The hoops you jump through are shocking.
Aggression is a statistically significant side effect of amphetamines; it is a statistically insignificant side effect of marijuana. Your milk analogy is flawed. If two completely random people are in a room and one drinks a glass of milk and one drinks a 1L bottle of Vodka, and then both leave with just a pile of puke on the floor, who do you think did it?
I have linked the scientific experts who say aggression is a side effect, I'm not going to rehash all that. It's been done, you can't make it untrue via repitition. What we have is the knowledge that Martin attacked and that he was on illegal drugs without doctor supervision as Zimmerman was, we don't need to guess who puked, we can see Zimmerman's injuries and the witness accounts. We can see that he was trying to get the police on the scene. We don't have to guess.
Paranoia, in the sense that it affects most pot smokers, does not translate to aggression.
Well that's an interesting opinion and all, but the experts say the facts disagree. Some people are sedated, but since we know Martin instead violently attacked someone it is clear that was not his reaction to the drug.
http://ncpic.org.au/ncpic/publications/factsheets/article/cannabis-and-aggressionHowever, sometimes when people use cannabis it can cause fear, anxiety, panic or paranoia, resulting in an aggressive outburst.
I'm guessing that you've never smoked weed or really even been friends with someone who has.
I am happy to say I have not. Early intervention through a
drug education program taught me to avoid the pitfalls of dangerous, unnecessary products. I have a fulfilling career, happy family, and a fun and stimulating life without having to resort to poisoning and endangering myself with drugs.
The way you talk about marijuana not only shows that you misunderstand the studies you quote, but that you have sheltered yourself so far from this lifestyle that you oppose that you lack a basic understanding of a drug that is very commonly used substance in our society and one of the more widely understood illicit substances out there.
I am not relying on my own interpretations? I don't want to rehash the thread, but I'm not a scientists I don't go over the studies myself. Experts in government and medicine are the ones I am citing. They have reviewed the information and concluded this drug poses significant risks of addiction and disease.
Growing up in Florida I had friends who used every drug out there, and I've been around them all my life. You know what I learned? I'm not the one missing out, they are. Drug users waste their money and their health and their relationships in pursuit of a terribly unfufilling, zombified state of numbness and stupidity. I'd rather stay on the bridge to freedom and clarity.
You do realize that many, many people smoke weed, right? If weed affects the body the way you seem to think it does, we would probably see more violence attributed to it, but we almost never do because it doesn't work that way.
You are naive and sad, we do see it, it does work that way.
In 2008 researchers interviewed and obtained urine samples from 3,924 men arrested in 10 metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Ore., Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
In Chicago, 87% tested positive for drug use and in Sacramento, 78% tested positive. Many of the men — 40% in Chicago and 29% in Sacramento — tested positive for more than one drug.
Marijuana is the most common drug in every city where testing was done except Atlanta, where cocaine is most prevalent, the study found.
Violent criminals use drugs, and marijuana is their most favorite. Marijuana is also a gateway to the other drugs.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-27-arrestees_N.htmYou know the movie Reefer Madness isn't scientifically accurate, right? You're taking tiny statistically insignificant samples and trying to make them match the idea you have already formed of weed.
Yes, I am getting my information from well informed experts, not pop culture and stoner legend, which seems to be your source.
No wonder you're so authoritarian and want everything prohibited. You are so unwilling to open your mind that you won't even attempt to form conclusions based on logic if they contradict your preconceived notions. Honestly, it becomes offensive the way people like you want to control every last part of our lives, more so when it becomes clear how little you actually know.
Freedom to be ruled by addictive, dangerous drugs is no freedom at all.
Anyway, back to Zimmerman and moving on from the drug argument: Another big part of the puzzle that points to Zimmerman is his past behavior. You can't really believe that healthy or balanced individuals call 911 over a pothole! Have you ever dialed 911? They don't want to be called about potholes; there is a non-emergency number for things like that.
Had he been considered a nuisance caller, they would have fined him and made him stop calling. They did not. They are the experts on what calls are appropriate to be taking in their own system. The pothole thing was one call in 2005, and you're convicting him for murder over it? Now THAT is a scary authoritarian thought.
I'm sure his strange behavior did occur before he was on drugs too. But drugs are even worse for imbalanced people than they are for healthy people and the fact that much of his crazy behavior (past and present) has occurred while not on drugs, only makes one wonder how bad he gets when he's on a drug that is known to heighten aggression levels. Person with known and documented mental imbalance with strains of vigilantism + aggression heightening drug + gun = what? The voice of reason? Hmm... somehow I have a hard time seeing that.
You don't convict someone based on past behavior. You convict them based on what actually happened. What happened is that Zimmerman tried to call the police to help and was attacked, had his nose broken, and his head slammed into concrete. It doesn't matter if you find he did something in the past, or if Martin said something the other side didn't like on Facebook.
