Seroius question, one for the regular weed smokers. Sensible advice much appreciated!

I've been a regular smoker of the green, average 3-4 nights per week for the last 5 years and have gone through phases of 7 nights a week on occasion. I've always avoided posting in weed threads on Boards before but the OP's 'dilemma' reminded me of a similar experience from when I first started going out with my current girlfriend.

From the first few dates I gathered that she was very anti-drugs/ drugs are bad mmm kay, and we were getting on like a children's hospital on fire (c'mon it's AH!) but of course I beared the same worries that the OP does now. I will admit that I 'downplayed' (read: lied) about my usage in the early days. I told her I had 'the odd smoke' but eventually before we moved in together I had to come clean with her as I was then of the same frame of mind as the OP, i.e. 'I love my weed and don't plan on stopping anytime soon'. When I told her, she admitted that her anti-drugs stance solely came from a very conservative upbringing and she had no first-hand experience with any drugs. I moved into her house and fair play to her, she was cool with me smoking. Once she seen first hand that weed didn't turn me into a zombie or was counter-productive to me, but actually did quite the opposite, she couldn't understand why it was illegal and had such a bad rep. No doubt, I probably went on a ramble something like 'it's the corporations man, they'd lose too much money blah blah'. She even tried it a few times herself with me but said she got nothing off it, and I could see that it was just wasted on her So anyway, that's my story in relation to the OP. But since I'm here I'm gonna go on a bit.

Anyone who claims marijuana is harmless is wrong, and that is just that. Personally I have noticed in the last year that I am second guessing myself more often than ever when it comes to things like spelling and basic maths, things that have never been a problem for me. And it's not lack of practice as I write a lot and always have done.

Also every once in a while when I am talking, a word might completely drop out of my head and I'd have to wrack my brain trying to recall the lost word, and I'm not talking about a word like 'onomatopoeia', the word could be as simple as 'diverge'. Anyway, do I have hard medical evidence to back up my claim? No, but I'm very sure it's the weed.

I am also sure that it is psychologically addictive. There were times when the thoughts of not having any weed to smoke as I caught up on the latest episodes of any of my favourite shows was dire, it was hard to get back into the frame of mind of doing things that I'd normally do while smoking a joint, without smoking a joint. i.e. relax, write, compose, drive (ok that last one was an attempt at humour). But that said there were weeks when I wouldn't have a smoke, and not once have I ever felt any physical strain or anxiety or sickness. So yes I believe it is psychologically addictive, but not physically. These are all personal experiences. If we look at my friend who has been smoking chronically for 12 years now, oh fúck his brain is fried. I'm not gonna list examples of his behaviour but he isn't too far from a worst case scenario.

So that's me and weed, in a nutshell's nutshell. Before anyone comes in with (as if anyone even read this far!) 'Of course if you do _______ as often as that you will feel effects', I may have smoked regularly in terms of days, but I always smoked to get high, not shít-brained. Rarely have I ever smoked more than 2 joints in a night. As of now, I am down to 1-2 nights a week, a place that a couple of years ago I never thought I'd want to be in. It is looking like I probably will just naturally go off it in the near future as it doesn't do nearly as much for me as it once did. Anyway, true story.

^^^And no, I don't know how you are going to get that 3 minutes of your life back!

Brain Stroking wrote: »

I smoked for 10 years up to 31st December last yr and have given up completely. Have gone out with anti-drug girls in the past and its just a pain in the arse. Plus you are lying to them the whole time and it probably meant that things could never push on and get serious for me as i always felt i was deceiving her.
And those saying "does it not get boring?" obviously never smoked. Because life is sooooo boring since i stopped. TV is ****e. Live sport marathons feel like marathons and i find myself putting in a lot more time at the office. In other words, life sucks. Smoking removes that. But i aint going back

100% fair play to you and the best of luck. You've obviously done a lot of reasonable thinking about it and went with the most logical choice, irrespective of your actual 'want'. Apt username considering the subject! Just on your 'does it not get boring' point, did you never find that sometimes you'd smoke so much that the lines between stoned and sober would become meshed, that you couldn't really feel a proper hit from a joint because it turns out that you were perma-stoned from smoking so much? I ask because that's what happened to me. Now though, because I smoke a joint or two a week, I can feel it instantly and it's better than it's been for a long time.

Ah I feel dirty now 'dissing' my old friend Maria Juanita, she's been more than good to me more often than not, but for the long term I do not believe that regular use will do much for my brain. All good things come to an end as they say.