Medical Pot.

[feeder]

Whit, so sorry to hear of your son. We adopted my youngest son who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Both his bio-mother and father drank and did cocaine. They were not married as mom had 5 kids by 5 different dads. When Bobby was 13 months he was beaten by both. It was shaken baby with traumatic brain injury. Both bio mom and dad went to prison. Bobby was a foster child and after that incident our family agreed to adopt him. We knew he would have to be institutionalized or passed from foster home to foster home and eventually end up in prison. After his adoption we never did foster care as the saying goes, if you can only save one. He has been a gift to us all. My health started to decline with all his doctor visits over the years. Guess I didn't know stress when it was right on top of me. Thought I could handle it all. Traveled to all the conventions, gave talks at local schools on the effects on alcohol and the unborn but in the end my health paid a toll. Seems my passion to help educate other parents raise kids w/fas who did not know of FAS before they adopted kids form the foster care system, Russia, ect. got the best of me. Still I would do it all again. His life taught me and those around us the meaning of human dignity, legit suffering, and living out one's dying at such a young age.

When I was 16 I was put into jail for being incorrigible. Kept running away form home. Best thing that ever happened to me. Met my DH at age 13 and I was 14. Couldn't keep us apart, but they tried. So glad they did. Being in jail broke me. This is where I found that their is a God, something greater than one self. Anyhoo, Many good people find themselves in jail, prison,and if they have changed they will live it out and we will all bare witness to their change.

 

[Barb1]

I don't find it strange...I have never had the desire to try it either. Never did. I won't say never will as one thing I've learned that is guaranteed to bite you in the ASS is to say never or always. So I never say never and I never say always.

I don't even drink...I'm allergic to it, as in literally. My face turns beet red, feels hot as hell, and swells. My last drink of any kind was back in Dec 1999. I decided the resulting reaction was no longer worth it for me. I do miss having the occasional glass of wine or mixed drink...my favorite was Kahlua and Creme.

The only reason I don't think I would try it now is I am afraid it would make me want a regular cigarette which I still think about once in a while. I too won't say I wouldn't especially if it where for medical reasons. I don't get a buzz even from alcohol I go to sleep.

 

[Sheanie]

In my personal experience working with offenders, it's absolutely a gateway drug. Most of the ones I came into contact with definitely had learning disabilities, couldn't read or write, never graduated. They self-medicate with whatever they can get. The MMC (Medical Marijuana Card) for these people is awful. It has it's place, but those I saw who truly needed MM didn't smoke it, they ate it to keep a better therapeutic blood level. Smoking it exacerbates COPD, asthma, and also puts it into the surrounding air for other people to second-hand inhale. Today's pot has a very high potency, it's nothing like the stuff of the 70's and 80's for sure. I've learned things about pot I never wanted to know working with offenders.

 

[Sandy]

I couldn't smoke anything now...I have COPD. But I'd certainly accept a gluten-free brownie.

That's not out of the realm of possibilities.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

That's not out of the realm of possibilities.

Options are always good!

 

[RockDoc]

I suppose ANYthing can be a gateway, if one is constitutionally on the road to some sort of dependence. Most of us here had an unhealthy relationship to food, and alcohol and cigarettes, known killers, are perfectly legal. My experience with the weed is that maybe it's not something to be encouraged, but it's sure less awful than some of the alternatives, and the people I know who use it are pretty responsible and rational. As for me, if I get started on Trader Joe's chocolate-covered raspberry sticks, life goes to hell, I get nothing done, and I'm irresponsible and downright sick. I would think weed would be better for me than that. Just sayin' ......

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I suppose ANYthing can be a gateway, if one is constitutionally on the road to some sort of dependence. Most of us here had an unhealthy relationship to food, and alcohol and cigarettes, known killers, are perfectly legal. My experience with the weed is that maybe it's not something to be encouraged, but it's sure less awful than some of the alternatives, and the people I know who use it are pretty responsible and rational. As for me, if I get started on Trader Joe's chocolate-covered raspberry sticks, life goes to hell, I get nothing done, and I'm irresponsible and downright sick. I would think weed would be better for me than that. Just sayin' ......

See? That's pretty much my take on it. I think that if I have, say, anxiety issues...whatever I take first will--if it doesn't cure the problem or if the supply dries up-- will be my "gateway" drug to something else.

I have experienced both prescription-provided Valium and marijuana...and it wasn't the pot that caused me problems. I SUPPOSE someone could say that the one joint I tried back when I was 20 is what led to my Valium dependence/addiction (I'm not sure of the proper term today.) But I'm pretty sure that curiosity (some caused by the then-newly-released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album?) was behind my short-lived career in pot and relief from anxiety (and having a mom who was on Miltown in the 1950s, Librium in the 1960s and Valium in the 1970s ) is what sent me to my doctor, whose job it was, you see, to make me feel good, and he did. For a while.

I may be out in left field...but I don't think people who are not having some kind of issues go looking for relief. And I also think that wherever they start...especially if it doesn't "fix" the problem...becomes the gateway.

 

[DianaCox]

My major issue with legalized pot is keeping it out of the hands of kids younger than 21. I believe it impairs development of mature, goal-driven enthusiasm, planning and decision-making. It kills motivation to succeed before it can develop. Not in everyone, but too often. After age 21, your on you're own, as far as I'm concerned.

[Don't you hate when you see your typos AFTER someone quotes you??]

 

[RockDoc]

My major issue with legalized pot is keeping it out of the hands of kids younger than 21. I believe it impairs development of mature, goal-driven enthusiasm, planning and decision-making. It kills motivation to succeed before it can develop. Not in everyone, but too often. After age 21, your on your own, as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately, so does alcohol, and that's legal. What annoys me about the legal structure is the inconsistency, based more on Puritanical old-school economic considerations than on rational thought. Keeping it out of young hands will only be another aspect of regulation, rather than criminalization of users.

 

[DianaCox]

I was talking to my son about pot vape pens, and told him that IF I wanted to use, I'd want to have the option to smoke the stuff I had as a kid - much less potent and "titratable" - I don't like being really stoned, just the buzzed equivalent of one drink. He told me that that is available, and also that you can select the kind of high you want - the kind that perks you up ("head high") vs. stuff that relaxes you and makes you sleepy. Maybe when I retire ...

 

[southernlady]

[Don't you hate when you see your typos AFTER someone quotes you??]

YES, but I can fix mine,

 

[Charris]

Will you find this strange? I have never tried it or have any desire to. I don't drink but once in a blue moon.

Me either @Barb1

 

[JackieOnLine]

I don't find that strange at all - but when people don't drink coffee? I can't understand that at all.

best drug EVAH. :sm_shades:

guess what I'm doing ?

 

[Parousia]

If it was legal and available in a regulated form that would 1) not damage my lungs and 2) give a reliable dose that would not cause addiction, then I would use it for pain relief. Or try it, at any rate. Apparently it is very effective for Fibromyalgia, and I doubt that it would be worse for me than the opiates I have to take now (which are not very effective in any case). I have no particular desire to use it for recreational purposes. Quite the opposite, in fact. I really don't like the idea of not being in full control of my senses. Same reason getting drunk has never appealed to me, I guess.

 

[Parousia]

I don't find that strange at all - but when people don't drink coffee? I can't understand that at all.

best drug EVAH. :sm_shades:

guess what I'm doing ?

I'm just waiting/hoping for the day that coffee tastes good again. It hasn't been the same since my surgery, and I did enjoy a good cuppa first thing in the morning!