Giving up the weed

Gurgle

ianmc38 wrote:

Thats ridiculous. I dont smoke cigarettes. When i smoke hash/weed, I smoke it with tobacco, not because I want the nicotine, but because i enjoy being able to smoke a joint for ten minutes. With a pipe its one quick blast and Bobs ur uncle.

You'd be suprised how many people give up smoking hash and take up smoking 'the odd cigarette'.

rubadub

Zulu wrote:

Not this chestnut again! :rolleyes: Your point ended up compairing eating a steak to herione if I remember correctly...

both substances release feel good chemicals to the brain, so people like to go back for more. doesnt mean steak is inherently addictive, heroin is though. I made the point about many activities or substances (like eating steak) that also release a complex soup of feel-good chemicals in the brain yet are not considered inherently addictive substances, just like cannabis. I never said steak and heroin were equivalent addiciton wise, if you actually read what I said you would know this.


The "old chestnut" in this case is the trotted out line "cannabis is addictive". When there has never been a medical study done that proved this.

Zulu wrote:

MENTAL ADDICTION, Rubadub is a very real thing.

When did I say it wasn't a real thing? I listed several things you could be "mentally addicted" to. None would be listed in medical texts/journals as being addictive, just like THC isnt.

Every substance on the planet could be described as addictive in this case, so there is no point in even using the term, it loses the whole negative vibe people are trying portray. What is the point in even mentioning something is addictive if you are using that definition,
"ohhh that drug is terrible, it exists in the universe"
"eh, yeah everything does, whats your point?".

rubadub

ianmc38 wrote:

Thats ridiculous.

Ridiculous to think people may be addicted to nictoine and so mix cannabis with it? I think it would be ridiculous to think this does not happen.

ianmc38 wrote:

I smoke it with tobacco, not because I want the nicotine, but because i enjoy being able to smoke a joint for ten minutes.

Every try mixing it with other cheaper nonaddictive herbs?

ianmc38 wrote:

With a pipe its one quick blast and Bobs ur uncle.

Yes, thats the entire point. Much better for you healthwise, and far cheaper.

Zulu

rubadub wrote:

both substances release feel good chemicals to the brain...

Done to death on the link I provided, please don't make me repeat myself.

When did I say it wasn't a real thing? I listed several things you could be "mentally addicted" to. ...

You created a strawman by listing stake. In effect you disregarded the argument. ...and you're attempting to do this again:

Every substance on the planet could be described as addictive in this case, so there is no point in even using the term,

Do you want me to post the dictionary meaning of addiction again?

rubadub

Zulu wrote:

Do you want me to post the dictionary meaning of addiction again?

The definition you gave means every single substance and activity known is potentially addictive, so what is the point in calling anything addictive? It is not like you are "bad mouthing" something by calling it addictive using your definition. Nothing is nonaddictive.

It is as though you are trying to differentiate one drug from another by saying it is addictive, but that is pointless since they are all addicitive by the definition you choose. No drug has ever been proven to be non-addictive, nor will they ever be.

Even if every study showed cannabis to be addictive, so what? is that such a terrible thing. Most people enjoy INHERENTLY addictive substances every single day of their lives.

Zulu

rubadub wrote:

The definition you gave means every single substance and activity known is potentially addictive,...

Mods can we merge the two threads? I really dont wish to re-iterate everything again.

Wolf

Well I think first off quitting is almost certainly a good idea. I myself quite recently have giving up smoking the weed and soon I hope to give up the cigs as well. In case its any help I'll relate my story to you now.

I have smoked cigs pretty much since the age of 16 (im 26 now) never really a heavy smoker, but, that has been differnent with differnet stages of my life. I had tried various drugs with differnet results, but, I always considered weed as one of the less serious ones. I should also point out at this stage while I was between that ages of 17 to 22 I became a cronic binge drinker as well. This might not seem related, but, that will become more clear, I hope, further on and also the fact that I seem to become dependant quite easliy on things. When I gave up the drink it was because I had got to a stage where I realised that I wasn't drinking for enjoyment it was more of a mental support. I now still drink, but, I enjoy a drink now I don't need one.

I was 23 when I first started smoking heavily and it was when I went to Oz. I stayed in perth and from the first night I landed I smoked weed everyday. The person I stayed with the first few nights gave me a money bag of green. When I say every day I mean I would get up, make coffee, and have a bong and usually have at least 7/10 before noon. Maybe even 20 or 30 a day. This went on for the whole time I was in Oz. I would go to work stoned I would come home and smoke more and in general my life was fine. Indeed, even up to the last day before I got on the plane I was stoned out of my mind bording the plane. There were many things I would talk about doing, but, would end up just smoking and hanging out instead. All this suited me fine and although now I realise that while it didn't effect me adversly as such there were many missed oppertunities and situations that could have been better if I hadn't smoked all the time. When I got home it was for a month, I stayed at my mums house and I didn't smoke the weed at all and felt fine about it. Then I went to college in Middlesbrough and this is where it kinda goes a bit wrong.

To me Middlesbrough is probably the worst place I have ever seen/been in my entire life and I have been lucky enough, in my young life, to see alot of the world. I started smoking again heavily. Again, I would smoke weed almost every waking moment ie first thing I did when I woke and the last thing before sleep. Indeed, when I stayed there during the summer I had a job in Blockbuster Video and I manged to get through 3/4 heavily loaded joints in a 4 hour shift, more if a longer shift and I would smoke before and after work. This all went on for about a year and a half. The crunch came when I lost the most important thing in the world to me.

I had started seeing a wonderfully beautiful girl while I was living there quite early on. This was what I would call my first real girlfriend. I have know many women in my time, but, look at it this way if I was to say I had slept with 30 differnt women, then I could also say I've have sex about 40/50 times. This girl was tremendously loving and caring girl and she meant/means the world to me. The point is that she ended up breaking it off with me. The reason been that I became very detatched and I should point out that had it not been for her love for me she wouldn't have tried so hard, for so long.

Now I not blaming the weed for this. The reasons for this, were more that I didn't like Middlesbrough, the poeple, the pubs, the Uni, the wether, the architecture every simgle last element of it, but, I stayed because I loved her. However, while I would say I don't blame the weed the weed has a big part to play. I hated the place so much I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to see people I didn't want to do anything ie I became very detached. The weed however made me staying in very easy to do and not only that it also meant that although my world around me was falling to pieces I couldn't see it. I didn't feel depressed because, I was stoned all the time. I found when I quit that all those emontions I should have been feeling and dealing with hadn't gone away they had all just been pushed back waiting to pour out when they weren't been squashed by the hugh amount of THC in my brain.

What I'm really getting at is that the weed made it impossible for me to actually realise or deal with any of the porblems, emotions or situations that where engulfing my life at the time. This is why I mentioned the drink earlier. I had got to a stage where I needed the weed. Yeah, sure I still enjoyed it, but, the thought of been without at least a few joints would made me very uneasy. Just like the drink I was using it to cover for something else, a way of dealing or more to the point not dealing with my problems.

I look back now and realise that if I hadn't been smoking I would of tried to make the best out of the bad place that was Middlesbrough, but, by the time I stopped smoking I had already lost this wonderfully kind, decent, honestly, loving caring person. I know that she still loves me and tried to deal with my apparent apethy for a long time.

Im now back home and working hard to put myself back in to college so that I can reapat my second year in a different Uni and get my life back on track really. I know that I will again smoke weed, but, for me, from now on it will be a weekend or at a party thing, with company. If you are using any subtance to do something that others can do to relax with out using a substance then you have to ask yourself is that really right?

Its taken me to lose something I care/cared for more than anything else to realise what an impact the drug was having on my life and I will never forgive myself for that. At least you have realised early on that you need to stop. So to finish I appluad you and best of luck

Also, I know its a long one and maybe I should make this a thread onto itself or put it into the blog I never started, but, it seems relavent enough here so...

PS South Park for me made an excellent commnet about weed. "It makes it ok to feel bored." For me this is most acuracte description of effect of the drug I have ever heard ie pills make you happy, coke makes you confident, weed makes it ok to feel bored.

rubadub

Zulu wrote:

Mods can we merge the two threads? I really dont wish to re-iterate everything again.

Dont think there is any need to. The OP has kicked a habit they had, congrats to them if they really felt they had to. Somebody else questioned as to whether it was addictive or not, I just pointed out it has never been recognised as addicitve in any medical studies. By many peoples definition of addiciton every substance could be, so it is a moot point to describe things as addictive.

The OP could have been talking about muffins. I know people that eat them every day and would probably loosely say they are addicted to them.

heres a bit about chocolate some may find interesting.

Why we have a high old time on chocolate
April 5, 2006 - timesonline.co.uk

People have always enjoyed the effect of cocoa. As the Easter egg season approaches, we explain why

Bacchus, the god of wine, is often linked with regeneration. Nothing looks as dead as a vine in winter, but come the spring few other plants look so bright and vernal. It is an annual example that out of death comes life. Whereas the followers of Bacchus had vines and wine as examples of everlasting life and annual renewal, we now have to make do with chocolate Easter eggs.

Every year spring is heralded by the appearance of Easter eggs at sweet shops, supermarkets, newsagents and garages.

If wine was Bacchus’s tipple of choice, the Aztecs and Mayans opted for cocoa. Scientists have been examining why these races thought that chocolate improved intellect without causing overstimulation, other than sexual desire. It was the Viagra of the day, but unlike Viagra it improved libido as well as performance. Scientists have found several chemicals in cocoa that might account for the effects that appealed to the Aztecs.

Chocolate contains traces of various drugs that have an effect on the brain. It has stimulants such as theobromine, caffeine, tyramine and phenylethylamine; this last constituent is thought to be the aphrodisiac. There are traces of anandamide which acts like a cannabinoid and, like cannabis, produces a feeling of wellbeing — but it would require 25lb boxes of chocolates to give the same lift as a joint, by which time nausea and aversion will have displaced the feel-good factor.

Cocoa beans also contain flavonoids and polyphenols, the organic compounds found in a host of fruits including bananas, dates, cranberries, strawberries, as well as red wine, tea and coffee. These reduce the harmful effects of the non-cocoa fat in chocolate.

Perhaps the most interesting experiment has been not in the chemistry laboratory but in the scanning department using functional MRIs and positive emission tomography scans to study the brain after taking chocolate.

Neuroscientists have shown that eating chocolate increases blood flow to the same areas of the brain that are activated by addictive drugs, including cocaine. The research published in the journal Brain two or three years ago found that this effect occurred only with moderate amounts of chocolate; too much and another part of the brain lights up, and the desire for chocolate is replaced by aversion and nausea. This research by neuroscientists at the Northwestern University and at McGill University, Montreal, helps to explain why people become chocoholics but not addicted to it.

Two rules of chocolate nibbling. Stick to the dark, black chocolate with at least 70 per cent cocoa bean — chocolates with a low cocoa bean content aren’t such a good antidote to the fat in a bar — and balance the calories by excluding another calorie-rich food

LegacyUser

Just want to say that timing is important for giving up. Choose a time when theres less stress and youre feeling strong minded. Ive given up a few times and it can be hell. But if you keep a heaelthy positive state of mind youll feel brilliant fairly quickly. Watch out for subbing a spliff for a cig as thats how i got hooked and is the biggest negative from my yesars of smoking...Good luck!!!

Dreamer 7

Hey All
Thanks for all your advice, support and true life stories. It has made me realise alot of things, my joint smoking was not chronic, but could have become like that v easily. Unfortunatley with 2 kids and full time work there is never really a good time to give up coz im never stress free:p
I wont say ive abstained altogether but 3 joints a week compared to 3 a day is progress in my mind:D

Thanks again for helping me think things through, hope I can return the favour one day soon:)