Just say no

I am not sure if I mentioned this, but the small town near where I grew up is one of the most liberal college towns in the country.

Hippies (real ones) came to the area because (alleged) some of the best pot in the world grows in the rich, fertile soil.

Some of the hippies put down their pipes and walked right into churches, and became front runners for the evangelical Christian movement.  That is a story for another day.

One neighbor of ours was a former hippie who became a Christian.  He lived at the end of our dirt road in, basically, a shack, with his family.  He and my mom taught high school at the same school and we gave him a ride everyday because he didn't have a car.

My mother may not know this, but that was the absolute best "don't do drugs" lesson my brother and I could have possibly had!  He would talk about his drug use and how harmful it was.  He was the only person I ever heard talk about how bad extended marijuana use was.  (In a super liberal area, you hear your English teacher praise pot regularly.) He said that he used to know things that he couldn't remember.  He would get confused.  It was scary to him and to us.  Sadly, he died at the age of 56.  Based on the things that he told us, I believe his life was cut short from extended, frequent drug use, most notably, pot.

Here is a quote from Dr. Keith Ablow about regular marijuana use:

"And research shows that marijuana is linked to a syndrome in which people have little motivation to pursue goals and interests that they once found compelling."

Dude!  No way!

Yes way.

We indoctrinate children about the harmful effects of smoking.  Every single ad about alcohol has a warning.  But, we act like there are no consequences from marijuana use?

I think that is harmful.

Don't you?