Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

Washington Post via SF Chronicle ^ | June 24th, 2018 | Christine Vestal, The Washington Post

[Mariner]

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - For as long as most residents can remember, smoking marijuana has been a part of life here. The fact that California legalized the practice in January went practically unnoticed in this quiet town a half-hour's drive north of San Francisco, where some say the normalization of America's marijuana culture got its start.

For Quintin Pohl and other teenagers before him, smoking pot was a rite of passage. It was a diversion from the loneliness he felt at home when his parents were splitting up and a salve for middle-school angst. It was his entire social life in seventh and eighth grades, he said, when social life is everything.

Even though nearly all his friends were using marijuana and seeming to enjoy it, Pohl said, at some point his marijuana use took a turn he never saw coming: He became addicted.

Many people are unaware of marijuana addiction. But in the public health and medical communities, it is a well-defined disorder that includes physical withdrawal symptoms, cravings and psychological dependence. Many say it is on the rise, perhaps because of the increasing potency of genetically engineered plants and the use of concentrated products, or because more users are partaking multiple times a day.

[Chickensoup]

Government sponsored drug addition, gambling, illegal immigration... one wonders what those of America’s Greatest Generation, who fought and died to protect us from Germany and Japan, would think of all this.

____________________

America’s Greatest Generation medicated itself with copious amounts of alcohol in the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Even DUIs were not a big deal til the nineties.

[Chickensoup]

I know the thc level is much higher now. I don’t recommend kids smoking it and some will undoubtedly activate a mental illness, there is science to say that mind altering drugs can possibly draw out a tendency.

___________________________

It is true, see it everyday. Psychosis exacerbated by marijuana which is a hallucinogen.

Cannot tell kids anything though. Have an adopted child with two first degree relatives with schizophrenia, I have told her about marijuana use and her genetics. She has chosen to imbibe since there is a 70 per cent chance she will not have psychosis.

Children are stupid. Even adult ones.

[familyop]

"America’s Greatest Generation medicated itself with copious amounts of alcohol in the fifties, sixties and seventies."

Not my parents. In the suburb of most of my childhood, most of the other adults in my neighborhood were either teetotalers or occasional, very light drinkers. The exceptions were one divorced man, one divorced woman and another divorced woman who was only renting and there for a few weeks.

But we were in a part of the South then, that was mostly Southern Baptist. Different religion (in the '60s, not now) and social environment in that particular area (not like the east coast or Louisiana).

[familyop]

Alcoholism is much more common now in places like the southern parts of the Midwest. We can see the effects of it all around us. And most of the alcoholics are or have been frequent pot smokers.

[NobleFree]

More over the only reason one uses marijuana is to get high. Not true with alcohol.

It was true of alcohol when that drug was illegal. It's not the drug, it's the incentive structure.

[NobleFree]

most of the alcoholics are or have been frequent pot smokers.

You mean most of the alcoholics you know?

[DouglasKC]

And yes, I support full legalization nationwide. I believe the harm done by the War on Pot exceeds the 9% addiction rate harm done for those who use it. No, I don't use marijuana. And I believe those who give it to kids belong in jail.

Better build a lot of jails cause that's exactly what legalization will lead to. We've already convinced kids that pot is harmless and/or medicine. It's going to get worse than that.

[NobleFree]

And I believe those who give it to kids belong in jail.

Better build a lot of jails cause that's exactly what legalization will lead to.

Marijuana sellers already provide it to kids; legalization for adults will give legal sellers an incentive not to.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yep, like the old alcoholic said, “I can take it or leave it. I’m taking it!” Addiction is a function of neurological adaptation, not something in the substance per se. People become addicted to anything that triggers the development of certain neurological subsystems in the cerebral cortex. Marijuana will do just fine for that.

I realize that many people can smoke without becoming addicted, as many can drink alcohol without becoming addicted. The number at risk however is rising as the availability and potency of the drug increase. To deny that is to fall in with the legions of addicts who already are in denial.

[DouglasKC]

And I believe those who give it to kids belong in jail. Better build a lot of jails cause that's exactly what legalization will lead to. Marijuana sellers already provide it to kids; legalization for adults will give legal sellers an incentive not to.

I'm concerned with the ready availability combined with the naive thinking that pot is harmless. So many kids are going to have their minds messed up. We're going to lose an entire generation.

[morphing libertarian]

Kids shouldn’t have pot. It’s illegal. But surprise, they have pot anyway.

Adults should be free to drink or smoke as they wish as long as they don’t steal or hurt others o their property. but we spend way too much money trying to stop adults from getting high.

Lastly you are losing the argument because people no longer want the government to waste tax payer money by the billions and get the same results over and over.

[familyop]

Yes, the kids are getting it from their parents, some with and some without their parents’ knowledge. Many babies are getting it through their umbilical cords and coming out with conditions similar to Asperger’s and other conditions. Mothers are being taught by their ganja gurus, that the weed cures cancer and all other ills. So many mothers assume that it’s good for their kids and preach about that online.

In essence, they’re producing more zombies to be done away with in the near future.

[familyop]

"You mean most of the alcoholics you know?"

Now that the dope fiends have saturated our population with fellow "prohibited persons," nearly everyone is acquainted with some who became addicted to booze as a consequence of their drug abuse. There was one not long ago in my own area. Everyone knows about everyone in rural areas and small towns.

She put on airs and implied that she was high classed while trying to solicit local married men before getting into a cannabis-fueled, drunken stupor and burning down her landlord's inherited farm house. After being released from jail, she moved in with another former prostitute and lezzie like herself, who reportedly keeps her in line by smacking her around frequently. Her pit bull was promptly put down after she burned down the house and went to jail, BTW. Little bonus there for the community.

This one was in the news--a story that we see from all around U.S.A. too often (but usually regarding female teachers). Another alcoholic pothead was a maintainer for a while and had been erroneously chosen for a job teaching school. He's gone after having messed with little kids there. He had lured them with marijuana, as so many others in the news have done. Good riddance.

[familyop]

We don't need to have known them personally. They're often in the news. Only took a few seconds to find this one.

Exclusive: Causeway Cannibal Had Bible, Recently Smoked Pot When He Attacked
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/06/06/exclusive-miami-cannibal-was-carrying-bible-had-recently-smoked-pot-when-he-attacked/

[familyop]

Stefano Brizzi: Cannibal killer who died in prison had 'ruined his life through drug addiction', inquest hears
Evening Standard
JOHN DUNNE
April 23, 2018
"Dr Matthew Cook, who interviewed Stefano Brizzi after a ligature had been found in his cell before his sentencing said the killer told him that he had taken his first drug, cannabis, aged 40 and then had descended into crystal meth addiction."

[familyop]

Oh, look. More about cannibals on cannabis.

Bath salts NOT to blame: Miami Cannibal was not under the influence of potent street drug when he chewed homeless man's face off
"Toxicology test have found Rudy Eugene, who was shot dead by police following the horrific attack on Ronald Poppo, only had marijuana in his system"
The Mirror
By Natalie Evans
September 25, 2012
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/miami-cannibal-was-not-on-bath-salts-943768">

[morphing libertarian]

chewed face off, damn munchies

[cherry]

its a drug...its not harmless...it affects you....an no, its not better than alcohol.

but this country needs a few more million lazy listless white wimps smoking weed...that's what we need...

[familyop]

Cannabis cannibals. Kinda has a ring to it.

Cannibal 'who dug up DEAD CHILD to eat' caught as human HAND spotted in cooking pot
Daily Star
By Anthony Blair
January 31, 2018
"POLICE have saved a man from a lynch mob after he was accused of digging up a child's body and eating it...Cops said they also found two pots filled with the cooked arms and legs of a child's body, believed to be that of a girl..."

'Cannibal' murder triggered by illegal drugs, says health watchdog
The Guardian
by David Batty
March 30, 2016
"He had also been a prolific user of drugs, including cannabis and amphetamines, since adolescence."

[familyop]

Yeah! The stories I’m finding are fascinating and eyepoppingly hideous! So many of them.