Poll: Cannabis
Total Members Polled: 475
Discussion
I smoked it a few times whilst at Uni when 'everyone' was doing it.
I found it pointless and have never bothered with it again. It just wasn't for me.
I have a really non-addictive reaction to substances. I really enjoy fine wines, spirits, and real ale etc, and can go though a period of drinking heavily for a couple of weeks or whatever due to circumstance, and then simply not bother to drink anything for weeks.
I will echo the sentiments of others in the thread who have said they don't understand the 'chill out and do nothing' mentality often associated with smoking weed. I like to be busy doing stuff, enjoying hobbies, out and about, and I have this kind of 'fear' of sitting doing nothing. A kind of uneasy 'wasting your life' feeling washes over me if I just try to laze about or chill.
That said, I think the war on drugs is pointless, and if Alcohol and Tobacco are legal, then surely cannabis at the very least should be legal and sold in a controlled and regulated fashion to people over a certain age who can make their own decisions.
I have no problem whatsoever in legalisation, provided we are up to speed on being as harsh on it as alcohol whilst at work, driving etc.
The most important aspect of legalising it for me is the fact that it will allow more frequent and detailed studies on the medicinal properties, which are long overdue.
I suspect it may have benefits for certain medical conditions, but what I want to see totally eradicated is the whole 'Cannabis cured my cancer' type thing. That needs stamped out rapidly, and I feel that legalisation will help.
I found it pointless and have never bothered with it again. It just wasn't for me.
I have a really non-addictive reaction to substances. I really enjoy fine wines, spirits, and real ale etc, and can go though a period of drinking heavily for a couple of weeks or whatever due to circumstance, and then simply not bother to drink anything for weeks.
I will echo the sentiments of others in the thread who have said they don't understand the 'chill out and do nothing' mentality often associated with smoking weed. I like to be busy doing stuff, enjoying hobbies, out and about, and I have this kind of 'fear' of sitting doing nothing. A kind of uneasy 'wasting your life' feeling washes over me if I just try to laze about or chill.
That said, I think the war on drugs is pointless, and if Alcohol and Tobacco are legal, then surely cannabis at the very least should be legal and sold in a controlled and regulated fashion to people over a certain age who can make their own decisions.
I have no problem whatsoever in legalisation, provided we are up to speed on being as harsh on it as alcohol whilst at work, driving etc.
The most important aspect of legalising it for me is the fact that it will allow more frequent and detailed studies on the medicinal properties, which are long overdue.
I suspect it may have benefits for certain medical conditions, but what I want to see totally eradicated is the whole 'Cannabis cured my cancer' type thing. That needs stamped out rapidly, and I feel that legalisation will help.
Sitting doing nothing is a stereotype though. No doubt it’s accurate for some users, but as always, nothing is binary. When I use, I am far from sitting around doing nothing! I socialise with friends, play video games, go for a walk in the park if it’s nice weather etc. About the only thing I will not do when “stoned” is drive a car.
Life doesn’t have to be black and white. Even if you have experience of something, it doesn’t mean everyone else’s experience is the same
ETA: I think that as with a lot of things, cannabis just enhances what you already enjoy, and brings out the kind of person you already are. If that means you’re a junkie “stoner” then you were likely going to end up that way on something or other, sooner or later anyway. Everyone I know who uses weed is a very well-rounded professional, responsible adult with jobs and families. I guess because that’s the circle of people I choose to associate myself with. Their personal choice to use weed doesn’t make them a bum
Life doesn’t have to be black and white. Even if you have experience of something, it doesn’t mean everyone else’s experience is the same
ETA: I think that as with a lot of things, cannabis just enhances what you already enjoy, and brings out the kind of person you already are. If that means you’re a junkie “stoner” then you were likely going to end up that way on something or other, sooner or later anyway. Everyone I know who uses weed is a very well-rounded professional, responsible adult with jobs and families. I guess because that’s the circle of people I choose to associate myself with. Their personal choice to use weed doesn’t make them a bum
Edited by Kenny Powers on Sunday 24th June 12:19
Benni said:
I have roughly the same experiences as Shuvi posted earlier,
but after 25 years of heavy resin daily (only waterbong for breakfast etc.) I felt I had to change something.
I was working all the time, just to have the cash for my "man", went home and consumed lonely.
The only difference for me was that i just ended up growing the stuff so i didn't even have a 'man' to pay. but after 25 years of heavy resin daily (only waterbong for breakfast etc.) I felt I had to change something.
I was working all the time, just to have the cash for my "man", went home and consumed lonely.
Benni said:
knowing/fearing that if I ever try "moderate use" I will end up doing 2-3grams of resin daily.
With most things in life, i am one of these 'all or nothing' types. I don't enjoy having 'a beer' In fact i don't even enjoy the first beer, if I am drinking I know that the first couple are just a loosener and i am having a session.
The same goes with weed. In my mind i think it would be nice just to have a spliff and get a bit of a buzz going but i am looking at rolling my second as soon as i have finished my first and then i just cane it until its all gone.
I have used other drugs 'socially' but its the same with them only that always ends up being a very expensive night!
I now go months between drinks but i still cant open a bottle of anything and expect to have anything left the next day.
I started smoking weed at 13, by 15/16 was smoking it every day. from the moment i woke up, before i had a pee, before a cigarette, id have a good few hits on my (for ease ill call it a bong but was a water gravity bucket that lived next to my bed, made out of a malteasers bucket, cut off 2 litre bottle, and a piece of metal someone made on a lathe with a metal gauze in. I did my exams stoned, i did my aprenticeship stoned, passed my college stoned, passed my driving test stoned. met my wife stoned, spent every day of my working life stoned, drove everywhere i ever went stoned.
Now there's different types of stoned, the high you get with all your mates when none of you have really smoked it before, the intense hit, the laughing, the freaked out feelings people get like time passing fast, hot feet, all the intense feelings you get, well driving like that isn't a good idea....but eventually when you feel like you are coming round, and you need to drive, well it can be a pretty intense experience. Everything that usually comes naturally, well some of these things, like checking speed, your mirror, judging approaching car speeds at junctions, well they become things you end up consciously thinking about. and as a result you end up driving so slowly or consciously of everything your'e doing, that maybe youre more likely to have a little parking ding or something like the kind of low speed accident an old person might have may go up. The chance of you trying to show off and end up taking a bend too fast becomes non existant. your confidence has gone, and youre a much more careful driver for it.
Eventually when you smoke it every day, these intense feelings dissapear, and you just feel happy and relaxed, and if you havent had it you feel edgy, a bit snappy, and basically the kind of frame of mind when you would feel like you want to drive faster, angrier, take more risks.
I can tell you one thing, If everyone on the road was stoned, you would never again be overtaking someone and they start to accelerate on you.....you'd never be brake checked again......i dont think road rage would even exist.
At the same time i think it's obscene alcohol which causes however many deaths is legal, and cigarettes, when weed which is proven to be safe, and help so many medical conditions, is illegal......even if i'd never smoked it, i want to make as many of my own choices as i can, rather than have the government make them for me. it's one of the most amazing plants on earth.
But....on the flip side.....i smoked too much for too many years. i feel it's hurt my relationship, my career prospects, my brain power (i'm down about 12 on my IQ score from age 13-18), my memory is now rubbish, severe laziness......so i decided one day about 7 years ago to just stop....i'd spent nearly 20 years happy just to be sat on my couch doing nothing, and decided enough was enough. I thought once i quit i'd magically become this whole different person, my life would fall into place, and everything would be great.....but its hardly any different really.
As for the gateway drug argument, yeah it is a gateway drug.....simply because if you're the kind of person thats gonna experiment with drugs then you're that kind of person. The reason people start with weed is its easy to get hold of, classed as safe, and the most socially acceptable.......people don't try other drugs because of weed, they were going to try anyway, just weed was, and should be, the first one.
The only reason i can think that weed could be classed as even slightly socially unacceptable, is for people that don't like the smell.....but if you're allowed to make a 10 mile radius stink of pig muck on for a few days at a time, or sit in a traffic jam with a diesel engine running, then it's really not that big of a deal.
And hash being full of tyres and plastic.....20 years ago maybe, hash these days is a totally different proposition. The internet has educated and connected people.
Cannabis may have some issues, but nothing so serious that people shouldn't be able to make their own choices.
For the record, over the last 7 years I've used cannabis on a few rare occasions, I dont class myself as a smoker any more......but i'm 100% pro legalisation, and think these swab tests that dont take level of impairment into consideration at all, are seriously unfair.
Then theres the tax revenue, which could be put into schools, hospitals, roads...The freed up police resources.....i just cant think of one good argument against it.
Have a listen to "The irony of it all" by "the streets"......even if you dont like him or his style of music.....listen to the words as a poem, it's just so right
Now there's different types of stoned, the high you get with all your mates when none of you have really smoked it before, the intense hit, the laughing, the freaked out feelings people get like time passing fast, hot feet, all the intense feelings you get, well driving like that isn't a good idea....but eventually when you feel like you are coming round, and you need to drive, well it can be a pretty intense experience. Everything that usually comes naturally, well some of these things, like checking speed, your mirror, judging approaching car speeds at junctions, well they become things you end up consciously thinking about. and as a result you end up driving so slowly or consciously of everything your'e doing, that maybe youre more likely to have a little parking ding or something like the kind of low speed accident an old person might have may go up. The chance of you trying to show off and end up taking a bend too fast becomes non existant. your confidence has gone, and youre a much more careful driver for it.
Eventually when you smoke it every day, these intense feelings dissapear, and you just feel happy and relaxed, and if you havent had it you feel edgy, a bit snappy, and basically the kind of frame of mind when you would feel like you want to drive faster, angrier, take more risks.
I can tell you one thing, If everyone on the road was stoned, you would never again be overtaking someone and they start to accelerate on you.....you'd never be brake checked again......i dont think road rage would even exist.
At the same time i think it's obscene alcohol which causes however many deaths is legal, and cigarettes, when weed which is proven to be safe, and help so many medical conditions, is illegal......even if i'd never smoked it, i want to make as many of my own choices as i can, rather than have the government make them for me. it's one of the most amazing plants on earth.
But....on the flip side.....i smoked too much for too many years. i feel it's hurt my relationship, my career prospects, my brain power (i'm down about 12 on my IQ score from age 13-18), my memory is now rubbish, severe laziness......so i decided one day about 7 years ago to just stop....i'd spent nearly 20 years happy just to be sat on my couch doing nothing, and decided enough was enough. I thought once i quit i'd magically become this whole different person, my life would fall into place, and everything would be great.....but its hardly any different really.
As for the gateway drug argument, yeah it is a gateway drug.....simply because if you're the kind of person thats gonna experiment with drugs then you're that kind of person. The reason people start with weed is its easy to get hold of, classed as safe, and the most socially acceptable.......people don't try other drugs because of weed, they were going to try anyway, just weed was, and should be, the first one.
The only reason i can think that weed could be classed as even slightly socially unacceptable, is for people that don't like the smell.....but if you're allowed to make a 10 mile radius stink of pig muck on for a few days at a time, or sit in a traffic jam with a diesel engine running, then it's really not that big of a deal.
And hash being full of tyres and plastic.....20 years ago maybe, hash these days is a totally different proposition. The internet has educated and connected people.
Cannabis may have some issues, but nothing so serious that people shouldn't be able to make their own choices.
For the record, over the last 7 years I've used cannabis on a few rare occasions, I dont class myself as a smoker any more......but i'm 100% pro legalisation, and think these swab tests that dont take level of impairment into consideration at all, are seriously unfair.
Then theres the tax revenue, which could be put into schools, hospitals, roads...The freed up police resources.....i just cant think of one good argument against it.
Have a listen to "The irony of it all" by "the streets"......even if you dont like him or his style of music.....listen to the words as a poem, it's just so right
PorkFan said:
I thought once i quit i'd magically become this whole different person, my life would fall into place, and everything would be great.....but its hardly any different really.
So much this! I thought as you did, that everything would change but all that really happened was i discovered i could waste just as much time doing nothing in particular even if i wasn't stoned. But maybe time passes more slowly.
Very true about the driving thing too. Like you, i was stoned for a few decades so pretty much every time i got behind the wheel i was under the influence to a certain extent. I mostly drove like an old lady if i felt even a bit stoned! With a pint or two inside me though (right around or slightly above the legal limit) I start to drive like an asshole.
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