131–140 of 177 posts
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You seem awfully defensive and are quick to tell people they are wrong (without citations) when they disparage marijuana.
They can Google that themselves.
So you should at least accept the critic if you can't be bothered to search something that supports your claims.
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Well, the pot physical addiction debate is where we started. If people experience significant physical withdrawal symptoms from cessation of pot use (which seems to be the case for some), then for those people, it absolutely is physically addicting.
It still isn't physically addicting as at no point does the body need it to function. Physical withdrawal symptoms don't change that, and it's unlikely that science will find new evidence changing this position.
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Marijuana abused to self medicate is frankly cheaper than paying for mental health medication and therapy. It's also fast acting and has only minor negative side effects as opposed to taking several weeks to take effect and for any negative side effects (these can be rather bothersome or bad) to go away. Not to mention that's if that particular medication works for you. Going through several types, change in doses, e…
>Marijuana abused to self medicate is frankly cheaper than paying for mental health medication and therapy. This implies that self medication has an outcome comparable to paying for mental health medication and therapy. I would assert that it does not.
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I read that the use of marijuana actually inhibits dreams, and that people who quit temporarily experience intense dreams.
This is called REM rebound. The reason is that in this case the psychoactive drugs in cannabis act as sedatives. Similar to alcohol and other depressants, this makes it easier to fall asleep, but harder to enter the "deeper" stages of sleep like REM. So when you quit ingesting cannabis, your body tries to make up for your ongoing REM sleep deficit, and you have more/stronger dreams as a result This what is happening…
I would imagine that people report fewer dreams due to cannabinoids' memory effects, rather than an impact on REM sleep. Failing to remember dreams does not mean an absence of them.
An increase in nightmares could easily be due to increased stress/amygdala function depressed by cannabinoids.
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It is not, "only" psychological addictive. But since our mind controls our body, the symptoms can be indeed severe, if the use, or abuse, like in this case, is extreme. Smoking 3g a day is the rough equivavlent of constantly drinking wodka instead of water.
Pot does produce physical changes in the brain, though. Heavy pot usage can dramatically increase the amount of anandamide receptors in the brain, which regulate hunger, motivation, pleasure and mood among other things. So quitting and having a neurotransmitter deficit until the brain returns to homeostasis causes hormonal and physical effects on the body... How is that “only” psychological?
Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…
People don't wake up with nightmares and covered in sweat if they don't have a cheeseburger in the last 24 hours.
It's hard for me to relate to this. I smoke daily, and probably what most would consider a lot. I however also travel for work and or other reasons and often go days or a week without smoking. It has no noticeable effect on me. It could be because I'm extremely active and fit. I workout basically 7 days a week, mostly because I do a lot of intense stuff 'for fun' (aka, play hockey 3-4 days a week, etc). I'm not sayin…
The article says that this sort of heavy use can be measured in oz/wk, with 1-2 oz/wk being quite a lot. I am the heaviest cannabis consumer of my peers, and I barely consume a quarter oz/wk. It sounds like addicts are much heavier users! On the other hand, tobacco smokers can be addicts at 1-2 cigs/day, but not necessarily chain-smoking 1-2 pks/day like the most-addicted smokers. Perhaps there's a continuum.
I don't smoke anymore for practical reasons, but I have done one of these dabs in the past and it essentially incapacitated me to the point where I felt extremely uncomfortable and had to remain stationary for at least an hour unable to do anything at all.
My extreme THC consuming friends are doing something like 6-7 of these per evening and functioning fairly normally. This is what's mind boggling to me.
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Pot destroys lives in part by being so apparently benign.
Whatever problems drive a person to use pot as a crutch are the source issue. Pot abuse itself (or any maladaptive behavior) is best thought of as a symptom, not a cause.
Please stop denying that cannabis itself cannot ever be a cause of severe harm.
I strongly support legalisation, but for that to happen we must accept that some cannabis users are going to be caused harm.
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No, drug use isn’t consistently picked up in the aftermath of disaster. It’s often near the beginning, and lubricates destructive behavior, even pot. Pot absolutely catalyzes issues in people’s lives. Many would be far better off not using it at all.
>It’s often near the beginning, and lubricates destructive behavior, even pot I think we are talking past each other. I fully agree that many would be better off never using anything at all. My point is that by the time someone gets to the point where drugs/gambling/addiction can act as a destructive catalyst, they're already well on their way to a negative future due to earlier causes.
Do you have anything at all to support this?
C'mon, I smoke every day and still not addicted!
Here's a challenge. Put all your stuff in a container, and put it on a shelf. Leave it there for a week, and don't use it. Every time you think about opening the container, write it down. I bet you'll think about opening the container a LOT more than you think will. Do you think you could make it to the end of the week? If not, you're addicted.
They mean that cannabis is having a profound harmful impact on the person's life, and the person cannot stop even though they recognise it's causing harm.