Drug Use

I was half right Welsh...

Revolver...tell your friend that I'm sorry for him... when you got wood... you should enjoy it.
 
well.. here you can get basically everything, exept shrooms i think.. never heard of anyone doing shrooms here.. most common - i'd say weed, we had it growing in our school once..
after that - extacy.. but that's for clubbing people..
i used weed too, quit it like 3 months ago.. funny thing is, that most people here smoke it in schools, after school hours ofcourse, but just for the sake of not being detected.. never heard of anyone being cought...


and heres something i grew at home, right on the balcony.. it was umm i think 20-30cm tall, and then we smoked it...
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well my parents knew i was growing it, and what it is, didnt know what for..

and well i'd say its rather hard for people see what im doing on the 15th floor...
 
Did you folks see the pics of the advocates of medicinal marijuana spreading seeds on the governor's lawn?

Imagine spreading those seeds in your parent's lawn and having mom come back, "look at this strange weed I have growing..."
 
Imagine spreading those seeds in your parent's lawn and having mom come back, "look at this strange weed I have growing..."
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Yeah, that would be a riot!
- Gee mom, I have absolutely no idea what that is!
- You'll have to help me weed the lawn, the damn thing is all over.
- Couldn't we just let it grow a bit bigger, then gather it up?Can I have them. I think I am going to dry them all out and put the herbarium.
- why of course you can dear! My, what a passionate botanist you are!

Now to get down to business...
I work as a volunteer in a rehab clinic pertaining to the local hospital. I can tell you that the average age of the people who come there to shake off a drug addiction is around 18, the alcoholics are usually more mature (20 something to 80 something). After working about a week there and seeing what drugs do to you I swore never to touch the stuff, I even started watching my "alcohol intake"! The saddest thing is that most of the ones I've seen so far (drug addicts) are there for the second or third time, and on top of that some of the patients complained that some of the nurses told them to their face that they would never get rid of their addiction! Even of that were true I still wouldn't tell them that. Not to mention that people with drug related problems are treated like pariahs by our society, even if they are trying hard to overcome that problem. In other words, when they try to go clean they are met with hostility by most members of society, and to escape that sense of rejection they turn to drugs,,, it is a vicious circle that won't be broken any time soon. :(
 
well.. i dont know about them, but i got off weed after smoking it for 8 months, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily(holidays.etc), though it wasnt that hard, though the rumor says that there is no addiction to weed, i know people that used to need a bong just feel "normal", though they got off it too.. here in our small russian society everything comes down to that consumin alcohol is best.. though i kinda stopped with that one too, i still dirnk, just not that frequently..
 
well.. i dont know about them, but i got off weed after smoking it for 8 months, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily(holidays.etc), though it wasnt that hard
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I was mainly referring to heavier drugs, cocaine, heroin and the such, compared to those weed is harmless. I'm talking about people that ache all over because of the withdrawal, people who used up to 15 "balls" per day, and didn't feel anything!
On the other hand alcohol abuse can get really ugly, no control over the bladder, puking all over, getting drunk from a bottle of beer, just tragical.
 
though the rumor says that there is no addiction to weed
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That's no rumor, it.is.a.fact(God, I hate havign to say that every other week here). Marijuana is.NOT.addictive.
The only addictive thing about it, is that you can like the feel of it that much, that you just want it more. But it does nothing to your body that makes your body need more. Gah!

EDIT: Die Mail Notification, DIE!
 
Sander is absolutely right. An addiction is defined as a Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance. There is no evidence at all that marijuana produces a physiological need or psychological need at all. It is, in fact, something to do when, say, you're down in the dumps and want to get high. You don't compulsively smoke weed, although, I know a few people who used to just for the kicks. But those people just felt like being high all the time. They could easily stop if they had wanted to, which they did quite often.
 
bah im just glad we can get weed here legal huh sander? ;)

but don't do drugs!:P

aah forget the joking.. i said to myself that i never would use drugs.. till now i haven't used any! not even weed! you guys "experimented" with something? weed,pot,cocain? anyone?
 
King of Creation said:
Sander is absolutely right. An addiction is defined as a Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance. There is no evidence at all that marijuana produces a physiological need or psychological need at all.
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Correction, an addiction is a physiological OR psychological need for a substance. The physiological addiction isn't there, but the psychological addiction certainly is.

The American Psychiatric Association describes an addiction as meeting three or more of the following criteria:

* Taking the substance more than originally intended.
* Unsuccessful attempts to quit; persistent desire, craving.
* Excessive time spent in drug seeking, taking the substance, or recovering.
* Is often intoxicated, or suffers withdrawal symptoms when expected to fulfill obligations at work, school, or home.
* Curtails or gives up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of the substance.
* Uses substance despite persistent social, psychological, or physical problems caused by substance.
* Tolerance (Needs more and more of the substance to achieve the same effect)
* Suffers characteristic withdrawal symptoms when activity or substance is discontinued (cravings, anxiety, depression, jitters).
* Takes substance or does activity to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.

And a study showed that many marijuana users can easily meet the criteria of the first five (Franklen, 1990, as cited in Durand & Barlow, 2003).

As for the definition of addiction with criteria that it's "easy to get hooked on, hard to get off of", marijuana is still quite low, but it's still possible. When a study looked into the potential addiction of the drug: out of 18 substances on a chart (with 1 being most addictive), marijuana ranked 14 (Durand & Barlow, 2003). But it still made it's way onto that chart (I can scan it if anyone requests).
Although marijuana is less addictive than caffeine, it has been found to be more addictive than ecstacy.

Perhaps I'm just debating it's addictive because I know someone who wouldn't get off marijuana despite the fact his parents informed him he would be kicked out if he kept up the activity. This is a friend of mine who had a great life (I'll admit I was envious), amazing potential, was wanting to be a crown prosecutor... and he threw it all away. For weed.
 
Hmmm..I just got the definition off Dictionary.com, but I think the APA might have a better grasp on what it is.
But as far as weed being addictive, even under that definition, its not. Actually, now that I read more thoroughly into that, weed also doesn't cause withdrawal symptoms when you've stopped smoking it after a while. Least not what I've seen from first hand experience.
Maybe your friend was on some other stuff in addition to weed, and that's why he wouldn't stop. Just guessing there, but I've never even heard of someone actually throwing their life away for weed. People do it all the time with heroin and stuff cause they actually need it after a while on it, but its not the same with what I've seen with weed.
 
King of Creation said:
Hmmm..I just got the definition off Dictionary.com, but I think the APA might have a better grasp on what it is.
But as far as weed being addictive, even under that definition, its not. Actually, now that I read more thoroughly into that, weed also doesn't cause withdrawal symptoms when you've stopped smoking it after a while. Least not what I've seen from first hand experience.
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How is it not even under that definition? These studies are proving there is an addiction.

Then there's Drug-Help.Net .

Long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction for some people; that is, they use the drug compulsively even though it often interferes with family, school, work, and recreational activities.
...
More than 2 million met diagnostic criteria for dependence on marijuana/hashish. In 1999, more than 220,000 people entering drug abuse treatment programs reported that marijuana was their primary drug of abuse.
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Then it adds that there are withdrawl symptoms, though that is widely debated (especially in the psychology field). So I'm not going to argue that there is or isn't, simply because there's not enough evidence.


Maybe your friend was on some other stuff in addition to weed, and that's why he wouldn't stop. Just guessing there, but I've never even heard of someone actually throwing their life away for weed.
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I've heard of it. And I used to smoke it with him very often (I've done more than my fair share of it, I'll admit). We hung out all the time, and he wasn't using anything else (although he is now, I presume). We were very good friends, and sometimes I do miss him.
 
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The Vaults of Erowid
Documenting the Complex Relationship between Humans and Psychoactives
http://www.erowid.org/

It's a GREAT source for just about any mind/perception altering substance out there. I've used it as a starting point for research on several academic papers focused on drugs and hemp.

But since we're talking about cannabis...

Erowid Cannabis Vault
Cannabis FAQ - I strongly recommend reading this whole thing. An excellent source of info!

Part III: DOES IT? DOESN'T IT? IS IT TRUE THAT?
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_faq1.shtml#III

6) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory impairment?
The effect of marijuana on memory is its most dramatic and the easiest to notice. Many inexperienced marijuana users find that they have very strange, sudden and unexpected memory lapses. These usually take the form of completely forgetting what you were talking about when you were right in the middle of saying something important. However, these symptoms only occur while a person is `high'. They do not carry over or become permanent, and examinations of extremely heavy users has not shown any memory or thinking problems. More experienced marijuana users seem to be able to remember about as well as they do when they are not `high.'
Studies which have claimed to show short-term memory impairment have not stood up to scrutiny and have not been duplicated. Newer studies show that marijuana does not impair simple, real-world memory processes. Marijuana does slow reaction time slightly, and this effect has sometimes been misconstrued as a memory problem. To put things in perspective, one group of researchers made a control group hold their breath, like marijuana smokers do. Marijuana itself only produced about twice as many effects on test scores as breath holding. Many people use marijuana to study. Other people cannot, for some reason, use marijuana and do anything that involves deep thought. Nobody knows what makes the difference.
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8) Don't users of marijuana withdraw from society?
To some extent, yes. That's probably just because they are afraid of being arrested, though. The same situation exists with socially maladjusted persons as does with the mentally ill. Emotionally troubled individuals find marijuana to be soothing, and so they tend to use it more than your average person. Treatment specialists see this, and assume that the marijuana is causing the problem. This is a mistake which hurts the patient, because their doctors will pay less attention to their actual needs, and concentrate on ending their drug habit. Sometimes the cannabis is even helping them to recover. Cannabis can be abused, and it can make these situations worse, but psychologists should approach marijuana use with an open mind or they risk hurting their patient.
Marijuana itself does not make normal people anti-social. In fact, a large psychological study of teenagers found that casual marijuana users are more well adjusted than `drug free' people. This would be very amusing, but it is a serious problem. There are children who have emotional problems which keep them from participating in healthy, explorative behavior. They need psychological help but instead they are skipped over. Marijuana users who do not need help are having treatment forced on them, and in the mean-time marijuana takes the blame for the personality characteristics and problems of the people who like to use it improperly.
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9) Is it true that marijuana makes you lazy and unmotivated?
Not if you are a responsible adult, it doesn't. Ask the U.S. Army. They did a study and showed no effect. If this were true, why would many Eastern cultures, and Jamaicans, use marijuana to help them work harder? `Amotivational syndrome' started as a media myth based on the racial stereotype of a lazy Mexican borracho. The prohibitionists claimed that marijuana made people worthless and sluggish. Since then, however, it has been scientifically researched, and a symptom resembling amotivational syndrome has actually been found. However, it only occurs in adolescent teenagers -- adults are not affected.
When a person reaches adolescence, their willingness to work usually increases, but this does not happen for teenagers using marijuana regularly -- even just on the weekends. The actual studies involved monkeys, not humans, and the results are not verified, but older studies which tried to show `amotivational syndrome' usually only suceeded when they studied adolescents. Adults are not effected.

The symptoms are not permanent, and motivation returns to normal levels several months after marijuana smoking stops. However, a small number of people may be unusually sensitive to this effect. One of the monkeys in the experiment was severely amotivated and did not recover. Doctors will need to study this more before they know why.
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16) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory impairment?
Go away.
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20) Aren't you afraid everyone will get hooked?
Marijuana produces no withdrawal symptoms no matter how heavy it is used. It is habit forming (psychologically addictive), but not physically addictive. The majority of people who quit marijuana don't even have to think twice about it. Comparing marijuana to addictive drugs is really quite silly.
For a drug to be physically addictive, it must be reinforcing, produce withdrawal symptoms, and produce tolerance. Marijuana is reinforcing, because it feels good, but it does not do the other two things. Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are all physically addictive.
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I hate most of drugs, except maybe when you grow marijuana and your back yard and intend to use it as personal use, for me it's aok. I hate drug because most of the time it's used for controlling other people into almost slavery, I seen this and I found it painful to look at people under the use of narcotic.

Q.Where does drug come from?
A.Most of the time from organized crime, with that money they make bigger operation, like prostitution and selling guns (in Canada hand guns and automatic rifle are illegal).

Drug like cigarette even lead me int fight, because I work at night in a gas station ans I sell cigarette. Mind you it's not the tobacco that's addictive but the nicotine. So some guy try to hold up me and I fought back (the pussy run away). I seen girl addicted so much to drug it lead the m into prostitution, even my ex-girlfriend.

I hate drugs it ruin a part of my life, the worst thing is I never really touch them except for caffeine and a tiny bit of alchool (been 3 week i didn't drink a drop a alchool) :x
 
It's a shame how the media and commercials blame weed for killing teenagers and young people. Recently the one that's been on is the one where the black kid is standing in front of the grave, and it turns out it's his little brothers grave that he killed in a car crash. The one kid who dies from weed is put on TV, but the other hundred who die from prescription drugs just get overlooked?

Rehabilitation, not incarceration.
 
Katja said:
The American Psychiatric Association describes an addiction as meeting three or more of the following criteria:

* Taking the substance more than originally intended.
* Unsuccessful attempts to quit; persistent desire, craving.
* Excessive time spent in drug seeking, taking the substance, or recovering.
* Is often intoxicated, or suffers withdrawal symptoms when expected to fulfill obligations at work, school, or home.
* Curtails or gives up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of the substance.
* Uses substance despite persistent social, psychological, or physical problems caused by substance.
* Tolerance (Needs more and more of the substance to achieve the same effect)
* Suffers characteristic withdrawal symptoms when activity or substance is discontinued (cravings, anxiety, depression, jitters).
* Takes substance or does activity to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
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More than originally intended? What if I originally intended to OD?

Also, what is often? What is excessive? When is a sympton directly related to drugs rather than social standing?

Conclusion: the APA sucks and needs to work on better definitions

Really
 
Kharn said:
More than originally intended? What if I originally intended to OD?

Also, what is often? What is excessive? When is a sympton directly related to drugs rather than social standing?

Conclusion: the APA sucks and needs to work on better definitions
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Actually it mentions all of the points you brought up, and there are rules for each. My textbook goes really in-depth with it, but it's extensive and I didn't want to write it all out. I just hoped no one would point these facts out. I will transcribe if you want me to - those exact problems are noted and explained.

Keep in mind there is no universal definition to substance dependency. The American Psychological Association has a different criteria than the American Psychiatric Association.

Never been a big fan of Psychiatry, personally. They focus more on the biological aspects of mental disorders (neurotransmitter deficiencies and such).

EDIT: And yes, I do realize that I shouldn't start debates if I'm not going to state -all- the facts... but give me a break, there's several pages of the different definitions of "substance dependency".
 
Well, they have their good side, and their not so good side (actually is kind of bad).
Good side: sometimes the problem is mainly biological and that aspect of the problem should be carefully analyzed.
Bad side: even when the problem isn't biological they still use plenty of medication to get to the bottom of it.
The best thing would be a closer psychologist - psychiatrist collaboration, so that the problem can be thoroughly analyzed.
And, you are right, those manuals are bigger than phone books, take DSM for example, or ICD, you would need a really good scanner in order to efficiently quote those. :lol:
 
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