Your Choice is Limited by what You Know

  If you were deciding to visit Southern California, and the only thing you knew about the area was that it had beaches, your decision might seem easy.
   And, if you found out Hollywood was there, and they make movies there, your decision might be even easier.
   But, what if someone told you there are ghettos, and crime, and pollution and that you'd get skin cancer from all the sun? What if someone told you about all the traffic jams?
   Now, you've got a choice. When it was just the beaches and Hollywood, it really wasn't a choice.
   Well, I wonder if this same principle might apply to our discussion of whether we should outlaw drugs. When the only thing you know is that they make you feel good, the choice is easy. If someone tells you they are the most beneficial plant in the world, you are thinking even more about taking the drug. And, if they start listing all the musicians who have taken marijuana and they tell you how it enhanced their creativity, you become even more inclined to smoke a little pot.
   If the other side of the story doesn't get told, you will likely end up on weed. But, if someone informs you marijuana clouds your ability to think, and retards brain development when you are young, you might have second thoughts. If they point out that there is a greater propensity to commit crime when you are on drugs, and if they suggests the decision-making patterns are pre-empted to a degree that you are more inclined to do things harmful to others, you hopefully will reconsider smoking weed.