First the banana, now the weed. Can’t you keep your oral fixations to yourself?
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My advice, even though I don’t partake, is I think somewhat reasonable: Avoid smoking it, find another method. It’s still bringing organic combustion byproducts into you lungs. Or smoke it, but don’t call yourself a non-smoker. I smoke cigars, but I’m informed as to the risk. I think too many people don’t think about it because it’s not tobacco, but nicotine is not the sole reason that smoking increases your cancer risk. I have a reasonably high confidence that legalization will make the large-scale prospective studies necessary to understand this possible. Right now, evidence comes mainly from retrospective studies, and is ambiguous. Doctors who assume I’m lying to them about my drug use because I attend a university and admit to smoking cigars tend to advise me to be on the side of caution and avoid smoking pot if I am going to use it. Which frankly makes sense. There’s no reason to believe inhaling any kind of smoke is good for you, though people with certain illnesses may have trouble using marijuana any other way- which presents other considerations.
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I think that is prudent but the health risk of smoking cannabis is mitigated by its potency to an extent. Smoking a very small amount has a very strong effect. All but the heaviest users will be in a different risk category to the average tobacco smoker by quantity alone, even without taking into account the very different nature of what is being smoked.
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If the kid’s 2, it’s possible some memory of the deprecation on the fake science saying MJ messes with development is in their memory, but if they’re 15 and don’t remember, that ship has sailed. If they’re 53…yeah, go nuts selling NYT stuff.
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Hallucinating stoners do physically threaten and damage others. A friend was seriously injured when a stoner (his neighbour) tried to throw him over the 3rd floor balcony at a party. And his habitual use of pot over decades was a triggering factor!
So yes, alcohol does considerably more social damage on a scale of magnitude, but stoners can also be a liability.
Actually, this incident might have been a relevant factor in my daughters reluctance to smoke.
That’s not advice, that’s the example you wish to set.
Nicotine does not cause cancer. No, really.
Nicotine does not cause cancer. FULL STOP.
Smoke can. But really, from tobacco smoke specifically it is the volume of tar, the heat/volume/frequency of the smoke, and also the turning down of cilial transport of matter out of the lungs (trapping the tar)
If you want to compare a joint to a cigarette, go ahead, but 20 joints a day STILL isn’t anything like the amount of tar in 20 cigaretters.
In this case, dude, YOU’RE BLOWING SMOKE
As for whether a pot smoker gets to call themselves a smoker or not… you’re not the word police, just another misinformed purist. Yes. You are in this case. Being willfully misinformed doesn’t make you not a liar.
I say all this as a toxicologist, who mad the informed decision when I started smoking either, and is now a former smoker of both.
Cigarettes will kill you. Self righteousness will get you killed. Pot is just fun.
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I’m smoking the banana right now and eating the weed.
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We don’t know that, or at the extent to which it is mitigated. We suspect it, we might even have good reason to suspect it, but thanks to idiotic laws that restrict research of cannabis, we don’t know as much as we should. The studies seem to lean towards an elevated risk at all levels, though it’s hard to know anything without further study. There are a number of factors to consider besides how many hits someone does, and there is a blind spot when it comes to marijuana that I find sort of fascinating.
We’ve had years of credible propaganda about tobacco, while everything we’ve seen about marijuana focused on its psychoactive effects, which was immediately recognized by many as bullshit. I think that we have this relative bias where we assume that there cannot possibly be any serious issues with smoking marijuana because the issues around tobacco are so severe. But tobacco’s more severe consequences don’t change what risk factors there may be for marijuana. I would really like to see more research into this, preferably before legalization leads to a formidable industry that can push back against efforts to look into potential public health issues. But until we know more, we don’t really know anything, and I think that we should advocate for some caution and further research in this instance.
Exactly. 
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We actually encourage ours to smoke a little at home. That chronic illness I mentioned on another thread is a digestive disorder. Sometimes, she can’t eat. Sometimes she can, but the food simply won’t process through her system. And if she loses weight, it spirals into a vicious cycle because the more weight she loses, the less she can eat, and the more weight she loses.
A hit of weed gives her an appetite. Keeping her from being hospitalized with a feeding tube (again) is way more important. And we live in Washington so it’s easy to get. I pass like 17 weed stores on my way into work.
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I’m sorry to hear about what happened to your friend.
Yet, people who consume the devil weed in sufficient quantity/quality to actually hallucinate have other problems in play and are, most likely, attempting to self-medicate to either address and/or avoid said problems.
This is a good example of how drug abuse is a health issue masquerading as a criminal issue. No amount of punishment will correct whatever core problems that individual was/is suffering.
Acting out in such a way as to injure others certainly necessitates intervention – but – with a good, proactive public health system, that intervention could, and should, have been done well before your friend was injured.
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This sounds completely canned. Oh, and by the way, using pejoratives (“potheads”) is a stupid move. And finally, “none the less” is one word–nonetheless.
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This is my experience as well, and whenever someone says “eh, I don’t like it because it makes me paranoid”, I make a little mental note that the person likely either has some degree of social anxiety or is in general not at peace in their life. It definitely helps with self-reflection in that regard, in that whatever is on your mind will be in exaggerated relief.
I think people who don’t realize its exaggerating effects end up mis-ascribing their own feelings for the effect of the drug. I think it also explains why some people are active concentrating stoners and others are lazy spacey stoners.
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Whoa there, I’m going to have to report this writer to the authorities for being some kind of radical revolutionary.
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I am sure there is a prescription drug that will also increase her appetite. Of course they will come with a host of dangerous side affects, and most likely cost more a month than your mortgage.
Are you actually thinking of using plants for medicinal purposes? I doubt anyone has done that before. And just because it is working, don’t think that it’s working. She is probably just eating more to spite the rich people who own the pharmaceutical factories.
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But the “facts” are not science based facts. Your lying to your children will only lead the kids to ignore you when there are actual dangers to them and their health.
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[quote=“nojaboja, post:25, topic:77915”]
Hallucinating stoners do physically threaten and damage others. A friend was seriously injured when a stoner (his neighbour) tried to throw him over the 3rd floor balcony at a party[/quote]
And how much did they have to drink at that same party?
Ps: pot doesn’t make a person hallucinate, either.
These myths are only going to hurt the kids in the long run.
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Well we definitely can make an educated guess. You pretty selectively quoted me there. Unless there is some striking evidence you can produce that gram for gram cannabis is more carcinogenic than tobacco, the argument that people generally smoke far less of it than tobacco is obviously valid.
And it’s not quite covered in the great veil of mystery you make out, many studies in countries like India are able to look at long term use.[quote=“ActionAbe, post:29, topic:77915”]
Nicotine does not cause cancer. No, really.
Nicotine does not cause cancer. FULL STOP.
Exactly.
[/quote]
OK, but you said:
So you are changing it up a bit. I think you are overstating this risk. Quite a lot.
Yeah, on that introspective thing, it’s very nice that way. I can stand to remember all the worst things I’ve done and said, and I’m able to see that I can choose to be better.
Sober it’s more like every time one of those memories pops into my head it’s raw and painful and I have to just put it out of my mind otherwise I’d be a wreck all day.
I ought to ask my counselor if it’d be cool for me to come in and do a session high. Might be more productive if we take notes.
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Well, there’s some evidence that people predisposed to schizophrenia can have episodes triggered by pot. But that’s a small subset, and the evidence isn’t great, just suggestive.
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