C@nn@bis

[Skreecheeboy]

We were always taught in school that it was a slippery slope towards robbing old ladies to feed your heroin habit. So now that David Cameron has been outed as an alleged h@sh-he@d, what are your thoughts on the old c@nn@bis issue? source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6350909.stm

[Skreecheeboy]

Which minority Caz? The minority that have tried it or the minority that have gone down the slipppery slope?

[banjosister]

Hey Skreecheeboy,

Unfortunately the powers that be seem to be able to tell untruths about all sorts of things. I think the reason that people do not believe what they are told about harder drugs is that they try canabis and then realise that the majority of what they have been told in school or wherever is not actually true. Then they think maybe it's not true about the harder stuff either.

Some people can smoke canabis for years without any ill effects hold down jobs, bring up families etc. Others will get on the slippery slope to other drugs.

It is not true that canabis will lead you to harder drugs. I think a lot depends on your personality.

Similar to the fact that smoking does not necessarily lead to cancer, some people will get it, some people will smoke 40 fags a day for 60 years and live to be 90.

Dunno just one of those things!

[Rune]

Marijuana is a HERB. A wee plant. It has healing properties. It is seriously misunderstood in the UK society... by anti-drugs campaigners and users. Heroin users blame it as a first point of contact and this gives cannabis a bad name by far. I would bet on it (and I am not a gambler) that alcohol was the first point of contact,. Alcohol should be banned big style. The stupidest things I have done (and there were a lot) have been when under the influence of alcohol . I have also been (big style again) under the influence of cannabis and stress the fact that this made me more introverted rather than extroverted. It is indeed a big debate. ..

[Goodsoulette]

Have always and will continue to smoke pot. I function as a normal human being, I have some odd ideas in certain issues but I would never lie about this. Everyone I know, knows that I smoke pot and no one has ever suggested that I am a screw up at such and such because i do. There has always been a line in my head and I have never taken heroin and never will.

[Rune]

Can I just add..... smoking cannabis made me addicted to tobacco. As a pot smoker and not a fag smoker I decided to stop smoking and found out that I was actually addicted to tobacco and not marijuana. . .Well known fact (with stats to prove it): Tobacco kills more people than heroin!!!!

[Ctrak]

Key is in the word alledged...

Also, (may be wrong) but wasn't the idea behind cannabis potentially being reclassified because of increasing evidence of the long-term effects e.g. psychosis?

[Goodsoulette]

because sometimes people have cr@ppy days, sometimes the ex infection wont leave you alone and otherwise you cant relax cause you spend till 4am looking out your window wondering if he was going to break in. When someone has a glass of wine to wind down its not a problem, absolutely no difference. I dont know anyone who has broken bones stageering around stoned, yet most of my friends have done drunk.

[Panic Button]

The media are trying to make something out of nothing.

If it is true it shows he is human and made a mistake in his teens. Which of us didn't.

He who is without sin may cast the first stone.

[Goodsoulette]

I just think its no big deal, people who destroy their lives through using drugs excessively would find other ways to do it if they didn't have them available. My teenage school friend and I both smoked pot together, both took acid together, both took pills together, and at the age of 16 both did coke together for the first time. Yet when she chose to move to heroin I didn't. I knew it was addictive and destructive and stepped back and did my best to convince her not to go down that road. Now 12 yrs on she still considers herself an addict despite having been clean for about 18 months .

I feel for your situation Caz and admire that you have personal strength that gets you through your hard times, I however choose to amoke or drink to wind down else I would probably still be that teenager that cuts herself in her bedroom,

[Rune]

Cocaine is a nasty mother. Not trying to condone the use of cannabis but it is very mild. Yes, psychosis is connected, but hey psychosis is connected to everything.

The hemp plant can help save the planet!!

[Goodsoulette]

sounds like a campaign worth joining up to Rune, Im behind ya 100 %

[Skreecheeboy]

Yeah I'd agree with some of what Rune was saying. It led me down a path of self destruction for a bit but really I led myself. I was fairly young when I started drinking and smoking and pot was only about 6 months later. I manage to get into work although I do sleep in a bit too often and I've had disceplinary action about it., and that was the reason I left school at the age of 16, but I have restudied since. I also have a very busy life outside work with voluntary persuits and stuff but I rarely smoke cann@bis these days and I've not taken the hard stuff for 2 years 7 months and 14 days! Never felt like I was addicted to that at the time and on reflection I still don't think I was; I was really more fascinated with the name which sounded very heroic, and the reason I stopped taking it was because it was destroying my body without me realising and a close friend died on account of it.. My life has really been turned around since I did stop. <rolls further spliff and carries on to answer more questions:->

[noxlumos]

Ex junkie, ex alcoholic here. You are all right, pot is both harmless and fatal depending upon your situation, your savvy and your inclinations. I was addicted to everything, took more **** than I can even remember, but now I can have a social drink, or smoke the very occasional spliff and I'm fine and feel no need to get out of control, because I changed my mindset, simple as that. There's no right and wrong answer to this, it just depends on who you are at the time.

[Rune]

Yes indeed Noxlumos. So true what you saying. It does depend on the person, the circumstances and the head. You lucky ex-addict that can still indulge from time to time!

[beryllium]

I was discussing my drug regime with my neuro on Wednesday. Sativex is the cannabis based drug for me and you still get partially stoned lol.... he was laughing because they haven't managed to stop the stoned effect and is fine with me eating it in chocolate. I seem to prefer the natural plant to the drug interfered one.
Cannabis has been used for years in certain muscle relaxing drugs and I am fed up with reading the nonsense spouted by a bored media trying to get to the anti pot smoking brigade.
I would like to see cafes and control over cannabis instead of a market currently being flooded with cannabis mixed with glass as is the problem at the moment.

[beryllium]

Alert - contamination of herbal or �skunk-type� cannabis with glass beads

1. The Department of Health has recently received information suggesting that batches of herbal and �skunk-type� cannabis have been contaminated with microscopic glass-like beads (or possibly ground glass). Laboratory testing has since confirmed a number of cases from a number of different parts of the country, in which cannabis appears to contain microscopic particles of glass. We have no information on other types of cannabis such as resin.

2. Reports, unconfirmed, suggest that smoking this contaminated cannabis, has been linked with complaints by users of sore mouth, mouth ulcers, chesty persistent coughs, and a tight chest lasting a few days after use.

3. Government advice already makes clear that cannabis is a substance harmful to health. The risk of glass contamination adds an additional layer of risk of harm. Whilst the exact potential health harm from this contamination is not yet fully determined, inhaling hot glass into the mouth, throat, or into the lungs should clearly be avoided.

4. In the current circumstances, the Department of Health advises that smokers of herbal and 'skunk-type' cannabis, in particular, should exercise caution.

5. For any patients presenting with concerns about their health after having smoked cannabis which may have been contaminated, or who may benefit from opportunistic health advice due to an identified high risk of cannabis use, the following advice may be useful:

cont:

[beryllium]

a) Whilst there are no reported serious health effects to date from this contamination, we are not yet able to determine fully what are the possible or likely risks to the health of cannabis smokers.

b) There are anecdotal reports of some cases of the development of sore mouth, mouth ulcers, chesty persistent coughs and a tight chest lasting a few days, after smoking cannabis.

c) To avoid the risk of contaminated cannabis completely, patients should be advised to stop smoking cannabis.


d) If patients feel unable to stop, they should limit use as much as possible.

e) If patients continue to use, they should be warned, if any particular supply of cannabis that they have access to appears to have caused irritation to their mouth or airways, or if they suspect it is contaminated (e.g. due to grittiness when rubbed between moistened fingers), they should stop using that supply, or trading it, immediately; and they should not use any more cannabis from the same source.

f) Patients can be advised that self-help assistance with quitting cannabis can be located at the following website: www.talktofrank.com

cont: