just one of several cases that the NAACP considered as the one that they would bring to court. Hers was a very calculated move in a grander strategy, and frankly, that’s why I respect her as much as I do. If I got the impression that illicit drug users were similarly motivated and organized, I might respect them more as a group, though I’d likely still diagree with their position. I think it’s impoortant to understand that not all criminal acts are acts of civil disobedience. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/13 "2004-04-21T15:37:18Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > And don’t even get me started on that Thoreau guy. - Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. Henry David Thoreau, _Civil Disobedience_, 1846. Let me know when you plan to live up to that quote. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/14 "2004-04-21T16:10:53Z")
Well, the only _reason_ Rosa Parks raised such a fuss is because she was hopped-up on goofballs. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/15 "2004-04-21T16:21:04Z")
Yeah, I can’t think of any non-hallucinogenic drug that will fuck you up more than alcohol. Alcohol is the substance I’ve been on that has most altered my state of consciousness, and not in a good way, either. (I’ve never done hallucinogens, and I don’t want to, either.) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/16 "2004-04-21T16:21:54Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Well, the only _reason_ Rosa Parks raised such a fuss is because she was hopped-up on goofballs. Laughing. Crying. Laughing. so so SO wrong! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/17 "2004-04-21T17:39:00Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > Desmo may be many things, but fool is not one of them. Drug laws are most oppressive of people who happen to be born into a race, especially a black or hispanic one. The prison population is overwhelmingly black and hispanic, and a significant number of those are victims of the War on Americans I Mean Drugs. Rosa Parks was not thinking about her race when she refused to move; she was thinking about her dignity. You are the one who demeans what she did by trivializing her actions into a play of the race card. The inmates may be black or hispanic, but that does not mean that they were choiceless when they chose to break the law. As far as Ms. Parks not thinking about race, you are mistaken. Ms. Parks was a long-time NAACP activist when she chose to take the stand she did. Further, she also chose to allow the trial to move forward to break down segregation: > [@](#): > > Though often remembered as a seamstress, Parks was an educated woman who attended Alabama State College; she worked as a seamstress because she could not find a job commensurate with her level of education. She was also a long-time NAACP worker who had also completed a workshop on race relations at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, where she learned various methods of peaceful protest. > > On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks and three other blacks boarded a city bus and sat in he first row that blacks could sit in, the fifth row. A few stops later, the front four rows were filled with whites, and one white man was left standing. According to the law, blacks and whites couldn’t sit in the same row, so the bus driver asked Parks and the other three blacks to relinquish their seats. The other three complied, leaving Parks to be arrested. > > E. D. Nixon – Pullman porter, union leader, and another character often overshadowed by better-known civil rights heroes – found out Parks had been arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus and posted bond for her. “Mrs. Parks, with your permission, we can break down segregation on the bus with this case,” she remembers him telling her. After discussing the matter with her husband, she agreed. [Site](http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/rc20001201rosa.asp) Her actions were about making the races equal. To site history does not equal playing the race card; nor does willingly breaking a law you don’t agree with a noble person. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/18 "2004-04-21T22:03:00Z")
> [@Stonebow](#): > > If I got the impression that illicit drug users were similarly motivated and organized, I might respect them more as a group, though I’d likely still diagree with their position. NORML. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/19 "2004-04-22T02:12:54Z")
> [@Stonebow](#): > > If I got the impression that illicit drug users were similarly motivated and organized, I might respect them more as a group, though I’d likely still diagree with their position. > > I think it’s impoortant to understand that not all criminal acts are acts of civil disobedience. You might be interested in this [_Globe and Mail_ article](http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040420/POT20//) about that little international day of organized protests yesterday. > [@](#): > > To some, April 20 is a good day to light up a joint and celebrate marijuana with friends. To others, its a time to protest against the fact that, despite moves toward decriminalization, the drug is still illegal in both Canada and the United States. It’s not just us anarchic Canadians, either. Here’s the [view from Mississippi](http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/8471628.htm), [Michegan](http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1082475933235680.xml), [Colorado](http://news4colorado.com/localnews/local_story_112162233.html), [New Mexico](http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/042104_news_420.shtml), [Vermont](http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/news/3026552/detail.html), [Washington](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/170008_pot21.html), [Minnesota](http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/04/21/9350), [Texas](http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/8473526.htm), [California](http://www.dailyorange.com/news/2004/04/20/Feature/Smokers.Celebrate.Joys.Of.Marijuana.On.Drugs.Unofficial.Holiday-665472.shtml)… you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189/20 "2004-04-22T03:02:35Z")
[severe hijack] [quote] _snip_ Here’s the view from Mississippi, Michegan _snip_ [quote] Michigan. MichIgan. Thank you. 😉 [/sh] To the OP, I agree. I’ve been around drunk people. I’ve been around stoned people. I’d much rather be around a bunch of stoned people. The worst they’ll do is try to eat your couch. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-get-smashed/241189.md?page=2)