I think I know what you are getting at here, and I agree. I think the benefits of some drugs is simply showing a state of mind that’s available to us all the time, but we normally won’t stumble across.
As a performer, I use inderol for nerves. But I never tried it until I was 26. Before that, going on stage was always a hellish jumble of fighting my own body and brain. Inderol showed me what it was like and that it was possible to be onstage with a calm body instead of devoting 98% of my brainpower to not panicking and usually failing anyway. That was simply a revelation that I had never experienced that had benefits outside actually using the drug. Similarly, marijuana gave me states of mind that I can later draw on, the way you describe.
(I don’t want to sound to clinical though. Of course, I enjoy it using it for pleasure anyway, because it’s fun!)
I respectfully suggest your experience with people who use cannabis is anecdotal and not broadly representative. I could give very nearly the opposite anecdotal assessment of cannabis users I know, both recreational and medical.
You’re of course free to dislike it, but I’m glad you still seem to agree that the effects of prohibition have been far and away more damaging to communities and society as a whole than the effects of regulated legalization. Three strikes laws alone have ruined more lives and cost us more wasted taxes than excessive stoners ever could, and that’s just one of wide array of harmful consequences for the US and the world.
The only way cannabis is dangerous in Amsterdam is due to the narrow roads and large canals. It is easy for someone a little tipsy to risk falling in. But the same goes for anyone drinking the cheap (by Western European standards) beer.
I agree completely with that. The war on drugs has in general been a failure and a sham, but the prohibition of cannabis has always been particularly absurd. I don’t support prohibition in any way.
Very glad. And hey, to each their own. If you’re not a fan, that’s entirely your prerogative. More for us.
One other thing you mentioned, yup, Big Pot is a looming problem for cannabis users. But it’s one born of the flaws in our way of capitalism rather than anything inherent in weed itself. And of course many of us cannabis enthusiasts have been critical of Big Pot when it’s been the subject of Boing Boing posts.
I’m still gob-smacked at the idea that with all the unsustainable destructive, antisocial, and downright inhumane shit going on in the world right now, it’s cannabis use that’s having a ‘catastrophic’ effect on communities at large.
How… inspiring. This is the thing that keeps me from being giddy about legalization rather than merely happy. God forbid they simply remove it from the list of Forbidden Things. You now free to obey. That that’s the best we can hope for is depressing as hell.
That’s one drawback with Mujica’s legalization in Uruguay as well: You have to register and can only buy limited quantities which would enable the government to target users for “education”.
It’s also legal to grow a small amount of plants and have grower’s clubs (which are also registered), but it’s not like just going to the store or a bar and grab a beer. In practice, what this most of all would mean is, I guess, that the illegal market is still there. It would be interesting to see, but I’ve never been to Uruguay. Pero sé que lo adoraría.
Even Buddhist monks drink tea. The Dalai Lama has a favorite candy. Monkeys seek out hallucinogenic plants.
Nobody needs these things, but variety is the spice of life. New sensory experiences, new perceptions, new ways of thought - these things all make life more interesting.
You’re absolutely right that nobody needs cannabis. The brains opioid receptors are also triggered by naturally occurring processes as basic as running (hence the term runner’s high). But there are many ways to crack an egg, and who are we to pass judgment on which method is preferred by which people.*
*As long as you are bringing no harm to others, of course.
You know those typical lay about do nothing pot heads? Know what they are like without pot? They are lay about do nothing sober people. You know those really motivated creative people? On pot they are really motivated creative people. Pot doesn’t change who you are. Pot does not destroy communities. Pot does not make you stupid… however, if you are stupid and you smoke pot… the stupid shows.
Unless you have an example of horrible effects pot has had on a community that don’t stem from prohibition, your argument and therefore your concern lacks merit.
Its pretty far down on my list of things to worry about.
But cannabis legalization does bring up one personal issue. I am not sure because of the potency of modern strains, the way my college buddies rolled joints, adulteration or whatnot, but I am such a weed lightweight. The stuff makes me pass out way too easily.
While it’s not a need, I have to say that more than once it’s kept me calm in situations where I might have completely lost my bad temper and done something I’d severely regret later… from my perspective as an overly sensitive/empathic person, it’s very much medicinal.
Actually, we shouldn’t forget that not all users are recreational. Many medical users treat seizures that typical pharmacology can’t help with. There are a variety of positives for cancer patients. Many folks that suffer extreme anxiety. There are probably others here that can go into more detail than I can. But for many people cannabis offers real medical help often unmatched by traditional treatments and without the sometimes extreme side effects.
I’ve seen highly motivated creative people reduced to less than they were because of alcohol abuse. That this has not been uncommon is pretty undeniable. I’m not so sure I’ve seen a convincing argument why this apparently doesn’t happen with pot.
Sorry, geek speak. It’s a regular expression as used in vim or sed that replaces all occurences of “pot” with “alcohol” and thus asks you if your statement would still hold with that change.
I’ve seen highly motivated creative people reduced to less than they were because of caffeine abuse as well. Not being facetious: several Silicon Valley techs I know became so dependent on caffeine that they had to be hospitalized. Dependency and abuse of anything diminishes people. Buying an occasional joint or drinking a cocktail on weekends does not have detrimental effects on society at large.
