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I know there are many people out there that are very passionate about marijuana. I don't use marijuana so I cannot confirm all the good things I've heard.
In the early 1900s there was this thing called "reefer madness" that scared the public and obviously pushed the narrative about the negative side effects of marijuana. Fast forward to the present, pot seems everywhere along with cannabis shops.
Now I understand there is recent research that suggests that smoking high-potency marijuana every day could increase the chances of developing psychosis by nearly five times compared to people who have never used marijuana. I have seen this issue with heavy users so I do agree that heavy use does cause some madness. If heavy users continue the mental health field will be busting with new customers.
Due to historic bans, there has not been significant research into the downsides of marijuana ingestion. I think we can safely assume that the marijuana industry will follow the same trajectory as the alcohol and tobacco industry. Eventually the sexiness of being a formerly-banned substance will wear off, long-term studies will uncover that it promotes cancers, damages brain health, and probably has a whole host of other negative effects. Class-action lawsuits against the industry will be prosecuted, PSA's will be issued, and the situation will stabilize with some people choosing to overindulge while most will limit their intake or eschew it altogether.
Alcohol is poisonous and carcinogenic. Tobacco and associated materials are toxic carcinogens. Marijuana is probably also toxic and carcinogenic, with the added "benefit" of more easily causing psychosis and possibly brain damage.
The movie Reefer Madness was in 1936, not the early 1900s. There's a Wikipedia page explaining the movie.
The timing of the movie, just three years after alcohol prohibition ended, gives rise to a theory that the movie was backed by big alcohol interests who wanted to crush any competition to their product.
There is strong evidence that reefer madness played on the racism of Harry Anslinger who was the head of the Federal Narcotics Agency. The link is must reading for those who seek the truth. Here is what Anslinger is quoted as saying: “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men. The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
Excerpt: "The truth is, cannabis was criminalized largely because one man felt it threatened a rigid, racially-stratified social order that kept him and his associates at the very top. The unredacted history behind modern-day marijuana prohibition involves warring WASPs, discredited doctors, Louis Armstrong, the 21st amendment, and good, old-fashioned state-sponsored propaganda. But mostly it’s about Harry Anslinger—a powerful mid-century bureaucrat whose racism, professional anxieties, and all-consuming hatred of jazz (seriously!) fueled the beginning of our country’s anti-cannabis crusade."
Anslinger went on to add Hispanics into his mix of racism: “I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigarette can do to our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That’s why our problem is so great, the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low mentally.”
Not sure where I read it, years ago, that some plantation owners let their slaves smoke weed to keep them docile. Certainly plausible.
Very plausible is that our Congress, nearly a total while male group in mid-century, was easily bought off by alcohol interests who prodded the government to outlaw marijuana. (I see Ginni Thomas clutching her pearls in horror at the thought, the very thought, that our politics might be corrupt.)
Here are two more quotes from Anslinger, bespeaking a pitiful level of racist thinking:
“Coloreds with big lips lure white women with jazz and marijuana.”
“Their satanic music is driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white women makes them want to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and others.”
But wait! There's more. Here's legendary newspaperman H. L. Mencken on politics:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
All of the Mencken quotes are worth reading, to put our current politics into perspective.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 07-20-2022 at 12:15 PM..
Years ago, like back in second grade, I met this guy who was mentally "off". Some claimed he was prone to violence, he didn't conform to then popular academic standards, so he was "held back" several years, and pigeon holed into the "special Ed" classes that focused more on making the student a serviceable member of society than intellectual development.
I lost track of him for several years, and then only several years later after my becoming a "stoner" I just ran into the same crowd he ran with.
Half a dozen years later, he got shot, and died. And even decades later when I'd run into people who had known us both, they'd lament about what a shame it was, the way the drugs had ruined him.
And I'd be like "Are you serious? I knew so and so when he was in the second grade, and he was compromised WAY before drugs"
And it was true. People, I feel, are prone to exploiting the "evil drug genie" as a tool to look down on people. And I wonder if the study originally linked to by the OP might have a tad of similar bias? We are by our very nature vain creatures, only too happy to seize any opportunity to play the "I'm BETTER than you are" game.
When I was a young stoner, I was an advocate for legalization. But not so much, anymore. I no longer use the stuff. And the way I see it, alcohol already is a blight on our society, we really don't need to hang another weight around our collective necks, by legalizing MJ.
If someone using the stuff can't manage their affairs well enough to stay out of trouble, then perhaps the prohibition laws are doing them a favor?
I don't know...the way I see it, practically everyone has a 'defect' if you will. People seek ways to medicate themselves.
I'm all for legalization. If the substance is legal, there's profit, one way or another, in studying and in treatment for these addictions.
Not everyone gets addicted to substances, but it seems like if you get down to the science of it, and the actual education of it, it's best for everyone all the way around.
Mike, I wrote several college papers on the elaborate shenanigans that caused cannabis prohibition. Hearst and DuPont were also involved, but it seems their main aims were to make sure that industrial hemp was quashed because it is a serious competitor to both Hearst's timber industry and DuPont's new synthetic materials at the time.
So in other words, big money, and racist propaganda, led to cannabis being made illegal. Politically I very strongly believe that it should be decriminalized. I don't think it's worse than alcohol in a lot of ways, and I also don't believe that people should be in jail over it. The war on drugs has been the biggest and most horrifying exploit of the loophole on the slavery prohibition amendment imaginable.
However.
That does not mean that I am all in favor of cannabis use, nor that I think it's groovy groovy good medicine with no possible drawbacks. I have seen lives ruined by daily use. Those who enjoy cannabis will deny it 'till the cows come home, but there are in a LOT of cases, bad effects on people from long term habitual use. I think that we need some good, solid, scientific study, to really establish quite firmly the pros and cons.
In the meantime, I feel like I was promised a glorious future of sustainable hemp fields, with products from fuel to "hempcrete" building materials to salad dressing being made from this stuff, and I would like to know where is the environmentally friendly miracle crop that we were told so much about?? Did everyone get so distracted celebrating the freedom to get high, that we skipped right over that?
I am also another one who used to smoke a lot of weed as a teenager, but I have not in a long time. And as I often say, I don't miss it. I don't want it. The one time I tried the exciting new legal weed, it was so intense it made me throw up. I'm quite fine without it being part of my life. What I do miss sometimes, is psychedelics like LSD, and I think that we're seeing some push to legalize at least shrooms, which is interesting. I think that it would be good if there were controlled environments where people could go experience psychedelics but that people shouldn't be just wandering around tripping.
But I have seen ads for psychiatric clinics promoting a very expensive course of ketamine as a therapy. I found that a little alarming...I have the impression that ketamine is a lot more dangerous than LSD or mushrooms, but I don't know if that's correct.
Mike, I wrote several college papers on the elaborate shenanigans that caused cannabis prohibition. Hearst and DuPont were also involved, but it seems their main aims were to make sure that industrial hemp was quashed because it is a serious competitor to both Hearst's timber industry and DuPont's new synthetic materials at the time.
So in other words, big money, and racist propaganda, led to cannabis being made illegal. Politically I very strongly believe that it should be decriminalized. I don't think it's worse than alcohol in a lot of ways, and I also don't believe that people should be in jail over it. The war on drugs has been the biggest and most horrifying exploit of the loophole on the slavery prohibition amendment imaginable.
However.
That does not mean that I am all in favor of cannabis use, nor that I think it's groovy groovy good medicine with no possible drawbacks. I have seen lives ruined by daily use. Those who enjoy cannabis will deny it 'till the cows come home, but there are in a LOT of cases, bad effects on people from long term habitual use. I think that we need some good, solid, scientific study, to really establish quite firmly the pros and cons.
In the meantime, I feel like I was promised a glorious future of sustainable hemp fields, with products from fuel to "hempcrete" building materials to salad dressing being made from this stuff, and I would like to know where is the environmentally friendly miracle crop that we were told so much about?? Did everyone get so distracted celebrating the freedom to get high, that we skipped right over that?
I am also another one who used to smoke a lot of weed as a teenager, but I have not in a long time. And as I often say, I don't miss it. I don't want it. The one time I tried the exciting new legal weed, it was so intense it made me throw up. I'm quite fine without it being part of my life. What I do miss sometimes, is psychedelics like LSD, and I think that we're seeing some push to legalize at least shrooms, which is interesting. I think that it would be good if there were controlled environments where people could go experience psychedelics but that people shouldn't be just wandering around tripping.
But I have seen ads for psychiatric clinics promoting a very expensive course of ketamine as a therapy. I found that a little alarming...I have the impression that ketamine is a lot more dangerous than LSD or mushrooms, but I don't know if that's correct.
Never, EVER have LSD laced sweet tea before the family BBQ.
Just a bit of levity before I comment. I know, I know not really allowed in the forum....
I'm in the same camp as you, almost like we may have been teenage neighbors! I smoked a lot of weed and know a lot of people that still do. I also know a few that it literally wrecked their lives. However the same can be said for alcohol. There are going to be some people that simply cannot or should not imbibe on certain things. I would love to see mushrooms legalized. Some of the best experiences I had were on mushrooms- again the right place, right time and right people it is amazing. Camping on Assateague Island NP was an incredible, incredible time. But again- it's something that not all people should do, but it is a shame that people that can responsibly enjoy it can't.
I think the study simply illustrates to a certain degree the same sorts of impacts alcohol and alcohol addiction rates have. Some people will become addicted, some people will have short term ill effects and some people it will likely kill them. In any event- criminalization doesn't really help, at least in my opinion.
Last edited by Threerun; 07-20-2022 at 02:47 PM..
Reason: auto correct error
Never, EVER have LSD laced sweet tea before the family BBQ.
Just a bit of levity before I comment. I know, I know not really allowed in the forum....
I'm in the same camp as you, almost like we may have been teenage neighbors! I smoked a lot of weed and know a lot of people that still do. I also know a few that it literally wrecked their lives. However the same can be said for alcohol. There are going to be some people that simply cannot or should not imbibe on certain things. I would love to see mushrooms legalized. Some of the best experiences I had were on mushrooms- again the right place, right time and right people it is amazing. Camping on Assateague Island NP was an incredible, incredible time. But again- it's something that not all people should do, but it is a shame that people that can responsibly enjoy it can't.
I think the study simply illustrates to a certain degree the same sorts of impacts alcohol and alcohol addiction rates have. Some people will become addicted, some people will have short term ill effects and some people it will likely kill them. In any event- criminalization doesn't really help, at least in my opinion.
I appreciate your levity...imagine I looked a lot like that on acid. I sure felt that way, all big eyes taking in everything! heh...
Yeah, like for me one of the worse long term frequent use patterns that I see with cannabis is when people just pretty much stop caring about things they really need to care about. It seems to inhibit the part of the brain that understands, "If I don't do something about this situation, it will result in a very bad consequence, so I will make my choices accordingly..." This might mean general laziness and lack of motivation and effort, or in the case of a former partner of mine, spouting off at the mouth a whole lot of things he really shouldn't have at work, and getting fired. He wasn't stupid. He knew better. He just didn't care. The idea of consequences had no real meaning for him.
So that brings me to who I think is the most ideal candidate in the world to use cannabis, which I think would be someone who is disabled, especially with a painful and chronic health condition, or terminally ill. Because for real, someone who is dying of cancer, I'm ready to totally cut them a break on wanting to just...not care about stuff.
But I'm also talking about those who used it every day to a point where they don't seem to get "high" anymore. You can't even tell when they are under the influence. They are "medicating"...but it's not good medicine.
Alcohol, in my book, has more immediate and obviously catastrophic possible consequences. The loss of judgment while drunk is more pronounced. People getting into fights and sexual situations that they never would while sober, for instance, and that they regret when they sober up. Drunk driving is more common, I think, than stoned driving, and probably still causes more accidents even in states with legal weed. But a lot of people can drink in moderation. I honestly don't know how many people (despite claims) use cannabis in moderation and with no negative effects, though I have certainly known some. Needs more study.
(I used to live near Assateague, in a town called Temperanceville of all things...but that was a looong time ago!)
Mary Jane was way more popular in the 60s and 70s in the "hippie" days. I used it regularly, some times every day, and hash too until the early 2000's cause I couldn't find another dealer. Now MJ is legal in my country and we can grow it too. I can't smoke it because it's way way stronger now, has more THC in it than I can handle, plus it is very expensive compared to when I was smoking it. Plus I'm nearly 70 years old.
I am enjoying the other posters and their experiences. It's awesome.
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