Sunday May 27, 2012

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  • 0

    76waystofly

    One toke? No. Taking a few hits off a bowl at a given number of parties in your lifetime? Probably not. But smoking marijuana to the point it becomes a habit? Get a chest exam done, whatever your age, and let the pulmonologist decide.

    Any substance used in excess can be harmful: granted. However a buddy of mine has been smoking pot every night for about twenty years; I've known him about ten. I can say without a doubt I've witnessed his motor skills become slower, he's lost much of the ambition he had to succeed in life, he looks older than a man of his age should -- yet after he feeds his young children every night, he goes down to the basement alone to light up: in spite of the impact it may have on his family. He's a good guy and has a terrific family, but I'm old enough now to see the impact substance abuse has had on people I've known throughout my life.

    I'm sorry if I sound like I'm preaching the anti-drug crusade, because I really wouldn't have too much of a problem sitting around with a group of people passing a doob to one another; I've grown accustomed to passing it on to someone else for decades. But if I had to be perfectly candid with this guy I mentioned, I'd ask him: "Would you want your daughter bringing home a guy who smokes like you?"

    His answer: "Heh heh heh. Is Family Guy on, man?"

  • 0

    flammenwerfer

    its like saying - is drinking alcohol harmless? or smoking cigarettes harmless? ,there is a level of tolerance for those vices but why not Marijuana? they are all on a par, what did weed do to get such a stigma? C.f with the rottweiller that is drinking alcohol, smoking pot is a cute puppy

  • 0

    HonestDictator

    Well, I put smoking pot in the area of smoking a cig. You're gonna second hand somebody. And yes, it does have the same effects on the lungs as any other carcinogen that gets in your lungs, something is gonna stick and it ain't coming off... I could care less about what someone likes to smoke as long as I'm not getting their exhaust.

  • 0

    HaroldSteptoe

    Gawd, what's wrong with a few puffs for us young folk. My idiotic aged father thinks all drugs are evil. He thinks heroin and dope are the same, strewth what an imbecile.

    Oh yes, in the upwardly mobile circles i am involved with, the odd smoke is socailly accepted as much as alcohol. Us sophisticats know of what we talk you now, oh yes.

  • 0

    Sarge

    What kind of stupid question is this? Of course smoking pot is not harmless. Witness the ridiculous posts by a certain JT poster who has admitted he's been smoking pot for 20 years.

  • 0

    jeancolmar

    The question is ill-put, as has been pointed out. Pot's resin is as bad or worse than nicotine for the lungs. But this said, inhaling smoke continuously from any source is bad for you. Women in poor countries who tend wood-burning stoves suffer high rates of lung cancer. If you inhale enough incense you are in danger of getting lung cancer.

    Does smoking a lot of pot impede brain functions? No doubt.

    This said, pot is a considerably less dangerous substance than alcohol. Just compare a pot head to an alcoholic. It terms of physical danger, it is on the same level as tobacco.

    There is no hard evidence that smoking pot inexorably leads to the abuse of hard drugs.

    I see no reason why pot should not be decriminalized. In that way it can be regulated. This means seeing how it has been chemically treated for one thing. For another, it would put the criminals growing and selling the stuff out of business. It was also make the growers pay taxes.

    Let there be no illusion that pot is big business. I am not referring to the oddballs growing it on their balconies. In northern California, for instance, whole sections of back country are war zones where the criminal gangs grow acres of the stuff and police their domains like armies.

    There are apparently medical uses for pot and these ought to be allowed no matter what else is forbidden.

  • 0

    J_rock

    It's certainly not "harmless", no psychoactive substance is. Especially one that is primarily smoked. Having said that, I don't think that it deserves the stigma that it has, and from experience I can confidently state that it is safer than a lot of other legal drugs which are socially acceptable. Hopefully one day, all the hysteria will die down, and the laws will change to reflect its relatively benign nature.

  • 0

    MikeBarrymore

    Pah!! To all you anti pot crowd!! It'S a wonderfull drug.

    My pool parties in Harlow were famous for relaxing with weed and if we felt so inclined some poppers. maybe in excess anything can be harmfull, but it make syou feel great.

    All of the guys at my parties felt so relaxed and open becuase of the weed (some had e's as well). Oh , those days were wonderfull. Pot should be tried by all, ooooh it's the best!!!!

  • 0

    HonestDictator

    Interesting how you pro smokers continuously keep encouraging others to "try" it or do it that pretty much don't want to "try" it at all. I don't drink or smoke because its not something that gets me a buzz (not that I want one), because gosh golly gee, I'm pretty much happy without additives or unatural substances influencing my brain.

    One thing you keep missing out is the fact that there are OTHER PEOPLE AROUND you that you affect while trying to do your thing... Please remember to be considerate of OTHER people and not just YOURSELF.

  • 0

    GeorgeRoper

    HonestDictactor= Blimey, you sound more of a misery guts than me missus.

    Maybe you should smoke some pot to lighten up. hahahah

    Course it's harmless all them black rasta fellas seem ok, and they smoke it all the time.

  • 0

    Hughgarse

    anything in moderation is harmless really..

  • 0

    Nessie

    I can say without a doubt I've witnessed his motor skills become slower, he's lost much of the ambition he had to succeed in life, he looks older than a man of his age should

    Sounds like a lot of people I know who don't smoke anything at all. I agree that it's a potentially sustainable lifestyle but probably not a positive one, as with chronic heavy use of any drug.

    Get high on life. Get high on psychoactive substances. But try to keep the balance in favor of the former high.

  • 0

    TPOJ

    It's not harmless, but it's not nearly as harmful as general perception has it. I don't smoke it, mostly because I have serious dependency issues...I can't even force myself to quit caffeine, last thing I need is to start up with something that, reportedly, makes music sound better (I'm a music journalist...if pot does indeed make music sound better, I'd never get anything done.)

    The question isn't really fair, since it ignores the real question: how does it rank with other forms of self abuse? NOTHING is harmless. But, from what I've seen, pot's a LOT less damaging to both physical health and life in general than most legal drugs. I can't think of a single person who has had their life torn apart by pot (slowed down to the point of unacceptability, perhaps, but not anything that can't be cleaned up eventually.) Alcohol? I could name ten people off the top of my head who have suffered major losses, catastrophes, etc. as a direct consequence of alcohol.

    Of course smoking pot is not harmless. Witness the ridiculous posts by a certain JT poster who has admitted he's been smoking pot for 20 years.

    So, Sarge, what are you on? It clearly needs to be banned immediately.

  • 0

    adaydream

    Sarge like yourself, most posters don't know by experience what they are talking about.

    I am 56 years old. I've been smoking since before I was 20 years old. I retired from a job with over 37 years combined military and civilian service. I retited Oct 07 and I now have another job because I get bored and want to make a few extra bucks and stay busy.

    For those who believe the fairy tales that marijuana is harmful are half right. There are people who allow any drug to cause them to become a drain on society. Those people who prefer not to allow this, don't. Those people who want to smoke a pipe after a hard days work and still do all those things to have a successful family.

    You wouldn't believe the people that you interact with daily who go home and get stoned. They are successful, raise strong families and are God fearing indivuduals. But you don't want to believe that.

    You want to believe the falsehoods presented by the governments.

    The United States has wasted untold $BILLIONS of dollars to keep alcohol flowing and to stop the flow of pot. To keep paying helicopter builders to build helicopters and all the other profiteers of the drug wars.

    There wouldn't be all these drug deaths if marijuana was legal. There would be no reason to buy from drug trafficers. It could be a commercial crop and taxes could be collected, just sales taxes alone would aid the economy.

    Pot's not totally harmless, but it's nothing as destructive as alcohol. < :-)

  • 0

    Puff_the_Magic

    Wha . . . what was the question again?

  • 0

    ptolemy

    Don't matter how much money you got, there's only two kinds of people: there's sober - uptight people and there's laid back people. I don't care if its alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, or reefer - people find a way to unwind and relax. People should becareful of throwing stones. You are as much an addict if you depend on that "first cup of the day", need that "first smoke of the day", need that "drink to calm my nerves", or anything else. Everybody has an addiction. Welcome to life in the real world.

    All over the world right now billions are toking, drinking, and /or smoking something. Icluding the holieer than thou religious.

  • 0

    techall

    The U.S. has one president, Clinton, who admitted to smoking pot (but he didn't inhale, and he didn't like it ..... hmmmm, re-read: "didn't inhale"), one president-elect who admits to smoking dope ... and a lot of other sh**. There are web sites to direct you to doctors in California who will prescribe medical pot for everything from cancer to migrane headaches (I kid you not!). So I guess you could say it's been promoted to harmless or almost harmless status.

  • 0

    sailwind

    Dudes!

    I think God is in my thumbnail with his own microscopic universe of atoms and protons............ We'll gotta go I have the munchies.

  • 0

    techall

    I got it, let's ask Cheech Marin!

  • 0

    Sarge

    Puff - Har!

  • 0

    adaydream

    Bill Clinton isn't the only president who smokesd.

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/did-obama-inhale/

    And that, finally, opened the door to one of the final questions of the day, which was reminiscent of the famous line asked of Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign: “Did you inhale?”

    “I did. It’s not something I’m proud of. It was a mistake as a young man. But I never understood that line,” Mr. Obama said, pausing to recall Mr. Clinton’s insistence that he didn’t inhale. “The point was to inhale. That was the point.”

  • 0

    Nessie

    I can't even force myself to quit caffeine, last thing I need is to start up with something that, reportedly, makes music sound better (I'm a music journalist...if pot does indeed make music sound better, I'd never get anything done.)

    You're a disgrace to your profession! ;)

    You wouldn't want to write a review while you were high, of course, but it would certainly be an experience to listen to certain pieces in the spirit in which they were composed, or in the state of mind for which they were composed.

    Take Pink Floyd's "One of These Days." It's six minutes of drifting bewteen two chords, with various acoustic effects, sound effects and wierdly syncopated percussion. You'd be a fool to think it didn't sound different under the influence. You would hear things you hadn't heard before, a bit like listening through headphones that give the sound a range that's different from your usual sound system -- but with the addect effects of changing your frame of time -- stretching out guitar solos, for example. And it might just help you kick the coffee habit.

    In terms of creativity, I'd say weed kills the internal censor, so you're less likely to reject creative ideas out of hand. This would be good if you had inspiration to begin with, but bad if you didn't.

  • 0

    techall

    I agree with Nessie. When I used to toke up every now and then, back in the '60s, it seemed like Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was like 20 minutes long.

  • 0

    sailwind

    Ness

    This dude has it going on.

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=uf5rIuJPTt0

    Obama voter?

  • 0

    badreligion

    I voted yes out of a principled defense of pot, but TPOJ and adaydream summarized my feelings perfectly...

  • 0

    Nessie

    I think this guy has it going on:

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=V3IuHMxFHjQ&feature=related

  • 0

    Sarge

    sailwind/Nessie - I can't get either of your links to work.

  • 0

    Good_Jorb

    I wouldn't say it is harmless but for medical purposes I would say it is alot less harmful than using opiates like morphine or demerol. At least you can remain somewhat pain free and remember what happened an hour ago.

  • 0

    thepro

    It's harmless if you are a rational and intelligent person. But there are a lot morons out there too, and who knows what they will do.

  • 0

    memyselfI

    Would you let your airline pilot smoke pot before piloting your airplane for takeoff and landing ? Anybody who say it's harmless really do not know what they are saying. Pot smoking can be dangerous when your operating machinery, driving a vehicle/motorcycle.

  • 0

    memyselfI

    If you have ever rode the shinkansen or train you wouldn't want the train operator to be zonked !!!! Smoking is a weakness and addiction. I'm addicted to chocolate. I drove a car eatting chocolate, I'm living on the edge. Take it to the limit with chocolate.

  • 0

    thepro

    Yeah, but we don't let pilots drink alcohol before flying a plane. Of course it could be harmful to other people, if used at an inappropriate time.

  • 0

    Nessie

    Would you let your airline pilot smoke pot before piloting your airplane for takeoff and landing ? Anybody who say it's harmless really do not know what they are saying.

    Would you let your airline pilot juggle pineapples while piloting your airplane for takeoff and landing, MeMyself? Anybody who says juggling pineapples is harmless really does not know what they are saying.

  • 0

    sailwind

    Just listening to someone talk when they were stoned was enough for me to never really want to try the stuff.

    I can do a pretty good job of making myself sound foolish sober, don't need pot to actually help me "enhance" that effect.

    Might be harmless in some people eyes, though I doubt that anyone other than those who feel that folks that are in the 'creative' professions (artists, musicians and such) would feel real comfortable with stoners building their house or putting together their new car.

    Or far that matter with a person in the military who depends on others and they depend on him to be able to do the job when the bell is rung.

    Also having been around a far amount of stoners in my life and I was never really impressed with them overall.

    I think it does much more harm then good myself and I just base that on my personal experiences.

  • 0

    nandakandamanda

    Cannot say yes. Cannot say no. Yes, I do know.

    Therefore I cannot answer this poll. The results will be from simple and point-blank people of both sides.

  • 0

    Nessie

    My link works on my computer, Sarge.

  • 0

    SuperLib

    Would you let your airline pilot juggle pineapples while piloting your airplane for takeoff and landing, MeMyself? Anybody who says juggling pineapples is harmless really does not know what they are saying.

    (clapping) I've made a mental note of that response to be used in similar situations later...heh.

  • 0

    SuperLib

    Most people probably agree with the moderation angle, whether it be pot, alcohol, chocolate, McDonald's, etc.

  • 0

    TPOJ

    Would you let your airline pilot smoke pot before piloting your airplane for takeoff and landing ?

    Nope. Wouldn't let him drink, take legally prescribed opiates, or stay up for three days beforehand, either.

    Do you HAVE a point?

  • 0

    gyouza

    Not having tried the stuff I can't answer with authority. From what I read though, the answer list for the poll should include "no more than alcohol". I've heard it is safer, and less likely to lead to aggression, but it is still has a halucinatory effect, so should be as controlled as alcohol (not for minors, and banned for driving, machine operation, etc). I think the recent furore over selling it is probably overblown - focus on the hadr stuff that leads to one way addiction, etc before clamping down on pot (although many argue that pot is the start of the slippery slope).

  • 0

    Mark_McCracken

    Harmless? No. But "harmful" is a wide scale. More harmful than what?

  • 0

    MeanRingo

    People should just ask a doctor and forget about whatever the gov't says on this issue. Of course they would say that pot is harmful. It damages your lungs when you inhale anything other than air. If you ask a doctor which is worse, cigs or dope, well, I can only imagine that dope would be less harmful. When I asked my own lungs which of the two they prefered, well the answer was clear. When I smoked cigs I would wheeze like an old car on its last few klicks. I've quit smoking now and only smoke joints. I feel a thousand times better. Cigarettes kill you. Pot leaves me feeling just fine. Why is it that the government supports and makes tonnes of money off of an addictive substance that has been proven to kill yet treats pot smokers worse than those who commit infanticide in Japan. Ludicrous and so are all of those standing in the way of its legalization. Open your eyes and go beyond the propaganda that has put you in blinders.

  • 0

    PleasureGelf

    This is what happens with such ill-defined questions.

    Half of the people here answer its literal meaning. Is smoking pot harmless? No. Basically nothing is harmless, even juggling pineapples. Would I let my kids have a few puffs at breakfast? No.

    The other half answer what the question implies. Is pot harmless enough to be legal? Is pot less harmful than other forbidden fruit? Probably yes.

    I had something more to say, but I forgot what it was.

  • 0

    zidane_head

    stoner

  • 0

    MeanRingo

    ha ha haaaa

  • 0

    whynothow

    Sarge

    Witness the ridiculous posts by a certain JT poster who has admitted he's been smoking pot for 20 years.

    Sorry sarge... thought you were one of those "dope fiends"

  • 0

    whynothow

    at least be honest... if ya dont know, click i dont know and wait for the next topic for your selfrighteous rants.... Give a bunch of geeks/otaku a voice and next thing you know they think they have an audience...

  • 0

    WaDisruptor

    Can you overdose on alcohol or many of the legal prescription drugs out there? Absolutely! Pot? I'm not certain of this, but I think it is extremely unlikely. You would probably pass out long before

    Does anyone know how dangerous healthwise pot is when ingested other ways (brownies,tea, ect)? Obviously smoking it can damage the lungs, but what about eating it? I don't like smoking anything, but back in my college days a brownie or two on the weekend was always a lot of fun. Living within 40 miles of B.C. helped a lot as well;).

  • 0

    helloklitty

    Smoking pot is not harmful, but mentioning that you have smoked it when in Japan is potentially harmful. A student asked me and I said, "Yeah, 3-4 times, and I felt nothing." She was astounded and loudly announced, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOUUU SMOKED MARIJUNA!!" Everyone around started looking at me.

  • 0

    donkusai

    Research has shown pot has a cumulative effect in the fatty tissue within the body, including the fatty tissue of the brain. Long term use of pot has a greater effect on the brain than something like alcohol and can lead over time to a significant loss of motor-skills and intelligence. Mind you, things like alcohol effect other parts of the body like the liver.

    So, a simple answer is that pot is not at all harmless, but then again, what is these days? A little shouldn't do anything to you, but regular use should be avoided.

  • 0

    Nessie

    Research has shown pot has a cumulative effect in the fatty tissue within the body, including the fatty tissue of the brain. Long term use of pot has a greater effect on the brain than something like alcohol and can lead over time to a significant loss of motor-skills and intelligence.

    Citation, please.

  • 0

    Azrael

    It's interesting how people cling to pleasant hallucinogens. I found these two sites, just brushing a Google search:

    http://www.marijuanaaddiction.info/effects-of-marijuana.htm

    Classic: drugs make you happy today, kill your libido tomorrow. Or leave you unable to procreate, which may or may not be natural selection.

    http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm

    Impaired perception, diminished short memory are terrifying enough.

    Yesyes, people will always make their own decisions. My very personal point of view is, pot OBVIOUSLY affects the brain. For me, my brain is my strength: I am a scholar. I would not even REMOTELY risk my best asset, which is my brain. Taking behavior-changing recreational drugs of ANY sort is a big risk. Nobody is certain how the body is going to react, if the drug is a quality product or a cocktail of padding dust - anything could happen, really. THERE IS POSSIBLE BRAIN DAMAGE INVOLVED. There's a lot of other activities pleasant enough and a whole world out there which are perfectly able to blow your mind. Of course, that is just MY opinion. I don't do drugs - I can't afford to lose a single speck of my brain's efficiency.

  • 0

    Nessie

    Azrael, your link

    http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm

    is just a roundup that's also without citations. It includes claims that have been disputed or debunked. Same for the first link. I will concede that nursing mothers should not smoke weed, or anything else, for that matter.

    I'm still waiting for you to substantiate this claim, which is not supported in either of the above links:

    Long term use of pot has a greater effect on the brain than something like alcohol and can lead over time to a significant loss of motor-skills and intelligence.

  • 0

    sailwind

    Ness

    Long term use of pot has a greater effect on the brain than something like alcohol and can lead over time to a significant loss of motor-skills and intelligence.

    Happy to help.

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=b_4iaY7GVjw&feature=related

  • 0

    Nessie

    Thanks Sail. Could you give me a citation of the video source. All it says is "public service announcement." It also doesn't address Azreal's statement "Long term use of pot has a greater effect on the brain than something like alcohol and can lead over time to a significant loss of motor-skills and intelligence." Your video says nothing about alcohol or intelligence.

    Interesting one here.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1087544/Cannabis-stop-dementia-tracks.html

  • 0

    sailwind

    Ness

    Ask and you shall recieve.

    http://www.psychiatry.unimelb.edu.au/mnc/knowledge/media.html

    Just open the PDF file at the end of the article to get the full results.

    I don't now if their ever was a comparision between Alcohol and Pot use and which would be worse in long term effects on the brain. Though all things being relative both are bad with chronic abusers.

    Thanks for your link interesting read. It does point out though that maybe some chemical properties of pot can be synthesized to help stave off dementia which of course would be a good thing. But It does not recommend smoking pot at all or getting high.

  • 0

    cysciborg

    there is a lot of evidence, that shows that Pot is needed by the human body, not to mention the brain. I have seen it improve eye sight in people, and help repair brain injury. and some 90 percent of mental patients eventually turn to pot to help in their lives. "IF" only America, and other nations of the world would come to see the good, and medical benefits of pot. the world would be a better place. as a Police officer, I advocated to the Whitehouse, and congress, and state law makers. for it to become legal. and spent almost all my years as a Law Enforcement office advocating that way. its so dumb to allow booze, but, not pot. it really is opposite land in the U.S.

  • 0

    JmannGod

    the point is not whether pot is harmful or not. If it is harmful (and that remains contentious) -that is hardly a reason for its prohibition.

    There are NO logical, ethical or economic arguments to support the prohibition of cannabis.

  • 0

    def

    Azrael: I smoked pot daily for near 10 years, and am in perfect health, with a child on the way. Pot is a determent to success, but is in no way lethal, and in no way worse than alcohol or tobacco.

    Separating marijuana and all other illegal drugs is a good idea, so people realize that some drugs are dangerous, and some are arbitrarily illegal, like pot.

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