Monday, October 29, 2007

Marijuana Is To Leaf As Opium Is To Flower

"[Marijuana] is not a drug. It's a leaf," Schwarzenegger told GQ. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."

The above is an excerpt from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when asked whether he ever used drugs by the British edition of GQ. The Governor's publicist says that it must remain in the context in which it was said, a light-hearted interview.

Here is another excerpt from the same interview where Schwarzenegger is asked about other politicians who would not disclose current or past drug use, he says: "What would you rather have? A politician taking stuff and not saying, but making the best decisions and improving things? Or a politician who names all the drugs he or she has taken but makes lousy decisions for the country?" Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-In context, out of context, is there ever a good time to jest concerning illegal substances when you are in a position of authority?
-What do you think of the Governor's comments?
-Is marijuana a drug?
-Marijuana is to leaf as Opium is to flower as Meth is to under-the-counter house products. Are those correct parallels?

1 comment:

Webs said...

I think both sides of the marijuana argument are a little off. On the one hand using marijuana is going to cause your brain to melt and will suddenly make you as big a loser as a coke head or someone addicted to heroin.

On the other side you have those saying "smoke all you want no problem!" Well not exactly, there are memory issues associated with excessive pot smoking, and cancer as well. Now the cancer link is quite small, especially when compared to tobacco. And that link becomes smaller as the use of pot becomes smaller as well.

Making drugs illegal is going to be seen as the dumbest thing this country ever did at some point in the future.