Weed

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

AIBU to fucking hate the stuff?
I have seen young people change from ambitious, clever intelligent people to gormless idiots who don't give a shit about anything.
And I hate that my do smokes it
I particularly despise this homegrown shite which seriously fucks you up.
Why oh why do people use it?
AIBU?
And AIBU to tell dp not to have anything to do with it any more or is that me being too bossy/controlling?
And breathe....

[cwtchontoast]

I didn't read the link, but having researched the subject fairly extensively in the past I will say that it is a common mis-conception that correlation equates to causation, this is not true. To put it simply heavy cannabis use does not definitively lead to depression, although depression does often cause heavy cannabis use.

[tinygreendragon]

If the age restrictions weren't there for alcohol there would be thousands more adolescents drinking it than there are now.

[Bulletproofmum]

I smoke a single split every night (apart from when away from home).

I have a good job, I'm a neuroscientist and three small children.

I'm I an addict - probably me. Does it bother me - no. Does it impact my life - no.

I smoke to unwind and sleep and enjoy it. My life is hard and it's one of my small pleasures

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Yanbu.

I have an ex who regularly shits himself can only control his anger issues if stoned and presents himself as psychotic to anybody who matters.

He only ever uses weed.

[tinygreendragon]

That article is from 1985

[KobayashiMaru]

not really fair to give out to people for not reading articles that are unavailable online? I'd give it a read but I don't actually have any 30 year old scandinavian psychology journals around, sorry.

[tinygreendragon]

Maryz My anger is directed purely at those who tell teenagers, either in person or online, that cannabis will do them no harm. It will do some of them a lot of harm

I agree with you. More should be done to make this less accessible to children. But adults should able to make the choice with an informed decision.

[EllieArroway]

Very odd. Why is the debate about this suddenly focused on adolescents?

Do you think anyone advocates allowing under 18s to smoke it, MaryZ? That would be extremely irresponsible - as would allowing them to drink and smoke etc.....so we, er, don't.

Using ANY substance under a certain age when your brain is still developing may cause harm. Smoking cigarettes & drinking alcohol has a similar (and worse) effect on youngsters. But this fact doesn't mean that anyone sensible means these things should be outlawed for everybody. Aspirin is not recommended for anyone under 16 - should we stop people over that age from having access to it too?

For adults, smoking dope is less harmful than nicotine or alcohol. This is a fact. Sorry - just is. Therefore there is no sensible reason for it to be illegal when alcohol & nicotine are not.

By the way, 80% of schizophrenics smoke cigarettes compared to 20% of the general population. There's no suggestion that smoking causes this illness - it may be that the illness causes the smoking. I suspect the same may be true of the psychosis issue. It's been found that psychosis amongst weed smokers occurs in people with a genetic pre-disposition, which is why the "cannabis causes psychosis" claim is a very shaky proposition currently.

And "harm" doesn't just mean lowering the IQ by 8 points (allegedly) - it means risk of overdose, disruption to society, aggression to others caused by changes in behaviour.

How many people who have smoked dope get into fights on a Saturday night? Almost none. It's a nightly occurrence in every town in the UK with alcohol.

How many teens (or anyone) die of cannabis overdoses? Not a single one, ever. Alcohol? Countless.

So please, can we leave out the "who will think of the children?" crap? This is a debate about whether adults should be allowed to make their own minds up about what substances they ingest and derailing it with emotive wails about youngsters is a massive red herring.

Yes, I know what I said about my own 16 year old son. I don't want him to take or use ANYTHING. If I found him with fags, alcohol or cannabis I'd confiscate, ground & punish. But, if a gun was held to my head and I HAD to choose between him drinking or smoking dope - the dope would win every single time.

[ImKateandsoismywife]

Yanbu. I used to smoke it every night and would have told you then that it helped me relax and did no harm. It's only since I've stopped that I can see how mental it made me! I was so paranoid and completely unmotivated when I smoked weed, I would never go back to it.

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

Dear maryz, I am really sorry to hear what has happened to your son and his peer group. This is exactly what I meant about cannabis when I started this thread and in my subsequent post. Sadly, situations like the one if your son and his peer group are not unusual anymore. Do you have plenty of support for him and yourself?
Thank you for sharing this and best of luck with getting your son back from the clutches of this, most evil, weed.

[superstarheartbreaker]

Just because weed is no more dangerous than alchohol (apparently) does not mean we should legalise it. I hate it personally but then some people hate drink whereas I like it. I still act like a complete knob end when I drink to excess on a bad mood and I have probably fucked up a few fragile relationships due to booze but that's preferable to spending the whole of Glastonbury many years ago stoned and too paranoid to stick my head of the tent door! If I was drunk I'd have had a great time! Different horses for different courses.

[superstarheartbreaker]

Plus I don't think it's any coincidence that many people on weed are heavily into the conspiracy theory culture; paranoia gone mad!

[pictish]

Meh...I still like a smoke.

[addictedtolatte]

My exdp has gone from a lovely caring person to a narcacist smoking that crap. He now has a police record and hates the world. He emotionally hurts his DC on a weekly basis

I wish he'd never touched that stuff and stayed the man I fell in love with.

[superstarheartbreaker]

I'm sure that there are many weed related deaths just as there are many booze related deaths. Plus most people use tobacco and smoke spliffs instead of using it in bongs and eating hash cakes so lung cancer could be by product of smoking the stuff. Most people know the risks of taking drugs and do it anyway. I know the risks of booze but it takes the edge of life for me and that's why people smoke weed. We all need a drug of some sort. The danger is when we live in denial of the risks and it hurts the people around us aswell as ourselves.
For me it is the hallucinogens such as lsd and magic mushrooms that are some of the most dangerous mind fuckery drugs. I should know; I've tried them and ended up very ill as a result.

[Branleuse]

ahhh shrooms

[mercury7]

shrooms are good!
www.thefix.com/content/medicinal-mushrooms-cancer-patients91231

[spottyblanket]

As a 20+ years all-day dope smoker I know what smoking does & does not do to people. For a lot of people like me it had no negative effects, though it can exaggerate some traits like laziness (the lack of motivation people bang on about) - but only if it's in your nature in the first place. However, for some it does have a seriously negative effect. It entirely depends on the individual. I don't believe it is the actual cause of MH problems, but if there is the potential for eg psychosis or paranoia in a person, if it's in their character, then regular smoking of dope will certainly contribute to it in a big way.

When my ex had a breakdown I banned him from smoking - i had by then not smoked myself for a several years since I had children. He continued to smoke on the quiet and believe me it didn't help. I can see with hindsight that the MH issues were there all along, and whilst the dope masked that it also assisted in eventually bringing it all out. Rather insiduous that: dope camouflaging the problem and appearing to make him feel better, whilst slowly brewing up a MH storm that he could no longer control. We are no longer together.

[ComposHat]

Never seen anyone smoke a joint then go start a fight in the town centre either! In fact, weed should replace alcohol by law


I remember in Euro 2000 which was played in the Netherlands, England were, quelle surprise, knocked out of the tournament by Romania and the news correspondent was giving it the big 'tragedy, distraught fans shite' until they came to interview some England fans in Amsterdam who were too caned to give much of a toss, I think one of them managed 'well these things happen' and gave a half heared shrug.

[pictish]

I'm not closing my eyes to anything, but it doesn't even begin to effect me that way at all. I'm not a bad drunk either, interestingly enough.

So it IS bully for me! Yay!

[bringbacksideburns]

Why the smiley faces though?

You are entitled to do what you want but why gloat? You have to surely take on board that other people have had bad experiences. I find it belittling when people are speaking very personally.

I was a smoker, and quite a heavy one when i was younger, because my bf etc all smoked.
Obviously i come at it from a different angle these days, at the age of 44, as i don't think my db was helped in his schitzophrenia, smoking it from the age of 14. And i'm not completely comfortable with my kids smoking it now i know the serious mental health problems in my family going back generations. So at some time i'll have to do the 'talk' with them and hope to god they don't do what i did. But at the ned of the day i can't physically stop them.

It scares me now because it is stronger. Definitely. And that means it's more harmful.
I noticed a thread the other day about this - the major issue i have is people walking around the streets smoking it. Go home and do it. What is all that about?