Chasing drugs has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I can tell you from personal experience that yes, weed can bring symptoms of schizophrenia to the forefront. The first time that happened to me I was extremely scared. In all the intervening years, however, this has only happened like a couple of additional times, i.e., that the weed was so powerful that I started to hallucinate - and in those subsequent events I wasn’t frightened at all, although I imagine some of the people around me might have been.
The worst thing that happens to weed-smokers - in my opinion - is that you get addicted and it is a TRUE PHYSICAL ADDICTION, not like what pot advocates say, i.e., that it’s a “psychological addiction.”
I have a few times experienced the symptoms of “weed addiction” which are very unpleasant - you get emotionally unstable and depressed, anxious and fearful. (The thing is, with me, once I recognize symptoms of withdrawal of any type, I start thinking “all right, that’s enough” and I just sort of repress the h3ll out of it and drink lots of water until it’s over - in the case of weed, withdrawal can last for nearly a week. It’s almost worse than heroin withdrawal because with that you have fevers, chills, aches, and vomiting, so you have an excuse to stay home from work - not so when you’re withdrawing from weed, that’s more like breaking up with a favorite boyfriend but you’re not sick enough to take a day off.)
So I’ve seen people go out of their minds withdrawing from weed - I’ve received some verification from others I know, like one guy said his brother is one of those people who, if he can’t smoke, gets the “insane heebie-jeebies” and you can’t even stand to be around him. A typical scenario is that your pothead friend will run out of weed and if you stop by his/her house you’ll be treated to what looks like a nervous breakdown with accusations that you’re doing something effed-up to him or her.
People who have to be drug-tested are the worst: There are lots of hard drugs, cocaine for example, that in spite of their hardness don’t stay in one’s system for long and won’t show up on a pee test even just a couple of days after a binge - however, you can smoke one joint one time and you’ll still test positive a month later. A few people I’ve known who were on parole expressed EXTREME upset because if they could just smoke some (relatively harmless) weed every so often, they wouldn’t be as tempted to go out and find some crack or heroin. (Personally I think that’s how so-called “parole” is rigged: To make it pretty easy for the offender to re-offend and keep going back into the system over and over. It’s money for the machine. And, personally, that’s why I think the whole thing about “parole” is bogus and a money hole for the taxpayers - judges should sentence fairly and the offender should do EVERY DAY OF HIS SENTENCE unless some mitigating factor is uncovered that reduces the offense. But back to the subject.)
Now weed is “legal” in Colorado so I can smoke weed all day long if I want to. :)
But - all joking aside - this is not true legalization. If it WAS, you could have your own field of plants outside your house, or grow a bunch of plants in your house, or have your cousin in Alabama truck a few pounds over for resale every couple of months. There wouldn’t be this nuisance of state-operated weed stores where heads have to show an ID to buy weed and have to pony up a HUGE amount of $$$ to trade in weed, but ILLEGAL ALIENS can of course do WHATEVER THE H3LL THEY WANT. The “legal weed” trade, in the end, supports organized crime and in particular the cartels of M3xico and S America.
In fact, I think the “legal” craze has been more of a gateway to hard drugs than anything that came before it: I get to witness this pretty much every day because (as promoted by Dan “Blackface” Bongino) our illustrious former Denver mayor, CO governor, and senator J Hickenlooper and his organized crime pals invested in the “vaping” fad which makes it much, much easier for youth to get their hands on all kinds of smokables, including crack and meth. So neighbs have this “vaping” den where idiots can do “legal” drugs “safely” - and of course some people absolutely freak out on the legal stuff because they’re not used to ANY drugs, right? They’re just neebs who maybe snort coke once a year on Stupid Bowl Sunday or whatever and so a “vape” or a “chewable” makes them jump out the window if you don’t watch them.
(Note: Hickenlooper in fact got busted some years ago for promoting vaping to the underage, did you know that? He got probation. Just an interesting factoid you can look up.)
Now we all know that vaping is A) for f*gs and B) is just as or perhaps even more of a health hazard than smoking. (If you smoke and take too big of a drag, coughing will result which prohibits future overindulgence, but if you “vape” there’s no irritating sensation - and you’re inhaling an oil straight into your bronchial system, WHERE IT WILL SIT FOREVER. And like that won’t eventually cause problems. Sure, Dan. I know! Let’s get Rush to vape after his cancer diagnosis! It’ll be SO FUNNY.)
I know this will not make me more popular, but: Why should any substance be criminalized? If people are stupid enough to make a lifetime out of something they KNOW is harmful, why waste time and money trying to save them? (I was going to say something about traders who sell products they know are harmful, but a lot of y’all still - after all is said and done - still have a great deal of trust in the medical establishment and I’ve already opened up too many cans of worms this week, and it’s only Tuesday.)
Interesting read. Having had zero experience with any drug use (Baptist preacher’s family) I found your post most educational and very sad. So thankful my parents threatened to almost kill us if we ever drank alcohol, smoked a cig, or used any drug. And we believed our dad might do that.
“Why should any substance be criminalized? If people are stupid enough to make a lifetime out of something they KNOW is harmful, why waste time and money trying to save them?”
Because it doesn’t harm only them it impacts everyone around them. And having a society full of stupid, paranoid, addicted, schizoid slackers is not a recipe for a successful society.
Also we spend a ton of money in rehab clinics, homeless (druggies) programs, jails and increased crime, etc. So not having laws against drug use costs more than enforcing those laws.
Everyplace will start looking like SF, Portland and Seattle.
The idea that drug use (including pot) is a victimless crime is pure BS.
Take a look at Singapore instead.
Hi Scarlett,
Were you high when you wrote that post?
I am also wondering if you were sober when you woke up today.
For one to be joyful about their own self-destruction (and I am NOT saying that is the case with you) is a horrible thing to imagine.