NEWS: A month on dope terrifies journalist

A BBC journalist says she began losing her mind while smoking cannabis for a month as part of a television experiment. Mother-of-three Nicky Taylor, 43, suffered paranoia, fear and anxiety after smoking marijuana every day as part of a documentary into the long-term effects of the drug.

And when she allowed herself to be injected with pure THC — the active ingredient in cannabis — she had a psychotic episode the equivalent of a schizophrenic attack.

"I felt absolutely terrified," Taylor said.

"Paranoia set in, and I felt as if I was having a panic attack.

"At one point, I was simply too frightened to get out of my chair … I had a feeling the drug had unlocked some sort of paranoia in my head that would never go away again."

Taylor filmed her experiment for the BBC documentary "Should I Smoke Dope?", which airs tonight in Britain. She admits to experimenting with cannabis while at university 20 years ago, but says today's hydroponically-grown "skunk" is far stronger and more dangerous. But it was the THC injection that Taylor says "totally wrecked my mind".

"I was thinking about jumping out of a window," she said.

A psychological score rated her psychosis as greater than that found in some people suffering a schizophrenic attack. Taylor has experimented on herself before. In the past, she has filmed herself receiving plastic surgery, binge drinking and not bathing or showering for six weeks.

Taylor has reportedly suffered no permanent damage.

From: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=417970

See also: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=369665

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Wow... uhh maybe the show should have been called "Should I inject pure THC directly into my bloodstream?"

Doooofus said:

"I was thinking about jumping out of a window," she said.

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Quite disappointing that she didn't.

If this was supposed to be some clever way of showing that marijuana is dangerous and shouldn't be legalised, then maybe she should inject nicotine from legal, taxable cigarettes and see where that gets her.

Amen to that.

WTF. Who the hell said, ok, lets inject our reported wit thc, and spin it to make it go against smoking weed.

Notice it says she smoked it every day. But the report only showed problems once she injected it. She was probably havin to much fun and making weed look to good

I wonder how you go about injecting yourself with THC? sounds like a pretty stupid idea to me when a little puff of the stuff is all thats really needed.

Jeez. Bugger that for a joke. Never liked smoking it myself, not my sorta drug, but christ: INJECTING THC? :S

Not a particularly convincing article. Part of the problem seems that she mightn't have actually wanted to be using cannabis that often, resulting in a bad mind set ... something which, obviously, would affect the experience. I can't help but feel the side effects have been over-exaggerated in a sensationalist attempt to attract a wider audience.

"At one point, I was simply too frightened to get out of my chair … I had a feeling the drug had unlocked some sort of paranoia in my head that would never go away again."

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This kind of reaction is fairly common amongst those with little tolerance using high strength cannabis. Sounds more like she just freaked out a little. Hardly "the equivalent of a schizophrenic attack."

I can't help but feel this kind of "experiment" is wasted on someone like her who, given the things she has done in the past on film ("receiving plastic surgery, binge drinking and not bathing or showering for six week") seems only interested in presenting a "shock, horror" kind of story. This is only further reinforced by ignorant comments such as the following

today's hydroponically-grown "skunk" is far stronger and more dangerous.

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Don't even get me started on that one.

It would have been nice to have a counter-balance to the experiment, for example an additional participant that was already a daily user of cannabis - someone who actually wanted to use the stuff without greening out all the time.

Personally speaking, I've experienced none of the "terrifying" symptoms she did, and I've been using "skunk" daily for about 5 years now (using up to an ounce a fortnight). Not that my experience will necessarily correlate with everyone else's. But then I know the answer to the question "Should I Smoke Dope?". Yes, but not so often.

Shit, I wish pot still did that for me ... but as any ol' smoker will tell you, the effects felt early on are completely different to those experienced by long term smokers. However, is this really that different to many pharmaceuticals? Adverse reations as they're called, are often said to dissapear after the first few days/ weeks/ months of use.

"I was thinking about jumping out of a window," she said.

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Perhaps she was only on the ground floor, but simply needs a bit of fun in her life

This is ridiculous. How is injecting yourself with thc a realistic depiction of risks faced by regular smokers of the drug? I can most definately say every drug I have injected has had significantly different effects than when consumed through other means.
Another story on cannabis constructed of mostly hype-bullshit, it seems.
Sure, some people can't enjoy cannabis. Don't take it. Just like some people don't enjoy drinking. THC certainly doesn't APPEAR to have any long-term affects more damaging than alcohol or tobacco.

This is a fucking joke.

Absolute fuckin shit, if your not a regular smoker then binging for a month could have some serious side effects...

everyone know's weed can fuck u up, teach the kids to be responsible instead of preaching this propaganda bullshit.

what a pussy

Full article is here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...74&ct=5&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox

Yet there is now considerable medical evidence that cannabis causes psychosis. It has also been linked to schizophrenia, and is believed to be behind a string of violent murders.

What. The. Fuck.

Immortal Teknique said:

Quite disappointing that she didn't.

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QFT.

"Hey, I know...lets take this woman who never smokes weed and inject her with a pure form of it.....Genius!"

Modern-day journalism in all of it's investigative glory.

Doooofus said:

A BBC journalist says she began losing her mind while smoking cannabis for a month as part of a television experiment. Mother-of-three Nicky Taylor, 43, suffered paranoia, fear and anxiety after smoking marijuana every day as part of a documentary into the long-term effects of the drug.

And when she allowed herself to be injected with pure THC — the active ingredient in cannabis — she had a psychotic episode the equivalent of a schizophrenic attack.

Taylor has experimented on herself before. In the past, she has filmed herself receiving plastic surgery, binge drinking and not bathing or showering for six weeks.

Click to expand...

She sounds like a real dickhead!
So irresponsible, mother-of-3???? So what would happen if she actually DID jump out the window in a psychotic episode, and died, or became a paralysed vegetable??
Yeah, good one lady 8)

I downloaded this from a torrent site , it's actually fairly decent and for the most part an unbiased documentary. The articles presented about it only show the negatives, but there are a number of interesting points raised which they neglected to mention.

To begin with, in the article she is quoted as saying she is terrified and too frightened to get out of her chair. However, in the documentary this only happened once, on her first use of the drug. It made it quite clear that the reason it happened was from consuming too much. The owner of the coffee shop had told her to take 3-4 tokes from a joint and then wait and see what happened. She took a couple tokes, but said she felt nothing, and went on to immediately have another 20 or so puffs, finishing off the entire joint. After about 10 minutes she had the same affects that are pretty typical of someone "greening out".

What the article didn't mention is that she found all subsequent times smoking weed/hash highly enjoyable. There are many moments that show her smoking, then a few minutes later grinning intensely and trying to hold back laughter.

Some notable points raised included a test to see what was more dangerous - getting behind the wheel of a car after smoking half a gram through a pipe, or after a bottle of wine. While both seemed to strongly affect her, the test indicated that, while driving under the influence of cannabis was about twice as dangerous as sober, the alcohol made the risks six times higher.

They also discussed the laws regarding cannabis in a reasonable amount of detail. For example how it isn't legal in Amsterdam, but they "tolerate" it and don't enforce punishments for those using in cafes or at home. They brought up the fact that less people (percentage wise) smoke cannabis in Amsterdam than in many places where it is entirely illegal. The distinction between "hard" and "soft" drugs was also discussed, with the claim that hard drug use was less because soft drug users didn't have access to them from their source (i.e. coffee shops). They also made mention of how the black market has no regulations, increasing the dangers compared to a regulated market where quality is assured.

Regarding the injection - this was actually part of an experiment in which participants were administered two IV injections over the course of two days. One injection would be pure THC (10mg, comparable to one hit of reasonable weed), the other a mix of THC and cannabanoid. The participant weren't informed which one they will receive.

On the first injection she gets the THC and cannabanoid. About 10 minutes after receiving it, it's quite clear that she is thoroughly enjoying herself. She can't stop smiling. The doctor performing the test asks her inquisitively "how does it feel? It looks mighty enjoyable", to which she laughs and replies "My god its fun! It's amazing".

The injection that was solely THC was another story. She said she wasn't enjoying it at all, and looked very anxious and a little scared. It was on that which she supposedly had the "psychotic episode", while on the mix of the two she was essentially fine. It was quite a change from previous days injection. This seems important in regards to certain strains of cannabis being bred to have very high levels of THC (and little cannabanoid), compared to other strains which have lower THC levels but more cannabanoid.

It's a shame the way these news articles tried to portray this documentary. There are things which I think could have been better, but then maybe I'd simply have prefered it to be pro cannabis. Still, it was quite interesting nontheless and good to see a number of myths debunked surrounding weed.

I think I would have the same reaction to this doco as I had to Supersize Me. The human body can adapt to a stunning regimen of punishment if you give it long enough. A month is simply insufficient to physically and mentally adapt to a new addiction. Keep it up long enough and it will become normal.

BT

peaked said:

The injection that was solely THC was another story. She said she wasn't enjoying it at all, and looked very anxious and a little scared. It was on that which she supposedly had the "psychotic episode", while on the mix of the two she was essentially fine. It was quite a change from previous days injection. This seems important in regards to certain strains of cannabis being bred to have very high levels of THC (and little cannabanoid), compared to other strains which have lower THC levels but more cannabanoid.

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That is really interesting! I can count on 2 hands that amount of times i've smoked weed in the last 5-6 years, but used to be a regular smoker before that. My weed smoking experiences have been hugely different in that time - sometimes i'll have a good time, but others will lead me to feeling very anxious, paranoid and on one occasion led to a full-blown panic attack. I wonder if it was, in part, due to the type of weed i smoked? I find that i'm far more reactive to indica strains, and that sativa strains are less intense. Food for thought... *strokes chin* As for injecting it - Sweet mercy! Ingesting it orally (pot-cookies, etc), is intense enough for me - too long-lasting, but injecting it? I'd say it would have a similar effect to other IV drugs... hugely intense but not as long-lasting?? No thanks.

It's a shame the way these news articles tried to portray this documentary. There are things which I think could have been better, but then maybe I'd simply have preferred it to be pro cannabis. Still, it was quite interesting nonetheless and good to see a number of myths debunked surrounding weed.

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Also a shame at the amount of people here that automatically jumped on the "FIGHT THE POWER" bandwagon, as is so common, without actually watching the documentary - i'll reserve my judgment and will pack away my torch and pitchfork until i've actually watched the doco.

I liked watching this show last night. The lady reminded me of my sister, especially when the lady freaked out . For anyone who is wanting to download the show it's called "should.i.smoke.dope"

I've only been stoned once, I didn't like it and I did it by myself. I'm kind of scared of it.

But if I was in a shop with experts that could give me high that has a less of a risk of freaking myself out, then I'd try it one more time. When I tried it, I hated the dopey look I had on my face. I looked so old!

Oooh.. reminds me I downloaded this last wk and never got around to watching it haha. Might spark up a doobie and chuck it on