Smoking Pot.

[oldbadger]

I can't stand articles based on relative risk: "56% more likely" sounds awful, but it could well be that the specific cancers they're talking about are the particularly rare ones, and 56% more likely than sod all chance is still not one worth bothering about.

..and it also doesn't mean it's causal (e.g. option for confoundiing variables: people who've been told they're susceptible to cancer are taking vitamin pills because someone on the internet said they help. They don't help, so it makes it look like loads of the people taking those pills get cancer). Of course, when the research paper is finally published, it'll include all the possible confounders (if it's done properly), but those bits never make the front pages.. all that does is "X gives you cancer!"

Yes. Yes! I agree .............
I even read the story on the Daily Mirror's first page, so you know it's all about yer science.

Thing is...... I mistrust most 'scientists have found' articles because last decade, year or month 'they' had probably found the opposite. My mention of it was intended as a wet kipper slap (are they allowed on RF?) for such as would want to ban pot 'cos it 'wrecks lives'.

Pot, like village bowls, or tea drinking, might actually kill the odd person but if the death-stats for cycling, walking down stairs or getting out of the bath were compared with known pot deaths I don't think that quite so many folks would insist on its control.

There's no agenda here for me. I've never smoked pot in my life, even though I lived in a bedsit in East London, surrounded by hippies in the late 60's. But I might like to try it if I was ever coping with, say, cancer.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Does something have to be "necessary" to be legal? Let's outlaw TV, movies, gum, sneakers, flip-flops, newspapers, short buildings, skirts, yoga pants, etc.

Also God and mobile phones.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

There's no agenda here for me. I've never smoked pot in my life, even though I lived in a bedsit in East London, surrounded by hippies in the late 60's.

So a sort of cockney non-hippy?

 

[oldbadger]

So a sort of cockney non-hippy?

Who?..... Me?
I was born in Newcastle Central........ A kind of Geordie (no accent).
What do Cockneys and Mancunians call us?....... Scotsmen with our brains bashed out?
Those were the days. No goals. No freedom. No money. No brains. I don't know how I survived.
I sometimes wonder what happened to all those hippies.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

I sometimes wonder what happened to all those hippies.

Sitting around in old-folks homes trying to remember the good old days.

 

[philbo]

Thing is...... I mistrust most 'scientists have found' articles because last decade, year or month 'they' had probably found the opposite. My mention of it was intended as a wet kipper slap (are they allowed on RF?) for such as would want to ban pot 'cos it 'wrecks lives'.

Pretty much all "scientists have found" articles in newspapers are arts or media studies graduates misunderstanding abstracts, or quoting out of context from press releases. Or mistaking correlation for causation. Many years ago now, I met a sub-editor sort of chap & asked why they didn't have more (well, any) people who actually understood the science on their editorial team to weed out the misunderstandings - can't remember the exact words, but it was something like "but with him checking, none of the stories turned out to be worth printing, so we got rid of him"

So, essentially, the British press would rather not know they're printing worthless tripe than not have the worthless tripe to print. I'm extrapolating, of course, but with reason.

I was born in Newcastle Central........ A kind of Geordie (no accent).

Me, too. Though the only signs left of my Geordie background is a tendency to wear t-shirts when the rest of the world is in jumpers

 

[Typist]

The thing with cannabis, and this is mostly in the younger population, is that it's a gateway drug. 'Oh you liked that, huh? Why don't you try this?' Before you know it, cannabis is a thing of the past and cocaine or heroine is the new drug of choice.

It certainly is a gateway drug, and the opening doorway to a lifetime of drug problems, for some. The problem is it's pretty much impossible to determine who will go down this path. Most people won't, but for some, pot is the beginning of a long sad trip.

The same can be said of alcohol. Most people can handle it, some can't, and there's really no way to know in the beginning who is who.

All that said, the real killer we should focus on is tobacco. Something like 400,000 people a year die from that, and have been for decades. Nothing else comes close in terms of harm to society.

I'm in favor of shooting all tobacco company executives on sight. Seal Team 6 to the rescue. Tobacco company executives kill so many more people than all the other drug dealers put together. It's bizarre beyond belief that we let them get away with it.

 

[Marisa]

That's ignoring the research. To me the simple immune system dysfunction finding should be enough. The pot-cancer link is not proven but:

• Many of the carcinogens and co-carcinogens present in tobacco smoke are also present in smoke from marijuana.
• Marijuana smoking does cause inflammation and cell damage, and it has been associated with pre-cancerous changes in lung tissue.
• Marijuana has been shown to cause immune system dysfunction, possibly predisposing individuals to cancer.

Does Smoking Marijuana Cause Lung Cancer

I second Leiebow's suggestion you watch the 3 CNN documentaries I posted in an earlier post. There are some things you may not be aware of, primarily that the US holds the patent on the component of marijuana which shows the most medicinal promise while simultaneously classifying it as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it has "no medicinal value". So which is it? Because of this, the vast majority of research into marijuana has been focused on it's negative aspects, of which there are some. There are negative aspects to all drugs. But we simply don't really know what the positive aspects may be, except that it shows great promise in treating seizure disorder patients and severe PTSD patients, just to name a few.

 

[Marisa]

The e-juice in electronic cigs is completely different than marijuana vaporizors. This is my major problem with those that oppose legalization. There is this irrational stigma associated with pot that only those who do not smoke and aren't around marijuana a lot hold. Compared to some other substances, like alcohol, that are legal, marijuana is pretty much harmless.

You are quite right. Classifying it as a schedule 1 drug is a powerful emotional motivator in terms of developing personal opinions. And as far as I'm aware, it's possible to overdose on alcohol. But not marijuana.

 

[Marisa]

I'm not arguing the legality now. I'm arguing the necessity. What is the necessity behind getting high? There are, if one cares to ever look, far better ways of de-stressing or having fun than simply smoking drugs.

Why is it necessary to allow people the same right you demand for yourself, which is to make your own moral choices based on your ethical values?

 

[Marisa]

No, I have no need to. If I want to unwind I have more productive ways of doing so.

It's productive because it works for you. No one else is you, though others may find pleasure from the same activities you enjoy. That others may not take pleasure from the things you enjoy neither validates nor invalidates the beneficial nature of those things to you.

 

[leibowde84]

You are quite right. Classifying it as a schedule 1 drug is a powerful emotional motivator in terms of developing personal opinions. And as far as I'm aware, it's possible to overdose on alcohol. But not marijuana.

That is true, sort of. I believe that is is possible to overdose, as there have been reports of people eating too much of it and getting sick, but there has not been 1 case of death from marijuana ingestion. Conversely, there have been a monumental amount of deaths from alcohol poisoning.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

That is true, sort of. I believe that is is possible to overdose, as there have been reports of people eating too much of it and getting sick, but there has not been 1 case of death from marijuana ingestion. Conversely, there have been a monumental amount of deaths from alcohol poisoning.

Do you have any information on this illness? The reason I'm asking is because eating raw pot is known to cause stomach irritation (I don't remember all the reasons). I even have a cookbook that suggests you not eat raw pot because of the chances of stomach irritation, and that it's much better to extract the goodies first and then use butter, alcohol, milk, or whatever to cook with instead of the raw plant.

 

[Mycroft]

Durgs have a.

You were distracted by something shiny. Take a breath, try again.

 

[Mycroft]

A recent study also suggests that people who smoke weed are more susceptible to the formation of false memories.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

A recent study also suggests that people who smoke weed are more susceptible to the formation of false memories.

Links? I have a bunch that say any memory difficulties are only while high.
Being distracted in general causes false memories. Multitasking reduces the overall quality for all tasks being performed, yet we are expected more-and-more to be multitaskers, which is just not healthy for us.

 

[Nada]

Links? I have a bunch that say any memory difficulties are only while high.
Being distracted in general causes false memories. Multitasking reduces the overall quality for all tasks being performed, yet we are expected more-and-more to be multitaskers, which is just not healthy for us.

I was going to say something but I forgot.Lol...

 

[Marisa]

A recent study also suggests that people who smoke weed are more susceptible to the formation of false memories.

I can see applications for this in psychology. PTSD, for instance.

 

[leibowde84]

Do you have any information on this illness? The reason I'm asking is because eating raw pot is known to cause stomach irritation (I don't remember all the reasons). I even have a cookbook that suggests you not eat raw pot because of the chances of stomach irritation, and that it's much better to extract the goodies first and then use butter, alcohol, milk, or whatever to cook with instead of the raw plant.

They were eating brownies, so they weren't eating raw pot. I think they just ate too much and they freaked out and went to the ER. Technically, I guess that is enough to consider it an overdose.

 

[leibowde84]

You were distracted by something shiny. Take a breath, try again.

Spoken like a true know-nothing-know-it-all. For some strange reason you seem to think you know what it's like to be high, yet you have absolutely no information to base that off of.

I guess you never make mistakes when typing quickly on this site. Try to be respectful buddy.