Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

For the sake of turning this into a drug debate, did your friends "graduate" to "harder" drugs, or are they just potheads?

Because there's quite a difference... Quite...
Or so I've been told to say...

Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

That would be a negative.

Care to elaborate as to what you're implying?

Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

It's been years since I briefly looked into the whole "Weed isn't as bad as hard drugs" issue so I can't really elaborate too well, other than to say I know a number of people that smoke pot (some quite frequently), none of whom are pitiful people with terrible lives that anywheres near parallel what is portrayed in the movie (not that the movie doesn't portay the drugs it deals with realistically)...
To be a tad more specific, I'm willing to bet that there have been very few cases attributed to pot usage that result in removal of various body parts (or the infections that caused it, for that matter), complete mental breakdowns, and the selling of one's body out of desperation for a joint...
Just a hunch...

Also I personally know of only 2 adults (that is to say, a generation before me, not "adults" as I, a 21 year old, am an "adult") who were into pot bigtime when they were younger, and both have survived and are able to make it on their own (with their families) in the mind-bogglingly expensive Arlington/DC area... One even owns his own (non-drug-dealing) business...
And, I suppose, that I tried it 5 or 6 times before deciding it wasn't doing anything for me (other than making me extremely dizzy when combined with alcohol) and walking away unscathed... I doubt I'd have been so 'lucky' if I was trying, say, heroin... 5 or 6 times...

But I was moreso just curious if MrCoffee's friends had indeed graduated to harder drugs than I was interested in sparking some form of debate...
The "and now are just ****ed up...very realistic..." seems to imply that they did, but depending on one's upbringing and whether or not they had actually heard anything beyond the simple "Drugs are bad" and "You'll run over little girls on bicycles" rhetoric, the definition of "****ed up" can vary...

Although I probably feel that way because when I was around 16 and I found out a friend of mine smoked pot (and later than a number of other acquaintances did), I (the isolated little boy brought up by a nice, drug-free, bad-word-free, realism-free family) was rather shocked and dissapointed, and probably would have labeled the whole situation as "****ed up" before, as you can tell, I eased up a bit on that whole stance...

*shrug*

Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

I have yet to see the movie but I want to.


I have had friends go down that road.

One of them has been kicked out of his house, no job, $20 a week if he is lucky which he spends on drugs, alcohol or smokes. And he is pretty much brain dead.

Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

Well, right. I suppose one has to look at what they consider "bad." If all drugs are bad to a person, then pot will obviously be bad, but, if someone has a sliding scale of what is bad, then pot may be acceptable. I think most anyone can make a logical argument for the moderate consumption of anything. But the fact is, very few can moderately consume drugs such as heroin, ecstasy, meth, etc. Perhaps pot is different, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a drug, just like alcohol, with the ability to be abused and misused.

Re: Requiem for a Dream
 

This is true, this is true...
I've heard some people discussing about how the movie's message isn't just about drug addiction (though it's obviously it's most prevalant theme/message), but addiction in general... Citing the old lady's severe addiction to TV...

However, from what I've heard and witnessed, pot is less addictive than, say, cigarettes... And less harmful to boot (although that might have been attributed to the fact that most people who DO smoke pot generally do so much less frequently than those addicted to cigarettes)...

Unless they're laced with something (which I've heard some shady dealers do in an attempt to get their buyers hooked on something else, and is partially responsible for pot being called a "gateway drug"... Rumors, perhaps)... Which wouldn't be a risk if it were legalized and regulated like tobacco/alcohol...
I believe that's a part of the whole "legalize pot" arguement... Along with the "It's less addictive than cigarettes, and less harmful than alcohol with similar levels of impairment"... And, as an incentive for the government, "It would be taxed"...

I think deep down, America (and I guess the world) as a whole is still afraid that marihuana will cause people to laugh uncontrollably for no reason, commit rape and murder, and star in terrible comedies...