Has smoking dope taken away your ability to rationally solve simple problems?

I put into google 'Vintage marijuana' and got several fairly humourous images of 'vintage anti-marijuana posters'.


It may seem like this is the poster you really need;

http://salvos.org.au/need-help/drugs-and-alcohol/documents/Dangers_of_Drugs_Aug03MARIJUANA.pdf

As a medical professional I have met many people, typically of, say Jagger and McCartney's age and younger, who wander around all day in an institution with the tips of their index finger and thumb continually touching.

It is likely that all those who will click on the down thumb/red thumb tab for this post will not get to the 5th page - where you can read about apathy.

The down thumb/red thumb is easier to click on rather than having emailing your concerns about censorship to the un-named moderators of this site, isn't it? Now you know a definition of apathy.

BennyB12 said...

Seems like it all got moderated after mark had his meltdown...

Seems like it all got moderated after you posted about illegal stuff on a watersports forum.
Just for the record I didn't report your post/s or anything.

Wollemi has just given you the best poster, I hope it helps you.

Open forum, issues for mods/owner and just like google, others have automated robots that crawl the web looking for stiff like that.
Big can o worms that Laurie probably does not want opened.
Better to do that stuff more discreetly guys.

Dawn Patrol said...

Mark _australia said...

BennyB12 said...

Seems like it all got moderated after mark had his meltdown...

Seems like it all got moderated after you posted about illegal stuff on a watersports forum.
Just for the record I didn't report your post/s or anything.

Wollemi has just given you the best poster, I hope it helps you.

I'm with you Mark.

I don't care what people want to do, but talk about it somewhere that isn't a family based watersport forum. Doesn't have any place here really.

I googled "family watersport" and was horrified.

Wollemi said...

Has smoking dope taken away your ability to rationally solve simple problems?

I put into google 'Vintage marijuana' and got several fairly humourous images of 'vintage anti-marijuana posters'.


It may seem like this is the poster you really need;

http://salvos.org.au/need-help/drugs-and-alcohol/documents/Dangers_of_Drugs_Aug03MARIJUANA.pdf

As a medical professional I have met many people, typically of, say Jagger and McCartney's age and younger, who wander around all day in an institution with the tips of their index finger and thumb continually touching.

It is likely that all those who will click on the down thumb/red thumb tab for this post will not get to the 5th page - where you can read about apathy.

The down thumb/red thumb is easier to click on rather than having emailing your concerns about censorship to the un-named moderators of this site, isn't it? Now you know a definition of apathy.

my best mate growng up (who intorduced me to pot) had a psychotic episode when he was in his late teens. He is now on a disability pension for mental illness, and I have visited him in the high security mental illness ward more times than I care to remember. I went on to smoke a lot of pot in a short period of time untill it got to a stage when it used to just make me paranoid. I often wonder if it has had any lasting effects. My greatest fear is that one day I may end up like my previous best mate. (He has now had mental illness longer than he did not have it and is simply not the same person) A terrible condition from which there is no cure and the medical profession are only guessing. It may have happened anyway, or maybe he was susceptable to mental illness and it would never have come to the surface untill he started messing with his brain chemistry with THC.
My point and the medical professions point is its a big fkn risk, cos once you 'break on through to the other side' there's no coming back

Haircut said...

evlPanda said...

I googled "family watersport" and was horrified.

it takes 6 thumbs up to give a family watersport, and I like it

kiteboy dave said...

Fact is that if you're "on the edge" so to speak then even one joint can definitely send you off into a psychotic episode. But the 99.9% of the gen pop who aren't primed to meltdown can smoke moderate amounts of pot till the cows come home without any adverse mental issues. It doesn't create something from nothing, it amplifies your pre-existing mental state.

Having said that, smoking large amounts of strong weed will make anyone paranoid, but it's generally only while under the influence. However those smoking large amounts generally spend most of their time stoned, therefore trying not to be paranoid most of the time.

Mark, many would argue that weed is borderline legal and getting more legal by the day. It's decriminalised in SA and ACT - not illegal there. Have been calls by many, including top cops, to stop wasting police resources on it. If you look at cold hard stats, it's incredibly widely used yet kills less people per year than accidently swallowed pen lids. Actually kills zero people per year. Impossible to overdose. Makes you friendly, docile and calm, opposite of alcohol - much more positive impact on society than alcohol which kills many thousands per year.

I'm not a huge advocate, havent touched the stuff in a very long time, but I'm just sayin Mark you could come off as a bit of an old goose getting on your high horse about it with all the Hurr Durr drugs are bad mkay.

dope - penlids
sharks - car accidents

Kiteboydave I am guessing you didn't read the link that Wollemi posted did you? The rate of schizophrenia is way higher in dope smokers than general population.
Not being an old goose or high-horse - I just believe the scientific fact more than I believe stoners saying "I'm OK man".

And "decriminalised" does not mean it is "not illegal"
It simply means for smaller amounts you can get an infringement and / or a counselling session, not a criminal conviction.

Mark _australia said...

I like it

you're norty

Chris6791 said...
^^^ = ill-informed.

That's an opinion. You're entitled.

Chris6791 said...
What are the stats? apparently one in five will suffer some sort of mental illness in their lifetime, most likely depression. There is a big difference between 20% and 0.1%.

20%, if correct, not equals psychotic episode, equals all mental illness great and small. Depression not equals psychotic episode which I was referring to. I was talking the danger of a sudden dramatic psychotic episode brought on by 'just trying it once' which is used by some groups to talk up the dangers of 'just one puff' etc.

Chris6791 said...
You don't need to be under the influence of dope to be suffereing from it's paranoid effects.

True. But if you're at that level, you're smoking waaaay too much. Try drinking 5-10 bottles of rum every week, your mental and physical health will suffer too.

Chris6791 said...
Decriminalising isn't about taking it one step close to being legal, it's about putting systems in place to educate smokers in its ill-effects.

Say what now? That's done regardless. Here in QLD for example, 1st time offenders court etc. It's about not wasting ridiculous amounts of taxpayer dollars prosecuting the most minor victimless crime. You think cops, lawyers, judges enjoy prosecuting some nobody with a few flakes of weed in a pocket? Waste of everyones time and they hate it as much as anyone.

Chris6791 said...
Impossible to overdose, maybe, but it's not hard to fall into a depressive cycle and think that stringing yourself up on the back patio is a good idea.Or have a drug-induced psychosis where either self-harm or irrational violence are all but assured.

You're obviously talking from experience here, and it sounds like a horrible situation which I don't want to intrude on. It sounds a bit personal and close to home.

Chris6791 said...
Usually the ones that advocate legalising cannabis are the ones that either smoke it or live in a bubble and are oblivious to what happens outside their front door every day.

I'm gonna throw "Ill-informed" back at you on that one. I could google up plenty of Cops, law reform thinkers, politicians, leaders from all walks of life who advocate legalising cannabis, or at least finding ways to minimise the useless, pointless, doomed to fail "war on drugs".

I suppose I'm partly fired up to write this because of a 'random injustice fact' that came up on my twitter today.

The US chooses to imprison a higher percentage of it's population that South Africa under Aparthied or Russia under Communism.

The vast majority of them are in prison thanks to the 3 strikes rule and weed. Casualties of the war on drugs. It seems to me that there's something fundamentally wrong with that.

Mark said...
I am guessing you didn't read the link that Wollemi posted did you? The rate of schizophrenia is way higher in dope smokers than general population.

No I didn't. But I have read up pretty heavily on the topic in the past. I would be interested to see how that translates backwards - ie does the schizophrenia induce risk taking behaviours, of which smoking weed is a fairly obvious choice?

And don't worry, old goose is a term of endearment around here.

Mark _australia said...

Haircut said...

evlPanda said...

I googled "family watersport" and was horrified.

it takes 6 thumbs up to give a family watersport, and I like it

I think I know what you mean.

I work in the maritime industry and once I googled "Tug jobs"

What came up had nothing to do with boats.

If you had land: it used to be illegal NOT to grow hemp

The problem is, you're not even given the chance or option of personal choice...

I was the One who posted the Vintage Marijuana Poster on the now deleted site.
Before anyone takes offence I will state my position on weed. I have not smoked it since a couple of experimentations in my teens (almost 40 years ago). I loathe it, my daughter married a 'dopehead', that is a bloke who had been a frequent user for many years. for 12 years She and sometimes my wife and I would make excuses for his anti social apathetic behaviour, he could not socialise without the dope, if they attende a function his attention span was measured in minutes, then the excuses for his early departure would come out. Their house was constantly in a state of semi darkness as the curtains were kept closed 24/7, any car driving up their street was treated with suspicion. He worked as a 'roof plumber' yet would smoke before, during and after work, my daughter was concerned for his safety and the safety of those around him. He worked stoned, He drove stoned He lived stoned. He was constantly affected by dope to some level. His wife, my daughter gave him an ultimatum, "The weed or his family", it was no contest, he justified his use of the weed as his only release (from what I don't know), it was his recreation, he didn't drink, he wasn't hurting anyone, the fact that he is a paranoid, apathetic, anti social, unreliable, insensitive, boring individual never entered the equation, nor did the fact that he was spending $600.00 from the household budget per fortnight and was conducting some minor dealing in something illegal never crossed his mind.
I am now employed in a job where it is my responsibility to test employees for illicit substances. We test for Benzo's, Opiates, Amphetamines, THC (cannabis), Meth and Cocaine. We have recently been approved to test for Steroids and Synthetic Cannabinoids (your "herbal marijuana", (kronic etc)).
It is surprising that when you get a positive result (a very small percentage of those tested < 5%) how many users blame everybody and everything except themselves.
I have these posters (and others) laminated and on the walls in my test room and they are regularly commented on and appreciated by all.
So at the risk of repeating myself.
"Drugs are Bad".

Interesting reading on the subject, published today.

Australia21, of which I am one of the directors, released its second report on drug prohibition on this morning. The report calls for a redefinition of how we deal with drugs to primarily a health and social problem.

Our first drug report, released in April, concluded that the war-on-drugs approach had failed comprehensively. It provoked a vigorous media response in which few commentators challenged the notion that heavy reliance on drug law enforcement had failed.

We invited prominent Australians who support a hardline approach to attend a meeting but all those approached declined. When someone of the stature of Mick Palmer, former commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, acknowledges that despite improvements in drug law enforcement, there has been little impact on the drug market, the debate has entered a new stage.

This second report builds on the conclusions of the first one, attempting to provoke a national discussion about what our best options might be. There are several reasons why this discussion is now different from previous debates about drug policy.

theconversation.com/drug-prohibition-moving-to-plan-b-9328