Posted on 11/25/2019 5:13:25 AM PST by urtax$@work
This is an excerpt for discussion purposes, see article for full story.
More and more Americans are reporting near-constant cannabis use, as legalization forges ahead.
The proliferation of retail boutiques in California did not really bother him, Evan told me, but the billboards did. Advertisements for delivery, advertisements promoting the substance for relaxation, for fun, for health. “Shop. It’s legal.” “Hello marijuana, goodbye hangover.” “It’s not a trigger,” he told me. “But it is in your face.”
When we spoke, he had been sober for a hard-fought seven weeks: seven weeks of sleepless nights, intermittent nausea, irritability, trouble focusing, and psychological turmoil.......
Public-health experts worry about the increasingly potent options available, and the striking number of constant users. “Cannabis is potentially a real public-health problem,” said Mark A. R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at New York University. ......
For Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, the most compelling evidence of the deleterious effects comes from users themselves. “In large national surveys, about one in 10 people who smoke it say they have a lot of problems. They say things like, ‘I have trouble quitting. I think a lot about quitting and I can’t do it. I smoked more than I intended to. I neglect responsibilities.’ There are plenty of people who have problems with it, in terms of things like concentration, short-term memory, and motivation,” he said. “People will say, ‘Oh, that’s just you fuddy-duddy doctors.’ Actually, no. It’s millions of people who use the drug who say that it causes problems.”
Users or former users I spoke with described lost jobs, lost marriages, lost houses, lost money, lost time. Foreclosures and divorces. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
... Pot smoking makes one content to do nothing.
I understand...
I appreciate that.
Plenty think I’m crazy though. All I can do is speak to what I have learned by way of my personal experience with a real physically addictive substance.
Mkay. They’re a failure. If a family member, kick their ass. If not, leave them to their own life choice: less competition at the top of the food chain. All cultures are not equal, so all people aren’t either.
“Any of them can quit anytime they want to with no problem.”
That’s right, just like what Mark Twain said about tobacco. ‘quitting smoking is easy, I’ve done it many times”.
“Some cognitive abilities beyond memory, like decision making and planning, also seem to be permanently impaired after long term heavy use.”
Yes. That’s all I can say. Yes.
However, I may not be the best study on this, because I think my problems with xanax screwed up my memory well more than pot use did. I could be wrong about that, but xanax is a powerful, powerful drug.
Dopamine production is affected by a number of drugs, including meth, cocaine and anti-depressant medications. And it also seems fairly clear that once a person starts altering this system, it does not return to its original state ever again.
Based on my experience with CNS drug alprazolam (xanax), I would advise anyone not to mess with these biological systems at all unless there is no other medical option for whatever problem would cause such a need.
Some things are best left alone.
Play stupid games, get more stupid.
There is a reason for terms like “getting stoned” and “pot head”.
Which leaves them no time or interest to pay attention to how their elected "leaders" are robbing them blind on every level.
Mark didn’t try hard enough.
I quit smoking when I was 25 and never went back. It took three days and one box of nicorette gum before I realized that I would be successful in this endeavor.
The reason it was not hard is because I really WANTED to be free of cigarette smoking. As a two pack a day chain smoker, I had grown really very damn tired of suffocating in smoke all day long. Tired of standing in line to buy cigarettes every day, tired of paying a 1.89 for a pack of Marlboro lights, and oh boy are they so outrageously expensive today!
I would classify cigs as a mildly physically addictive substance, but I think the reason most people continue to smoke is because they enjoy the physical act of smoking itself. As soon as they decide that they no longer enjoy that act, they will likely move to quit.
I’ve seen a lot of people on Reddit claiming they smoke pot every day with no physical drawbacks, but even they do usually end up admitting that they are spending $400-$500 a month on it.
Habitual cannibis use is starting to be shown to impair brain development in ADHD teenagers(who sorely need brain development). The science is catching up with the anecdotal. The slacker “pothead” is really a thing it terms of changes to brain chemistry and reduction in cognitive and executive function. We now have a Big Weed like big pharma selling us junk science to make billions. I am not for banning any substance but please with the claims of reduction in anxiety, depression, etc. There are benefits to cannabis use for chemotherapy patients and people with certain neurological diseases but as a panacea for everything from ED to ADHD, the science does not back that up.
Thank you kindly.
“None of these people know what it means to have to wake up every day and make sure that, on your list of needs for the day, right after consumption of oxygen resides consumption of xanax, or the result will be the same.”
Interesting analogy and perspective. So oxygen is more addictive than Xanax.
Oxygen is needed for survival. And for some deeply depressed people, I guess, so is xanax?
So not all addictions are bad, considering the alternatives.
It’s not a magic pill.
He will give you the Strength to fight your demon, but you actually have to wield that Strength to defeat that demon, and then you have to make sure it stays down, because it is just like Jason in Friday the 13th. That sucker gets back up.
But it’s a great change when an addict finally invites something Good into his life for once. I saw His light at the bottom of a very dark and deep pit that I dug for myself and then jumped right in. He reached His hand down and helped me up. I will never forget that.
Jesus Christ is real.
“So oxygen is more addictive than Xanax.”
It’s not that oxygen is more addictive than xanax, but to the xanax addict, oxygen is precisely one degree more necessary for survival than xanax.
I’d rank the list of needs for the xanax addict as follows: Oxygen, xanax, water, food.
So very true - and He wants us to have a relationship with Him.
I don’t know about addicted, but a whole bunch of people “self-medicate” to relieve stress or forget their worries.
With what? Pick your poison.
Then the chips will fall where they naturally would. Some will mess themselves up with pot alone and others won't. Some will gateway to other drugs that will mess themselves up even worse, and some won't.
Who can do pot every once in a blue moon for decades w/o side effects? Who gets addicted to pot alone? Who does other drugs? I don't know and it ain't my business (I don't do drugs)...except for the gubment taxing me more to pay for other people's welfare. For as long as the gubment does that I have a vested interest in keeping as few people from doing pot or other drugs as possible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.