Should I smoke pot?

Quote: Wizard

I have a friend who sent to San Diego University (a Catholic college) and he said the same thing.

For every person like that I can find 20
who are useless because of the drug.
It's a wicked fooler for more people than
not. I really don't care, if a person wants
to wants to make themselves stupid on
purpose, who am I to stand in their way.
There are worse things..

Quote: Evenbob

For every person like that I can find 20
who are useless because of the drug.
It's a wicked fooler for more people than
not. I really don't care, if a person wants
to wants to make themselves stupid on
purpose, who am I to stand in their way.
There are worse things..

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

Quote: Wizard

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

I've never heard one person say they wrote
their best selling books while smoking pot
every day while they wrote. You do that and
more often than not you'll just write gibberish
or stare at the blank white page while
your mind does more important things,
like trying to figure out how a bird flies.

Yet many world famous authors wrote all
the time while drinking alcohol, the evil
drug.

I had a boss once who smoked pot - everybody knew it, including his progressive-thinking superior who had hired him. It really did not affect his work, but ...

He would sometimes come up with crazy schemes that he would have to abandon later, this always taking a few days.

A wise co-worker commented after one particularly dumb idea went by the boards, that this was not unusual with the pot smokers. He explained that when a boozer overindulges and gets goofy ideas, by the time he sobers up next morning he goes "wow, that was some crazy stuff, shows how I get silly when I'm drinking" and gets back to work, stupid ideas abandoned.

The pot smoker, though, said he, woke up the next morning going "wow that was some good stuff and I never would have had these great ideas without smoking that good grass. I'm going ahead with that stuff today and I'll wow everybody with my ideas" and blunders ahead.

Tell you what, it seemed to explain what we were going through.

Quote: Wizard

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

True, but a common thread here seems to be that while pot might not hurt you, it really doesn't help much if at all.

What I see medicinally is that pot does two things. It gives people who are really weak on chemo or similar reactions an appetite which gets food and nutrition in them. The second is that it doesn't relieve pain but rather puts a person in an overall haze, taking their mind off the situation and relaxing them.

The danger is too many people enjoy the "haze" too often. They let it take over their lives and become unproductive.

The rest is scenery.

Quote: AZDuffman

The danger is too many people enjoy the "haze" too often. They let it take over their lives and become unproductive.

I don't disagree with that. I do take issue with the notion that marijuana makes people stupid, which I interpret to mean in a permanent way. It also may be that lazy people are attracted to marijuana in the first place.

Quote: Wizard

I don't disagree with that. I do take issue with the notion that marijuana makes people stupid, which I interpret to mean in a permanent way. .

It makes people stupid in a temporary way, I did
it for a year, I know. It seems to 'dunce you down'
so ordinary things things seem complicated and
hard. So I never did it any place where I knew I
wasn't safe, and would have to make crucial decisions.
Like at work.

And the having great ideas thing while high is
legendary. I would write down a super idea while
high and the next day wonder what idiot wrote
it down. Weed seems to sever the logical and
reasoning part of your brain from the functioning
part. And we call it getting 'high'. I have much
better ideas after a few drinks, have even had a
few eureka moments.

Quote: Evenbob

It makes people stupid in a temporary way, I did
it for a year, I know. It seems to 'dunce you down'
so ordinary things things seem complicated and
hard.

I'd say that is what it is supposed to do. For example, in my younger days, when my buddies and I went to Vegas or Laughlin we would also smoke out heavily before leaving to kill the boredom of the drive.

I knew several people who smoked it to kill the boredom of high school. However, not much became of any of them, as I look back 30 years later.

Quote: Wizard

I knew several people who smoked it to kill the boredom of high school. However, not much became of any of them, as I look back 30 years later.

If they still do it today, I guarantee they think
they're doing great. If I had to choose, I'd
take smoking opium any day, even though
it's addictive. There's no other high like it,
the would seems wonderful and you feel
fantastic. I can only imagine what heroin
does to you.

Quote: Wizard

I don't disagree with that. I do take issue with the notion that marijuana makes people stupid, which I interpret to mean in a permanent way. It also may be that lazy people are attracted to marijuana in the first place.

I think you are interpreting it in ways we are not intending. I can't speak for EB, et al, but my position is that it makes habitual users slow down. Having a conversation with them is like when I used to talk to guys in Iraq before they improved the phone system, there is this delay in their being able to hear what I said and reply. As if you are using an old computer to run a memory intensive file. The RAM in their head fills up, processes, and has to be cleared before the next thought.

There is the "stoner stereotype" but as I say, stereotypes start with a basis in reality, otherwise they would not start. I never thought much of it before, but I think there is much to whomever said (sorry, I forget) that the stuff builds in your system and slows you after the high wears off. That is why the guy I knew dropped a stats class (your field, sorry but that was the class!) he had an "A" in because it was simply too far to walk. That's why the stoner gets the joke and laughs 5 seconds later. IMHO of course.

It all being said, i do say go ahead and decriminalize. I'll be the first to put in a few plants and then look for someone who knows the business to move the product. I will grow a good, unadulterated product so Mr White Collar knows he does not get crap sprayed with meth or angel dust. I'd be the grower who never touches the stuff, living under the radar and driving the nice but 5 year old car.

Live free and let live.