Rikkitic:

I am not a psychologist but would still be interested to know what studies have been done that underpin this conclusion. I have only anecdotal evidence, including my own example, but there are plenty of people I know who smoked dope vigorously when they were young, grew out of it, and went on to do other things, like become psychologists, with no apparent ill effects. I have also seen plenty of damaged people but I don't know what the source of their damage was. I do admit to some concerns about the apparent difficulty young kiwi males seem to have with moderation and self-restraint. For me the bottom line continues to be that the only result here from years of criminalising drugs is that kiwis are apparently amongst the biggest drug users in the world. Prohibition hasn't worked. Something else needs to be tried.