I'm 100% for legalization, but no drug is ever completely safe. I had to talk a friend down from a nasty paranoid dissociation episode after she ate the recommended dose of a mass-produced legal pot cookie in Seattle. It's a hell of a lot safer than alcohol, IMO, but that's not the same thing as "safe".
Doesn't mean one causes the other, though. More that one can (but doesn't always) bring out some of the symptoms. It surely isn't enough of a link to ban it for that reason, unless we want to ban things like stress, which can also bring on symptoms if you have the "right" setup for it.
Factual drug information would include these warnings, plus giving lots of folks information about what to do if it should happen. Prudent age limits - ones that can be enforced reasonably - help folks know themselves a bit more before they try it out. Psychiatric care being normal can help catch a few folks along the way, and knowing what to do (per the drug education) hopefully means more folks get help.
It won't stop the "I am fine, it won't happen to me" sort of thinking, but this sort of thing can prevent a bit of it and change the outcome of it.
A lot of people in this country make that--indeed strange--distinction. The way we got here was fro government-private partnerships that created a cultural willing to accept the double think requires for G-P to profit off Drugs and medications.
Just the stress on the heart and nervous system alone is enough to offset any supposed benefit (from this perspective I'd say there are none, it's just getting hopped up on another drug, albeit a very much culturally accepted one in most parts of the world).
Concentrated sugars taken in on a regular basis are also harmful to one's health. I guess live like the ancients (i.e. before alcohol, coffee, tabacco, white sugar, etc. came into being) is a pretty good recipe for optimal health.
Probably depends on the strength of the coffee, mine were more along the lines of Turkish than Folgers instant. Definitely could feel heart constriction at times.
re: before drugs and alcohol, sure, the ancient ones reference is more metaphorical than any historical timeline.
Probably like a cigarette smoker giving up smoking, the thought of getting jacked up on caffeine is not at all appealing.
This is one reason why I avoid psychedelics. I'm waiting for a 'right' moment, and would really like to experience it, but I figure I better err on the side of caution when it comes to my mind.
Schizophrenia is its own thing.
Incorrect. Those predisposed to schizophrenic and some other mental disorders are more likely to have those symptoms aggravated by chronic drug use. Pot doesn't create mental illness, it exacerbates it.
The lesson here is not to smoke weed in your developing teen years, or to experiment in a safe environment if there is a history of schizophrenia in your family, something that should be a no-brainer.
"Safe" is a very relative word and a substance can only be as safe as the person consuming it. Incorrect safety procedure when ingesting a substance, such as taking drugs without proper dosage experimentation or in unstable environments, should not be held against the substance itself.
Aren't both these statements a bit too one-sided in light of the evidence? As far as I'm aware we know there's a correlation, but there's no consensus about causality either way (although I lean towards weed being mostly harmless in itself, and 'triggering' if you happen to be susceptible to schizophrenia).
As I said, weed doesn't cause schizophrenia, it just exacerbates the symptoms in some people. I don't see what is one-sided about that and there is plenty of literature to support this, if you search around for a minute or two.