Why is everyone smoking weed now?

[Thetepidstepper]

I mean it's everywhere. My neighbour smokes it and stinks the block out with it. In addition I smell it very often just round and about, coming from people's gardens and in pubs and that.

I don't like it because I had a massive anxiety attack first and only time I smoked weed and it left me with PTSD, I mean it was severe. According to my therapist this is actually quite common. I mean therapists know that weed is nasty stuff that makes people feel bad, quite a lot of the time.

But still people are smoking it. And cops are turning a blind eye obviously.

I wish it was legalised really so that these stinky people would have to fit fans and vents and the like.

But until that happens loads of people are at it even though it makes them be boring cunts. Why!

@vegas888

Calling users Neds, losers and boring cunts is acceptable though 🙄

Pardon? I literally have no idea what you're referring to. I presume Ned is a typo? Otherwise I'm even more confused!

Can you phone the housing association and ask what their policy is on weed smoking that permeates the whole building and what they can do?

Backed up with telling them ‘I don’t want him to know it’s me that dobbed him in as he may come after me so can you do a ‘routine’ inspection of his property or something and ‘notice’ the smell yourself” type thing for me?

I don’t know if they can but that would be my route as the smell is very strong and I don’t like it.

It's ridiculously strong and smelly now and I'm not surprised that some people have had awful experiences and lasting damage.
I used to smoke every night, still managed to work, get a degree and do a professional job. However the stuff I smoked was solid and in low doses, in the evening before bed. £50 worth would last around 6 weeks. Didn't smell much and gave a gentle relaxation (and great for period pain!) similar to a couple of glasses of wine but nicer.

My sister, however, smokes seriously strong, stinky weed. Not only does her house (and her) stink but it's so strong, she smokes all day and I have no idea how. I had a couple of puffs of her spliff one day and couldn't drive for hours, felt and woozy and paranoid and horrible. Not a pleasant high at all. I really think this new super weed should be a different class of drug altogether. It's been bred for unnatural levels of the different chemicals and has insanely strong effects. I knew someone who grew their own and their weed, while still quite smelly, was fine if you didn't smoke a lot of it.

I haven't smoked for over a year now, as my husband is on a lot of meds and we didn't want any interactions. However I honestly don't feel any different, although I miss how quickly it used to get me off to sleep!

Strong weed now is like a super drug and when/if cannabis is legalised I think there should be restrictions on quality and strength.

I dont. Never have nor has DH. Living rurally i dont tend to mix with people. So don’t know who does it.

I only like being with people i like. If they did that id walk away. CBA with people who do drugs.

@Elieza

Can you phone the housing association and ask what their policy is on weed smoking that permeates the whole building and what they can do?

Backed up with telling them ‘I don’t want him to know it’s me that dobbed him in as he may come after me so can you do a ‘routine’ inspection of his property or something and ‘notice’ the smell yourself” type thing for me?

I don’t know if they can but that would be my route as the smell is very strong and I don’t like it.

What the OP has said about weed smokers Ned is a derogatory term applied in Scotland to hooligans, louts or petty criminals. It also appears to be a backronym for a non-educated delinquent.

Sorry that reply was @brittle

If you buy weed from dealers then you are funding criminal gangs and human traffickers including child traffickers.

And if you grow your own you don't. And a quick google for hydroponics suppliers in your area will reveal to you what a booming success story it's become. Eclipsing home brewing by a country mile.

The real Daily Wail skunksteria stories are pushed by the drinks industry who have picked up on the fact that the younger generation are less likely to drink than have a smoke.

@RagzReturnsRebooted Vile stuff compared to the solid from years ago, I had a puff on a blue cheese joint once and if felt like I'd taken a trip. Hellish few hours. Don't know why anyone would want to feel like that but each to their own!

In the same way some people might have a glass of wine with lunch and then one or two in the evening.

If someone was doing this every day then they would be in excess of their weekly units (quite significantly if it was 1 with lunch and 2 in the evening). They would have a problem.

Perception is a big part of it. It's one of the reasons why a lot of secondary schools in middle-class areas are having issues with students dealing and increasingly heavy use both in and out of school. The kids have an idea in their mind as to what a drug dealer/user looks like and it's disconnected from how they see themselves. It allows them to have quite a heavy usage without recognising it as a problem.

@Iamnotthe1

In the same way some people might have a glass of wine with lunch and then one or two in the evening.

If someone was doing this every day then they would be in excess of their weekly units (quite significantly if it was 1 with lunch and 2 in the evening). They would have a problem.

Perception is a big part of it. It's one of the reasons why a lot of secondary schools in middle-class areas are having issues with students dealing and increasingly heavy use both in and out of school. The kids have an idea in their mind as to what a drug dealer/user looks like and it's disconnected from how they see themselves. It allows them to have quite a heavy usage without recognising it as a problem.

Indeed, but my sentence there that you quoted, was in reply to the PP perpetuating the myth that dope smokers tend to spend all day stoned out of their nuts.

That's really not the case with many of them, just as it's not the case that anyone who drinks a glass of wine will wake up each morning and drink the whole bottle.

@Farwest

Smoking is antisocial. Smoking anything where some unwilling victim will have to breathe it in, have their clothes and carpets and curtains stink of it - it's just fucking antisocial. Sorry it's happening to you, OP.

I feels same. Neighbours over the road smoke it so we can smell it from the front. Neighbour two along smokes in his back garden of an evening so we get the stink there as well. I'm not sure any of them would take kindly to being asked to ease up, as per some pps suggestions. Sorry you've had a tough time OP. I don't think humans are meant to live on top of each other.

You didn't compare that level of drinking to the MN perception of all day dopers. You compared it to what you said was more normal: people rolling cig size ones and smoking at points throughout the day.

If someone is doing that every single day, across the whole day, then that does indicate a potential problem.

@DobbleDobble

I work in London and I agree it’s a constant smell, not just around but on people too, you can smell them from afar.I imagine their whole house and even their children smell of it. For me though it’s the bigger problem of gang culture fighting over control of streets/neighbourhoods who they supply.Young kids being turned into drug runners on push bikes and now scooters all over the place.Then as another op said it’s stronger now and causing more mental health paranoia . I think most “ middle class” users just don’t care or worry about how they get their cannabis or cocaine , but then moan about knife crime etc. It’s the repercussions of it all. It either needs to be legalised and taxed and purchased from places just like alcohol and cigarettes or totally stamped out as illegal but then London alone will need another 10/20000 officers to enforce.That’s where it falls down, the governent wring their hands over knife crime but are they actually investing in our communities and services and police to solve it? So they’re complicit in all of it.

Agree with this. Brother is police officer and says it all the time.

@Iamnotthe1

You didn't compare that level of drinking to the MN perception of all day dopers. You compared it to what you said was more normal: people rolling cig size ones and smoking at points throughout the day.

If someone is doing that every single day, across the whole day, then that does indicate a potential problem.

This is what it was in reply to...

Most people drink a glass of wine or a beer a few times a week or on special occasions. They don't get up, open up a tinny and then spend the rest of the day drinking. Or if they do, they are called alcoholics and have an illness.

Either way the fact is, more and more people today are choosing a few cigarette sized joints over a few glasses of wine.

I agree the regularity of doing either can lead to problems.

I too had an anxiety attack op. In Amsterdam, quite the cliché! Quite horrible and enough to put me off.
That, plus having lived in a neighbourhood taken over by drug dealers, plus the family potheads ending up taking a quick route to different stuff (and death) compared with the alcohol drinking ones who are still with us and I have to say I hate illegal street drugs.
(Of course if someone is growing their own milder stuff for medicinal purposes it's a complete different balance of positives versus negatives..should go without saying tbh.)

As for the drinks industry pushing stories to the day mail. What a pile of deflecting tripe.

Particularly while young. There are studies that show clear links between early and/or regular use and MH issues, some that are lifelong. Recent studies have also shown that regular use while under mid-twenties leads to a permanant decrease in IQ.

Mature adults who contribute to society choosing to have the occasional smoke on a weekend is one thing. However, children being used as drug runners and regularly dealing to other children in school, creating potentially long-term habits or problems, is another completely.

Mature adults who contribute to society choosing to have the occasional smoke on a weekend is one thing. However, children being used as drug runners and regularly dealing to other children in school, creating potentially long-term habits or problems, is another completely.

Absolutely, which is why I think so many countries/states have legalised it.

@WorraLiberty

Mature adults who contribute to society choosing to have the occasional smoke on a weekend is one thing. However, children being used as drug runners and regularly dealing to other children in school, creating potentially long-term habits or problems, is another completely.

Absolutely, which is why I think so many countries/states have legalised it.

I hesitant to say that it would help here overall. In the countries where use is legal, the strength of the strains is also regulated (and the additional costs of regulation etc. often makes the cost go up). That'd be fine for the irregular user as described but the more regular user would still want cheaper and/or stronger stuff and continue to buy just as frequently from dealers.

I agree it should be regulated and legalised; and the 'trade' providers, producers and sellers should be licensed or registered in some way.

Because it makes you feel chilled 🤷‍♀️
I'd much rather have a joint than alcohol and to be honest when people are stoned their not going to fight and glass each other like drunks do 🤷‍♀️

Yeah I always fancy a scrap after a few drinks.

@PollyValent

Yeah I always fancy a scrap after a few drinks.

Me too Dh & I had a few drinks with friends at home last night, obviously we ended the evening with a huge fight!

If I drink too much I fall asleep. I am very docile. 🐈

I haven't tried cannabis for decades but I might need to give it a go for pain relief. I think I'd rather that than ever-increasing dosages of prescription opiates tbh.

I am actually really surprised by the amount of posters who are casting doubt on the terrifying experience the OP had from smoking. Surprised I thought it was quite common knowledge that the weed that's been available for the last 15 years at least is not the same strength it used to be. It's because of the massive increase in growers using hydroponics and the chemicals used to produce the strongest THC content and also why that particular smell is so prevalent. If you unknowingly had a propensity for psychosis, then potentially one spliff could trigger it. I've actually known of a young man who already had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but was successfully managing it with meds who had a toke or two, certainly not more, at a party and that was enough to cause a complete breakdown.
The old thinking used to be that weed was harmless, non addictive but I think for some people it can be devastating.
I don't mind a whiff in the air but I can imagine that it would be horrible to live next door to heavy smokers, as the smell is so pervasive.
I really hope we go the way of other countries and dispensaries start popping up, that way it can be regulated and you'd know what you were getting in terms of strength, quality etc and also that you were not funding organised crime.
There are also the many illnesses that weed can be beneficial for. Again, legalisation would be a positive step in those situations in terms of dosage, knowledge legal issues etc.
As a mother, I do worry about the possibility of my child one day trying a spliff, it's so prevalent now, doesn't matter where you live geographically or economically; like a pp said the skunk of today is nothing like the solid or the grass that was around in the early 90's when I was a teen.
I hope we could start to have open, balanced conversations around weed at home, school and in parliament.

@PollyValent

Yeah I always fancy a scrap after a few drinks.

You might not but it seems many people in town centres do, after the pubs/clubs close. The police and ambulance services are often at breaking point every Friday and Saturday night.

More people get violent on alcohol than weed.