--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity <no_re...@...> > A better analogy is comparing mood altering drugs to marijuana. > Anti-depressants don't alter the mood and are not addicting in that > sense. Benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium are psychoactive drugs > that work on the central nervous system, altering mood and behavior. > They are usually dispensed in small amounts and are highly addictive. > They have their place but certainly should not be legal and freely > available. Marijuana I have mixed feelings about. Face it,marijuana > makes you stupid.
This is context dependent and depends on your experience practicing any activity while stoned. Give a neewbie a joint and they will probably have some trouble with the math section of the SATs. (unless that is their thing and they practice math stoned) But in the context of a musical jam the increased connection between kinostetic and auditory channels can boost creativity, just turn on the radio to hear the results. It can make your mind distracted by causing you to hyper focus on sensation. (bedroom boon!) But in the context where this shift is valuable it can be an asset. A tip of the hat to Turq's description of how it shifts thinking. It can deliver a new perspective on thinking. I think it actually brings a bit of the same dissociation that meditation does with the pros and cons of increasing that quality of your mind. This quality is more pronounced with a sativa over indica biased blend. (er...a...or so I'm told...) Not many people can use it day in and day out and> still function well.> Like many drugs that effect neurotransmitters, regular use flattens the effect. I have known brilliant people in many careers who were daily users. You could never tell if they were stoned. Regular use brings both a tolerance and many synaptic workarounds to allow regular users to function normally. I would say most professionals who are smokers I have known fall into the category of after work smokers. Of course if someone does it all day they had better be in a reggae band! And speaking of Bob Marley, he advocated running and exercise to counter any effects of lethargy from weed. Of course exercise also lifts the lethargy of no exercise too! I don't think wine makes you stupid. But I wouldn't have a glass before tackling the law boards. I can see some people may get some benefit from > it in medical treatment, though there usually is something else > available that works as well or better. That isn't what I have read. For some people it is the only thing that works. You may know more but this medical party line seems to have some very real counterexamples. I don't think we know enough about pain to claim this yet. The decision should be in the hands of the person in pain. But the amount of resources > that go to combating this drug seems extreme. Yes this is abusive use of force on citizens. < I tend to favor> decriminalizing its use, but I am not happy about it.> I favor legalization so it becomes cheap enough to eat. My problem with smoking pot is the smoking. Even the vaporizers effect my lungs for singing unfavorably. (As well as losing some of the most fun macromolecules in cannabis. It isn't only THC for me.) Burning a plant is definitely a primitive delivery system for any drug. We can do better if we would lift the shame ban. With drugs like meth around I am furious that any of our tax dollars go to fighting weed and incarcerating users and destroying families. California is> talking about legalizing it and taxing it. I am sure that won't go> over well with the feds.> This is going to be interesting to see how Obama handles this question. Typically Democrats have to be even tougher on drug enforcement to keep from being labeled "soft on crime" by Republicans. Obama may be man enough to break this ridiculous cycle. I'm not holding my breath though. (Wow that works on so many levels!) > > > And yes, I smoked a few in my day. I guess with a president who has admitted snorting lines of coke this kind of online revelation isn't a big deal anymore. Of course everything I wrote here is from what I read in magazines. And I am officially vehemently opposed to using any babies for fertilizing marijuana gardens. (It increases the nitrogen too high and makes the plant stringy with loose buds.) wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "boo_lives" <boo_lives@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <salsunshine@> > > wrote: > > > > > > On Feb 24, 2009, at 9:42 AM, boo_lives wrote: > > > > > > > People I know who "see auras" all say that anti-depressants are > about > > > > the worst drug to take, and no-one is in jail for taking and selling > > > > antidepressants, and anti-depressants are much more common among > ffld > > > > sidhas than pot. I won't even bother to get into alchohol and the > > > > suffering that causes in society and in ffld. > > > > > > Well maybe your friends who "see auras" ought to > > > go back to the loony bins they obviously > > > escaped from, boo. Who the hell are they to > > > pass judgements on medication which has helped > > > millions? > > > > > > Sal > > > > > To clarify I'm not saying that anti-depressant medication can't help > > some people and it's fully up to them to decide what to do. I > > mentioned the aura readers just because someone else did to put down > > cannabis and I wanted to say these people see lots of things and you > > actually shouldn't go by that either way. > > > > I wanted to point out that our society is bipolar regarding drugs. > > Antidepressants help some people, but also have many physical side > > effects plus the well known clouding over of the personality and > > emotions for many people, plus a study I saw last week saying that > > certain antidepressants in fact didn't have any benefit at all, plus > > the overprescription of antidepressants to children and to low > > depression patients who could be treated other ways, YET despite all > > this we still find a way to get antidepressants to people who need > > them... but mention cannabis and immediately scenes from reefer > > madness come to mind and teh possibility that some people will have > > negative effects means hundreds of thousands of americans are in jail. > > I'd like to see more equality in how we view pharmaceutical versus > > non pharmaceutical drugs. > > > > A better analogy is comparing mood altering drugs to marijuana. > Anti-depressants don't alter the mood and are not addicting in that > sense. Benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium are psychoactive drugs > that work on the central nervous system, altering mood and behavior. > They are usually dispensed in small amounts and are highly addictive. > They have their place but certainly should not be legal and freely > available. Marijuana I have mixed feelings about. Face it, marijuana > makes you stupid. Not many people can use it day in and day out and > still function well. I can see some people may get some benefit from > it in medical treatment, though there usually is something else > available that works as well or better. But the amount of resources > that go to combating this drug seems extreme. I tend to favor > decriminalizing its use, but I am not happy about it. California is > talking about legalizing it and taxing it. I am sure that won't go > over well with the feds. > > > And yes, I smoked a few in my day. >
