Study Suggests That Marijuana Is More Dangerous Than Thought

[CrossCuT]

it is what it is, my friend. reality bites, but it remains reality.

 

I have no doubt that you believe your perception of the situation is reality, but its just that...a perception. And a perception of a long drawn out stereotype at that. 

 

im no sucker.

 

https://www.fbijobs.gov/52.asp

 

If laws dictate whether something is good or bad, then abortion must be good.

 

Cmon Lilla, I expect more form your ivy league educated mind. Instead of commenting solely on possibly the most petty part of this topic by discussing "pot heads" as your competition (which also sounds vaguely dickish), how about you educate us on why the laws are the way they are? Their history. Or the history of the drug wars...opium, crack cocaine and why these things were criminalized, really? Race? Socioeconomics? Or maybe comment on the science...you're a woman of science right? Comment on why people disengage from society? Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses? Why might these types of people be drawn to marijuana? Relief? Escape? Despair? 

 

Its very tiresome when people are unable to overcome the old stereotypes. Literally...like thats seriously a problem. People are still stuck in 1940. Its preventing reasonable progress in understanding this drug. Cannabinoids have a very fascinating and unlocked potential...whether its for good or bad. But people are so obsessed and stuck discussing prepubescent, petty, and unproductive topics like "pot heads" to go through to the meat of the subject.

 

Instead lets focus on things that matter, things that helps us understand this situation. Like maybe the difference between the effects of CBD and THC; their positives and negatives (from what we know so far). Or where the receptors or located in the body. Or that our own body even produces endocannabinoids that activate the same receptors. 

 

Lets discuss the scientific studies being done. Why they are good, where they can improve, and where they might be bad. Or discuss the fact (and this is a real fact) that cannabis has helped people in pain!

 

Im not here to cement my feet in the idea that cannabis is the God of drugs...I could be entirely wrong. Maybe someday we find out that cannabis is instead the worst drug on the planet that is slowly turning us into monsters...I dont know. But what I do know right now is that I want to learn more. This topic is fascinating to me and if effects a lot of people. So instead of demonizing the people and focusing on the lowest part of the subject matter, lets talk about smart people things. And maybe in the future when people expand their Grinch hearts, maybe we can decriminalize this drug completely so that homes are not destroyed. Maybe we can get HELP for those people you so despise and want to stomp on in jobs and other opportunities. Maybe we can extend to them the Christian love, compassion, and mercy we so boast about.

 

Join me in my efforts of the kumbaya ways Lillla. We have been waiting for you.

 

Edited June 21, 2014 by CrossCuT

[NotreDame]

As someone who has probably done more drugs than everyone on this thread combined, let me try to clear some things up.

 

This may be an oversimplification, but I think use of drugs becomes sinful when it interferes with reason and/or our life.  With alcohol this means that drinking to the point of impairing your reason is sinful.  Ruining your next day w/ a hang-over is sinful also.  Note that caffeine & nicotine don't impair reason, so their use isn't morally analogous with drugs/alcohol, but their misuse can affect health, which it is our morally responsibility to protect.

 

What differentiates alcohol from recreational drugs is that we can have a drink or a few drinks with food and have zero effect on our reason.  This is called moderation.  There is no moderation with recreational drugs: any normal dose of cocaine, heroine, ecstasy, mushrooms, or meth immediately affects your reason.  There is no moderation possible.  In fact, for many of these drugs it's the first dose that makes you the highest and further use isn't to increase the high, but maintain it. 

 

Where does marijuana fit in this?  One hit (especially of the newer medical strains) will immediately affect your reason and give you a high (this is what smokers refer to as the "head change.")  Regular users of marijuana aren't "moderating" their use, they are just used to being high and comfortable functioning that way.  Marijuana doesn't affect motor skills, reason, or physical traits (breath) the same way alcohol does, so regular smokers are able to spend much more of their day high than a functioning alcoholic would drunk.

 

Does smoking marijuana make you stupid?  While you are high, of course, just like being drunk does.   Does it affect your cognitive ability?  The next day, absolutely.  Would regular use affect day to day cognitive ability?  Of course.  Are there long term effects?  All of these drugs kill brain cells so there has to be some sort of long term negative effect.  Is it significant?  I'm sure it can be depending on the person, if one uses enough.  Scientists can try to study and assign probabilities to these items, but they are undeniable based on experience and observation of any worldly adult.

 

Would regular use of marijuana (or alcohol or any other drug) impact productivity?  Yes.  Can people be successful and still get high and drink?  Of course.  Would those people be even more successful if they spent their time doing something productive instead of partying.  Obviously.  The only exceptions I can think of here are artists, but that's another thread.

 

Does marijuana have benefits?  I think it's probably a better muscle relaxer and pain killer than what you'd usually get prescribed by the doctor (eg. Soma, vicodin, oxy, percoset, etc) without the risk of physical addiction or some of the chemical hangover these drugs have. 

 

Should it or any drugs be legal?  Those are very different questions that IMO don't necessarily hinge on any of the above. 

Edited June 21, 2014 by NotreDame

[Lilllabettt]

I have no doubt that you believe your perception of the situation is reality, but its just that...a perception. And a perception of a long drawn out stereotype at that. 

 

 

If laws dictate whether something is good or bad, then abortion must be good.

 

Cmon Lilla, I expect more form your ivy league educated mind. Instead of commenting solely on possibly the most petty part of this topic by discussing "pot heads" as your competition (which also sounds vaguely dickish), how about you educate us on why the laws are the way they are? Their history. Or the history of the drug wars...opium, crack cocaine and why these things were criminalized, really? Race? Socioeconomics? Or maybe comment on the science...you're a woman of science right? Comment on why people disengage from society? Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses? Why might these types of people be drawn to marijuana? Relief? Escape? Despair? 

 

Its very tiresome when people are unable to overcome the old stereotypes. Literally...like thats seriously a problem. People are still stuck in 1940. Its preventing reasonable progress in understanding this drug. Cannabinoids have a very fascinating and unlocked potential...whether its for good or bad. But people are so obsessed and stuck discussing prepubescent, petty, and unproductive topics like "pot heads" to go through to the meat of the subject.

 

Instead lets focus on things that matter, things that helps us understand this situation. Like maybe the difference between the effects of CBD and THC; their positives and negatives (from what we know so far). Or where the receptors or located in the body. Or that our own body even produces endocannabinoids that activate the same receptors. 

 

Lets discuss the scientific studies being done. Why they are good, where they can improve, and where they might be bad. Or discuss the fact (and this is a real fact) that cannabis has helped people in pain!

 

Im not here to cement my feet in the idea that cannabis is the God of drugs...I could be entirely wrong. Maybe someday we find out that cannabis is instead the worst drug on the planet that is slowly turning us into monsters...I dont know. But what I do know right now is that I want to learn more. This topic is fascinating to me and if effects a lot of people. So instead of demonizing the people and focusing on the lowest part of the subject matter, lets talk about smart people things. And maybe in the future when people expand their Grinch hearts, maybe we can decriminalize this drug completely so that homes are not destroyed. Maybe we can get HELP for those people you so despise and want to stomp on in jobs and other opportunities. Maybe we can extend to them the Christian love, compassion, and mercy we so boast about.

 

Join me in my efforts of the kumbaya ways Lillla. We have been waiting for you.

 

 

 

 

I obey stupid laws and look down on the behavior of people who do not obey stupid laws.

 

I report the money I make babysitting to the IRS. I made over $400 dollars babysitting last year, so I had to file taxes as a small business, which is complicated to say the least. Lilllabettt Babysitting Inc. Which means I also have to pay self- employment taxes. Now I feel it is stupid to require a neighborhood babysitter to pay taxes on money she earned when people down the street had a date night. I feel it is royally stupid to make her pay taxes twice. I could get away with not reporting it. It's a small pile of cash, the IRS would never miss it. But I report it because its the law and it is an issue of personal integrity.

 

Personal integrity means being willing to pay the price whenever something you believe costs you something. I believe people should obey the law, unless it is unjust. Now breaking an unjust law can be morally upright and indeed brave. But breaking a merely stupid or inconvenient law -- no. I have a low opinion of the behavior of people who flout a stupid law because they 1. want entertainment 2. think they can get away with it 3. so why not?

 

"This law is preventing my fun" is not enough to make a law unjust and therefore breakable.  "The law is preventing me from relieving my child's pain" okay maybe. But that is not recreational marijuana use, is it.

 

I think I will skip the part where I hold forth on the neurological mechanisms behind drug induced sedation and stimulation cuz I have a feeling that would make me look, in your words, "vaguely dickish." so I will demure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ice_nine]

What does it mean to "affect reason"?

[Lilllabettt]

"he's as gay as pink ink, if you want to know."

 

xxx drugs/caffeine/alcohol/meat are for the fat and weak

 

 

you forgot premarital frickle-frackle.

 

wait a minute are you a straight edger

[Credo in Deum]

 

 

xxx drugs/caffeine/alcohol/meat are for the fat and weak

Edited June 21, 2014 by Credo in Deum

[NotreDame]

What does it mean to "affect reason"?

 

Is that some sort of existential question or have you just never been drunk enough to do something stupid?

[Ice_nine]

Is that some sort of existential question or have you just never been drunk enough to do something stupid?

 

No it's an honest question. I've never been drunk on liquor, caught a buzz maybe but nothing crazy. Do you have to experience drunkenness and/or doing something stupid under the influence to know the answer to the question?

 

Full disclosure, I've used the reefer in the past, but I don't know what people mean when they say it "impairs your reason." Of course it makes you feel different, that's obvious. Drinking to feel different is OK, some saints said "drink to hilarity" or some such thing right? But there's obviously a point where you "lose reason" and cross over into sin. By what parameters does one measure that? Obviously if you get wasted, beat the hell out of someone, and wake up in a garbage can you've done something wrong, but before you get to that point where/when does one "lose reason."?

 

I've never been drunk but I've smoked the reefer in the past. I don't know that I've "lost reason" in that I've done something regrettable I wouldn't have done if I were not under the influence.  If anything I was less abrasive.

 

I know this thread is not about the morality of marijuana use so sorry for hijacking the thread, but it's a question that interests me.

[Perigrina]

I think that "doing something regrettable that one would not do if not under the influence" is a good way to understand "affect reason".  Fortunately, drinking too much usually makes me fall asleep before I can do anything stupid.  Unfortunately, it has not worked that way every time.  

[Nihil Obstat]

My layman's understanding of how marijuana use affects behaviour does imply to me that it could be used in moderation, though under prohibition of marijuana that may not be the standard way in which it is used. It has not yet been demonstrated to me that this is incorrect.

[NotreDame]

I've never been drunk but I've smoked the reefer in the past. I don't know that I've "lost reason" in that I've done something regrettable I wouldn't have done if I were not under the influence.  If anything I was less abrasive.

 

I know this thread is not about the morality of marijuana use so sorry for hijacking the thread, but it's a question that interests me.

 

So there were never things that seemed like good ideas high that would be viewed as bad ideas sober?   Eg., hooking up with your "friend", driving to taco bell at 3AM, trying whatever pills your friend has, staying up until 5AM and sleeping through the next day, blowing off friends/family, etc?  

[NotreDame]

My layman's understanding of how marijuana use affects behaviour does imply to me that it could be used in moderation, though under prohibition of marijuana that may not be the standard way in which it is used. It has not yet been demonstrated to me that this is incorrect.

 

When you take one hit of decent weed you immediately get a "head change" and your reason and affectations are changed.   Contrasted w/ taking a sip of a beer, wine, cocktail, marijuana does not offer moderation wrt to maintaining reason.   As I've mentioned, this isn't unique to marijuana.  The change induced by recreational & pharmaceutical drugs is even more stark.  What's unique is the ability to moderate alcohol. 
 

[Nihil Obstat]

When you take one hit of decent weed you immediately get a "head change" and your reason and affectations are changed.   Contrasted w/ taking a sip of a beer, wine, cocktail, marijuana does not offer moderation wrt to maintaining reason.   As I've mentioned, this isn't unique to marijuana.  The change induced by recreational & pharmaceutical drugs is even more stark.  What's unique is the ability to moderate alcohol. 
 

But is it not entirely possible to have 'light' marijuana?  I mean, I accept that right now with its prohibited status you probably will not find light marijuana, because it does not make economic sense. But is it literally impossible to create?

[Credo in Deum]

But is it not entirely possible to have 'light' marijuana?  I mean, I accept that right now with its prohibited status you probably will not find light marijuana, because it does not make economic sense. But is it literally impossible to create?

 

 

[Nihil Obstat]

I mean, if we are comparing it to alcohol, we have beer at around 3-6% ABV, wine around 20%, whisky around 40-60%. Even 99% Everclear has its purpose. Could marijuana not function in the same manner, or does THC simply function in a radically different manner?

Edited June 21, 2014 by Nihil Obstat