This notion that weed is grand needs some opposition

I've been smoking weed/cannabis since I was a teenager, and I'm now in my 40s. In my mid 20s, with a decent income, and a group of colleagues who also smoked, we would go through quite a bit regularly.

I can say, in all honesty, that my memory ability along with recall suffered from that period. My mind became slower, with a lack of quickness that was present prior to that. Oh, I've regained a lot of that quickness by working on it, but the idea that smoking doesn't affect your memory/mind, is rubbish.

Still.. I do believe that Adults should be able to choose. I still smoke weed occasionally. I avoid the bongs, or any heavy usage devices, but I'm very happy to have a few joints a couple of times a year. It's a comfortable drug, and I have a far better response from using it, than with Alcohol, or the dozen other drugs I've used. (Although Shrooms, and LSD will always have a tender place in my heart).

I would point out though that the important parts of this is to balance your intake with the realities of living, and to have the discipline to control your intake. I've friends who don't, and they're essentially wasters. On the flip side, I have other friends who smoke on the weekends, and run their own successful businesses the remainder of the time.

The stereotype of the waster stoner is simply a stereotype because many people don't have the self-discipline to control their lives. Not just doing drugs, but to balance the whole of their lives. Weed is just an easy excuse for them failing to take responsibility... but the excuse could just as easily be alcohol, gambling, computer games, etc. Excuses are easy to find.

For my own part, I say legalise and regulate it. Tax it, and have it provide some good for the country. Better quality weed on offer would go a long way to reduce the paranoia or the associated health risks. I suspect many of the issues I had from smoking weed, came from what was mixed with it to increase weight.