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Long-term effects of heavy cannabis use are, in fact, considerably more dangerous than alcohol.
We're talking brain damage. Severe brain damage after, if I remember correctly, about a decade.
Friend of a friend had it kick in after only a couple of years.
As for the driving while stoned business, the problem is not that it's more intoxicating than alochol but that it stays in the system for much, much longer.
Please note: I'm not saying whether it should be illegal or not, just that, from medical studies I've looked at, the majority of people are really badly misinformed.
As for longer duration, how would that even be a factor? I guess if you're on a road trip, then you'd only be safer smoking a joint than taking a few shots of vodka for the first two hours, but still...
The duration thing is that you can smoke the sutff one night and not be safe to drive the next day. I'd have thought that would be obvious?
Also, populist websites are not a reliable source. http://www.nap.edu/html/marimed/ch3.html
The above study points out that it can induce psychosis while engaging in heavy use, and has many of the health problems associated with smoking (the respiratory problems, but not the cancer).
A major question remains as to whether marijuana can produce lasting mood disorders or psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. Georgotas and Zeidenberg52 reported that smoking 10—22 marijuana cigarettes per day was associated with a gradual waning of the positive mood and social facilitating effects of marijuana and an increase in irritability, social isolation, and paranoid thinking. Inasmuch as smoking one cigarette is enough to make a person feel "high" for about 1—3 hours,68,95,118 the subjects in that study were taking very high doses of marijuana. Reports have described the development of apathy, lowered motivation, and impaired educational performance in heavy marijuana users who do not appear to be behaviorally impaired in other ways.121,122 There are clinical reports of marijuana-induced psychosis-like states (schizophrenia-like, depression, and/or mania) lasting for a week or more.112 Hollister suggests that, because of the varied nature of the psychotic states induced by marijuana, there is no specific "marijuana psychosis." Rather, the marijuana experience might trigger latent psychopathology of many types.66 More recently, Hall and colleagues60 concluded that "there is reasonable evidence that heavy cannabis use, and perhaps acute use in sensitive individuals, can produce an acute psychosis in which confusion, amnesia, delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, agitation and hypomanic symptoms predominate." Regardless of which of those interpretations is correct, the two reports agree that there is little evidence that marijuana alone produces a psychosis that persists after the period of intoxication.
You can not smoke at night and still be high the next day.
Torso Boy: Nice piece. Definitely look into something zig-zaggy, there's something about that shape that does wonders for the smoke. But if I still smoked, I'd look into something like this (glass-on-glass) or this Voodoo Vaporizer.
Probably the vape, for health and economic reasons. They use so much less product, and are much better for your lungs.
edit: Cocks, what do you use to drill the glass? I always wanted to do that, but it seemed like it would be a (dangerous?) hassle
edit: Cocks, what do you use to drill the glass? I always wanted to do that, but it seemed like it would be a (dangerous?) hassle
We actually got a drill bit for drilling glass but have never used it haha.
It's all in the bottle choice. You just need a nail and a hammer, or whatever heavy and pointy objects you desire. I've seen the most wasted people do it with a nail and another bottle. You just need to find the proper point on the bottle so the stress is dispersed correctly.
On my current favorite we used a SOCO bottle (handle) the bottom of the bottle has a lip that you can use. That one actually cracked a bit but we got a nice rubber O ring from Home Depo and some sweet gorilla glue and it's my current favorite piece. The best bottles have little indentations or tabs pointed out, it's hard to explain but I'll try to get some pictures and maybe make a little guide. It really is the best way to smoke and can be so easy to make. I was worried at first to.
Also to those of you that make these DON'T use tin foil for the bowl or whatever you wanna call it. Use a slide from a bong or make one by melting a socket wrench head into the cap and toss a screen in it, the results are amazing.
Mmmm... Cocks... on
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
edit: Cocks, what do you use to drill the glass? I always wanted to do that, but it seemed like it would be a (dangerous?) hassle
We actually got a drill bit for drilling glass but have never used it haha.
It's all in the bottle choice. You just need a nail and a hammer, or whatever heavy and pointy objects you desire. I've seen the most wasted people do it with a nail and another bottle. You just need to find the proper point on the bottle so the stress is dispersed correctly.
On my current favorite we used a SOCO bottle (handle) the bottom of the bottle has a lip that you can use. That one actually cracked a bit but we got a nice rubber O ring from Home Depo and some sweet gorilla glue and it's my current favorite piece. The best bottles have little indentations or tabs pointed out, it's hard to explain but I'll try to get some pictures and maybe make a little guide. It really is the best way to smoke and can be so easy to make. I was worried at first to.
Also to those of you that make these DON'T use tin foil for the bowl or whatever you wanna call it. Use a slide from a bong or make one by melting a socket wrench head into the cap and toss a screen in it, the results are amazing.
Exactly! Though we typically use a nail. If I recall a Jaeger bottle has the perfect "tab" but the one we have on our shelf doesn't have the one I remember. The way his ended up is how our "cracked" one is. We covered it in a nice O ring to make it a perfect circle and so our finger wouldn't have to be on cracked glass (we also fit a cork in it to) :P
Mmmm... Cocks... on
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Exactly! Though we typically use a nail. If I recall a Jaeger bottle has the perfect "tab" but the one we have on our shelf doesn't have the one I remember. The way his ended up is how our "cracked" one is. We covered it in a nice O ring to make it a perfect circle and so our finger wouldn't have to be on cracked glass (we also fit a cork in it to) :P
Seems like a good way to recycle and make a few bucks. Got pics?
Seems like a good way to recycle and make a few bucks. Got pics?
No, but I plan on using it tonight when my roomie gets back. So I'll snatch up his camera and take a few pics and post 'em here tonight or tomorrow morning.
Mmmm... Cocks... on
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
I have a standard glass pipe right now, any recommendations for my next piece?
Save up $200 for a nice vaporizer like the one I linked earlier. It's really an investment. A small bowl will get you way more ripped than any other method, so it eventually pays for itself. Some people prefer the act and sensation of smoking, but pfft, you're smarter than that.
edit: If you really prefer smoking and have given vaping a fair try (the cheap deals that work like a soldering iron in a fishbowl do not count) then chillums are great. Compact, and hit more directly than spoons. And there's always room in the world for more bongs and bubblers...
For the record, I'm not endorsing that site. Their prices kind of suck. Local headshop for the win.
TL DR on
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No-QuarterNothing To FearBut Fear ItselfRegistered Userregular
I want to invest in a really nice looking piece, although I guess I should get some screens for the piece I have now first. People are always bitching at me and telling me that I need to buy some screens haha. I don't notice it but I guess I just don't know better.
I bought my piece the day I turned 18, and one for my friend aswell.
I bought a neat clear one and a banana yellow one, same price.
He took the clear one.
But girls like my yellow one better, it's funny.
I feel like banning it outright is a total waste of money and time. Alcohol is more dangerous but people can legally abuse the stuff, as long as they don't drive or go out in public. Seems like you could apply the same laws to cannabis.
Yeah it did.
We need more crazy people here proclaiming that weed is the devil.
Turning all our children into hooligans and whores!
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
edited April 2008
this is one of the topics that this forum is pretty much done with. anyone here who is against it is ridiculed harshly and (hopefully) convinced that they're wrong. it's generally accepted as something that should be made legal and dealt with from there.
we also seem to all hate "hippies" or "pot-heads" so there isn't even that argument to be had.
this is one of the topics that this forum is pretty much done with. anyone here who is against it is ridiculed harshly and (hopefully) convinced that they're wrong. it's generally accepted as something that should be made legal and dealt with from there.
we also seem to all hate "hippies" or "pot-heads" so there isn't even that argument to be had.
Legalize it*!
* - And by 'it' I mean 'MDMA'
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
0
VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
Is there really any hard proof of health problems arising from long term pot usage? According to some sites out there, marijuana can double or triple your chance of lung cancer. But the specifics of the studies are really vague. Like they don't mention how often and in what quantities the pot is smoked by the participants. And it seems like they are just trying to support their case against drugs rather than present actual evidence.
On making a bong: My downtown headshop is in touch with a guy who will drill and fit just about anything for $20. Your shops might not have a similar service, but they might know someone. Otherwise, a dremel with a glass cutting bit should do alright. When I have the money floating around I'm getting a slide put in my my 1.5L Grolsch beer bottle. :winky:
No-Quarter, on driving: you're absolutely right and I realize that. This summer I'm thinking we'll cut it out and not look back. The thing is, with other "smoke rides" it's not hard to feel uneasy because of the way the guy is usually driving- with me and my friend, we talk about science and politics, with the radio down low, going the speed limit (or considerably less). This doesn't eliminate the risks, but it makes it way too easy to throw caution to the wind. We've also never had a police encounter beyond pulling into, and immediately back out of, the wrong parking lot. It is a bad habit.
Is there really any hard proof of health problems arising from long term pot usage? According to some sites out there, marijuana can double or triple your chance of lung cancer. But the specifics of the studies are really vague. Like they don't mention how often and in what quantities the pot is smoked by the participants. And it seems like they are just trying to support their case against drugs rather than present actual evidence.
If you regularly inhale smoke your chances of lung cancer will go up. A single joint is even the equivalent of about five cigarettes. The important difference being no one outside of very heavy users smoke near enough joints every day to get the same risk cigarettes give. And even all of that can be avoided with a vaporizer.
It can be enjoyed without making it a thing. The stereotypical immature stoner is going to get something different from the experience compared to say some dude sitting in his backyard after work. Part of it is expectation (for some people it seems that it's a huge part though), and the rest is what you take and how you take it (like chugging whiskey vs. enjoying it).
It's good, clean fun and an excellent way to relax. I believe it is far superior to drinking alcohol (but then I don't like drinking and hate feeling nauseous more than anything).
I think a lot of your enjoyment depends on what activity you choose to do while high. If you have nice headphones or a good stereo, one of the best things, in my opinion, is to put on some music that you're sort of familiar with but not sick of. You will notice amazing new things.
I also really enjoy watching silly Coen brothers movies (O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona) while high. Animated movies and shows are also great—I can't recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender + weed enough.
In my experience, videogames while high are a mixed bag. Games where the fun comes from skillful manipulation or puzzle solving are problematic. Also, your hands will occasionally need to be free to eat ice cream or potato chips. But games where you can just run around and soak in the atmosphere/experience, like Shadow of the Colossus, are great. Guitar Hero is also a lot of fun, if you don't try to play competitively and instead use the game as a way to experience the music.
I would not recommend going out in public, or even socializing beyond your very close friends—and even then, keep it to a minimum, because if they are not also high you will probably be quite annoying to them.
Carl Sagan wrote a pretty well-thought-out essay (under the pseudonym Mr. X) about why marijuana is awesome.
It's widely accepted that stoned driving is not nearly as reckless and dangerous as drunk driving.
Even so, I don't think it's remotely okay to drive while high. The effects are not uniform, not even in the same batch. It's an unpredictable element and a needless risk, and other people's lives are at stake. Not to mention that it's a waste of weed—there are much better things to do while stoned than drive.
Is there really any hard proof of health problems arising from long term pot usage? According to some sites out there, marijuana can double or triple your chance of lung cancer. But the specifics of the studies are really vague. Like they don't mention how often and in what quantities the pot is smoked by the participants. And it seems like they are just trying to support their case against drugs rather than present actual evidence.
If you regularly inhale smoke your chances of lung cancer will go up. A single joint is even the equivalent of about five cigarettes. The important difference being no one outside of very heavy users smoke near enough joints every day to get the same risk cigarettes give. And even all of that can be avoided with a vaporizer.
This is a common misconception even among users of the drug, so I'll just say this now:
There is no evidence that smoking weed causes cancer.
Does weed contain carcinogens? Yes, it does. It is reasonable to assume then that smoking the stuff will cause cancer. But when studies are actually done, the findings show that people who smoke are not more likely to get cancer than other people.
The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."
May 23, 2006 -- People who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancer, new research suggests.
While a clear increase in cancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users.
Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers.
Why this is nobody really knows, but it seems something in marijuana is able to counteract any cancerous effects:
ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2007) — The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
Yeah, if you look at actual medical research on the matter there's no reason to believe that marijuana causes cancer. I don't get why people are so insistent that it's worse than cigarettes.
The good thing about pot is it doesn't agitate or increase my uric acid, which has given me trouble in the past (and also distinguished me as the youngest person to have a gout attack ever). So I enjoy it, and I for that reason consider it safer than alcohol. Since I smoke up so rarely, my tolerance is unbelievably low. Three or four hits will get me ripped for the next four to five hours. I didn't notice at first, because I would smoke up late at night and then go to sleep, but one time I smoked up in the early afternoon. When I went to the diner (not driving, of course), six hours later, I still felt high.
To me pot produces a general feeling of mellowness and well being, as well as extreme impairment of short term memory and sense of time. I will lose track of conversations as they are happening midway through, and then "snap to" reality only to find I forgot what we were talking about. I can't really play videogames as well.
Sometimes I get annoyed at my own inability to concentrate, and I then become paranoid that I'm acting too high. That paranoia usually leads to a more general paranoia that I will be discovered or arrested or whatever. It used to be bad at first, but I can usually head that off at the pass and divert it now, because I know it's just the pot.
Basically, it's fun and it should be legal. Alcohol is definitely more of a social drug, though. I never get the "life is fucking grand and we're all one big happy family" and the lowering of inhibitions that I do with alcohol. So pot is more introspective as a drug.
I think it can be a social drug. When I did smoke, I did it in an environment where the was pretty much zero chance of me being caught, and if I did get caught it would be because I was actually smoking it, not because I was high. I got real comfortable going to a party while high, not drinking, and enjoying talking to the drunks. I'd say the only times I've really felt paranoid was when there was something out there to be paranoid about, like when the DEA raided some random house across the river with two helicopters and ten million Suburbans.
To me pot produces a general feeling of mellowness and well being, as well as extreme impairment of short term memory and sense of time. I will lose track of conversations as they are happening midway through, and then "snap to" reality only to find I forgot what we were talking about. I can't really play videogames as well.
Sometimes I get annoyed at my own inability to concentrate, and I then become paranoid that I'm acting too high. That paranoia usually leads to a more general paranoia that I will be discovered or arrested or whatever. It used to be bad at first, but I can usually head that off at the pass and divert it now, because I know it's just the pot.
On these points it does the opposite for me. I get into "the zone" as it were easier with games I'm familiar with if I play them high, Soul Calibur 3 and GT4 for example I do better in if I smoke. Actually the first time I played Gran Turismo 3 high I was way out of practice having not played for months, and I knocked 30 seconds off my best lap on my favorite track the first time around.
And I find it much easier to stay interested in writing a paper or something if I'm really high. If I'm not, the act of actually writing out the paper is just so boring unless I'm really, really, really into the material.
Having gone through many experimental stages with different narcotics and substances both legal and illegal, I would be for legalization.
At first I was against legalization, because I didnt want other people to make the same mistakes I had. But now after having quit drinking and smoking cigarettes, I realize that they really are no different than smoking or partaking in cannabis.
One think I would like to see is a much reduced potency if it were to become legal (or have the store bought stuff be the potency of beer compared to the current street pots potency of moonshine), and the higher the potency the more expensive and restrictive it becomes (leaving home growers able to spend the effort to obtain their preferred potency without hassle).
I also believe weed would stop being a gateway drug if we werent pushing pot smokers into the arms of the pushers of the harder drugs in order to obtain their weed.
Re: driving while high, it is absolutely true that everyone is affected differently, and I think it is silly to make absolute statements like "It affects your nervous system, so you shouldn't do it." Well, sugar affects your nervous system too, so does caffeine, so does cold medicine. It takes a certain amount of responsibility and knowledge of yourself to make the decision to drive while high. Personally, I prefer to ride my bike or something, but it isn't terribly uncommon for me to load up a movie on my iPhone, pick up a buddy at his house, then go park the car somewhere secluded and light up and watch the flic. We generally finish the herb about 30 minutes in, then we have an hour or so to chill before I take him home and then put myself to bed.
Also, Volcano vaporizer owner checking in. I highly recommend this device. It is like the Mercedes Benz of cannabis intake devices.
Re: driving while high, it is absolutely true that everyone is affected differently, and I think it is silly to make absolute statements like "It affects your nervous system, so you shouldn't do it." Well, sugar affects your nervous system too, so does caffeine, so does cold medicine. It takes a certain amount of responsibility and knowledge of yourself to make the decision to drive while high. Personally, I prefer to ride my bike or something, but it isn't terribly uncommon for me to load up a movie on my iPhone, pick up a buddy at his house, then go park the car somewhere secluded and light up and watch the flic. We generally finish the herb about 30 minutes in, then we have an hour or so to chill before I take him home and then put myself to bed.
Also, Volcano vaporizer owner checking in. I highly recommend this device. It is like the Mercedes Benz of cannabis intake devices.
Screw you for driving while high, but if you could be so kind (or someone else) to explain what in the hell a vaporizer is, and what are the advantages it has over a good old fashioned glass bowl?
Re: driving while high, it is absolutely true that everyone is affected differently, and I think it is silly to make absolute statements like "It affects your nervous system, so you shouldn't do it." Well, sugar affects your nervous system too, so does caffeine, so does cold medicine. It takes a certain amount of responsibility and knowledge of yourself to make the decision to drive while high. Personally, I prefer to ride my bike or something, but it isn't terribly uncommon for me to load up a movie on my iPhone, pick up a buddy at his house, then go park the car somewhere secluded and light up and watch the flic. We generally finish the herb about 30 minutes in, then we have an hour or so to chill before I take him home and then put myself to bed.
Also, Volcano vaporizer owner checking in. I highly recommend this device. It is like the Mercedes Benz of cannabis intake devices.
Screw you for driving while high, but if you could be so kind (or someone else) to explain what in the hell a vaporizer is, and what are the advantages it has over a good old fashioned glass bowl?
A vaporizer is a machine that heats the weed up to the temperature at which THC evaporates. That way you smoke only the THC and no plant matter. Uses less dope, gets you ripped as shit, not as bad for the lungs. The high is a little different though. The most famous one is the Volcano by Storz & Bickel:
Basically you put the weed in this metal cylinder with a metal screen on the bottom, put the cylinder on top of the Volcano, attach this plastic bag thing to the top of the cylinder, and turn on the air. The Volcano blows hot air through the weed, releasing the THC particles as a white steamlike vapour into the bag. The bag can be as big as you want. One time I used one that was like 12 feet long. Anyways once the bag is full you remove it from the cylinder, attach the mouthpiece, and steadily draw the vapour into your lungs. It doesn't hurt and it fucks you up.
The German ones cost like 600 dollars but there are cheaper alternatives such as the Happy Vappy for $200, which I really want
Re: driving while high, it is absolutely true that everyone is affected differently, and I think it is silly to make absolute statements like "It affects your nervous system, so you shouldn't do it." Well, sugar affects your nervous system too, so does caffeine, so does cold medicine. It takes a certain amount of responsibility and knowledge of yourself to make the decision to drive while high. Personally, I prefer to ride my bike or something, but it isn't terribly uncommon for me to load up a movie on my iPhone, pick up a buddy at his house, then go park the car somewhere secluded and light up and watch the flic. We generally finish the herb about 30 minutes in, then we have an hour or so to chill before I take him home and then put myself to bed.
Also, Volcano vaporizer owner checking in. I highly recommend this device. It is like the Mercedes Benz of cannabis intake devices.
Of course, just because you can drive high doesn't mean you should drive high, and the fact that it affects everyone differently doesn't mean the government isn't justified in having a blanket law prohibiting driving while high for everyone.
There are plenty of people who are absolutely sure they can drive well drunk, and will continue to believe this until they get in an auto accident.
Yes, sugar and caffiene do affect your nervous system as well, but those effects pale in comparison to the amount which smoking marijuana, or drinking alcohol can impair your reaction time. It creates a big enough risk that requiring people to be sober to drive is not unreasonable by any stretch.
This does lead to regulatory problems. Police can give drivers breathalyzer tests to detect if they've been drinking alcohol, but I'm not aware of any test for THC in the blood that an officer could administer as easily. This could be an argument for continued criminalization of marijuana, because it's much easier to keep stoned people off the road if you can simply arrest anyone with pot, instead of hoping stoned drivers exhibit enough obvious clues.
From personal experience, I can not drive high.
I was freaking my friend out so much we had to stop and wait a few hours at a buddies house while we came down. That was a bad situation.
Posts
I'd barely consider myself a smoker, but I do love love love taking my liquor bottles and making them into sweet ass bongs though.
You can not smoke at night and still be high the next day.
Torso Boy: Nice piece. Definitely look into something zig-zaggy, there's something about that shape that does wonders for the smoke. But if I still smoked, I'd look into something like this (glass-on-glass) or this Voodoo Vaporizer.
Probably the vape, for health and economic reasons. They use so much less product, and are much better for your lungs.
edit: Cocks, what do you use to drill the glass? I always wanted to do that, but it seemed like it would be a (dangerous?) hassle
It's all in the bottle choice. You just need a nail and a hammer, or whatever heavy and pointy objects you desire. I've seen the most wasted people do it with a nail and another bottle. You just need to find the proper point on the bottle so the stress is dispersed correctly.
On my current favorite we used a SOCO bottle (handle) the bottom of the bottle has a lip that you can use. That one actually cracked a bit but we got a nice rubber O ring from Home Depo and some sweet gorilla glue and it's my current favorite piece. The best bottles have little indentations or tabs pointed out, it's hard to explain but I'll try to get some pictures and maybe make a little guide. It really is the best way to smoke and can be so easy to make. I was worried at first to.
Also to those of you that make these DON'T use tin foil for the bowl or whatever you wanna call it. Use a slide from a bong or make one by melting a socket wrench head into the cap and toss a screen in it, the results are amazing.
Like here at 1:10?
Seems like a good way to recycle and make a few bucks. Got pics?
Save up $200 for a nice vaporizer like the one I linked earlier. It's really an investment. A small bowl will get you way more ripped than any other method, so it eventually pays for itself. Some people prefer the act and sensation of smoking, but pfft, you're smarter than that.
edit: If you really prefer smoking and have given vaping a fair try (the cheap deals that work like a soldering iron in a fishbowl do not count) then chillums are great. Compact, and hit more directly than spoons. And there's always room in the world for more bongs and bubblers...
For the record, I'm not endorsing that site. Their prices kind of suck. Local headshop for the win.
Steamroller.
I bought a neat clear one and a banana yellow one, same price.
He took the clear one.
But girls like my yellow one better, it's funny.
Yeah it did.
We need more crazy people here proclaiming that weed is the devil.
Turning all our children into hooligans and whores!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
we also seem to all hate "hippies" or "pot-heads" so there isn't even that argument to be had.
Legalize it*!
* - And by 'it' I mean 'MDMA'
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
On making a bong: My downtown headshop is in touch with a guy who will drill and fit just about anything for $20. Your shops might not have a similar service, but they might know someone. Otherwise, a dremel with a glass cutting bit should do alright. When I have the money floating around I'm getting a slide put in my my 1.5L Grolsch beer bottle. :winky:
No-Quarter, on driving: you're absolutely right and I realize that. This summer I'm thinking we'll cut it out and not look back. The thing is, with other "smoke rides" it's not hard to feel uneasy because of the way the guy is usually driving- with me and my friend, we talk about science and politics, with the radio down low, going the speed limit (or considerably less). This doesn't eliminate the risks, but it makes it way too easy to throw caution to the wind. We've also never had a police encounter beyond pulling into, and immediately back out of, the wrong parking lot. It is a bad habit.
I think a lot of your enjoyment depends on what activity you choose to do while high. If you have nice headphones or a good stereo, one of the best things, in my opinion, is to put on some music that you're sort of familiar with but not sick of. You will notice amazing new things.
I also really enjoy watching silly Coen brothers movies (O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona) while high. Animated movies and shows are also great—I can't recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender + weed enough.
In my experience, videogames while high are a mixed bag. Games where the fun comes from skillful manipulation or puzzle solving are problematic. Also, your hands will occasionally need to be free to eat ice cream or potato chips. But games where you can just run around and soak in the atmosphere/experience, like Shadow of the Colossus, are great. Guitar Hero is also a lot of fun, if you don't try to play competitively and instead use the game as a way to experience the music.
I would not recommend going out in public, or even socializing beyond your very close friends—and even then, keep it to a minimum, because if they are not also high you will probably be quite annoying to them.
Carl Sagan wrote a pretty well-thought-out essay (under the pseudonym Mr. X) about why marijuana is awesome.
This is a common misconception even among users of the drug, so I'll just say this now:
There is no evidence that smoking weed causes cancer.
Does weed contain carcinogens? Yes, it does. It is reasonable to assume then that smoking the stuff will cause cancer. But when studies are actually done, the findings show that people who smoke are not more likely to get cancer than other people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html
http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20060523/pot-smoking-not-linked-to-lung-cancer
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1106/a09.html?275821
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l221477720240752/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_and_the_effects_of_cannabis
Why this is nobody really knows, but it seems something in marijuana is able to counteract any cancerous effects:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
The good thing about pot is it doesn't agitate or increase my uric acid, which has given me trouble in the past (and also distinguished me as the youngest person to have a gout attack ever). So I enjoy it, and I for that reason consider it safer than alcohol. Since I smoke up so rarely, my tolerance is unbelievably low. Three or four hits will get me ripped for the next four to five hours. I didn't notice at first, because I would smoke up late at night and then go to sleep, but one time I smoked up in the early afternoon. When I went to the diner (not driving, of course), six hours later, I still felt high.
To me pot produces a general feeling of mellowness and well being, as well as extreme impairment of short term memory and sense of time. I will lose track of conversations as they are happening midway through, and then "snap to" reality only to find I forgot what we were talking about. I can't really play videogames as well.
Sometimes I get annoyed at my own inability to concentrate, and I then become paranoid that I'm acting too high. That paranoia usually leads to a more general paranoia that I will be discovered or arrested or whatever. It used to be bad at first, but I can usually head that off at the pass and divert it now, because I know it's just the pot.
Basically, it's fun and it should be legal. Alcohol is definitely more of a social drug, though. I never get the "life is fucking grand and we're all one big happy family" and the lowering of inhibitions that I do with alcohol. So pot is more introspective as a drug.
On these points it does the opposite for me. I get into "the zone" as it were easier with games I'm familiar with if I play them high, Soul Calibur 3 and GT4 for example I do better in if I smoke. Actually the first time I played Gran Turismo 3 high I was way out of practice having not played for months, and I knocked 30 seconds off my best lap on my favorite track the first time around.
And I find it much easier to stay interested in writing a paper or something if I'm really high. If I'm not, the act of actually writing out the paper is just so boring unless I'm really, really, really into the material.
At first I was against legalization, because I didnt want other people to make the same mistakes I had. But now after having quit drinking and smoking cigarettes, I realize that they really are no different than smoking or partaking in cannabis.
One think I would like to see is a much reduced potency if it were to become legal (or have the store bought stuff be the potency of beer compared to the current street pots potency of moonshine), and the higher the potency the more expensive and restrictive it becomes (leaving home growers able to spend the effort to obtain their preferred potency without hassle).
I also believe weed would stop being a gateway drug if we werent pushing pot smokers into the arms of the pushers of the harder drugs in order to obtain their weed.
MWO: Adamski
I know this because my stoned friends and I watched the whole thing after we accidentally downloaded it. I pretty much fell asleep.
I only get that way after aboot 2 bowls. Luckyyy.
Also, Volcano vaporizer owner checking in. I highly recommend this device. It is like the Mercedes Benz of cannabis intake devices.
Basically you put the weed in this metal cylinder with a metal screen on the bottom, put the cylinder on top of the Volcano, attach this plastic bag thing to the top of the cylinder, and turn on the air. The Volcano blows hot air through the weed, releasing the THC particles as a white steamlike vapour into the bag. The bag can be as big as you want. One time I used one that was like 12 feet long. Anyways once the bag is full you remove it from the cylinder, attach the mouthpiece, and steadily draw the vapour into your lungs. It doesn't hurt and it fucks you up.
The German ones cost like 600 dollars but there are cheaper alternatives such as the Happy Vappy for $200, which I really want
Of course, just because you can drive high doesn't mean you should drive high, and the fact that it affects everyone differently doesn't mean the government isn't justified in having a blanket law prohibiting driving while high for everyone.
There are plenty of people who are absolutely sure they can drive well drunk, and will continue to believe this until they get in an auto accident.
Yes, sugar and caffiene do affect your nervous system as well, but those effects pale in comparison to the amount which smoking marijuana, or drinking alcohol can impair your reaction time. It creates a big enough risk that requiring people to be sober to drive is not unreasonable by any stretch.
This does lead to regulatory problems. Police can give drivers breathalyzer tests to detect if they've been drinking alcohol, but I'm not aware of any test for THC in the blood that an officer could administer as easily. This could be an argument for continued criminalization of marijuana, because it's much easier to keep stoned people off the road if you can simply arrest anyone with pot, instead of hoping stoned drivers exhibit enough obvious clues.
I was freaking my friend out so much we had to stop and wait a few hours at a buddies house while we came down. That was a bad situation.