Smoking weed - what’s your take on it...

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I don’t know much about it but on balance think it should probably be decriminalised. However, it is addictive and it obviously can have a negative impact on people’s lives and mental health. It does seem very prevalent around my part of London - I feel like I can smell it in the street all the time when I am out and about.

Like any other drug including caffeine and alcohol, it affects certain people more than others and so you do have to treat it with caution and respect. It can really damage lives.... but again it can just be a bit of fun now and then like someone might have a glass of wine.
I dont think its inherently bad but it can be dangerous to some people and that shouldn't be ignored.

It's not for me personally... I've never really enjoyed it. I actually first smoked it when I was 11 and just wondered why people went in for it... I've tried it a number of times across the years and still felt the same about it... just made me a bit sleepy and sort of anxious.. nothing to write home about.
And I've done a lot of drugs in my time... thankfully weed and alcohol were not things I particularly liked so I never developed problems with them.... I did with other drugs though so I understand the dangers of drugs in general. In my experience different people get hooked on different drugs because everyone experiences the effect of a drug differently. I've had people tell me that the first time they drank alcohol it felt like they were flying and on top of the world... I just felt tired and heavy...

My husband enjoys weed more than me but doesn't smoke it regularly... hes probably smoked it on average once a year since we met, at social events.
So it doesn't bother me. It's clearly not an issue for him so I dont see it as any different as having the odd drink at social events.

I didn’t know what weed was till I moved here - i think it really smells awful and I hate People that do it around children.

Contact highs are real, especially witht he current preference for all things skunk

www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-are-effects-secondhand-exposure-to-marijuana-smoke

I used to enjoy a puff, but no longer. Skunk is vile, stinks to high heaven and is hardly an enjoyable toke, it is so strong! And don't let anyone tell you skunk is harmless... long term use is most definitely not a harmless form of relaxation!

That shit will rob you of your ambition.

My DNiece was a heavy smoker for several years and it changed her. She was always fragile, she had anxiety, depression, anorexia and bulimia and the dope increased her fragility. Sometimes she could not get out of bed. She thought the dope helped her but we and she can see now that it inhibited her real emotions.

She will never be a strong, stable person but coming off the weed means she has kept a job for more than 3 months! We are all delighted. YMMV but for me and my family dope/weed/skunk is not good.

That shit will rob you of your ambition.

With respect, I don't think that's always the case. People who are naturally lack ambition/are lazy often love weed as it facilitate their laziness and it's a good way to waste time if you can't be bothered doing anything else. Again anecdotal, but I know plenty of highly successful and creative people who smoke and work their arse off. One won a Bafta a couple of years ago, so you can't generalise about what weed does to all people.

I think of it like booze. Fine to use it to rekax occasionally and not even you're driving, working, looking after kids etc.. Not good if you're wasted all day every day. It's nonsensical to make weed illegal when alcohol isn't.

I think it's bonkers it's illegal when cigarettes and alcohol are so much more harmful and cost the NHS so much more. It's just that the others are deemed more socially acceptable. Prohibition doesn't work and it should be decriminalised. I think it will be in the next decade. UK tends to follow USA in these things.

Haha so many typos, I'm not stoned, honest

One won a Bafta a couple of years ago, so you can't generalise about what weed does to all people.

Of course not, but since people don't know how it's going to affect them it's probably best to avoid it, no? Same goes for alcohol too of course.

It has totally destroyed my db's mental health. I would be very nervous about young people accessing it even more easily than they currently can, although given the fact there is practically no consequence for having personal use type amounts it may as well be decriminalised. With everything that is happening in society at the moment and despite sounding like my mother, I do feel we are going to hell in a handcart.

I'm against it, I used to be for decriminalisation but that was a long time ago in my teens/twenties.

My brother is a nasty paranoid idiot and I'm sure smoking it from 13 odd didn't help, although he may still have turned out to have MH problems.

My neighbours smoke so much our house constantly smells of it, it must be skunk cause it reaks. My kids feel sick sometimes cause of the smell and we can't have the windows open in the summer. They appear to neglect their kids and by the shouting are paranoid and nasty to them, (don't worry we've heard when they are arguing that social services are aware of them).

I think both alcohol and weed is bad for you if you're using it to self medicate your MH and will only worsen your condition.

Look, I’ll be honest. I have met numerous weed smokers in my life from my former Stepfather through to my DP (who hasn’t smoked it for years but smoked it every day for a few years before we met). I am yet to see the positive effects people seem to bleat on about.

So my Stepdad was abusive, he was extremely paranoid and convinced I was out to get him . You could chalk this down to mental illness but I don’t think the bag of weed he smoked every single day helped matters... If he hadn’t had his spliff he became even more aggressive so definitely was addicted.

My DP smoked it for approx six years but had stopped a few years before we met. He often says he wishes he’d never smoked it because his memory is now shot to shit and he does have bouts of paranoia still to this day. His friends say the same thing.

DP’s sister is still a weed smoker, has been for approx 12 years. She smokes it every day and is definitely very addicted. It makes her aggressive, extremely selfish, lazy and always begging for money .

I have met a few former friends who also smoked it daily. All of them lacked motivation, were incredibly lacklustre and also didn’t seem to be able to talk about anything other than weed and how amazing it is (never looked it).

I have tried it a few times and don’t understand the hype, it always just made me sleepy. Some people swear by its medicinal properties and I can’t argue with that but do I think it should be legalised for recreational use? No, not really. Then again, I am also of the belief tobacco should be illegal.

I don’t think it does any harm in the short term or for medicinal purposes.
Friend we knew had MS and used it to treat their symptoms.
But I can tell weed smokers who are facing a problem in their lives.
They just don’t handle things well.
Also know a couple of older people who were heavy weed users in their younger days.

It is difficult for them to sustain a longish conversation over a day.
One guy after a couple of hours, during the day at a kids event so no alcohol either, cannot form words and if you ask him a question the response sounds like blah blah blah.
It is quite sad

Can’t stand the stuff and I’m glad it’s illegal

I do think if it was decriminalised, taxed and regulated then people could be educated far more about it and the negative effects more openly. Plus it would remove the taboo and far fewer people would start smoking it in their teens. Look at Holland as an example. Very few kids smoke weed there and culturally it's seen as 'boring'.

Of course not, but since people don't know how it's going to affect them it's probably best to avoid it, no? Same goes for alcohol too of course.

I take your point, but how many people do you know who completely avoid alcohol because they don't know how it's going to affect them? I think people are risk-takers by default– they will try something that they know is bad for them just to see what it's like and most will be able to deal with the fallout if there is any. Human nature innit. Drugs and booze have been around a long time and people will always want to dabble. Some people will get killed by their drinking, but it's not going to get banned because the minority react badly to it.

My brother used it for over forty years. Swore that it was less harmful than more socially acceptable drugs. Now, in his mid-fifties, he has emphysema and has an unpleasant death to face in the future.

The only people I know who smoke it have terrible mental health problems that increase year on year. It smells vile too.

I wish it would have tougher criminal sanctions attached rather than less.

Sorry to hear that PlasticPatty. Does he smoke it mixed with tobacco? I think I'd be more concerned about my kids doing that than the actual weed

The problem is that you can’t restrict the effects to the user. People nearby will breathe in the smoke and that’s unacceptable. Yes I know that applies to tobacco too, but tobacco can’t produce the same effects that weed can so second hand smoke is less of an issue.

If it is legalised it should be heavily regulated, restricted to private premises and not permitted in public or around children. And obviously it should be treated the same as alcohol in the sense that you can’t be stoned in public or drive or go to work etc after using it. Imo the difficulty of enforcing those rules means it’s better off remaining illegal.

I'll bite! I smoke regularly and I'm a well adjusted, productive person - although I don't have kids. I only smoke at the end of the day - never, ever before work or going out anywhere. I wouldn't call it healthy per se, to smoke regularly, but I don't drink and it doesn't impact my life negatively. In fact it helps with my anxiety and sleeping issues.

I think you only need to look at Canada and the US to see the benefits of legalisation, especially in regards to reducing underage use, increasing tax revenue, and regulating the potency of the weed.

I think it’s harmful but people should be free to waste their lives if they want to same as heavy drinkers. On a more practical note decriminalisation and leagalisation will help fight organised crime by removing an income stream and protect consumers. I would say the same for all recreational drugs. If people are stupid that’s their problem, the state has no right to interfere.

The THC is absorbed by the smoker, so you can't get stoned from secondhand smoke. It also won't show up in a drugs test – only smoking the stuff will get you high. Pretty sure that's been conclusively proved and it's also stated in government literature: bit.ly/1M2iFAa

There is so much disinformation and downright falsehoods associated with cannabis, it's mind-boggling. Saying that it certainly isn't harmless and some people can indeed come unstuck on it

I don't really care if other people want to smoke it, but it bloody stinks.