Harmful effects of Weed?

LegacyUser

Hi everyone,

I've been having a constant battle with myself over whether or not to quit smoking weed. The problem for me is that there are just so many things to take into account before I can reach a solid conclusion for myself.

Before I begin, my intention for starting this thread is to get plausible facts/ advice from smokers and non- smokers alike and then (hopefully) come to a conclusion fairly quickly.

Well basically I'm in my early twenties and have been smoking weed regularly for the past 4 and a half years. By "regularly" I mean on average I've smoked once a week since I started.

At this point in time, I've come to a standstill. I'm not sure whether or not marijuana has had a negative affect on my life or not. Whatever I feel weed has done to me psychologically could be attributed to other factors in my life equally as likely (e.g trauma)- or maybe not- that's what I'm uncertain about.

My main concern with smoking weed are the long term effects that it is on the brain:

Quite often my brain feels cloudy/ foggy and occasionally I feel like I'm not doing justice to myself by smoking weed and hence not allowing my brain to work at its optimum level. During lectures, I tend to lose concentration and drift away into day dreams. Also, sometimes I really have to read a sentences 4/5 times to understand it which could be due to a combination of bad concentration/ becoming slow. Again, I don't know if all these symptoms are a result of smoking (some questionable) weed or are they due to some other reasons, like not using my brain enough by not studying as much/ as hard.

I've always been a top student (well until the LC anyway) and at this moment in my life, I feel like I could be working so much harder in college. I realize that it would be very foolish/ stupid of me to let the opportunities I have pass me by. Do any of you smokers feel like weed has "dumbed" you down and kept you in a "bubble". If you have quit, do you see an improvement?

I think that it has made me into some what of an introvert and it has DEFINITELY made me more paranoid. I've been starting to look at trivial matters e.g getting a prank phone call from 20 different angles and getting worked up each time.

I have close friends with full time jobs, highly intelligent people, who smoke a lot on a daily basis and seem to have no problem with it. I also have friends who've failed/ barely passed college exams only to realize weed isn't for them. I specifically know of one person who smokes weed ( I don't know how frequently) and is doing a PhD in Maths. Therefore, its very difficult for me to make a decision by looking at how it affects others. But who's to say the former group of people won't fail in future?

On the contrary, all the smokers out there know how great it is to kick back after a long week and get shtoned. It definitely does heighten experiences (but so does ecstasy/ heroin?), relaxes muscles and helps to see things very insightfully (not even a word :P). But could the same level of insightfullness (:P) be reached without smoking?

Even though I enjoy smoking, I don't agree with people who say "ah maaan, its natural- its put on the earth for us to smoke, its just a plant". I'm pretty sure its possible to die from eating/ smoking certain species of poisonous plants- which are also natural.

Moreover, I also disagree with those who claim that its okay to smoke because its less harmful than alcohol. Although I am of the opinion that it is less harmful overall ( e.g I find it perfectly okay to drive stoned, there hasn't been a single recorded fatality from 'overdosing' on weed, you don't lose your inhibitions when stoned), these are two separate issues. Cocaine is less harmful than heroine, but that doesn't mean its okay to snort.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing all ye'r experiences with weed and how it effected ye, for the better or worse.

Thanks!

OP, we're not giving you advice on something illegal.
In addition to that, medical advice is not allowed in this forum

thanks