(03-04-2012, 01:04 AM)SarahSchilling Wrote: You're talking about me, aren't you!?
*flies into psychotic rage*
Good one!
Quote:But on a serious note, everyone I know smokes pot often....and honestly to have the kind of reaction you're talking about, the person would have to have serious issues to begin with, in my experience.
Sorry, but I'm afraid that's a fallacious argument... anecdotal knowledge of people "getting away" with smoking tobacco until they're 80 or drinking a pint or two of whiskey a day doesn't deny the fact that there are very bad effects for a large number of people, and the trouble is, like all kinds of drug or practice, you never know whether you are susceptible until you get hit by it. (Like Ecstacy users dropping dead on the dance floor).
You may be ok and the friends that you know are ok - for now - just as the millions of tobacco smokers who had their lives drastically shortened by it were ok when they were young.
Possibly the kind of "issues" you referred to were the sorts of stresses that would make one person smoke 60 a day instead of 10 - except now it would perhaps be 10 times as many spliffs or joints.
There could well be a tipping point - who knows? I just feel the need to point out, for the good of all, perceived risk factors, when discussing what I consider extremely risky behaviour, for perhaps very little gain.
What about unprotected sex, for example? Do you know the relative risks of contracting HIV vs a psychotic episode? I don't pretend to, but if people avoid one pleasurable but risky endeavour, why not both? Hmm.
What worries me is that, the more this is considered "normal" behaviour, the more it encourages people to take it up - particularly in this group where people desperate to grow breasts may think it will help.
Anyway, as we are all a kind of self-help group, I thought I would chip in.
Just for interest, I've put a few references below. As others may be aware, I'm sceptical of orthodoxies, particularly those put out by BBC Pravda, so if they are generally in favour of legalisation, as they appear to be now, there has got to be something wrong with it.
I'm particularly interested in the research commissioned and funded but not used by the DoH - probably came to the wrong liberal conclusion...
B.
This refers to how weed is more potent now than it used to be
High Potency Marijuana Causes Paranoia and Psychosis
http://ezinearticles.com/?High-Potency-Marijuana--Causes-Paranoia-and-Psychosis&id=1819067
This refers to MRI brain differences before and after use
Paranoid or Placid? Scans Show Pot's Effect on Brain
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/...20529.html
Cannabis psychosis following bhang* ingestion
*(a drink containing cannabis)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...x/abstract
The British Journal of Psychiatry
http://www.ukcia.org/research/Psychiat.htm
Interestingly, this one says:
Declaration of interest: This review was commissioned and funded by the Department of Health, but the findings are those of the author alone.
Health aspects of cannabis.
http://proxy.baremetal.com/druglibrary.n...colRev.pdf