[Fitzgerald]

I agree that people shouldn't smoke herb until their prefrontal cortex is operational. HOWEVER, what other drugs are these people who develop psychosis doing? Plenty of weed smokers do other drugs as well. Cocaine, LSD, mushrooms, dmt, ketamine, MDMA. Over half of the people I know who puff (me included) do, or have done, a fair bit of other psychoactives.
(Are vegetarian diets healthier because they lack meat, or have a surplus of fruits and vegetables?). I'm not denying that drugs can fuck a person up, but herb is pretty benign, and documentary flicks are a good way to fear monger (Inconvenient truth, anyone?).

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

(05-05-2013 02:22 AM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I respect that. It's very rare I meet an adult that hasn't been drunk. You've never been curious about it, just to test it out once? Either way, I have respect for it. I feel that especially alcohol would be a tough vice to stay away from.

A bit. There were times when I considered doing it intentionally as a tool to get "into the mood for clubs" (because everyone drinks a lot there), but never went ahead. I do drink occasionally, though - maybe once every two weeks, I enjoy a shot of walnut liquor or a bottle of cider or half a glass of fine wine, very rarely a beer. But I'm not a fan of even those drinks so much to drink more than a small amount, so it would be hard to get drunk. The closest I've ever experienced was feeling slightly animated after drinking two glasses of champagne.

[GenJx]

[scotian]

[w00t]

The argument about the oh-so-strong killerweed nowadays is complete bullshit. The hippies back in the day had shitty weed but they were smoking on really potent hash too. Check out the book "Hashish" by Robert Clarke for some figures.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

(05-04-2013 10:23 AM)scotian Wrote:  

I was talking to a friend today about doing drugs and the topic of drug psychosis came up, we both have friends who became mentally ill after smoking weed and I remembered this documentary I watched on the CBC a few years ago called "The Downside of High". Basically the movie followed the story of some teenagers in BC, Canada who used marijuana regularly then one day just snapped and ended up in mental hospitals.

I know a couple of guys who experienced this, they smoked pot regularly in their teenage years then one day went all funny and started acting all weird and saying the strangest shit. They would get all emotional and paranoid, eventually their parents got them into a hospital and they had to undergo therapy and counselling.

From the CBC article, "Teenagers who start smoking marijuana before the age of sixteen are four times more likely to become schizophrenic. That's the startling conclusion of some of the world's top schizophrenia experts, whose research is featured in the new documentary The Downside of High. The scientists' groundbreaking work on the connection between marijuana and mental illness also reveals that, for all young adults, smoking marijuana nearly doubles the risk of developing recurring psychosis, paranoia and hallucinations - the hallmarks of schizophrenia.

Ben was first introduced to marijuana while at a high school in BC. His increasingly psychotic behaviour led to a year-long hospitalization.
The Downside of High, directed and written by Bruce Mohun, tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe - along with their doctors - that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. All three spent months in hospital psychiatric wards, and still wage a battle with their illness. Today's super-potent pot may be a big part of the problem. Modern growing techniques have dramatically increased the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - ramping up the threat to the developing teenage brain.

But there's an intriguing twist to the story: in the process of cultivating more potent strains of pot, growers have also been breeding out a little-known ingredient called cannabidiol that seems to buffer the effects of THC. So today's high-octane pot actually contains a double-whammy - more psychosis-producing THC, and less of the protective CBD or cannabidiol.

Tyler was 14 years old when he first started experiencing psychotic episodes.
For many people, smoking marijuana is not a big deal - it is, after all, the most widely-used illegal drug in the world. The Downside of High provides a scientific perspective on some of the little-known and little discussed risks of marijuana, particularly for teenagers."

Link to article: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureof...ideofhigh/

Link to video: (it wasn't working but may be because I'm in Asia) http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The...398511775/

Link to youtube preview video:

I'm not trying to scare people away from smoking weed, I do once in awhile, just wanted to see if any other guys out there had friends who went through the same thing. Its a shitty experience watching a close friend go through something like this.

I don't doubt the validity of this, having known a few druggies who basically lost their minds. But a few points:

1). "Teenagers who start smoking marijuana before the age of sixteen are four times more likely to become schizophrenic."
Could this be correlation, not causation? Would people with schizophrenic tendencies be more drawn to drugs because they were already feeling mentally out of sorts? Could it be a form of early self-medicating? Also, with schizophrenia, the genetics are already there, it just takes external stress to bring them out. The pot might have served as such a stress, but without it, such genes might have expressed themselves in a few years anyway.

2). Drugs affect different people differently, which is why you hear the phrase "side effects might vary." So while this breed of pot might harm some, it might not have the same effect on others. Same goes for any drug. To cite an example, my father gets very sick from pain pills. I, on the other hand, feel like talking pain pills is entering paradise. We share some of the same genetics, yet have markedly different reactions to the same drug. Food for thought.

[Screwston]

(05-18-2013 04:32 AM)w00t Wrote:  

The argument about the oh-so-strong killerweed nowadays is complete bullshit. The hippies back in the day had shitty weed but they were smoking on really potent hash too. Check out the book "Hashish" by Robert Clarke for some figures.

You're saying the strains aren't strong as hell that are floating around? I don't get it. Most people dont' even know what hash is and wont go looking for it unless they're hardcore smokers. The strains going around now are a lot more potent than what the casual smokers would of got a hold of a while back.

[BoiBoi]

I have a few friends who had major psychotic episodes in their lives. Some of them recovered while some did not.

One of them stopped talking and started to "rap" everything he said for a couple of weeks until they fed him some meds.
Another left his house at 4am and headed barefoot to the next train station. There, he got onto the rails and walked down a couple of miles until the police picked him up and took him in.
Another would sit down in the middle of a basketball court mid-game, spit onto the floor and start to play with his drool. The same guy would also organize a "party" and handed out "invites". Those invites were basically just sheets of white paper with a bunch of written gibberish that made absolutely no sense.

The mind is a powerful thing...

[w00t]

(05-18-2013 12:03 PM)houston Wrote:  

(05-18-2013 04:32 AM)w00t Wrote:  

The argument about the oh-so-strong killerweed nowadays is complete bullshit. The hippies back in the day had shitty weed but they were smoking on really potent hash too. Check out the book "Hashish" by Robert Clarke for some figures.

You're saying the strains aren't strong as hell that are floating around? I don't get it. Most people dont' even know what hash is and wont go looking for it unless they're hardcore smokers. The strains going around now are a lot more potent than what the casual smokers would of got a hold of a while back.

No Im saying back in the day there was really potent hash around from Nepal, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco. That stuff has pretty much disappeared from the commercial market since the whole indoor growing thing took over. The USA have always been more of a weed country while europe had a lot more hash. But the Brotherhood of Eternal Love smuggled that stuff into the US by the containerloads in the 70ies so it was certainly around there as well. And that stuff was very potent too. Its not like all the hippies had was low potent bunk weed.

[A CLizzy]

I completely flipped on my first joint.

As I fell to the ground,

Everything just kind of went into slow motion,

I could see everything intricately, in phases.

My mates thought it was funny.

I Started talking and wasn't getting any responses.

Then I started, shouting and screaming only to receive odd smiles

from my high friends who clearly couldn't hear me.

Started to panic, heart started throbbing.

Wasn't in my body anymore, it was like I was in my heart.

Pulsating against my rib cage about to explode.

Gasping for oxygen in the fresh air, unable to stand.

Was dragged upstairs by my buddies who didn't want to get caught, apparently I was hyperventilating.

Next thing I knew , I was watching them drag and carry me upstairs from outside my body as they laid me on the floor.

I was pretty sure, I was dead as I tried with all my might to snap out of this trance.

Blacked out and woke up the next day.

Was completely paranoid , felt like somebody was after me, shivering, pupils enlarged.

think I was about 14 maybe 15,

Told myself never again. But succumbed to the peer pressure on vacations.

learnt to pace my tokes to avoid that happening. Always get the best relaxed or giggly highs, these days.

But I am 100% aware of the dangers. I believe some people are more genetically prone to the psychotic effects of marijuana, as it's been detrimental to a few of my relatives.

[lurker]

(05-18-2013 01:31 PM)w00t Wrote:  

But the Brotherhood of Eternal Love smuggled that stuff into the US by the containerloads in the 70ies so it was certainly around there as well. And that stuff was very potent too. Its not like all the hippies had was low potent bunk weed.

Correct. Have you ever bought a T-shirt from an established American surf company manufacturer? You have about a 50/50 shot of holding a direct result of the BEL's hash empire.

Also, good hash comes from... good bud. The landrace strains were just as strong then as they are now, and readily available.

[w00t]

Yeah there was always stuff like Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, Haze has been around since the 70ies...
The whole modern-killerweed-argument is complete bullshit made up by prohibitionists. First it was "weed makes black men rape white women" then it was "weed is a gateway drug" and now this. Once ppl stop believing one lie they just come up with another one.

In the UK there is a whole media campaign about that super-strong modern skunk weed going on. But even skunk has been around since the 70ies.

And where do all these modern strains come from in the first place? Its nothing but landraces crossed and selected for potent phenotypes. You could take a hundred seeds of a pure landrace and do a selection and still come up with some heavy hitting shit. Its not like these strains are genetically engineered in some underground labs, though thats what some of the misinformation campaigns try to sell to the public.

[Screwston]

(05-18-2013 01:31 PM)w00t Wrote:  

(05-18-2013 12:03 PM)houston Wrote:  

(05-18-2013 04:32 AM)w00t Wrote:  

The argument about the oh-so-strong killerweed nowadays is complete bullshit. The hippies back in the day had shitty weed but they were smoking on really potent hash too. Check out the book "Hashish" by Robert Clarke for some figures.

You're saying the strains aren't strong as hell that are floating around? I don't get it. Most people dont' even know what hash is and wont go looking for it unless they're hardcore smokers. The strains going around now are a lot more potent than what the casual smokers would of got a hold of a while back.

No Im saying back in the day there was really potent hash around from Nepal, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco. That stuff has pretty much disappeared from the commercial market since the whole indoor growing thing took over. The USA have always been more of a weed country while europe had a lot more hash. But the Brotherhood of Eternal Love smuggled that stuff into the US by the containerloads in the 70ies so it was certainly around there as well. And that stuff was very potent too. Its not like all the hippies had was low potent bunk weed.

I never said anything about hippies. When I was growing up, the regular weed was decent, sometimes shitty and sometimes pretty good. I'm talking about someone who would puff on a regular joint with some people and not be to stoned. Now they'll smoke a dro joint and be stuck on the couch for a few hours. I never knew people growing up who were rolling hash blunts and joints. Everyone was getting ounces of brick weed and sometimes dro. I have no idea if regular shwag is even as popular as it used to be with younger kids. Probably because it's so cheap.

I'm high

[le prince perdu]

There are probably millions of people who puff on the regular out there, out of those millions I don't think more than a 1000 have suffered from marijuana induced psychosis.

If you put that on the side and look at other substances used by people,

Alcohol:
users:millions( adults and teenagers)
Bad shit that has happened: car accidents, diseases,rapes(I guess),fights leading to death, etc...

Tobacco:
Users:millions
Bad shit that has happened: diseases,

Pharmaceutical drugs:
Users:millions
Bad shit that has happened: deaths,diseases,recalls,addictions,misused, introduced hard core drugs like heroine.

The list goes on,
everything single substance we have used since the first man took a shit has had some bad effects on someone somewhere on the globe.

I'm not surprised some teenage kids have suffered from puffing, that's sad but it's life but there are also kids out there who have lost limbs,organs,brain function due to other substances.

But as far as I can tell I have never seen a grown man/woman suffer from bad side effetcs of MJ.

By the way the first time I smoked was out of a big ass bong of some strong hash, I only took one hit and I literally couldn't talk nor follow a conversation for at leat 3 hours and I was high all night,went to sleep and was still tipsy till 2pm the next day. The funny thing is that the guys I was smoking with probably took 4-5 hits, talk about tolerance.

I've smoked a lot of strains but I have never gotten has high as that one hash hit,
hash is just another level

[scotian]

Do you guys in the USA not have easy access to hash? I remember years ago I couldn't get decent weed, we would give hash away, that's all we could get, we used to smoke this stuff called gold seal, it was stamped with a big gold leaf. Hash is over rated, strong BC bud will make my head spin more than hash can, and I know many older dudes who won't smoke weed, only hash because that shit you young guys smoke these days is way too strong!

[Burdflu]

(05-04-2013 10:29 AM)Samseau Wrote:  

Yeah, people shouldn't be allowed to smoke relish till they're 18+. I think this is a good policy for all drugs. People need to finish developing first.

That said, I had a bunch of friends in HS who smoked every day, and I have no idea what happened to any of them. They just dropped off the face of the earth.

I agree. These kids ain't doin in properly. They put themselves in party situations, get waaaaay too high for their own good, and then lose their shit and get admitted to my floor.

Sometimes its something that goes away after a few days, and sometimes they toss the kid on Rispiridone. Those kids don't come back so easily.

[PhoenixEye]

(05-18-2013 07:09 PM)Burdflu Wrote:  

I agree. These kids ain't doin in properly. They put themselves in party situations, get waaaaay too high for their own good

Truth, I've seen too many kids bragging about smoking Gottis to the face daily. Sounds like a waste of weed to me.

[DVY]

I've had it as well. Mild psychosis, paranoia, weigh-loss. This is usually manifested under extreme stress. I get symptoms of this when I have a lot on my plate, and go into robot mode. When I used to smoke heavy, I would turn into robot-machine.

Dulls the pain of the soul- death in the family, heavy workload, impossible schedule, no friends or family for support. Its like symptoms of over-exhaustion, CNS being fried, and depression. 1 year of 8am-10pm at school w/no social life and fear of dropping out will do that to you.

What got me out of it, for me, was heavy alcohol usage in substitue for weed. Talk about self-medicating.

@Houston- I was just telling people about this phenonomenon. As much, as I love rolling into a store to pick up green, the effect on kids is ridiculous. Now kids 15 or 16 have acess to high-end primo that was simple un-available to HS kids. This can't be healthy. I didn't get use to grade A bud until I had been smoking for 2 years. Its gets you wayy too high. Better start from some mids, or if you are smoking blunts- some shake.

Last year for a friends bday, I rolled a 5gram tulip joint of grade A indoor and smoked to the dome w/2-3 boys. Hell, I've rolled 10 gram joints of "outdoors" (high-mids) and smoked it 3-way for 30 mins. Or stories of Picnic Day in UC Davis. boys rolled 30 blunts for the day. Only in the bay... Newbs would take 1 hit and be out, let alone smoke for bowls on bowls.

Now, nothing gets me "really blazed". Well, whatever thats cools w/me. I am staying off the wax-train. When you get started on that, nothing else will get you baked.

[Homo_Sapien]

I didn't start smoking regularly until I was 19 but I still identified schizophrenia-like symptoms in myself after 2-3 years.

I still enjoy smoking but much less frequently nowadays.

[Low Status Beta]

I read that what happened in the eighties was, people started growing itindoors(akahydroponic). The difference between stuff that is grown outside/hydro is the THC level is anywhere from 5-20x higher.

If I had to suspect, I would say this is due to the difference of UVB/UVArays that come from ArtificialLightingvs. TheSUN.

[Screwston]

I don't think it being grown inside versus outside has anything to do with how potent it is. I always thought that was determined by the seeds, actual strain and how much the grower takes care of the plants properly. I thought growing it inside (hydro) just let you speed up the process a lot more.

[DVY]

@houston- Maybe. But from my personal experience, indoor>outdoor. Indoor looks like a flower covered in trichrome/crystals. This is all THC. Outdoor looks non-sparkly. Not to say there isn't good outdoor, but a good outdoor would be even better indoor (less wind blowing off trichromes).

[Jaydublin]

There isn't a better sleep med on the market!

[scotian]

(06-08-2013 09:30 AM)houston Wrote:  

I don't think it being grown inside versus outside has anything to do with how potent it is. I always thought that was determined by the seeds, actual strain and how much the grower takes care of the plants properly. I thought growing it inside (hydro) just let you speed up the process a lot more.

From what I know the indoor growing process is a lot more controlled (lights, timers, temperature, etc.) and growing chemicals are added, in this environment, the grower controls all of those variables and the plant grows according to a grow plan.

Outside, the grower can't control those elements as well and the plant usually (depending on where its grown) doesn't come out with as high of a THC content as that strain is capable of producing. That same plant, grown inside, could produce a lot more if it was grown indoors.

I wish I knew how to grow good dope.

[bacon]

I dont know about going crazy but when I smoked too much pot it killed my motivation for doing shit. Booze is my drug of choice.