You're amazingly stupid for not realizing I never claimed otherwise in the first place.

You're also stupid for trying to make this a legitimate reason for addiction. Bowing to peer pressure is also a choice. If you think ruining your life because you don't want to lose "friends" who would ditch you for not getting addicted with them is a good decision, then you're stupid.

So for someone to be not stupid on this issue, they have to have experience in ruining their life? How about the fact that I avoided any chance of ruining my life as a legitimate experience? Not only not ruining, but having a pretty good life as experience that it is absolutely okay not to use drugs just because other people do.

What are these lies? I see people dying from hardcore drugs. I see people on marijuana who can't think coherently. I suspect many of them are doing the rounds on Slashdot right now because they put up really stupid arguments.

Strange of you to make that political connection. Historically it's been libertarians who are pushing to decriminalize all drugs and let people live by their choices. I'm quite the lefty. I support welfare and universal healthcare and pro-choice and marriage equality and stuff like that.

I love that people get offended when people tell them they can do the right thing. I don't do it JUST to lord it over people, even though that is an added bonus. I'm here to tell people that it's OKAY to not follow the crowd, and yes even godless atheists can decide to not take drugs despite there being no divine command to do so.

I suspect it's more psychosomatic. AND I get distracted even without drinking coffee. I haven't done a double blind test to be sure that I am affected by coffee. It could just as well be the sugar.

I'm stupid because I don't follow the crowd? Gotcha. You must be very intelligent.

You're grasping at straws, mate. The closest I came to drugs was when my mother made beer chicken. I tasted awful. It's kind of sad that you try to make yourself feel better by trying to implicate me into your bad habits. Not going to work. Squeaky clean.

I even hold my breath when walking behind a smoker.

I'm all for helping people who are addicted. Just don't expect me to help them AND feel sympathy. I can perfectly help people and still feel no sympathy for them. I feel sympathy, even empathy, for those who don't get themselves into trouble but find themselves there.

If they're in great pain and they down painkillers, it's not really addiction, because they're in pain, or PTSD. If they somehow manage to mentally and physically heal and no longer require painkillers but continue to do so, then it's a choice.

My ignorance and stupidity?

Boy it feels so stupid to finish university on schedule, get a job right out of university, take up guitar and fencing, and buy a house while resisting the bank's push for me to get a bigger loan than I was comfortable with.

But GOOD ON YOU for fighting back against me for making you feel stupid for your stupid life choices. You're right. You should always be made to feel like a special snowflake because it's not your fault you decided to take drugs against all advice.

There are millions more who smoke marijuana and DON'T. Your logical fallacy is beyond stupid.

I am a middle child, but I'm the only one of my siblings who graduated "on schedule" and got a job right out of university. I never claimed to be the most sensible person, but I can look at my life from an outside perspective and realize I'm doing pretty fucking well even on a modicum of sensibility.

They didn't need to. They get given plenty of pros and cons for the matter to be already decided.

And I have no sympathy for anyone who thinks so stupidly. As a kid, I didn't know about logical fallacies. But I knew enough to know "because everyone else does it" is not a good reason. In fact, kids are taught that all the time.

You argue against yourself. Getting intoxicated in the first place is a decision.

Someone who deliberately cuts off their own legs with a chainsaw don't get sympathy. So why should addicts?

To add:

Maybe you assume I drink coffee because I'm on Slashdot and chances are I work in IT, if not a programmer and all IT/programmers drink coffee to be productive? Well I don't. I'm less productive on coffee because I'm easily distractable.

One of my best friends growing up was an Aborigine, against the advice of my parents. I got suspended from school a few times. Maybe being poor and Chinese helped me? No one more sensible than a poor Chinese with poor Chinese parents.

Do I drink coffee? No, actually. At least, not regularly enough to be called a "coffee drinker". I certainly don't drink it for the caffeine - I'm not sure I've ever felt the effects of it. I drink it for the bitter-sweet-milk taste. Otherwise, I mostly drink tea.

The summary brought up people working in Silicon Valley. You brought up poor people. Irrelevant.