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A bit of tarnish on marijuana's benign reputation

slimvictor

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As California considers legalizing pot, there has been little discussion about the potential fallout on people's health. But it can be addictive, attested by one woman's $5,000-a-year habit.

By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
October 9, 2010|7:35 p.m.


In 1969, Carol McDonald was 28, married and the mother of two young children, out for an evening of fun with a couple who smoked marijuana. By the end of the evening she was on her way to a 19-year addiction.

"Within a few months, I was smoking every day," said McDonald, a retired bookkeeper, now 69. "I had to smoke before going to work. If something was upsetting, I smoked over it. If there was a celebration, I smoked over it."

continued here:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-sci-marijuana-20101010,0,3819276.story
 
More quotes from the article:


Because the science of marijuana's health effects is in many cases unclear, experts on each side of the legalization debate can point to scientific studies that support their own position.

...

A series of studies conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published in 1998 found that the effects of marijuana alone on driving were small or moderate, but severe when combined with alcohol.

But other studies show little impairment from a moderate dose: A 2004 study in the journal Accident, Analysis and Prevention found no increased risk of motor vehicle accidents causing traumatic injury among drivers using marijuana.

"Even after smoking, there aren't any real deficits in driving ability that we can detect in the laboratory," said Mitch Earleywine, an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany who serves as an advisory board member at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

...


"The bottom line is that marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes," Gutwillig added. "It's far less addictive than either of them. People tend to use marijuana in smaller amounts. It does not have alcohol's noxious association with violence and reckless behavior. And you can't overdose."


...


(more about the woman described at the beginning of the article)

McDonald, who lives in Baldwin Hills, certainly didn't think marijuana was addictive. It had seemed so harmless. Inhaling from bamboo bongs made popular by returning Vietnam War vets, she began to feel some relief from the depression that had plagued her since youth.

But, with a $5,000-a-year habit and chronic bronchitis, she tried repeatedly to quit. About a dozen times over the years she checked in alone to a hotel in Desert Hot Springs to white-knuckle herself through nausea, sweats and tremors.

Short periods of abstinence were followed by relapses. She could barely get through her workdays, and her husband grew increasingly exasperated by her behavior.

At 42, after several months of abstinence, her depression without the drug was so great that she attempted to kill herself by taking "every pill in the house." She resumed smoking. Five years after the suicide attempt, she checked into a hospital rehab program.

"I finally decided I had to have help to quit," she said. "I smoked my last joint in the car on the way to St. John's Hospital with my head under the dashboard."
 
I am thinking that an oz (28 grams, around $400) a month would total around $5000 a year.

That means she smoked a quarter oz (7 grams) a week, or a gram a day.

I am sure that some people do smoke that much, but damn! That is a lot of weed. If I smoke a gram a week, I can get very high as often as I want to. I purposely keep my tolerance low, however, by never smoking more than about 3 hits. Obviously she didn't do that. (or maybe she is a natural heavyweight, or was getting bad weed for a high price...)
 
^I smoke 1/2-3/4 of an oz of mexican schwag per week, which is two to three grams daily. Bob Marley smoked almost a pound of weed weekly. A gram a day isn't all that much, especially if the pot isn't high quality or she smoked using methods that use lots of weed (joints, blunts). I can burn through a gram in 2-5 bubbler bowls, 1-2 joints, 1 small blunt (I usually put 2-3 grams in a blunt), or 5-10 pipe bowls. So a gram a day isn't an unrealistically huge amount.

5,000 dollars per year is 13.6 dollars daily on weed. That's a shitload of money, but some people smoke primarily joints and blunts and only smoke chronic, so I can see how someone would spend that much on weed. It's about as much money as someone would spend smoking 1.25 packs of expensive (American spirit or something) packs of cigarettes daily. I don't see how the fact that marijuana can be used heavily tarnishes its reputation. Anything can be used heavily. You could spend 5,000 dollars yearly on alcohol or tobacco or heroin or cocaine or weed. It's silly that the fact that some people smoke a lot of weed actually passes for news in the LA times.
 
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^ 13.6 dollars a day is like 3 starbucks lattes.
Interesting.

But if she was spending $400 an oz, shouldn't she have been getting good weed? In that case, going through a gram a day seems like a lot. But you are right, smoking joints or blunts does waste a lot of weed.

And your main point - just because something might be used heavily shouldn't tarnish its reputation - is right on. That is the real take-home message here, I think.
 
i have to agree with psychomimetric, when i was a daily smoker i would typically only smoke dro(good to high quality) and would go through much more than a gram more like an eighth a day. The reason being i love blunts which i consider to be typically about 1g.
on a side note last night we rolled an eighth(of some dro :)) in a dried corn husk, it smoked and tasted great anyone ever tried this?
 
I am thinking that an oz (28 grams, around $400) a month would total around $5000 a year.

That means she smoked a quarter oz (7 grams) a week, or a gram a day.

I am sure that some people do smoke that much, but damn! That is a lot of weed. If I smoke a gram a week, I can get very high as often as I want to. I purposely keep my tolerance low, however, by never smoking more than about 3 hits. Obviously she didn't do that. (or maybe she is a natural heavyweight, or was getting bad weed for a high price...)

that is exactly my habit. about .8 a day. if shes smoking joints though, thats a pussy habit- like 1 or 2 joints?. if she doing 1 hitters(giant rips) outta bongs 3-10 times a day with that gram, she'd be a much better pothead. no weed wasted. also i bet since shes old shes smoking on some bullshit.

this article seems extremely over exaggerated or its confusing depression for marijuana addiction. fuck. i never said that phrase before... sounds gross.
 
Shit when I smoked everyday I could easily kill 3.5 grams of mid grade out of a bong. Those withdrawls are exagerated there isnt any white knuckling with pot. You get kinda depressed and you wanna smoke its not like heroin or benzos. I remember just getting really pissed when I couldnt smoke and I couldnt sleep felt bad at the time but its laughable now that im an opiate addict.
 
I am thinking that an oz (28 grams, around $400) a month would total around $5000 a year.

That means she smoked a quarter oz (7 grams) a week, or a gram a day.

I am sure that some people do smoke that much, but damn! That is a lot of weed. If I smoke a gram a week, I can get very high as often as I want to. I purposely keep my tolerance low, however, by never smoking more than about 3 hits. Obviously she didn't do that. (or maybe she is a natural heavyweight, or was getting bad weed for a high price...)

that aint alot at ALL....even if it aint shitty weed but some good bud, you can easily smoke a G in a day. At least when I smoked, i did, I always smoked blunts so it was easy to go thru that....but shit, even in a pipe or a vaporizer that aint hard to do.

this article is bullshit, you hear these kind of stories all the time about the "marijuana addicts"....there is a difference betweed a rebound syndrome and addiction. For example there aint phyiscal addiction with meth, or crack...the symptoms when you stop, that u experience, are the exaggerated opposite effects of the drug...with bud its the same shit....it aint a physical addiction, there aint no withdrawal, its much different than they tryin to make it out as.
 
that aint alot at ALL....even if it aint shitty weed but some good bud, you can easily smoke a G in a day. At least when I smoked, i did, I always smoked blunts so it was easy to go thru that....but shit, even in a pipe or a vaporizer that aint hard to do.

this article is bullshit, you hear these kind of stories all the time about the "marijuana addicts"....there is a difference betweed a rebound syndrome and addiction. For example there aint phyiscal addiction with meth, or crack...the symptoms when you stop, that u experience, are the exaggerated opposite effects of the drug...with bud its the same shit....it aint a physical addiction, there aint no withdrawal, its much different than they tryin to make it out as.

The exaggerated opposite effects of the drug ARE withdrawals. Heroin withdrawal is mainly because of mu-opiate downregulation. Cocaine and meth withdrawal are mostly a result of dopamine receptor downregulation. It's the same thing.

Cannabinoid receptors are not significantly involved in our emotions like dopamine receptors so there's very little subjective withdrawal. Cannabis also doesn't significantly act on dopamine which is a requirement for something to be truly addictive.
 
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But it can be addictive, attested by one woman's $5,000-a-year habit.
This is how we're doing fucking science now? Sample sizes of one? For fuck's sake.
 
I smoked 1-3 grams a day for a few years (beasters at least if not headies). The withdrawal is laughable compared to opiates or benzos.

A story about a $5000 a year habit is bullshit too. I can't believe someone would believe that kinda shit and not draw the connection with alcohol. Like every single fucking person on earth knows someone with a worse alcohol problem.
 
When I was a little kid I used to play videogames or read a book in order to forget about my problems whenever I was sad or upset. I also played videogames when I was happy. It got to the point where I was trying to sneak in a half hour of play time before school. And when I was in school all I'd think about was the nutritional requirements of fledgling chocobos and the socio-economic implications of the t-virus :(
 
The exaggerated opposite effects of the drug ARE withdrawals. Heroin withdrawal is mainly because of mu-opiate downregulation. Cocaine and meth withdrawal are mostly a result of dopamine receptor downregulation. It's the same thing.

Cannabinoid receptors are not significantly involved in our emotions like dopamine receptors so there's very little subjective withdrawal. Cannabis also doesn't significantly act on dopamine which is a requirement for something to be truly addictive.

Not necessarily. Heroin withdrawal involves many things that aint in no way opposite effects of the drug. for example--watery eyes, sweating, etc--your eyes dont water less when you use, and you sweat plenty when you high too. Things like that. which is different than "I stopped using a drug that made me really, really happy, so i felt sad when i stopped--It must be withdrawal!" like you see with weed.

withdrawal at least the withdrawal that I am talkin about, is a physical process that comes from physical dependency on the drug--theres a difference between a dopehead withdrawing and experiencing all the symptoms that i am sure you know, and a person who was a cokehead or meth head, feeling extremely tired and hungry after they stop using, etc. you feel me? of course they gonna feel tired and hungry, they are used to bein awake for days at a time and not eating. With dope the effects aint just the simple "opposite of being high". nausea, vomiting, sweating,watery eyes, yawning and sneezing, all those things, they aint the "opposite of bein high" syndrome, they are actual withdrawal symptoms. u get where Im comin from?

they talk about cocaine withdrawal or marijuana withdrawal but those are symptoms that come up becuz of a rebound effect type of thing....you feel hungry, giggly, relaxed , etc for so long, that when you stop smoking of course you gonna feel a shitty appetite, anxiety, restlessness, a down feeling, etc. that aint the same thing as experiencing heroin, alcohol, or benzo withdrawal.

I know that we pretty much on the same page but I just hate hearin people talkin about 'withdrawal' from substances that aint physically addictive.

People act like the fact that you feel some negative effects when you stop a particular drug, means there is addition to it. thats the thinkin we seein here in this story. A woman smokes mad weed everyday for years and stops. She feels kinda shitty. It must mean that is withdrawal, and she was addicted.

It couldnt mean that she is just so used to bein high, that not being high is a negative feeling and her body is just adjustiing to it, no, it ust mean that she was addicted.

people think that withdrawal means "Any not-completely-pleasant feelings emotional or physical, that you experience when you stop a drug", and that you can tell somebody was addicted if they experience that (wrong) definition of withdrawal. when in reality withdrawal is a specific thing that aint just a blanket word for any and every kind of not-nice feeling you have when you stop using a drug.
 
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i smoke an eighth a day. for the last year. wonder what that equates to. everyday i ask myself how do i afford 50 dollars for weed every single day. but it always happens

lacey just because she's not physically withdrawaling doesn't mean she isn't friggen addicted. she said anything she does she has to smoke first. where did they blow it out of proportion and compare it to that of a heroin addiction? weed is used for medical purposes, so why shouldn't someone feel shitty without it? i know someone who smokes weed to shit.

i dont really get why the fuck the government cares if people get addicted to bud. they will make money either way. the side effects AREN'T life threatening, nor is stopping smoking it, so i don't see the real issue in even bringing up her addiction in the first place. she spends alotta money so what. legalize it and make some yourself
 
lol a gram a day? go back to middle school lady!

try 3.5-14 grams per day. Now thats a habit!

I mean seriously, gram joints lol.

This article should really be looking at medical patients and how much it costs them. Also, they should talk about the sales tax the state forces dispensaries to charge that is costing an extra 8-10% for sick, needy patients. One thing I am most for Prop 19 is that it should clearly distinguish medical and recreational sales/use. Hopefully this gets rid of sales tax and maybe helps insurance companies to pick up the tab (just like any other prescription cost)
 
i smoke an eighth a day. for the last year. wonder what that equates to. everyday i ask myself how do i afford 50 dollars for weed every single day. but it always happens

Wait, if you know you smoke 1/8 a day, why would you buy by the eighth? :? Wouldn't it make sense to buy by the qp or at least an ounce at a time? You would save thousands of dollars....
 
Wait, if you know you smoke 1/8 a day, why would you buy by the eighth? :? Wouldn't it make sense to buy by the qp or at least an ounce at a time? You would save thousands of dollars....

used to buy QPs, don't have the money. my bf sold weed so we smoked that way. now we pay out of pocket. we used to have jars fulla bud when selling now we're buying half tracks and 8s just cuz we don't have 300 to drop on an o at once. we do in other obvious ways though of course sometimes by helping other people out, then we just end up smokin for free. plus if we had a qp on hand it would be gone in two weeks i'm sure

i smoked a quarter from when i woke up to when m yboyfriend got home from school once, and this is when were just barely makin it bud wise. felt so bad. fuck weed ah
tried to smoke regs cuz cheaper but it makes me feel sick so we stopped
 
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