[bobhalford]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to see what y'all think about this. I've been smoking pot a pretty long time. At times, I thought I had a problem with it, and wound up quitting for some time. In the early years, I believe pot sort of got to me in a bad way. Nothing dramatic, but that I could function better smoking less.

Fast forward to the present, where I smoke a decent amount of kind bud. Somehow, over the years, I've managed to be able to function properly on pot. I'll take a few hits every few hours, and I've never felt guilty about it. I think my brain has managed to adjust to it in such a way that I can function. I'm able to control my use by smoking high quality pot and not smoking more than 2-3 hits at a time. I don't know the last time I felt lethargic or "out of it," better known as being "burnt." I definitely got "burnt" a few times in college, but that was many years ago. I can't remember the last time I felt burnt.

My mother thinks that pot is responsible for all the problems in my life. She attends ALANon for this.

A few months ago she sent me to a doctor/shrink for an evaluation of my mental state. I agreed to this just to humor her. She thinks I have manic/depressive tendencies and I don't relate to that at all. So just to settle it, I agreed to see this doctor.

Turns out that this doctor is some kind of expert on marijuana (surprise surprise).

He says pot impairs "reality testing." Also, pot impairs one's ability to "fully inhabit others' realities." Potheads have trouble editing their speech, so they often spew when conversing (sadly I've found this to be true). They have trouble organizing their thoughts.

He says that after a marijuana user quits smoking for 3 days, scans of the brain are identical to those of a schizophrenic person.

Apparently, since pot stays in your system for so long, it takes 6-9 months of abstinence to fully recover from it.

He also said all this stuff about withdrawal symptoms and said that I needed to go to rehab and meetings. I thought this part was hogwash. I quit for no other reason than curiosity and to prove to my mother that I'm not a drug addict. So no rehab and no meetings and I'm almost at 90 days. No withdrawal symptoms to speak of.

So far, I can say that being clean from pot has done absolutely nothing for me. But I've decided to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and commit to a year of sobriety, just to see what happens. The guy had a very nice office, so I figure he's got to be doing something right.

I posted this story on another board (not related to weed) and one fellow said, "Every douchey rehab doctor/counselor says that about herb. I've heard that same pitch verbatim. In one year you'll realize you wasted a year not smoking for absolutely nothing."

Another guys said, "I'm also an ex pot smoker. For me, the impetus to quit was a realization that I no longer found being high all that enjoyable. I can't say that using pot seriously screwed up my life, or that quitting made a big positive difference, but I do find I have a little more mental clarity without it, which I like. I think the 6 - 9 months thing is way off. I'd say after 6 - 9 days, you will have seen most of the change your going to see. I'm not sorry I did pot. I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger. I'm not sorry I quit either, but I'm not about to say that's the right decision for everybody. I think I just sort of outgrew it.

Unfortunately, the 12-steppers seem to have converted most of the psychological community to their religion. Now, I think AA and it's descendants have helped a lot of people, and their program does seem to be as effective as anything, but it really is a religion, or at least a dogma and most of them seem to believe that their way is the only way to kick an addiction, and that is certainly not the case. I certainly didn't need any rehab program to quit smoking pot. I just quit, and the withdrawal symptoms for pot, if any, are pretty mild. For me it was a few nights of insomnia, and a few more nights of more vivid than normal dreams, nothing I couldn't handle. In fact, the dreams were kind of cool."

I thought that after 90 days, I could say something to recommend quitting pot. But all I can say so far is that I saved a little $$. That's it. I went into this with an open mind, figuring this doctor with his fancy artwork and nice address/office could have a point. Maybe some of my problems in life could be attributed to pot smoking. But so far, I've seen zero evidence of this. I'm going to continue to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and remain clean from pot for a full year. 9 months to get it out of my system (lol) and 3 months of life in this new state. I can't believe this guy said I needed to go to rehab, what a waste of money, and I'd be the only pothead in there.

By contrast, I've had experiences with alcohol and cocaine which blew my mind. There was no doubt that these substances were god awful. I won't go into all the details, but I can say that those experiences proved to me how harmless a drug pot is. I've never felt guilty about pot.

All I can say is that it's a wonderful drug. In my experience, I've never considered it a "mood altering substance." I've never used it to "self-medicate." That is because if you are sad or depressed, pot will not make you feel happy. Cocaine will certainly lift your mood (temporarily) and so will alcohol. If anything, pot will enhance your depression.

There are so many times I've done something stupid, smoked pot, and realized what I'd done. Several times I've found myself apologizing to people for some insensitive remark made while sober. Pot is in a class of it's own. I think it is good for society, unlike every other non-psychedelic drug.

There is a reason why people don't take pot smoking seriously. That is because it's safe and does not damage a person's life. In the 70's barbiturates were popular. Nowadays, no one uses them anymore. Why? Because people would die from using them! So these drugs eventually stopped being used. If pot were so harmful, don't you think people would notice?

I should have asked the doctor "Is there some kind of side effect from pot that brain-washes the user into thinking that it's ok when in reality it is damaging his life?" Because that's really the only way it can be possible that pot is harmful.