7 ms·

I think you were using cannabis as an excuse and perhaps mis-dosing yourself. Yeah, if you smoke a gram or two per day, it will probably make you a couch potato

I think you were using cannabis as an excuse and perhaps mis-dosing yourself. Yeah, if you smoke a gram or two per day, it will probably make you a couch potato. Just like if you take enough opiates you'll lay unconscious and die. But I think in timely administered, individual-dependent dosages the sativa enhances concentration and imagination/visualization skills, not to mention relieves depression and pain. And it's not habit-forming! I can't underestimate how paralyzing depression can be, fucking with your self-esteem and making you stay at home for weeks. Depression is extremely anti-motivational. Severe depression leads to suicide and that definitely does not make a person reach his true potential. Now, depression is linked to HIGH DOSES of cannabis in here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023183937.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023183937.ht... ("Cannabis: Potent Anti-Depressant In Low Doses, Worsens Depression At High Doses"). Now I'm wondering if they got the demotivational syndrom from high-volume smokers, basically diagnosing them with cannabis-induced depression.

WickyNilliams 15y ago
I've gone through periods of very high cannabis use, but recently i've massively reduced my intake. But i think its the frequency with which i smoke - everyday - that can be damaging in the way i described. It doesn't ruin my life: i won't lose my job, and i can still go about my normal duties perfectly fine. However my tendency is to do the minimal amount possible to get by, instead of excelling and doing anything above and beyond that. 100% agree with your assertion of heightened imagination and visualisation, it also changes your thought patterns in such a way that your train of thinking may lead to interesting perspectives that you would have never otherwise arrived at. It's what drew me to cannabis in the first place; intellectually i was intrigued by the creativity cannabis brought on. That said, a creative mind does not a productive person make! it's one thing to visualise etc. but it's the doing/execution part that seems so far out of reach when you're under the influence of cannabis. At least that's what i've come to realise. As for habit-forming, I've always smoked cannabis with tobacco, but never smoked tobacco alone. This puts put me in quite a unique position in that after ten years i clearly have a nicotine addiction, meaning my use of nicotine is so entwined with my cannabis use that it's hard to mentally separate the two. Over time it occurred to me that i could never be sure whether i wanted to get stoned because i enjoyed the sensation, or whether it was purely for want of nicotine, with getting stoned being a proxy for that. Interestingly, i have recently quit smoking cannabis inasmuch that i now use a vaporiser to get high, which means i have also cut out tobacco completely. It's been around 5 weeks since i last smoked cannabis with tobacco, and i definitely have less of a want to get stoned, so i guess my suspicions were correct - nicotine was fueling my cannabis habit to some degree. That link was intriguing, especially the inverse proportionality of benefits vs. dose size. It must be remembered however that the drug administered was a synthetic form of THC, not actual THC - presumably there were modifications to the molecular structure else they would have just used a THC extract straight from the plant. I'm sure it can still be taken as indicative of potential benefits of actual THC as a therapeutic drug though. I think overall i'm just going through a transition period in my life, a slight epiphany; realising that i've been abusing cannabis and that my use has been detrimental to other areas of my life. My recreational use grew into habitual use, which brought with it a constant lack of boredom, leaving me unproductive and demotivated. I expect that i'll have all but given up cannabis within a year, if my current trend of usage continues. Maybe i'm just growing out of it, or that perhaps my desire to be productive is finally outweighing my desire to get high. Either way, i feel good about the changes.
- mannicken 15y ago
  So essentially your argument is that sitting at home, taking hits out of a bong every 30 minutes and watching movies is unproductive? I agree.
  - WickyNilliams 15y ago
    Edit: Sorry I think I misinterpreted your comment first time round, thought you were just a random person weighing in with an assuming comment. Still though you seem to have changed your tone slightly since your last comment. I didn't say I smoke a bong every 30 minutes, far from it, I'd probably be comatose if that was the case. I was just trying to offer some insight
    - mannicken 15y ago
      Exactly. So, essentially if you smoke too much weed and become comatose/near-comatose you will not be able to do anything other than lay on the couch. Which is how amotivational syndrom happens.. If however, you do not smoke yourself into a dysfunctional state you will avoid the perils of the amotivational syndrom. I think there's a dosage where cannabis actually makes you more functional by making things more interesting and killing pain/anxiety. I really think a lot of people misinterpret "weed is healthy and good" as "SMOKE AS MUCH AS YOU PHYSICALLY CAN ALL DAY EVERYDAY". And that almost always leads to dysfunction. At some point you will pass out or become paralyzed by hallucinations, so again, dosage does matter in functional vs non-functional addicts' cases. And I should add that weed is very forgiving in this case, again, if you were to do the same "take as much as I can!" thing with Aspirin or opiates you would die. With weed, you just pass out and eat everything. I really feel like many people do not know the basics of pharmacology or neurochemistry and try to make intelligent arguments based on hearsay and anecdotes. And it pisses me off a little bit. Omfg, seriously, there's a reason medicine is usually packaged in specific, very precise containers. I think that's the whole reason hard drugs are illegal -- because people are mostly ignorant when it comes to drugs. It would be like giving chainsaws to 3-year old kids.

WickyNilliams 15y ago

I've gone through periods of very high cannabis use, but recently i've massively reduced my intake. But i think its the frequency with which i smoke - everyday - that can be damaging in the way i described. It doesn't ruin my life: i won't lose my job, and i can still go about my normal duties perfectly fine. However my tendency is to do the minimal amount possible to get by, instead of excelling and doing anything above and beyond that. 100% agree with your assertion of heightened imagination and visualisation, it also changes your thought patterns in such a way that your train of thinking may lead to interesting perspectives that you would have never otherwise arrived at. It's what drew me to cannabis in the first place; intellectually i was intrigued by the creativity cannabis brought on. That said, a creative mind does not a productive person make! it's one thing to visualise etc. but it's the doing/execution part that seems so far out of reach when you're under the influence of cannabis. At least that's what i've come to realise. As for habit-forming, I've always smoked cannabis with tobacco, but never smoked tobacco alone. This puts put me in quite a unique position in that after ten years i clearly have a nicotine addiction, meaning my use of nicotine is so entwined with my cannabis use that it's hard to mentally separate the two. Over time it occurred to me that i could never be sure whether i wanted to get stoned because i enjoyed the sensation, or whether it was purely for want of nicotine, with getting stoned being a proxy for that. Interestingly, i have recently quit smoking cannabis inasmuch that i now use a vaporiser to get high, which means i have also cut out tobacco completely. It's been around 5 weeks since i last smoked cannabis with tobacco, and i definitely have less of a want to get stoned, so i guess my suspicions were correct - nicotine was fueling my cannabis habit to some degree. That link was intriguing, especially the inverse proportionality of benefits vs. dose size. It must be remembered however that the drug administered was a synthetic form of THC, not actual THC - presumably there were modifications to the molecular structure else they would have just used a THC extract straight from the plant. I'm sure it can still be taken as indicative of potential benefits of actual THC as a therapeutic drug though. I think overall i'm just going through a transition period in my life, a slight epiphany; realising that i've been abusing cannabis and that my use has been detrimental to other areas of my life. My recreational use grew into habitual use, which brought with it a constant lack of boredom, leaving me unproductive and demotivated. I expect that i'll have all but given up cannabis within a year, if my current trend of usage continues. Maybe i'm just growing out of it, or that perhaps my desire to be productive is finally outweighing my desire to get high. Either way, i feel good about the changes.

mannicken 15y ago
So essentially your argument is that sitting at home, taking hits out of a bong every 30 minutes and watching movies is unproductive? I agree.
- WickyNilliams 15y ago
  Edit: Sorry I think I misinterpreted your comment first time round, thought you were just a random person weighing in with an assuming comment. Still though you seem to have changed your tone slightly since your last comment. I didn't say I smoke a bong every 30 minutes, far from it, I'd probably be comatose if that was the case. I was just trying to offer some insight
  - mannicken 15y ago
    Exactly. So, essentially if you smoke too much weed and become comatose/near-comatose you will not be able to do anything other than lay on the couch. Which is how amotivational syndrom happens.. If however, you do not smoke yourself into a dysfunctional state you will avoid the perils of the amotivational syndrom. I think there's a dosage where cannabis actually makes you more functional by making things more interesting and killing pain/anxiety. I really think a lot of people misinterpret "weed is healthy and good" as "SMOKE AS MUCH AS YOU PHYSICALLY CAN ALL DAY EVERYDAY". And that almost always leads to dysfunction. At some point you will pass out or become paralyzed by hallucinations, so again, dosage does matter in functional vs non-functional addicts' cases. And I should add that weed is very forgiving in this case, again, if you were to do the same "take as much as I can!" thing with Aspirin or opiates you would die. With weed, you just pass out and eat everything. I really feel like many people do not know the basics of pharmacology or neurochemistry and try to make intelligent arguments based on hearsay and anecdotes. And it pisses me off a little bit. Omfg, seriously, there's a reason medicine is usually packaged in specific, very precise containers. I think that's the whole reason hard drugs are illegal -- because people are mostly ignorant when it comes to drugs. It would be like giving chainsaws to 3-year old kids.