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U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

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Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#121

Post by graphememes »

nenadg wrote: post #45

I smoked weed heavily from my ~16 to ~18. And I stopped because it was so overwhelming experience that I could not stand any more. I couldn't function normally and had really tough trips, thinking about so many end results in the same time. Minutes took hours and basically it was an agony, while everybody had pretty joyful time laughing. Now, I'm 38. I'm functional (so far), I have family with kids. I haven't develop…

Being in the bay area, I have witnessed what you expressed happen to many engineers since the legalization. They burn out quickly as well. They swear it's not weed since everyone else tells them that's all tinfoil hat stuff.

It's very unfortunate.

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#122

Post by DaniloDias »

As a teenager- I decided I would wait till I was 22 before I tried Marijuana. All of my friends were heavy users- and while that made me feel like a bit of an outsider, I had come to the conclusion that it was better to wait and see how using turned out for them before I joined in.

That decision was profoundly informative. My high school friends personal and professional trajectories have been severely hobbled. I don’t believe that weed is the sole factor, but it certainly didn’t help them become more ambitious or contribute to their fortitude.

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#123

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

djsumdog wrote: post #30
hprotagonist wrote: post #11

The national academy has a very nice writeup on "The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research (2017)" which is by far the most comprehensive guide I'm aware of. http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/reports/2017/health-effects... The conclusions summary PDF has the highlights: http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report%20File... Personally, i fi…

In ever US state where it is legal (Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Alaska, Mass., and 2020 Illinois and Michigan) I think the minimum age is 21. Sure people underage can get it, but there is an attempt being made to limit it to people at least 21. I knew parents who let their teenagers know they used it, but also told them they didn't want their kids using it until they were at least 18 (but if they wanted…

> In ever US state where it is legal

I'm assuming you know that marijuana remains illegal due to (a) federal law and (b) the Constitution's Supremacy Clause.

I mean this with complete sincerity and genuine curiosity: Why did you choose wording that suggests the activity is wholly legal in those states?

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#124

Post by wannabcodr »

DaniloDias wrote: post #122

As a teenager- I decided I would wait till I was 22 before I tried Marijuana. All of my friends were heavy users- and while that made me feel like a bit of an outsider, I had come to the conclusion that it was better to wait and see how using turned out for them before I joined in. That decision was profoundly informative. My high school friends personal and professional trajectories have been severely hobbled. I don…

Indeed, I succumbed to the habit as a teenager, when I was indoctrinated by full time users who were also my peers who abused my physically in pre teen years. Upon starting marijuana usage with these peers, they saw that I reacted to the substance and proceeded to abuse me psychologically. This planted the seeds necessary to catalyze a lifetime of delusion and exploration of waste and dipping my toes into counter culture. Now almost entirely alone and disconnected from any meaningful social roots, and suicidal much of the way, I’ve long since disconnected from such malicious people.

The group of friends from high school who didn’t use marijuana ostracized me by 18 and I stopped being alive since then. Now I’m in my 40’s and have been preparing for suicide with increasing inevitability since starting weed. I “gave up” on a fulfilled life as a teenager and have coasted my way to an inevitable suicide as a “stoner”.

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#125

Post by newsreview1 »

nenadg wrote: post #45

I smoked weed heavily from my ~16 to ~18. And I stopped because it was so overwhelming experience that I could not stand any more. I couldn't function normally and had really tough trips, thinking about so many end results in the same time. Minutes took hours and basically it was an agony, while everybody had pretty joyful time laughing. Now, I'm 38. I'm functional (so far), I have family with kids. I haven't develop…

I appreciate this honest statement. I work daily with individuals with mental disabilities including psychosis, memory dysfunction, and perceptional disturbances, and can certainly agree from what I have subjectively seen. (Though also longitudinally as I have viewed medical records extensively over years and years of research). I have witnessed secondhand that higher doses and earlier use of THC are more likely to produce anxiety, agitation, paranoia, and psychosis. Dr. Volkow's research at footnote 8 of this statement is spot on, and your comment seems to support his findings.

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#126

Post by teh_infallible »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #123
djsumdog wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In ever US state where it is legal (Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Alaska, Mass., and 2020 Illinois and Michigan) I think the minimum age is 21. Sure people underage can get it, but there is an attempt being made to limit it to people at least 21. I knew parents who let their teenagers know they used it, but also told them they didn't want their kids using it until they were at least 18 (but if they wanted…

> In ever US state where it is legal I'm assuming you know that marijuana remains illegal due to (a) federal law and (b) the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. I mean this with complete sincerity and genuine curiosity: Why did you choose wording that suggests the activity is wholly legal in those states?

Because you can walk into a store and buy it?

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#127

Post by boomboomsubban »

umvi wrote: post #67
djsumdog wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as a result developed schizophrenia I'm sorry about your brother, but I want to point out this is anecdotal. Can cannibals lead to psychosis in people who are prone to it genetically, or are people who start experiencing delusions, bipolar and schizo-effective conditions just likely to escape using alcohol and marijuana? The exact cause/effect conditions here are a big unknown.

Can we stop with the downplaying when it comes to drugs? Drugs should be guilty until proven innocent. Comments like these attempt to make them innocent until proven guilty. History has shown that there are very few "safe" recreational drugs. This attitude is one of the reasons it was so hard for public opinion to change on tobacco usage. "My mom died of cancer from smoking tobacco" "Sorry about your mom, but I want…

>This attitude is one of the reasons it was so hard for public opinion to change on tobacco usage.

With tobacco use, there was a huge amount if money spent selling the public on the idea that it wasn't dangerous. In contrast, there has been a large amount of money spent selling the idea that marijuana is incredibly dangerous. More accurate conversations would be

"My mom died of lung cancer"

"I'm sorry to hear that, would you like one if my doctor recommended cigarettes? Marlboro published a study saying smoking helps grieving people with no side effects."

Compared to

"My mother has schizophrenia"

"It's her fault for smoking marijuana. At least they locked up your father for selling it."

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#128

Post by liability »

emsy wrote: post #78
djsumdog wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In ever US state where it is legal (Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Alaska, Mass., and 2020 Illinois and Michigan) I think the minimum age is 21. Sure people underage can get it, but there is an attempt being made to limit it to people at least 21. I knew parents who let their teenagers know they used it, but also told them they didn't want their kids using it until they were at least 18 (but if they wanted…

>Sure people underage can get it, but there is an attempt being made to limit it to people at least 21. This is actually an argument for legalization. Who would you rather snitch on if you got caught with weed as an underage teen: your dispensary employee/friend or your street dealer?

My weed dealer when I was in highschool was a jackass wannabe-surfer (never saw the ocean) whom I didn't particularly like, but was totally harmless. I'd much rather betray him than a friend. I know it happens sometimes, but the stereotype that weed dealers are/were often violent criminals is a bit silly. I'm sure if you were buying in bulk from organized crime things could easily get dicy, but a teenager buying a dimebag from some dude? Probably not much risk there...

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#129

Post by umvi »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #116
umvi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Legalizing it will drastically mitigate the ability for minors to get a hold of any I can't tell if you are joking or not (sorry). But I simply don't believe this. Why would legalizing it make it harder for minors to get ahold of it?

When one is underage, it is easier to get illegal drugs than legal ones. The legality makes different sorts of barriers and different sorts of penalties for selling to a minor. I'm not sure it mattered if you were (are) selling pot to a 18 year old rather than a 30 year old - you were still selling pot. You would get in trouble for giving an 18 year old alcohol, though, but not the 30 year old. And a bunch of things…

On the other hand if you were a minor that wanted to use illegal drugs, you had to have the right friends/contacts to know where make illegal purchases.

Legality makes it so that now everyone knows where to buy it (at any store) and now minors just experiment a few times until they find a lax vendor just like they do with Juuls. After all, minors are not penalized for merely attempting to buy something.

And, like I put in my other comment, it doesn't really matter if the barrier for minors buying drugs is higher if the act of legalization increases the number of minors attempting to buy the drug by an astronomical factor.

Re: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain

#130

Post by wyclif »

nostrademons wrote: post #69
bregma wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think a publication from a place with a URL 'drugabuse.gov' is going to be a reliable source of unbiased information?

It's a division of the NIH and the article cites a peer-reviewed paper in Biological Psychiatry , so yes, I do think that this is a reliable source of unbiased information. The original study carefully describes its methodology (which is as sound as any neuroscience paper I've read), and was done in London, so you can't argue that the researchers are biased by American government attitudes toward drugs: http://www.my…

Every country, city, and government has a bias and an attitude toward drugs, including London. I hope you're not suggesting (perhaps you improperly worded your comment) that the US government is biased toward drugs but English government is not biased at all and is completely neutral scientifically. If that's what you meant, I think it's specious.
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