Your opinions on cannabis/weed?

[bunnyboo]

I smoke weed myself, just not very often (usually once or twice a month). I might have a hit during a self-care evening, before I have a nice bath and eat some pizza whilst watching a comfort show on Netflix. I always just considered it to a relaxing drug, nothing more, nothing less.

However, a few weeks ago.. I did something I never thought I'd do. I bought weed for an older family member. She has stage 4 cervical cancer and she's in so much pain. Seeing her literally wasting away in hospital, suffering with heavy dosages of chemo and feeling miserable was soul crushing. I was at breaking point and I finally decided fuck it, I'm going to ask her consultant and medical team about using cannabis. It was weird having a blunt conversation with a senior oncology consultant about using illegal drugs, but I was getting desperate. The hospital consultant was actually very helpful and even though he said legally he HAD to advise against it, we had a hypothetical conversation (lol) about when would the best time to try it so there'd be no conflicts with her painkiller prescription, chemo appointment on the same day etc. She smoked weed for the first time at a very low dose (I followed the hypothetical instructions from the doctor) and I nearly cried tears of happiness when I saw her happily eating a full meal for the first time in months. I was also overjoyed when she told me that her pain had been lessened and she didn't feel nauseous for the first time in 3 months. Seeing her smile, that smile made it all worth it.

Certain family members are now very angry at me for "giving her illegal drugs", but I'm still continuing to do it as wants to. There is a good chance that cancer could kill her - she has a 10% chance at survival. I cleared everything with her doctors, I let them know if/when she's using cannabis - all with her consent and blessing. The poor woman is so much pain, both mentally and physically. If using cannabis gives her "a break from the cancer" (her words, not mine), then why the hell not let her continue. If certain family members want to get angry at me.. well so be it, I guess.

 

[candyland_]

Do what you want but you smell horrific.

It stinks and you absolutely reek if you smoke it. You can smell it on you, you can smell it a huge distance away and you can smell it as you pass your house. It’s rancid.

 

[Be More Pacific]

I'm very anti drugs.

I come from a pretty tough council estate, where drugs are a huge issue, and I made a decision in my teens that I didn't want to be involved at all in that life and I've never touched any illegal drug. I have quite an addictive personality and knew that it would be a very dangerous path to go down. Danniella Westbrook's nose also put me off

I was lucky in that my friends at school weren't into drugs and I've never been around people who have wanted to take drugs in front of me or encouraged me to do so through my adult life either. I have been offered them a couple of times but refused.

It would be an absolute deal breaker for me if someone I was involved with was taking drugs. I met my partner online and when he said he worked in marketing, I thought that he was going to be some coke snorting fucking PR wideboy - but he works for the government and has the possibility of random drug testing so no He did experiment in his uni days so doesn't take as hard a line as me on the subject.

If you followed as many murder trials as I do, you'd realise how big a problem drugs are - even something as low level as cannabis. I can honestly say probably 85%-90% of trials I follow involve drugs in some way whether you're taking them, growing then, running them, dealing them or importing them. Even it it starts out with no drugs involved, they will usually come up somewhere down the line. It's a vicious, grubby, seedy cut throat world and one I am very glad I had the good sense to avoid. It's also utterly depressing.

 

[Laur91]

I’m of the mind everything in moderation. Be that drugs or alcohol even down to gambling. If you enjoy it and it doesn’t put your health at risk then why not. On another note I don’t drink or do drugs as I personally don’t enjoy being in the state of not knowing what I’m doing. I wouldn’t even have gas and air when in labour as I hated it. I wouldn’t judge anyone for it though as long as a) you smoke it at your own place and b) you don’t force it onto others

this. My partner smokes once or twice in the evening as it really helps him de-stress but he gets up every morning and goes to work at a huge telecoms company for a fantastic salary, he doesn’t do any other drugs and has complete control over his habit. I also smoke but only when we go to Amsterdam

I think it affects everyone differently but it really needs to be decriminalised.The UK are hugely missing out on a huge opp to reap Tax benefits from legalising marijuana.

Marijuana certainly has less damaging consequences to your mind and body than alcohol does yet legally you could drink yourself to death easily, baffles me slightly!

 

[Bec3007]

I hate it. My ex used to smoke it daily. It turned him into an aggressive twat (towards me mainly) every single time. If he didn’t have any my life wasn’t worth living, he would use any means necessary to get some.

I live in a pleasant area of my city but my neighbour smokes & deals it. My house can reek of the stuff every few days and I have a young son at home. We actually had to switch rooms because his room (now ours) can sometimes smell vile. I don’t think innocent families should suffer because of selfish people like that, neither should innocent children living in households like that. Sickens me that people actually get away with it. A drug is a drug at the end of the day (in my opinion). I’ve known some people to be totally fine on coke, live normal lives and have decent jobs but that doesn’t mean it’s okay.

 

[Casperron]

I don’t smoke it, I quit cigarettes a couple years ago when I had a baby. But very open to it, most of my friends and family smoke it. It helps my mum a lot with the pain she’s in from her illnesses

I don’t smoke it, I quit cigarettes a couple years ago when I had a baby. But very open to it, most of my friends and family smoke it. It helps my mum a lot with the pain she’s in from her illnesses

I’m also very against alcohol. And I think if you are ok with people drinking alcohol then you can’t say shit about weed

 

[FlipFlop0706]

People who smoke it are selfish pricks with no respect for anyone around them.
Simple as that really.

 

[Miss98]

There was a discussion going on in the Diane Abbott thread about weed which got me thinking...

Weed seems to be very controversial, lots of people say it's 'just a plant and harmless' but for my age I've seen the not so great side to it, also. I think weed is different for everyone like alcohol is and affects everybody differently. In moderation it seems to mostly be okay, but many people chain smoke it daily.

I've known some people to smoke it and live their lives, hold down a job and be okay people. I've also had friends who became so paranoid, became dealers to pay for their habits, get so aggressive and fighty and nasty when they had no weed left and one person I used to know stopped showering, brushing his teeth and all of his personal hygiene went out of the window because he spent all of his money on weed so couldn't afford shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste, food even. My friend's dad could barely leave the house because he smoked it all of his life and in the end thought people in the street were following him and out to get him. These days it seems to be a very strong strain and I was with a group of friends who smoked a joint and they reckoned it had glass in it and they all got chest pains after sharing the joint. My ex got more violent and aggressive when he couldn't get any weed and there were times we went hungry so he could get his fix.

I find many people who smoke it daily often become so unmotivated, lazy and paranoid. They become a shell of themselves and have no real plans in life other than to get high.

I'm sure in small doses it's okay, like socially at parties, but there's always the risk that it can trigger mental health issues underlying inside of you already. Does anybody have any experiences good or bad with weed?

 

[Rinitiaa]

I believe in moderation also, plus if you don’t have anyone who will be disadvantaged by it (kids, relationships, etc) then each to their own.
also i smoked it once as a teen in the park with the cool kids, cried and threw up in a bin, ran home to my mum and got grounded for like two weeks. She still brings it up lol

 

[Guacamole123]

I think weed should 1000% be allowed on medical grounds, or at least the government should fund some proper research in to the positive effects it can have on diseases etc. However, I don’t agree with it recreationally. It smoked it quite a lot in my teenage years and found that it was starting to make my anxiety a lot worse, so I stopped straight away. My mum knows someone who went to Amsterdam for a long weekend and smoked loads of it (and had never smoked previously) and it COMPLETELY fucked them up. From then onwards they had severe mental health issues. I know that sounds ridiculous and lots of ‘stoners’ would say ‘that’s impossible, that wouldn’t happen after a weekend of smoking weed’ but it’s the truth. Many of the people who I smoked it with as a teenager still smoke it now, and it’s seems to be a lifestyle for them, rather than a habit. Which is really sad. However, on the other hand I know people that smoke it regularly and are completely fine. It affects different people in different ways, which I think is quite scary.

 

[Yel]

I think the modern strains of super high thc skunk are very harmful. People I know that have been smoking it regularly have turned their brain into mush.

Prohibition has caused these more harmful varieties that are a world apart from what people had a few decades ago imo.

 

[bubbletea123]

I've never smoked it myself (never smoked cigarettes either, bar trying it once or twice in school) but have a couple of friends who used to smoke it 10/15 years ago from time to time, may be every couple of months or so. Both of them say that they'd never touch it now because the stuff that's out there now is much more dangerous than what they smoked back then. They reckon there could be anything in it now.

Yep, some of the street stuff here had fentanyl in it.

 

[waittillyahear]

I’m not into it myself and it’s about 20 years since I was in uni and occasionally trying it but I’m 100% in favour of legalisation. If people want it, they’ll get it , why deny the people that would never illegally get it but could really benefit from it for MS etc

 

[ConfusedMango]

A friend of mine has smoked almost every day since his teens (he’s now mid 30’s), and it has absolutely destroyed who he is as a person yet he can’t see it. Everything revolves around his next smoke. Every meal, every dog walk, every shower, every outing etc. He’s constantly paranoid everybody is staring at him when he leaves the house. He picks arguments and gets arsey over literally nothing, because every tiny thing feels like some kind of attack against him. He lives a very lonely life nowadays as so many people have pulled away. It’s a shame.

 

[Youcantsitwithus]

I think it should be more legalised in the UK for medical use, I suffer with chronic pain from multiple incurable conditions (sorry sounds dramatic when I type it).
The only illegal options available in the UK are made to make you as high as possible which is the stuff which makes people paranoid and anxious.
If it was made legal for medical use (more widely than it is now) it would allow strains to be grown which aren’t the super strength available from dealers and can actually help people like myself who have to rely on opioid medications to hold down a job and live a functioning life. You can pick particular strains of the plant in places like the US depending on your physical or mental health concern.

I also know people who use it from time to time in the same way people have one or two drinks at the end of the week, but I also know people who go wayyyy OTT with it in the same way so many people in the UK get drunk until they blackout. Some people can moderate and others cannot.

 

[thaliamay]

That's how I feel about alcohol ^^

 

[Tove_drew]

I think it’s no more dangerous than alcohol. You don’t drive drunk or high. Yes there’s people who abuse it but so are there alcoholics. I think the only real reason it’s illegal is because it was deemed bad for business. Instead of buying alcohol or tobacco manufactured by corporations, people could grow it easily and that threatened the profits of the other businesses. If it’s cheaper to relax with a joint or an edible, it cuts into the margins of other businesses. Those with vested interests pushed into the public that it was evil and dangerous when in reality it has many more benefits than alcohol/tobacco. Culture towards it is changing, the medical implications mostly paving the way.

It can do a lot of good (more than I can say for alcohol or cigarettes) but like any substance would benefit from regulation. I feel similarly about mushrooms and micro dosing.

I say this as someone who only partakes in edibles occasionally (I can count on my hand how often this year). I prefer regulated edibles from the USA because with unregulated or homemade it’s been hit or miss

 

[onmylunchbreak]

I am somebody who has sadly seen a bad side of it. My brother began smoking it around age 13. His personality changed, he became argumentative, aggressive, and would steal from me and other family members. He is now mid twenties, still living at home, wastes all of his money on drugs. Has many pay day loans (I’m assuming to fund his habits). He is employed by my mums business and many times should have lost his job but my mum covers for him. He smokes it constantly, we were round for dinner on Sunday and went outside three times, came back in stinking of weed each time, trying to pick my baby up. It’s getting to the point where I feel I don’t want my three young children around him, I worry about the effects of the second hand smoke on my children’s immature brains and their development. I’ve avoided confronting it, my parents pretend they don’t notice it and give me a blank look when I bring it up, but I think I’m going to have to tell them straight soon. I don’t want to fall out with them over it but my children are my priority, I’d be interested to know whether you all think I am overreacting? Or am I within my rights to have a problem with it?

 

[SisterBliss]

I think medicinal uses are well documented and it should be available for that. Smoking however should be discouraged, as there are other ways of consuming it that are not harmful, while with smoking risks usually outweigh the benefits. Otherwise, it’s not that much different to alcohol, but due to prohibition, people have no culture of using it recreationally. Skunk is like drinking methylated sprits or badly home brewed liquor that will poison you. But natural cannabis, like the one grown in the fields in Jamaica, is a completely different thing. I’m European and even my grandmother told me that women in her village used to drink alcohol that had some cannabis buds in it, to relieve period pain and to get jolly while they spun wool together (this is like 70 years ago) it was completely normal, like having a glass of wine.
People with mental illness tend to self-medicate, usually with cannabis, alcohol and benzodiazepines (and sometimes with harder drugs too) so it can look like these drugs made them ill, but most of the time it’s just a part of the illness (and it makes the illness worse). Excessive consumption in the long term will cause amotivational syndrome in people with no underlying MH condition, and associated depression, anxiety, paranoia etc. is pretty bad but it tends to resolve when the drug is stopped and shouldn’t have any lasting effects (besides effects of smoking).

 

[DanaScully]

I have a chronic health condition which causes daily pain and fatigue. On occasion (always weekends) I have a cannabis edible with my OH and we have a lovely, chilled evening in together. We always just watch TV, laugh a lot, eat snacks and then go to bed early for a really restful, deep sleep.

We only do it once to twice per month and never when we have plans the next day. The pain relief I experience is immense and no prescribed painkiller compares. Moderation and responsible use are both crucial IMO.