stymie

there's so many ways to contribute to this thread but.....let me try a couple ways:

1 - facts? marijuana is organic; it was used to make rope several lifetimes ago; it has been demonized for decades as the scourge of society; it elevates blood pressure and heart rate; can cause paranoia if used habitually; is considered by some, depsite clinical evidence to the contrary, to be a 'gateway' drug; it does have orders of magnitude more tar than tobacco and because it's typicall smoked, it can damage lung tissue; pot causes lethargy and euphoria, depending on one's mood; enhances senses to the extent they can be; reddens the eyes and dulls the intellect....well...maybe those aren't all facts!

b - i don't regret using it. in fact, i continue to meet folks in real live that 'should' have used herb at some point in their lives. take darkness up there. lighten up and and have a hook on this lefthander brah. it'll give you a whole new lease on life....a new way to look at things. some sphincters are wound way WAY too tight. pot loosens them up dark. don't use pot if you have no will to live?! come on man! smoke this! it really will help. honest.

...more relevant to this site.....marijuana is as ingrained in rock and roll music as johnny b. goode and groupies. at one point it was passed freely from stranger to stranger at concerts. for me, it makes listening to live music crisp, clean, intense, and very 'very' groovy!!! ha!

don't bogart that joint....

Barnard17

Homigosh, did they tell you bread is bad for you too? Cus if they didn't you're seriously lacking in your bad-for-you edjoomacation.

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Fenixpunk

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DontRunMeOver

Here's some good facts I've got too. If these repeat any that were previously mentioned then DEAL WITH IT.

1. In the UK, cannabis was recently reclassified from 'Class B' to 'Class C', which puts it alongside valium, anabolic steroids, temazepan etc. in its illegality. What this actually means is that being found in possession or use could lead to 2 years imprisonment and that supplying or intending to supply could lead to 14 years. One of the arguments (as I recall) that was given for this reclassification was that cannabis users themselves cause the police very little trouble as a result of cannabis use, so it was felt that by not putting them in the same criminal bracket as users of speed, barbiturates, cocaine and heroin the perceived link between use of these drugs would somehow be lessened. I think the idea was that so many people in the UK have used cannabis that it would in a sense be labelling a majority of the population as criminals.

2. Cannabis smoke is considerably more carcinogenic (cancer-causing) than tobacco smoke. This is partly because it burns at a higher temperature, although there are doubtless a number of other reasons for this!

3. Cannabis use has been closely linked to the development of different psychological problems, especially schizophrenia.

4. I once got the munchies so badly that I started to shake with munching-desire when I stopped eating and could only stop the shaking by eating again.

5. Some people smoke lots of weed, lose their marbles and become extremely fat and pointless. Yuri Geller and Cliff Richard have probably never smoked weed in their life and are both extremely irritating and detestable. In the end, you have to choose between the two evils. Actually, no, drink lots of beer, sometimes tequila and save the weed for special occasions.

Fenixpunk

i think thats pretty much anywhere. More people are in jails for marijuana possesion than any other crime. Its an easy way for the law enforcement agencies to make money.

Vaporizers solve the carcinogen problem, and how many people do you know that smoke 20-40 joints a day???

Been watching Reefer Madness a little much ey?

rates of schizophrenia don’t vary with rates of cannabis use,(Wayne Hall and Nadia Solowij, “Adverse Effects of Cannabis,” Lancet, vol. 352, pp. 1611–1616, 1998.) symptoms tend to precede use, and many schizophrenics say weed helps them feel better,(L. Dixon, et al., “Drug Abuse in Schizophrenic Patients: Clinical Correlates and Reasons for Use,” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 148, pp. 224–230, 1991.)

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DontRunMeOver

Its true. It was like being possessed by a demon which needed regular crisp sacrifice lest it steal my very soul.

DontRunMeOver

You'd been saving those little factoids up for use on an unsuspecting victim, hadn't you!

Hahaha! But two can play at that game. Maybe. Wait a minute, I might be wrong...

Fenixpunk

no, if you take the time to read the last marijuana debate thread, youd see that ive been a member of NORML for a long time now and im pretty well informed on the subject. Ive listed tons of good information in there.

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DontRunMeOver

Here's an excerpt from
'Effects of cannabis on health: an update of the literature since 1996', Harold Kalant, University of Toronto, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 28 (2004) 849-863.

"This review of the literature since 1996, concerning adverse health effects of cannabis smoking, does not alter in a major way the conclusions reached in an earlier review of the literature up to 1996. The principal additions to, or modifications of, those earlier conclusions are as follows:

• The potential role of cannabis in driving accidents has been further supported by analytical data showing the presence of THC in the blood and saliva of injured or impaired drivers with a higher frequency than probably occurs in the general public or in non-injured, non-impaired drivers. The data on culpability of drivers under the influence of cannabis are not conclusive, but are strongly suggestive because of the relationship to cannabis dosage.
• The frequency of chronic bronchial inflammatory changes and precancerous alterations in the bronchial epithelium of long-term heavy smokers of cannabis has been clearly demonstrated, and one well-designed epidemiological study is strongly suggestive of a causal role of cannabis smoking in upper airways cancer in young adults.
• The possibility of a contribution of cannabis smoking to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is still not clear, but cannot be dismissed.
• Much new statistical information indicates a substantial involvement of cannabis use in various psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenic relapse, major depression, anxiety or panic disorders, and behavioral disorders in young people, and there is stronger evidence to suggest that cannabis use contributes to the production of these disorders than there is that these disorders contribute to cannabis use.
• Use of sophisticated statistical analytical techniques in a New Zealand long-term follow-up study has yielded evidence to support the idea that regular heavy use of cannabis by young adolescents is causally linked to poor psychosocial outcomes.
• Much new statistical information attests to the widespread occurrence of dependence in regular heavy users of cannabis. There is good, but still not conclusive, evidence of the occurrence of what appears to be a withdrawal syndrome, that impairs the ability to stop use in a significant proportion of cases.
• A small number of case reports suggest that cannabis use may, under certain circumstances, increase the risk of potentially serious cardiovascular disorders in predisposed individuals.
• Independent new data are consistent with the earlier evidence that maternal use of cannabis during pregnancy may give rise to subtle but significant developmental problems in the offspring, detectable in early school years and adolescence."

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Also, from 'What causes the onset of psychosis?', Schizophrenia Research
Volume 79, Issue 1 , 1 November 2005, Pages 23-34.

"This is increasing evidence that heavy use of cannabis in adolescence can increase the risk of later schizophrenia (Arseneault et al., 2004) and that effects on dopamine also mediate this. A recent study (Caspi et al., in press) has shown that liability to psychosis induced by cannabis is strongly influenced by a polymorphism in the COMT gene that determines the rate of catabolism of frontal dopamine."

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And 'The ecogenetics of schizophrenia: a review', Schizophrenia Research
Volume 32, Issue 2 , 27 July 1998, Pages 127-135.

"Use of cannabis is a likely risk factor for schizophrenia (Andreasson et al., 1987). Not only are there genetically determined differences in the individual psychotropic effects produced by cannabis (Lyons et al., 1997), but use of cannabis itself is also influenced by genetic factors (Tsuang et al., 1996). Thus, part of the genetic contribution to schizophrenia may be mediated by the use of cannabis and its subjective effects (genotype–environment correlation and interaction). McGuire and colleagues found that the risk for schizophrenia in the first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients who screened positive for cannabis was increased more than 10-fold compared to those of schizophrenic patients who screened negative (McGuire et al., 1995). These results are suggestive of a mechanism of genotype–environment interaction and/or genotype–environment correlation, as in both instances the first-degree relatives of cases exposed to the environmental risk factor should have higher rates of illness (Ottman, 1996; Marcelis et al., 1998b)."

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That's for those of your without access to your own online library

So what the last article is suggesting is that the cannabis-schizophrenia link works in both directions. Cannabis use may contribute to the development of schizophrenia and likewise schizophrenic personalities may be more likely to use cannabis. People often seem confused about the fact that this is a scientific point, that the links and causality or non-causality are something that either exists or does not exist and that its not a case for debate, just emotionless and unbiased research. Its science and they haven't made up their minds yet because they still don't have enough concrete evidence either way. Undoubtably an association has been made between weed and going or being schizo, but the exact nature of this link is yet to be confirmed.

Barnard17

Sorry, but that doesn't stand up for much. Many manic depressents say that cutting makes them feel better. That doesn't mean that it's doing them any good or improving their situation, they just temporarily feel better.

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