The poster Joe Dirt is living in some 1950s style world where government is king, weed is bad, the commies are coming, and we must all obey every law to a T.
None of your "scientific" evidence or conjecture is correct. The fact that you take the time to troll everyone on here shows that you clearly have nothing better to do than waste your time making a bunch of incorrect and inflammatory comments on a subject that you have no idea on at all.
Lets state some facts while we are at it, and I will use ACTUAL research to prove my points, not a news website.
1. Marijuana does not adversely affect IQ, including in adolescent development- 2 longitudinal research studies done on individuals age 9-12 and re-tested come ages 17-20. All the data from the research is in the link
(
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/01/13/1516648113
)
2. There have been ZERO overdose deaths from marijuana. I don't even need to cite a specific article, that's just a simple fact.
3. Marijuana is significantly safer than most legal drugs, both for the user and for potential harm to others. Alcohol dwarfs it in comparison.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/abstract
4. Gateway drug myth: individuals who do harder drugs are more likely to start with alcohol and tobacco as compared to marijuana. (
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010.html
)
5. Health benefits- marijuana has 100s of uses for medicinal purposes and for states that it is legal, is a commonly prescribed drug by medical doctors. (
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24625/the-health-effects-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids-the-current-state
)
6. Marijuana is not chemically addictive- again, common known fact so not going to cite a ton of research. Behaviorally addictive is another matter (which it is)- however, alot of things are behaviorally addictive, including what has brought all of us to this website- running.
At the end of the day, everyone is entitled to their opinion about the matter and for whatever reason, the US government has had a major agenda against marijuana for a while now while it allowed tobacco use (far more detrimental) and alcohol use (even worse than tobacco) to run rampant. I don't even smoke (the whole running thing and strict parents growing up) but I have plenty of friends who do who are plenty successful.
Marijuana makes you lazy, depressed, and apathetic just as much as video games- its a behavioral issue, not a chemically induced one.
We give a guy like Brock Turner who legit raped someone 6 months in jail and we think this Jared kid is going to get a jail sentence? 3.3 lbs of weed compared to rape? This isn't even a question at this point how outdated these laws are.