Cannabis smokers and their smugness

Grand Moff Tarkin · 16-04-2013 11:48AM

From personal experience i can tell you good folks that it is a lot more easy to give up weed and hash than giving up alcohol.

Lenin Skynard · 16-04-2013 11:49AM

RebelSoul wrote: »

McDonalds is more damaging to your health than cannabis. How about that.

Those gherkins don't burn well in a spliff at all.

jimeryan22 · 16-04-2013 11:52AM

Look up "1972 Schaffer report". Prob the definitive report done on canabis
And done by the federal government, not some anti smoking lobby.
And rebelsoul.... So true.. "Supersize me".....

EazyD · 16-04-2013 11:58AM

People will always be naive/misinformed about things they have never had direct experience with, prohibition and alcohol lobbies have not helped that, and neither does the tired old narrative of "I know plenty of....etc". Baseless "facts" undermine the baseless reasoning and logic behind such strong opinions. Not to scutinize every word here but that in itself is a somewhat smug position to adopt.

--Kaiser-- · 16-04-2013 11:59AM

RebelSoul wrote: »

McDonalds is more damaging to your health than cannabis. How about that.

This statement is utterly meaningless without specifying the amounts and frequency of each

Seachmall · 16-04-2013 12:00PM

jimeryan22 wrote: »

And done by the federal government, not some anti smoking lobby.

...

120_Minutes · 16-04-2013 12:05PM

I cant wait till its legalised so there'll be less ****ing threads like this.

The Clown Man · 16-04-2013 12:06PM

Well whatever the case as far as health associated with smoking or ingesting cannabis goes, does anyone really and truly believe that the system in place is working to any degree at all?

It's fantastically ironic that cannabis has never killed anyone directly but our way of regulating it leads to shootings, killings and misery. And yet people still argue that this is a good idea? How can anyone argue from a morally comfortable seat that prohibition and criminalisation is the best way to handle cannabis?

The only real thing cannabis does in Ireland to any large negative degree is fuel the criminal culture to a steady rise and pay for guns in the hands of nut jobs.

People are more intent on "choosing sides" than looking for a logical solution. And the key problems cannabis presents at the moment are:

1. the needless criminalisation of harmless, morally sound individuals who otherwise smoke cannabis, and
2. the giant paydays that importing and trading criminals can continue to look forward to.

These are the only real negative effects of cannabis in Ireland today.

Oh, and the OP was nothing but uninformed drivel from start to finish. It's so far wide of the truth in almost every sentence that it simply must be trolling.

kylith · 16-04-2013 12:11PM

smash wrote: »

I already told you: Based on personal experience of this attitude.

So it's anecdotal evidence of a, probably, self-selecting group of people*, with the level of 'smugness' measured solely by your own opinion?

Sounds absolutely like something I should take a large amount of notice of :rolleyes:

*i.e. that they 'self selected' to tell you about their cannabis use. As someone else said you've probably met hundreds more stoners than you think you have.

the_barfly1 · 16-04-2013 12:15PM

thanks op, you've just reminded me that it's 4/20 this saturday. Gotta get sorted

Sergeant · 16-04-2013 12:17PM

Using AH as a qualitative guide it would appear that smoking the herb has a negative affect on the parts of the brain dealing with logic and abstract reasoning.

Mr Benevolent · 16-04-2013 12:22PM

Sergeant wrote: »

Using AH as a qualitative guide it would appear that smoking the herb has a negative affect on the parts of the brain dealing with logic and abstract reasoning.

Just like alcohol so.

Thatnastyboy · 16-04-2013 12:26PM

Sergeant wrote: »

Using AH as a qualitative guide it would appear that smoking the herb has a negative affect on the parts of the brain dealing with logic and abstract reasoning.

Using AH as a qualitative guide it would appear that not smoking the herb has a negative affect on the parts of the brain that deal with logic and any form of reasoning.

Sadderday · 16-04-2013 12:29PM

2 lion bars, a white roll with butter, chicken, lettuce & mayo, multipack of wheelies and snax, fizzy jellies......... cover all bases cos when it hits, it hits hard

marvin

The Clown Man · 16-04-2013 12:31PM

Sergeant wrote: »

Using AH as a qualitative guide it would appear that smoking the herb has a negative affect on the parts of the brain dealing with logic and abstract reasoning.

Quite the opposite, my man.

It does show how vigorously some people cling to painfully uninformed, moral high horses though.

It would be amusing only for the fact that Ireland is absolutely littered with these people.

smash · 16-04-2013 12:36PM

kylith wrote: »

So it's anecdotal evidence of a, probably, self-selecting group of people*, with the level of 'smugness' measured solely by your own opinion?

Sounds absolutely like something I should take a large amount of notice of :rolleyes:

*i.e. that they 'self selected' to tell you about their cannabis use. As someone else said you've probably met hundreds more stoners than you think you have.

I never asked you to take any amount of notice of my opinion. Do with it as you please. No skin off my nose.

DyldeBrill · 16-04-2013 12:41PM

Dunno where the OP was getting his weed from with it being filled with tar and the likes....Can't say I've smoked any weed riddled with tar.

Of course cannabis is safer that alcohol.When have you heard of someone dying because he/she consumed too much weed? if anything the result of this will be a deep sleep.And sure we all know what too much alcohol can do

You can't say, that if you smoke weed, you've a greater chance of suffering from a mental illness...bullshít. This comes down to the person themselves and as someone has said before me, its a small minority that suffer from this that usually have a history of mental illness within their gene pool.

Yes, I admit cannabis is not for everyone, but to others it is a mere relaxant. Depends what weed you get as different g has different effects on you, none of them devastating.

and if your views are to the contrary, then you have just about 99% of scientific literature out there and real life evidence against you and your habit.

really....where? please provide this so called "evidence"

Playboy · 16-04-2013 12:52PM

The Clown Man wrote: »

Well whatever the case as far as health associated with smoking or ingesting cannabis goes, does anyone really and truly believe that the system in place is working to any degree at all?

It's fantastically ironic that cannabis has never killed anyone directly but our way of regulating it leads to shootings, killings and misery. And yet people still argue that this is a good idea? How can anyone argue from a morally comfortable seat that prohibition and criminalisation is the best way to handle cannabis?

The only real thing cannabis does in Ireland to any large negative degree is fuel the criminal culture to a steady rise and pay for guns in the hands of nut jobs.

People are more intent on "choosing sides" than looking for a logical solution. And the key problems cannabis presents at the moment are:

1. the needless criminalisation of harmless, morally sound individuals who otherwise smoke cannabis, and
2. the giant paydays that importing and trading criminals can continue to look forward to.

These are the only real negative effects of cannabis in Ireland today.

Oh, and the OP was nothing but uninformed drivel from start to finish. It's so far wide of the truth in almost every sentence that it simply must be trolling.

Wouldn't the problem also be solved if the people participating in the illegal sourcing and use of cannabis would just stop? Is it that important to your everyday life that you fund the drug dealers who instigate all these killings and misery? Not very moral of users to fund this sort of activity is it? Sounds like the opponents of legalisation are not the only people on a high horse. The funny thing about high horses is that the people on them always seem to be on the other side of the debate and always seem to claiming some sort of intellectual superiority... just as you have done in your couple of posts.

The fact is that legalisation or decriminalisation is an unknown quantity for the Government. Nobody knows what the impact would be. We can look at other countries but the Netherlands is hardly a unparalleled success story is it? It was decriminalised and then re-criminalised in the UK within a short space of time... what were the reasons for that? I was in London at the time and the use of cannabis seemed to go through the roof as all of a sudden you could smell it everywhere. This may be down to users being more comfortable with using in public or it may be down to increased usage.. who knows? But I didn't appreciate getting smacked in the face with the pong of skunk twenty times a day. When it was re-criminalised the smell disappeared again... I was thankful for the decrease in air pollution!

The government has enough of a **** storm to deal with in the economy than to worry about the 'rights' of a tiny group of people whose main goal is to be free to get stoned without worrying about the legal repercussions. It is a phase for most people... and it will pass in time so just continue buying off your local dealer until you get bored with it.

RebelSoul · 16-04-2013 12:54PM

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

This statement is utterly meaningless without specifying the amounts and frequency of each

This statement is utterly meaningless without understanding the point of said statement.

Boombastic · 16-04-2013 12:56PM

Playboy wrote: »

................
The government has enough of a **** storm to deal with in the economy than to worry about the 'rights' of a tiny group of people whose main goal is to be free to get stoned without worrying about the legal repercussions. It is a phase for most people... and it will pass in time so just continue buying off your local dealer until you get bored with it.

Would legalising it help stimulate the economy?

Snake Pliisken · 16-04-2013 12:59PM

Playboy wrote: »

Cannabis is a phase for most people.... Late teens to mid to late twenties and then it becomes too much of a pain in the arse or people get bored with it. It's not good for you, it's not particularly bad for you if you are a moderate user.

Moderate use... sounds like a plan.

Playboy wrote: »

Most people smoke weed with cigarette tobacco which is probably more harmful to their health.

It is, it's worse than smoking either by themselves. People continue to do this for many reasons, either ignorance, financial reasons, hiding use while in public or personal choice. If it wasn't illegal, the cost would be down, people wouldn't need to hide their use, there would be free relevant information that people would be given instead of the regular blanket prohibition scare mongering, the only reason to continue to mix your cannabis with tobacco would be personal choice. Wouldn't that be the best situation?

Playboy wrote: »

I do feel that people do underestimate the impact regular cannabis smoking has on their minds. It is a habit forming drug which has an associated culture. People get into cannabis and their lives can revolve around it. We all have a stoner friend who is a walking cliche but even the people who smoke regularly who are not so obvious can find that it can hold them back in life.

Some people are naive when it comes to the impact of this particular drug, some people are also completely terrified and enraged by its existence; I think that can be said about literally anything.
I don't see the point you're making about the culture, young people often attach themselves to a peer group whose values match theirs. The culture surrounding cannabis is easy going, forgiving, generally happy, vibrant and sometimes curious. I think it's a lot less harmful than some other subcultures people can get involved with.

Playboy wrote: »

Now I don't want to get into a philosophical debate about 'life' and different people's aspirations but people should recognise that cannabis for better or worse can give people a different perspective on life. A change in perspective can be as dangerous as it can be positive.

You mean people dropping out of their business degree course after smoking because they've seen society as nothing more than a vacuous rat race controlled by greedy slave drivers?
Information is a volatile thing, when you've had some line drilled into you your entire life about how things 'are' by those you considered your betters and you haven't been given the critical thinking skills to judge new, contradicting information you've received from a new experience, it can lead you to some weird, stark conclusions.
If you give people the critical thinking skills needed to navigate life instead of indoctrinating them into a culture that has some serious ****e treaded into it's very fabric, maybe a change in perspective would be a more positive thing?

Playboy wrote: »

I know many ex smokers (myself to a certain extent also) who look back and think only of the amount of time wasted, the lack of ambition, the apathy towards life etc and wish they could have the time back to do something more useful with it. I'm not saying it isn't possible to function and have a normal life as a cannabis smoker or that its not possible to be successful (especially if you work creatively) but I do believe normal life and its ambition take somewhat of a backseat when most people are smoking regularly.
I do believe that this is one of the reasons why it's not legal as the powers that be simply do not believe that it has any beneficial effect on society and that legalising it would cause an increase in consumption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avU2aarQUiU

The drug is not the only thing to be blamed for someone's failings, it's just as much a contributor as anything else that happened in these people's lives but to singularly blame the drug they decided to sink their lives into is pure scapegoating. A person's character is the sum of their life's experience, if people waste their lives away it's because they haven't gotten access the tools needed to navigate life, presently some of these rules are not given freely by our society because it needs people to fail.

Why do people feel the need to excess? Why do people feel they don't have the ability to control themselves? These problems are much deeper than a lot of people would like to think and banning substances does not even come close as a solution.

Playboy wrote: »

I also believe that people underestimate the danger of mental illness for long term regular cannabis users. People do develope psychosis from cannabis amongst paranoia, mild OCD, anxiety and other mental issues. Unless mental illness is particularly severe then a lot of people simply do not seek help as there is still a certain stigma attached to it.

If you can stand listening to him for two minutes, Ming has some very interesting things to say on this matter. It's a very complicated issue and I think he articulates it better than I would be able to in a couple hundred word post on the fly.

G Power · 16-04-2013 01:01PM

Boombastic wrote: »

Would legalising it help stimulate the economy?

legalising the male and female hemp plant for the males many industrial uses and the female for it's many medical and recreational uses will do so much good for the economy. it's the most versatile plant on the planet so imagine our export economy getting a massive boost and that's just the male plant!!

G Power · 16-04-2013 01:01PM

Snake Pliisken wrote: »

Moderate use... sounds like a plan.

It is, it's worse than smoking either by themselves. People continue to do this for many reasons, either ignorance, financial reasons, hiding use while in public or personal choice. If it wasn't illegal, the cost would be down, people wouldn't need to hide their use, there would be free relevant information that people would be given instead of the regular blanket prohibition scare mongering, the only reason to continue to mix your cannabis with tobacco would be personal choice. Wouldn't that be the best situation?

Some people are naive when it comes to the impact of this particular drug, some people are also completely terrified and enraged by its existence; I think that can be said about literally anything.
I don't see the point you're making about the culture, young people often attach themselves to a peer group whose values match theirs. The culture surrounding cannabis is easy going, forgiving, generally happy, vibrant and sometimes curious. I think it's a lot less harmful than some other subcultures people can get involved with.

You mean people dropping out of their business degree course after smoking because they've seen society as nothing more than a vacuous rat race controlled by greedy slave drivers?
Information is a volatile thing, when you've had some line drilled into you your entire life about how things 'are' by those you considered your betters and you haven't been given the critical thinking skills to judge new, contradicting information you've received from a new experience, it can lead you to some weird, stark conclusions.
If you give people the critical thinking skills needed to navigate life instead of indoctrinating them into a culture that has some serious ****e treaded into it's very fabric, maybe a change in perspective would be a more positive thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avU2aarQUiU

The drug is not the only thing to be blamed for someone's failings, it's just as much a contributor as anything else that happened in these people's lives but to singularly blame the drug they decided to sink their lives into is pure scapegoating. A person's character is the sum of their life's experience, if people waste their lives away it's because they haven't gotten access the tools needed to navigate life, presently some of these rules are not given freely by our society because it needs people to fail.

Why do people feel the need to excess? Why do people feel they don't have the ability to control themselves? These problems are much deeper than a lot of people would like to think and banning substances does not even come close as a solution.

If you can stand listening to him for two minutes, Ming has some very interesting things to say on this matter. It's a very complicated issue and I think he articulates it better than I would be able to in a couple hundred word post on the fly.

it's not like he's Brian Cowen ffs!!

DyldeBrill · 16-04-2013 01:14PM

Playboy wrote: »

Wouldn't the problem also be solved if the people participating in the illegal sourcing and use of cannabis would just stop? Is it that important to your everyday life that you fund the drug dealers who instigate all these killings and misery? Not very moral of users to fund this sort of activity is it? Sounds like the opponents of legalisation are not the only people on a high horse. The funny thing about high horses is that the people on them always seem to be on the other side of the debate and always seem to claiming some sort of intellectual superiority... just as you have done in your couple of posts.

The fact is that legalisation or decriminalisation is an unknown quantity for the Government. Nobody knows what the impact would be. We can look at other countries but the Netherlands is hardly a unparalleled success story is it? It was decriminalised and then re-criminalised in the UK within a short space of time... what were the reasons for that? I was in London at the time and the use of cannabis seemed to go through the roof as all of a sudden you could smell it everywhere. This may be down to users being more comfortable with using in public or it may be down to increased usage.. who knows? But I didn't appreciate getting smacked in the face with the pong of skunk twenty times a day. When it was re-criminalised the smell disappeared again... I was thankful for the decrease in air pollution!

The government has enough of a **** storm to deal with in the economy than to worry about the 'rights' of a tiny group of people whose main goal is to be free to get stoned without worrying about the legal repercussions. It is a phase for most people... and it will pass in time so just continue buying off your local dealer until you get bored with it.

Tell me about the cons of cannabis within The Netherlands?? Apart from it being smuggled into border countries or countries abroad, what damage has it caused them as a country? The decrease in air pollution you say....? So, just because these people decided to smoke joints, our ecosystem is suddenly suffering a great deal more....I think your just nit-picking here. Tobacco smoke is a great deal more harmful than that of cannabis smoke.

Fair enough you may not like the smell of it, which is unusual, because even my non smoking friends like the smell but admit it just isn't for them.

The government has enough of a **** storm to deal with in the economy than to worry about the 'rights' of a tiny group of people whose main goal is to be free to get stoned without worrying about the legal repercussions

What? If anything there is a huge group of people and maybe if it was legalized to a certain extent the government could gain from it.Instead of drug dealers gaining massive amounts of money on the black market , let the government tax it.If the cannabis smokers were such a small group we wouldn't be seeing the progress of its state in the US. And what's all this about being free?....are we not already?

16-04-2013 01:15PM

I just want to add my own experience, specifically to the 'gateway drug' theory. There is no sensor/switch in your body that triggers when you smoke cannabis and makes you all of a sudden desire heroin, meth or coke. The gateway part comes from the dealer. Over the years I've encountered a fair few vendors, most of whom were only into their smoke and no other substances. Then there's the handful of vendors I've dealt with who try to push stronger substances in your direction. Such phrases have been uttered to me as the following over the years:

"Will you take a bag of Charlie with your weed?"
"Do you want some pills? I can do you a bag of 50 for 200 quid."
"Do any of your mates take speed? Sure take the bag anyway and pay me in a week."
"Ah you're wasting your money on the weed, you'll not get a better buzz than this coke."

I'm happy to say that I've never once been tempted to purchase any of these other substances from a weed dealer and once they'd start to push me in that direction, I'd find a new vendor. But that's not to say that the next customer will be as strong-willed. I find the majority of vendors I've dealt with over the years to be not the kind of guys I'd go out for a pint with. It is ridiculous that those of us who smoke/smoked have to deal with such nefarious characters in order to obtain a plant that grows in the ground. YES I made the decision to associate myself with such people, but the war against cannabis is failing miserably. There have been many seizures in the news in the past few months and still it's piss easy to get a bag of good quality herb. Seriously, because I do keep up with the news, why are the amount of cannabis seizures outweighing coke/heroin/other seizures by at least 5:1? Yeah cause it's weed addicts lining the main streets of our nation's capital during daylight hours.:rolleyes:

Btw OP, I don't get smug at all about my cannabis use, I don't think I'm taking a healthy/harmless drug but it is my choice. It's just these days I'd far rather wake-up with the feeling of a night on the smoke than a night on the batter.

BGozIE · 16-04-2013 01:31PM

I have never seen a thread crash and burn so badly for the OP...Pretty much nobody agree'd with his/her point of view...On that note...

Down with that sort of thing

Sergeant · 16-04-2013 01:35PM

G Power wrote: »

legalising the male and female hemp plant for the males many industrial uses and the female for it's many medical and recreational uses will do so much good for the economy. it's the most versatile plant on the planet so imagine our export economy getting a massive boost and that's just the male plant!!

Why didn't Noonan think of this before!

Reindeer · 16-04-2013 01:40PM

GD88 wrote: »

Now before I begin, yes I've smoked the stuff in the past, but I haven't smoked it for the past two years, and I've also done personal research on this, so I believe I know what I am talking about. I don't really understand how or why so many cannabis smokers are so smug and naive when it comes to their habit. Talk to many of them, and you would be given the impression that cannabis was merely just another 5-a-day of a person's daily greens, or just "a herb". Much of the debate surrounding the issue amongst it's users is clouded in nonsensical rhetoric about it been "harmless", "good for your health", "less harmful than alcohol", "non-addictive" etc. However if any of these individuals actually took the time to investigate what cannabis does to the user as opposed to relying on second-hand knowledge and hearsay from others within the cannabis smoking community, they would then understand that,

(a) No cannabis is not healthy, it is no healthier than tobacco or inhaling cigarette smoke. It contains chemicals, carbon monoxide, tar and other harmful ingredients to the human body. Cannabis smoke is no safer than cigarette smoke for the body, the lungs in particular.

(b) "It is not addictive". Well hold on, yes it is technically addictive, if not in the physical sense, it's an addictive substance in the psychological sense. And if anything a psychological addiction (as many cigarette smokers can attest to) can be even more overpowering through habit forming than that of a physical dependency.

(c) "Cannabis is safer than alcohol". No it isn't. Granted that binge drinking and going beyond the weekly 20 unit level of consumption, or drinking too much in one go is bad for one's health, the liver in particular - moderate drinking, of wine in particular has been proven to have health benefits. In fact studies have shown that moderate drinkers even outlive complete abstainers by a few years. Also drinkers are not taking in carbon monoxide and tar into their systems such as is the case with cannabis smokers.

(d) "Science and medicine are now using cannabis to help out cancer patients". This is one of the chief underlying justifications amongst cannabis smokers that they are indeed onto something within the health department when it comes to their use of cannabis. Well no there is a difference, yes - certain cancer patients have been given CBD to use in a non-smoking format, but nobody is giving cancer patients weed with it's THC content to smoke, so that these patients would be getting stoned in order to improve their prospects of recovery.

(e) The link between cannabis use and mental illness. It has been proven time and time again, that cannabis use within users is linked to a greater chance of contracting mental illness, sometimes very serious mental illnesses, so much so that many users are hospitalised as a direct result of their use of cannabis.

I could go on of course, but I would just like to put this out there as too many cannabis smokers I feel are smug, naive and ill-informed about their habit. No it's not just some harmless, non-addictive, lovey-dovey herb. It is not a safe substance to be inhaling under any circumstances, regardless of what you want to believe to the contrary, and if your views are to the contrary, then you have just about 99% of scientific literature out there and real life evidence against you and your habit.

Dude, like... woahhhh...

The Clown Man · 16-04-2013 01:58PM

Playboy, I'm actually glad to see some rational argument for prohibition rather than the usual crap that comes from people blindly arguing against.

You make some good points, well put forward.

There are a few things that I'd comment on.

Playboy wrote: »

Wouldn't the problem also be solved if the people participating in the illegal sourcing and use of cannabis would just stop?

True, but humans have been using drugs since the dawn of time and still are, and it must be for a reason. What's difficult to quantify is the positive effects drugs have on the psychological mind set of a person.

So let's not. Let's instead look at the prevalence of drug use in Ireland. We are a nation of binge drinkers along with lots of nations that share our temperate climate - UK, Nords, Japan to name a few. Why? I dunno. But the prevalence alone suggests that it is an important factor in human society especially when leisure time is scuppered by bad weather.

But do we have any alternative to alcohol as a social drug? No. Should we be looking for or at least open to less damaging alternatives? Of course.

Playboy wrote: »

The funny thing about high horses is that the people on them always seem to be on the other side of the debate and always seem to claiming some sort of intellectual superiority... just as you have done in your couple of posts.

Fair point.

Playboy wrote: »

The fact is that legalisation or decriminalisation is an unknown quantity for the Government. Nobody knows what the impact would be. We can look at other countries but the Netherlands is hardly a unparalleled success story is it? It was decriminalised and then re-criminalised in the UK within a short space of time... what were the reasons for that? I was in London at the time and the use of cannabis seemed to go through the roof as all of a sudden you could smell it everywhere. This may be down to users being more comfortable with using in public or it may be down to increased usage.. who knows? But I didn't appreciate getting smacked in the face with the pong of skunk twenty times a day. When it was re-criminalised the smell disappeared again... I was thankful for the decrease in air pollution!

Actually, the UK is a bad example. When you legalise something previously prohibited of course there is going to be a free for all afterwards, which subsides over time. Decriminalisation and recriminalisation within a short period is always going to be a mess.

Better examples are Netherlands and, even better IMO, Portugal. Have a closer look at how Portugal has been effected and they decriminalised almost every drug. (Possession anyway)

Playboy wrote: »

The government has enough of a **** storm to deal with in the economy than to worry about the 'rights' of a tiny group of people whose main goal is to be free to get stoned without worrying about the legal repercussions. It is a phase for most people... and it will pass in time so just continue buying off your local dealer until you get bored with it.

Actually, if I was not forced to drink alcohol alone as a means for winding down at the weekends, I would probably leave it behind me entirely. Alcohol is a highly toxic substance (used to assuredly kill any micro biotic contamination in labs for example) while cannabinoids are 100% non-toxic and therefore an awful lot better for you. As long as you are not using tobacco.

Would I like a healthy alternative to alcohol? Absolutely. But who cares about me.

However, introducing cannabis as an alternative cannot do any harm to our national alcohol problem. It can only help. And the cost of implementing it is tiny. A net positive effect on hospital demand was seen in Portugal for example. And, the income for the exchequer from tax would be fairly substantial. Colorado and Washington are seeing this now.

So why not?

And, just for context, I did smoke it and I did stop, years ago. I just realised one day that I didn't want to hand money to criminals. And I haven't since.

I've have countless realisations with tobacco and alcohol before but I'm still working on those. I'd love to have cannabis as an alternative to alcohol. The nicotine, though, that's tough. Why was it ever available to me at all? It's got no positives, only negatives. But what does a person care at 15?

And people, please don't attack Playboy, someone who is being polite and concise and simply arguing a point.

kylith · 16-04-2013 02:04PM

smash wrote: »

I never asked you to take any amount of notice of my opinion. Do with it as you please. No skin off my nose.

If you don't want people to take any notice of what you say then why are you posting it at all?

stankratz wrote: »

I just want to add my own experience, specifically to the 'gateway drug' theory. There is no sensor/switch in your body that triggers when you smoke cannabis and makes you all of a sudden desire heroin, meth or coke. The gateway part comes from the dealer. Over the years I've encountered a fair few vendors, most of whom were only into their smoke and no other substances. Then there's the handful of vendors I've dealt with who try to push stronger substances in your direction. Such phrases have been uttered to me as the following over the years:

"Will you take a bag of Charlie with your weed?"
"Do you want some pills? I can do you a bag of 50 for 200 quid."
"Do any of your mates take speed? Sure take the bag anyway and pay me in a week."
"Ah you're wasting your money on the weed, you'll not get a better buzz than this coke."

I'm happy to say that I've never once been tempted to purchase any of these other substances from a weed dealer and once they'd start to push me in that direction, I'd find a new vendor.

This is certainly the crux of the 'gateway' issue. I've never had a dealer offer me pills or coke, but I know that if I were to ask they'd certainly sell me some.

Cannabis smokers and their smugness

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