Cannabis and your immune system...

[Opet]

Sure, there's a good possibility that this has been mentioned before. I knew that smot pockers tend to get sick alot (like a cold or a soar throat) but I don't recall ever reading why that may be. Yeah, I know... durrr.

Anyhow, I was looking up some info on Lupus for a friend and came across this article at WebMD. What's this shit about tumors? Damn, is there even a single way left in the world NOT to get a tumor?!

[url="http://my.webmd.com/content/article/63/72090.htm"]http://my.webmd.com/content/article/63/72090.htm[/url]

 

[The Master]

soar

*ahem* sore

 

[Belial]

There are no politically incorrect ways to NOT get a tumor.

 

[Satori]

Hmm.. if this hypothesis is deemed worthy of being studied further, then I hope more research is done, which shouldn't be too difficult considering how widespread pot use is, and has been for the last 35 years or so. So we should see at least a small correlation between pot users and those who get tumors.

But it wouldn't surprise me if they find this sort of obscure and minor detriment related to this substance, it just seems weird to me that there's been so much trouble finding anything wrong with it, which has lead to marijuana being considered one of the safest theraputic substances known (even if it is smoked). And it's not like they aren't looking for stuff to find wrong with it, this is the most researched drug in the world after all.

I tend to think however that if it were really so bad then all the research would've conclusively shown something by now, just as it has for 2 other very commonly used drugs, tobacco and alcohol. But anyway, it's a good thing there's no shortage of people who use this drug to participate in the studies, that's a big help if we are going to find something seriously damaging with regard to using this drug.

I love how this sort of knowledge keeps advancing, science rules.

 

[Silver Sable]

And here I thought it only made people lazy slackers who never really went anywhere... Now I know they aer probably just not feeling up to facing all the germs out there.

 

[Satori]

Hmm... I know quite a few potheads, friends and collegues of mine, and most of them are not lazy slackers. They all hold steady jobs and a few of them are doctors, engineers, computer programmers, and muti-million dollar business owners.

But I do know a few lazy slackers as well, but I don't think pot made them that way, it just increased their laziness.

 

[Lethe78]

But I do know a few lazy slackers as well, but I don't think pot made them that way, it just increased their laziness.

I think people tend to overlook the fact that some people are lazy in general...

 

[Manbient]

ahhh another pot thread. All i know is all my friends, sans maybe 3 or 4, who smoked weed a couple times a week, are pretty fucked and not willing to move on to do anything hehe... now... who's to say people like that are drawn to pot, or the pot makes them that way? ahh who knows. I'm just stating my experience i'll skip the risk and avoid it.

 

[Blood and Fat]

The psychological dependence to pot is quite some shit. I have two friends who smoke several joints daily: they are rarely seen sober and it appears almost impossible for someone to convince them to stop doing it. One of them is actually going for his sixth year in high school. Saddest thing of it all is that their parents are very aware of this and have decided to just let it be.

That really pisses me off.

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

Pot is simply the same as any other drug. The key is simply to use it in moderation. People who get themselves psychologically addicted to it are weak in my opinion, or I guess they have too much time and money on their hands
I smoke pot once or twice a week, and I have a part time job, attend college and consistently get honours in my grades.
But if alchohol (a drug which has given me much less enjoyment at far greater expense than pot) and tobacco can be legal, why not pot?

 

[Useful Idiot]

smot pockers

Pot smockers?

 

[Opet]

Hey, someone caught it. Good eye. (hands Useful Idiot a lolly pop) Not reading over posts for typos gives even the ones with nothing to add to the topic something to say.

...if this hypothesis is deemed worthy of being studied further, then I hope more research is done...

Oh, they'll keep studying it. I would think by now something would have been found. It's oddly safe, I agree. They're looking for something they can put on bill boards and tell parents at PTA meetings. I rolled my eyes at first and took it as a cheep shot to make it apparent that they're not supporting it, but only showing it might be helping to people who are already worse off. But, the more I thought about it the more I wondered what if this was the first thing they link it to. THAT'D SUCK, EH?

...it just seems weird to me that there's been so much trouble finding anything wrong with it...

NO KIDDEN! (snickers to self) They're trying like hell too, you can bet your ass on that. I can't believe they haven't proven it's downfalls by now.

...this is the most researched drug in the world after all.

Pot's the most researched drug in the world?! This I did not know. Why's that? Cos it's cheap to reproduce? Or you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get it? I can see the benefits their for medical science. Right off, I'd think it was because too many people enjoy doing it and the government can't have that! But then, the ways in which they study advances each year.

...science rules.

 

[Opet]

I think people tend to overlook the fact that some people are lazy in general...

Thank you very much. I know someone who takes laziness to a whole new level and THEN adds pot. You think you know lazy?! HUH! Check this kid out on Saturday afternoon. Too damn lazy to sit up and reach for the lighter to light the bong, never mind GET UP. You'll walk in and he'll be sitting there, packed bowl from hours before in one hand and the remote in the other. What do you do for someone like that!

I know many people see those types and just clump everyone that smokes pot to that type of attitude. It's not always the case. It's the only case I've ever known of personally. That is my definition of a BURNOUT.

 

[Satori]

The laziest person I know doesn't smoke pot. And he can hardly get off his ass to take a shower.

Anyway, pot makes some people lazy, yes, but it doesn't do that to everyone, and it's not necessarily a bad thing either. People need to relax and unwind after a busy day, and if pot can help them do that more effectively, then that's great.

Moderation is the key. If you do too much of anything that's enjoyable, it will cut into your "work" time.

As for the psychological addiction.. what isn't psychologically addicting? I know some younger people who are squandering away their time playing video games and surfing the web. Some people can't tear themselves away from the tv. There are more people with food addictions than you can shake a stick at. When I was a teenager, music was my addiction, and it kinda still is, though less so.

I smoked a bunch of pot this weekend, and somehow I still managed to
- clean our entire apartment, the balcony, even the windows and furniture (which took about 6 hours total, over 2 days)
- did laundry (I fucking hate laundry cuz i have to go downstairs in the apartment to do it)
- cooked 3 meals, and did all those dishes
- took out all the recycling
- practiced drums for about 7 hours total
- exercised and lifted weights
- got groceries
- drove around looking at houses for sale
- went out Saturday night
- had my sister visit on Sunday

I did all this while semi-buzzed on weed. It was a busy weekend for me, cuz of all the cleaning, but the fact that I smoked pot didn't interfere because I don't let it interfere.

So this stuff about potheads being perpetually lazy, bleh, what a crock. It so obviously depends on the person. As I said, the laziest person I know doesn't smoke pot, he's an internet addict. But anyway, who are you going to see and remember more with regard to this topic? The classic idiot who doesn't work, lives in his parent's basement and smokes weed all day, or people like me, responsible people, even over-achievers, who are productive members of society.

Truth be told, I'm a little bit buzzed right now. A guy who works in this office space temporarily, a business owner, likes weed and he offered me a hoot a couple of hours ago in his office while we talked about an impending project that he wants to get me to work on for his company. Regarding this project, he already has a handful of eager buyers lined up wanting to buy this thing for $220,000 U.S. a pop. Does that sound like something the generalizations of "pothead losers" talk about while puffing on a joint? Think again.

 

[veil the sky]

*thinks again*

all of the people i know who reglarly smoke pot have very little else they focus on in their lives.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot spend most of their time and resources making sure they can get more pot.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot do other, harder more expensive drugs.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot, when they smoke a lot are extremely boring people to be around. because getting yourself high is their primary concern, and that's pretty valueless and poor persuit.

 

[Opet]

What, do you know like 2 or 3 wicked burnouts? That kid I referred to is pretty boring and spends a ton of cash on it. He's not the guest entertaining type! He comes home, gets high. Takes a shower, gets high. Eats, gets high.

He's the only burnout I know. At least 20 other smokers in my life manage to carry on a regular lives. Full time jobs, few have kids and when we get together with all or some of them, the soul purpose is not "let's get baked!" We'll most likely get baked in the process but it doesn't knock us on our asses. We might play a game of bball, go down the volley ball court, huck an Aerobe around a field with the dog for a while... most of my friends are very energetic. Canoeing and kayaking is a favorite in the summer and skiing and off-roading in the winter.

No. It hasn't given a shitload of friends I know roots out their asses that permanently attaches them to couches. Just that one exception and we even manage to get him out with us once and a while. I have no clue how he keeps up the way he treats his body!

 

[Satori]

*thinks again*

Really?

all of the people i know who reglarly smoke pot have very little else they focus on in their lives.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot spend most of their time and resources making sure they can get more pot.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot do other, harder more expensive drugs.

all of the people i know who regularly smoke pot, when they smoke a lot are extremely boring people to be around. because getting yourself high is their primary concern, and that's pretty valueless and poor persuit.

Btw, you sort of know me, don't you? And I don't fit into any of those generalizations you just made. So I assume you've limited your scope to those people that you know in real life. But anyway...

Intriguing. Of ALL the people I know (with the exception of 1 single person, the guy who I buy pot from, who probably makes more money than many people do working), none of them fit into those generalizations you made. Another guy who I sometimes buy weed from doesn't even smoke it himself, and he's using the money to put himself through university (and he's getting good grades too). Sounds to me that the people you know who smoke weed are a bunch of losers. No surprises there. Where you go wrong is in your subtle assumptions that they are lazy losers *because* they smoke pot. I don't think that's the case. If they were responsible, practical, disciplined, and motivated people to begin with, they wouldn't allow themselves to be losers with no lives.

So in a nutshell, here's what I'm actually saying:

Loser types with no lives are more likely to regularly endulge in mind-altering substances (ie. pot, alcohol, tobacco).

But successful and motivated people endulge in recreational mind-altering substances too, and they don't turn into losers because of it.



But anyway, I guess I have much broader view of the situation because I'm a little older than most people here and most of the people I know, many of whom use pot, are responsible and productive members of society. It's a shame that these people are also subject to your narrow generalizations, because they don't fit with those stereotypes at all. But I'm sure you already realize this, I just feel it needed to be said.

 

[Satori]

What, do you know like 2 or 3 wicked burnouts? That kid I referred to is pretty boring and spends a ton of cash on it. He's not the guest entertaining type! He comes home, gets high. Takes a shower, gets high. Eats, gets high.

He's the only burnout I know. At least 20 other smokers in my life manage to carry on a regular lives. Full time jobs, few have kids and when we get together with all or some of them, the soul purpose is not "let's get baked!" We'll most likely get baked in the process but it doesn't knock us on our asses. We might play a game of bball, go down the volley ball court, huck an Aerobe around a field with the dog for a while... most of my friends are very energetic. Canoeing and kayaking is a favorite in the summer and skiing and off-roading in the winter.

Some people smoke so much pot that they can't move. I think that's kinda stupid. Some people drink so much sometimes that they can't walk, talk, or keep from pissing someone off or getting in a fight. I think that's VERY stupid.

But not everyone is like this. I know a guy who drinks 2 glasses of wine every single day, and a little more on the weekends. Big deal.

I think the absurd generalizations, as demonstrated perfectly by veil, come about because of how the mind works, how it makes associations. This is how advertising works as well, and it's even how memories are formed.

If you see some loser type kid who has nothing better to do than smoke pot all day, then the association between pot and being a loser is correlated in the brain.

However, if you see someone, a couple perhaps, with 3 kids, 3 cars, a huge house in the 'burbs, and a dual 6 figure incomes, then for some reason the fact that they smoke pot doesn't get correlated with that. That's a real example by the way, I know a couple like this. But all you'll remember is the idiot.

The mind tends to draw cause/effect conclusions as well, and it does this whether or not the cause/effect is actually real. If you see a loser on weed, you'll be tempted to assume he's a loser as a result of the weed. Howver, if you see a successful person on weed, you'd never assume that that person was successful because of weed.

The person I knew in high school (my oldest friend that I still have) who smoked the most pot got straight A's and a full scholarship to university. Now he's got a Phd in chemistry and is teaching chem at another university. He just bought a house too.

When I was in my early 20's I smoked quite often, much more than now, and somehow I still managed to work my fucking ass off and put myself through school at the same time. In fact, during that time, I worked so hard doing labour type jobs that I fucked up my knees, wrists, and back a little bit, and I also gave myself some health problems from too much work and too little sleep that took me a couple of years to overcome. I was in school full time and I was also working 2 jobs which totaled 55 hours a week, 7 days a week. So as you can all probably imagine, it kinda annoys me a bit when I hear about potheads all being lazy losers and such. Also, I know quite a few people who smoke pot who went through 7 or 8 painstaking years to become doctors.

I think saying that all potheads are losers is almost as bad as saying that all blacks are criminals, or all catholic priests are child rapists.

 

[Belial]

I'm getting some good pot in a few days. Can't wait.

 

[Opet]

I think saying that all potheads are losers is almost as bad as saying that all blacks are criminals, or all catholic priests are child rapists.

That's one of the best ways I've heard it put yet. I'll have to lay that one on them next time.

So as you can all probably imagine, it kinda annoys me a bit when I hear about potheads all being lazy losers and such.

And it should! Some can be downright

about it. Shaking their heads at your problem. Then they walk off and grab themselves a nice cold beer. Now, why don't similar thoughts about self-destruction cross minds when it's alcohol? Cos it's legal? I don't think the families of drink driver victims care to hear that one.