Basically, all Mike did was say that in an insulting, long-winded way. Not everyone who smokes weed is psychologically addicted to it. Some weed smokers recognize that they are psychologically addicted to it. There are legitimate medical benefits to smoking weed, but, of course, that a significant portion of California medical marijuana users aren't smoking solely for those medical benefits.
Yeah. You know me, I have to spell it all out with a lot of exposition (I mean, why blog if you aren't going to be a windbag?). Weed doesn't have any "true" medical benefits (as in, it doesn't cure anything), it just gets you high. And there's nothing wrong with that! If getting high will alleviate the pain for a little bit so that someone with cancer can function, that's fine. I mean, NyQuil doesn't cure anything, it just numbs your throat for a bit so that it isn't hell to swallow when you have a cold or strep or something.
One of my friends from work said the following:
Addiction (according to the venerable dictionary.com): the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation CAUSES SEVERE TRAUMA.
What makes marijuana not an addiction is the fact that not using marijuana does not have any significant physiological consequence. Smokers, alcoholics, and narcotic users experience withdrawal as a result of ceasing use of their addiction. This is not the case with Marijuana users.
Which is why it's harmless and should be legalized. Don't forget that caffeine causes severe trauma to people who get used to it yet we still are a society that runs on coffee and Red Bull. It's bullshit.
As for Ron Paul, I'm gonna be a realist and still "support" him in the sense that he's a true Republican and he's where that party should be.
That said, Obama in 2008. McCain became a non-issue in 2000 when he bent over for GWB and he has never recovered from that. There's an energy to the Obama campaign and a freshness and it has generated a feeling reminiscent of my younger days.