A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Quote:
Originally Posted by koshea
one more thing to add to the arguement, my girlfriends father has under a month to live. he is dying of lung cancer and he never smoked tobacco. the only thing he ever smoked was weed his entire life. now he is dying of lung cancer. carcinogins kill. but shortening my life is worth experiancing everything life has to offer, every sensation...soberity, fucked up ness, love, hate, pain, pleasure..ect
I'm sorrry,Toshea. :( I wouldnt doubt if one day scientists do find a definative link between lung cancer and smoking pot. I mean, how much stress can you put your lungs under everyday until the cells start mutating and become cancerous? I really doubt that someone who smokes marijuana like cigarettes has the exact same chance of developing lung cancer has someone who has never smoked anything in his life. But the only way to do unbiased and honest scientific study on any substance is by legalizing it!!!!
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
You probably do feel withdrawel symptons when you stop smoking Cannabis, but I imagine you only get withdrawal symptons if you go from smoking frequently to not smoking at all or nearly not at all.
Again, i'll refer back to fruit (lol). If you were to eat fruit every single day, like clockwork, and then suddenly you stopped eating fruit, you would experience withdrawal symptons.. This doesn't mean that fruit is addictive, it just means that you had grown accustomed to eating certain amounts of it or at certain times.
Same for weed.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Green- first off I agree with most of your points. It looks like you have put some thought into this, though you might have had more open consideration about it had you taken a different approach.
You kind of put it in "term paper" format, with a conclusion and everything lol-That's fine, but describing what being high feels like to a weed forum might come across as condescending(especially in that jr high health textbook way- I felt like tetrahydrocannabinol should have been in bold font with thc in parenthesis after it, lol does anyone remember those books with all the drugs defined this way?).
But anyways, there is no disputing you win the argument concerning the harm/risk of smoking anything. Yeah, you can say anything, even fruit lol, can also be hazardous...
But... if we assume that slipping on a banana peel and inhaling a glass of water are NOT the desired methods of use(lol), and that inhaling weed smoke IS, these analogies break down very quickly.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Quote:
Originally Posted by GHoSToKeR
You probably do feel withdrawel symptons when you stop smoking Cannabis, but I imagine you only get withdrawal symptons if you go from smoking frequently to not smoking at all or nearly not at all.
Again, i'll refer back to fruit (lol). If you were to eat fruit every single day, like clockwork, and then suddenly you stopped eating fruit, you would experience withdrawal symptons.. This doesn't mean that fruit is addictive, it just means that you had grown accustomed to eating certain amounts of it or at certain times.
Same for weed.
LOL toker- I guess you are right: If you experience w.drawal when you quit eating fruit, it does not necessarily mean fruit is addictive. Being "addicted" to something refers to how you fit within a symptom profile (eating fruit alone, if fruit is interfering w/work, fruit hangovers, how much you think about fruit between uses etc lol).
BUT- experiencing withdrawal is definitely a component of addiction (dsm-IV, http://balder.prohosting.com/~adhpage/dsm.html). Although you don't have to be addicted if you experience withdrawal (eg a dr can taper you off of certain meds that you otherwise might have if you would have gone cold turkey, but your dr wouldn't consider you addicted).
It is probably safe to say though that if you are experiencing w/drawal from said fruit lol, then there probably is a degree of dependence there.
It always starts with grapes... harmless? Yeah, but they are the "gateway fruit." Soon you'll be eating hundreds of grapes a day just to feel normal, then move on to harder fruits like apples and honey dew melon. If you are lucky, you won't end up under a bridge with your head in a watermelon.
And don't let anyone tell you the tomato is not a fruit- it IS. We just don't regard it this way in our society lol.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
I didnt read any of your posts in this thread GreenGaucho because frankly i hate you and you should go stick your penis in a meat grinder. Have a nice day.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
lol 2600
Man, I hate all this tyranny and bullshit.. LEGALIZE THE FRUIT!!! :( :cool:
lol Anyway, your statement only confirms what I said, 2600: Fruit isn't adictive, but it would be possible to feel 'withdrawal' symptons if you had been eating vast amounts of fruit and then stopped. This is the same for tea (I know for a fact, my mum is addicted to the stuff), cigarettes, etc.. If you consume enough of anything on a regular basis, and you then go cold-turkey, you are going to feel some withdrawal symptons, even if these symptons are just a mild irritation and being pissed off (these are the only withdrawal symptons I get when I stop smoking weed).
Anyway, i've been up all night (argh!) so i'm losing track of my thoughts here a bit, but what i'm trying to say is that anything can be harmful and addictive if you consume enough of it.. with this in mind, yes, Cannabis can be harmful and addictive, but hardly more than anything else, and shouldnt be deemed a 'harmful' or 'addictive' drug... (unless when I go to the supermarket tomorrow I see "WARNING: COULD BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH... SIDE AFFECTS COULD INCLUDE...." on the side of a banana) :)
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Quote:
Originally Posted by GHoSToKeR
lol 2600
Man, I hate all this tyranny and bullshit.. LEGALIZE THE FRUIT!!! :( :cool:
lol Anyway, your statement only confirms what I said, 2600: Fruit isn't adictive, but it would be possible to feel 'withdrawal' symptons if you had been eating vast amounts of fruit and then stopped. This is the same for tea (I know for a fact, my mum is addicted to the stuff), cigarettes, etc.. If you consume enough of anything on a regular basis, and you then go cold-turkey, you are going to feel some withdrawal symptons, even if these symptons are just a mild irritation and being pissed off (these are the only withdrawal symptons I get when I stop smoking weed).
Anyway, i've been up all night (argh!) so i'm losing track of my thoughts here a bit, but what i'm trying to say is that anything can be harmful and addictive if you consume enough of it.. with this in mind, yes, Cannabis can be harmful and addictive, but hardly more than anything else, and shouldnt be deemed a 'harmful' or 'addictive' drug... (unless when I go to the supermarket tomorrow I see "WARNING: COULD BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH... SIDE AFFECTS COULD INCLUDE...." on the side of a banana) :)
Please don't let my statement confirm anything for you, reread it and see that when I started off with "If you experience w.drawal when you quit eating fruit...", I was talking completely hypothetically. Because of course I disagree with the use of the statement "...anything can be harmful and addictive if you consume enough of it..." as a benchmark for looking at the effects of smoking weed.
Yeah, you CAN get water poisoning, you CAN break your neck slipping on a banana peel, but lets be realistic. There is a distinct difference between potential danger and withdrawal from a drug (even as mild as thc), compared to FRUIT! Keeping in mind tea, coffee, etc is of the former. I do have probs if I don't have my caffeine everyday, and I do have a tolerance to caffeine. Always find it takes the same amount of apples to get me off though lol, and haven't known tooo many people (outside of this board lol) to have a worse withdrawal from fruit than weed.
And on a related note, they say inhaling crack smoke is addictive , but so is inhaling oxygen. I mean I am inhaling oxygen right now, I have to keep breathing. I can't stop. I am moreso addicted to oxygen than I am crack I think. It can be harmful too. I could swallow enough air to make me sick. What if air got in my bloodstream? If I quit breathing, I would definitely have withdrawal from oxygen, symptoms as harsh as death! Comparatively crack is nothing.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2600
It always starts with grapes... harmless? Yeah, but they are the "gateway fruit." Soon you'll be eating hundreds of grapes a day just to feel normal, then move on to harder fruits like apples and honey dew melon. If you are lucky, you won't end up under a bridge with your head in a watermelon.
And don't let anyone tell you the tomato is not a fruit- it IS. We just don't regard it this way in our society lol.
Hahahaha! LMAO. Yeah, lots of people think tomato is a vegetable, probably because it's not sweet as the other fruits.
Is there a difference between dependance and addiction or are they the same thing? I think it depends on the person when it comes to cannabis dependance. About 3 or 4 years ago I had a good harvest, more than usual, I had more than enough for personal use so I was smoking silly amounts. I was smoking something like 1/8 a day, I know there are people who smoke more than that but I still think it's a lot. I was smoking this amount for about 2 or 3 months straight and then I ran out. As soon as I'd stopped smoking I was feeling really cranky, sulky, irritable and generally unhappy and pissed off. I had a nasty cough also. I think it depends on what the smoker uses it for, some people just smoke for fun at the weekend so it wouldn't affect them if they stopped, but others use it as a kind of escape from various problems (I was using it to calm my nerves) so if they stopped they would most likely feel withdrawal symtoms, I know I did after I stopped. That's why I don't smoke that much any more because I feel like shit when I run out. A joint each night before bed is fine for me now, plus a little more at weekends. That's all I can smoke at the minute as I'm running low and it's gonna be about another 8 weeks before I can chop the crop.
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTC21
Hahahaha! LMAO. Yeah, lots of people think tomato is a vegetable, probably because it's not sweet as the other fruits.
Is there a difference between dependance and addiction or are they the same thing? I think it depends on the person when it comes to cannabis dependance. About 3 or 4 years ago I had a good harvest, more than usual, I had more than enough for personal use so I was smoking silly amounts. I was smoking something like 1/8 a day, I know there are people who smoke more than that but I still think it's a lot. I was smoking this amount for about 2 or 3 months straight and then I ran out. As soon as I'd stopped smoking I was feeling really cranky, sulky, irritable and generally unhappy and pissed off. I had a nasty cough also. I think it depends on what the smoker uses it for, some people just smoke for fun at the weekend so it wouldn't affect them if they stopped, but others use it as a kind of escape from various problems (I was using it to calm my nerves) so if they stopped they would most likely feel withdrawal symtoms, I know I did after I stopped. That's why I don't smoke that much any more because I feel like shit when I run out. A joint each night before bed is fine for me now, plus a little more at weekends. That's all I can smoke at the minute as I'm running low and it's gonna be about another 8 weeks before I can chop the crop.
No dependence is not the same as (but necessary for) addiction.- keep in mind these relative concepts- ie, at what pt do you consider a drug effecting perf at work, etc. they give these "behavior inventories" with lots of q';s like that to you, and how many of those behaviours, and severity determine an "addiction score". It also has to have some kind negative impact on functioning- and how that is defined is kind of arbitrary.
Your analysis of the self reports of your use are spot on. If you use to escape, you will stress more when you withdraw. But when ppl have problems with sleep, eating, GI problems, THAT is crossing over to physical w/drawal symptoms (which depend solely on amount of use- i mean, if you are smoking an 1/8 a day, you are smoking to eat, smoking to sleep, smoking to wake up, you have to smoke just to be able to smoke! It does take some recovery. THats alot of fucking weed man.
Thanks for recognizing the tomato. I was trying to use that as a (loose) analogy for the beer, nic, and caff are not drugs, b/c of how society regards them, in the same vein as grapes are the gateway fruit. "Don't let anyone tell you alcohol is not a drug. It is." -- "DOn't let anyone tell you the tomato is not a fruit- it most def is."
A Critical Standpoint on Smoking Marijuana
"Thanks for recognizing the tomato. I was trying to use that as a (loose) analogy for the beer, nic, and caff are not drugs, b/c of how society regards them, in the same vein as grapes are the gateway fruit. "Don't let anyone tell you alcohol is not a drug. It is." -- "DOn't let anyone tell you the tomato is not a fruit- it most def is.""
Doh! I missed that. I thought you were just stating that the tomato is a fruit LOL!
Damn I'm slow!
