Posted by michael on February 22, 2002, at 9:48:09
In reply to Dangers of Marijuana (how it effects mental ill.), posted by PatJ. on January 28, 2001, at 16:21:26
Hello-
Wow - this got to be a lot longer than I had anticipated.... sorry about that. Just seemed like a lot of points to address in this discussion... and then I got to rambling... and I nearly wound up making the same argument that I had initially set out to refute... oh well... I hope it's still somewhat coherent...?
I don't intend to offend anyone, I'm not saying mj is always and entirely harmless... Too much of anything is usually a bad idea.
However, a few points to keep in mind / ponder:
re: addiction - Use does not equate to abuse. It may sound like a game of semantics, but it is a valid distinction. For example, I use Dexedrine (another drug mentioned in this thread in the same context, as dangerous), I don't abuse it. I'm fortunate that for me, addiction has not been a problem (wish I was as successful with nicotine in this respect). Everyone is different. Some people, unfortunately are more prone to addiction - be it Dexedrine, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. But just because one individual may become addicted to a particular med/drug/substance, does not mean that everyone else will.
re: the "gateway" issue - if you want to condemn something as a gateway drug, it is clear that alcohol and nicotine are the true gateway "drugs" in our society. But they don't get that label because they're "legal".
re: smoking mj and then wondering why meds aren't helping for depression -- almost certainly true for some people that it can interfere with the success of their medication. For others, it might not matter, or it may even help... I may be completely wrong here - and if so, I'm sure James will correct me - but at least in James' case, it doesn't have a detrimental effect or interfere with his meds, the meds are working. For that matter, one suspicion as to why some people smoke/seek mj is that they are self medicating - in all likelihood, some are successful in that approach and some are not.
re: smoking mj triggering depression -- I'm sorry to hear that anyone has suffered that way. At the same time, a) it would be very difficult to determine conclusively that mj was the sole trigger, and b) it is quite possible that the depression may have occurred regardless of mj use... Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to tell anyone that this is not what happened in their case - I only mean to say that in my opinion, from my observations (mostly in college) and experience, this does not seem to be a frequent/common side effect, or cause and effect relationship. (this is obviously purely my opinion - no clinical studies, etc.).
re: smoking mj causing low/no motivation -- certainly a possibility... but certainly not for everyone. I know several people who occasionally smoke and/or have smoked who are very successful people - both socially & in terms of their careers.
Each of these elements boil down to the "your mileage may vary" aspect of meds (i.e.: drugs). Just because some of us have had less than perfect experiences with a particular medication/drug does not mean that all will, nor that it has no place in the psychotropic arsenal. Not one of the "legal" ad's, benzo's, etc. that we discuss here at PB, is free from undesirable side effects/risks for some of us. Yet they are true life savers for others of us.
This is from a previous post on a similar thread http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011113/msgs/84277.html(from nov 2001):
"Personally - and this is of course purely my opinion - I think alcohol is more "dangerous" societially, than "weed" is. Alcoholism, and all of it's associated collateral damage, clearly seem far more significant than any that might result from "weed-ism" - that is if it's even addictive. (For example, people don't ingest mj and become belligerent and beat people up - be it in a bar, in the home, etc. -- getting the munchies seems much less socially harmful).
Sorry if I sound belligerent or preachy - I don't mean to... I just find the acceptability of alcohol along side the demonization of mj to be rather hypocritical... And I guess I would take the same perspective with respect to medications that are controlled/prescribed compared to mj - as mentioned earlier, both have potential to help, as well as potentially undesirable side effects... And just for the record, I don't have a problem with the legality/availability of alcohol - I do drink..."
One last comment in my little (?) rant -- As for tobacco - it's probably worse than alcohol or mj. It's ONLY function (medicinal value?) is to cause addiction and disease (that is, if you rule out making money as its function). If any of the three (alcohol, tobacco, mj) should be banned or controlled, it's got to be tobacco. Ironically, when I do take Dexedrine (to which I'm not addicted) it significantly enhances my nicotine cravings... I'd ban tobacco without hesitation if the choice were mine, despite the fact that for the moment I'm still addicted to it.
So in a way, despite the fact that I disagree, I guess that I can see where the other point of view regarding mj is coming from...? Hmmm... didn't see that one coming. (however, I still think that mj at least has an upside, or potential benefits - still can't see any positives for tobacco though)
Sorry for the length of my rant, and for drifting a bit off the orig topic... michael
poster:michael
thread:52766
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020222/msgs/95088.html