Clearing the Smoke: The Science of Cannabis

2011, Drugs  -   275 Comments
Ratings: 8.40/10 from 65 users.

Montana PBS's new documentary, Clearing the Smoke, reveals how cannabis acts on the brain and in the body to treat nausea, pain, epilepsy and potentially even cancer.



More great documentaries

275 Comments / User Reviews

  1. first we need to find a way to destroy the government system. Its all where it is wrong .

  2. If for no other reason to use it, is the fact cancer patients lose so much weight because they have no desire to eat.....The cannabis increases their appetite...

  3. I'm really tired of these monotone like documentaries. Why can't someone bring a documentary that is both educational and interesting?

  4. 5. A neurotransmission system in the brain that affects pleasure, memory, perception, and coordination is 20 percent less active in regular marijuana smokers than in non-marijuana smokers.

    So that’s why you suck at Ping-Pong. The National Institute of Mental Health– and National Institute on Drug Abuse–affiliated researchers who conducted the study that yielded this stat used positron emission tomography to compare the brains of otherwise healthy daily marijuana smokers with the brains of otherwise healthy nonsmokers. They found that the cessation of marijuana use corrected the problem.Dope!

  5. According to the study that yielded this stat, “The confirmation of the presence, in both mainstream and sidestream”—that is, directly inhaled and secondhand—“smoke of marijuana cigarettes of known carcinogens and other chemicals implicated in respiratory diseases is important.” This Canadian government-affiliated study also found three times as much ammonia in secondhand marijuana smoke as in secondhand tobacco smoke.

    David Moir, et al. “A Comparison of

  6. Lung Cancer, heart disease from Smoking, dumb stoned A__ H____S living wasted lives, ending up in S____, some of us have survived many of our friends have died from Smoking grass, from Lung cancer. Sure if you have cancer it sounds fine, go ahead, but dont smoke it, eat it. Live long.

    1. Excuse me? Nobody has ever died from using Marijuana, on top of the fact that they are extremely confused because cannabis does not seem to cause any cancer

    2. Your information is only opinion which is worthless. Name one person who has died from marijuana toxicity.

  7. About the confusion over 'skunk'! It is just a specific strain, like Kush, Cheese, Diesel, Blueberry, White Widow et al. The media have jumped on this word and apply it to all strong cannabis, but that is because they don't know what they are talking about.
    It doesn't matter if it is grown indoors hydroponically, indoors in compost, or outdoors, if the seed came from a 'skunk' plant, then the plant will be 'skunk', likewise, if the seed was from a 'Smellyberry', then the plant will be a 'Smellyberry' regardless of how it was grown.
    Cannabis is not genetically modified, it is selectively bred, exactly the same way apples, roses, corn, wheat, dogs, horses, cattle etc. have been for millenia.
    Education people! It will set you free!

  8. @ Jennifer Grinberg

    Educate yourself!
    The benefits of medical cannabis far outweigh the risks, even when smoked. As a pain-killer it is as effective and less toxic than most pharmaceutical pain-killers. It has anti-emetic properties (stops people being sick while on chemotherapy), and has been proven to kill certain types of cancer cells.
    It is also less carcinogenic than tobacco when smoked pure and can actually help promote lung function.
    If you like, I can point you to loads of scientific studies that show how beneficial cannabis can be, but I guess you are one of the 'sheeple' that believes the lies and propaganda.

  9. @ Jennifer Grinberg.


    I am a final year med student in the UK could you post your reference list please.

    I think your confused, 'mycotoxin' means a toxin (endo or exo) produced by any member of the kingdom fungi that basically has a negative effect on other species cells.

    What you are suggesting is that ingestion of cannabis (a plant) causes fungal septicaemia. I can assure you this is unheard of. We most commonly see this presentation in IV drug users due to 'dirty needles' and poor injection site hygiene.

    If you have evidence to the contrary i would be happy to see it.

  10. For all you "scientists" making comments here, what do you really know about the effects of weed at the cellular level? Vaporize to rid yourself of the burning sensation? Like anything that alters the mind, it would indicate a disorganization of the "normal" cells into an abnormal condition. Upon looking at the red blood cells of an individual who routinely smokes or vaporizes weed, it is evident of the damage done to the life giving red cells which have changed their form into morbid mycotoxins, no longer able to optimally carry out their function of bringing nutrients & oxygen to all parts of the body. Simple! Change the environment of the inner terrain by the introduction of the weed which releases toxins, changes the red cell, just as pollutants in the air (environment) changes what lives & breathes in it.

  11. It is my understanding that the only reason it is illegal now is because there is not a defined economic investment that the government can benefit from. Considering the statistics of the something two drugs in terms of fatalities let alone addictions compared to cannabis as well as the notation that alcohol (which is proven to be more harmful) is legal, it is such a mystery to me as to how we haven't overcome our pride to legalize it.

  12. The original intent of controlling Marijuana AND Hemp came about because the newly formed oil industry early in the 19th century felt threatened by the multitude of products made from Hemp that competed with petroleum. It used to be illegal NOT TO GROW Hemp in the 17th and 18th century- the war on Marijuana is all about monetary control.

  13. An excellent documentary. Very informative. If Professors talking about their experiences doesn't inform and enlighten then nothing other then personally experiencing it will.
    More to the point, what right does anyone have to tell someone they can't have the medicine they need, merely because they don't believe or agree. Shame on the law-makers who continue to withhold medicine from suffering people.

  14. Skunk, skunk and more skunk. Is that all the weed you people know. Man, there are so much more GOOD flavors, strong.. yes, but o so nice.... I'm from, you guess't it, the Netherlands. I tend to smoke a lot and recently i started using a Vaporizer to get rid of the burning process. It has opened my eyes. Even the strongest weeds are smooth and the flavor is so full. Beets burning weed hands down....

    Deaths by blowing in the Netherlands: Nil, nada, nothing, none and zero...
    Deaths by alcohol in the Netherlands: Don't even get me started... A lot..

  15. ps.... don't that one doc look like Mr. Rogers!!!

  16. So natural isn't good enough, it's the pill form, the control form, not full of naturally things but man made up things, in which justifies it's legal status?.... now i'm not a user of cannabis, Although I'm not ashamed to say I've tried it as many have... but some things just don't sit right with me about this whole situation... There are many proven sciences that say organic is the best and healthiest way to go. There is plenty of logic to that, now I'm curious to know why is it that Government still ignorantly proclaims otherwise?

  17. And now....I will comment on Weed or SKUNKWEED, Bud, pot, Mary Jane, S***, Stuff ad nauseum. This simple plant, which contains at least, 105 chemicals, was used as a medicine for at least (again with the at least...give it up already) 5000 years. Was suddenly at completely made illegal by Harry Amslinger...what else did the Government give this guy the task to eradicate?

    I rest my case. I need a joint.

  18. anyone having trouble obtaining or growing legal ganja in the U.S. needs to relocate to California. i have had a 'scrip for the past 5 years, costs 40 dollars to obtain, the shops are cheap and plentiful with good product, and anyone with rec. can grow 6 plants a turn. my wife and i turn 12 plants in our closet 3 to 4 times a year and have not paid for weed, hash, or baked goods in over a year.

  19. fantastic documentary on the subject. as a long-time suffer of an autoimmune disease, I sympathize with the testimonials.
    I had no idea that there was so much science on the topic. I was stunned to hear that our bodies naturally produce cannabinoids and that they also kill cancer. (what??!! why don't we know more about this??? oh yeah...)
    Damn politics! So much science is either not conducted or never published because it won't sell or there is no profit to be made. Scientific funders are so nervous about the social stigmas that real, life-changing studies never get approved. it sickens me. I was going to pursue a PhD in biology but decided against it because I thought the politics were too much -- I am inspired by the persistence and determination of these trail-blazing scientists who have lead the way - thank you!

    1. Why not a PhD? The politics don't come in till you want to ask for grands. That's waaaayyyy down the track.

    2. Hey! I agree, fantastic documentary! I also have an autoimmune disease and marijuana has been a life saver! I'm able to enjoy all my passions in life....especially getting down at music festivals!
      As a Canadian I really should go for my GREEN card :)


  20. More evidence the government does not represent the people that elect it but the special interests that buy it.

  21. Stoned now. Great.

  22. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.;)

  23. but oxies can be legal? smoke an herb, or ingest synthetic medical grade heroine.....

    1. adderall is being taken off the market and oxys arent far behind. give it 18 months and the "why is this legal then?" argument will hardly work anymore

  24. that doctors a geeeeek "smoking dope for medication" government paid for sure

  25. No the Pygmy seem quite adept at ambushing while stoned. That's their game plan. They have used weed to adapt to their environment.

    I am serious when I say that weed should be researched for its practical uses.

    1. Haha, not saying you are not serious. :P

  26. @Rocky Racoon That's interesting to know. It's possible that my doctor may even offer that up as an alternative. Even if I did accept that, I think I would still like to use it for recreation, however. In that case I would be a weekend toker.

  27. i used to take 2 needles a day,,type 2 diabetes ,,,now i smoke weed,,,every day,,,no more needles,,,no high sugar...

    1. Wow! Do you have any explanation for how that works, exactly?

    2. Ya, i'm curious about that too? A friend of mine has a 4yrs old with diabetes, of course she wouldn't make him smoke the stuff but perhaps a doctor could guide her. It sure would beat the pain they are going through since she found out.

    3. I assume it would be type 1 diabetes? Weed doesn't directly affect diabetes, it might indirectly affect it in that being stoned makes you move around a lot, and that decreases blood sugar. It's different to someone with type 2. Play with the child for 1 hr after every meal, plus a proper diet should do (small but frequent amounts with low glycemic index). A nutritionist is a good way to go. Still, with type 1, this body isn't making insulin and while it is possible to be insulin free, it's difficult with children because of awesome things like sugar. Hypoglycaemia is another thing, so if don't over work the play.

    4. Just me: Really? Do you think there's a true conneciton between the two?

  28. sleep tight guys x

  29. Wasn't worried about disbelief. Was worried about my recall!

  30. I looked it up just now. It is true. It comes from Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden". If I didn't smoke weed I could have remembered that.

    1. ok I believe you, thought you were pulling my leg then. Honestly not going to go and check for myself.

  31. Speaking of hunting, I read or saw something years ago concerning the Pygmies of Africa and their use of weed while hunting. Seems since they are small the Pygmies wait on the prey to come to them. As a means of keeping perfectly still they get stoned.

    It was suggested perhaps weed could be man's oldest cultivated crop.

    1. That is either a brilliant story or true and I cant guess which :)

    2. Mm, don't think weed originates from Africa. It could be something else, another herb?

    3. No it is pygmies smoking weed. There seems to be some question as to the origin of weed. Some say Asia some say Africa but all do agree that the pygmy has been smoking weed since the beginning.

    4. Really? Ack, I have a natural prejudice against all research regarding pygmies in Africa. There was a period of racism where a lot of 'research' showed whites are taller, have bigger brains and just better than everyone else. A lot of it said that Africans are all pygmies with little brains. Most Africans are tall! Only the people living in the deserts are shorter, but they are a very small percentage, and very ingenious at surviving off just the water in plant roots! ... I'll just end my rant.

    5. Aside from that, it is interesting that the pygmy found a practical use for weed. Practical uses of weed are rarely mentioned. I would think practicality to be as important as medical use. I certainly have found a practical use. Perhaps research in that direction could yield some surprising uses of weed.

    6. I don't know... you might be too stoned to pull the trap, or do an ambush, or like these people that goes all buzzy and can't stop moving. Research into practical use, lol you don't need to be a scientist to do that. Hemp had a lot of other uses, like making ropes etc, but it's usually the variety that doesn't give a high, as they are specially bred for these uses.

      The current weed probably isn't that overly good at doing much else, since it is specifically bred to be recreational.

  32. You know, that ancient part of the brain which controls the mechanics of the body - breathing, heart rate, heating and cooling - the everyday ordinary things a body does.

    Now my mind, although stoned, is serenely and keenly aware of the world around me. It's out there on its own paying no attention to the goings-on in the reptile department of the brain.

    The experience is so real as to feel surreal. But I've seen this mentioned nowhere. Seems medicine would have noticed this before.

    1. Reptilian stem, not heard that in a while. Thought for years it was just another one of my dads stories like the Yami of Yawn. He did say women don't have them and that's why we cant hunt as well as men! Good job I love him.

    2. Maybe that depends a little on what the women may be hunting for? I know that every 2 or 3 days or so, my wife is just as clever and base in her ambushes as any crocodile I ever heard tell of.

    3. That's not hunting, that's welcoming little fishes in.

    4. So there you go fifty4fourty - women do have the reptilian stem.

    5. Yes, but ours are probably better ;)

    6. "...welcoming little fishes in," with gently smiling jaws!

    7. She must have a dazzling smile!

    8. I think women were just too busy gathering the other 90% of the food that they consume. ;)

    9. And the men were consuming 95% of the possible sex with 2% of the women! :)

    10. D: I'm trying to get my pristine brain to comprehend this, but I now feel sorry for 98% of the women.

    11. I'm trying to get mine to do the same thing, lol. Maybe not the best joke I've ever made here...

    12. may be your jokes sound better as a moose....a little too obvious as Gumby.

    13. Just in time for Halloween...
      Anything for you, Azilda.
      (But shoot me and mount my head on the wall if I change it again, ok?....... Hey! they DO get better! lol.)

    14. Your jokes are like a wave of ups and downs or heads and butts.
      How about that for a joke! LOL

      It appears to be made from nylon stockings, you'de get a lot of candies with that suit on from Moosie....especially if you both ate a brownie (had to add something to be on subject).
      But let's stop it here, it could get literally literary out of hands.

    15. I wish I could wear it, since I'll be the one taking my little prince out on the rounds... while here at home we'll be serving up several kinds of intoxicating goodies for the ghouls and ghosts that come knocking! lol.

      ( Wow. It's still working! )

    16. Hi, Az! Just check back to see if any new posts have happened today. Slow on the pot thread, I see. Wish I had more time to watch more docs. My sermon tomorrow will keep me busy all day, so I'm out for the weekend most likely. Blessings!

    17. I went to visit a friend who just got her prescription (for herself) and her licence to grow. She was granted to grow 11 plants. So we talked about the whys and hows and whens and how much. It is getting more and more common here to grow medical M but there is still a lot of resistance and rules and this and that.
      I advertised myself as a trimmer a while back in the paper(never seen that before) for medical legal operation ONLY...not one call...people are afraid.
      SO dear's a bit for you to read!
      That's my sermon!

    18. Does Oregon have medical M. too? I have a friend there that grows his own plants too (for medical reasons)--I forgot why. I guess it does if he's growing legally.

    19. Yes the whole west coast is open to that kind of culture in most parts.

    20. Yes, even me, and I'm pretty conservative all things considered.

    21. Strange how i always thought of you as a man (although once i thought you made a gender mistake) and now it finally hit me you are a woman. I will never be confused again, at least not about that.
      what is 54 40?

    22. @az
      I figured out she was a female the other day because of something she said, like refering to her husband lol. Fifty four forty has a couple of meanings but I will let her explain which one she means her name to be about. Fifty four forty and FIGHT! lol ok I had to put the one reference in lol cause I am an a$$

    23. Az your funny, and I'm not the least bit offended ;) A bit curious as to why you thought that though. 54 40 or Fight is a quilt pattern, a red star on a white background. Maybe it illustrates my man/woman status- quilty soft and fighty. It gets its name from the campaign slogan for Pres Polk, Greg_Mc will know better than I do but it was something to do with extending the Oregon territory.

    24. I see...i don't know why i thought that but it's fixed now.
      54 40 an expression i had never heard...mind you my history knowledge is as will.

    25. I'm not to good on American history either but quilt patterns always have a story and I pick tiny bits up that way.

    26. Well it is also British history. One of our many spats.

    27. True. We don't do much about that in school here though, it tends to be more about the industrial revolution and the 2nd world war, maybe just a little bit about your part in our victory ;)

    28. @ fifty
      I knew there was a saying 54 40 or fight but to be honest I had to look up who said it, Pres Polk is a little before my time. 54 40 is also the name of a band, I think they came out in the 80's and were kind of a hippie throwback looking band. They were/are pretty good

    29. Never heard of the band, might have to look them up. When was Polk? 18 something? Only a little before your time? How old are you?! To be honest if it wasn't for the quilting I would never have heard of him either!

    30. hardest working band still playing rock n roll....they all have day jobs.

  33. Spent the afternoon at Ainsworh Hotsprings yesterday (104 degree natural water), possibly would have smoked one if i had one. But when i get off i normally stay off for months....self control is something i test on myself regularly with all kinds of things including popcorn.

    1. Hey, I have been to Ainsworth Hotsprings many times before, neat place! love the caves, really hot in there. And also Harrison Hotsprings, the home of the Sasquatch in Agassiz, a lot of them there. lol

    2. Now that you are a moderator and must have access to my email address, can you send me a photo of you under the blue mask? Curious to see if i get the same feeling of knowing you from way back.
      Come i know you live in BC. I promise i won't stalk you.....unless you look like William Hurt and speak french like him....lololol

    3. Never been to Harrison, but to a few others in the Slocan Valley such as Nakusp and a couple non commercial.
      I LOVE hotsprings, once took a trip to Arizona stopping at as many hotsprings as i could find on the way.
      I did smoke quite a bit in those days...just to stay on subject!

  34. I suffer from chronic pain and have for many many years. If marijuana was legal it would definitely be my drug of choice to manage pain. Nothing else works and they are just neurotoxins to the body.

  35. Ok! True funny story time! As a kid I got a job "weeding" the neighbor's flower garden. I was like age 7 (maybe). I did such a good job, and went the extra mile for my paying customers, that when I noticed a whole flowerbed of yucky green weed seedlings on the side of the house, I "weeded" them too. After getting paid, I heard someone sream "OMG!" Yep, you guessed it--REAL weed! I never "weeded" for them again! ;-) Perhaps I've missed my calling in the DEA.

    1. C I bet the guy wanted to kill you lol
      Luckily as a kid I didnt have a work ethic so stuff like that never happened to me.

    2. Yeah, homicidal is about right! Fortunately they were only about 4 inches tall. You can regrow that in a few weeks I would think. I was also a smart kid--I didn't came around much after that incident. ;-)

  36. Keep it illegal!!! Keep it tax-freeeeeee!!!! :)

  37. Off to bed, sweet dreams all x

  38. Not to be cynical, here, but...I was listening to NPR the other day. They were talking about how drug cartels have taken over Mexico, with extreme levels of violence and their own armed militias. Why? because it's so lucrative to sell illegal drugs in the U.S.

    So I started daydreaming...what if they legalized all illegal drugs being used for recreational purposes, and made them available for consumer consumption, the way alcohol is?

    (My contention has always been that there are minorities at either end of the spectrum, those who either cannot tolerate drugs, or have severe tendencies towards addictive behavior--assuming a given substance isn't already physically addictive--with most in the middle range and able to enjoy the occasional social use without becoming dependent. Society's focus should really be on how to control addictive behaviors in general, not any one addiction in particular. But I digress.)

    Then I started remembering the history of prohibitions and the forces behind them...Now my cynical side did kick in and I began thinking of all the lucrative businesses that would be affected by legal, taxed pleasure substances. You know: the prison industries; the alcohol industries; the political industries; the religion industries; the government agency industries...They all profit from the "sin".

    I don't suppose any amount of luxury tax would make up their losses. Forget about the effect the criminalization of an innocuous drug has already had on minorities and the poor, who, after all, are the fodder all those industries feed on.

    *Sigh*. I came back to earth. And for the curious, yes I've smoked pot. No, I don't do it regularly. I don't drink alcohol very much, either. If offered both with an either/or caveat, I'd choose the pot, but I just don't use many drugs at all, legal or otherwise.

    I do worry about what has happened in my country over the last 30 years. And it isn't the drugs I'm worried about. You know what the most common use of the so-called Patriot Act is? That's right...the 'war on drugs'. Forget terrorism.

  39. Legalize, end the hypocrisy!

  40. Been smoking pot for over 20 years regularly. I will never understand what the big deal is, people either smoke it or they don't. Alcohol should be the focus and cause for concern, not weed.

    A lazy attitude towards life is a lazy attitude towards life, high or not!

  41. Actually these comments are getting boring lol. How everybody is so in love with their Mary-Jane.

    Researchers in Canada report that marijuana smoke contains significantly higher levels of several toxic compounds-including Ammonia, 20 times higher...and hydrogen cyanide, 3-5 times higher, than tobacco smoke, not to mention about 50 other cancerous compounds and may therefore pose similar health risks, and not withstanding Mary-jane is inhaled very deeply into the lungs, effectively killing the Alveoli in the lungs. Basically with or without a "Bong" ..."Science Daily"

    1. Leave it to Razor to spoil the party. What about in cookie form? Az got me all worked-up about pot butter cookies. Then I read an article about old people accidentially eating them at a funneral and not being able to walk with out assistence and being rushed to the hospital. Had they only known, then one cookie would have been enough! :-)

    2. I knew you'd be here made me laugh. I told you pot cookies can be too strong. I imagine the laughters after that funeral (for those who got the right dose), not funny...sorry!
      All in all i must say i love being off pot myself. It leaves my mind free to deal with everything shite and cream with equal equilibrium.
      @Achems, did you ever inhale?

    3. They all recuperated. They probably thought they had been poisoned! I was picturing my dad (84 and what he'd be doing)--I'm sure he'd have had at least two cookies himself before feeling the effects!

      I guess it said in the article that they had been used by the person that died, so it is a theory that someone found them, not knowing they were cooked with pot in them, and put them out. She's dead--why waste her cookies!?! Old people are so frugal that way, ya know.

    4. I heard it's 3 times more carcinogenic than normal cigarettes. Though to be honest who are we to trust when the facts are coming from cigarette companies and governments who get tax revenue and kick backs from them? Comments might be boring but the facts aren't.

      Free will and self determinism shouldn't be an issue of government or law. If people want to grow a natural weed and eat it / smoke it they should be able to. That is the real issue. And it's an issue because it damages directly the cancer stick companies / pharmaceuticals.

  42. Epicurus put me straight on a few things. I was coming at this from a different perspective, thinking in terms of recreational use and not as a herbal remedy. I mixed in some personal experience which took away my objectivity. Still I wonder if it might be that people need to be more accepting of the mental health issues that it apparently helps. If we did our bit would their bit be easier, if we de-stigmatised would the feeling of needing to change to fit in be less intense. I do know something about Epilepsy and yes, getting stoned can help up to a point (best eaten). The problem is being stoned all the time- even a gentle tickle can be tiring in it's own way. Maybe preferable to taking endless pills every day though.

  43. Hey Vlad ...take a look at "cannabis cures cancer" maynwant to add it

  44. I thought it was pretty refreshing to see an American network doc with this attitude. I use it for both medicinal and recreational uses. I suffer from severe anxiety and depression and I have severe GI problems, which prevent me from drinking and cause chronic pain, and I use weed to HELP solve all problems. My doctor knows, and I am following a course of prescribed meds, so I'm not saying 'Weed cures everything' or 'it's the plant from revelations, dude', but I am saying that, even with prescription meds, life for me would be crap without weed. I know because I have lived that life before now.

    Personally I think it should be legal. It's a natural plant, for a start, and it being illegal (I'm in Canada, by the way) makes me a criminal, which I don't really like. I've never had hassle from the police and I don't really want any at all, to be honest. I can't imagine what being stuck in jail even overnight would be like for me with the problems I have. Plus, I'd say that the evidence for marajuna being more of a helpful than harmful drug is overwhelming. On this site alone there are plenty of different documentaries that cross-confirm what the others all say - and not all the documentaries on here are 'for' marajuana - plus I have my own experience. Here's an example: I have an English degree and graduated with distinction (that means 4.0 GPA), and I was high the whole time. It helped me with my anxiety and social phobias as well as the pain and I don't feel it affected my work at all. I got top marks in all my classes. I'm not bragging, I believe it is a truly strong affirmation that you can use marajuana and have a normal life.

    Not only that, but if you are creative, it can do wonders. Personally, I write, and it can really stimulate the imagination. I even understand why thanks partially to TDF and its awesome collection, but also partially to my own initiative and research which, to get to the point, weed has not impaired. That's my two cents, anyway.


    1. The reason why weed and hookers ore illegal in the us is because its really hard to tax.... sorry for throwing hookers in the mix but is hard for the gov to know how many times suzie got laid or how many plants jonny is growing its sad i hope weed is legal soon

    2. Check out my post the banks make to much money laundering for the cartels. And the ruling class gets to wage war on and strike fear into the heart of the working class.

    3. YOU can also use opiates from the doctor and have a pretty normal life to. No loss of control and more more more. When you take it for pain that is and that is what the science says not me.

  45. ...and no Dr.Vothe the"rub"is you are a narrow minded tight ass...

  46. I can't believe how Dr.Vothe keeps saying over and over "the problem is your smoking dope"and about addiction and with drawl symptoms.So taking opioid is not taking dope.They are very addicting and arguably have the worst with drawl symptoms of any drug.Are you kidding me...

  47. whats the harm? I never hear that part!

  48. I will never understand how society can accept the damage that can be done by alcohol, domestic violence of all kinds, and yet deny the usefulness of marijuana. It reminds me of prohibition where the attitudes of a few religious people were forced onto an entire nation, and we all know what that brought about. Marijuana, I believe, is kept illegal because it is a money maker for many branchs of government, namely the "war on drugs" enforcers as well as the judicial and corrections departments. If it were legal the prison populations would go down considerably. But to hear this Dr.Toth criticize marijuana as a drug and praise the benefits of chemicals with all of their side effects is just hipocritical . But thats our government for you, if they could find a way to use it as a weapon they would be producing it by the plane load.

    1. Don't forget the CIA's complicity in dealing with heroin smugglers overseas...Sometimes overlooking trafficking in exchange for information only, but also sometimes providing a means of shipment for the product in order to obtain covert funds for forces friendly to the U.S.

  49. All I know is the damn drug war has been going on all my life, it is old & tired now. People's lives are ruined, families torn apart... I don't think getting high on anything deserves such life changing punishments.

    1. People have ALWAYS looked to alter their consciousness from time to time, and always will. I don't think (some kinds of) drug use per se should be the problem, but, rather, making sure you're in, and stay in, a safe environment while you're using, and avoiding the catastrophe of addiction at all costs. Some can do this, and some can't.

      But pot? You couldn't get physically addicted to it, no matter how much you smoked... At the very least, no one should have his life ruined over that, for heaven's sake.

    2. Yet who is to decide what drug is "safe"?

    3. That is a problem, isn't it? I'm glad it wouldn't be left to me to determine... But, for a start, maybe substances which are incapable, or far less capable, of causing a physical addiction could be considered. After all, we have legalized tobacco and alcohol, for example, which are both capable of causing serious addictions. Why not legalize some others that aren't?

    4. I think along the lines you do. Right at this moment I am smoking a bowl. I find it hard to draw any lines. I am breaking the law no less than a tweeker(well maybe not). Confusing.

    5. If things start to get too foggy, pull up some old HR Pufnstuff, just for laughs and "clarity". Good ol' Sid and Marty Krofft!
      They fooled us all, lol.

    6. Rocky and Bullwinkle.

    7. Sounds like a fight, lolol.

    8. priests and politicians know more than all scientists and doctors. They also know whats best and are the best hands in which to leave your children.

    9. I'm sorry. Did you say it is best to leave a child in the hands of a priest? Problem there is you'll quite literally leave your child in the hands of a priest.

    10. priests and politicians? Did you not get my sarcasm? I wrote that the uneducated priests and politicians know more than science and doctors.

    11. Oh I got it. I was being sarcastic also.

    12. preferably a scientist whose done research and study.

    13. I'll do my own research and study.

    14. Me.

  50. Legalization is the only sane course for the lawmakers to take, however my fear is that we could only buy from licenced dealers who would be forced to sell only a crappy government mandated strain taxed at a rate higher than cigarettes or alcohol. It wouldn't affect me anyway since I cut my industrial scale use a few years ago to almost nil, (I like it a little too much) but nearly all of my friends smoke.
    @az: I grew up in Alberta and we were able to get good hash that made its way from the middle east through Quebec. I liked smoking it mixed with tobacco and sometimes a bit of pot mixed in. When I moved to BC I discovered weed was king and very little hash made it across the Rockies. Are you familiar with the phrase "coals to Newcastle"?

    1. "Coals to Newcastle"..I get it now....sort of like "buds to Nelson".
      That is exactly the point. If it was legal, they could never produce it better than anyone who could self produce it for free. It is a weed. When i look at potdocs and their grow room, makes me realize how far we are here in Koots with our technique. My first grow room was set up in 1980, that's a lot of trial and errors, a lot of experiments.

    2. True, but when have lawmakers ever take the 'sane course'?

  51. Epicurus, you forgot one. How about just plain fun. I can reference that for you if you wish.

    1. I hear that Lakhota. I personally use it for fun. and i know many people who would benefit from a joint after work just to de-stress.

  52. True story. Down the street and around the corner is a medical marijuana dispensary complete with a doctor. You need no disease to obtain a card. These people are selling smoke and will even deliver it to your house.

    Why go through this. Make it legal.

  53. Hell talk faster? We can't even listen faster!

  54. Oh, I love the Brits. Just wish they'd learn to speak English. I like Az's version of a spliff. Seems a little more potent.

    1. She and I have the same mix, it works but your mouth feels cat in the morning. Where are you from? I speak the Queens English, the woman is just so common!

    2. I'm from the very Southern USA. Supposedly, we are somewhat close to the "Queens English" in vernacular and meter, except your accent is all wrong.

    3. Yeah, I always heard that if we Southerners talked faster, we'd sound more British...or at least Cockney, lol!

    4. Sort of Alabama ? Very soothing. At least I can say aluminium properly :))

    5. And vitamin.

    6. Warrior.

    7. you talking about me being so common?

    8. No Az. The Queen.

    9. Never, you look like a classy bird :)

  55. What's a spliff? You're not talking Brit are you?

    1. a spliff in my young days was a hash joint mixed with tobacco and i am Canadian.

    2. I suspect that is because you were in eastern Canada at the time. Am I correct in this assumption? I on the other hand am on the west coast, Southern Vancouver Island to be specific & here a spliff has always been the sacred herb.

    3. yes, back then in Montreal all you could find was good hash, pot was coming from Mexico and it had more seeds than leafs.

      Found this on google:The term spliff is a West Indian word of Jamaican English origin, but has spread to several western countries, particularly Canada, the United States, and many countries in Europe. Its precise etymology is unknown, but it is attested as early as 1936. While Jamaican spliffs are generally conical in shape, those elsewhere tend to be cylindrical and of varying lengths. "Spliff" can also refer to various styles of cigarette rolled with a mixture of hashish and tobacco.


    4. Yep, sorry. Not to worry though, you'll forget that in about 5 seconds. A spliff is a reefer. How was your trip?

  56. Here in Oregon we have some rather lax laws and even those aren't enforced. We pretend not to smoke and the police pretend not to see us.

    1. All that paperwork just for a spliff, why would they bother. Pretty much like that here.

  57. i started smoking pot when i was 14 years old. till about 23 years old..i am 33 years old now. i wouldnt touch the stuff anymore. its rubbish.
    thats my comment.

    1. why is it rubbish? what happened that changed your mind about it? and what do you think about it being legal? do you think people should be locked up in jail for it?

    2. You tried it at a wrong age. You started way too early. And I'm guessing you didn't use a vaporizer (or cook it either).

      And just because it didnt suit you, doesn't mean others shouldn't try it. Everyone's got a different kind of mind.

      Plus, you used the herb, but I'm guessing you never got a police record out of it. Imagine if you had.

  58. americans are dumb as they were in the 1930's. every medicine they take , anything from alcohol to tylenol and crack, are man changed, therefore it is a drug, they are trying to turn a natural herb into a man changed drug. The pharamcuticals use doctors are advertisers. Its a corrupted scheme in the states. Time to get rid of all politicians and government officials, and put in people based on their intelligence. Bush/Obama, they have a combine IQ that of a mice

    1. Why are Americans always called dumb?

  59. I guess having lived around it all my life and having tried just about everything going I've decided that for me there is nothing so lovely as a clear mind. I like the honesty of it, same as I like peoples faces better without make-up, male and female! Legalise it? I don't know. Do you really want that? standardised pre-rolled packs of 20 being sold and marketed by the big tobacco companies (you know it would be them) and taxed to high heaven by the government. It wouldn't make home grown legal. Why stop there, why not legalise everything, smack, crack, meow, all of it. If you do it for one others will surely follow. I guess what you want is to decriminalise it but the problem with that is the dealers, sorry to say but the bigger they are the nastier they get! If you want to grow your own there are ways. Well, rant over! I'm happily high on life, it's a cake so good it doesn't need icing :)

    1. I agree. Legalize all of it.

    2. I agree with you in a certain measure. I haven't smoked in quite some time, i like to feel clear headed too and that includes rarely drinking more than for taste and pleasure, but when i want to do an art project, i find that pot helps unblock the flow. I can go back to smoking and instantly stop when i wish to, may be i am different.
      But what this doc is about is the beneficial effect it has on people who are sick. In BC it is possible to get a licence to grow medical marijuana but i hear they want to take that away now.

    3. Other than the munchies and sleepyness I cant think what benefits there could be but maybe that's all they need.

    4. Sometimes I like the forgetfulness. Lets me imagine what Alzehimer's will be like.

    5. You got old-timers?

    6. When I smoke a spliff.

    7. really fifty? i could give you a bunch of information on all the clinical trials that have revealed the medical benefits of cannabis if you want to take a look.....

      A 2002 review of medical literature by Franjo Grotenhermen states that medical cannabis has established effects in the treatment of nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, unintentional weight loss, insomnia, and lack of appetite. Other "relatively well-confirmed" effects were in the treatment of "spasticity, painful conditions, especially neurogenic pain, movement disorders, asthma, and glaucoma".
      Preliminary findings indicate that cannabis-based drugs could prove useful in treating inflammatory bowel disease, migraines, fibromyalgia, and related conditions.

      Medical cannabis has also been found to relieve certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries by exhibiting antispasmodic and muscle-relaxant properties as well as stimulating appetite.
      Other studies state that cannabis or cannabinoids may be useful in treating alcohol abuse, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, collagen-induced arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, bipolar disorder, colorectal cancer, HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy depression, dystonia, epilepsy, digestive diseases, gliomas, hepatitis C, Huntington's disease, leukemia, skin tumors, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Parkinson's disease, pruritus, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psoriasis, sickle-cell disease, sleep apnea, and anorexia nervosa.

      Controlled research on treating Tourette syndrome with a synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol, (brand name Marinol) (the main psychoactive chemical found in cannabis), showed the patients taking Marinol had a beneficial response without serious adverse effects. However these effects were not the same for everyone.

      Russo EB (2004). "Clinical endocannabinoid deficiency (CECD): can this concept explain therapeutic benefits of cannabis in migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and other treatment-resistant conditions?". Neuro Endocrinology Letters 25 (1–2): 31–9. PMID 15159679.

      Zajicek J, Fox P, Sanders H, et al. (2003). "Cannabinoids for treatment of spasticity and other symptoms related to multiple sclerosis (CAMS study): multicentre randomised placebo-controlled trial". Lancet 362 (9395): 1517–26. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14738-1. PMID 14615106.



      Kogel RW, Johnson PB, Chintam R, Robinson CJ, Nemchausky BA (1995). "Treatment of Spasticity in Spinal Cord Injury with Dronabinol, a Tetrahydrocannabinol Derivative". American Journal of Therapeutics 2 (10): 799–805. doi:10.1097/00045391-199510000-00012. PMID 11854790.

      Thanos PK, Dimitrakakis ES, Rice O, Gifford A, Volkow ND (2005). "Ethanol self-administration and ethanol conditioned place preference are reduced in mice lacking cannabinoid CB1 receptors". Behavioural Brain Research 164 (2): 206–13. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2005.06.021. PMID 16140402.

      Carter GT, Rosen BS (2001). "Marijuana in the management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care 18 (4): 264–70. doi:10.1177/104990910101800411. PMID 11467101.

      Weydt P, Hong S, Witting A, Möller T, Stella N, Kliot M (2005). "Cannabinol delays symptom onset in SOD1 (G93A) transgenic mice without affecting survival". Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Disorders 6 (3): 182–4. doi:10.1080/14660820510030149. PMID 16183560.

      Malfait AM, Gallily R, Sumariwalla PF, et al. (2000). "The nonpsychoactive cannabis constituent cannabidiol is an oral anti-arthritic therapeutic in murine collagen-induced arthritis" (Free full text). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97 (17): 9561–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.160105897. PMC 16904. PMID 10920191.

      Tashkin DP, Shapiro BJ, Lee YE, Harper CE (1975). "Effects of smoked marijuana in experimentally induced asthma". The American Review of Respiratory Disease 112 (3): 377–86. PMID 1099949.

      Steffens S, Veillard NR, Arnaud C, et al. (16 April 2005). "Cannabis may help keep arteries clear". Nature 434 (7034): 782–6. doi:10.1038/nature03389. PMID 15815632. Lay summary – New Scientist.

      Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB (1998). "The use of cannabis as a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder: anecdotal evidence and the need for clinical research". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 30 (2): 171–7. doi:10.1080/02791072.1998.10399687. PMID 9692379.

      Ashton CH, Moore PB, Gallagher P, Young AH (2005). "Cannabinoids in bipolar affective disorder: a review and discussion of their therapeutic potential". Journal of Psychopharmacology 19 (3): 293–300. doi:10.1177/0269881105051541. PMID 15888515.

      Patsos HA, Hicks DJ, Dobson RR, et al. (2005). "The endogenous cannabinoid, anandamide, induces cell death in colorectal carcinoma cells: a possible role for cyclooxygenase 2". Gut 54 (12): 1741–50. doi:10.1136/gut.2005.073403. PMC 1774787. PMID 16099783.

      Abrams, D.I., MD; Jay, C.A., MD (2007). "Cannabis in painful HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy". Neurology 68 (7): 515–521. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000253187.66183.9c. PMID 17296917. Retrieved 2/3/2011.

      Bambico FR, Katz N, Debonnel G, Gobbi G (2007). "Cannabinoids elicit antidepressant-like behavior and activate serotonergic neurons through the medial prefrontal cortex" (Free full text). The Journal of Neuroscience 27 (43): 11700–11. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1636-07.2007. PMID 17959812. Lay summary – Fox News Channel (25 October 2007).



      El-Remessy AB, Al-Shabrawey M, Khalifa Y, Tsai NT, Caldwell RB, Liou GI (2006). "Neuroprotective and Blood-Retinal Barrier-Preserving Effects of Cannabidiol in Experimental Diabetes" (Free full text). The American Journal of Pathology 168 (1): 235–44. doi:10.2353/ajpath.2006.050500. PMC 1592672. PMID 16400026.

      Fox SH, Kellett M, Moore AP, Crossman AR, Brotchie JM (2002). "Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the potential of cannabinoid receptor stimulation in the treatment of dystonia". Movement Disorders 17 (1): 145–9. doi:10.1002/mds.1280. PMID 11835452.

      "Cannabis could be used to treat epilepsy". Telegraph. 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2011-04-20.

      Marsicano G, Goodenough S, Monory K, et al. (2003). "CB1 cannabinoid receptors and on-demand defense against excitotoxicity". Science 302 (5642): 84–8. doi:10.1126/science.1088208. PMID 14526074.

      Bacci A, Huguenard JR, Prince DA (2004). "Long-lasting self-inhibition of neocortical interneurons mediated by endocannabinoids". Nature 431 (7006): 312–6. doi:10.1038/nature02913. PMID 15372034. Lay summary – Science Daily (16 September 2004).

      Di Carlo G, Izzo AA (2003). "Cannabinoids for gastrointestinal diseases: potential therapeutic applications". Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs 12 (1): 39–49. doi:10.1517/13543784.12.1.39. PMID 12517253.

      Lorente M, Carracedo A, Torres S, et al. (2009). "Amphiregulin is a factor for resistance of glioma cells to cannabinoid-induced apoptosis". Glia 57 (13): 1374–85. doi:10.1002/glia.20856. PMID 19229996.


      Sylvestre DL, Clements BJ, Malibu Y (2006). "Cannabis use improves retention and virological outcomes in patients treated for hepatitis C". European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology 18 (10): 1057–63. doi:10.1097/01.meg.0000216934.22114.51. PMID 16957511.

      Iuvone, T.; Esposito, G.; De Filippis, D.; Scuderi, C.; Steardo, L. (2009). "Cannabidiol: A Promising Drug for Neurodegenerative Disorders?". CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics 15 (1): 65–75. doi:10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00065.x. PMID 19228180. edit

      Powles T, te Poele R, Shamash J, et al. (2005). "Cannabis-induced cytotoxicity in leukemic cell lines: the role of the cannabinoid receptors and the MAPK pathway" (Free full text). Blood 105 (3): 1214–21. doi:10.1182/blood-2004-03-1182. PMID 15454482.

      Casanova ML, Blázquez C, Martínez-Palacio J, et al. (2003). "Inhibition of skin tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo by activation of cannabinoid receptors" (Free full text). The Journal of Clinical Investigation 111 (1): 43–50. doi:10.1172/JCI16116. PMC 151833. PMID 12511587.

      Appendino G, Gibbons S, Giana A, Pagani A, Grassi G, Stavri M, Smith E, Rahman MM (2008). "Antibacterial Cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa: A Structure—Activity Study" (PDF). J Nat Prod 71 (8): 1427–30. doi:10.1021/np8002673. PMID 18681481. Retrieved 6 November 2010. Lay summary – WebMD (4 September 2008).

      Kreitzer AC, Malenka RC (2005). "Endocannabinoid-mediated rescue of striatal LTD and motor deficits in Parkinson's disease models". Nature 445 (7128): 643–7. doi:10.1038/nature05506. PMID 17287809. Lay summary – Stanford University School of Medicine (7 February 2007).


      Bergasa NV (2005). "The pruritus of cholestasis". Journal of Hepatology 43 (6): 1078–88. doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2005.09.004. PMID 16253381.

      Ganon-Elazar E, Akirav I (2009). "Cannabinoid receptor activation in the basolateral amygdala blocks the effects of stress on the conditioning and extinction of inhibitory avoidance". J. Neurosci 29 (36): 11078–88. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1223-09.2009. PMID 19741114. Lay summary – PsychCentral (5 November 2009).

      Wilkinson, J. D.; Williamson, E. M. (2007). "Cannabinoids inhibit human keratinocyte proliferation through a non-CB1/CB2 mechanism and have a potential therapeutic value in the treatment of psoriasis". Journal of Dermatological Science 45 (2): 87–92. doi:10.1016/j.jdermsci.2006.10.009. PMID 17157480. edit

      Howard, J.; Anie, K. A.; Holdcroft, A.; Korn, S.; Davies, S. C. (2005). "Cannabis use in sickle cell disease: A questionnaire study". British Journal of Haematology 131 (1): 123–128. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2141.2005.05723.x. PMID 16173972. edit

      Carley DW, Paviovic S, Janelidze M, Radulovacki M (2002). "Functional role for cannabinoids in respiratory stability during sleep" (Free full text). Sleep 25 (4): 391–8. PMID 12071539.


      Singer HS (2005). "Tourette's syndrome: from behaviour to biology". Lancet Neurol 4 (3): 149–59. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(05)01012-4. PMID 15721825.

      Singer HS (March 2005). "Tourette's syndrome: from behaviour to biology". The Lancet Neurology 4 (3): 149–59. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(05)01012-4. PMID 15721825.

      Robertson MM (March 2000). "Tourette syndrome, associated conditions and the complexities of treatment". Brain: a journal of neurology 123 Pt 3 (3): 425–62. doi:10.1093/brain/123.3.425. PMID 10686169.

      Sandyk R, Awerbuch G (1988). "Marijuana and Tourette's syndrome". Journal of clinical psychopharmacology 8 (6): 444–5. doi:10.1097/00004714-198812000-00021. PMID 3235704.

      Müller-Vahl KR, Kolbe H, Dengler R (1997). "Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Effect of nicotine, alcohol and marihuana on clinical symptoms". Der Nervenarzt 68 (12): 985–9. PMID 9465342.

    8. @Epi, you should teach the stuff at Universities. Here's a reason i could get on Skype, i could be your secretary...lolol

    9. Do you look good in heels? lol.

    10. i was often called the Barefoot Lady.

    11. That's exactly what I suspected! My wife's the same way.

    12. i have done two essays on cannabis in university that both got an A+

      one was in a class on Research and the other in Philosophy of Logic.

      I think i still have them on a hardrive somewhere.

    13. I was wondering, anyway, is Philosophy your major?

    14. Would be very interesting to read.

    15. I got to think, if you find it and want to, send it to me, you know how to reach me, being a moderator you must have my email address.

    16. awesome, copied, pasted saved!

    17. Ok scholar I stand corrected. (but I still think I'm sort of right ;)

    18. The first sentence in your post says it all for me. It's been 17 years since I smoked, and I've never regretted putting it down. Made my anxiety worse, anyway, like I said the other it were legal, and I didn't have to be uptight about that issue, I could still see myself maybe trying smoking on occasion socially. God knows, all my musician buddies still do...

    19. Do everything, just do it in moderation. The best bit of advice my Mum ever gave me. Old lush!

    20. Weed only makes you anxious when you have too much. As long as you get your dose right, there's no anxiety. But a brief period of anxiety sure beats dizziness, puking your guts out and feeling like death (if you're lucky), as with too much alcohol.

    21. i have to say i disagree with your claim that if you legalize one you have to legalize the others. that is like saying if you let gays get married we will have people marrying cows next...its called a slippery slope fallacy and its just not true.

      i also think we would be allowed to grow our own. you are allowed to make your own alcohol and grow your own tobacco, you just arent allowed to sell it. that is fine. it could be the same for cannabis.

      other than that, all the power to you for your decision to stay sober. just wonder though, do you drink alcohol?

    22. Had a good go at booze 'til I was about 20, Painfully shy as a youth and it gave me confidence or so I thought. Turned out I was actually being a loud mouth harpie. Very attractive. Now I'll raise a glass at Christmas and that's about it.


      -Even after a sh1tty day at work?
      Even after some really bad news you can't do d1ck about?
      Sometimes a clear mind is the worst thing on this earth!

      "Why stop there, why not legalise everything"

      -Because the science says not everything is as beneficial as cannabis,

      "I guess what you want is to decriminalise it but the problem with that is the dealers"

      -If it's legalized it'll be sold in shops/pharmacies...dealers won't exist anymore.

      "I'm happily high on life"

      well bully for you...Some of us unfortunatly live in the real world, and being high on life isn't an option.

    24. Smile. :)

    25. Uhhh I know things are tough but try and get some stress relief or smoke one..unless you have to pee test for work. That is a complete drag.Would you want your air pilot to be high on pot well yes they were so bored flying across the Atlantic during ww2 they did it all the time....Makes one a better driver from tests I have seen.

    26. Sure, why not decriminalise everything? The Portugese did that a decade ago (for possession and use), and they're doing fine. They now just focus on harm reduction.

  60. Same old same old. smoke if you want to,don't if you don't. Does anyone really care any more?

    1. Grow a few plants by your entrance door next summer and you'll see.
      Of course smoking it is easier to hide but someone had to grow it.

    2. Yes because you can get arrested if caught or drug tested and loose your job.

    3. Not me, only people that smokes it do I guess. People that grow/sell wouldn't want it legal because that would kill profits. As long as it's controlled like any other legal drugs I don't really mind. What worries me is people who would mix the 2 drugs at same time, not that people don't do it now but it makes alcohol all the more dangerous. I guess that's why in places like Netherlands there's a lot of regulations so the 2 can't happen at the same place. The coffee shops there also regulate intake, kinda like alcohol in a bar. So as long as there are regulations in place it's ok.

    4. Hey there, hows my buddy Yi doing? Didnt know you were a hemphead lol, yes I know you are interested in the science of it. Which we all are because as stated by the one side in this doc the benefits of smoking it can be tremendous. Why it is against the law is beyond me, you cant have weed but your family doc will gladly give you prozac or whatever that messes people up with possible bad side effects or is it affects? That can mess you up really bad, just look at the TV commercials where they advertize these drugs and half the commercial is them for legal reasons telling you about the possible problems the drug can cause you. Or how about having your doc prescribe and get you hooked on percocet or hydromorphone (synthetic morphine, well it isnt morphine till it goes through your liver I dont think) which messes up your body too. The whole racket is so hypocritical, I have a friend who can legally smoke weed because she has MS but the weed our government gives her is so crappy she still has to get it off the street. She is a mess without weed and wouldn't be able to do the little bit of walking she can do without it. She manages to get to the rallies though but has to use a wheelchair for that, she goes because she is one of the top people in one of the big groups that is trying to have the laws changed. I dont want to mention her name or the group without her permission, but Yi just look on my facebook and I am sure you will figure o ut which one she is, lol and probably way easier than trying to figure out that halloween thing. Which BTW my friends finished in 5th place and won $100.

    5. There are a lot of side effects from people that I know that smoke pot, such as one complained that it took ages to get it out of his system. That's the problem with pot, it stays in your body for ages. During that time you will have problem driving, and a large mood swing (my friend complained mood swing up to a month after). Also a friend of a friend went into rehab for pot. It's addictive to 0.3% of people that smokes it I think, but it might be because they have an addictive personality or something so if it's not pot it will probably be something else like playing video games. I think with any soft drug, if you do it responsibly it is fine.

      The mood swings are quite real though, you can argue that it doesn't do physical harm but it makes relationships so much harder, not to mention a job called public service. There are prescription drugs that numb pain but they are hard drugs that get's rid of a lot of pain, i.e. neurological pain. Pot will lessen it but it's not as effective. Most time, panadol will do and it doesn't stop you from driving. Prozac is a drug for mental disease, that's different to pain, and the result of these mental disease is someone dying or 0 quality of life. For these people, if it is not prozac, it would be other drugs anyway and pot has show to increase the frequency of mental diseases so that's pouring oil on to fire. Also, people are allow to choose whether they want to be on these drugs or not. Even if a drug has a large health implication, 5 years is better than 0, it's the reason why cancer patients do chemo.

      Whether you like it or not, home grown weed will never beat 'commercial' weed because it's been cross bred and god knows what genetic modification (you can't grow wild hemp in rooms, it's a result of years of breeding/cross breeding between hemp species), and grown in very controlled conditions where there are no male species of hemp. They are already acting like pharmaceutical companies and continue to develop stronger hemp. So basically I don't know why people complain about tobacco/alcohol companies, hemp market works the same way, the only difference is that the government don't make money out of it except in fines (but most money from government go back to the community as health care/education, or you would be paying for it). If it is made legal, then I would expect hemp to be in tablet form because sucking any fire burning smoke is less healthy than a drug directly into your system (nicotine patch/gum). Or have a type of hemp that doesn't contain THC (is that the name?) because maybe it is the rest of the hemp that's doing good, not THC. Medical use of weed is accepted in many places.

      I don't drink or smoke because I'm a control freak that like my head to stay clear 110% of the time (add coffee for the other 10%). Caffeine is as far as I go for drugs because it's one drug that you can be happily addicted to and not that hard to get off.

    6. @Yi
      Sorry I never got a notice for your comment I luckily scrolled down and found it. Different people get different side effects from smoking weed, just like people react differently to many things. I have a friend who would get uncontrollably paranoid when she smoked weed, and another girl got really horny from it although a lot of my female friends say that happened to them (this was years ago) lol not that it did me a lot of good. I always found it hard to drive stoned so I get where your friend is coming from on that and even after the buzz is pretty much gone you still feel lethargic. I didnt think weed was addictive I just thought/knew it was habitual and while I have an addictive personality I have never been to rehab (I said no no no) and like with alcohol I just eventually lost interest in it. If someone offered me some (would have to be late at night when I was the only one awake) I am not sure if I would smoke it or not, it has been so long I am sure it would have a very strong effect on me. The wife had some THC pills from the doc a few years back that gave her a half hour buzz then she slept for12 hours.

      Never noticed anyone with mood swings from weed except people laughed more, some people get lazy and just dont feel like doing anything but that isnt a mood thing. I could see how it could cause relationship problems if only one person smoked and it did change their mood for the worse or if as I mentioned it made that person lazy or stupid/out of it and it got in the way of the other person wanting to go out and do things or get some chores or projects done around the house (or sit and have a semi intelligent conversation) and the stoned person either didnt want to do anything or because he/she was stoned they couldnt help properly. If they were doing a big project you dont want a really stoned person using something like a chainsaw or skillsaw etc or just did whatever job it was half a$$ed. Lol or if the girl wants to go visit with her parents she doesnt want to bring a stoned husband or boyfriend along with her if he is noticeably high. You mentioned a public service job, when I used to smoke I never did it during work hours. I couldn't have imagined myself doing my job properly if I was stoned although in high school I went to classes stoned and I guess when a teenager you can handle it better because it never effected my grades.

      I agree with the pain thing (lol like I can argue a science thing with you) there are prescription drugs for pain that numb it and even those can be very very strong. Depending on the form it is in and the dose the same drug can be used for different pain. You can get a prescription for a morphine pill that helps with moderate and higher pain and if you are in the hospital and in severe pain they can give you a shot in the butt cheek that knocks you into another world lol, demoral works the same way. My friend with MS takes morphine pills (dont know the dose) which helps a lot but she gets these wierd pains in her face she says is like someone hammering a nail into it and with that the pot works well but the two together really do the trick. Also as I said smoking pot allows her to walk using her walker, now we are not really tight friends so I don't know all the details but I think the pot helps with the pain both along with an extra dose of morphine or on its own when maybe the pain isnt so bad that she needs extra morphine or weed on its own or weed with a reg dose of morphine. I am getting a headache trying to make sense of what I wrote, I need to smoke a bowl lol. I have never heard of panadol I need to look it up ... ahh it is an over the counter drug for normal ahces and pains.

      I know prozac is for mental illness I just used it as an example of the drugs Doctors put people on and all the others they advertise on TV with hundreds of possible side effects. I know with those type of drugs they help with depression and anxiety which as you said pot can/will make anxiety worse and those drugs can be a great help to people but I dont know if they are addictive or not, I know like narcotics (even though they are a different class and type of drug) they are not a drug you can just stop taking cold turkey you have to slowly lower the dose till you stop.

      Man this is taking a while to write and sorry it is long, I have received a couple of calls from Head Hunters while writing this. Not sure if that is a term you use in Australia, if not I will explain it later I think I have made you read more than enough of my babble already

    7. The problem with Prozac is not addiction, but dependence. If these people stop, their depression will suddenly come back, worse than before the drug. Even people on Prozac will need to increase their dose, and eventually you get to a point where the drug stops working. Morphine also have a dose, so the doctor in unable to give her more because she will become too addicted. So add a little bit of weed on top of that is ok. However I don't think just letting her having weed but take away morphine is a good idea.

      Weed for when you as a teen is probably a lot weaker than what's on the market now, it could be different THC dose. The people I know basically said that it made them more emotional, as in react strongly to a comment or something that wouldn't usually affect them, or get overly happy or sad about something that normally wouldn't get that much of a reaction. Perhaps it is because different people react to it differently.

      Weed isn't physically addictive, but like video games, can still be addictive in that people like how they felt while smoking pot and continued to do it. It's mental addiction but that's something totally different.

      So there are THC pills already? It sounded like your wife got a trial version, 12 hr sleep sounds like the dose is too high. Maybe your MS friend can get some?

      Head Hunter?

    8. Are you sure you aren't talking about benzodiazepines? Prozac is an SSRI, like Paxil, the latter of which I've been taking (at a very low dosage) for about 6 months now, for panic-disorder, and even at that dosage, it's continuing to work extremely well.

      About pot being more (much more) potent now than it was back when my wife and I smoked, there's no doubt, of course. Around two years ago, she decided, for some reason I've forgotten, that she wanted to smoke a joint (for the 1st time in 15 years), so she got one from a young friend at work. We put the kids to bed and went up to my attic man-cave. She fired it up, and everything was hilarity with her for about 20 minutes, I guess. Then she suddenly went, "Oh, no," and ran downstairs to the bathroom, where she puked her guts up for the next few minutes. She said the stuff was way stronger than anything she ever remembered. She is quite tiny, though, so maybe that had something to do with it? Seriously, the woman can take an aspirin, and it puts her to sleep. No joke.

      She hasn't been back since...And, no, I didn't smoke any! lol.

    9. No, I think they are different. They are both SSRI, but are different. I think Prozac is much more powerful and used by patient that have very severe depression, but not sure about the little details.

      Haha, it was probably because she had never smoked one that strong before. :P

    10. My man is an RHS gardener, was just asking him why skunk is so much stronger than home grown. It was a long explanation involving co2 pumps, hydroponics, growing mediums, pesticides, lights and hybrid vigour. Basically it's the hybridisation that makes it so strong. Apparently the best naturally grown stuff comes from the hills in the Caribbean. No wonder your Lady was poorly :(

    11. Lol, yep, and people complain about genetic engineering and organic farming while smoking weed.

    12. are you a brit? why do brits tend to refer to weed as either skunk or homegrown?

    13. Canadians also refered to some weed as skunk as certain variety did smell like skunk.

    14. @az

      I remember the smell of skunk weed, man it was overpowering. Lol and not in a good way.

    15. Yes, English. Homegrown and skunk are two different things, homegrown in the basic green weed that grows pretty much its own way with only a little love and attention. Skunk is the hybrid stuff, very strong, grown with lights, pesticides, hydroponics etc. Nasty.

    16. It is quite possible to grow indoor under lights, in dirt and organically and without pesticides. The reason that the plants grow to such quality is because the condition can be light wise (sun) perfect.
      I agree, much of it is not grown this way though.

    17. I think the emphasis here is on strength, quantity and a quick turnaround, fast cash and repeat custom. Your right though, it can be grown without all that jiggery pokery but it's a bit less dependable in terms of pests/diseases.

    18. @Py
      I tried a few hits off a pipe 2 summers ago, seriously no more than 3 and I was completely unable to sit still for a good hour after I went home. It was crazy I was up and down in and out of my chair cleaning little things up all over the place, lol never actually totally cleaned anything but started at a lot of places. Finally that went away and I sat and stared at the TV for another hour or so motionless, then ate (a lot) and went to bed and had the best night of sleep I have had in years.

    19. Brilliant, did you wake to a pile of almost done stuff? With weed nearly everything ends that way :)

    20. @fifty
      Yup lol a half cleaned kitchen and living room. It was a while ago so I dont remember if I even did a good job lol

    21. Haha, I bet it was silly stuff. I always used to wreck the place in spring clean type frenzy and finish up 3 hours later with a 'to do' list and a nice tidy pile of paperwork. Love to have walked in on someone else's mission.

    22. That's funny! Was the TV on? lol.
      I don't know what it'd do to me if I smoked again, since I'm taking meds for anxiety now. Who knows, maybe it'd be great! But I'm positive I'd feel safer with one of those milder methods/buzzes Epicurus mentioned, if I ever got a craving for it again, which doesn't seem likely.

    23. Ah I would still be careful though, you are already on a mind altering drug, I wouldn't add more to it. You might get a bad case of anxiety. :S

    24. Oh, I won't! The only way it ever could happen, probably, is if I were among old, comfortable friends again, and all of them are back down in South Carolina, whereas I'm in Pennsylvania these last 17 years.

    25. Lol I am sure the TV was on but who knows, like I said it was a while ago so details are sketchy. Although speaking of TV on MTV Canada tomorrow night they are starting to show Beavis and Butthead shows, not sure if they are new ones or the old ones. I explained Cornholio to my son and he almost fell off the chair laughing.

      If I were you I wouldnt mix weed with your meds, you probably would be ok but for something you arent really interested in doing in the first place why risk having a massive panic attack.

      I read what Epic wrote about the THC and the ABC's or whatever it was lol and i have no clue what he was talking about

    26. and some say pot makes you lazy, it kicked my butt and got me going whenever i smoked especially working outside under the sun...unstoppable, and yes, cleaning house with loud music become a fun thing to do.

    27. That's interesting. On a hike, if there is a particularly tough trail ahead, I'll get stoned. It allows me to separate my mind from my body. My legs and lungs and heart may be toiling away but my mind isn't even the slightest concerned. I suppose I let my reptile brain do what it does best.

      The only problem is that once you start you can not stop. Once that buzz is gone you will feel the exhaustion. So I have to stay stoned pretty much the whole day. Damn.

    28. @ lak
      Reptile brain eh? Explains a few things lol.

      So on a particularily tough trail you get stoned and seperate your mind from your body, sounds like a good way to walk off a cliff lol. And even when stoned you wont bounce like Wile E. Coyote does.

    29. Pot used to make me lazy er lazier but I guess not having smoked any for about a year or so made me kind of like a pot virgin again with the effects being stronger. I don't think it necessarily energized me as made antsy so I couldn't sit still, and when I was sitting I remember the need to be constantly doing something with my hands (yeah yeah get your minds out of the gutter kids, this is a family site lol). Playing around on the computer fulfilled the urge and I remember coming on here and reading comments but being too stoned to make any of my own lol. I tend to babble on like a fool at the best of times so doing it when I was extremely high would have just been a mess lol.

      I do know some girls (did know, well I still know them but they dont smoke anymore) who were like you and they would crank the tunes and do a massive clean up. When I smoked on a regular basis the older I got the more I just like to sit around and watch TV or a movie. Of course after having a kid you pretty much stop while they are babies because you kind of need to be on the ball and you are out of it enough from lack of sleep. When my son got older and didn't need the constant care a baby does I thought I could smoke a little more often but you have to sneak out to smoke which wasn't easy because little boys like to follow daddy everywhere. Having to sneak around and hide from your kid just to get high didn't sit well with me and made me feel like a bad father/person. It to me became a choice between being a dad and thinking of my son first or saying getting stoned was something I needed or wanted to do so bad that I would lie to him to sneak out or tell him he wasn't allowed to come outside with me because I had to .. insert lie here .... and make him sad and wonder why I didn't want him with me when he just wanted nothing more than to be with daddy (who at that age he still idolized and thought was perfect). So it really wasn't to hard to decide what I was going to do. Lie to the kid and get stoned of course!!!! Lol jk like most dads I put the weed away for a while.

    30. there are THC pills and CBD pills...Marinol and sesmat respectively.

      i have had them both and dislike them. the pleasant high from cannabis is a result of not just THC (im sure you know all this) but from the combination of THC and more than 80 other cannabinoids. we have synthesized 85 of them i believe.

      i prefer indicas which have a high CBD count to mellow out the psychoactive cerebral high of THC. sativas will have a high THC count with low CBDs

      my favourite way to smoke though is a kush honey oil.

    31. Lol, I'm talking about pharmaceuticals here, not recreation. :P You can't compare real coffee to instant coffee, but it keeps me awake and thinking.

    32. a friend was asking me last night which is best for glaucauma, indica or sativa? She has read that somewhere but can't find it anymore.

    33. Just double up and smoke both.

    34. indica for sure. indica hash would be great.

    35. is that bubble hash you are talking about? or the silk screen stuff or oil?

    36. for glaucoma an indica oil or bubble hash would be best.

    37. wouldnt you want to know where the hash was derived from first, ie. strong indica vs. mediocre sativa or vice versa?

    38. This was a reply to my question. The person who i was asking the information for has a prescription for glaucoma and licence to grow, and will be using clones from a trustable grower..... so this should clear your question.

    39. @Yi
      I think that is a problem with a lot if not most drugs, you build up a tolerance to it and the dose has to be increased. It is a vicious cycle especially when it comes to pain medication. A Doctor is in a bad situation where he or she has a patiant that has chronic pain, what do they do when there is either no diagnosis or there is no medicine or procedure of any kind that will just fix the problem thereby taking away the need for pain killers? They have to provide some level of comfort for the person which usually is a pain med of some sort, after a while their body builds a tolerance for that dosage and it needs to be upped. 6 months later the same thing occurs and here take more drugs. By now if it is a narcotic you not only have a person who is basically immune to the drug but is also addicted to it. So now you try a different drug and hope that is contains enough of the same stuff as the first ones did so you dont go crazy with withdrawal symptoms.

      I am sure back in the 1800's when I was a teen the THC level in weed was not as high as it is today, todays weed is very strong or can be.So I have heard.

      The THC pills were synthetic THC and have been around for a long time, sorry I made it sound like it was real THC not man made.

      A Head Hunter is a company that finds people employees. So if a company wants to hire someone new and don't feel like it or for whatever reason they don't have the time what they do is hire an employment agency or what is called a Head Hunter to do all the work for them. They narrow the possible candidates down to a certain number (by doing the initial resume reading and interviewing of candidates first over the phone then in person) that the hiring company dictates and those people start the interview process all over again with the company that needs the new employee. So you can do many interviews and tests and wait weeks for a phone call that never comes because they rarely if ever call the people they arent going to hire. Most jobs that are advertised get about 200 applicants so you have a lot of competition, therefore you have to someway make your resume or cover letter stand out. You do this for 5 or 10 jobs and you become a little fed up with the proces. So personally to entertain myself I will see a job posted somewhere online and apply for it but write a totally insane cover letter with maybe huge letters on a title at the top of it saying STOP RIGHT HERE or something else stupid. Then in the body of the cover letter I will be completely not serious making smart a$$ comments or borderline rude statements and send it off. Those ones never get me an interview lol but it helps me blow off some steam.

      Ok gotta move, I am in the downstairs washroom sitting on a closed toilet seat watching my son practise making various types of gross scars and bruises on his face with his make up artist kit (he just spilled liquid latex down the sink the little goof) for Halloween. And now he is farting so I am gone


    40. Pain killers are not cures so really, you don't need a diagnosis, but you need symptoms other than pain because you could be an addict seeking a high. Usually you start light, and then work your way up, be sure to report any side effects. The dose is a problem but there is always a limit because a higher doses makes the tolerance worse, especially if the person wants to get off it. So usually the dose is closely monitored and a program for getting off the drug is usually implemented if the person is getting better. Problems occur when the patient goes to many doctors or the doctor caved into the patient's requests, but this should not normally happen. For terminal diseases where the patient have no hope of going off can usually get how ever much they need.

      Haha, good luck with your job hunting. I hope your sink isn't clogged with latex.

    41. @Yi
      Well I wasn't totally talking hypothetically (but not about myself) and there are other symptoms but no diagnosis. You are correct in that people will go to the doc complaining of pain looking for narcotics. My doc actually did put me on some pain meds .. uhhhhmm I think it was 2 or 3 years ago and I clearly remember that before he handed me the presription for them he read me the riot act about them and to make sure I followed the instructions and was to never take more than what it said to take (2 pills a day I believe it was), if I needed a refill I had to see him first not just have the pharmacy request it and if I asked for more even one day before the prescription said I should be finished he would never ever give me anything stronger than tylenol and he had a few other things to say to but as usual I dont remember because it was a while ago. I have wondered before if he would prescribe medical marijuana, not that I have need for it but just curious if he would do it.

      To go see 2 or 3 Doctors you would have to go to a couple of walk in clinics and they always have a sign up on the front door saying they will not prescribe narcotics (lol but some will) so you are correct once again young lady. Also here if you did somehow happen to get extra prescriptions from other Doctors you best not go to the same pharmacy because they keep track of things and will report you to your Doctor. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they are the Federal type cops) also watches what narcotics all pharmacies give out and to who so it would be difficult to get away with anything here. Well maybe one or two times if you were lucky but that would be about it.

      Havent been back in the basement washroom yet so i dont know if he clogged the thing up or not.

    42. Don't ask me about how your doctor works lol, I live in a different country and I assume these things would be different. Narcotics should always be watched, addicts can be sneaky. :P

      I looked up your tylenol and it's like our panadol, it's a pretty safe over the counter drug, unless you decide to eat 3 packs in one go. It usually quite effective, I had surgery once and I was on a higher dose of it for a week, then moved to normal dose, didn't give me any troubles.

    43. Lol Yi when did I ask you how our Doctors work? I was explaining what I noticed at various clinics, I spend a lot of time in various offices. narcotics and other drugs do need to be watched because people can get addicted very easily and it happens in all walks of life. Just like people who smoke weed you would be surprised to know some people that are famous, whether they are locally known, country or internationally famous there are people who smoke or do other drugs that I am sure would shock a lot of people.

      A local guy who also happened to at one time be a famous NFL player was in our local hospital (which probably sped up his death, they are so inept) dying of cancer that was steroid related and his brother who was also a football player and drug addict told a story that he was such an addict that one time he was visiting his brother on his death bed and noticed the morphine tube going into his arm and he said he remembers having a huge urge to pull the IV out of his brothers arm and stick it in his own just so he could get high. I think he was in recovery when he said it and was going around clearing his conscience about various things. He said that was the low point in his life that started him wanting to get clean, I remember him saying something along the lines of "can you imagine how much of an addict I was and how much of a piece of 5h1t I felt like?".

      Like you said addicts can be very sneaky so I guess there could be people we know that are and we dont know. Maybe once they got out of control with it people close to them might start to notice something is going on. But people tend to be so self involved that even if they do notice something they just ignore it.

    44. My response was to how much you need to push your doctor you get weed out of them. I have no idea how your doctor works. :P

      Drug problem seems to increase as wealth increases, what do you think?

    45. Cannabis doesn't make alcohol more dangerous. It's alcohol, rather, that makes cannabis (and everything else) dangerous. Actually is doesn't make cannabis anything at all. Alcohol use is simply dangerous - accidents, violence, addiction, poisoning, long-term health damage, death. Factors which are comparatively minuscule or non-existent with weed use.

      There's no such thing as cannabis poisoning (like alcohol poisoning) or death by cannabis overdose. If you have too much you can get anxious, but you won't be needing your stomach (or anything else) pumped. Just relax and put your head down for an hour maybe and it will all go away.

      The only real harm done by weed is from the *smoking* of it, since smoking *anything* is harmful. But that's just about the way it is consumed, rather than the plant itself. And these harms can be eliminated by cooking the weed, or by the use of vaporizers. Vaporizers heat the plant material to a temperature above 180C/350F, but below that of combustion (less than ~250C/480F ), boiling the psychoactive THC and other cannabinoids in the plant into the air as a thin vapour (rather than the thick smoke) for inhalation, without burning the plant (which just goes brown instead, like toasted bread).

      And the only real problem with weed in the Netherlands is due to foreign tourists who've never touched the stuff before and have no idea how to handle it. And since they're usually only there for a short term, they think it's a big party, and binge on it - since they treat it just like they would treat alcohol. The problem is social disturbance (such as American college kids running around being idiots), not actual danger.

    46. Please note that I'm not saying cannabis or alcohol is dangerous in itself, but mixing the 2 makes it exponentially dangerous and therefore should be illegal to mix the 2, which it is in Netherlands. I myself is against the use of both but that is a personal choice. Alcohol in lower doses is fine and so is cannabis, but being 'stoned' is like being 'drunk', you shouldn't really drive.

      Boiling is ok, and it's way better than smoking it with fire, but cookies are probably the best way of delivering it (I see it as a pill lol), but you get high very easily. Still, there are courses educating people about alcohol in school, but not weed, so if weed is legal then you should also include it in the courses. Alcohol have doses and standard drinks, and guidelines to how much and how fast to drink it, and a set amount of time before you can drive. This is all present in Netherlands.

      We are here talking about therapeutic purposes of weed, so there must be a standard to THC, as we all know different batches are different. First and foremost though, we need to understand if it is just THC that's having a beneficial effect, not the rest of the plant. Also if it is comparable to meds already available. There is no point in getting stoned all the time when you can have another one that does the same with no side effects. Although side effects are listed, it doesn't mean it always happens and you are encouraged to switch meds if it does happen.

    47. Mixing alcohol and weed really isn't any more dangerous than just drinking alone, but it can make someone who is unused to it rather dizzy and nauseous, especially if they consume cannabis *after* getting quite drunk - but it's not going to kill them or do them permanent damage. And being stoned is nothing like being drunk, and impairs driving ability far, far less than alcohol does ... but, yeah, you still shouldn't drive anyway.

      You're right that eating is the best delivery method. But you're also right that it's possible to get very stoned (and for many hours) if you're careless about it. That's why people who like cannabis edibles tend to find a dosage that suits them. As long as you dose right, it's fine. As a weed user myself, it is hands down my favourite way of consuming it (I haven't been smoking it for many years now, but I sometimes use a vapouriser). I agree that there needs to be education about cannabis (though of course there is already loads of information on the internet about it).

      As for standard doses, well it's far less critical for weed than alcohol or other drugs as there is absolutely no risk of overdose. And users tend to learn pretty quickly how much to use. If it's consumed by inhalation (smoking or vapoursing) it takes full effect in about 15 minutes, and if a person has too much they just have to wait a short time and the unpleasant effects will soon pass.

      Mind you it isn't just THC that is the active ingredient in cannabis, but a whole range of cannabinoids, of which THC is but one (though the most significant one). There's also CBD and CBN and THCV and CBG and CBC and ... many many more. These different cannabinoids work together in different ways, each with their own contributing effect. Different breeds of cannabis have different ratios in their levels of the various cannabinoids, producing somewhat different effects, and have varying levels of therapeutic benefit to patients with different medical conditions. Some are more effective for treating nausea, others more for pain management, others more for anxiety etc. This factor makes it very difficult to standardise dosage - pure THC has been found to be quite unpleasant, and is not popular with medical patients. However, if cannabis were legalised, it is likely that hash oil (cannabinoid oils extracted from the plant) would become widely used. Since this is a solid resinous substance, it is easier to standardise.

      And as for side-effects of cannabis vs other meds, well cannabis is widely known for its non-toxicity, unlike pretty much any prescription pharmaceutical you care to mention. People who use cannabis as medication don't tend to be 'stoned' as you would see it. A steady intake will just have a mild, relaxing effect on the mind. It's people who have a low (or no) tolerance to it who get really impaired from it. But still, there's no actual danger involved.

    48. I have to disagree with you on mixing drugs, because there is already a variation between people concerning drug tolerance. 2 drugs together will always be more unpredictable and alcohol is bad enough. From the comments here a joint or 2 puffs is enough to have an effect and I think at the current THC potency, mixing is more dangerous, and out of safety I think it shouldn't be legal. I am not saying that you can't enjoy weed by itself, just not with alcohol.

      As for standardisation, regulation will always need it so that people knows exactly what they are getting, because as you said different species are different and you need to do trial and error to find what is right for you. The standardisation will just take the guess out of it. I assume it will be like alcohol where there is a standard for every drink, so a standard for common species of weed. It's just a part of legalisation.

      Although cannabis is not toxicity, either is most other pharmaceutical drugs. At least not at the dose that was suggested by the doctor. However even mixing many pharmaceutical drugs is not recommended and it has nothing to do with toxicity. It's not really about danger but rather we don't know exactly what effect it has. It could be unexpected. For physical pain, I don't see a lot of problems, but if you are on meds for mental disease, the brain is where THC and other chemicals is at work and I think in these cases, one should be cautious. I'm simply trying to say that you can't just cross off weed from the banned list, you need these regulations as well. All the points I have suggested are already in effect in Netherlands.

      Recreational use is different to pharmaceutical use since the aim of recreation is to get a buzz, and for some people stoned. The regulations will also help people to understand roughly how long it takes for them to drive safely, or wake up so they can get to work on time.

    49. weed and alcohol are great together as long as you 1. dont over do it on the alcohol and 2. dont plan on driving anywhere. i smoked weed and drank beer almost everyday as an undergrad and still managed to finish with a 3.25 gpa. i did have to quit for a while to get into grad school, but that was more to improve focus and make my education, now that it was much more expensive, my main priority.

  61. why dont we just ban alcohol and make weed legal. yes i know that would never happen, but alcohol causes way more trouble, despite of being legal. In fact the worst thing about pot, is that the laws let criminals have this all to themselves. Make it legal then you ruin the profit for those who deal it.

    I wish I could smoke one right now, oh well, gotta wait for the weekend.

    1. Alcohol (thanks to @Py i am spelling it and tobacco are legal only because the government has found a way to profit from it. Try to make some alcohol or grow tobacco and sell it to your neighbours and you'll be in jail with pot growers. Let the FDA put their paws on components of cannabis, mass produce and package it and it will become legal in a heart beat. The problem is that pot is a weed, that's why they call it as such and there is nothing easier to grow halfass and nothing more fun to grow well.

    2. Actually, In the U.S. anyone can legally grow tobacco and produce some alcohol with no license.

    3. produce right but not sell...and it goes for milk too and other things.

    4. @az
      To grow good weed with nice quality buds you have to do a little more than halfass it lol not much but a little. Thats why hydroponics store are so successful, done right you can grow good really high quality bud (and sell it for mass profit just across the border in Buffalo, well thats what they say on the news and in the papers) but for personal use of regular quality weed your way works well especially if your seeds are of top quality. In fact you can surprise yourself with how good some halfassed weed can turn out (or is that turn on? then tune off and drop out lol or something like that)

    5. Growers don't use seeds, they use least around here.
      I did phrase that weird (french), i meant if you grow it halfass, you'll still get a decent product and if you want to really get into the botany of it, then it is a very interesting plant to play with.

    6. I grew my own until Harper got elected then I took the lights down. The war on drugs is a war on the working class-and money in the bank for the Banksters. Get a load of this: Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That’s the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico’s current gross domestic product.
      They paid a fine that amounted to 2% of their crime-not counting all the human pain and suffering they caused. No one went to jail and no one's property was confiscated the way they do to working class people. And anything over 2 plants now gets you automatic six months in this country formerly known as Canada.And oh that is only ONE BANK.....

    7. @az
      Lol well I am not a grower I tried it once years ago and I used seeds so I had no idea what kind of plant I was going to get. Out of about 20 I planted in my house I got one female plant which a buddy took up north and re planted in the ground. We got maybe 3 joints out of it lol for about 4 months work we didnt get much but it was good so we did something right. I am not into botany so not only did I have no clue how to grow weed I didnt know anything about growing anything. Oh you are French eh? That certainly explains a lot ... lol jk We already talked about your ancestry so I knew you were French (and I still talk to you lol).

      My son is 13 and dead set against drugs at the moment but we all know that may change, I havent figured out how I am going to deal with it if weed ever becomes an issue with him. He knows I don't agree with it being a criminal offense (possession for personal use) but it brings up the problem of if I don't have a problem with people smoking it recreationally what do I think should be done about people caught dealing it. If I think it is ok to smoke it then the people who smoke it have to get it from someone so you would think I had an opinion on how dealers should be dealt with. I don't know how to deal with dealers because it is such a complex situation, you dont want them selling to young kids and then there is the criminal element that we know is involved at a higher (no pun intended lol) level that you cant condone. So I will agree that people who are old enough should be able to do so, and I am not sure what that age should be is it 16 or 18 years old, but I don't have an idea what to do about dealers. And I don't know how I will deal with the situation if I ever find my son is smoking it, I know I wont freak out on him thats for sure because that isn't how I normally handle things plus it only makes things worse and stops all communication in its tracks right there. Our family Dr. told me during my last appointment that if my son ever comes home drunk or stoned he wants me to call and get him in to see the Dr. right away so he can talk to him about it. I didn't ask why but found it an odd thing to bring up. Well I can see one reason behind his thinking (and no it isnt that there is or ever has been a drug or alcohol problem in our house) but it is impossible to explain without revealing personal things that I dont want to. Hopefully drugs and alcohol doesnt become an issue i have to deal with at a younger age, if he is 18 and says he is smoking weed and having some beers every now and then well that is pretty normal.

    8. Most kids either get into pot (drugs) or alcohol or tobacco or eat way too much ot way not enough. Some get deeply involved in studies or in sports or in girls/boys or become a loner...i am just saying kids are not easily understood.
      They want to belong is one of their main drive and belonging with parents at 13-16 is normally not their goal.
      I don't think i am in a position to give you any sugestions other than love them love them love them and listen even if it seems impolite, it may be that they are showing you the mirror of your actions. Don't treat anything they are going through as their mind sickness but search to see if it is rooted in the guiding.
      Best of luck, because frankly luck has a lot to do with it. Lucky that they have found a good friend, lucky that they have a good teacher/grand parent/uncle-aunt/neighbour/pen pal, lucky that you had those too to make you lucky.

    9. @az
      Well I have to tell you we got lucky (so far lol) with our son, he is almost 14 and a really good kid who has never been in any kind of trouble. He may look like a bit of a punk because he has long curly hair down past his shoulders and gets judged by that at times (even with his cherub like face) and it really bothers him when someone (even if he doesn't know them) thinks badly of him. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong and still chooses right usually, I am not kidding myself the next few years could see a big change but he has a good set of friends at school and they take their studies seriously so there is hope he wont go to far off the rails. He still likes to spend time with me although that is slowly changing but our house is still where he and his friends come to hang out when they want to be inside, I have given him the basement as his place to take his friends and at times they still choose to sit with me on the main floor. They used to always choose to sit with me but that started to change a year or so ago, when he is out at other peoples houses I always get comments on his behaviour etc and neither the comments or the behaviour are faked. He was taught early about how to behave when out and that other people have rules he must follow when in their house or out with them, as a trade off and because kids need a place they can totally be themselves and that should be at home he is allowed to swear pretty much as much as he wants. There are obviously words or phrases that are forbidden and I do stop him if I find the swearing to be too much, I swear a lot too so we know where he got it from lol. Plus I still get 2 or 3 hugs a day so he must like me a little bit. I don't believe I have done anything special well we havent I should say, we just got lucky so far that he is a good kid.

  62. It is very clear why it is still illegal, the use of it remains in the realm of controlling a criminal element. It will be associated with criminal activity until consciousness reflects otherwise. How that occurs is through a systematic decriminalization and through the understanding of why misinformed people behave without compassion toward others perceived to be part of that criminal element.

  63. You think if every smoker, grower, seller and supportive doctor was to say "the hell with the law" and rally with a joint in their mouth...they could do something about it?
    No instead, we go ahead and hide and fear and get emprisonned and lose our house, our kids, our rights....and they build more prisons and make people believe that pot is a armful drug.
    As with many things we bow in front of their shite like it's food for the brain.
    I have often said; if we were to win the marijuana fight by opposing, we would win many other fights against our rights.

    1. Good take AZ!

    2. @az
      A couple of times a year here in Toronto they have rallies for legalizing it and ten's of thousands of people show up and spark up right in front if the cops. It is usually a peaceful demonstration (last year there was a shooting but it was not related, just some jackaA$$ who shot some dude for some reason I don't remember) and the hot dog venders make a killing lol. They march to Queens park and smoke on the lawn with their signed petitions and while there was talk of decriminalizing it a few years ago I dont see it happening.

    3. This happens every year at the Notting Hill carnival. (Or at least it used to before I retired as a policeman.) We would be given direct orders not to arrest people with cannabis. It was quite frankly embarrassing. I'm not against the use of cannabis but I am against the extreme hypocrisy of politicians and governments. It's either against the law or it isn't.

    4. I swear around here there are possibly 4 houses out of 10 with a grow. When the cops catch one, they take all the equipment away and the pot, hit you on the hand, put an article in the paper, and go on about their life hoping this will scare others from setting up. It hasn't worked yet. The main downfall is that you can no longer enter the US afterwards. An up for some, a down for others.
      The economy in this town has greatly improved since the late 80s when the grow ups started sprouting everywhere. All that cash is reinvested in the town which is far from big shopping cities and it took people off welfare which was very high prior to the pot industry flourishing in the Kootenays.

    5. I guess its about 1 in 20 over here in the UK. The police are hooked into electricity records and any spike dictates extra readings of meters and an eventual visit. All for growing a weed....

      I thought Cannabis was legal in Canada or is that a misnomer?

    6. It's legally illegal but illegally tolerated. One way people go around is that they heat their house with wood (lot's of it here in the booneys), so no heating bills that is very very costly when it hits the minus. Plus i don't think they care....higher electric bills helps pay the salary for all the dams surrounding us.

    7. "It's legally illegal but illegally tolerated."

      That is soooo french! lol

    8. Here in Oregon there are grow houses everywhere and they are legal. If you get a medical marijuana card you are allowed to grow up to seven plants at once. You are also allowed to appoint a grower for you if you wish but these growers can have as many clients as they wish. So if you have ten clients you can grow seventy plants.

      My biggest problem are the illegal growers. I backpack in the wilderness quite often and maybe twice a summer I'll stumble across an illegal grow. It's a very dangerous situation. These people are armed and have no qualms about shooting you.

    9. 1. same in BC but there are talks of revoking them
      2. i see what you mean although never heard heard of such in the Kootenays. People stumble across grow all the time, because there a many near creeks.

      A friend of mine had the cops cut down a big grow 2 years ago and they left two plants standing smack in the midlle of the patch.

    10. The illegal growers are often illegal immigrants. The Mexican drug cartels send them up here to grow the weed here. That way it doesn't have to be smuggled into the country. These grows are often huge and very remote and if you stumble into one of these you could have big trouble.

    11. @lak
      Mexican drug cartels are not people I would want to see under any circumstance let alone stumble across one of their grow ops. They have to be about the nastiest people around.

    12. I would love to do a grow - I have crushed vertebrae and normal pain killers do not work.

      The last part of your comment reminds me of "The Beach"

      What a fkd up world we live in when a beneficial herb is illegal yet guns are not.

    13. Hi Az, I posted a reply with a link but it's in the hands of the moderators(all hail), Just saying I went on the Dublin legalize march this year. Hundreds of people blazing up on the city's main street(with police escort, purely for traffic safety). Passers by applauded us. A truly liberating experience.

  64. nice to see a kid changing the mind of a parent by smoking a joint .