Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to think that weed can and does ruin lives and isn't 'harmless'?

255 replies

madonnawhore · 02/02/2011 10:38

I know there are people who maintain that cannabis is harmless and they smoke it and they're fine blah blah blah.

I used to smoke it, all my friends used to smoke it, but none of us do any more because, you know what? it doesn't half make you a boring, lazy bastard.

Never mind the whole 'it causes psychosis' debate (my brother and a really good friend of mine both had to receive mental health treatment as a result of smoking weed), but there's a thread over on relationships at the moment about some woman's husband who spends all his salary on weed within the first 3 days of payday and who has actually cut his hours so that he can stay home and play more computer games.

AIBU in presuming that if he wasn't such a pot head, he'd be more inclined to get of his arse and go to work?

Sitting on your backside playing COD all day cos you can't be fucked to do anything else is not harmless.

OP posts:
MarshaBrady · 02/02/2011 13:02

I would be so strict and come down quite hard on ds even at 17 or 18 re weed in a way that I wouldn't if he wanted a glass of alcohol.

Because it alters perception, and it can be addictive and it makes people totally out of it all day.

CocoPopsAddict · 02/02/2011 13:02

Everything in moderation, I say. A lot of people I know have smoked, and still smoke, the odd joint. There is a world of difference between this and being a 'pothead' who cannot function normally because they're busy smoking it every day. It's like the difference between enjoying a drink with friends now and again, and being an alcoholic.

wubblybubbly · 02/02/2011 13:02

There is very little in this world that isn't harmful when done to excess. Take food for example.

My own view is it should all be legalised, heroin, cocaine, cannabis, skunk, the lot.

The amount of money we spend on policing the illegal supply of drugs and repairing the damage it causes to society would be far better off channelled into effective addiction treatment. Not to mention the tax revenue.

We could also maybe have some honest coversations about drugs, with proper clinical research.

ItsGraceAgain · 02/02/2011 13:03

YANBU! Did more than my share of drugs during misspent youth, but that was before skunk was invented and there is a big difference.

One of my relations packed it in a year ago, in his late forties. It's made a big improvement to his life and his family's. Sadly his DCs have already grown up with an unpredictable, paranoid addict for a father.

BuzzLightBeer · 02/02/2011 13:04

thumb thats hardly an authoritative source, a twenty year old teachers article written by someone who is neither a scientist or a doctor. You'll excuse us if we ignore it completely.

thumbdabwitch · 02/02/2011 13:05

this one's shorter but says the same thing

thumbdabwitch · 02/02/2011 13:07

You are welcome to ignore it, Buzz. However, if the Director of the National Institute of Drug Addiction says it is addictive, I'll take his view over yours any day.

Fantoosh · 02/02/2011 13:08

Well - I like a puff now and then, and can assure you I am neither lazy or boring.

I'm not getting into the debate particularly as I know I'll just end up fending off the inevitable 'drugs are bad and I can't believe you do that when you've got kids, and yes it's fine for me to drink because the goverment says I can, and I once had a friend who DIED from smoking weed, and you are breaking the law etc etc' debate.

All I will say is that it IS fine for me because I have decided that it is. I feel well equipped to make that decision for myself.

The outraged and disgusted need not worry about me. Thank you! Smile

BuzzLightBeer · 02/02/2011 13:10

well then link to a more sensible article then, the second one has a many errors and non facts than the first.

PlentyOfParsnips · 02/02/2011 13:14

MarshaBrady -

cannabis:
alters perception - yes
can be addictive - yes
makes people totally out of it all day - yes, if used heavily

alcohol:
alters perception - yes
can be addictive - yes
makes people totally out of it all day - yes, if used heavily

Hmm

I'm with wubbly on legalisation, not because I think these substances are harmless, but because prohibition is so obviously a catastrophic failure.

Mapley · 02/02/2011 13:16

Not to suggest that anyone else's experiences and anecdotes are untrue, but I just wanted to back up rickinhippy. A joint always makes me feel super creative and motivated. Just one joint though mind. Smoke to excess and i want to eat icecream and cuddle.

Maybe moderation, as with most things, is the key?

Personally I've tried most drugs in my life, but never to excess or on a regular basis. It's when things become habitual that IMO they start to be harmful. And I think you need a whole set of social and emotional circumstances in order for drug use to become habitual. I don't think you can be an addict after one joint, one drink, one cigarette. You train yourself to be one because you want to be for some reason, because it fills some need or desire.

Personally I think that instead of demonising substances, and therefore making them more attractive and harder to control their quality, we'd be better off addressing the circumstances that lead people to be addicts. Be it social (poverty, lack of community resources, support for families) or emotional ( self esteem, boredom, underlying mental illness and attitudes to mental illness).

BeautifulBlondePineapple · 02/02/2011 13:16

I was always very smart as a child and a high achiever at school. Then I started smoking hash around 17. I began smoking it daily and did so from the ages of 18 to 28.

It turned me into a antisocial lazy fat pig. I had friends, but they were all smokers too. We did have a lot of laughs - and we took a lot of different drugs too: LSD, speed, ecstasy & coke and of course alcohol. But cannabis was our first choice. None of us had any hobbies and I lost lots of confidence. I felt down an awful lot and also anxious and panicky.

I got a shit Uni degree, but managed to pull it together to get a masters degree (still smoking but more controlled). I only quit when I started a new job 300 miles from where I lived. None of the people I met smoked dope, so I didn't either.

I can't believe I wasted my 20s like this. I know I made some friends for life (most of whom have had a simliar experience and now no longer take drugs), but it was the prime of my life and I spent most of it sat on a variety of sofas.

I'm now 36 and haven't smoked for 7 years. My life is full and I am content and happy.

I know that my experience isn't the worst, but I live in fear of my DSs getting involved with such an insidious drug. Especially with the new strains available now. I'm not sure how open I can be about my experiences if they ever ask me.

MarshaBrady · 02/02/2011 13:16

Well I don't expect hew will wake up and have alcohol.

It is not used in the same way as weed IME.

Which is why I am more opposed to it.

I think it counteracts the desire to achieve.

IME

MarshaBrady · 02/02/2011 13:18

Weed is more anti-social than having a glass of wine at dinner.

why do people always drag up well if you drink all day it is worse. Of course being a raging alcoholic is pretty bad and a diagnosed problem.

But 17 and 18 year old boys can easy undo a great education and upbringing by being constantly stoned.

Mapley · 02/02/2011 13:22

Anyone brought up Jamaica yet?

A country of lazy playstation addicted paranoid suicidal fat boring people?

Or a country of normal folks with families jobs and lives?

BuzzLightBeer · 02/02/2011 13:24

just boys? Hmm

Ok some of argue that its not so bad for everyone, bit have agreed that for some it is very bad, right? So those of you on the other side can you acknowledge that it doesn't turn everyone into a total stoner with a wrecked life?

ambarth · 02/02/2011 13:25

YANBU I am an ex weed smoker. My (pre-existing) mental ilness was made much worse by it. My XP had no mental illness but was very addicted to it. He was lethargic all the time, had terrible mood swings, did nothing to support me when we had our child and got into debt. Weed destroyed my mental health and my relationship.

I would advise anyone to stay away from the fucking stuff.

PlentyOfParsnips · 02/02/2011 13:26

Being constantly stoned is very antisocial and a really bad idea, I agree. Sharing an occasional spliff of an evening is just as sociable a thing to do as sharing a bottle of wine occasionally, IME.

Why do people always assume that if your preferred poison is cannabis instead of alcohol that you must be smoking all day/constantly stoned?

MarshaBrady · 02/02/2011 13:27

I only have boys.

Ime again it was the boys who became used too much. Didn't care so much.

Also I would like to show ds how too drink socially and without binging. But I would actively discourage him from smoking weed.

slightlymad72 · 02/02/2011 13:27

Not read all of it, I need my reading glasses and can't find them at the mo, maybe some of you will find it intersting

www.ukcia.org/research/AdverseEffectsOfCannabis.pdf

ambarth · 02/02/2011 13:27

Mapley not all Jamaicans smoke weed.

ItsGraceAgain · 02/02/2011 13:29

Mapley - both!

There's no shortage of Jamaicans who will tell you so many Jamaican women are strong & powerful because their men are lazy & stoned ...

StarlightPrincess · 02/02/2011 13:33

LMAO @ all Jamaicans smoke weed! And all Muslims are evil suicide bombers, of course! Hmm

Mapley · 02/02/2011 13:35

www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/nc1h_3.htm

This is interesting. A study of jamaican cannabis users that shows no correlation to the drug's use and motivation, mental health etc.

ItsGraceAgain · 02/02/2011 13:38

That study was done in 1972, Mapley. Back then I was a weed-smoking teenager and skunk hadn't even been thought of. Do keep up.