Bukowski: marijuana is openly destructive

[TesticleMilkshake]

I made that post 2 years ago but well, it feels like 8 hours

Fuck knows, but I cooked some hash once, ate a quarter by accident because I thought it wasn't working and I swear I was fucked out my head for a solid 24.

I'm just going to repeat a story I have been told, not sure of the validity, but it's a pretty ridiculous story.

A friend had an absurd amount of good weed that got damaged during a flood (his bedroom was located in the basement, his stash was in a shoebox on the floor of his closet)

He decided to make brownies, because the weed was too soaked to be smoked. On top of that, he threw in some low quality hash. A 3"x3" slice would work out to be like $60 dollars. He and another friend ate a 9"x9" pan of these super weed brownies.

Again, I'm not sure how true this is, but this kid is pretty insane, but incredibly smart. He's attending an Ivy League school for law last I heard.

 

[Mattayus]

Excess is excess is excess. I don't like the argument of 'this substance vs that substance' because it's a stupid argument. There are two sides to everything;

For one, I hear shit like this all the time - "I knew a guy who was operating this machine whilst high, lost his arm blah blah blah etc etc..." <-- and from that point on the person telling this story has vilified marijuana, they have made their mind up.

Well here's a question sunshine; Why the fuck was the guy smoking it whilst at work? What would have happened had that been a bottle of Jack instead of a doob? Would they be using this bullshit story to discredit the use of alcohol? No, it would have been "what a jackass, drunk on the job, got what he deserved!".

The point is, if it's treated like any other recreational substance (i.e. kept to appropriate times of the day in appropriate environments) it's harmless. It gets a bad name because people dress it up and make it into a lifestyle. FWIW I fuckin love me some weed, and I don't drink a drop of alcohol, but my fucking GOD do I hate stoners. These almost pseudo-religious types who see it as their central point of being, talk about it all the time, smoke it all the time, only ever seem to operate with 50% of their personality (or whatever's left of it), and are the marijuana equivalent of alcoholics (minus the actual substance addiction).

And that's the flip-side, where it gets the rep it has. Think of it like this:
You work 9-5, 5/7 days a week, you have a drink on the weekend like most people; fine.
You work 9-5, 5/7 days a week, you drink when you get up in the morning, and maybe sip a swig from your hip flask in the car park on your lunch-break; you're a fuckin wash-out and everyone calls you an alcy.

You don't do that shit with booze, so why people do it with weed is beyond me. I think because it's an illegal substance it's shrouded in some kind of secrecy to those who have never been around it, so people feel they can treat it differently. And by all means, they can, I'm not telling people how to live, but I can completely understand why people find it easy to target when people smoke it to excess.

 

[outbreak525]

You don't do that shit with booze, so why people do it with weed is beyond me.

Great post. My assumption would be that weed is far less dangerous than alcohol.

 

[Line666]

Dude, that is legitimately insane, I've had some hash for a bit now and it takes so very little to take you straight to space

Yeah mang, shit was rough. When it binds into the butter you simmer it with it becomes more potent as well. I made like a batch of six cookies because I wasn't getting as high as I wanted smoking this stuff and I looked on the internet for how long it would take to kick in and people were all saying "1 hour" and stuff like that - so I was like ok - ate one cookie, waited an hour, nothing happened, checked again - everyone still saying an hour, ate another two, waited another hour, still nothing, figured - sod it I might as well eat the rest, do that and suddenly... BAM, three hours in, stoned as fuaaaark off my face and absolutely bound to the chair. World is spinning like nothing else and I'm practically seeing shit the high is so intense, I really couldn't handle it though and it was so uncomfortable - I never whiteyed but I did have to crawl on my hands and knees to bed and I woke up the next day 10-12 hours later and I still couldn't move for shit - the effects lasted the rest of the day pretty much but it wasn't nice or pleasurable at all just really far too intense and fucked up.

 

[colonel kurtz]

Great post. My assumption would be that weed is far less dangerous than alcohol.

that, and some people are capable of conducting themselves just fine whether they're high or sober, so why not toke throughout the day?

 

[Mattayus]

Great post. My assumption would be that weed is far less dangerous than alcohol.

It's not about health, it's about the fact that it's a recreational substance, one that you use to unwind, relax, enjoy yourself, so I always tend to keep it to an appropriate time of day. Getting to the point where you have to do everything while high is what I don't understand, and what is off-putting about the weed 'culture' to a lot of people (the dude in the video).

that, and some people are capable of conducting themselves just fine whether they're high or sober, so why not toke throughout the day?

Because then you become one of those wafty people he's talking about? That was my point. It gets a bad rep because of those people who are half-sharp, and monged all the time. It's not noticeable to those people, but to everyone else it's obvious and annoying.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

that, and some people are capable of conducting themselves just fine whether they're high or sober, so why not toke throughout the day?

Yeah, FWIW I did this for a few months and had no problem taking care of everything I wanted to accomplish (both at work and in my down-time, as far as playing guitar, writing music, etc.) and like Joe, fooled myself into believing it was harmless - even so, though, I could still recognize that a habit was definitely forming (the nature of my personality, I suppose), so I stopped my wake and bake routine (helped by starting a new job, which I obviously wanted to be sober for), and while I still love the ganj, personally I'm with Mattayus from a philosophical perspective.

 

[Harry Hughes]

HUGE +1 to Matt's post. It's those idiots that are constantly blazed that ruin it for the majority.
To me, part of the fun is that you get the contrast between the normal sober state and being high.
What fun is it when you're just high all the time? You forget what it's like to get high, because being high is all you know at that point. The thing that's special about it is gone, because it's simply just normal routine at that point.

Sure, you may be able to 'function normally' on it, but anyone that thinks that people can't tell that they have blood shot eyes and thinks their mannerisms when being stoned isn't noticed by some people are just fooling themselves.
Save yourself the money and smoke it occasionally, as a social thing or whatever.
Unless you have a legit medical condition where marijuana really helps, there is simply no need to be stoned day in and day out.

 

[Mattayus]

Sure, you may be able to 'function normally' on it, but anyone that thinks that people can't tell that they have blood shot eyes and thinks their mannerisms when being stoned isn't noticed by some people are just fooling themselves.

Fuckin a!

Look, I did the wake and bake shit when I was 17-20, I'm not trying to get all high and mighty (excuse the pun) and sanctimonious about it, but thinking back on those times now just makes me feel dirty.

Now I literally get excited thinking about having a joint, man I just can't wait to unwind, when all my work and family time is over, to just retire for the evening with my pipe and slippers, put on a good film and get some nice dinner going. I never ever want to cheapen that experience.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Sure, you may be able to 'function normally' on it, but anyone that thinks that people can't tell that they have blood shot eyes and thinks their mannerisms when being stoned isn't noticed by some people are just fooling themselves

-1, Visine and self-awareness; however, more importantly:

To me, part of the fun is that you get the contrast between the normal sober state and being high.
What fun is it when you're just high all the time? You forget what it's like to get high, because being high is all you know at that point. The thing that's special about it is gone, because it's simply just normal routine at that point.

+1, sums up what I was feeling perfectly

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Wanted to bump this, as posts such as Hurdy's and Joe's got me thinking - that, combined with being a bit broke these days, made me decide to stop smoking (at least for awhile), after going through the aforementioned ~.5 grams a day every day for the last 5 months. Before then I didn't know any local/reliable sellers (just one or the other ), so this has been the longest pretty much uninterrupted streak I've had thus far. Also, I did the "burn throughout the day" routine for a couple of months in the middle (though only every 2-4 hours), but since making some changes for the better in my life about 1.5 months ago (mainly getting a new job that can actually give me full-time), I've kept it strictly to after 4-5 PM. The reason I'm saying all this, btw, is to put the following in perspective.

SO, it's currently been about 1.5 weeks of sobriety (2 if you don't count the resin hits I did for a few days after running out), and fortunately it's been pretty smooth physically (minimal appetite problems in the beginning, but getting back into exercising and my ever-present fixed eating routine helped - also, a mild but manageable headache for the past week or so). However, mentally is another story, especially in the evenings and off days; when I'm not occupied, I've just felt flat and unmotivated to really do anything except play video games for hours on end, and anything more takes a huge exertion of mental effort; in short, my get up and go pretty much got up and went (undoubtedly not helped by the fact that I had gotten in the habit of energizing myself with a bowl to do pretty much anything, e.g. playing guitar/writing music, menial tasks such as cleaning, etc.).

All I can say is I hope it passes soon, but yeah, mainly wanted to echo the previous sentiments by saying that anyone who thinks something that affects you as strongly as weed does can't be addictive is living in a complete world of delusions, and I wish I hadn't been so gullible as to believe those who insisted that was the case. Obviously it can be used recreationally and in moderation, and I'm not ruling out the possibility that I will again in the future - but in short, I really want to just caution anyone who reads this to not let it get its hooks in you, cuz even in my comparably mild case it's no fun getting them out!

 

[outbreak525]

I've been smoking weed daily for at least a few years now.
Last week I stopped and experienced no withdrawal symptoms at all.
If anything I felt better about myself. I understood my own personality better, I communicated with other people more easily, and overall felt fantastic.
Yesterday after a long day of work I took a few bong hits with a couple of my friends. I got much higher than I did in a while from it, and it was all fun and games until I woke up this morning.
I feel significantly worse this morning than I have felt the past few days of waking up pot-free. This was a life changing experience for me. Now I'm gonna see how long I can make it without doing it again. This time will be longer than just 5 days.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

FWIW, the first week wasn't as tough for me as the last few days have been

 

[outbreak525]

Somehow it doesn't make sense to me for it to be easier in the beginning and harder as it goes on.
I'm guessing it's still hard to resist the urge?

edit: 420th post \m/

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Eh, I guess I'm fortunate in that it's not readily available if I don't seek it out, so there hasn't been too much of an "urge", per se (as well as the fact that I recognize the need to kick it) - I've just felt shittier the past few days than in the beginning, perhaps because I'm settling into the long haul of sobriety, rather than a "just a few more days and I'll be back in the game" mentality

Also, not saying this necessarily was the case with you, but IMO there's a big difference between smoking daily but just when hanging out with friends and smoking routinely by oneself during one's regular activities - in short, my point here is not to say that it is always addictive, but rather that, contrary to what so many have said (including certain folks on here), there is definite addictive potential.

 

[SocialNumb]

Or maybe it just effects people differently. The only thing I feel when I can't get any is booooooring. If that's a withdrawal symptom then I can live with it.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Possibly, but given the amount you smoke (or lack thereof), it makes sense that it'd be less pronounced (thus I wasn't referring to you in my previous post btw )

 

[SocialNumb]

Oh



Yeah, I don't smoke so much anymore but I do smoke a bit, however small, everyday. I used to smoke all day till I passed out when I was younger, though I guess over time it got to be less and less. Kinda like weaning off medication? IDK, just never felt anything significant to complain about when I'm not smoking.

I don't doubt people have withdrawal symptoms as everyone is dif. A friend, I've noticed, gets really moody when he can't get any. Turns into kinda of a pain in ass.

 

[hurdy]

It definitely does effect people differently, as the result of a study that was posted on this thread earlier.
The study mentioned that if you have an addictive personality &/or consumed large dosages (combined with extended usage over a long period of time),
then you are more likely to experience the more intense withdrawals (that I and many others have been through)
I just want people to be aware of the effects of marijuana abuse as there is a few myths around that many people think are true

 

[Joematthews]

It is very different stopping for 5 days than giving up for good. I used to be able to stop for a few days but I'd just be counting down the days until I can smoke again. People always say they can stop whenever they like and end up going back after 4-5 days if that, always say they can give it up for good but never do.

Marcus, I felt the same, week 2 was the worst, but after that it gets exponentially better. It took me just less than a month to fully recover and become totally more active, confident and get rid of the "restless with no energy" feeling.