[Nuclear1]

Your mind's in an alternate state and impaired when you're drinking alcohol too.

[Klaustrophobia]

i quite agree.  but that is a case against alcohol more than it is for weed.

[karajorma]

Not necessarily. What exactly is wrong with altering your mind's state?

As long as there are no other effects and you can get back to normal afterwards why would it be automatically a bad thing?

[Klaustrophobia]

because you do stupid **** and can endanger others.  yes, i know there are people who are capable of using intelligently.  my main point here is it is NOT completely harmless as many profess.  the very fact it's called "getting stoned" speaks to that.

[Flipside]

Getting stoned is just a turn of phrase, like 'getting plastered', it doesn't mean anything other than the fact that the person is under the influence of a large amount of a substance. As I originally said, I wouldn't like someone in that state operating heavy machinery, but that doesn't mean it's actually harming them.

I did a quick search about the nerve cells, and there seems to be nothing, so your Doctor may be confused about things, I certainly cannot find any evidence of accuracy in his claim. Whilst a Doctor may not 'lie' to you, as such (though this is highly debatable, you'd be surprised) a Doctors conviction in a theory isn't worth much without some sort of supporting evidence, there's as much need for that in the Medical community as the scientific community, and opinion is just as broad. Most testable evidence has suggested very little to no damage from Cannabis use by adults, and very often, crimes that are attributed to cannabis have actually been shown to have simply been commited by someone on cannabis, which is not a causal link in anyones' books, unless those books tend to be the more reactionary tabloids.

[Colonol Dekker]

The internet doesn't hold info on everything and anything.
 
Weed is bad. Booze is bad.
Weed is illegal.
Booze isn't.
 
 
Stop hitting report post on this topic or i'll lock it up quicker than a trucker hides corpses.
 

* Dekker goes to clear his inbox.

[Flipside]

That reminds me, I'll have to update my Email address, it's still got my old one on it, otherwise my inbox would be full as well...

Maybe I should just keep the duff one?

And, for whoever is reporting it, I'd like to point out that the day people aren't even allowed to discuss the issue of drugs without facing censorship would be a sad day indeed.

As for what Decker said, I tend to agree with him, though, I'll point out that our Netherlands members would be perfectly justified in disagreeing with him The fact is the legality doesn't make cannabis a 'bad' thing, it just means that in the eyes of the law, you are not allowed to take it, the motivation behind those laws goes a lot deeper, and, as I said, depends on where you are, I'm not here to debate the legality of the matter, I'm here to fight the stereotype that all recreational drugs are one and the same, that they all lead to mental conditions and unpredictable behaviour, if we are ever going to tackle the issue of recreational drugs head-on, then the first thing we need to deal with are our own generalisations and assumptions about them.

Edit: Also, I'll point out I didn't just 'surf the net' for information, I believe I mentioned before that I worked for a while with kids with drug problems, so I had to read up on the stuff to find out what I was talking about, not only did it open my eyes to a degree, but it also gave me a habit of browsing Medical Journals whenever research is done on recreational drugs, so I was pretty certain right from the start that I had never seen any papers referring to the collecting of residue that blocked neuro-transmission in cannabis, but I had seen something similar about Crystal Meth, but just couldn't believe that any Doctor could confuse the two.

[karajorma]

I have heard several reports linking cannabis use to schizophrenia though. Exactly what the link is isn't something I've looked into particularly hard.

It does seem to be something triggered more by skunk than the weaker forms of cannabis though. 

[Flipside]

Yes, Skunk is grown in a way that would never occur in the wild, and heavy usage has been linked bouts of paranoia, and occasional cases of schizophrenia as well, however, I seem to recall those studies also being unable to rule out that in the cases of mental health that did occur, it was a catalytic element, rather than a causative one, i.e. the people involved had a 'tendency' towards mental health issues in the first place. Still, the 'super strength' cannabis brands are a slightly different animal to the 'normal' types, and are difficult to rate in the same way.

If people choose not to take the stuff, that's fine by me, I haven't for years, and am unlikely to do so now, but my real concern is the tarring of the entire drug culture with the same brush, it really has to stop, I genuinely think people believe there is a cannabis fuelled crime wave in the world, which, at the very least, suggests that people on cannabis could be bothered to start a crimewave. In my experience, this is highly unlikely.

[S-99]

because you do stupid **** and can endanger others.  yes, i know there are people who are capable of using intelligently.  my main point here is it is NOT completely harmless as many profess.  the very fact it's called "getting stoned" speaks to that.

Your doctor's dumb. And getting stoned is completely different than getting drunk. Cannabis has no hallucinagens. If someone you know who smoked weed and hallucinated obviously smoked something that was laced with another drug.

Smoking weed is not like speed. Quite the opposite, it makes you calm the **** down and relax. The most you're going to want to do is sit down, hang out for a while, eat some food, invent spongebob squarepants, then possibly go to sleep.

And you're going a little far with the "getting stoned" (quit trying to make it seem like what it's not). Getting stoned is really just feeling the affects of the thc in your system. For why people who smoked weed call it getting stoned is beyond me, there's also "getting ripped", "toking up", and "hitting the bong". Cannabis has a lot more slang when referring to it compared to say something like alcohol and tobacco.

You have a serious misunderstanding of marijuana.

[Klaustrophobia]

You'll excuse me if I take my doctor's word over the fking internet. 

Honestly I knew this was coming.  I'm not sure why I bothered now.

[Colonol Dekker]

Weed is worse than smoking. It's more addictive, it retards reaction times and can cause weakness of the heart. Any and all problems associated with smoking normal non-weed related cigarettes are present but at a higher concentration.
 
No source. But google it.

[Marcov]

What is this "high" stuff about?

All I can say is...yes, Friday is good, and is usually invulnerable to negativity (hey, seems that I've been too addicted to SciFic games that I'm already using these terms...).

The only practical rest day from all the tough work you had in the notorious weekdays.

Just being on-topic

[Klaustrophobia]

it's saturday now, you're late

[Dilmah G]

**** all of you, it's Sunday morning! 

Weed is worse than smoking. It's more addictive, it retards reaction times and can cause weakness of the heart. Any and all problems associated with smoking normal non-weed related cigarettes are present but at a higher concentration.
 
No source. But google it.

tl;dr version: **** weed, start smoking roll-ups, kids.

[Flipside]

http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/

Now, for God's sake, will people actually read this before jumping to conclusions about people who do drugs and their health?

[Qent]

I use caffeine. Yeah, I'm hardcore.

[Flipside]

Heh, that's pretty much what keeps me going these days

To be honest, I don't care whether people choose to take recreational drugs or not, doesn't bother me either way, what does annoy me is the fact that so many people have a really mixed up concept of the effects of marijuana. People always laugh when politicians who claim they want a computer game banned admit that they've never played or researched the game in question in any way (beyond a tabloid headline somewhere along the lines of 'Computer Games Killed Princess Diana and Increase Illegal Immigration!!!!), and yet this seems to be perfectly acceptable stock-and-trade with regards to recreational drugs.

[Klaustrophobia]

that's due largely to the fact that "recreational drugs" screwing with your head is not up for debate.  they DO.  it alters your state of mind and can impair judgment.  whether that warrants being illegal is really the issue.  honestly i say yes.  i really don't even understand why getting high (or drunk for that matter) is considered so awsome.

[Scotty]

Obviously you never have been.

[sarcasm]Next up on the "Make-it-illegal" list: sugar and caffeine.[/sarcasm]