freudianlip
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Is Marijuana Harmless?
- Thread starter Cyphermage
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freudianlip
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On the market are caffeine soap and showergel http://www.chemicalevolution.com/product_info.php?products_id=76 which claims that you will absorb the caffeine via your skin, would that same system apply to cannabis and if so might it benefit people with Parkinsons. Would you still get the same high via skin absorption? Or would it be more feasible to use a cannabis 'patch',similar to the one for nicotine?
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Lonewulf
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and........ what??....
You mentioned hash psychosis. As an attack on the idea of using marijuana, I suppose.
I linked an article that demonstrated that it was likely that studies involving hash being compared with psychosis could very well be bunk.
You linked a study that demonstrated something. What did it demonstrate? How did you translate the abstract, or the study? Do you even comprehend it? If so, put some of it into your own words if you can.
Z
Variable Constant
This has been a very informative thread!
I've never even been exposed to weed or hash, never been offered it, never been around someone smoking it.
But from what I've been told, you'll do more damage to yourself drinking one caffeinated, carbonated beverage a day (like my wife's Mt. Dew fix) than you will smoking one joint a day.
Given the bloating and illness I feel drinking coke, I believe them.
I've been told that pot is less damaging that tobacco and less addictive than alcohol, yet tobacco and alcohol are legal! How strange.
From what I have heard, in the U.S. almost all hash and weed is smoked straight or mixed into food. Blending it with tobacco is strictly considered taboo in many areas - I guess it's a very low-class way of trying to stretch your stash, or something!
I wonder how the health issues compare to my own habit - smoking a pipe of tobacco 2-3 times a week. I mean, what I smoke is unfiltered, but it's also not the heavily processed stuff that gets rolled into cigs, either.
At any rate, I'm all for legalization of pot.
I've never even been exposed to weed or hash, never been offered it, never been around someone smoking it.
But from what I've been told, you'll do more damage to yourself drinking one caffeinated, carbonated beverage a day (like my wife's Mt. Dew fix) than you will smoking one joint a day.
Given the bloating and illness I feel drinking coke, I believe them.
I've been told that pot is less damaging that tobacco and less addictive than alcohol, yet tobacco and alcohol are legal! How strange.
From what I have heard, in the U.S. almost all hash and weed is smoked straight or mixed into food. Blending it with tobacco is strictly considered taboo in many areas - I guess it's a very low-class way of trying to stretch your stash, or something!
I wonder how the health issues compare to my own habit - smoking a pipe of tobacco 2-3 times a week. I mean, what I smoke is unfiltered, but it's also not the heavily processed stuff that gets rolled into cigs, either.
At any rate, I'm all for legalization of pot.
Lonewulf
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Agreed.
And for the record, I do not drink alcohol (well, sometimes I do, but never to excess, and rarely), I do not smoke, I do not do drugs, I do not take drugs except when ill (and even then I try to "tough it out" anyways sometimes).
I am as drug-free as you can be... except for my caffeine-and-sugar fix...
But I'm for the legalization of marijuana. I have yet to meet someone that is "addicted" to it, and I haven't seen any conclusive studies showing that marijuana is truly addictive.
Maybe it was Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column? Online version here - http://www.badscience.net/?p=389
Georg
Graduate Poster
Maybe because you answered the question yourself?
O.K., you partly answered it. If everyone grew it, that would be quite a loss of tax money.
Abooga
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WTF? "If everyone grew it, that would be quite a loss of tax money" so we can only allow taxpaying companies to grow it and criminalise homegrowers? What bulls*it is this? So let´s make it illegal to grow your own veggies also, or supermarkets might lose some income... D.I.Y? forbidden, call the proffesionals to go into your house and fix that damn pictureframe... Are you taking the p*ss?
In the UK at least, the offence is not drink-driving, it is driving (or cycling in fact) while under the influence of any drug. Obviously alcohol is the most common and gets the most focus, but it is just as illegal to drive after smoking weed as it is to drive after a few pints. The trouble is, while tests for alcohol are fairly simple, testing for other drugs can be very tricky, especially considering how many different drugs are out there. There is also the problem that, as far as I know, only alcohol has an actual definition of what it means to be "intoxicated" (although of course the limit is different in different countries). Prosecuting someone for drink-driving is easy because either they are over the limit or not. For drugs where there is no official limit it can be much harder to prove that you were actually a danger.
It actually scares me how few people know this. In order to get a driving license you have to pass a theory test, and in order to do that you are supposed to know everything in the highway code, where all this is clearly stated. Yet virtually no-one I have ever talked to actually realises that driving after taking any drug is a crime.
I realise this doesn't answer the question of whether it is actually dangerous to drive after smoking weed. Dangerous or not though, in the UK it is definately illegal.
Abooga
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I know it´s illegal. Muy point is that it shouldn´t be so. At least not without establishing wether it´s actually dangerous or not and what are the limits (breath/blood concentration or whatever).
calebprime
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from your source:
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic265.htm
...
"...While use of injected hashish oils has resulted in rare deaths from overdose, no clear evidence of deaths being caused by uncomplicated cannabis use otherwise exists. Mortality, however, may be associated with marijuana-related accidents, cancers, and comorbid substance abuse."
I mean, c'mon, injecting hash-oil?
Attention is the issue. Instead of having 7 boxcars in your mental chain, you now have 4 or 5. You can attend to fewer things, and shift between them with less skill.
Sudden trainwreck possible.
Sorry no source. Not a good idea to drive while stoned.
Thanks. That's what I meant.
Ivan, I'm all about ambivalence. Wish Peter Kramer would give permission for people to listen to cannabis.
I've got this friend, um "Tyler". And for him, addiction to weed is a problem.
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Abooga
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Well, I´ve been experimenting with myself for years, doing all sorts of things like climbing, skiing, potholing while (a bit) stoned and I´ve never had any problem. Makes you more cautious, slow and with a worse short time memory (which can be dangerous specially for climbing and potholing... you could forget to clip yourself to the rope or something, but those sports are silly ways of putting yourself at risk anyway, so...) But really, driving is ok unless you´ve taken too much. I would like to be tested for that (stone-driving). Has it ever been done? Properly, with different dosages etc.
Dancing David
Penultimate Amazing
There are studies done in the 1800s where they administered huge doses of hashish to dogs. No lethal dose was found.
Abooga
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And addiction is a bit of a problem. The antidepressant properties of the weed makes some of us quite dependent on it (I started smoking it because of that) But not that much. I´ve smoked almost non stop for like 5 years and when I have to quit for a while (travelling etc.) I crave it mildly for a week and that´s it. Comparing it to the withdrawal symptoms of tobacco it´s nothing.
But then, you never know when depression might hit you. And smoking pot keeps it away. Works for me at least, and saves me the embarrasment of having to explain my life to a doctor to get some pills that are probably worse than weed.
Well, at last a topic I know something about, after all those sciencey ones.
But then, you never know when depression might hit you. And smoking pot keeps it away. Works for me at least, and saves me the embarrasment of having to explain my life to a doctor to get some pills that are probably worse than weed.
Well, at last a topic I know something about, after all those sciencey ones.
Dancing David
Penultimate Amazing
The only lethal dose was from injection of hash oil, I will try to find the source and see if they controlled for the method of injection and confounding factors.
Not known to have a lethal dose.
freudianlip
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Refer to Hypothesis;
Primary hypothesis. Psychiatric inpatients and healthy volunteers were enrolled into this study
following a given protocol. This was planned to test the hypothesis that endogenous cannabinoids in CSF and/or
serum are altered in patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but not from other psychiatric
disorders, when compared to healthy controls.[/I]
Note; endogenous! naturally occurring not introduced extraneously as part of the study!
These researchers just investigated the role of endocannabinoid signaling in psychotic states by measuring levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of acute paranoid-type schizophrenic patients.In fact, they state as a result of the inconclusivity of the finding ; that the history of cannabis use in the group of healthy controls and antipsychotic-naıve schizophrenics was comparable to some extent and no overall effect of cannabis use on the primary end point of this study was observed .by augmenting their findings with Heavy cannabis use is considered a risk factor for the clinical manifestation of schizophrenia and might promote psychotic episodes in vulnerable individuals (Andreasson et al, 1987; Arseneault et al, 2002;(who stated that:Controversy remains as to whether cannabis acts as a causal risk factor for schizophrenia or other functional psychotic illnesses. His investigation utilised no less than five scientific examinations. The findings were that individually cannabis use delivers an overall twofold increase in the relative risk for later schizophrenia. At the population level, elimination of cannabis use would reduce the incidence of schizophrenia by approximately 8%. However, cannabis use appears to be neither a sufficient nor a necessary cause for psychosis. IBut that it is a factor a component factor leading to psychosis. He concludes;Cases of psychotic disorder could be prevented by discouraging cannabis use among vulnerable youths. Research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which cannabis causes psychosis.One plausable possibility is that heavy cannabis abuse may lead to desensitization of brain CB1 ( cannabinoid )receptors, which may in turn encourage psychoses.A genetic study revealed that the CNR1 gene, which encodes CB1 receptors, is associated with schizophrenia, especially the hebephrenic type.(a form of schizophrenia characterized by foolish mannerisms and senseless laughter along with delusions and regressive behavior) Individuals with a 9-repeat allele of an AAT-repeat polymorphism of the gene may have a 2.3-fold higher susceptibility to schizophrenia.
Cannabis consumption may induce psychotic states in normal individuals, worsen psychotic symptoms of schizophrenic patients, and may facilitate precipitation of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals. more recent studies provide additional biological and genetic evidence for the cannabinoid hypothesis of schizophrenia. Examinations using [3H]CP-55940 or [3H]SR141716A revealed that the density of CB1 receptors, a central type of cannabinoid receptor, is increased in subregions of the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Anandamide, is an endogenous cannabinoid, is also increased in the CSF in schizophrenia. Recent findings consistently indicate that hyperactivity of the central cannabinoid system is involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia or the neural mechanisms of negative symptoms.
Adversely in 2007 evidence from ;
J Neural Transm. 2007 Mar 19; : 17370106
Authors: D Koethe , I C Llenos , J R Dulay , C Hoyer , E F Torrey , F M Leweke , S Weis propose;
that the human endogenous cannabinoid system is an appealing target in the investigation of psychiatric disorders. In schizophrenia, endocannabinoids and their receptors are involved in the pathology of the disease. Previous studies reported an increased radioligand binding to cannabinoid receptors 1 (CB(1)) in schizophrenia. In a quantitative postmortem study, 60 patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and controls were included. Numerical densities of neurons and glial cells immunopositive for CB(1) receptors were evaluated. No evidence of an increased or decreased density of CB(1) receptor immunopositive cells in schizophrenia or bipolar disorder was found. Furthermore, this data showed that different medications have an impact on the expression of CB(1) receptors in the ACC.
Fearless lone wolf...brow beating is not necessary.... I am trying to be objective...chillax man...a discussion...discourse needs no personal insults... lets not fall out eh?
Fancy a J????
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Interesting.
I wonder if anyone has examined the hypothesis that prolonged cannabis use could aggravate psychotic symptoms by interefering with the production of appropriate levels of endocannabinoids?
Dancing David
Penultimate Amazing
There are many forms of drug induced psychosis, it occurs with most substancesw of abuse, most notably with cocaine, methamphetamine, inhalants and severe chronic alcohol use. There is a whole cateogy in the DSM-IVR for drug induced psychosis. Many medications can induce psychosis as well.
As of yet the debate rages if the drugs cause psychosis in evryone or just those predisposed to it.
Psychosis is not limited to schizphrenia, there is also bipolar disoprder and major depression, as well as the schizphreniform psychosis and schizotypal personality disorder.
As of yet the debate rages if the drugs cause psychosis in evryone or just those predisposed to it.
Psychosis is not limited to schizphrenia, there is also bipolar disoprder and major depression, as well as the schizphreniform psychosis and schizotypal personality disorder.