Is cannabis a getaway?

[Ms.Grat3ful]

is cannabis a gateway drug?

is cannabis a gateway drug?

Most people consider cannabis to be an experience enhancer rather than an escape device. If you feel good, it may make everything seem even better. When some people feel down or depressed , smoking may be "inappropriate" and they might get more into their problems. But, many report that it may lead to a new understanding or perspective on a problem, helping to resolve it and lift one's mood . It has been extremely helpful to people with terminal illness, helping them shake off depression and live out their remaining time with dignity and relatively good cheer.
For some people it is definitely an escape, but whether that is good or bad depends on the way that it is used. If it allows perspective and insight, that is good; if it is an avoidance mechanism, that is not a good use of cannabis. This is where the concepts of wise and responsible adult use apply.

IMHO...

It will remain somewhat a gateway to more illegal drugs if left illegal itself... After trying cannabis and it being rather harmless would make someone reason that, "well, if this isn't that bad, try a line, or a hit of A, or some X ... hell, i'm already doing something illegal"....

How many stop at alcohol and never go any futher, "well, at least it's legal".... they say....

Sad but True....

so, yes... I would say it is a gateway because it is lumped in with other substances that perhaps should be illegal for personal use... ....

 

[Ms.Grat3ful]

Is Cannabis a getaway?...

Is Cannabis a getaway?...

I wish.......

...but sometimes, we getaway to partake of cannabis....

 

[Guest]

I wish.......

...but sometimes, we getaway to partake of cannabis....

shit, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. if it was legal it would be looked at as more of a tradition thing you do with family and friends like drinking tea. Although i dont drink tea thats how i see it. If it was legal what would gangstas and thugs use with mj to give it a bad light? ya they smoke blunts and say fuck the law so everyone looks at it like look what mj is doing to our youth. but thats bullshit look what the government is making our youth do. if it was legal it wouldnt be shit. it'd just be a regular thing. go to the liquor store what shall we buy today chemically enhanced poisonos cigs or the herbal ones? shit give me 2 packs of the herbal wides full flavor nonfilters for me please.

 

[Guest]

its just an everyday thing but you all know that. what we gotta do is tell the 200 million brainwashed americans that theyve been lied to.

 

[jcsmooth]

Naga...

No disrespect, but to claim that marijuana cannot harm is really ignoring a vast amount of information that you have at your fingertips. For one, marijuana use is highly dangerous for individuals with schizophrenia as it significantly increases schizophrenic episodes and has even been shown to increase the likelihood of schizophrenic-like symptoms to be expressed by individuals predisposed to the disease. Read up on it....it's scary stuff.

As much as I love pot (A LOT! ), effexor (prescription antidepressant) has done 100x more for my depression than pot ever will. Pot makes me happy while I'm stoned, but after a long binge of the stuff, I find myself quite melancholic. I don't know if this "contradicts" recent research, but it's just my personal experience. Depression is something that has hospitalized a number of my family members, so it's something I will more than likely battle for the rest of my life. I see prescription pills and the future of pharmaceuticals to look brighter than a dependence on pot. To each his own though.

I don't mean to be overly analytical and academic-like, but you have to differentiate between correlation and causation.
i.e. Does marijuana use directly CAUSE increased levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, or does marijuana use CORRELATE with anxiety-reducing behaviour that ultimately increases the levels of the three neurotransmitters?

I guess these are just comparisons of our unique experiences, but perhaps it's best not to state our opinions as fact, which we all are victim to more often than we think.

JC

 

[naga_sadu]

No disrespect, but to claim that marijuana cannot harm is really ignoring a vast amount of information that you have at your fingertips. For one, marijuana use is highly dangerous for individuals with schizophrenia as it significantly increases schizophrenic episodes and has even been shown to increase the likelihood of schizophrenic-like symptoms to be expressed by individuals predisposed to the disease. Read up on it....it's scary stuff.

Hey'ya man. Thanks for allowing me to clarify.

I was sticking to the context of this thread, which I thought was whether or not mmj is a getaway of sorts in sense that folks w/o any serious condition like schizophrenia (sp?) take on a "fuck it, my day's shitty, I wanna smoke" kinda attitude and go on a spiral downward w/ amotivation, laziness etc. In those cases mmj can't harm and that spiral is not the plant's fault. That sort of attitude induced "downward spiral" isin't caused by mmj but is caused by an element in the person's life (ex: work, personal life etc) rather than by mmj. That's all I meant to say. Esp, focusing on one of the main points of this original post (or so I thought):

If it allows perspective and insight, that is good; if it is an avoidance mechanism, that is not a good use of cannabis.

If the topic was "mmj while having schizophrenia", "mmj & heart patients who've had bypass" or something of that subject line, I would for sure agree with your assessment. Also, to back your statement up further, yes, mmj isin't advisable (especially in its smokable form) to those whove had heart bypass surgeries also (though I am not sure behind the medical reasoning).

Kind of like rainwater. In and by itself, it can't cause ANY harm, really, but getting exposed to rainwater w/ pneumonia isin't advisable at all.

Hope that clears things up... .. .

Depression is something that has hospitalized a number of my family members, so it's something I will more than likely battle for the rest of my life.

Same issues w/ some of my family members also. I'm pretty sure what I went thru in LA wasn't something similar to schizophrenia but it was...bad. Bad enough to get me on paxil, not to mention being bound to a psychaetrist, which didn't do a damn thing. Instead, changing my locale did the trick for me.

 

[jcsmooth]

Naga...sounds like you listened and followed your heart, and it worked out well.
Glad to hear you're feeling better and don't have to rely on other things to get you through.

I recently took 4 months off from my effexor, but my anxiety and depression eventually got the worst of me, and I'm back on the stuff and feeling 100% better. My goal is to take as little as necessary, because the thought of having to rely on this stuff makes me uneasy.

Glad we cleared up that other bit of information
I've known more then one person who should never smoke weed....they not only freak themselves out, but they freak EVERYONE around them out. In that sense, marijuana made me wanna GETAWAY from them!

JC

 

[naga_sadu]

Naga...sounds like you listened and followed your heart, and it worked out well.
Glad to hear you're feeling better and don't have to rely on other things to get you through.

I recently took 4 months off from my effexor, but my anxiety and depression eventually got the worst of me, and I'm back on the stuff and feeling 100% better. My goal is to take as little as necessary, because the thought of having to rely on this stuff makes me uneasy.

Glad we cleared up that other bit of information
I've known more then one person who should never smoke weed....they not only freak themselves out, but they freak EVERYONE around them out. In that sense, marijuana made me wanna GETAWAY from them!

Sometimes, really, I feel changing the locale can act as your curing agent than a chemical. I dunno if it's scientific or not tho, but, traditionally, "local" medicos hve treated patients w/ depression, anxiety etc. using this technique. The base belief is that one of the biggest shaping factors of the persons' mental health and thus, physical health is the environment. If your body & mind doesn't make you feel alright, then it's best to change locales.

In my own family, one of my grandpas' younger cousins had this issue of depression & anxiety. Lived in Bombay & worked as a chartered accountant. But somehow, his life just didn't fit in. Makin' good $$ but was very, VERY depressed and showed episodes of anxiety (alotta times to the point of breaking shit) all the time. Our family doctor who was a local practicioneer (rather than a MD) examined him, and suggested he change locales to a hill station & do farming.

Guess what? It worked. Within a full yr., his depression & anxiety was gone. Sometimes, its just the life & lifestyle which we really may need to change I went thru something very similar in LA also, and changing locales worked for me aswell.

Nothing in particular just suggesting you might wanna approach it in this angle as well? Why not book a trip to S. Asia and see how things go? The normal tourist visa is 6 mos. You can use this time to decide if changing locales would work for u.