What are your opinions on Marijuana smoking?

I think it has the wrong reputation. A lot of health books and magazines would tell you it’s bad, but there’s a great documentary about the business and use of it called The Union. I’ll try and post a link on here, if I can find it!

Here we go. This isn’t my thing, really, but it clears up a lot of rumors and what not.

I’ve watched the documentary “The Union” and thought it was great. If more people saw it they would understand much more about why it’s exactly illegal.

Well here’s what I think about marijuana – it’s not addictive, it saps my energy and motivation, it makes my mind ‘slower’, though during a high I can have some moments of seemingly ‘enlightened’ thought. If I could go through life again I would probably do the same thing, smoke occasionally for a short period of my life. If I had to get high it would be my drug of choice, I think it is relatively harmless overall, unless you do something really dumb like drive stoned, e.t.c. (though some claim to be able to pull it off)—I stopped using it because the negatives for me outweighed the positives.

Marijuana makes me lazy in the sense that, if I smoke before I go on a run, I will abandon the idea of going on a run and instead lay in the grass and stare at the nearest tree. And that is the worst I can say about it. And I think that’s saying something. I smoke every day too and if I was going to blame any of my problems on weed I would be a dumbass looking for an excuse.

I think we spend far too much money and effort trying to keep it illegal and should drop the issues and allow it to become legal. I personally don’t smoke it but so many lives have been ruined with jail time and the law that it is a wasted effort to keep going after those that use it.

I don’t care what people want to smoke (legal or not)....It’s not for me….But I don’t like being around people when they are buzzed….

@coffeenut Unless they’re buzzed on coffee?

@everephebe lol No I don’t like being around people buzzing off of coffee either.

I don’t smoke it, and very few of my close friends do. I know that it’s not a big deal and that it’s possible to keep use under control, but I really don’t like the “stoner” culture that’s been built up around marijuana use.

I tried it a few times when I was younger, and it honestly didn’t do anything for me. Maybe it just doesn’t affect me – after talking with my parents about it years later, I found out that my mom never felt any effects either, and that it just made my dad feel ill.

I don’t like to be around people who are smoking it, either. I don’t like the smell, and I just can’t identify with their affection for it.

I guess I just don’t like it.

I think marijuana smoking is best done in moderation. I think it’s fine to change our states of mind using external substance if we don’t do it all the time. I guess I believe that our bodies have evolved to work optimally as they are without the introduction of other substances.

I don’t know if that makes me a hypocrite or not, since I take several prescribed drugs and I will be taking them the rest of my life. I wish I didn’t take them, though.

The reason why I take some of those drugs is because I have a brain chemistry disorder. A lot of people with this disorder smoke a lot of marijuana or drink a lot in an attempt to make themselves feel better—to mellow out the ups and downs. Most of them think it’s healthier to take the drugs prescribed for the condition and to learn other mental techniques to help them cope without outside substances.

I believe that a larger portion of people who smoke regularly are self-medicating for something. Some of it could be a mental illness. Some of it could be the results of some mental trauma in the past—parental abuse or other child abuse, or rape or military experiences, or any number of things.

I think that virtually all people who smoke a lot are self-medicating. I don’t think smoking is the best way to handle these problems, but it may be the only way people know. You’ve been homeless, and that indicates there’s a good chance that you’ve had some psychological trauma, be it being kicked out of home or be it having bipolar disorder.

I think it is better to try to cope with psychological trauma by getting psychotherapy and attending support groups and learning coping techniques. I think it really helps if people can deal with the psychological trauma that brought them to this point. What was it? How did it make you feel? How can you deal with those feelings without damping them down with pot?

Maybe there are some people who smoke every day just because, but I doubt it. Doing something every day is a sign that something much deeper is going on.

So I would ask myself if this is the case, and search my soul carefully. This could be a symptom of something else, and if it is, you want to address that instead of covering it over. I don’t know. It’s just an idea. Maybe I’ve got too many prejudices about putting stuff in my body.

It’s fun and harmless in moderation, I feel.

It’s a fun project to figure it out! I just moved to CA and people keep giving me “product,” so I’ve become a pot smoker for the first time. I went out and bought my first piece, and I’ve been figuring out how to pack a bowl and get the most out of it and not light my eyebrows on fire (which I consistently do). I don’t think I’ll seek it out once people stop giving it to me (sad day) but while I have it it’s been fun to divulge in this activity to see what it’s like. I think marijuana is more enjoyable, less annoying-making, and less dangerous than alcohol.

I have only one friend who smokes dope. She has rheumatoid arthritis and regularly undergoes chemotherapy for another condition. I know it’s a God-send for her.

Marijuana does increase your risk of pulmonary disease. That being said, inhaling any smoke into your lungs regularly will do that. Years back when I smoked it, I smoked Mary Jane that was laced (many times) without knowing it until it was already in my system. If something is unregulated, it can not be guaranteed “safe.” Smoking it depletes motivation, which could in turn lead to depression. It may not physically addictive, but it can be psychologically addictive. I also do appreciate my current status of being a law abiding citizen save the occasional speedy drive and like @Seelix I do not enjoy the “culture” surrounding it. I would say I’m “against” it, in a common sense, like I’m “against” smoking cigarettes.

I don’t think it should have the stigma surrounding it, that it does. My proposed solution would be to tax and regulate marijuana crops (perhaps lower taxes somewhere else?) and forbid selling to minors. We’d have to figure out a way to do a test on routine traffic stops to prevent people from driving under the influence.

I feel it should be treated as alcohol. Don’t smoke and drive, don’t be stoned at work, etc.
I smoke every day, but only after I’ve done all of the important things that needed to be done. It’s a great way to unwind and be goofy with loved ones =)

It’s about on par with drinking alcohol, but it’s easier to know how much you’re doing if you’re drinking. A glass of wine is a glass of wine, you know? And they list the ABV on the bottle. It can take me anywhere from instantly to never to get high. If marijuana were regulated (read: legalized) it would be a little safer.

I support it 420%
I don’t smoke it, but I think it’s fucked up that it’s legal to die for your own country over some bullshit war, but it’s not legal to smoke a joint.

@MichaelHuntington I agree with that answer 101%

Like many things, best in moderation, lame if abused. I had a wicked game of ping-pong last weekend, thanks to my buddy’s new vaporizer. Wouldn’t have gotten in that kind of zone without it. Also probably would not laughed nearly as hard at the new show I just discovered, Blue Mountain State.

I smoke pretty much every day, in fact I’m stoned right now ;-)

Like @Stefaniebby I don’t think it has affected me in anyway that was not positive. I sometimes struggle with schoolwork, but that’s because of my own lack of organization/tendency to procrastinate/my college being really hard. In any case I don’t smoke until all my work is done for that day.

The only harm smoking weed does to you is the harm done by inhaling any burnt plant matter, which is why I just orderd a vaporizer. It should be here on Thursday – it’s called the “Magic Flight Launch Box”.

As far as positive benefits, I will steal a quote from Bored to Death. “It reminds me how beautiful everything is”. When I’m high, I am more likely to notice and be absorbed by the edge of a cloud, or a frost pattern on a window, or a particular arrangement of leaves, or the intricate ever-changing surface of a river. I think this sort of awareness has carried over into my everyday life, and has deepened and enriched it. I also tend to consider the world, the universe, and my own place in it while in (as Terrence McKenna puts it) “the reveries of the cannabis intoxication”. I don’t know if this has bettered my life in any measurable way, but it has certainly widened my mind.

“Marijuana is not crack, it is not meth or acid.”

I would actually make a very similar case for LSD, mushrooms, mescaline etc. as I would for weed. I don’t think it should they classed with crack or meth because like weed they are non-addictive and non-harmful. It is also almost impossible to over-dose on any of them. Finally, they were all made illegal mainly because they were seen as threats by “The Establishment”, and a lot of propaganda was released to justify this, much of which many people still believe.

It’s fine in moderation. I don’t partake myself; it hits me weird. Which kinda bums me out.

Think of all the perfectly legal shit being handed out by medical professionals like candy. Legit medications may (or may not!) fix your specific health problem, at the cost of several risks of taking it. Bring your cholesterol down, but possibly suffer irreversible muscle necrosis. Ease your depression, but gain weight. Lower your blood pressure, but stress your kidneys to the damage point. Those are just a few examples.

And hey, just wait till the coffee craze dies down and does a 180, the way cigarettes have. Now won’t that be a hoot!

@Hobbes Personally I agree with everything you said, on the other hand I wouldn’t classify Weed along with LSD or Shrooms because it’s really nothing like them. I, myself, have never ate mushrooms but I have taken LSD and… it was awesome. However LSD is something I would only do once because, let’s face it, I don’t want to be that f++++d up every single day. I can smoke a bong every hour on the hour and I would not get so high to the point where I wouldn’t be able to drive, work, or anything really. No matter what, with weed, I can function perfectly and I can guarantee nobody would be able to tell I was stoned out of my mind. That, to me, is what makes weed so great and different compared any other drug

@Stefaniebby

Oh, I didn’t mean that weed should be classified like LSD. I think weed has things in common with the psychedelic experience, but true psychedelics are a whole different ball game.

You actually can’t do psychedelics every day, because tolerance builds very quickly (but disappears in 3–5 days), and because your mind just wouldn’t be able to handle it. Even if I had a regular supply, I would only take it 2–4 times a month, and wouldn’t keep up that pattern for a long time. Again, it’s a question of moderation.

As to not being able to function, you just have to set aside 12 hours or so where you know you have no responsibilities. If you only do it once every couple of weeks that shouldn’t be too hard.

I don’t care for how it makes me feel, I find the smell disgusting (like cat pee) and I’ve watched too many people defend their heavy use only to become mushroom like, insular and paranoid. Very few of my close friends smoke weed, those that used to stopped because the negatives outweighed the positives they thought existed.

it’s weird for me in that I like the feeling of the buzz but for some reason don’t like to be around others who are imbibing.They tend to really get on my last nerve, (which is in itself a buzzkill).So then I can also understand why the use of it is frowned upon. It will often change those who use it even if they themselves deny it. Possibly because they have acclimated themselves wholly to it to the point of it being normal. It’s not.

@Neizvestnaya

Most of the “stoners” I know are very definitely not mushrooms, and are in fact open, happy, intelligent human beings.

@Hobbes Ah I understand what you’re saying now. I wouldn’t take psychedelics every day, I wouldn’t even take them every month, hahah, while I have I just would not anymore. There’s just a feeling of “should I/shouldn’t I” when it comes to things like that and I would rather be for sure down with whatever I’m doing than, you know, be not so sure.

While I would enjoy to do LSD just one more time I probably never will. I’m perfectly content with just smoking.

What’s your take on ecstasy?

Ah, I see what you mean now. That’s perfectly fair.

I have not tried it, but would be interested in doing so if I could find a reliable source for pure MDMA. It can be dangerous if taken in the wrong circumstances (you shouldn’t do a ton of physical activity because it inhibits your body’s ability to regulate heat), and it is possible to overdose on it. It’s also often sold by really sketchy people.

Have you heard of DMT?

True that, I’ve taken it a few times back when I was 16 and it was great then, but now when I think about it, it’s really just stupid. I never want to stay up until 4am telling people how much I love them ever again. Also with ecstasy it’s soo poorly portrayed in movies and tv shows as to what it actually does to you therefor so many people have the wrong idea of it and the dangers are not known by many people who take it until after they take it, which I don’t like.

I’ve heard very little about DMT, but it’s really nothing I’ve ever known anybody to do or even hear of anybody wanting to do, have you done it?

It has made me feel awesome every time I’ve smoked it. I hate how some movies and tv shows portray it though because they make it seem like you hallucinate like crazy, which it doesn’t. I think it should be legal because it could help with so many things. I havent smoked in almost three months, and my only reason for doing this is because I was spending way to much money on it. I used to smoke every day and then one day I finally came to my senses and thought “What the fuck is wrong with me?” So I just stopped doing it and haven’t done it since, but would definitely still do it if the opportunity came, I just wouldn’t be stupid about it like before.

I have no problem with the personal use of marijuana so long as it is used responsibly (it can impair certain abilities, so it is best not to strain those abilities while high). I am also quite strongly for the legalization of marijuana. I do think that legalization should come with regulations, however, as is the case with alcohol.

(For whatever it’s worth, I say this as a person who has never smoked anything and who doesn’t drink anything stronger than black tea.)

Legalize it.
Seagrams and Reynolds and other big liquor and tobacco companies have been waiting for years to market their brands.

@anartist See, I think full out legalization would be kinda bad. I don’t think big companies should be selling the stuff, but I’m all for it being decriminalized.

Personally, i think inhaling smoke of any kind on a daily basis is a very bad idea. I recall the high of MJ from my wild and crazy days. It’s far milder and less debilitating than alcohol, and arguably does much less harm to the body. It is also far less common for someone to take a few tokes then decide to beat the bejesus out of their spouse or kid.

So I think it should be legalized, sold to adults only in liquor stores just like alcohol is, and taxed to hell just like alcohol is. We could save billions by ending the incarceration of so many people who are probably harming nobody save themselves, if that. We would raise billions more in tax revenues. We’d take away a great source of funding from the drug cartels. And finally, if it were commercially marketed, it could be sold in pure THC form as well and smoke-able form, so that one could enjoy it without the risks of inhaling smoke from burning leaves and papers.

i think inhaling smoke of any kind on a daily basis is a very bad idea

Vaporizer dude.

@cockswain Thanks for making my point. If I were going back on it, being a chemist at heart, I’d just extract the THC and take it in pills or mixed in food. The herb itself cooks up great in brownies, but the last time I did that I got the munchies and ate the whole batch in one sitting. Man was I zoned out.

Fortunately, anything up to an ounce is already decriminalized here in Massachusetts. And guess what. The sky didn’t fall, highway accident rates declined. No hideous results that the shills for the for-profit prison system predict came true.

The herb itself cooks up great in brownies, but the last time I did that I got the munchies and ate the whole batch in one sitting. Man was I zoned out

Nice.

Yeah, I live in Colorado, and there are now more dispensaries than Starbucks. Needless to say, every 18–30 year old has chronic back pain.

@Stefaniebby

“I never want to stay up until 4am telling people how much I love them ever again.”

Why on Earth not?

All true, but still I imagine Ecstasy is called that for a reason.

DMT is an extremely powerful, short acting psychedelic. Under it’s influence, reality is completely replaced with a completely unfamiliar but incredibly beautiful “hyperspace”. People report contact with entities, which Terrence McKenna terms “self-transforming machine elves” and “jeweled self-dribbling basketballs”. These sorts of experiences are extremely difficult to convey in words, of course, but lots of people have tried.

I am a regular smoker. Not a deadbeat or a druggie. Pot is my only vice. Unless you count my motorcycle. I enjoy smoking and I also enjoy the social aspect of smoking. Most stoners are cool people. Marijuana has been given a bad rap for a myriad of reasons. i say legalize and tax it. It is idiotic to put someone in jail for possessing marijuana.

@anartist I agree with @Joker94. I don’t think big business should be allowed to sell it because they could put chemicals into it and actually make it a harmful drug.

@cockswain Love my vaporizer. One of the best smoking utensils ever. Long live the Vapor Brothers.

@jballzz – I don’t think the growing process would change that much. Hydroponics is about as efficient as you can get, and current growers have pretty much perfected it. Also, something nasty is more likely to make its way into your weed because it’s illegal, which means little accountability.

Oh boy, another pot question :P

Like I’ve said before, I’m a fan of the ganja. However, I believe in smoking (or perhaps a brownie) only recreationally, and only when appropriate. I wouldn’t, for instance, wake and bake and then drive off to work or class or something. That’s just plain silly. I would, however, wake and bake with a friend on a day I have no obligations, make some pancakes, and head to the beach for the next 6–7 hours. I liken it to alcohol in that it’s something that’s alright when you’re just trying to have to good time with good friends, and not when you need to be a contributing member of society.

This whole conversation is really disturbing me. I worry about people who use pot every day. I can’t think of a single person in real life who I know is an every day person who doesn’t feel disconnected from life in some way. They seem to be able to connect only to other stoners, although I’m not sure they can do even that.

There is always something guarded, and I always get the feeling they are hiding something. Actually, I can think of one exception, but she didn’t use every day, and she was trying to stop. She was trying to face the devils that chased her in the past.

I have tried to get close to people who smoke a lot, but there has always been some wall I’ve run up against. Sometimes I’ve hit that wall fairly early on, and sometimes at a much deeper level. It’s pretty interesting, now that I think about it. Of course, there’s no telling whether it’s just me, or the people I know, or something that is generally true. I doubt if the people smoking are even aware of it. If they are running from something, they don’t seem to know that, either. Bah! It’s probably just me.

@wundayatta As I smoke for both recreational and medicinal purposes, I’d rather be disconnected temporarily because of a plant than be constantly disconnected because of Vicodin, Topomax, Adderall, and [random antidepressant]. Weed, along with a better diet, is doing what all those other drugs couldn’t.
I do understand what you’re saying, and what you said is sometimes true, but I don’t think it’s fair to lump everyone who smokes daily into that group, especially not knowing how much they smoke or why.

@Facade That’s a good point. I’m sorry that your condition is so difficult to treat.

@Facade I agree. It’s very true that marijuana can make people seem disconnected and slightly more anti-social, it’s very much a personality by personality basis. I was having a conversation with a friend a couple days ago. He was telling me about a group of people from his home town who, when they began smoking, became distant and significantly less social. He contrasted that against me, and thanked me for being able to handle my weed and still be so personable. Maybe it’s a dosage issue, or maybe it’s based on personality, but it’s certainly not universal.

@wundayatta Don’t sweat it. I’ve been feeling great lately!
@Foolaholic Agreed.

My opinion: I’ve done it twice and after both times, failed to seem what all of the fuss was over. Honestly, I do hold some stigmatization over it to some degree, mostly because of it’s association. It’s associated with the “dopey-stoner” crowd/stereotype – where that’s all they do and/or the only true answer or meaning to life is getting baked. I’ve had a few good friends while growing up who I’ve lost because it got to the point where I couldn’t see them anymore without them being stoned out of their mind or being on a mission to get stoned. All of this just sort of contributes to why I file pot in a negative category.

Over the recent years I’ve tried to change my attitudes towards it. I really try not to sharply judge or criticize people who use it – I just want no part in it, personally. I drink/get wasted myself so I can’t necessarily say anything bad about it without throwing myself on the burner.

@Disc2021

Did you actually get high and didn’t like it? Or did it not work?

@wundayatta @Foolaholic

I’m a pretty introverted person, but I’ve been that way since long before I started smoking. I know a number of people who smoke regularly and are very extroverted. I think it depends on the person and their situation. Weed can get out of hand, like anything, but the negative consequences for even the heaviest of heavy smokers are way way way less severe than, say, a drinking problem or a coke habit.

I did it a lot, particularly in my twenties….. Not anymore. It was more social than a habit, it just chilled me out & made me really horny :-/
Like smoking in general I just think it can’t be good for you, that’s why I choose not to do either now….. I’ve been free from both for almost twelve years… it’s your life you choose to live it as you see fit… nothing wrong with that, just be considerate of the fact that a lot of people find it offensive :-/
Like so many things…….

@Hobbes: I understand what you say unfortunately for me, it does no good and the few people I know who smoke it are wonderful intelligent mushrooms. ;)

@Disc2021 First couple of times I smoked I didn’t get high, it actually happens to a lot of people their first time, so I’ve been told. In my opinion I find a lot of the “stoners” now give it the bad reputation it has. Some people take it way too far to heart and when it comes to the point where one is constantly looking for their next “fix” it gets annoying. I can say I honestly don’t talk to anyone I used to smoke with because, really, they didn’t feel the same way I felt about the drug. To them it was lets get hiiigh! 24/7, for me it’s more like lets relax after a long day.

@wundayatta I understand what you’re saying about being “disconnected” but never in my life have I felt like I was running from something. Granted, when I was 16 it was court ordered that I could not live with my parents if my dad was there. My dad had a horrible drinking problem where it would get to the point where he was abusive and only towards me and my mom, one night things got out of control, the cops were called, and I wasn’t allowed to see him again until a year later. I could say I started smoking because it was an escape, a way to fit in and make friends when I felt alone and like a terrible person for putting my father in jail. But I say I started because it’s relaxing and it brought me closer to people than ever before.

If I were running from all my problems in life I’d be running forever, weed makes me actually sit down and fix my problems in life.

@Scooby

“Like smoking in general I just think it can’t be good for you”

Vaporize!

@Hobbes how exactly does a Vaporizer work? o_o

It just heats the herb enough so that the THC vaporizes and can be inhaled, but without getting it hot enough to burn.

That. Is. Epic!

Yeah =] They save a lot of weed too – you use like ½ to ⅓ the amount. Plus it tastes better, and the high is more “clear” and more in the head than the body.

Righteous! Every part of that sentence was made of awesome.

@Hobbes my boyfriend and I bought a vaporizer at a head shop. So of course there was a no-return policy and we read all the reviews….they were all excellent. Blew 300 dollars on the thing and it never worked. We sent it to the company, they said it worked fine for them. The disappointment is unexplainable. lol

@deni – It’s odd that they had a no-return policy. Even ebay does returns. Maybe you weren’t using it right? They do have learning curve, some more than others. Or maybe your unit was just defective.

@Joker94 – Thanks!

@Hobbes we were definitely using it right….what they said is that, at “high altitudes, but especially above 8,000 feet, they have a tendency to not light because of the butane”....we’re at about 5,500 feet and since we bought it here and the people at the shop told us that EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT IT LOVES IT!!!!!! we were like….okay, that shouldn’t be a problem. Apparently it was though. :(

@deni I’ll find out what kind my buddy just got. It is awesome. He got talked out of the $600 one and got one for like $200.

What did yours look like? His is a little black one with a temp dial and red and blue lights.

@Hobbes If only if only I could afford a vaporizer. Currently, we smoke out of my glass bowl, which dark blue, sand blasted glass covered in white gloss detailing. We’ve named her Elu.

Is anyone else here in the practice of naming their smoking instruments?

@cockswain it looks like a walky talky kinda….no temp dial i dont think, it was yellow and black with bubble looking things on it…..sigh :(

@Foolaholic my boyfriend and I always have named our pieces. We had a great glow in the dark lime green clown glass bowl named Flubber. Sadly, he died a tragic death on the concrete… :(

Being drunk right now, and suffering no fear of legal repercussions for it, and knowing the vast racial disparity in sentencing laws…I’ll say that anyone who smokes marijuana is offensive to me.

irony….

@Hobbes

A-ha yes quite, I never thought about! :-/

@ETpro Try Alice B Toklas fudge/ hashish brownies [which according to Cecil’s Straight Dope column actually invented by an artist friend named Brion Gysin]:

“Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stone dates, dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of canibus sativa can be pulverized. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the canibus may present certain difficulties…. It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green.”

Damn—this recipe contains neither fudge nor hashish. Rather it is a spiced fruit bar with weed.

Like with alcohol, people need to know what they are doing. Messing with our brain chemistry can have serious consequences if it gets out of hand.

I love you, Alice B. Toklas.

@anartist That is a fascinating sounding recipe. A surprising mix of hot and sweet. Pot’s decriminalized here, but I’m not sure where to find green plants. How bad does it mess the taste up if you use dreid leaves and buds like you usually buy on the street?

@ETpro
Weed in recipe is dried as are the other spice ingredients.
Stuff you get is likely to be fresher if in season and local.

A friend of mine got a lovely crop in his front yard after his habit of combing out the seeds and chucking them over the front porch railing took root.

Hey, can you use a vaporizer on freshly picked leaves? I can’t think of why that wouldn’t work.

Sorry, for any of you in the UK that’s vapouriser

@cockswain

The leaves of the plant don’t get you high – it’s the bud, the flower, that does it.

Oh yeah, that’s right. I forgot, which is kind of ironic.