• HEALTH & RECOVERY
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules Thread Directory 1 Thread Directory 2
    Mindfulness Links Addiction & Mind
    Sober Living Partner Program (SLiPP)
  • H&R Moderators: VerbalTruist

Health Benefits of Recreational Drugs

Jimmy the Gun

Jimmy the Gun

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 2, 2001
Messages
1,950
Location
the salty lake
What are the health benefits of various recreational drugs.


here's mine: Studies show that THC inhibits the growth of tumors in rats. It is postulated that this also happens in humans.
 
While THC may have many health benefits, it has many negative effects. Smoking cannabis is harsh on the lungs, well, you know the drill.....
I think that many recreational drugs have good aspects to them, and pot has many. But, you must remember that moderation is the key to enjoying these benefits! Cheers
 
What kind of tumors is it supposed to inhibit? I would imagine it would cause tumors in the lungs. NOt a very good trade off. :( Perhaps eating the pot would give these effects and not smoking it? How did these rats injest the thc? Injection? In their food? Or were they put in a box with the smoke? I think the injestion method would make the biggest difference.

I personally dont think there ARE a lot of health benefits to using drugs. The biggest I can think of would be an occasional release of stress...although that can get you into a bad pattern of depending on them.
 
What the hell?

Cannabis has never caused lung cancer. The tar from cannabis smoke is a larger particle than tar from cigarettes. Because of this, the tar stays mainly on the outer tissue of the lungs. After chronic use the outer tissue is eventually browned, but this eventually clears up and has not been linked to any health complications; other than coughing, which is the process the lungs undergo to clean themselves.

Cannabis allows me to live a very relaxed life and see things from another perspective, without which I wouldn't be able to cope as well with daily life. My stomach lining is damaged from the unfortunately legal drugs caffeine and aspirin, taken in very excessive amounts daily for quite a while, while this illegal plant saves me from daily bouts of nausea.

Mushrooms have opened my eyes up to Reality 2, where all of society's conditioning is stripped away and you can see things from an nonbiased view, the way you really feel about it - without the unconscious system every thought is run through.

Ego-driven drugs are fun, especially the downers, but provide no real benefits other than relaxation and exposure to more of the spectrum of feelings your brain can produce.
 
joeriot said:
What the hell?

Cannabis has never caused lung cancer.
Click to expand...

Really?

Study finds smoking marijuana and cocaine can cause cancer

WASHINGTON (CNN)-- In the first study of its kind, researchers found that smokers of marijuana and crack cocaine show the same kinds of precancerous conditions caused by smoking tobacco. ( full article here )



Marijuana cigarettes have more tar than regular cigarettes. Many of the cancer-causing substances in tobacco are also found in marijuana. Marijuana is also inhaled very deeply and the smoke is held in the lungs for a long time.

Medical reports suggest that marijuana could cause cancers of the mouth and throat. But because marijuana is an illegal substance it is not easy to gather information about its effects on the body. ( source )



From erowid:
CLAIM #4:
MARIJUANA CAUSES LUNG DISEASE

It is frequently claimed that marijuana smoke contains such high concentrations of irritants that marijuana users' risk of developing lung disease is equal to or greater than that of tobacco users.

THE FACTS

Except for their psychoactive ingredients, marijuana and tobacco smoke are nearly identical. 21 Because most marijuana smokers inhale more deeply and hold the smoke in their lungs, more dangerous material may be consumed per cigarette. However, it is the total volume of irritant inhalation - not the amount in each cigarette - that matters.
( source )



A Reuters news story quoted Dr. Nuttall as saying, "Smoking cannabis on a regular basis actually depletes your lung of protective antioxidant substances...and this may have chronic long-term implications for young individuals." Those antioxidants protect cells against damage that can lead to cancer. The study found that marijuana users showed more signs of damage than those who smoked only cigarettes. ( rest of story )


Shall I continue? :\
 
^Ohhhh! OWN3D! LOL

Seriously though..I suppose there could be some benefits emotionally say, for someone who has had a lot of trouble opening up all their lives, to roll with some good friends and have a good "opening up". Sharing in emotion reduces stress, so that would be one possible health benefit of doing drugs, namely E.
 
That CNN article is very general and vague; it doesn't cite any specific scientific reports - also, I'm speaking of marijuana only, not tobacco and crack.

"The nature of the marijuana-induced changes were also different, occurring primarily in the lung's large airways - not the small peripheral airways affected by tobacco smoke. Since it is small-airway inflammation that causes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, marijuana smokers may not develop these diseases"(Erowid)

"In an epidemiological survey, approximately 1200 subjects gave information on smoking and pulmonary function at two-year intervals. A large percentage of the subjects underwent pulmonary function testing. Although a small group who reported previous marijuana smoking had significant pulmonary abnormalities, current marijuana smokers had no significant reduction in any pulmonary functions."(Erowid)

"In 1986, however, the Food and Drug Administration had approved a drug in pill form which contains THC, a component found in marijuana, for treatment of that nausea. The marijuana lobby wasn't happy with that, or any other effective anti-nausea drugs. It became apparent that they liked marijuana for the high it gave them, not because of any perceived medical value. "

^^ The third article, which is hosted on AIM's website, is ridiculously biased, and even try to claim that medical marijuana is not beneficial, when I think most everyone with an open mind will agree that it is more helpful in preventing nausea and other medical problems than Marinol. Cannabis is a cocktail of various cannabinoids, with different benefits from synthetic THC.

EDIT: I'm not saying it's impossible, but there have been no documented cases of marijuana-only smokers contracted lung caner, and I have yet to see a study showing an actual link between marijuana and lung disease, other than "suggesting" that there might be one because of the tar content.
 
Well..even with lung cancer aside..marijuana definately harms the lung tissue. Sure, it cleans out of the lungs if you stop smoking, but so does cigarette smoke. It all depends on how often/how much you smoke how dangerous it is.
 
There are vaporisers, and one can put ice cubes in his bong (won't help that much but will help some), and almost no one smokes the same amount of joints (or bowls) as the average cigarette smoker. if THC can inhibit tumors, and you already have a tumor, it's well worth the minimal risk of lung disease
 
but this eventually clears up and has not been linked to any health complications; other than coughing, which is the process the lungs undergo to clean themselves.
Click to expand...
Hmmmmm, actually it is also linked to chronic bronchitis, and frequent chest colds. Marijuana smoke also contains Benzyprene, which is a human carcinogen. Don't mean to sound like an anti-drug commerical, but you do smoke marijuana unfiltered and hold it in for a long time, so I would say it's pretty damaging to the lungs. Then of course there are some mental effects, but that is a whole different topic.

I believe the study was done by INJECTING the rats with THC, so you really can't say if smoking or ingesting has any effect....
 
Uhmmm well my friend was telling me about how he overdosed on a heroin+alcohol combination and his heart rate and breathing were slowing down too much, so he took a hit of meth, and it got his heart going again. Basically meth saved his life. LoL.
 
True, the fully controlled scientific studies were done by injection on rats, but as far as circumstantial evidence from humans that smoke cannabis daily, there doesn't seem to be any or many significant health problems. I smoke .3-.4 daily out of a bowl of pretty high-grade cannabis, and I am rarely sick, and almost never sick enough to need to go to a doctor (2-3 times a year, 4 tops); whereas before I started smoking cannabis I made fairly regular trips to the doctor.

Also, to the above story - hahahahah. That story is hilarious (other than the possible death).
 
I have also heard that marijuana tar particles are bigger than cigarette ones...meaning the marijuana particles don't embed them selves into the lungs as much as tobacco tar. I personally think this is true because after a heavy day of smoking bud I'll occasionally cough gray ash back up and have muccus (sp?) filled coughing in general. When I used to smoke lots of cigs, I would just get a dry hacking cough with no phlem production.

Some more anecdotal evidence is the number of athelets who regularly smoke weed. Every single water polo player at my old school smoked weed hardcore and that is one of the most lung intensive sports around. Hell, a lot of athelets claim that smoking weed is good for their lungs, me included!
Some possible reasons might be the fact that you are expanding your lungs very fully and therefor exercising them. Another reason might be the opening of capillaries when certain cannibinoids are consumed.

About all of the articles that BA posted, I think joeriot had legitimate concerns.

The first article is a correlation and makes no reference to group sizes, how they selected participants, or if all three substances were individually assosiated with pre-cancerous tissue changes.

The second article assumes that marijuana and tobacco have the same type of tar (same size molecules or whatever) and vaguely sites obvious correlations as "causes".

The erowid article doesn't mention tar size or how many cigs versus joints are ususally smoked in a day.

The fourth article is just total trash. "The new study took blood samples, measured lung function and tested non-smokers and smokers for antioxidant markers. " This is a CORRELATION. It DOES NOT show a cause and effect relationship. I would continue to rip the article apart piece by piece, but I think its mention of, "the fraud of medical marijuna", its placement next to an advertisement for, "Confronting Iraq", and its existence on the AIM web site (a neo-con, right wing organization) says enough.

BA, do you have any other sources?
 
I think that drugs can make your brain have more neuro-transmitters and neurons. Here is why.

You take a drug and it releases extra neuro-transmitters. The neuron receptor sites respond by up-regulating (you grow more receptor sites.) When you withdraw from the drug, your neuro-transmitters will respond to the increase in receptor sites by up-regulating. The end result is more transmitters, more reception sites, and a denser brain.

Keep in mind that this is not extensively researched and may be completely flawed...
 
>>Keep in mind that this is not extensively researched and may be completely flawed...>>

Sorry, but it is. :)

Upon chronic administration of the drug, receptors will typically down-regulate. Barring organic damage, receptors will up-regulate to near their original levels after cesation from the drug. The result is, well, not very much. :)

ebola
 
^ What about getting over things such as depression, social anxiety, mental disorder / tendencies? Isn't that something?

I'd say that's a health benefit.
 
Jimmy the Gun said:
I think that drugs can make your brain have more neuro-transmitters and neurons. Here is why.

You take a drug and it releases extra neuro-transmitters. The neuron receptor sites respond by up-regulating (you grow more receptor sites.) When you withdraw from the drug, your neuro-transmitters will respond to the increase in receptor sites by up-regulating. The end result is more transmitters, more reception sites, and a denser brain.

Keep in mind that this is not extensively researched and may be completely flawed...
Click to expand...

Higher release of neurotransmitters causes downregulation of receptors, not upregulation.
There's the flaw :)

If you're out to grow more neurons, then you need NGF and BDNF and stuff like that, though to be honest I'm not even sure if you can grow new brain cells in all areas. In the hippocampus, certainly, but I'm not sure where else (if any where else) that you can...
 
VelocideX said:
Higher release of neurotransmitters causes downregulation of receptors, not upregulation.
There's the flaw :)
Click to expand...

true. And downregulation of the receptors can be temporary or permanently(abuse) leading to physical and mental problems in the long run.

However, there is a difference between the responsible recreational drug use by adults and drug abuse. Recreational drugs can "open" your psyche and help you see/understand yourself, others, the world, and a whole aspect of perceived information and opinions that was previously closed by your mind( close-minded ignorance).

Drugs are not just for "fun" as we can see from MDMA trials right now helping psych patients deal with mental trauma. There are plenty of recreational drugs that have helped alot of people for the better. On the other hand, drugs are a double edge sword and we have also seen it destroy many lives due to abuse.

Personally, the only recreational drug that has "helped" me to be a better and open minded person is MDMA IMHO. All the other drugs legal or not have been just for fun or detrimental to my physical and/or mental health(rarely though for me).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top