[Closed] Dope, blow, cannabis, weed etc. Opinions please.

Sends me to sleep, perfect for insomnia.

Like several others I gave it a good 15 years of my life and TBH some great times were had, and again like others family life necessitated the need to quit. That was over 6 or 7 years ago now and I wouldn't go back....just wish I could drink a bit less beer now.
I look back though wonder how I ever afforded to keep the habit.

@simonralli2 - there is an interesting article in this week's Economist noting that research into psychedelic drugs is slowly beginning to become acceptable again. Timothy Leary's papers are to be made publicly available by the New York Public Library (link to article here).

I haven't toked in some time. I found it too tiring during the day so was never that fussed about it. When coming down from other stuff in mornings though it was, on occasion, blissful.

Went to art college and go to any party and there were two types of guys.

There were those who just sat there quietly huddled together in the corner all night and smoking weed.

Then there were the rest if us who had a few drinks, danced, had a good time and (in the words of JAY from the Inbetweeners) "hoovered up the snatch".

You can't beat walking around Amsterdam, off your box on space cakes. You simply can't. 8)

...just wish I could drink a bit less beer now.

Yup... got that problem too.

It used to form an integral part of my life, making sure we were 'sorted' for the weekend etc I mean what is a bunch of people supposed to do after the pub closes with no weed!

Adult life, career, marriage and children changes your perspective a little. Still have the occasional one on a boys night out though even that is a pretty rare thing nowadays.

Looking back it made me more paranoid and less likely to go out on a limb and try new things, I couldnt see that at the time really, too busy making the latest greatest water pipe or shoot through 😀

Never a regular user, access to it in Ireland was a bit difficult in the eighties when condoms were even exotic! Glad I tried it a few times and having tried skunk later on, I'm sure glad it wasn't around when we were "kids".

Tried a joint in Amsterdam a few months back - realised I hadn't really missed it at all. Regular users I know ar, well, losers really.

I indulged on a social level for years and had a great time. My mate that I hung around with was a hardcore toker ie. I never knew if he was high or not. He would wake and bake(spliff before he left the house) Anyway one night in the pub, I arrived late and my mates were well into it. I sat back and listened to the crap they were spewing and thought I don't want any part of it. I speak to my mate every now and then and tbh he bores me with his silly conspiracy theories and spends his days sitting around the house on chat forums...oh hold on... 😀

I saw it suck the life and soul out of a few friends. People I used to ride and ski with started smoking blow and stopped riding or skiing. Beautifull blue ski powder day or warm sunny summer evening and they would waste it sat on a stinky couch saying "oooh, oooh ma hied, oooh ma heeeeeid".

Losers.

Ive smoked almost daily for over 30 years, in that time ive finished top of my class at uni and held down a job. I can quite happily smoke a pipe of 'skunk' and go out for a run, which I wont do on alcohol. I dont smoke tobacco, and if i have no access to pot I suffer no adverse effects.
I'd happily pay tax for legal, quality controlled weed, but instead I'm forced to risk my job, and my health because it was made illegal for political and economic reasons. As an aside organised crime can benefit from the easy money it generates.
Its true that there are some people who it doesn't suit, but you could say that about lots of things. The health effects of smoking pure pot are not clear, positive or negative, as it has been difficult to conduct proper research.

chewk stop being so biggoted
weed is almost always smoked with tobacco so the tax is still paid
and its rank hypocrasy accepting our alcohol culture and all the assosciated violence and detrimental health effects while tryig to rationalise your knee-jerk dislike under the cover of potheads being tax evaders

I smoked pretty much daily for about 10 years. It used to be a drug that less people had access to, and you could pretty much know that those who did were sound and had fairly similar life views to you. The stronger strains and the number of users changed the nature of cannabis use completely I reckon.

I quit when I got married and had kids. I probably have a few puffs a year now and don't miss it at all.

If I'm looking to get high and connected now I have a few mushrooms instead, suits my personality far better 8)

Very enjoyable but easy to let it dominate things. Bit like alcohol really.

Personally I'm both a worrier and a very light sleeper, at uni I was very grateful for the chance to mong for a couple of hours watching Alan Partridge, eat some Doritos, have a good laugh with some mates then have a cracking sleepy feeling generally refreshed. A bit of a revelation for me really, as I normally find it difficult to relax.

Towards the end of uni, I felt under a lot of pressure and smoked more than an ounce of Bristol Kush a week. That was too much, but I didn't have any psychotic episodes, depression etc., just found it hard to get motivated.

anyone else had an advert just come up "improve your grow and use", on the side of the page, since reading this thread lol

i grew up with it constantly around me, parents, siblings all smoked. it was just inevitable that i would too, almost expected of me. never one to dissapoint, i smoked my first pipe (mom didn't want me to smoke tobbaco) at 13. by 18 i'd tried just about everything that you could think of and probably a few things that you've never even heard of.

robbed me of any kind of secondary school education, left school with no real motivation other than to sign on - luckily maggie was doing all she could to facilitate my lifestyle. carried on smoking until finally in my 30's the weasels were closing in and paranoia and anxiety forced me to stop. suddenly ambition and capability are two factors in my life. i'm catching up on my education and live a life where i expect to achieve what i set out to achieve.

my experience of dope is wholly, completely, totally negative. a waste of life for a few moments of hedonistic pleasure, which decrease in intensity with every passing joint.

Stopped around 6 years ago, enjoyed it at the time but can't say I miss it now.

Apart from picking up the occasional waft of grass on a summer's afternoon in the beer garden. Smells nice but not enough to start me off again...

Some people need drugs to enjoy life others don't, freeedom of choice to some extent I s'pose.
But, although a 'little bit of puff' may not seem to be a high level criminal experience to those trying to justify it's use, be sure that most of the money generated by drug sales is used to fund significant criminal activity.
Basically drugs are for mugs, including the legal ones 😆

Thats a problem with the legal classification rather than the drug itself tho hilldodger. If it were legal then the treasury would benefit rather than the criminals.

sweepy - Member
Thats a problem with the legal classification rather than the drug itself tho hilldodger. If it were legal then the treasury would benefit rather than the criminals

I don't think so as there's a booming criminal trade in importing/selling the existing legal drugs.
Legalising cannabis won't shut down the dealers and plenty of users won't fancy queing up in Boots for their government sanctioned spliffs preferring the thrill of the dodgy deal.

Drugs have got a lot to answer for. 😡

It put me and my friends in a few situations and mixing with people who we really shouldnt have been involved with.

From experience its not so easy to get good quality draw. Criminal gangs spray it with stuff to make it heavier. Small scale artisan growers cant keep up with demand. If boots had good stuff i'd be the first in the queue, along with all the regular smokers I know.
There may be some folk that would prefer the thrill of an illegal deal, but i'd hazard a guess that if they could buy legally they might not bother at all as the percieved glamour would be gone, after all, people dont buy illegal beans from bean dealers cos its more glamorous than tesco 🙂

Smoked everyday for over 10 years... couple of breaks to go on foreign holidays.

Like Elfin... I just got bored of it.

Each to their own, but many of those I know who still smoke, with weed being the one in control, are displaying some worrying mental behaviour.

I smoked it copiously and happily for many years..

over time the effects became more negative and it took me far far longer than it should have (years) to realise that the stuff was starting to do me much more harm than good..

paranoia.. anxiety.. general psychosis etc each time I smoked but I still thought it was just mellowing me out and making me creative..

Haven't smoked it for smokings sake in over 15 years.. if I do I tend to hide in cupboards having panic attacks and muttering about conspiracies..

I'll occasionally have a toke or two if I'm on a three day bender at a festival for example.. which I'm slowly realising is probably a thing of the past now that yunki Jr is here..

Hilldodger - you need to look at the experience in countries with more relaxed drug laws such as holland or portugal. Portugal is a very interesting case.
http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/23/portugals-drug-experience-new-study-confirms-decriminalization-was-a-success/

[inhales] what was the question ? [/exhales]

TandemJeremy - Member
Hilldodger - you need to look at the experience in countries with more relaxed drug laws such as holland or portugal. Portugal is a very interesting case.

Different cultures, different outcomes.
'We' relaxed our licensing laws baed on the 'European model' not really a success was it.
'The Brits' don't seem to do sensible consumption of drugs/intoxocants....

I have never tried but have spent twenty years mixing with people who do from middle class dinner party users to lifestyle daily abusers. It seems just like tobacco some people enjoy it and have limited ill effects some people are made extremely ill .

The only distinction is that tobacco smoking has proven links to cancer and raises millions in taxes .Cannabis has anecdotal links to mental health problems,raises millions for criminals and uses virtual slave labour in the production and supply chain.

Personally I'd legalise, regulate and tax all recreational drugs to get the issues in the open make treatment available with less stigma and remove the criminal profit. Prohibition does not prevent consumption, legalisation does not promote consumption.

not really a success was it.

Why not?

Should be on the same list as heroin IMO. I know a couple of lads who are seriously addicted to it.

Its crazy how many cars I cycle past on my commute with the smell of weed wafting out of thw window

Should be on the same list as heroin IMO

I agree - the decriminalised list 8)

Really - we are so different from our european neighbours? Have you ever been abroad?

this is the pattern widely seen with drugs. several effects at work
1) frees up police time to deal with real issues rather than wasting time on minor possession busts - hence in both Holland and Portugal seizures increase.
2) allows people to get healthcare help without being criminalised
3) removes the glamour aspect you refer to above

preferring the thrill of the dodgy deal.

In the netherlands each year there are less and less heroin addicts and they get older, tin the UK its the opposite.

Rational evidence based policy on drugs will lead to some form of liberalisation. This is the lesson from Portugal. Many folk claimed it would lead to increased problems - however it has lead to less.

The war on drugs has failed. its time for rational, evidence based social policy on drugs and take them from the judical to healthcare.

amen

[img] [/img]

In the Netherlands they also have a better diet, do more exercise etc so put taht into the equation too 🙄

In the Netherlands

They are taller too.

And they've got funny accents.

I used to pmsl in the coffee shops listening to them.. yurdlegurdlecoffeanapancake.

Martin - I don't think the diet is better - and they have a much higher rate of tobbacco smokers. Life expectancy is very similar to here -[i] I guess [/i]that the exercise counteracts the smoking and not so great diet. High dairy, high refined cards, losts of eggs

i know many successful adults who smoke regularly/every day who hold down well paid responsible jobs, raise their kids well and aren't in debt etc etc etc

on the flip side i've also looked after people who's lives have been permanently altered for the worse by the psychosis that appears to have stemmed from cannabis abuse. there's a whole world of arguments out there on whether cannabis causes the psychosis or is just the trigger for something that would've happened anyway, possibly initiated by a traumatic event etc.

most of the 'drug induced psychosis' patients that i've worked with attribute their illness to the harder drugs.

i think 'pre-disposition' to mental ill-health is a HUGE factor, and it could be any drug that triggers the paranoia, psychosis, depression, anxiety etc etc... blaming cannabis for a rise in drug induced psychosis is too easy to do, especially when the media get involved.... just cos somebody smoked a little/experimented with tablets/powders at uni doesnt mean that's the cause of the mental health problems 20 years later... but the history taken from patients on admission to an acute ward means it's always asked about and always considered.

i don't really perceive it as a 'gateway' drug either, most smokers i know dont do anything other than cannabis, most drug users who do the harder stuff dont really bother with cannabis as it doesn't offer anything near the experiences they're after....

Quite a few open comments here.. Neat.

But surely someones got to say.. "I puffed it but didn't inhaile"
Or is that just Politicians talk..hmmm.

I've never touched the stuff, never been near a ciggy either nor any other "recreational" drug for that matter.

I'm just not keen on this "not being in control thing" I know some have the ability of kicking back, but me, well I relax in different ways.

They are taller too.

I was there for the Giro last year and have a mate who is 6'8" and they all thought he was Dutch and started speaking to him in Flemish/Dutch at times made me chuckle.

TJ, is it only certain areas in the Netherlands you can use it?I.e Amsterdam etc or is it certain establishments all over the Netherlands?

be sure that most of the money generated by drug sales is used to fund significant criminal activity

Can someone explain this - presumably criminals think, aha, I'll sell drugs, so that I can make enough money to keep my loss making hobby in prostitution going? Or am I missing the point - surely when people do the big bad 'significant' crime, they are doing it to make money, so I don't see why they need the money from drugs in order to make other crime make money?

Joe

Martin - it (cannabis) is decriminalised and sold in shops anywhere in the country. there is fairly strict controls over how and when. for example cannabis "coffee" shops cannot sell alcohol. Limits on quantities that you can buy as well

There are rules about how near schools IIRC and so on.

Phil.. I agree completely with the pre-dispostion comment.

But... I think anyone that relies longterm on weed, is using it to substitute, or compensate for something, an inadequacy they feel in their lives perhaps.
They use it to hide from this reality and it seems to drive negative behaviour... too many people I know who smoke a lot regularly are compulsive liars... they live in a fabricated world alligned to reality, but it's not real. They are 'successful' professionals and weed keeps them cocooned in a false happiness... they are not happy though.

Didnt we decrimialise it before? OR Was that declassify it?

Maybe a trail by the government in London / Manchester etc would be a good idea if what you're saying is true?

Mind you, our government doesnt do common sense?

My only experiance with cannabis is seeing a mate monged all the time, so dont really see him now. I dont or never have touched drugs (well apart from caffine) or ciggaretts so its not a subject I know.

oops double post!