Some here discuss cannabis/marijuana/pot regularly, with some comments going presently in another OP. But I believe the thinking related in this new article/report should be posted directly on subject. It does address some elements related to questions about the safety of its use. It seems that the use of pot is getting more real attention, which can be a good thing over the long term.
The terrible truth about cannabis: Expert's devastating 20-year study finally demolishes claims that smoking pot is harmless!
-One in six teenagers who regularly smoke the drug become dependent
-It doubles risk of developing psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia
-Heavy use in adolescence appears to impair intellectual development
-Driving after smoking cannabis doubles risk of having a car crash
-Study's author said: 'If cannabis is not addictive then neither is heroin'
By Ben Spencer, Science Reporter for the Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 18:02 EST, 6 October 2014 | UPDATED: 02:08 EST, 7 October 2014
A definitive 20-year study into the effects of long-term cannabis use has demolished the argument that the drug is safe.
Cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs, the study found.
The paper by Professor Wayne Hall, a drugs advisor to the World Health Organisation, builds a compelling case against those who deny the devastation cannabis wreaks on the brain.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2782906/The-terrible-truth-cannabis-British-expert-s-devastating-20-year-study-finally-demolishes-claims-smoking-pot-harmless.html#ixzz3FTgupVxe
Got your flame-suit on, rdunk? You know the usual cast of characters will show up in complete denial!
Quote from: rdunk on October 07, 2014, 05:41:56 PM
-One in six teenagers who regularly smoke the drug become dependent
I could believe in psychological addiction. Weed is enjoyable, so it makes sense that you're going to want to do it often. I know I do.
Then again, although I first smoked in probably 2000, between then and now, I've been through periods where I didn't touch it for probably five years. I can also go a week or more without smoking, and the only problems I will end up having as a result, will be the emotional issues which I smoke to specifically alleviate, and which I've had since before I started.
Quote-It doubles risk of developing psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia
This is quite possibly true. It depends on the strain you're smoking. Cannabis has two different subspecies; Sativa and Indica. Sativa is the subspecies that produces the paranoia, the heart racing, the schizophrenic like symptoms, the weird head trips etc. I much, much prefer to smoke Indica if I can get it, and I don't have any of those problems when I do. Know your strains, and use them strategically, and you won't have this problem.
Quote-Heavy use in adolescence appears to impair intellectual development
May or may not be true. If I'm smoking heavy Indica I can get very forgetful, but I'm currently on both Sativa bud and hashish and my memory is pretty much fine. The memory loss associated with Indica isn't permanent, either; if I stop or switch my strain, it comes back.
Quote-Driving after smoking cannabis doubles risk of having a car crash
Not arguing with this. Your reflexes are slower when you are stoned. I would never advocate driving while under the influence.
Quote-Study's author said: 'If cannabis is not addictive then neither is heroin'
This sounds like a fairly hysterical piece of hyperbole. It also is not consistent with my experience, as described above.
Quote from: WarToad on October 07, 2014, 05:59:04 PM
Got your flame-suit on, rdunk? You know the usual cast of characters will show up in complete denial!
Hey WT, I just posted this because pot is a currently pretty national subject, especially with some of the legalization actions that have been taking place. Most here have expressed their thoughts on pot a number of times, so, maybe that such won't get repeated. The person who did the work of this 20 year study seems to be pretty well respected in the field, so what he presents will not be taken lightly by those who are serious about this subject.
FWIW - I have never smoked pot. I have never seen actual pot, growing or ready to smoke. I have never been with or around anyone who smoked pot that I know of. I do not know anyone personally who smokes pot! And I have been with and around many many different people in a lot of different places in my life. I was asked by a young lady once many years ago in a restaurant/bar, "You wouldn't lay a dime on me would you"? - and I didn't know what that meant at the time!! :)
I did own a very small apartment building at one time, and it caught on fire and burned because a young male tenant went to sleep on the couch while smoking pot. He survived only because the firemen broke into the building and carried him out. He wasn't breathing, but the fireman were able to revive him from the smoke inhalation.
I hear you, rdunk. We may be on the same page. I view it no different than alcohol, cigarettes. Put into your body what you wish, but leave the delusions of "healthy" aside. And you will be held accountable for your actions while under the influence.
Quote from: WarToad on October 07, 2014, 07:22:43 PM
I hear you, rdunk. We may be on the same page. I view it no different than alcohol, cigarettes. Put into your body what you wish, but leave the delusions of "healthy" aside. And you will be held accountable for your actions while under the influence.
My perspective is that my method of smoking (a hookah or water pipe, with five other herbs and no tobacco) probably does around 10-20% of the harm to my lungs that smoking would. Based on personal experience, I'm also not inclined to believe that cannabis does truly substantial neurological damage, if it does any at all; although said personal experience has also shown me that Sativa heavy blends can cause paranoia and psychological instability.
I'm not going to claim that weed is harmless, but it is substantially
less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. I'm making a conscious exchange.
Petrus4 - I'm totally OK with that line of thought. You're not pretending it's healthy. It's a vice, but the tradeoff for you is acceptable.
Me? My vice is a nice craft beer. Or a 20 year old tawny port. It's alcohol, it's ultimately toxic, but I accept the tradeoff.
I think the end game here is every state makes it legal. Commercial sales will be taxed, but how do they deal with homegrown? I think it'll follow alcohol. I brew my own beer. I'm allowed to brew 100 gallons per person in the household per year with no tax. 200 gallons. That's a crazy amount, I bet I do 15 to 20. Even so, there's no way they can track or regulate it. Grain I buy isn't recorded or tracked. Weed will probably be treated the same. If you homegrow, there will technically be some amount you're allowed, but tracking it will be next to impossible.
Quote from: WarToad on October 07, 2014, 08:13:35 PM
Petrus4 - I'm totally OK with that line of thought. You're not pretending it's healthy. It's a vice, but the tradeoff for you is acceptable.
Me? My vice is a nice craft beer. Or a 20 year old tawny port. It's alcohol, it's ultimately toxic, but I accept the tradeoff.
In my mind, alcohol is substantially
more toxic than cannabis, in some respects; but then again, there's good evidence to suggest that red wine, as an incremental part of a larger overall lifestyle, can actually be beneficial to your health.
QuoteIf you homegrow, there will technically be some amount you're allowed, but tracking it will be next to impossible.
The issue with homegrowing is that if you want to grow good stuff, that means Indica, which in turn means a lot of work. Most of the really good hybrid strains require indoor setups with lots of babysitting; they are so heat sensitive that if you put them outside in a lot of places, they will simply die.
Petrus said everything I would have said :D
Quote from: rdunk on October 07, 2014, 05:41:56 PM
Some here discuss cannabis/marijuana/pot regularly, with some comments going presently in another OP. But I believe the thinking related in this new article/report should be posted directly on subject. It does address some elements related to questions about the safety of its use. It seems that the use of pot is getting more real attention, which can be a good thing over the long term.
The terrible truth about cannabis: Expert's devastating 20-year study finally demolishes claims that smoking pot is harmless!
-One in six teenagers who regularly smoke the drug become dependent
-It doubles risk of developing psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia
-Heavy use in adolescence appears to impair intellectual development
-Driving after smoking cannabis doubles risk of having a car crash
-Study's author said: 'If cannabis is not addictive then neither is heroin'
By Ben Spencer, Science Reporter for the Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 18:02 EST, 6 October 2014 | UPDATED: 02:08 EST, 7 October 2014
A definitive 20-year study into the effects of long-term cannabis use has demolished the argument that the drug is safe.
Cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs, the study found.
The paper by Professor Wayne Hall, a drugs advisor to the World Health Organisation, builds a compelling case against those who deny the devastation cannabis wreaks on the brain.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2782906/The-terrible-truth-cannabis-British-expert-s-devastating-20-year-study-finally-demolishes-claims-smoking-pot-harmless.html#ixzz3FTgupVxe
Ok. This is out and out propaganda. Seriously. The news doesn't do propaganda? Heh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-Wh77wt1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-Wh77wt1o
The police are putting a lot of pressure on Nimbin at the moment.
After the last three day warrant was served, apparently a heap of people went online and kicked up a big stink about it; and worse yet, said stink apparently got global attention. The cops now think they need to save face about the fact that we've been able to smoke here for as long as we have, so there is a sustained, ongoing crackdown at the moment, which some have said may last until well into the New Year.
I know weed is considered a vice. I know smoking it at least, is not completely harmless. Yet it does have a lot of genuine medical applications; and I honestly don't think I'm going too far in saying that it is a legitimate medicine for me as well. I was formally diagnosed with PTSD in 2002. I've had various forms of psychological abuse for most of my life; some of it intense and accompanied by physical.
As a result of this, I don't have the same sort of emotional baseline state, as someone who hasn't had that type of abuse. When I am not smoking, I am in a state of perpetual fear and anger, which to varying degrees is present pretty much all the time. Marijuana allows me to get rid of that rage for a few hours, to the point where I can communicate with people online without raging and swearing at them, or with people offline where I'm not practically in a foetal position on the floor, because of being scared that they're going to try and kill me.
Before you suggest that I get psychotherapy, I've had five psychologists. It never works more than temporarily. The astral surgery that I've been doing on mushrooms has helped more permanently, but I still have more of that work to do.
I want and need the police to leave this town alone. I have no intention of engaging in violent or criminal behaviour, of any form that they need to legitimately enforce. I simply want continued access to a substance which allows me to temporarily emotionally function like a normal human being.
Quote from: petrus4 on October 07, 2014, 07:47:29 PM
I'm not going to claim that weed is harmless, but it is substantially less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. I'm making a conscious exchange.
I agree with your 'but...' 110%. It is less harmful, and fair enough on that basis to question why one and not the other.
Alcohol is a literal poison by nature and definition (how many kids who take a liking to it, actually know that is what it amounts to, when they start? I sure didn't, way back) Tobacco may not be a major killer or health breaker in the
old natural form grown and enjoyed back to our forefathers and before (I'll grant that as possible for lack of evidence supporting today's rate of bad outcomes back then). Still, no smoke is good smoke and we don't breathe it without short term damage, anyway. These days, it's anything but natural tho...
BTW, any smoker who has a thing about GMO's in food? How is it to smoke some? I'd rather eat them personally, (or not at all, really) since my stomach isn't tossing it straight into my blood the way my lungs did when I was a cigarette smoker. (15+ years..and now able to take stairs two at a time without being winded after the last nicotine cleared my blood on April 15, 2010...and yeah, I kinda worked the date so it'd have a happy meaning to it..lol)
Now I'm not obsessive with the whole 'My Body is a Temple' thing, as I know some with similar Faith to mine can be, but I do generally think anything introduced which isn't water or adding nutritional content to the body is going to have side effects and downsides.
Heck..even Vitamin C can kill outright at the wrong daily number (It is a big number, as I recall) and I believe weed actually is one of the only things lacking a known, and defined toxicity level to start working with as a top end. I think Richard Nixon's Blue Ribbon boys managed to kill a couple primates along the way, but then, I also understand those poor chimps had enough, quickly, to have made a lifetime with Cheech and Chong look down right close to clean and proper living.
All current nuttiness in the newly legal states aside (the novelty will wear off, I'm sure) I'm for legalization and somewhere, in some dusty old filing cabinet may still reside a card from a lifetime ago when I collected signatures in California for NORML and a ballot initiative for what has now become their reality. It had 0 chance way back then, but it all helped by bits to reach the end result. Now..if we can just see true legalization and where laws change entirely, not simply the will of the current people in power to enforce them. Outside the states with new law, that can change BACK as quickly as it relaxed. :(
I'm pro legalisation too. In particular, if hard drugs were available over the counter from a pharmacy then addicts (who are actually sick don't forget) could buy clean drugs with proper safety instructions and would not have to go out and steal.
I think it is senseless to make sick people into criminals and to give all the black market cash to the Triads, Mafia(s), CIA (:P) and other crooks - including Afghan warlords..