--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Feb 25, 2009, at 5:49 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
>
> >>>> Pot has been used for thousands of years and has never been
> >>>> anything but a boon to any culture -- until Hearst et al.
> >>>
> >>> Actually, research being done at Columbia University for the
> >>> last 10 years shows that cannabis use (yes plain old marijuana)
> >>> increases the likelihood of developing psychosis by
> >>> ten fold.
> >>
> >> You are joking right? Another satire?
> >>
> >> quote ----
> >> Down at the bottom of the CNN report ("Marijuana may increase
> >> psychosis risk, analysis says ") on the Lancet published study that
> >> claims that frequent marijuana use may cause psychosis we find:
> >
> > Bingo:
> >
> > http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556097_6
> >
> > I will allow Ruth and others who like delving
> > into research to do so on this one, but it looks
> > to me as if they started backwards and worked
> > towards a foregone conclusion.
>
>
> In his books on meditation, Zen master and neurologist Jim Austin not
> only goes into the bodies endogenous "drug" producing systems, he
> also goes over the research on all the major recreational drugs as well.
>
> On marijuana he shares an interesting study of 311 grown twins, where
> one twin had used marijuana before 17, the other had not. The twin
> who HAD used marijuana before 17 was 2.1 to 5.2 times more likely to
> engage in other drug use, to develop alcohol dependence and to
> develop some drug dependence. It true, it would back the idea of
> marijuana being a gateway drug. (But clearly Austin is also of a
> previous generation, he was born in 1925, and he seems to abhor all
> drug use, even of botanicals.)
>
> Marijuana also decrease theta waves globally in the brain and
> "disrupts both the transient attentional and the more sustained
> functions that the subjects require to solve working memory tasks."
>
And the point is?
The obvious seems to be being ignored in some of these posts. Cannabis
produces an altered state. As does meditation (different ones). Some
activities are enhanced by cannabis, others are diminished. As with
all altered states. That's the point. The suspension (during the
state, not after) of short-term memory is a BENEFIT of the altered
state. It gets rid of the clutter in the mind, the monkey/rat response
to everything, the chatter of the mind. In that state, different
perceptions and thoughts, connections, insights arise.
Sort of like when you sleep -- sleep is not dismissed as a dangerous
state just because memory is impaired in sleep -- as is motor
coordination. Don't drive while sleeping! Does that mean sleeping is
bad in general?
Meditation also reduces short term memory during that state. And it
impairs motor coordination during that state. Should we ban meditation
because it imparirs the ability to drive a car during the altered state?
> It's interesting that in Ayurveda, a botanical that causes excitation
> of the cerebral cortex is used as the antidote for marijuana.
What botanical is that?
> When pure THC is given to subjects it "produces schizophrenia-like
> positive and negative symptoms,
> alters perception, leads to both anxiety and to euphoria, and
> disrupts both immediate and delayed word recall.27 Large doses of
> cannabis can also provoke an acute psychosis that resembles
> schizophrenia. Heavy users among young recruits in the Swedish army
> had a sixfold greater incidence of schizophrenia on follow-up."
>
> It would be interesting to see some studies on the botanical
> antidotes to some of these side-effects and also a cross-comparison
> of smoking/vaporization of marijuana vs. traditional preparations
> like bhang--marijuana drinks, usually in almond milk with some herbs
> and jaggery. These traditional drinks are said to curb a number of
> the traditional side effects.
>
> You can still purchase of number of Ayurvedic rasayanas and powders,
> which contain marijuana as key ingredients, in this country.
>
