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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

#291

Post by spraak »

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…

It saved the life of woman I know during pregnancy, quite literally. She has recurrent hyperemesis gravidarum. Which is nausea and vomiting in pregnancy so persistent and strong that some mothers resort to abortion due to the pain and suffering. She was in the hospital begging for her life while the doctors were unable to help. None of the standard treatments worked for her. She had lost over 20% of her pre pregnancy weight and hadn't eaten in weeks, surviving off her own dwindling body fat and a banana bag. (I can't overstate how agonizing it is. If you're skeptical, there are plenty of mothers accounts to read) She was discharged for the fourth time, where every previous time she became so dehydrated from the lack of IV fluids that she was re admitted within a day. Finally, encouraged by other mothers success with it, she tried medical cannabis. Slowly she could actually drink water, then a day later sip some juice, another day tiny bites of crackers. She still vomited, and was still nauseous, but less intensely and could push through it more easily. She could finally eat. The baby was born vaginally, no complications and no health issues (and still so, years later).

It's just one data point, but worth looking into further.

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

#292

Post by 11235813213455 »

numakerg wrote: post #5

> Edible marijuana takes time to absorb and to produce its effects, increasing the risk of unintentional overdose No citation for this. Do they mean a larger than intended dose or a dose that results in a serious toxic reaction or death? Better source: Median lethal THC dose for a 70kg human estimated to be 4g [0], which is slightly over 1300 full joints (at 3mg per joint) [0]. I won't link them here, but a cursory w…

It's at least much more respectful in terms of passive smoking, for other people

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

#293

Post by bregma »

buttcoinslol wrote: post #145
bregma wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the fallacy of correlation-is-causation muddies the water here. Does self-medication cause incipient psychoses to fully manifest, or do those with incipient psychoses resort to self-medication in early stages in seeking to treat their symptoms? Fortunately, it's still illegal to even study these things in America so we can comfortably resort to what we have faith in without the scourge of proof. This go…

I personally think it's the latter. There are estimates that 60-90% of schizophrenics smoke cigarettes, which is 2-3x the normal smoking rate. I think schizophrenics are more likely to smoke marijuana around the time the disease begins to manifest. It's a lot easier to look at your child/brother/uncle/whatever and say "weed did this to him, it's all weed's fault" vs "the disease presented concurrent with a time perio…

I'm just not convinced we have adequate information to formulate an educated opinion either way. More, better, validated research would help, but like nutrition and much in medecine, the nature of the problem precludes ever gaining a rigourous scientifically robust result.

Not only that, I lack the confidence we as a society can make adequate decisions on restrictions to freedoms based on the sorts of numbers and correlations that are currently being published. Does the expected reduction in harm justify the restrictions of personal freedoms imposed in its name? Does it help more than, say, banning high school sports would?

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

#294

Post by yhoneycomb »

cma wrote: post #160
yhoneycomb wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not even anecdotal. The relative risk for developing schizophrenia for cannabis smokers vs non cannabis smokers is 2.3. This means that you are 2.3 times more likely to develop schizophrenia if you smoke cannabis. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988731/ With that said, I think it should be legal. I just think people shouldn’t downplay the risks.

> This means that you are 2.3 times more likely to develop schizophrenia if you smoke cannabis. Unless unless causation goes wholly or partially the opposite way (more likely to smoke cannabis if you are already predisposed to schizophrenia).

That's a huge stretch, but whatever.

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

#295

Post by TomMarius »

jotm wrote: post #282
strlen wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t ride a bike: first motor and response times are impacted, second (at least in California) you absolutely can get a DUI on a bicycle.

People drive high. I can't believe how many times I've heard "I can drive just fine, it's not like alcohol". Cannabis changes my perception of time and significantly affects my attention. I would never drive in that state, or even cross the street, I'm sure I'd get hit by a car... I don't think other people are that different.

Chronic weed usage changes the way you're high. The time distortion nearly goes away and you can control your attention pretty well. I'm not endorsing driving high of course.

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

#296

Post by dijksterhuis »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #241
xena wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis addiction is a bitch. It also is really tough to get off of. If you use too much too often, you can get crazy sweats, horrifying nightmares (that are more real than being awake), irritability and headaches that make you want to relapse. The worst part about cannabis addiction is it's mostly psychological.

Cannabis addiction, if that even exists, isn’t a bitch at all. Nicotine addiction is kind of a bitch. Opiate addiction is a bitch.

I’m in recovery for drug and alcohol abuse and spent a lot of time with other recovering drug addicts. None of us look down on stoners as “having it easy”.

Addiction and the destruction it can bring to a person’s life is universal. The choice of drug is irrelevant.

The (elevator pitch) point behind addiction is that I, as an addict, have avoided reality by using, rather than actually facing reality as it is.

Paying my bills? F*ck that, I’m rolling a spliff. etc. etc.

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

#297

Post by dkersten »

chris_wot wrote: post #227
DenisM wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not say neither is true, I said neither can claim to be true. The logic here is perfectly sound: If there was only one possible reading of the facts then that reading could be considered the truth. If there are two equally reasonable readings neither can be deemed to be the truth, and further investigation is required to clarify the matter.

So what you are saying is that one could claim to be true based on future investigation. In actual fact you are saying that you do not know which is true based on the limited information presented, not that neither can claim to be true. In fact, one could be true based on enough evidence. Your claim of reasonableness is a red herring - it could be that one interpretation may seem reasonable but on further investigati…

There is not enough evidence to know which of the claims is true: either one or neither could be. But both claims are as valid as each other in that the observations are true (but correlation != causation applies: both claims show a correlation, there is not enough evidence of whether either of them show causation)

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

#298

Post by dkersten »

sharadov wrote: post #184
graphememes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's profoundly sad. But I don't blame the drug, people need to figure out boundaries.

One thing to note is that most weed strains now are very high in THC and low in CBD. Naturally, they were much more balanced and I think high-THC might be part of the problem and consuming more balanced (and lower percentage) strains may be much better. Anecdotally, I definitely find that higher less balanced strains give me more of a brain fog than weaker more balanced strains (less balanced strains but taking CBD pills separately to balance it out even works too).

I mean, heavy use either way may be bad and boundaries are important with anything (weed, beer, chocolate, etc), but smoking the strongest stuff may be extra bad.

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

#299

Post by dkersten »

TomMarius wrote: post #295
jotm wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People drive high. I can't believe how many times I've heard "I can drive just fine, it's not like alcohol". Cannabis changes my perception of time and significantly affects my attention. I would never drive in that state, or even cross the street, I'm sure I'd get hit by a car... I don't think other people are that different.

Chronic weed usage changes the way you're high. The time distortion nearly goes away and you can control your attention pretty well. I'm not endorsing driving high of course.

From watching chronic weed smoking friends... I do not believe this. If anything, they're much worse and much scarier more dangerous while driving. They definitely should not ever drive high.

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

#300

Post by dijksterhuis »

0000011111 wrote: post #180

If we compare the effects of Marijuana on people to those of alcohol and or Oxycodone, I think it is clear to most that the latter two are more destructive. I agree more research is needed on the effects of Marijuana use on people in general. And we need to keep the risk factors in perspective. Many more people will die, hurt others and become addicted to alcohol and or Oxycodone than marijuana. So put that beer down…

As someone who is in recovery for drug and alcohol abuse, my own experience disagrees.

Given any choice of substances, I’ll run wild with them.

I can successfully self destruct no matter what the substance. Harming not just myself, but everyone around me as I go.

From a risk assessment standpoint, yes, marijuana has lower physical impacts (you’re not going to seize from withdrawals afaik).

However, the psychological impacts are different to alcohol. Alcohol encourages “release” of emotions. Marijuana closes everything off.

Furthermore, the impact I have on society can be damaging with both, but in different ways.

So, in my own experience, put down both.

It’s a hop, skip and a jump from one heavy night to picking up the beer/spliffs again.

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