Can someone please remind me the negative side of marijuana?

Uncle Leo wrote:

Good post. And I agree 100%--legalization would save lives, open up space in jails and maybe even bring in some nice "sin" tax revenue. And it's not like I (a marijuana virgin) would ever have to smell it. They'd be pretty strict with the law as far as where you can smoke it.

But the point being made is that until marijuana is legalized that the drug may not be that harmful the industry is. And by using marijuana you are financially supporting both a harmful industry and organized crime. Just about every pot user I know conveniently forgets this fact when talking about marijuana use.

surferdude wrote:

But the point being made is that until marijuana is legalized that the drug may not be that harmful the industry is. And by using marijuana you are financially supporting both a harmful industry and organized crime. Just about every pot user I know conveniently forgets this fact when talking about marijuana use.

The same way every drug warrior conveniently forgets that prohibition places the regulation of illegal drugs in the hands of criminal enterprises, rather than with the government or local communities.

angelica wrote:

Substance abuse has far reaching ramifications. The humanity that is numbed and minimized by substances is vast.

Does this include psychotropics?

surferdude wrote:

The big downside to marijuana use is you are contributing to organized crime. Where I live there are routinely drive by shootings of grow-op houses, there are routinely heavily armed break and enters of grow-ops. This would not be so bad if the grow-ops weren't in residential areas, the idiots with the guns always got the right house and it wasn't contributing to organized crime.

Much of the negative side to marijuana use would be addressed by leaglizing it but until then in using marijuana yuo are fully supporting and funding the above activities.

True.

Any pot user could plant his own plant for personal use, that way they're not contributing to organized crime.

angelica wrote:

Substance abuse has far reaching ramifications. The humanity that is numbed and minimized by substances is vast.

so whose to say its a bad thing to be numbed.....or a bad thing to just sit around......the ole protestant work ethic is over rated.

Derrick wrote:

...I'm always forgetting what the fuss is.

:-)

Short term memory loss..


It stinks. I don't have a moral objection to people smoking dope, but man that shit stinks!!! Nearly makes me throw up.

callen wrote:

so whose to say its a bad thing to be numbed.....or a bad thing to just sit around......the ole protestant work ethic is over rated.

When people are harming themselves, it speaks for itself. By this I mean when people are maladapted to their problems and creating fallout in their lives due to such maladaption, because they don't know how to adapt in healthy ways, it's self-evident. It's evolutionarily retarded.

I fully agree the work ethic is over-rated. I'm talking about something very different. I'm talking about humans hurting themselves by stifling their inner pain and traumas which is what substance abuse is about. When we compare the reality of stifling human potential in order to paralyze human potential, compared to resolving problems, healing and progressing, it's pretty clear where self-sabotage of maladaptive choice falls of the scale. One perpetuates their dysfunctional cycles. One cannot solve their problems with substance abuse, any more than one can solve being hungry with watching TV. And it affects all the people around the substance abuser in far-reaching ways.

gue_barium wrote:

"Gateway drug" refers to a said drug's propensity in leading to another, more harmful or addictive drug. It isn't a reference to the tolerance one develops to alcohol or anything else.

I think booze is not necessarily exempt from that scenario.

PJPOWER wrote:

I'm sorry, I have a hard time believing that weed just opens to doors to cocaine or heroin or meth................cigarettes and pain killers and diet pills seem to be the culprit in those addictions in many more cases than marijuana. Mose marijuana smokers prefer marijuana, not "harder drugs". It could be said that the same mindset that cause a person to smoke weed may be similar to the mindset that caused someone to try something harder................."gateway drug" is a pretty stupid term. Anything that caused a person to come in contact or seek out a hard drug could be considered a gateway drug, so then why is marijuana always the culprit.......................it's not like we're teaching uneducated children that or anything, lol

weed....not addictive...has strong (legitimate) medicinal value...100% illegal...

cigarettes...more addictive than heroin...zero beneficial qualities...100% legal...

government and politicians...sometimes beneficial ....100% assholes...

Makes want to light up a nice tar filled cancer puff...mmm...extra stinky...

Ahnimus wrote:

Um... I have a greater article on the problems of folk psychology and why reduction to neuroscience provides a much greater understanding of so-called "psychological problems". Perhaps you'd be interested in reading it. But never-the-less, I did say that habituation is a problem, however, that is a moot point when the drug is being used for medicinal purposes where another drug with equal habituating side-effects will occur in it's place.

The problem comes in when medications are masking symptoms and the actual causes beneath the surface. Substance abuse by its very nature is different than legitimate problem solving including pain management.

The key is in releasing/solving the actual causes to problems, thusly problem solving. I would still be taking numerous psychiatric medications if I was interested in continuing to mask symptoms. Instead, I chose healing and recovery, and I practice prevention as well.

Maladaptation, like taking medication, suits a very distinct purpose of adaptation, which is why we continue to use such methods to cope with our problems. Maladaptation is easily recognized by the fallout it contains. Whereas actual adaptation is recognized by the clarity and resolution of fallout. Unfortunately, with the general state of our evolution at this time, it's the social norm in the western world to mask symptoms and deny, cut out and demonize them. To our own detriment as a people. We don't accept them, learn from them and resolve them on the whole.

As we gradually awaken and recognize that we are accepting, creating, and coping with issues that lead to our illnesses, disorders and imbalances, we'll begin to seek to not cope with our problems, but to resolve them. We will then experience nearly unimaginable health, vitality and energy, right up into our old age, and to death.