Side Effects of Marijuana Use (apart from smoking)

the science is still out on this whole subject. as main stream science looks into said allegations of brain damage, cancer, etc, etc they seem to be finding that all most all of the negative stigma is turning out to be bull shit. more then that, it seems that some of the allegations were completely, 180* wrong. to the point that ganja might be saving lives, not taking them.


we live in a pretty awesome time! ganja, legal in our life times. whouda thunk it?!?

 

There are legitimate concerns of Marijuana use and some are made up too. That confuses many for good reason, that is what the establishment wants. Not enough people smoke marijuana to legalize it totally by ourselves, we HAVE to have nonsmoker's support, PERIOD. To confuse the subject an take things out of context helps misinform the nonsmokers and helps keep status quo,


Brain damage? I seriously doubt it, quite possibly on young and maturing brains I could see, but not an adult. I support age limits until this is really studied properly.


Memory loss? I think anyone that smokes can agree that this is real and could be an issue. Long term? I am not sure of that.


Loss of drive or ambition? Again anyone that smokes can agree to some degree of this. Long term? No way.


Motor skills degradation and lengthened reaction time? Less than Alcohol and not long term. This is why I agree with DWI laws.


Dry mouth and eyes. Short term, easily remedied and of no real consequence.


Addiction? Not physical for the most part unless someone is majorly overusing. Those people usually have a litany of other problems that far outweigh having a headache from not being high or being irritable.


Gateway drug? Laughable, but still being taught in schools.


Vaping is cleaner but not totally clean. That being said, I don't the problem with smoking an average of one or two joints a day long term either.


As far as ingesting it I would have to believe that the positive effects far outweigh any risks. Nothing close to ingesting tobacco juice that some dippers do that can lead to mouth, throat and stomach cancers.


Personally I would think that if there were legitimate long term negative effects we would have heard about them from the anti-pot band wagon.

 

Let's run down this laundry list and correct it shall we?
1. Brain Damage: complete and total GARBAGE. The US govt. holds a patent (#6630507) on the "neuroprotective" properties of Cannabis. What does this mean? It means pot can heal your brain and grow the neurons (brain cells) back.

2. Loss of ambition.
Waf's reply i found slightly offensive because being a daily smoker i couldn't get shit done without smoking every day. It makes me focus, it gives me energy, and allows me to take my time and care about what it is I'm doing.

3. Driving "under the influence"
It's been proven through studies that stoners that smoke daily DO NOT have any impaired driving function compared to drinkers/intermittent users of Cannabis. So if you dont regularly smoke, please dont drive. However for someone that smokes medically daily the impairment is nill. (Watch CNN's Weed. Presented by Dr. Sanjay Gupta)

4. Dry eyes/puffy eyes

Another thing prohibitionists have laid on us to say,"look at that stoned dude." But did you know that the red puffiness is actually the relief of intraoccqular pressure? This is the reason Snoop Dogg smokes weed, to relieve his Glaucoma, which is a build of pressure within the eye(s) due to improper draining of the eye.

5. (My favorite) Addiction

You can never be "addicted" to Cannabis. It's as "addictive" as Coffee is, go look at statistics. Secondarily (and contrarily) Cannabis is being used with GREAT success in curbing addiction to serious opiates/opioids. So as far as "addiction" is concerned. You can rest assured this plant wont do it to you. Maybe (somehow) you eat so much of it on a daily basis that you become accustomed to tripping balls daily, however anything in the vicinity of 1-7 grams of Cannabis daily is not "addiction." Dr. Gabor Maté has a wonderful portion in the Cannabis documentary "The Culture High," that states that anyone that is using a substance and gaining benefit from it cannot be called an addict, and that there needs to be a line drawn between what is abuse and what is use. Abuse is getting so decimated that you cant get off your couch for three days. Use is someone with panic attacks smoking a bowl everyday so they can go out in public and not feel scrutinized by everyone around them.

6. A Gateway Drug

Another concept that needs perspective. First we must understand what a "drug" is exactly. Drugs are any substance that effect the human psyche/have some form of psychotropic effect. So by that logic caffeine and sugar are drugs. And technically they would be "gateway drugs" because without sugar you wouldn't have all the beer Americans are so accustomed to drinking. If there is a single gateway drug on this planet it's alcohol.

7. Vaping is healthier than smoking

This ones complicated. First vaporization is the low level combustion of matter just before in burns. In short your pulling off the goodies w/o anything negative. Here's the interesting part. When you vape (or even smoke) you cough up most of the resin that would normally get deposited in the lungs (like cigarette gunk). Why's that happen when you smoke (organic) weed? Because of some chemistry. Plants contain waxes/fats like everything else but Cannabis is unique in that those fats/waxes make us cough up anything that would be detrimental to lung health. Needless to say that doesn't mean all herb is created equal. If you used a nasty fungicide during the growing process and you smoke it, it can give you a lung infection.

8. Eating Cannabis.

Eating Cannabis is only better from the perspective that you aren't smoking and that it has a longer duration of effect. However this effect is more psychedelic and some users cant handle it so they would prefer to smoke. Sublingual drops out-class eating cannabis because the dose can be titrated more easily and it doesn't get chemically altered by the liver.

 

This is all quite interesting.

From what is mentioned above, I definitely don't experience lack of motivation myself. Over a year ago I would get baked, hit the gym for weightlifting a few hours later, and my mind felt more focused. I was surprised that I managed to make strength gains while high, but I did. It also helps me mentally too. I haven't been able for write in months, but I got baked a week or so ago and wrote 7000+ words of a book I'm working on within like, 5 hours. I must have peaked because I'm hitting around 3000 words while high now. I can't barely write 1-2 paragraphs when I'm not high.

On the other hand though, it can and sometimes does reduce my motivation. But this is mostly when it comes to doing things I naturally don't want to do. If I want to do something, weed seems to amplify it and I work better because of it.

Also for me eating weed was the worst experience. I ate too much and ended up lying on a bathroom floor, looking into the ceiling light, shaking and cold and feeling like hours were passing (it was only for like 5-10 minutes). With smoking I am able to monitor how what I am taking is effecting me.

Addiction? I'm visiting family now and I keep thinking 'I can't wait to go home to have a smoke'. I feel like I WANT weed, but in society we mix WANT with NEED. Maybe we just WANT weed, but because we are often so fixated on 'NEEDING' things/weed, we are convincing ourselves that we do need it (when in fact we may just want it, a lot). Also, maybe because weed has been looked at as a ~drug~ for so long, that when people find out you're smoking it, you will automatically be labelled as NEEDING weed/being addicted to it. Maybe we have created an addiction which doesn't actually exist. I say this because sometimes society makes me feel like maybe I'm addicted/dependant on weed, but then I think, am I? Or do I just want it a lot?

Also - gateway drug. Since I was young I was always terrified of drugs and alcohol. I gave into alcohol. Don't drink now though. Alcohol led me to trying some other drugs once or twice that I regretted. On the other hand, I have never once smoked a joint and thought 'I know what'll make this better... coke!'.

 

if you look at things like air and water and ask what we really need it all becomes moot in comparison. other than air and water and sex everything else goes into the want category and the degree/desire of want determines how much you will have

 

39 years on and off cannabis user here. The side effects I get from vaping which are pretty much the same with taking it in ANY form are
1) Dry mouth - my worst side effect.
2) If I don't organize myself, I lose shit. Best to take when you have no responsibilities and have no place to go.
3) I used to get paranoid but no longer. Maybe now that it's legalized in my state? Maybe my age?
4) I can't do numbers. If someone asks me to help them do math, measuring, remember a date or anything to do with numbers, I'm hopeless.
That's about it for me. I've never gotten a bong cough, headache, nauseous, car crash, passed out, constipation, or any nasty side effects you get with pharmaceuticals or harder drugs.

 

I'm sure the negatives if any are far less than the 13.5 yes 13.5 pills daily the Dr had me on. I can tell ya I feel %1000 percent better on cannabis than I did on all that other shit. Impairment? Nothing like what I was on.

 

I know exactly how you feel bro, i was on several (3-4) antidepressants at a time and only smoking now. Holy fuck do i feel 1000x better.

 

I'll chime in.


I have an autoimmune vasculitis. I'm pretty sensitive to many things affecting me negatively that exacerbate some symptoms, such as certain types of foods and certain ingredients. Tainted weed is another one.


Properly grown weed doesn't bother me at all. I notice most of the time it comes from the markets where they try to turn garbage that people wouldn't ordinarily smoke into something worthwhile. I would say edibles is the biggest affected market (I have terrible experience with the market here in CA), followed by BHO. This isn't to say it doesn't happen with straight buds (they're still sustainable to molds, chemicals, pesticides, plant growth regulators), I just see it less frequently. I notice it the least with bubble hash products, which is a little odd because water hash is known to have problems with mold growth. It's probably because good material has a tendency to go in bubble bags more often.


The sad thing is someone would much rather spray their plants than chuck a few thousand dollars down the drain. A lot of this pot ends up not being acceptable to much of the market for bud smokers. So they try turning it into edibles, thinking it's all about THC weight and profit involved. Most recreational smokers don't use edibles constantly like MMJ patients do, so a tainted treat every here and there isn't likely to warrant many complaints. I may be a little more sensitive to these things than normal people are too so maybe that's why I notice it so often.


I've never experienced any bad side effects like that from high quality, clean weed. I could smoke and eat it all day.


Growing your own is essential for quality control.

 

If you're worried about side effects then you should talk to your doctor. I'm straight up with my physician. I tell him I smoke and how much and often I do so. He did a lung capacity test on me and said I'm fine. Said my health is normal. That being said he still didn't say it's healthy to smoke a dried plant, but it's not nearly as bad as cigarettes giving you lung cancer or alcohol damaging your liver.


As long as you can get your work done, stay healthy, and control your smoking habits you will be fine. However, you don't ever want to be a lazy ass and smoke all day. Although from my experience I'd say it comes down to the user's personality and not so much the herb itself that causes negative side effects.

 

your post reminds me the importance of land race genetics and the strength of those genetics growing related to and compared to our take it inside society where the plants become weak from artificial in the house conditions.pests, insects,bugs, molds, love a weak plant and will do what they do to take the plant out of existence making way for the stronger genetics to come in. Us trying to cater to weak genetics leaves us with chemical laden plants that would soon die off quickly rather than strive to survive.