Just try it sometime. THC itself isn’t bad for you, if you are against smoking the marijuana to get the THC, try vaporizing or eating marijuana-enhanced food. I believe like everything if marijuana is abused it is a bad thing, but if used in moderation it can be a wonderful gift.
what damage have you seen? i’m interested to know.
dear confusin,
i like to know about things i do… (and i dot a dui and was forced to take a drug abuce class) so i have had the oppertunity to dig into the subject.
1." There is yet to be ONE DEATH reported that has been caused by marijuana"
A. this is 100% true. on one has ever been able to prove any death’s in relation to weed.
- “Yes, marijuana is harsh on the lungs. No shit sherlock, any smoke being inhaled into your lungs isn’t going to be good for them.”
A. did you know that there has never been a report that show’s long term affect on the lungs from smoking weed. that’s because the body breaks it down. in short…if you take some resin out out your pipe into your hand and rub it it will disolve. “biodegratable”…you know another use for the tar that’s in ciggs? “ROADS” the ones you drive your car on.
only short term “affect’s” have been documented.
- “Also, weed isn’t physically addictive. I have met some people who do it everyday, but they aren’t addicted.”
A. sorry dog…that’s wrong. but i still have a respone you’ll like to know. it is in fact pyhsically addictive. the thing is you don’t feel it. there have been a slight claim of w/drawl . but most has been written off w/ a psycaligical additcion. because…it stays in your body (specificly in fat) for 30 days (or longer if you smoke daily & have a high % of body fat.) it stays in your system for almost 2 weeks.( where it is detectable in urine screens) so in essince…“weed comes w/ a treatment plan if you ever want to quit”(or if you can’t afford it that week).
- “I had a friend who had been smoking weed ever since the fourth grade (btw he graduated from high school with a 3.7 GPA, weed doesn’t make you stupid, as far as I know.”
A. good observation…never been provin…the closest they got was short term Effects of weed. some say it actuly only “puts a portion of your brain cells to sleep 4 a few hrs.”
- “Recognize that it is something you need to handle with responsibility, JUST LIKE ANYTHING ELSE.”
A. man made alcohol…but god made marijuana. who you gona trust.
( did you know it was recently made legal 2 possess up to 3 oz. on your person in nevada?)
- Marijuana related death.
Only one death reported. (true)
However, as you mention, evidence to support that the death was due to marijuana is not always evident. So there may be many other unrelated deaths. And also, does death matter if quality of life is less (due to degenerative effects and respiritory problems)?
- Marijuana’s effects on the respiritory sytem.
There is no long term effect on the respiritory system, only short term. (false)
This is completely false, the long term effects are similar to tobbacco use:
“The health risks associated with smoking tobacco have been well documented and many of the same constituents are present in cannabis smoke, including most of the known carcinogens.”
British Medical Association. Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis. 1997. p.73.
This explains itself.
- Marijuana’s addictiveness
Marijuana is addictive. (true)
Here is some more info on that topic. nih.gov/news/pr/jun97/nida-26.htm
- Marijuana’s long-term effects
Weed doesn’t make you stupid. (false)
First we would have to define intelliegence, but I will assume we generally agree on the definition. Here is where you may have heard that only the short term effects have been researched:
“Marijuana impairs perception, judgment, thinking, memory and learning. Memory defects may persist for 6 weeks after last marijuana use.”
Based on research by of Dr. Richard Schwartz, Vienna Pediatrics Associates in the American Journal of Diseases of Children.
Here is definite evidence, however, that marijuana can cause long term problems:
“Long-term use of marijuana may cause irreversible memory problems. Marijuana users find it more difficult to separate irrelevant information from the relevant, their reaction times are longer and electrical activity of the brain is slowed.”
Based on research by from Macquarie University, Sydney in conjunction with Australia’s National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre.
“Marijuana has long been known to trigger attacks of mental illness, such as bipolar (manic-depressive) psychosis and schizophrenia. It has been shown that marijuana users are six times more likely to develop schizophrenia than are non-users.” Based on research by of Dr. S. Andreasson published in Britain’s The Lancet.
- Marijuana’s general use
It should be handled responsibly. (true)
The responsible way to handle it is to not handle it at all.
“The best throw of the dice is to throw them away” - Fortune Cookie
I guess I have to post this CMAJ article every friggin’ two weeks. It shows no evidence for long term IQ effects from marijuana.
Marijuana has been well established as non physiologically addictive. You really shouldn’t trust US government sources for drug info as they have a blatant agenda. There is definately a possibility of psychological addiction but that happens with Everquest as well. 
You are assuming that IQ tests correctly measure intelligence. And besides, I am not claiming that IQ is lowered, I am claiming that there are long term cognitive effects. They admit that although there are no apparent long term effects on IQ if you STOP using it, but if you continue to use it it says that over time you lose IQ points. So, if you use marijuana for ten years, lets say, and lose 5 IQ points, then don’t use it for ten years and get the five back, then you are still 10 IQ points lower than everyone around you! I would say that is a long term effect. Thanks for the article, it supports my viewpoint.
Back to math class kmcdonald, -5+5=0 not -10.
I have a feeling you interpret everything as supporting your view. gl
We probably shouldn’t try and get mad at each other, but just argue sensibly (if possible 
), so I will do my best. I admit that saying “thanks for the article” was sarcastic and uncalled for and I apologize.
I do try and interpret things as agreeing with my perspective, but now and then it just can’t work and I have to change my opinion. This is not one of those cases.
I realize that -5+5=0, my point is that over 10 years, if someone uses marijuana for 5 of them, then 5 years later they finally are back at where they were 10 years ago, IQ wise. Now that I look at the numbers again, my concept was right but bmy numbers were wrong.
Lets say someone has a 100 IQ, well, if they use marijuana for 5 years for five or more days a week, according to the article they will have an IQ of (sorry, I was very wrong last time, it was approx. 4 IQ points less per year, so then: 4 IQ points x 5 years = 20 IQ points) 80. Now everyone around them (assuming they are non-users with IQs of 100) has been progressing at 2.6 (approx. 3) IQ points per year. So when the marijuana user has an IQ of 100, everyone else will have an IQ of (100+(35))=115. Now even if the user quits, five years later they will have an IQ of (80+(45))=110 (3.5 approx 4 points per year for former users), and everyone around them will have an IQ of (115+(3*5))=130.
So, according to the article, if you start using marijuana around age 12 (only age group tested), for five years, then you stop at age 17, at age 17 you will be 35 IQ points less intelligent than your non-user friends. Then, if you stop for the same amount of time that you had been using, five year, you will end up at age 22 except now you are 20 IQ points less intelligent than your non-user friends.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Peace it is then. 
Well you are certainly coming to a different conclusion than the medical doctors that ran the study.:
I don’t see where it talks anywhere about yearly cumulitive IQ loss.I’ll give another quote from (the full article the link is at the top) which directly contadicts what you are saying. :
This quote is also interesting:
(bolding mine)
As admitted in the article there may be other non-IQ cognitive functions that are affected. This was a long term study, following the course of peoples entire lives and personally I find it pretty convincing. If someone does a similar study looking for ,for example, memory loss/non-loss I would be very interested to see it.
Also I don’t understand this comment of yours:
" if you start using marijuana around age 12 (only age group tested)"
This was a long term study, from the article:
and
I finally figured out where you are coming from trying to interpret those numbers. Looking at the chart you can see that interpretting them your way would indicate that “light” marijuana use increases IQ, a claim the doctors definatly did not make.
So if I understand this, right now we are arguing only about whether or not light marijuana use increases IQ, and we will work from here if needed.
I am only using what I read on the page you posted, nowehere else (because I would have expected you to post it).
These are the two pieces of evidence I used:
“…average decrease of 4.1 points in current heavy users…”
“compared to gains in IQ points for … non-users (2.6).”
Yes, the entire quote is “compared to gains in IQ points for light current users (5.
, former users (3.5) and non-users (2.6).” which does mean that light marijuana users gain 5.8 IQ points a year, as opposed to non-users which gain only 2.6 IQ points a year. I don’t believe this either, but I am quoting the article.
Well, I’ll keep looking but I do not see any yearly loss. The numbers given I believe are total difference from age group to age group.
I don’t know what you know about stats but the differences seen(-4 to 2 IQ points) I don’t believe are statistically significant for this study size.
"Yes, the entire quote is “compared to gains in IQ points for light current users (5., former users (3.5) and non-users (2.6).” which does mean that light marijuana users gain 5.8 IQ points a year, as opposed to non-users which gain only 2.6 IQ points a year. I don’t believe this either, but I am quoting the article. "
You were willing to believe it when it supported your view, please don’t be hypocritical. As I said the researchers did not conclude that light marijuana use increased IQ because the gain was statistacally insignificant. Please remember that these results are published in Canada’s leading medical journal not “High Times”.
All I can say is that you are the only one interpretting the results this way. The anti-marijuana crowd did not argue with the numbers when the Canadian Medical Association released the results earlier this year.
(the link I gave is to an abstract- an abstract is a summary of a full article- if you want to understand the study better read the full article. Maybe also read up on p-values and statistical significance)
Thank you for posting the link to the entire article. I know see what you were saying most of this time, and I have to agree with you. That is, I agree that the long term effects on IQ due to marijuana use of any sort is irrelevant based on the statistics from this study. However, even you agreed that: 1.) The number of subjects may not have been large enough, and 2.) There are other potential cognitive effects of marijuana that remain to be studied in greater detail (eg, any sort of link to being prone to develop schizophrenia).
I’m sorry Hubbs, were we disturbing your beauty sleep?I really do hate it when people come in and demand that a thread die because it’s boring them.
That said I officially quit the discussion with the following answers to direct questions.
1.) The number of subjects may not have been large enough,
Sure, but it’s going to be hard to do an entire lifetime study of much larger groups.
2.) There are other potential cognitive effects of marijuana that remain to be studied in greater detail
Also true. Also true that marijuana use may trigger problems in certain susceptible people. Time and research will tell.
I just want to throw in two cents here. I think probably the two best pieces of advice ever are “Everything in moderation” and “know thyself.”
Jerry Garcia once said something about ‘since the beginning of time, people have looked for ways to alter their consciousness.’ It still goes on today, and one of the most popular ways to ‘alter’ one’s world view these days is with reefer.
As a New Yorker, I worry more about the fumes I breathe in the city than the occassional toke I take. As a painter, I find that the effects of pot can open my creative doors a bit wider. Then again, smoke too much and you might wind up thick-headed and sluggish. It’s all about the balance for me.
I would like to say that I would rather smoke grass than drink liquor, for a bunch of reasons that you guys already know. Physiologically, I think that reefer is one of the more benign substances one can ingest for altering one’s ‘self.’ I would never touch anything chemically created, like crack, ecstacy, or PCP. But, historically, many people have used plants to get in touch with the divine. Our brains are running on chemical impulses, after all. Too much coffee and you’re jumpy. Too much chamomile and you’re sleepy. Everything we injest has its effect. So, again, ‘know thyself,’ and keep the whole moderation thing in mind.
I’d just like to back the fact that weed can cause schizophrenia. I actually have it, although it only affects me badly when I’m really stressed or depressed. And alot of the sideffects are very similiar to schizophrenia, pretty much just the general feeling of being ‘out of it’. And yes I am an idiot to smoke weed cause I’m probably making it worse, but I just don’t care about anything that much.
Well I think THC might cause schizophrenic type side effects(paranoia, disaccosiation) but that it causes someone to become a scitzophrenic(who is not already on the edge) has not been shown.
Yeah, I think I agree. Certain people are more likely to have schizophrenia, e.g. if it runs in the family, and if the person has been born with a mental illness. And these people are the only ones that would develop it from using marijuana. So if you’re not one of those people you should be able to use it as much as you like and never get schizophrenia, and if you could get it from using marijuana, then you could get it anyway. There are certain things that set it off, like stress and depression, so using marijuana is obviously just a major one of those. Well, thats my theory anyway.
Okay I haven’t read all the posts about pot but here’s my take on the topic. Some people don’t like it, some people do. I, personally, am proud to consider myself as a “pothead” (wasn’t that so flower child of me 
). If you do the research, you will find out that no one has ever died due to smoking the drug. If they did, it was because it was laced with something or they did way way way too much of it. Like anything, if you do too much it will harm you. But in all the research I’ve done, I’ve never heard anything of a fatal joint. In fact, a sign of good pot is coughing. Why coughing? Because the THC opens your lungs and helps you to breathe. Definately not as bad as ciggarettes or beer.
Some of the earlier posts talked about social drawbacks of the drug. In my experience, I have seen nothing but positive effects. People become friendlier and more capable of laughing and enjoying themselves. And everyone knows that laughter is the best medicine. The only time I have seen someone get mean or shy while high is when that person was also doing some other type of drug (alcohol, ecstacy, etc.).
And if you find the right information you will learn that if this country were to start farming this mind altering plant it would gain so much. First of all, if it was legalized, there wouldn’t be nearly as much crime as there is now. There would be no shootings due to selling pot or owing money because of it. Plus, there are so many uses for it other than just smoking. Clothing can be made out of it. I’ve even read that it could possibly be formed into an alternate fuel source.
On the TOOL album Aenima, there is a track with a man speaking (I’m not sure of his name or his exact words but here’s the rundown) …if you think drugs are bad and should never be explored go home take all your CDs, all you albums, and throw them out. Because, you know what, those people who created all those beautiful things were really high on drugs…" And I completely agree. For example: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, any band from the 60’s and 70’s, TOOL (obviously), tons of modern day bands, THE BEATLES!!! Need I say anymore about that??
But all in all, it really depends on the person. Someone on the forum said that the only reasons for smoking pot he has recieved have been “it’s fun” or “I like it”. Well, think about this. Why do people drink? To have fun. Why do people go watch movies? To enjoy themselves. Why do people study lucid dreaming? For most, it’s to experience things that they will never be able to experience AND to have FUN. Why do people smoke pot? Yes, to have fun. But also, to relax. To have a little escape from the troubles of their world and, a lot of long and interesting conversations with others and themselves.
To quote Speed from Waking Life
“…And on really romantic nights, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.”
Do you really think that that is a not high (or never been high) statement to make?
Of course your opinion is your opinion and I respect that. I'm just giving out what information I have to give. I encourage everyone to develope your own opinion. I'll get off my soapbox now :eh: