Cant link studies on my phone.

I have 1000 pages of studies about marijuana. I'll post a lot tomorrow when i get back from work.

@ voyaging, you have some good points but we can discuss that later i dont wanna do it on my phone

Of course marijuana has risks, only fools believe that marijuana is 100% harmless.

But i recall reading a study saying the damage done on memory is not permanent (if you stop smoking), gonna try to find it.

I used marijuana for 3 years and I am currently on a break. Marijuana can be addictive but personally i found it wasn't hard at all to stop.

I have used marijuana chronically and long-term as well so I'm not speaking from a box of ignorance. I just think the potential harms to mental health need to be taken seriously.

Yeah but IMO it depends on the person. I do not have any side effects but my friend has a shittier memory (but i think he always had, just made it worse).

Of course heavy use is not good... That's why I'm taking a break and when i come back i'll only vape on the weekend.

Moderation is the key.

Yeah I was never a heavy user but Ive done it a few times. I had a really bad experience with it twice where it gave me extreme anxiety and sorta lasted a few months

No offence but this is just an example of the endless amounts of ignorance that exist around what is a much more complicated situation, which not enough people pay attention to. Fact is it is an incredibly varied plant which on the one hand can send someone to the emergency room due to a serious panic attack or on the other give them the most relaxing pleasant experience of their life, without even getting into genetic variations stuff like grow methods but especially harvest time make big differences.

Raw THC is basically akin to LSD, experienced smokers who think its fine to give inexperienced smokers strong cannabis which has been bred with high THC content are idiots. For the most part the strong effects of THC are countered by other cannabinoids, which it also appears is where a lot, if not most of its medical potential comes from.

People who abuse and use it heavily also has little relevance to this subject as well IMO, people immediately pointing this out as some kind of argument against just have some fear riddled idea in their heads about what the drug looks like or the culture of it looks like, which just lacks perspective and fairness in a recreational casual sense. Of course I will pull out the classic alcohol point, that an alcoholic does not represent alcohol use, without even going into how exponentially worse alcohol abuse is over cannabis.

Back to my above point though there needs to be much more research and understanding about cannabis, which is not getting done due to legal status or is just ignored because prohibitionists just do not want to hear about it. Understanding plant genetics and effects is huge for the inexperienced casual user, it is the difference between mind fuck paranoia, speedy anxiety, numbed out couchlock, clear motivating high.

Anyway the arguments for legalisations so outweigh continued prohibition it is not even funny, the cost to governments maintaining prohibition and turning citizen into criminals over it vs tax revenue alone is in itself enough; maybe then they can focus more on the hell which is meth.

There is a lot of pros and cons. And the pros and cons can be really different sometimes for different people. I've been smoking cannabis for 15 years and I wish I had an easy answer for you, but I don't. What I will tell you is that in some people, cannabis can trigger paranoia, panic attacks, or psychosis. This may not be directly caused by cannabis because the condition may be pre-existing. The psychological experience of the altered state of consciousness/thinking experienced while under the influence of cannabis is enough to push some people with certain mental disorders into the deep end. The results can have a negative impact on that persons life. I could write up a long explanation of my personal pros and cons but its personal and complicated.

If you're looking to learn more about cannabis though I'd say looking for random personal experiences is too narrow of an approach. Cannabis is complex and has many different uses and works in many different ways. If you want to know more about its uses and effects (both good and bad), these links are a better starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis
https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis.shtml


And about your annoying friends, be careful not to make the assumption that their character is determined by the cannabis they smoke. Cannabis may amplify certain aspects of their personality. It's their personality.

I've submitted to federal drug tests for security clearance as a daily user.
Frankly, if they gave a shit about marijuana, I wouldn't have advanced clearance.

Recreationally;
Pros: temporary relaxation or energy boost (pending strain variety - sativa or indica)
potential euphoria
Great pain relief
Increased concentration

Cons: slowly deteriorating memory
Ocassionally unable to function on required levels
Potential to do something really stupid

Recreationally, you shouldn't argue the pros and cons.. simply because who gives a shit? Tobacco is legal, they consider smoking an epidemic. Alcohol is one of two substances you can DIE from withdrawal symptoms, yet it is legal. It does no harm to anybody but the user, so who cares?

Medicinal purposes, there's a list to long to write down.

For chemotherapy patients, it raises your appetite
For multiple sclerosis patients, the CBD stops spasms
For IBS, it allows for muscle relaxation

Just a few.

Industrial purposes, lets just say that one of the largest supporters for banning pot was a lumber tycoon. There are so many applications

Oh and I haven't smoked pot in 7 years. I see its medicinal side every day with my pop having MS

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Nov 7 2014 05:50am

Lol im 28 working for a billion dollar company making 50k a year

Lots of good info here

Brain

Absence of cerebral atrophy in chronic cannabis users
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/576460

Computed tomographic examination of heavy marijuana smokers
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/576461

Neurological and neuroradiological examination of chronic cannabis smokers
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6830182

Chronic exposure to delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol fails to irreversibly alter brain cannabinoid receptors
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1649662

Effects of frequent marijuana use on brain tissue volume and composition
http://www.ukcia.org/research/EffectsOfFrequentMarrijuanaUseOnBrainTissueVolumeAndComposition.php

Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists Protect Cultured Rat Hippocampal Neurons from Excitotoxicity
http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/54/3/459.full

Lungs

Marijuana Less Harmful to Lungs than Cigarettes
http://www.ukcia.org/research/lungs.php

So, you thought it was the tar that caused cancer...
http://www.ukcia.org/research/cancer2.php

Why Doesn't Smoking Marijuana Cause Cancer?
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/408/14275.html


Gateway theory

The Myth of Marijuana's Gateway Effect
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/mjgate.htm

Marijuana And The Gateway Theory
http://www.ukcia.org/research/gateway.php

Does cannabis lead to taking other drugs?
http://www.ukcia.org/research/gateway2.php


IQ/Memory

Marihuana and Memory: Acquisition or Retrieval?
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/173/4001/1038.abstract?maxtoshow=&hits=80&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=marihuana&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

THREE THINGS MARIJUANA DOESN'T DO
http://www.ukcia.org/research/mjfaq2.php

Cannabis use and cognitive decline in persons under 65 years of age
http://www.ukcia.org/research/CannabisUseAndCognitiveDecline.php

Physical assessment of 30 chronic cannabis users and 30 matched controls.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1071376

Cognition and Long-Term Use of Ganja
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/cognition.htm

This post was edited by Loops on Nov 7 2014 08:16am