there seems to be this underlying misconception in government circles that marijuana users smoke as frequently as cigarette users. i think that's the thing that's got them so confused about this.

i hope they're not basing tax policy on that. they're going to be disappointed.

yeah: if you took a 14 year-old and got her smoking a pack of joints a day, she'd end up retarded after a month. do you know what else would happen? she'd build up such a tolerance, that it would no longer affect her at all. then, she'd get bored and stop smoking pot altogether.

maybe you've heard the old story about giving a kid a cigar and telling him to smoke until he pukes. what happens with pot is that you smoke until you don't get high anymore. and, it actually happens fairly quickly.

for that reason, one of the first things that young marijuana users learn - and are in fact taught by more experienced users - is that you need to space it out, that you can't just start sparking like they're cigs, that you need to give yourself a few days. i remember this very clearly, actually. i was maybe a little lucky, because the guy that introduced it to me in the tenth grade had also been a close friend since we were in the third grade. i trusted him as well as i could (i realized the need to fact check him, as he was not academically inclined), and he had my interests in mind. maybe you had your own conversation, but mine went a little like this...

"j, the most important thing - and i can't stress this enough - is that you don't want to build a tolerance. i've seen it. it's the most depressing thing in the world. you smoke with these older people, and they don't even get high. it's terrible. you never want to let that happen to you."
"what's your rule of thumb on timeframes?"
"j, just stick to weekends. you need to study during the week anyways, right?"
"yeah, that's probably what i'll do, anyways."
"you won't need to worry about it if you do."
"cool."
"but, i've seen it. i tell you - it's disturbing. they smoke these huge js and they don't even laugh or anything. it's like nothing. why bother, if you don't get high? don't let it happen to you."
"thanks for the heads-up, man."
"anytime, j. now about that math homework of mine..."
 "ahahaha....not a microphone man..."
"shit. sorry. i do that...."

it's a part of the culture to teach this. and, yeah, not everybody learns it. but, it's the ones that don't that burn out: these are your "former pot users", the ones that never learned you need to avoid tolerance.

the usage model needs to be to more like beer. that's your taxation model. and, it's how people use it.

and, the rare people that do smoke pot like cigarettes are people that have broader social problems - like alcoholics, not like tobacco addicts.