Replies to '04/16 Drug Troubles'

I watch the Dr Phil show occasionally when I have time and I usually find Phil himself quite objective and open minded. He tries to relate to people on a real level so that both the audience and the subjects understand him and his reasoning.

However I think he completely missed the ticket on this show. The premise was great and had the young man been completely destroying his life, there might have been some substance. However (and Phil quickly realised this), Brad was incredibly bright and his arguments against Phil's reasoning very valid. I study law and philiosophical logic and Brad was completely right. If there is ever a person who 'wins' an argument, it was Brad in this case.

I understand Phil's slightly irrational apprehension torwards any sort of mind altering substance, but to openly state that he understands when friends have a few drinks with dinner and then tell this part time marijuana smoker that HE is wrong is entirely hypocritical. As any logical person should know, abusing ANYTHING is bad. Food can kill just as easily as cigarettes and both kill 10,000 times more each year than marijuana. Brad was, in my opinion, in charge of his emotions and thoughts and his decision to smoke marijuana based in an unhappy relationship with his parents. As he had (rightly so) no control over their actions to change, he decided to relieve some tension with an accessible substance; this happened to be marijuana and not alocohol as is the societal norm.

This show provoked me to research the real health risks associated with the various mind altering substances available in our society and most would be surprised to know that marijuana is far safer than even cigarettes when used with some measure of intelligence. It appears the idiots who smoke then drive and have accidents give the responsible a bad name - just as it is with alcohol. Not to shed a completely skew light on the subject, marijuana can increase the risk of later developing schizophrenia in those prone to it (=1% population) when used in late adolescence. It also appears that, as is the case with alcohol, high doses of MDMA, amphetamines and psychoactives can lead to serious health risks and death but when used in moderation appeared no more harmful than alcohol and cause thousands of times less deaths and injuries each year.