Why do you have a hard time believing that? And what is your definition of casually? For that matter, what's your definition of abuse?

What I'm saying is who do you think would be the most healthy?
Someone who has a glass of wine with a meal every night or someone who smokes a joint every night.

I would say those things are not equivalent. A more accurate comparison would be between a puff or two and a glass of wine. I can't imagine either would have much of an impact on one's health.

Smoking anything isn't healthy, but that's not the only way marijuana can be consumed. You do have a point, however, as alcohol is one of the few recreational drugs with health benefits when used casually (such as a glass of red wine at dinner).

However, when abused I think it's definitely more harmful than marijuana.

Another thing people don't seem to remember (I'm not saying you don't, Urban, just folks in general) is that using marijuana doesn't always result in you getting "stoned", just as drinking doesn't always result in you getting "drunk". I'd be curious to see the long term effects of marijuana use in moderation, but to my knowledge no studies exist. Instead we had Reagan putting masks on chimps and suffocating the poor bastards. And those "studies" are still cited :rolleyes:

Well a few drinks isn't going to kill me so I agree that drinking in moderation is probably less harmful, but between daily smokers and daily drinkers I definitely vouch that cannabis is less harmful.

In a roundabout way that's pretty much why I don't think it should be legalised, that a few puffs has the same potency as a glass of wine or a can of beer. I think if it was legalised it would be much more open to abuse.

Decriminalised ? Sure, I don't have a problem with that. I don't think people should be prosecuted for having it and I don't have a problem with people who want to do it. I just think that legalising something that is much more potent than alcohol would be a mistake.

But by that logic shouldn't higher proofs of alcohol be illegal? Having a beer and having a shot is still having an alcoholic beverage but one is more potent. And the effects of alchohol and cannibus are hardly comparable.

In a lot of places they are.

Try finding black absinthe on a shop shelf.

Hell the european union banned cheese made with Unpasteurized milk, I want that sh*t legalised long before weeds is.

Have you ever smoked before and/or do you even know anyone who has?

Yes, but alcohol is more addictive than marijuana.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/comparecht.gif

You may be able to get more intoxicated from a joint than you can from a glass of wine, but that doesn't change the fact that the effects of marijuana intoxication aren't near as bad as alcohol. A few puffs will get your average stoner high for a few hours, and they are not likely to go back for more for at least a few hours. Your average drinker is more likely to want another glass after they've had just one, or however many it takes to get a little buzz. So, the fact that a small amount of marijuana is stronger than a small amount of alcohol is a good thing. Since you can get the desired effect from just a small amount of marijuana, you're a lot less likely to abuse it; compared to alcohol, which requires more abuse to get the desired effect. And of course, once you do reach that point of desired effect, the effects of alcohol are a lot more dangerous than the effects of marijuana.