Has anyone ever tried to reason with a marijuana addict about the destructive nature of marijuana? Wow it can be akin to something like watching the movie "Must Love Dogs", long and frustrating.

Although denial exists to an extent in most addictions it seems to be somewhat of a religious right for the marijuana addict. You don't really run into too many meth addicts that will defend meth. Most marijuana enthusiasts have spent a great deal of time convincing themselves of the many benefits of marijuana use. My personal favorite is that it is "all natural", or that God made it and so he meant for us to use it. No joke I get that quite a bit and it always makes me laugh. The bird flue is also all natural and is of the most basic structures found in nature, yet few people are looking to contract it.

Another favorite marijuana rationalization is that they are not hurting anyone. If this all sounds familiar it is probably because all marijuana addicts attended the same seminar called, "Relieving Those Pesky Pangs of Conscience."

One thing that any addict needs to understand is how their conscience works. Conscience is a good thing and we all, I mean, most of us have one. Let me ask a question. What is the most solved crime in the United States? Any guesses, if you said murder you would be correct. An interesting bit of trivia but more important is why murder is the most solved crime in the US. No it is not because the Police spare no expense or resource in solving a murder, although this is true in most cases. The reason murders are solved is because of conscience. Murder apparently can be very offensive to the human conscience and when a murder is involved people more readily confess any information pertaining to the murder. The hardened criminal may have a conscience immune to robbery, rape etc. but the taking of a life sometimes does not sit well.

Although your conscience may cause you some psychological torment, be glad you have it. If you didn't have a conscience you would be in the same boat as the serial killer, the only thing keeping the serial killer from committing atrocities is fear of being punished.

An extreme example to be sure, but what do we do when we are faced with that uncomfortable feeling that tells us that what we are doing is wrong. Of course we immediately begin to rationalize what we have done, we make excuses for our behavior. The other thing people do, the psychologically healthy thing to do is to admit you made a mistake and decide to not repeat it.

Let me explain the danger of rationalizing away your guilt. All of us have a moral code of ethics that is indelibly etched on our consciousness, although the moral code may very from person to person we all have one and we on a daily basis compare moral choices we make to our own moral code. The trouble begins when we make choices that do not comply with our personal moral code. When we do this we are forced to ether re-write the code to exempt the previously offensive conduct or we have to feel bad and admit that our actions were bad according to our own measure.

If we choose to rationalize our actions and re-write the code then we have opened the door to question a myriad of our ethical standards. I have conversed with many methamphetamine addicts who tell me that meth is the Devils drug. They call it the Devil's drug because they continually do things that are contrary to their moral code. Their code is in such a state of constant reformation they don't really know what they are or are not capable of, and this is a scary place to live.

More often than not the code is not changed drastically overnight. For example, let me relate a story I was told by an associate. This individual growing up had some very strong moral values concerning illicit drugs. He was very much against using drugs of any kind. I am not sure of the circumstances but this individual was offered a puff of a marijuana joint. He was told that if he took one puff he could at least say that he had tried it and if did not ever smoke it again that was fine. Well he did take one puff however once he crossed that line each subsequent line became much easier to cross until in a relatively short period of time he had moved on to try cocaine and heroine.

When you tell yourself that you will just try it this once you are saying much more than that. You are also telling yourself, "I have no hard and fast rule where drugs are concerned I have changed my stance from never partaking of any drug too. I will take it on a case by case basis, or in other words maybe I will maybe I won't."

Now that we understand why we justify lets look at the effects that marijuana produces. There are some great studies out there about how marijuana tends to widen the gaps between the synapses in the brain and causes short term and long-term cognitive degeneration. But I am not going to discuss the physical damage caused by marijuana nor will I further belabor my point about it being a gateway vehicle to other drugs, because I believe there is something intimately more sinister about marijuana use.

Marijuana is a social and psychological retardant. When I was teaching general outpatient substance abuse classes I would inevitably have one of the marijuana addicts pipe up and inform the class that they did not belong in the class because they only smoked marijuana. I had this happen quit frequently so I usually followed the same procedure. I would ask the person how old they were. Then I would tell them I bet I can guess how old you were when you started smoking marijuana. Inevitably they would accept the challenge. I could always guess within a year. When they would ask me how I knew I would respond thusly. (Question) "Where do you live?" (Answer) "My parent's house." (Question) "How did you get here?" (Answer), "I rode my bike." (Question) "What is your favorite pastime?" (Answer) "Playing x-box." (Question) "How old are you again?" (Answer) "I am 35." Then I would say no you are 15 the same age you were when you started smoking weed. .



The catastrophic symptoms of marijuana use in my opinion although severe are not the physical symptoms. The marijuana addict's social and mental development grinds to a halt shortly after the addiction begins and although time passes this now 35 year old marijuana user instead of being concerned with adult issues is functioning on the level of a 15 year old. If you question this just find you a 35 to 45 year old pothead and ask him/her what their goals are, what they hope to accomplish and what they consider to be their greatest accomplishments.

The Bible Dictionary in the King James Version of the Bible defines damnation as a condition devoid of progress or an inability to move on. Marijuana is in more ways than one a gateway drug and in a very real sense it is the gateway to hell.

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