@ArguingWAristotleTiff, what are your thoughts about the MORE Act? Progress or should we go all out and demand legalization instead of decriminalization?

In fact if one considers how much progress has been made in these topics I think philosophers, even great ones, have barely managed to drop the "bro" from the question "what if nothing is real bro?"

You're probably right. Perhaps this connection between drugs and this frame of mindset is the inherent thing that needs to be explored then.

"Right now, federally, marijuana is a highly restricted Schedule 1 substance, making research on the drug hard to conduct even as its use spreads widely and law enforcement efforts become ever more difficult to justify. If the bill does becomes law—and that’s a big if—cannabis would be reclassified as unrestricted and people who’ve been charged or convicted of certain marijuana-related crimes as of the act’s passage would not face criminal penalties and could have their records expunged."

I think theres an important difference between decriminalization and legalization. Canada (my country) legalized weed, largely because the government needed the revenue such a large legal market would produce (the illegal marijuana trade was considered worth something upwards of 2billion dollars). Legalization eschews economic opportunism, while decriminalizing focuses on 1) overturning wrongful sentencing for possession 2) research; both of which in my opinion, are more important than big $$. Proud of the United States for this.

Proud of the United States for this. — Grre

Yeah, I suppose leave it to the States to further the cause if people want it legalized. Ultimately I want to drive to my local Shell station where I buy my cigs and instead substitute that with some high CBD cigarettes.

Unfortunately I can't really tolerate THC. Paranoia and all that...

Have tried CBD, will probably will return to it at sometime in the future. Funny how you can drive to your local Shell station and buy cigarettes (directly linked to death and every other bad physical health effect) or any number of over the counter medications which have unpleasant side effects or addictive potential (diphydramine, paracetamol, pseduophederine) ect. ect. or in the United States and the UK alcohol! Which is also directly linked to addiction and death ect. but still no CBD or THC which still, have not been shown to have any long term isolated health effects....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco

Super long Wikipedia page if anyone is interested for some reading...I'm in a boring public law review lecture right now; teaching us how to write a discussion question...so am enjoying the good reading material.

There are so many studies out there and conflicting interests in regards to THC effects in the brain. Now, I do think that chronic smokers of cannabis suffer from avolition and decreased productivity, in otherwise healthy adults. I also do believe that people with a genetic predisposition towards psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and psychotic disorders should not be puffing on marijuana, as there's something like a 3-fold jump in developing said disorders. Strangely enough I've also read reports about cognitive enhancing effects of small doses of THC on cognitive function in already schizophrenics.

As a matter of authority at the moment Israel is pretty much the authority on cannabis science.

What do you think?

I'm no scientist in any form. Merely someone with some time on my hands and a laptop and an enjoyment for random academic reading.

I think that cannabis can certainly affect "productivity" and generally result in some disorganization in areas of life...like any substance with temporary effects, it does effect behaviour during that time and after. But in no way is that a comparable longterm health effect. A case could be made that having a romantic partner also affects "productivity" ect.
I think that genetic predispositions to schizo diseases and their relation to psychiatric effects of marijuana is an interesting correlation. I read somewhere that while there is some evidence that marijuana can trigger these predispositions, I also read in a conflicting study that there is a cause and effect reversal, people already suffering from subconscious/underlying/untreated effects of psychiatric illnesses, schizophrenia, depression etc. are just that much more likely to use marijuana, therefore the health effects exist prior to any smoking of marijuana, and therefore marijuana can be considered only minimally impactful, if it all, and no effects diverging independently from cannabis use.

From personal experience? I have gone through periods of depression and anxiety that really have no correlation with my personal cannabis use at the time, exempting the fact that I generally use cannabis more when I am suffering from extreme anxiety or depression.
Do I notice any long term effects that I can isolate as solely from marijuana? No. Depression and anxiety has at times effected my focus, my ability to read, eat, sleep, socialize appropriately ect.

Yeah... So, much disinformation has been legitimized by funding from the government that you always have to read the conflict of interest stub at the end of each paper.

Anandamide, known in Hindu scripture or deriving from it as the molecule of bliss makes otherwise motivated and go-getters somewhat apathetic, although I think the scientific cause isn't related to the complex effects on CB1 receptors in the VTA and striatum which colocalize with the dopamine reward pathways.

My main focus in college was trying to deal with my ADHD tendencies, and it's pretty much an ideal non-tolerance forming drug for this purpose.

You might want to check out the synergistic effects of caffeine and THC, which is amazing! God I wish I was back in college and didn't self destruct by altering my neurochemistry too much...

From personal experience? I have gone through periods of depression and anxiety that really have no correlation with my personal cannabis use at the time, exempting the fact that I generally use cannabis more when I am suffering from extreme anxiety or depression. — Grre

You should really look into cannabidiol for this purpose. The research is really solid, specifically for anxiety and depression. Also, lavender extract is potent stuff. I believe diffusing it into the air is more satisfying and enhances effectiveness. Otherwise, Silexan in a German-made formulation of lavender extract that has been put through testing mostly for anxiety and depression.

Now I wallow to sleep though my body keeps on telling me that night is day and day is night. Ahh.

You might want to check out the synergistic effects of caffeine and THC, which is amazing! God I wish I was back in college and didn't self destruct by altering my neurochemistry too much...

I have the opposite of ADHD in many regards, not really having any issue focusing so much as only motivation when I go through my periods of severe depression/anxiety...I do enjoy getting high to do 'fun' research (ie. not research for a marked paper but rather for my own projects/interest). All summer I dealt with my anxiety at having to move countries and end a long term relationship quite productively, that is getting insanely high via cannabis oil (legal in my country) and surfing the web while my parents watched TV. I had never been able to sit and really watch TV before-at least enjoy it in the same way. Marijuana not helped me sleep, eat, and 'relax' (to some degree). I have ASD so...not sure about the links between cannabis use and autism, but I'd be interested in seeing some studies.

Given my limited understanding of THC and autism, I do know that CBD and autism go wonderfully well together.

The takeaway message of autism is that (again take this with a grain of salt), the brain of people with autism is overactive due to some kind of excess in glutamate activity. CBD is often used by parents to manage autistic tendencies. I can provide you with a good Google search query to expand your knowledge.

Try: (Cannabidiol and autism "ncbi")

Low power study with 18 participants:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6834767/

Marijuana can cause great psychic damage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEivOBQ6nc

Interesting, I appreciate you linking this to me. Maybe I'll run my own study once I get back to Canada-start macrodosing daily with CBD tablets vs. the daily/THC high ... I've smoked CBD weed before; mainly because it doesn't get you high means I could still drive, but I dont recall feeling much. Then again it was only once or twice. I assume its potency is more apparent over continued and regular use.

Cool. I wouldn't necessarily try and obtain CBD from smoking it, although the bioavailability of CBD is much higher that route, yet with a shorter half life.

There are plenty of CBD oils available for personal use.

Anyway, good luck!

:grin:

I smoke a lot of weed. Not your grandmas weed either. Seriously powerful weed. Sometimes all day. Have been for years. It does make me think more. Sometimes too much.

what are your thoughts about the MORE Act? Progress or should we go all out and demand legalization instead of decriminalization? — Wallows

My first point in choosing between legalization and decriminalization of Cannabis is the proof of science that Cannabis is a healthy alternative to big phama's options for pain relief. A couple of society hurdles have still to be cleared to 1) remove the stigma of fallacies of the past regarding the person consuming Cannabis 2) the medical community that graduated before the year 2000 AND has not been educated since on Cannabis have no schooling that the Endocannabinoid system exists in every living mammal and it's receptor system.

One of the main problems in regards to the scientific research Cannabis is that the Cannabis the Government was using in any quasi trials were using a Cannabis with less than 3% THC and unknown % CBD. The consumption of the government Cannabis at that % is ineffective in inducing any psychoactive effect and since the CBD % was unknown, they the government really don't know the positive or negative effects of either.

My second point follows the first in that the decriminalization of Cannabis would still restrict research on a Federal level which will keep Medical Research at any University, University based medical center and the Veterans adminstration from performing the studies needed to consider Cannabis as a viable option for patients.

My third point in regards to decriminalization of Cannabis is that it still encourages a black market for the sale of Cannabis, even if it is considered an infraction to posses Cannabis. The laws now vary widely from State to state and it is truly unfair to put the onus on the Police Officer or the patient who are citizens trying to navigate a law during a traffic stop.

My fourth point is that the decriminalization of Cannabis does not necessarily/automatically mean expongrment of citizens records who have criminal charges involving a non-violent Cannabis conviction. The citizens caught up in this final point deserve to have their personal rights restored: their ability to vote and carry a firearm.

My feelings are that decriminalization of Cannabis does not go far enough to change our laws, society stigmas and the limiting factors that Cannabis is not yet considered to have any medicinal value.

Does that mean I am demanding full legalization?
I do support full legalization with a degree of regulation, age restrictions and with the conditions to restore nonviolent convicted citizens rights.

I don't really have anything to add. Thanks.

Listened to an interesting Podcast recently where the speaker explained that Nixon's 'war' on cannabis was initiated to counter-act the flower power movement which he believed was very much inspired by the use of Cannabis. This movement was also very much opposed to the Vietnam war (burned their draft bills etc...) In essence he viewed pot smokers as very anti-authoritarian and undermining the hierarchical power structure.

Yes sounds about right. Any dictatorship that relies upon the servility, docility, and imperative obedience of its people will limit access to potentially destabilizing substances, or substances/activities that they feel misrepresent the values that underpin the said dictatorship.

Corporate Fascism demands obedient brain-washed consumer/slaves.

This is an extremely difficult point to argue, especially given that it'll vary from person to person. Been smoking for going on 5 years now (wow, that's weird to say). I have a degree, a professional office job, and a semi-professional hobby (national level bodybuilder). I smoke only top shelf buds that come directly from a licensed collective. I have no problems at all, except for occasional mental block when trying to recall a word or name, which may not even be related. I smoke and relax in the evenings after I get home from work and the gym. Biggest side effect I've noticed is my short term memory. It's horrendous. I struggle to find the right words, and I also get a wee bit confused if the subject is deep in any way. I makes me see the world like if I was a kid again. I discover tastes in food I no longer notice, sounds and beauty in music that I would have missed, and my mind open itself to new concepts and realities. It makes me see the world on a different angle, thus making "problems" seems almost irrelevant, and life more simple in it's complexity.
On the other hand, it's fucking incredible for my chronic pain (it was the reason I got medical marijuana card in san diego and started smoking), and it's definitely kept me going, as it's more helpful than any medication I've been given by doctors.

i'm high right now so i can authoritatively say that being high is the lived experience of the process of phenomenological reduction, and the drawing-closer-to-oneself of 'pure' consciousness, as described by husserl. no i will not elaborate.

Big pharma would like you to think that medical marijuana is not a good choice for chronic pain. It decentralizes the power they have, especially in countries like America, you can grow it on your own, experiment on your own ect. Imagine that. Power over our bodies and what we put into them back in the hands of the people, no tax money or fees to be made. The medical industry is screaming.

I don't think its that difficult a point to be made if you look at the socio-historical patterns, such as the criminalization of minority groups (ie.the hyper imprisonment rate of Blacks), the history of White America and their spite for anything deemed not White-including the poor...statistics show that people of all demographic use and smoke marijuanaa, but it is particularly associated with a particular type of person. There is a stigma that isn't attached to other things, such as drinking, which can be seen as an activity of all races and classes (even though it is arguably more harmful).
The defamation of marijuana across history and to contemporary times comes from sheer moralism, nothing else. Moralism as constructed to protect power structures. Not only the race thing (though that is a BIG thing in countries such as the United States), but due to the way it alters the mind, questioning things ect. Not always a good thing. It's funny that drinking is cited so much in the Bible, but where is the weed? In other religions any mind altering substance is supposedly banned ect. but why? Maybe because it destabilizes the mind, makes it less susceptible to cultural bullshit, and encourages spontaneous and impulsive activities? Which of course in the era of drinking and driving is a bad thing, impulse activities are cited as one as the biggest dangers of alcohol abuse, but it isn't always dangerous, at least not physically...
You are right that its effects are very subjective and varied. But my point doesn't even necessarily rest on the general effects of marijuana, but rather the unfair moralistic treatment it has hitherto received, disallowing it from even being tested effectively or on any wide scale.

I discover tastes in food I no longer notice, sounds and beauty in music that I would have missed

Interesting you note this. Of course when I'm high, I also feel that way, its one of the things I love about it...especially as a person with autism, its so difficult for me to focus or really focus my mind-even watch television or Youtube (at least without subtitles) my mind just starts wandering...running away. But that's not my point.
My point is I read a really interesting book last week on the effects of hormonal birth control, physiologically that is-people are under the belief that birth control only really affects the reproductive system, ie. stopping you from getting pregnant, but since this is done by altering and replacing hormones in the body, and hormones function to do basically everything in the body from eating to feeling ect. you are really completely altering your mind in a way more potentially affective than any temporary substance could-and its normalized, and barely investigated area of health. Interesting. Some of the studies featured in the book reported women who stopped taking birth control (after so many years) of being able to "taste foods again" or "enjoy music more"...

If only I had the time to read Husserl.. Haha, one day