People who haven't smoked marijauna in years: If it was suddenly as legal and as accesible as booze, which would you choose?

Probably not pot. It just turned me into a couch potato who ate too much. No fun at all, really.

Well, pot doesn’t damage your liver or give you a hangover. I’ve also never known an angry pothead. Can’t say the same for alcohol.

I prefer pot. Now and then.

I might try it again. Although I did waste a lot of time in the sixties when it was cheap and readily available. I don’t drink alcohol very often. Maybe I would be equally constrained.

Never cared for it and it has nothing to do with legality. Not a big liquor drinker, either.

I tried it a couple of times as a teenager and didn’t see the attraction. So I would not use it now.

I guess being ripped is a subjective experience. Personally for me I like it much better than alcohol or any other drug. I actually enjoyed being ripped, and I don’t necessarily turn into a vegetable from it. It’s alcohol that makes me more lazy, and more incoherent than weed. I went nearly 10 years without using it, but I ran into some new people at a new place that I work at who got me started again. Availability was the major reason why I didn’t use, nothing to do with the legal status of it. Most people drink where I live, and all they do is look for fights when hammered. Weed wins over booze, for me anyways.

Nah. Don’t care for it.

Alcohol has some bad long-term effects. Marijuana is just a damn good plant. It makes me jovial and just really freaking happy. I love marijuana.

^^ I love the really freaking happy pot smokers. If you come across a really freaking happy drunk, look out. He’s probably about ready to piss himself and fall over.

Not for me. I don’t need anything else to put me to sleep. I need to go the other direction.

I wouldn’t mind a good quality buzz every now and then but not all the time. Anything , all the time is just bad for lots of reasons not the least of which is, your life will start to go to shit in a hurry. The idea of no people being busted for pot is more appealing to me than using it really.

I liked the buzz, but decidedly disliked smoking anything. I might whip up a mess of Mary Jane Brownies now and then, though.

I’d stick with alcohol. I didn’t stop smoking weed because it was illegal I stopped smoking it because I stopped enjoying it. Made me paranoid and over think everything in the end.

I don’t like the feeling of being high, so I wouldn’t choose pot. I like being tipsy (not drunk), so alcohol is it for me. I’m all for pot being legal, though.

It should be legalized !
Many people like the I lost track of time in a spinning room feeling. Not me. I have to keep my balance physically and mentally. Just give me more sleep and I’m happy. I like some alcohol once or twice a year.

Indoors you can have a glass of wine without forcing other people to breathe in polluted air.

The older I grow, the less I enjoy messing with my brain. If I drink more than one glass of wine, I pay for it. I’m such a lightweight. And forget pot. I need a day or two to recover if I get high.

Part of this has to do with other meds I’m taking that make me super susceptible to alcohol, and probably other mind bending drugs. Part of it has to do with mental illness. I’m already super messed up without inducing any mind-altering substance (yeah, like you couldn’t tell). I don’t need to push any further in that direction.

I know we’re not talking about LSD, but I have a cousin who used to do it regularly back in the 60’s and she got really manic and then depressed and was unable to care for herself for years as a result. I don’t need that. Besides which, my stomach is also super-sensitive. I can spin around once and get nauseous.

To tell the truth, I have never really been able to identify with people who enjoyed using these substances. Things are already so intense for me. I can’t imagine making it even more so, voluntarily. It happens, occasionally, and that’s enough to nearly destroy my life. Why would I do this voluntarily?

Of course, others must be different, but it’s hard to imagine how you can handle it. I mean, I can’t talk, think, or do anything on drugs. It makes me nauseous, usually. How do you manage it?

@wundayatta Yeah, our bodies are all different. Some drugs will simply enhance whatever mood or status your body is already in, but it can also do the opposite and quell something that is already there.

When I do a drug, I go from a normal state where I’m neutral, to a state of more intensity. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to control my fits of laughter while on marijuana. To handle this, I have to physically work on my composure: I have to ask myself why I thought this thing was so funny. I have to work on the control of my facial muscles so I’m not walking around with a massive smile on my face.

There have been times when I had to go look at myself in the mirror to remind myself that I’m still “there”, maybe rinse my face or something to calm myself down. It’s hard to explain. But you’re right that it is very intense sometimes and you don’t know what to do.