I doubt very much that you will adhere to the usual conventions of question and answer, as you tend to drop your comments here in the same fashion an infant deposits things in his diapers...and runs off. What my sister once despairingly referred to as 'S**t-and-git'. For the edification and amusement of my fellow Netizens, however, I'll answer your tirade.

I'm pleased to see that your knowledge of the world is increasing; at least you can properly spell the name of the nation you are blathering about.

It may interest you to know that because of US pressures, Nepal has criminalized hashish possession and manufacture. It's been like that for nigh on 20 years. It is not like it was in the 1970's where Kathmandhu was the place to go for such things...and the local government controlled the trade with licenses ...and penalties for not adhering to the regulations.

Needless to say, rarely ever any murders...save amongst the only Hindu caste allowed to drink alcohol, the Kshatriyas. The Warriors.

Of course, the illegal trade has flourished under such wrongheaded, benighted thinking as you promulgate...just as it does here. It has also introduced drugs previously unknown to the region, such as cocaine. Which has significantly increased the level of violence their police experience.

When formerly all they had to worry about was a saddhu who'd had one too many puffs from the chillum and went to sleep in the street.

If there is a connection - If, dear Frances, as the Prince took his secret to the funeral pyre with him - between the Royal Nepalese family being slaughtered and drugs (including alcohol, dear Frances; it's a drug, too, remember? BTW, do you drink?) it is because the alcohol won out.

Are you sure Nepal citizens would agree with you?

Their entire monarchy was assasinated by a crazed hash/alcohol using crown prince.

Unfortunately I had a friend die in a car accident because of alcohol. Drunk, speeding and bad weather made for one the worst accidents I have seen. Every year we hear about the increased police presence on New Years because of drunk driving. We hear about the drunk driving death toll of one year vs. another. We hear about the violence at bars and parties because of alcohol yet we never hear about pot in the same light. Pot doesn’t invoke the negative thought and emotions that alcohol does.

Being a POW and being forced to go to NA, MA, AA meetings I get a new highlight of marijuana vs. alcohol. At virtually every meeting I go to I hear from the alcoholic that is suffering from liver disease. I hear their regrets and fear of the future. As of yet I haven’t hear from a single marijuana user (I use “user” instead of addict because I don’t believe marijuana is additive) that is dying from anything due to their marijuana use.

Unless a crime is committed I see no reason to imprison anyone. I define crime as violence or destruction of property. Use of alcohol, marijuana or even junk food (it’s all the same to me) leads someone to commit a crime they should pay for it. Because it’s not if someone used any kind of drug prior to committing a crime, it’s that they committed a crime. That’s where our focus should be.

alcohol at it's best is a "social lubricant"...at it's worst
it destroys innocent lives...my kids will tell you what life
with me when i was drinking was like...it created wounds
that can never heal completely...

pot, in my experience, doesn't encourage people to yell,
hit, destroy property, or drive too fast...it just(sometimes
with some people) makes a person a little boring to those
who haven't indulged...

I don't have to go into the whole long litany of the biologically negative aspects of alcohol. But all too often, the negative social aspects of alcohol are simply glossed over.

And I am not talking about the subject from some ivory tower perspective of statistics: I mean having to dodge profane, loudmouthed drunken louts armed with broken bottles and spoiling for a fight. Having to avoid a trail of vomit that stretched an entire hallway in my college dorm, leading to the bathroom...and an even more obscene mess curled around a toilet bowl. Drunks getting behind the wheel and killing a cousin of mine...who was run over while he was helping someone change a spare tire on the DC beltway. Having a drunken non-com urinate on my bunk - while it was occupied, dammit! - because he couldn't get to the bathroom soon enough.

As you can see, I don't like what alcohol does to people. But unlike the antis, I am not about to blame the substance for the behavior of it's imbibers. If they can't 'hold their liquor', then shame on them. But they shouldn't be locked up unless they commit a crime. Polluting their bodies with rotgut is just stupid, but not criminal. LIkewise, a cannabis user has caused no trouble for anyone by 'polluting' his body, either.

In all my 40+ years, I've never seen a pot head do any of that, Joyce & Frances and all you other antis; not once, not ever.

No fights. No damaged property. No police having to come to someone's door and ask the parents to come to the morgue, we think we have your son there. We think he smoked himself to death at a frat party.

Booze has caused more real damage to society than any supposed damage caused by cannabis consumers ever could.

If you distill all the arguments pro-and-con down to whether society sustains any damage from drugs, weighing them on a scale, the minute the connection between alcohol=drug is established the weight of damage caused tips the societal scales so hard the alcohol side hits the ground with a mighty thump. It's just a no-brainer. The evidence is on every police blotter in the country. Has been for years.

Which is why I prefer the company of cannabis users. I won't have to worry about visiting the local emergency room from being in close proximity to them