>

Don’t know how and why you jumped to that conclusion so fast. 
This article is full of common sense; don’t use when pregnant, wait until you’re an adult, don’t drive when high, weed doesn’t necessarily improve athletic performance, and you probably have issues if you use it everyday. What else is new? 
The article mentions that the negative impact on mental health is not proven. Basically correlation vs causation that’s unclear.
/u/humvee911 (OP) has awarded 4 delta(s) in this post.
All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >


Brain health: Marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss of as much as 8 points when people start using it at a young age

The validity of Iq scores has a long history of being and continues to be questioned. That aside, this is an argument against using marijuana at a young age, not using it overall. Plenty of things that are fine for adults are not fine for children.

Mental health: Studies link marijuana use to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes. It is not known, however, if marijuana use is the cause of these conditions.

You just said yourself that their isn't a link in these studies. Frankly, marijuana studies have been pretty intensive it would be unlikely for anything drastic to be uncovered now.

Athletic Performance: Research shows that marijuana affects timing, movement, and coordination, which can harm athletic performance.

Okay? So don't smoke a joint before you have a big game. This isn't a bad thing overall. I don't think anyone is saying otherwise, they arent intaking weed to be competitive at sports, they are doing it to relax rather than be active, or if they are being active its just for fun and they dont want get caught up trying to be competitive.

Baby’s health and development: Marijuana use during pregnancy may cause fetal growth restriction, premature birth, stillbirth, and problems with brain development, resulting in hyperactivity and poor cognitive function...

So don't use weed while pregnant. Simular to your first point about children, pregnant people's bodies are drastically different than a non-pregnant body and plenty of things will harm it that otherwise wouldn't.

Driving: People who drive under the influence of marijuana can experience dangerous effects: slower reactions, lane weaving, decreased coordination, and difficulty reacting to signals and sounds on the road.

So don't drive while high. This does not mean its bad overall. Again plenty of things you dont want to do while driving that can distract you, let's compare it to those.

Daily life: Using marijuana can affect performance and how well people do in life. Research shows that people who use marijuana are more likely to have relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower career achievement, and reduced life satisfaction.

Im interested to know what exact studies you referring to here? The only thing im aware of are older studies that have long since been shown to be biased and more recent studies don't show this. There also is like with the depression studies ( but even more so in this case) a lack of real ability to actually pinpoint marijuana as the reason for any of these >

Where is OP‘s response? Should have had enough time… >


why do people think otherwise 

I don't think that they do. I think most people know it's bad for their health on some level. And they view it as an acceptable risk to reward. 
I may be projecting. But I dunno I think I'm on to something. >

I mean people obviously believe it's good, since I'm getting downvoted. I'd like to see comments from those types of people. >

Note: complaining about downvotes only gets you more downvotes >

Pretty much everything, even bloody orange juice, is bad for your health in excess, and almost anything, even poisons, is good for your soul in moderation if it makes you happy. >

Well that's some classic propaganda if I've ever seen it. 
It's not one thing that will FK U up it's doing too much of the one thing just the same as eating.  I'm 48 n 36yrs of smoking weed not ideal but it never killed me. And the driving bit. Like yeah hearing about all those crashes with pizza all over the windscreen and Cheetos rolling out the doors.  So for me it's a joint with a 6pack than a carton. 
All of these warnings not to do something with the examples being people doing to much of one thing and not the norm. Smoke natural weed drink Cooper's n sample the rest.  My best advice at near 50 >

don’t confuse correlation with causation >

Δ This is a good point. I did find it suspicious how the studies were not easy to find. >

Studies are often hard to find with any drug, especially one where so many are dedicated to spread misinformation about supposed benefits . >

Yes and also, there is emerging dangers of marijuana comming every couple of years, CHS its a good one that people like to omit. Other more obscure ones like cannabis smokers developing bizarre infections like Oral and esophagheal thrush. infections you only developed with severe inmunosupression.
Weed its not safe. before it was not researched due to its legality, its that simple, misinformation was from brain dead stoners >

This is true. It also doubles cancer for testicles ...so hard pass >

But it feels good.  People sacrifice a little bit of health to enjoy themselves.  Always have, always will. >

Δ True. I guess people do deserve to chill out sometimes since we're all gonna die in the end anyways. >

Heroin feels good. Does that mean everyone should do heroin? >

Not necessarily, but I get the premise. Videogames and porn feel good but no one bats an eye since they're already socially accepted >

So you think that heroin should be perfectly legal then?
I disagree with you strongly there. Just look up the guy who tried heroin for the first time on reddit. >

When I said not necessarily, I implied I disagreed with heroin being legal. But the amount of controversy surrounding weed in this thread makes me unclear as to the addictiveness of it. >

But your CMV states that weed is bad for you. The comment that changed your view was "but it feels good, and it should be okay for people to sacrifice their health because of that" >

That's why I added to the post that the broadness of the post was what caused my view to be changed. Weed might be bad for you in the long term, but not in the short term. >


Weed might be bad for you in the long term, but not in the short term.

If using it in the short term gets you arrested, then it's bad for you in the short term.
But even if it's "not bad for you in the short term, but is still bad for you in the long term" that doesn't actually change the fact that it's bad for you. >

I guess what I meant by the delta is I imagined that you could live a life doing whatever the fuck you want since no one really knows what we're doing here anyways and therefore no one has any authority to really tell us what to do. But in your mind you'd be happy. And if smoking weed makes you happy, then fuck it. Same with heroin I guess, yeah I take my previous statement back. It was an interesting alternative view that I considered. >

My wife takes medical marijuana for her chronic nerve damage. Her strain of choice is about 0.1% THC. None of what you stated above affects her, at all. 
So, how is a painkiller with no mental affects bad? >

That’s not the most robust example. That’s a niche scenario. It’s like calling someone out for saying heroin is bad because when used in suitable doses by medical professionals it dramatically helps patients. We can engineer a situation in which almost anything can come out positive. 
The fact remains that habitually inhaling smoke, no matter the stimulant content (which is clearly what this post is in referral to), is categorically bad for you. That is an undeniable scientific fact. And I say that as a smoker myself. Some people are happy to accept minor risks and consequences for the pleasure. Which is fine, but it doesn’t change the reality.
Some applications can be net gain in quality of life. Like your wife. But medical usage in highly conservative doses is not at the fore of the discussion. >

So, perhaps it shouldn't be "weed is bad for you" but instead "abusing weed is bad for you."
Which we'd all agree with anyway. >

I’m not sure we’re in agreement. Smoking one cigarette isn’t going to kill you, but it is still bad for your health. In that, you’d still be better off not inhaling smoke into your lungs than doing so. No matter how minor the effect. 
I don’t think that just because we want to view something as acceptable, such a smoking, drinking or smoking weed, even in moderation. That we should dilute our opinion on the health effects, and make concessions for it. It’s perfectly fine to accept that something you enjoy is not healthy. >

Drugs are bad… mmmkay? >

Anything you inhale into your lungs other than fresh air is bad for you. 
Fast food is bad for you as well. People spend too much money, gain too much weight, die of heart problems, etc >

I have a ton of allergies. Even what most people consider "fresh air" is terrible for me lol >

I’m afraid you shouldn’t uncritically accept everything that government organizations like SAMSHA say about drugs, especially marijuana. Some groups within the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s decided to use drug policy as a weapon against the groups they didn’t like (particularly blacks and Mexicans) so they launched a coordinated policy of demonizing these drugs. This has led to anti-marijuana zealots who frankly don’t care about actual evidence continuing to smear marijuana in ways that don’t line up with reality. 
To offer a personal anecdote, I used to have anxiety problems. I did all the stuff society tells you to do - I went to therapy and saw a psychologist and got a diagnosis and tried almost a dozen legal prescription anxiety medications (one at a time, not all at once haha). Most of them didn’t help much, or they did help but they had terrible side effects that made them intolerable to me. And then I took a trip to Amsterdam where marijuana is legal and tried it for the first time. It was eye opening - it completely stopped my anxiety symptoms all by itself. 
I got over my anxiety issues after a while. But marijuana would have really helped if I could have gotten it legally in America and I suffer end needlessly for years because it wasn’t at the time. This helped change my own feelings towards marijuana - our society spends so much time pushing legal medications that don’t work or that barely work with terrible side effects, and this plant that can seriously help is not just not recommended but literally you can go to jail for trying it. This is one reason why there are so many passionate marijuana advocates out there. It has so much ability to heal so many different issues, or just to help you have a good time - there’s nothing wrong with that either! 
Look at actual scientific studies or try it for yourself and make up your own mind, OP. But don’t get taken in by the lies of organizations like SAMSHA that have a vested and irrational interest in demonizing marijuana. >

Maybe.
I live somewhere where it's (again) 100% illegal with zero concessions in terms of decriminalization or low priority for prosecution. It used to be different, but them's the rules now.
Until not too long ago I used it as self-medication for several ailments. Now, I have to do without, and my quality of life has gone down noticeably. I've tried to replace it with good habits and officially prescribed medications, and the efficacy of this combination is leagues below what the waccy tobaccy used to be for me.
I was also "promised" a great deal of health benefits for quitting, all of which I'm still waiting for. I chalk it up to both personal subjectivity and the fact that every human body is different. Mine apparently worked fine with THC.
Regardless, it's out of my hands now and I will have to live with it. Society has deemed that many different poisons are a-ok, and that a fairly harmless plant is not, and excepting me leaving said society for another one with different rules, I have to abide.  
So my question to you, OP, is: where is the cutoff for societal benefit (as described above) vs the drawbacks which you pointed out? Who gets to make that decision? (Obviously, the legal system + politics does, but should they? Shouldn't medical professionals have a lot more say in such cases?) >

Focusing on one aspect here in specific to show that people who are giving you information about how "bad" weed is, aren't doing it in good faith.

Mental health: Studies link marijuana use to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes. It is not known, however, if marijuana use is the cause of these conditions.

The key word is "link".
There's also a link between taking anti depresants and depression. A link between chemo therapy and having cancer. >

I need good little Christian’s to tell me what to do all thanks to their grandiose delusion.