First of all, sorry if i may appear to intrude in something that may not be my business, but well, i feel like i could give my 2 cents on this topic.
As far as claiming that weed makes you smarter, IT DOESNT
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/7/887, it actually drops your IQ if you are a heavy user, if anything weed MAY make you have a more creative output, this doesnt means you get smarter, basically and abruptly, it means you give a more varied arrange of response to a stimuli, these responses are not necessarily more effective(i.e. intelligent) than if you werent high.
Still drugs are part of our society whether we like it or not so its really important how we approach them, this is something key, specially when, as its already been pointed out, we are at war, but we are not at war with the drugs or the "general" users themselves (altho its very very easy to put it that way) we are at war with the druglords, they are the ones responsible of the drug related deaths/assassinations (at least the huge majority),
still we overcrowd correctional facilities with the 20 year old dude who doesnt has a record, is not violent and probably its a student at some college/university.
As a criminal psychologist, ive worked (briefly i must add) at an addiction center (created a program to help patients -former addicts to a variety of drugs- reintegrate successfully to society), i saw quite a big range of drug users, agressive+dangerous and apathetic+calm, those who were alcoholics, smoked weed and were in their 20s had more chance to experience a successful return to society than "hard drug" users (be it on their 20s or older), this means they were more lucid, healthier, socially capable and more eager to change their habits, change their social circle (important step), etc than hard drugs users.
Now, this doesnt means doing weed its harmless, specially while smoking it, youre inhaling BURNING ASH, youre messing up your lungs and also, as pointed, putting chemicals in your system that make your neurons work at an excessive rate, overestimulating them (ever wondered why you get thirsty when you smoke weed?) you are basically dehydrating and one of the best water sources your body has its the brain, YUM!
Then again the use of weed does has its beneficial values, as presented here
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/06/marijuana.aspx it helps in the treatment of several diseases (chronic or otherwise), being noteworthy the fact that only 10% of weed users "abuse" the substance (decrease their quality of life) and in comparison to legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco seems to do less damage, # of deaths caused by alcohol related incidents, # of deaths caused by lung cancer (remember, cigarettes have thousands more chemicals than a joint) and other nicotine related diseases, even # of health problems related to caffeine, still this may not seem like a fair comparison, but it would be interesting to do a proportional view on these matters and also mix it with "hard drugs" see how weed stands.
Personally (and with admitted bias) im more concerned about tobacco and SMOKEN weed, since i used to smoke 1 pack a day for more than 13 years if memory doesnt fails, kicked the vice early this january
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Sorry if i make it too long, i tend not to "talk" a lot on forums but at least make it worthy of reading when i do
, also, english its not my first language, still i think i make my point across
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