What Is Your Opinion On Marijuana?

[Kathryn]

Would you not say that is more true with alcohol. But I agree the use of any drug even aspirin has some risk.

But we're not talking about alcohol. We're talking about weed. Smoking weed carries risks. People need to know what risks they're taking when they smoke weed, especially when they smoke a lot of it for many years starting at an early age.

I'm not talking about the occasional user being at any great risk. And I'm not saying that weed is worse than alcohol.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Smoking weed carries risks. People need to know what risks they're taking when they smoke weed, especially when they smoke a lot of it for many years starting at an early age.

How can I argue with you. This seems both a realistic and rational. So yes I agree... What ever thats worth.

 

[Kathryn]

How can I argue with you. This seems both a realistic and rational. So yes I agree... What ever thats worth.

LOL thank you.

Very few scenarios involving substance use and especially abuse, are cut and dried or black and white. Too many variables.

Everybody just be careful out there and try to be moderate and reasonable in all things. And don't mask your problems or issues with substance abuse just to avoid working through them.

There, that's my rant.

 

[Levite]

My brother smoked marijuana just about every day from age 15 till age 40. He also ate poorly and drank too much alcohol sporadically (not daily however). He had a total mental breakdown a few weeks ago at age 40 and was diagnosed with marijuana induced psychosis and permanent brain damage, along with a personality disorder. Considering that he committed some serious acts of vandalism as well as an assault when he was in this state, he was incarcerated and is awaiting trial now.

I know that is hard to believe that much of this is due to his very regular use of MJ from an early age, but his team of medical experts repeatedly told us that this was their diagnosis. They said that there is increasing evidence that MJ use prior to adulthood can damage the development of the brain and that this damage may not show up for years or even decades. They also said that it's not a common occurrence but they do see these cases from time to time and my brother is a classic fit for this sort of thing.

The damage is permanent, according to them. My college educated brother will be in jail or in a mental institution for the next several years and his life is basically ruined.

Even with this situation, I am not condoning keeping MJ illegal. I am saying that people should not just assume that it's harmless. When people smoke it, they need to know the risks. It's not just a harmless little ol' weed.

Smoke at your own risk.

First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your brother, Kathryn. That must be so hard for you, right now. I hope that somewhere in his treatment for these issues he finds peace.

As to the marijuana issue, though, I think what leaps out at me is that your brother smoked every day. The few folks I've met who really and truly smoked every day (not just frequently, and not just having occasional periods in their lives of smoking every day, but who really smoke every day for extended periods, or even much of their lives) were personalities deeply prone to addiction, and had some fundamental instabilities in other ways.

Now, granted, marijuana is not physically addictive. But any potent substance can be psychoemotionally addictive for particularly addictive personalities. And I am not just dismissing the effect of smoking so much weed on your brother, or saying that his issues are purely inherent and internal, or anything of the kind. But smoking every day is far and away not the typical pattern of use for marijuana.

Any substance, legal or illegal, can be used responsibly or abused. And while I don't at all wish to denigrate or discount the very painful part that marijuana has apparently played in your family, I would be very hesitant to take such examples as proof of anything, or indicative of larger patterns.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your brother, Kathryn. That must be so hard for you, right now. I hope that somewhere in his treatment for these issues he finds peace.

Ditto...

 

[maxfreakout]

Regardless of any alleged dangers that cannabis might present (although the data for this is very inconclusive), it is nevertheless still true that cannabis is the *safest* drug known to man (out of every drug, illegal and legal, medicinal and recreational).

 

[arhys]

Take a supposedly non-addictive substance, give it to a weak person every day, and watch them go apoplectic when they run out. Or create a "medical" marijuana grey market and watch every kind of scammer with a green card hang out in front of the "clinic" all day. That's dope culture for you. Not something anyone should want to enable.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Take a supposedly non-addictive substance, give it to a weak person every day, and watch them go apoplectic when they run out. Or create a "medical" marijuana grey market and watch every kind of scammer with a green card hang out in front of the "clinic" all day. That's dope culture for you. Not something anyone should want to enable.

Actually there is nothing chemically addictive about marijuana. And why use a "weak person" for an example? The only people I know who display any "symptoms" from not having pot are those who are looking for excuses for anything and everything they do. And if you looked up independent lab research, marijuana has a myriad of health benefits. And as for "dope culture" it's actually about as diverse as those who use it, and includes everything from gangsters and high school drop outs to doctors and honor college students. I even know a couple people who do smoke nearly every day, and not only are they physically and mentally fine during those days or weeks when they have none (no shakes, no irritability, and no cravings), and their jobs and grades do not suffer because of their consumption. By not suffering I mean their supervisors introduce them as the best worker they have and they make nearly all A's in college. And one of them, he will jokingly point out that he is the one who is stoned when someone sober makes a mistake that people would often attribute to marijuana usage.
And before you dismiss "dope culture" be aware there are indeed many tokers on this board that do not/cannot discuss their habits. It's a very diverse crowd and I really wouldn't even call it a culture because marijuana consumption is often one of the very few things two users will have in common.