Best Posts in Thread: House passes medical marijuana bill

Those are myths. It does not lead to laziness ... it leads to relaxation. If someone becomes "lazy", they would have been lazy with or without the marijuana. There are strains that actually energize and help you to become more active and more creative. The "gateway drug" myth has been thoroughly dis-proven. In fact people who smoke marijuana are less likely to move on to harder drugs.

 

Yes, I believe there are. There are over 500 active substances in cannabis, with the oil you just get the CBD. The CBD is the main source of benefit in things like seizures, Parkinsons, pain, and MS. Some people with these disorders obtain a greater benefit from smoking than from the oil. Smoking puts THC, THCV, CBG, and the terpenes into the body. These provide for other benefits in areas like Alzheimer's, PTSD, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, anorexia. By legislatively mandating that ONLY the purified oil form can be used they are eliminating half the areas of potential application. Of course the reason that they do this is because the THC has the undesirable side effect of making you feel "happy", and we must avoid that at all costs.

 

Wow, who would of thought given the current environment that the House would step up and pass a medical marijuana use bill with a vote of 163 to 5.

Still, this bill is VERY restrictive and limited in that only the government can cultivate the marijuana for medical use, and it can not be smoked but must be processed into a "medicinal format". It will take special permission to be able to prescribe and will only be available for very limited range of conditions. But this is certainly a highly commendable first step in the right direction. I can understand why they are very cautiously putting a toe in the water, but hopefully once the benefits begin to be realized there will be some loosening up on the restrictions.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/01/29/marijuana-bill-passed-on-final-reading/

 

I’ll take issue with the most of the psychological and social science study data is “bull***t” view - on the contrary a lot of the data, particularly meta-analyses for example, form WHO guidance on how to treat what with which therapy or treatment. Knowing what works, how it works and how to deliver it effectively, safely and efficiently is essential - for most, if not all difficulties.But I’ll leave that for another discussion and offer my ha’penny worth on the weed.

Just in my albeit limited experience I’ve seen young people enter psychosis after sustained use. There have been other contributory factors ranging from trait anxiety, early abuse, heritability, underlying predisposition and so forth but psychotic they went. Not much fun at the age of 11 (the earliest I saw, and outside the normal range of onset). Most have been in ‘normal range’ of roughly 16-35 years.

On the other hand, there’s not much doubt from the psychological and social science data that weed does less harm than alcohol. Indeed the drugs Czar in the UK was forced to resign when he said so a few years back and he based those claims on good solid data. Can’t have docs rocking the establishment boat can we?

In terms of the ‘strength’ of the THC content, there’s not much doubt in my mind that genetically altered hydroponically grown weed, ‘skunk’ or it’s derivatives have improved the strength of the product. There’s a world of difference between toking on some ‘Red Leb’ smuggled in 30-40 years ago from up your Hippy mate’s bum and what might be available from the ‘ponics factories today. And to my mind it’s there where a lot of the risks lie. Left unregulated and part of the criminal it seems to me that is where a lot of the harms might continue.

The medical evidence for pot for various conditions seems to be growing - pain, cancer, chronic fatigue to name but a few. I’m personally doubtful regarding PTSD as weed is an established anxyiolitic - it may exacerbate the condition. MDMA/LSD has shown promise however. Studies are still in their infancy and there’s a long way to go before your jobbing GP will recommend a dose.

So, I’m still waiting on definitive conclusions - which I am sure are just around the corner. Until then, I’m sticking with legal known harms much to the damage of my liver, brain and goodness knows what else. Good luck to all that dabble without ill effects and who gain relief from their chronic conditions.

Cheers,

C

 

There's two different angles I could take on a counter-argument to this.

1. Availability: The most potent weed of 40 years ago wasn't as available as the most potent weed of today. While I'm not familiar with a period which was at or before my birth, potent weed was far more expensive than the much less potent of 20 years ago. In some regions, there was little supply. Weed from Mexico flooded markets to the South and weed from Canada flooded markets to the North. The result was default poor quality in Arizona and default good quality in Washington. Exceptions were areas which had a strong culture for growing high quality weed, which created pockets of supply of good quality. Today, good weed is a highly available commodity.
   
2. Technology: You could get high;y potent weed 40 years ago, but that weed won't compete with a lifting of the prohibition of R&D in the weed industry. There has been a massive influx of investment money going into developing quality. More brains, access to grow tech and a green light on science only increases the quality of today.
3. Bonus round: As an addition to point #1, more people are getting access to the better quality. More people who may have never smoked weed otherwise are picking up the pipe (joint, bong, whatever your preference.) If good weed grows in a forest and nobody is around to smoke it, is it still good weed? Part of the "good weed score" is how many people are smoking it. For most people smoking weed 20 - 40 years ago, the weed wasn't that good.

I'm no Keith Richards, but I have done the fair share of at least a half dozen people of substances in my day. Some more than others. Weed was a favorite. I feel that weed is one of the most powerful in how it affects the mind.

I don't suffer from anxiety, but I can see that little b@st@rd hiding in a dark corner in my brain. Weed likes to seek it out. Shine a light on it. Poke it with a stick to get it agitated. My brain is such that I can tell everyone to play nice and be civilized. A little bit of anxiety even makes me feel more alive. It lights a fire under my @ss (for tomorrow of course.) For others, that little b@st@rd is more like a fire breathing dragon. When weed awakens it, the beast gets angry.

I would place weed close to hallucinogens to how powerful it is over the mind. Though it's tough to compare because shrooms and LSD put you so far out there. If you shouldn't be smoking marijuana, for d*mn sure you don't want to be doing LSD. A twist is that all of the above have been argued as a treatment for anxiety. Maybe that's true, but only in a clinical setting as opposed to self medication.

I suppose nothing is really foolproof. Alcohol deadens the mind to anxiety but a bad hangover can create psychosis. I'm not a psychologist, but anxiety to me is a disturbed feeling of loss of control. You approach a panicked state because your sense of order in the world evaporates. You feel vulnerable, like you could get wiped out an any moment (probably a more realistic view of the world, but your brain does a great job of filtering out the facts in a normal state.) Psychosis is losing your grip on reality. It's falling into the rabbit hole where the laws of physics no longer apply. It's like kicking the support columns out from underneath the structure of your carefully constructed reality. In that state, any crazy idea seems plausible, including taking the nearest exit. I haven't dug into stats, but I would bet that most alcoholics who commit suicide do so while hung over.

Kids, just say NO to drugs!

 

I could not agree more... Brownies are a far better way to consume and your lungs will thank you , not to mention all those around you who have to smell your byproduct PS smoking anything is just nasty :(

 

Must disagree... 40 yrs ago the weed was as good as today... about time the attitudes change...

 

Don't know about that. The weed of today isn't like the weed of 20 years ago. The stuff being sold in the US now is so potent that it could again become a health threat. It's a powerful drug and could worsen anxiety or cause anxiety in people who don't otherwise experience it. For certain people, it could really drag out the crazy.

 

that's good news for all the grumbly expats, maybe they will be able to chill now, go with the flow of the Phils and stop complaining about everything :-)