Is Marijuana a dangerous drug?

[Jay-qu]

But marijuana mostly causes self inflicted damage. There's not much other damage you can do with a dime bag, a bong, and a lighter.

 

All you need is to get behind the wheel of a car and you could do some pretty serious damage to more than just your own life..

[Michaelangelica]

All things like its use as a medicinal drug, and effects on the brain considered... is marijuana actually a dangerous drug?

Comparatively, say to alcohol and tobacco no.

 

However the is some danger, to some people, for example those genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.

[IDMclean]

You can say the same of speed and ritalin...

 

less so of weed.

[Queso]

All you need is to get behind the wheel of a car and you could do some pretty serious damage to more than just your own life..

 

Psh,

I drive STONED

every day of my life.

I swear I drive better,

I actually drive the speed limit,

and i'm in no rush.

Driving high is good! (for the people that can handle it)

There are many people

who, if drove a car high,

would crash it into a median.

Some people just suck:shrug:

[IDMclean]

I have heard of studies, I did alot of research earilier and am not in the mood to go find evidence, that Cannabis enhances reaction time and helps to relax the anxiety of some users. Also Remember a calm drive is better than an aggressive driver.

 

Me, I don't drive even when I'm sober. I am terrified of cars, I can do the math and know well the physics. Worse case senario: Invisible, silent cars,. Like James Bond's car in that one movie.

[Queso]

yeah there was a lot of negative propoganda

saying stuff like

"it will make you slow, for a month!"

But, from my experience

it actually enhances the reaction time,

BUT,

the reaction could be so overwhelming

that the observer might just laugh!

[Michaelangelica]

None that stimulate the body's cannabinoid receptors...

Amazing "The first brain-derived endogenous cannabinoids, an unsaturated fatty acid ethanolamide, arachidonylethanolamide (AEA, also called anandamide) was found in brain".

I knew about opiate receptors but not marijuana receptors.

Thank you.

Now you are not going to tell me I have to exercise to get them going!?

Is there a little amino acid pill I can pop to naturally get them going?

Do you know what the (evolutionary+) function of them is/was/can be?

[IDMclean]

yet another funny note, which I thought of due to the time of writing.

 

My grandmother passed away in the early morning at exactly 4:20am...

 

It's 4:22am where were you a few minutes ago?:lightbulb

(that would be pacific time -8 GMT of course.)

[Michaelangelica]

maybe morphine is more addictive :lightbulb thats where heroin comes from.

 

It takes a bit of work to get addicted to opiates.

The Civil War did it for thousands of Americans due to the invention of hypodermic syringes thus allowing for injectable opiates.

Many users report up-chucking violently first few injections.

 

It is interesting that heroin addicts can live a normal life if given a maintenance dose of heroin every day.

There are a huge number of Australians on methadone a so-called non-addictive form of opiate(?) -I'll find out how many if your are interested.

Such programmes certainly help keep the jails empty and property crimes down.

We really didn't have much of a drug problem here until Vietnam soldiers started to have R&R here

 

Anything can be dangerous.

Water in large doses can kill you.

Caffeine over 400mg a day is dangerous.

Panadol and most other pain killers can kill you fairly easily.

Hospitals are incredibly dangerous places.

 

In the plant world dosage is the thing.

How much you take determines the body's response..

The human body has remarkable defense mechanisms for plant toxins.

Ingestion of large amount of the few very poisonous plants results in violent purging -often at both ends.

The intestinal tract sloughs of all its lining cells every few days, protecting us say from the cyanide in apple seed, The various chemicals, including the poisonous alkaloids that plants produce; possibly to protect themselves from herbivorous predators like man.

I believe that TCH can build up in fatty tissues which could complicate dosage control.

 

I have a Canadian friend who tells me Canada's biggest export to USA is Cannabis. Over and above Oil and Wheat!

I somehow find that funny:)

 

Here, 9.00-30pmEST, writing this, KickAssClown

[IDMclean]

Indeed, THC does build up in the fatty tissues as I have indicated, THC is a fat and Alcohol soluble. It is not water soluble however. It is noted that exercise cause an increased rate of rention of THC in the fatty tissues.

 

This leads to what is known in the slang as heavy weights, or resistance. resulting in higher doses to achieve similar levels of euphoria and other such attributes of the "high".

 

It is also noted, that Cannabis for all that is said against it can not be attributed with a single Overdose. the shear volume that one has to intake to reach lethal levels is astounding... You would purge before you died of too much pot. That is to say you owuld most likely cease the action that would eventually lead to your death far before you got to that point.

 

The number of Cannabis related deaths is immensily lower than MANY other drugs including the opiates, amphetamines, and tranquilizers. Even the legal drugs are far more dangerous, Cigarettes and Alcohol are more readily going to kill or damage you in the short term and long term.

 

It pays sometimes to not listen to authority. Often when one rejects the common path and leaves the known areas, one will be rewarded with another, lesser known path or may forge one's own path entirely.

[Michaelangelica]

This touched me

 

Cannabis: the brain's other supplier.

By Rosie Mestel

New Scientist 31 July 1993

Reproduced without permission

 

Three years ago, Israeli archaeologists stumbled upon a 1600-year-old

tragedy: the remains of a narrow-hipped teenage girl with the skeleton

of a full-term fetus still cradled in her abdomen.

With her were grey ashes that contained traces of tetra-hydrocannabinol, the active ingredient of marijuana.

Could it be that the midwife had

administered the plant in a last-ditch effort to bring on labour or to

ease her pain?

http://www.erowid.org/plants/canabis/cannabis_pharmacology1.shtml

[Drip Curl Magic]

All you need is to get behind the wheel of a car and you could do some pretty serious damage to more than just your own life..

 

 

depends on the human.

 

I, personally, won't drive after smoking.

 

And I know many other people that are the same way.

 

But some people aren't affected in a way that would hurt their driving.

 

Everyone's body is different. Some people slow down a lot. And some people are not noticably slowed at all.

 

I find that, in many cases... smoking a bowl before driving is about as dangerous as taking a sip of beer.

 

But as I said before, it all depends on the person and their natural chemical balance.

[Drip Curl Magic]

Comparatively, say to alcohol and tobacco no.

 

However the is some danger, to some people, for example those genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.

 

like me.

 

I no longer smoke nearly as much as I used to... because it throws me into a weird state of semi-schitzophrenia.

 

no longer fun.

 

bummer.:eek_big:

[BluesMan]

but i'm sure there would be better pain relief drugs that dont hold such a powerful stigma

Methadone is another great pain drug for CA patients with the same unfortunate stigma.

 

I do not partake of the herbal leaf, at least not since the 70's got over.

I do think it should be legalized for personal use as well as medicinal.

It does have definite affects on the Respiratory and Circulatory system if chronically abused.

[cwes99_03]

depends on the human.

 

I, personally, won't drive after smoking.

 

And I know many other people that are the same way.

 

But some people aren't affected in a way that would hurt their driving.

 

Everyone's body is different. Some people slow down a lot. And some people are not noticably slowed at all.

 

I find that, in many cases... smoking a bowl before driving is about as dangerous as taking a sip of beer.

 

But as I said before, it all depends on the person and their natural chemical balance.

 

Yah because you are the best judge of how you are acting after you smoke pot!>?!

Sounds like the same thing a drunk says after polishing off a bottle of Jack. He doesn't think he is affected at all, even after he runs over the two little kids playing in their front yard that he plowed through.

[CraigD]

I, personally, won't drive after smoking.

That’s commendable. The world would be safer if more in it followed such personal rules.

I find that, in many cases... smoking a bowl before driving is about as dangerous as taking a sip of beer.

True, in some cases, but one difference between a beer and a bowl, is that, almost without exception, one has a pretty good idea in advance how a sip or a can of beer will effect one. All bowls, however, are not created equal – some can be without discernable effect (AKA crap), while others (AKA ultra-mega-kind) can be practically hallucinogenic. It’s analogous to beer that, every so often, tastes much like any other beer, but is 190 proof (95% alcohol), except one needn’t fear getting a lethal dose.

 

It’s wise to pay attention when smoking pot – one toke, wait 10 minutes, then decide if more is prudent.

 

Another bit of safety wisdom, is to keep some oxygen on hand. If you simply must drive or operate other dangerous machinery when impaired, a bit of hyperoxygenation can give a short-term boost to your coordination, perception, and judgment. If you’re the sort that takes the Scout motto (“Be prepared”) to heart, and have some $s to burn, convenient oxygen systems can be bought from many flight schools and fixed base operators, which can be found at many airports with a lot of small planes. It’s a quite little secret of the airline biz (or was, before that crew got so badly busted a year or so ago) that many pilots occasionally or regularly push the “twelve hours from bottle to throttle” rule, confident that a few minutes of cockpit oxygen will sober them up well before preflight.

 

It’s good for medical emergencies, too.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I am sooo surprised to see how many Hypography people smoke. It's shocking!!!:shrug:

Is it a science-thing? or is it related to your country of residence? or is it just a coincidence?