[hughrr]

I knew some of them before they started using it. It’s almost entirely the cannabis. Including the dude now in psychiatric care after it kicked his schizophrenia hard.

Everyone was promoted it as harmless. It’s not. I’m seeing lives wrecked.

And yes I know alcohol is bad. But I see less long term damage from that as most people seem to grow out of alcoholism I have know. Cannabis not so much - it becomes the primary thing they live for and around. All conversation ends up on it.

[eurasiantiger]

I think your viewpoint might be biased — do you know any people who haven’t had their lives wrecked because of cannabis?

Is cannabis legal where you live? Criminality causes stress and paranoia.

Are you living in a heavily Christian environment? Asking because in heavily religious environments, schizophrenia with religious illusions often occurs as a result of internal conflict between sin-programming and self-perception.

Is cannabis socially accepted or are people forced to choose between cannabis and other people? Social exclusion has in some studies been ranked more stressful than getting raped, so some sort of social PTSD can be expected to develop in these kind of environments to those who get excluded.

[hughrr]

I am in my late 40s. Most of the proponents are a lot younger. They haven’t seen the impact it has on them until they get older. That’s not bias.

As for other points I’m an atheist with zero religious values at all. I have used it myself as well. And I’m in a country in a city where no one gives a crap. I’m about as unbiased as you can get.

As for sins, I’m a pretty big fan of them as whole.

The issue here is with the perception that it is harmless which it is definitely not.

[denton-scratch]

I'm in my mid-sixties (and I'm not a proponent - I would never propound the recreational use of any drug). Maybe I'm not old enough to observe the effects you are referring to. But frankly I think this is arse-over-tit: I think it's young people, with little experience, that are most likely to be harmed by pot. Young people are more likely than older people to experience schizo for the first time; such people are less likely to be cautious in their use of pot. If you're over 40, and you've been using it since your teens, then I don't think you're likely to get many surprises from pot.

I did get a hypotension episode a few years ago, as a result of starting a new strain a bit over-enthusiastically. But even coffee can cause palpitations, if you drink too much just because you like drinking coffee.

My understanding is that certain high-THC strains are much more likely to give rise to psychological problems than other strains. I'm not aware that CBD as such can result in psychological problems.

[eurasiantiger]

> My understanding is that certain high-THC strains are much more likely to give rise to psychological problems than other strains

Ah, the good ol’ skunk scarecrow.

People have been making various grades of hashish for millennia, with THC content many times that of dry flower — you’d think someone would have noticed if it was more likely to produce psychological issues?

Yet, there is no high-THC hash scare — it’s almost if someone wanted you to avoid good quality cannabis and be content consuming whatever ditch weed global criminal organisations produce.

[denton-scratch]

> People have been making various grades of hashish for millennia

Hashish is generally made with high-CBD strains (which is partly why hash tends to mong you out more than weed).

It seems there is evidence that CBD moderates the trippy effects of THC, and reduces the propensity of the product to trigger psychotic states in suceptible individuals.

BTW: in my experience, modern weed strains are beaten in terms of hit-per-gram only by the rarest, highest-grade black hash.

[eurasiantiger]

It’s not true that hashish is made from high-CBD strains. That idea seems to be based on the common misunderstanding that indica strains have more CBD in them.

There are various types of hashish; the traditional Moroccan screened variety is almost certainly all cultivated indica, but Himalayan charas is almost certainly all landrace sativa.

[wordsarelies]

Do something that alters your baseline consciousness long enough and it becomes your baseline. Doing anything over a long period of time with regularity will change you.

You have definitely met pot smokers who have, and do live perfectly normal lives because their baseline is better. You probably have no idea who they are.

[eurasiantiger]

It is also very possible for cannabis to be an improvement to the baseline. There are many, many people who could not function in society and work for their living without cannabis, be it due to MS-related spasticity, PTSD-related hypervigilance, ADHD-related need for stimulation, autoimmune-related inflammation, difficult to treat eating disorders such as anorexia and ARFID, or just plain old chronic pain — and about about it not working for pain, it does work for some, why should they be denied?

[hughrr]

My nose says otherwise.

[nick__m]

You cannot smell pepole who use edible or vape cannabis.

[denton-scratch]

> do you know any people who haven’t had their lives wrecked because of cannabis?

Well, there's me.

And of course, there's all the people I know who haven't ever used cannabis (I take it you meant me to exclude them).

[denton-scratch]

Pot doesn't agree with schizophrenia. We've known that for a long time. It can certainly trigger an episode.

On the other hand, my experience is that many people with bipolar find it improves their mood.

If you have psychiatric difficulties, then it's not a good idea to mess with drugs that are in any way psychedelic. If you have problems with hypertension, it's not a good idea to mess with caffeine or cocaine.