[Hoot Gibson]

Lol...people don't smoke based on whether it not others have been successful or unsuccessful while smoking.

That is my point. The worst performing employees with whom I have worked have either smoked marijuana or tobacco, or drank to excess on a regular basis. In my opinion, there is a connection between drug use and productivity. I would not knowingly employ either kind of smoker, nor would I employ anybody who I knew to be a heavy drinker - at least not while equally well qualified applicants were available who did not have those vices.

People have the stereotypical idea that pot smokers are lazy, unemployed, and leach from the government...that couldn't be further from the truth. When someone is an alcoholic or addicted to opiates, cocaine, ect, it's failed easy to tell. Not so with marijuana. Many smoke as a substitute for alcohol because for one reason or another they prefer it, some just smoke for fun, some to counter pain killers they take for a condition, some substitute it completely for pain killers, some smoke to help get their appetite going, some for nerve damage. There's so many reasons, and so many different people that most would never associate with marijuana. Personally, I don't really smoke anymore, but if I do these days, it's because one of the two latter reasons I mentioned above. I have plenty I nerve damage, and I'm on some very nasty medicines. Also helps my stomach with throwing up, I take this nasty memory medication that you have to let dissolve in the mouth, and it gets me so sick. I'm used to it now, but at first, I think I would've starved to death, lol.

These days I don't feel the need to smoke. And there's plenty of people that just want a buzz, for the same reason people want to get drunk or under the influence of any drug. I can't speak for everyone, just my own reasons and reasons I know of that other people have for smoking, drinking, ect. I've found that marijuana is by far the peats damaging to your body, the people around you, and your way of life. Hell, ya for even have to hurt your lungs by smoking it.

I just hate to see it demonized for no reason, and stereotypes pushed that are just conpletely wrong.

The stereotypes are well deserved. There are plenty of hard working people that smoke marijuana, but I would be willing to bet that if a statistic exists that correlates marijuana use to employment, it will show that unemployed people are more likely to smoke than employed people and of those smokers who are employed, their salaries are lower than those who do not smoke. Unless somebody could prove to me that marijuana smokers make better workers than non-smokers, then I would not take a chance on them, given the choice. That alone, is reason enough not to smoke, IMO, because I know that is how the majority of employers view drug use.