bucky, if you're responsible with your intake, like i've been, there are hardly any effects. my guess is your friend was quite a heavy smoker for some time. of course pot is bad for you. breathing oxygen is bad for you, it's what eventually kills us all. you can't live your life constantly worrying about everything.
pot is less dangerous than booze, will you argue that point? so why then is pot illegal when booze isn't?
as for driving while stoned, i personally think it's less dangerous than driving while drunk. as long as you aren't too stoned you still have a lot of control. i agree though, that driving under the influence is incredibly stupid, and it's up to the moron to choose not to risk his, and other people's lives so stupidly. i've never driven under the influence of anything, but if i was to, it certainly wouldn't be while i was on pot. if i was justa bit stoned, i'd be far too smart to do anything like that. pot makes you think about stuff a lot, quite meditative. if you're really high as a kite you'll be so paranoid you won't touch the car with a ten foot pole. high drivers are the least of your worries, if they've let themselves drive, they usually made that choice based on good logic, ie. only having a few tokes.
it's not up to some controlling knobhead to tell me what to do, i'll smoke what i bloody like thankyou very much. surely that is what america was based on when it was founded, freedom? shame it's lost that, it's become a beaurocratic and greed driven joke.
time we told these wankstains to piss off!
again, i'm not disputing the fact that pot has health issues, but that i should have the freedom to do what i want with MY body. if it's MY choice, why should anyone else care?