Jeez, I dread to think what repercussions that will have on their mental health over the next few years and onwards into the future.
Classic response. Just hope you dont drink alcohol or do any other disease inducing past times
Yes, a classic response from someone who works with the worlds two leading Academics who have spent their lives researching the effect of cannabis and weed on the brain and mental health. Feel free to brush up on the research of Professor Sir Robin Murray at the Institute of Psychiatry at KCL, you might learn something. I also say that after I've watched three people's lifes destroyed because of smoking it. So yes, classic response from someone who clearly doesnt know what they are talking about.
You're just round the corner from me @JohnBoyUK I'm over at the Maudsley.
I think working in a mental health field certainly opens your eyes up to alot of issues surrounding drugs and the effect on a persons mental health. Have spoken to plenty of staff who have nothing but negative things to say about it and the sharp spiral it can lead people down.
I'm not saying to legalize it but i'm not saying don't legalize it. It's a personal choice, just like anything else. Just like any addiction it can get out of control and that's when there are issues.
Could more people undertake smoking because it has become legal? Would the second hand smoke on a child have more of an affect than a normal cigarette? I don't know. Again, i'm not saying don't do it but I think there is rightfully a lot to consider.
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I've never known any weed dealers to also sell crack and/or smack, in the last 10 years or so.
I'd recommend the book High Society, I'm not saying the concepts in the book would work - they might though - but it's a bloody interesting read.
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I've never known any weed dealers to also sell crack and/or smack, in the last 10 years or so.
Jeez, I dread to think what repercussions that will have on their mental health over the next few years and onwards into the future.
Classic response. Just hope you dont drink alcohol or do any other disease inducing past times
Yes, a classic response from someone who works with the worlds two leading Academics who have spent their lives researching the effect of cannabis and weed on the brain and mental health. Feel free to brush up on the research of Professor Sir Robin Murray at the Institute of Psychiatry at KCL, you might learn something. I also say that after I've watched three people's lifes destroyed because of smoking it. So yes, classic response from someone who clearly doesnt know what they are talking about.
You're just round the corner from me @JohnBoyUK I'm over at the Maudsley.
I think working in a mental health field certainly opens your eyes up to alot of issues surrounding drugs and the effect on a persons mental health. Have spoken to plenty of staff who have nothing but negative things to say about it and the sharp spiral it can lead people down.
I'm not saying to legalize it but i'm not saying don't legalize it. It's a personal choice, just like anything else. Just like any addiction it can get out of control and that's when there are issues.
Could more people undertake smoking because it has become legal? Would the second hand smoke on a child have more of an affect than a normal cigarette? I don't know. Again, i'm not saying don't do it but I think there is rightfully a lot to consider.
I agree to an extent. Each to their own. I've got quite a few friends that smoke it regularly and they know how I feel about it but I've never tried to stop them. Its their choice, if they want to then so be it.
Two friends in particular, one I've known since infant school and the other since early teens have smoked it heavily since their early-mid teens and both deny it has affected their mental health in any shape or form but as an outsider looking in, I would say otherwise. Agoraphobia, major panic attacks, driving 250 miles to the coast to go on a 2 week holiday and then decide after 2 hours of being there that they dont want to be there and they want to go home again, leaving the three other people they went with behind and not telling them for 3 days where they'd gone, including his then girlfriend!!!
My brother has had major mental health issues. I've posted on here before about his diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. I've seen two friends and two work colleagues lives destroyed by it too. There is one very common denominator.
Is there a solution? Probably not. Its widespread now. Almost every night when I'm running around Bexley, as soon as you get near any set of traffic lights, you can smell it being pumped out of cars by the air con units. I was standing at the bus stop waiting for a bus the other day and two kids, early teens if that, were brazenly just standing there smoking it like a cigarette. No attempt to hide it. The Community Support officers just look at them and do nothing.
You can argue the pros and cons of legalising it all day long and you'd never get anyone to agree. I can actually see both sides too. At the end of the day though, the research says its causes mental health issues and I'll believe that because I've seen the damage it can cause first hand. Of course, it wont affect every one the same. Its like smoking cigarettes. Some will smoke 40-a-day for 50 years and live until they're 90 and then you'll have someone that develops terminal lung cancer through passive smoking in their late 30s. Everyone is dealt a different hand of cards.
Obviously the smokers of it will be defensive about it, dont blame them tbh. I would be if anyone tried to stop me having a beer at the end of a heavy week to unwind.
I dont know what the answer is. Individuals know the risks, they've got the knowledge to make their choices accordingly. However, to dismiss the research as not applicable to them would be foolish in my eyes.
[Fish, I'm not based at the IoP now, I'm at Whitechapel under Barts Health/QMUL but still involved with KCL and the IoP]
Just like any addiction it can get out of control and that's when there are issues.
Could more people undertake smoking because it has become legal? Would the second hand smoke on a child have more of an affect than a normal cigarette? I don't know. Again, i'm not saying don't do it but I think there is rightfully a lot to consider.
Firstly, why do people keep using the word addiction? Cannibis isn't addictive. I've been using on & off for nearly 30 years and certainly don't get any symptoms associated with addiction when I don't have a smoke for months at a time.
Secondly, the type of people who would smoke it in the same room as children are the type who sit around all day, spending their hard earned dole money on Jamaicas finest are already doing this...........
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I've never known any weed dealers to also sell crack and/or smack, in the last 10 years or so.
Snap.
Different ball game all together
Yes but I bet they know someone who could get it for you if you asked for it though? My comment is in response to those of the view that it's no more a gateway to harder drugs than alcohol is to weed, which is ridiculous.
Regardless, what I'm saying though and from what I'm told by people who make a living out of studying the effects of drugs on society, the research states that it does act as an introduction to that "community" at the very least if you like. Like others, I get that one individuals experience may be vastly different from another's and on that basis they are going to get defensive of their choice to smoke it.
But, the facts of the matter are that it can, not always but can, lead to all sorts of negative impacts on the users lifestyle. My own view is very much that the use of cannabis is so far reaching now that we shortly may need to focus attention away from they legality of the issue and onto the long term health effects of regular use in the same way we do with tobacco.
Poor old maybe_baby he must be sitting there reading this and absolutely chomping to get involved.
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I've never known any weed dealers to also sell crack and/or smack, in the last 10 years or so.
Snap.
Different ball game all together
Yes but I bet they know someone who could get it for you if you asked for it though? My comment is in response to those of the view that it's no more a gateway to harder drugs than alcohol is to weed, which is ridiculous.
Regardless, what I'm saying though and from what I'm told by people who make a living out of studying the effects of drugs on society, the research states that it does act as an introduction to that "community" at the very least if you like. Like others, I get that one individuals experience may be vastly different from another's and on that basis they are going to get defensive of their choice to smoke it.
But, the facts of the matter are that it can, not always but can, lead to all sorts of negative impacts on the users lifestyle. My own view is very much that the use of cannabis is so far reaching now that we shortly may need to focus attention away from they legality of the issue and onto the long term health effects of regular use in the same way we do with tobacco.
Poor old maybe_baby he must be sitting there reading this and absolutely chomping to get involved.
So if it were legalised and made available from liscienced vendors, it would cease to be a gateway drug?
If you want to worry about stuff that seriously messes with people, look at some of legal highs available, I knew a few people at uni who destroyed their lives due to m-cat.
With a couple of exceptions, this thread really does sound like some bald old men arguing about the attributes of a comb. A comb in another country. That they have never visited, and never will.
Abstract The gateway hypothesis proposes that cannabis use increases the risk of starting to consume hard drugs. We test this controversial, but influential, hypothesis on a sample of cannabis users employing a unique set of drug prices. A flexible approach is developed to identify the causal gateway effect using a bivariate survival model with shared frailty estimated using a latent class approach. The model suggests two distinct groups; a smaller group of “troubled youths” for whom there is a statistically significant gateway effect that doubles the hazard of starting to use hard drugs and a larger fraction of “most youths” where previous cannabis use has little impact.
Or in other words isn't that saying that there's a (significant) group where it doubled the likelihood of them moving on to harder drugs and larger group where it had an effect but not as much. In fact had you read further than the opening paragraph of your link, you would have seen them state that it is indeed a gateway drug.
This is always going to be one of those subjects where people believe what they want to believe really.
I've read it all BA, studied it as part of a course, actually, and you make the point of my post. For some predisposed, a gateway drug. For the rest (the majority) it isnt.
If you want to worry about stuff that seriously messes with people, look at some of legal highs available, I knew a few people at uni who destroyed their lives due to m-cat.
m cat is illegal now and not in much use anymore (not the people i know anyway). The only reason it was popular was because students could buy on bulk and walk around selling and using, thinking it was fine because it was legal. Think it's seen as a really scatty drug now because the comedown is a lot worse than mandy.
Ive smoked weed half of my life and have never tried crack or smack, when exactly does this gateway appear ?
Well put it this way, if you were so inclined who would you approach to sort you out, the local corner shop when your picking up 20 B&H or your usual dealer?
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I've never known any weed dealers to also sell crack and/or smack, in the last 10 years or so.
Snap.
Different ball game all together
Half of the dealers round here also sell mandy and ket. Different ball game all together depending where you are; but in uni towns thant simply isn't true.
Comments
I think working in a mental health field certainly opens your eyes up to alot of issues surrounding drugs and the effect on a persons mental health. Have spoken to plenty of staff who have nothing but negative things to say about it and the sharp spiral it can lead people down.
I'm not saying to legalize it but i'm not saying don't legalize it. It's a personal choice, just like anything else. Just like any addiction it can get out of control and that's when there are issues.
Could more people undertake smoking because it has become legal? Would the second hand smoke on a child have more of an affect than a normal cigarette? I don't know. Again, i'm not saying don't do it but I think there is rightfully a lot to consider.
Don't get me wrong, fair play to any government willing to give it a go and try a different approach to tackle the issues around long term health and crime associated with drug use. But let's not pretend that there aren't any issues that may arise as an unintended consequence.
I'd recommend the book High Society, I'm not saying the concepts in the book would work - they might though - but it's a bloody interesting read.
Different ball game all together
Two friends in particular, one I've known since infant school and the other since early teens have smoked it heavily since their early-mid teens and both deny it has affected their mental health in any shape or form but as an outsider looking in, I would say otherwise. Agoraphobia, major panic attacks, driving 250 miles to the coast to go on a 2 week holiday and then decide after 2 hours of being there that they dont want to be there and they want to go home again, leaving the three other people they went with behind and not telling them for 3 days where they'd gone, including his then girlfriend!!!
My brother has had major mental health issues. I've posted on here before about his diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. I've seen two friends and two work colleagues lives destroyed by it too. There is one very common denominator.
Is there a solution? Probably not. Its widespread now. Almost every night when I'm running around Bexley, as soon as you get near any set of traffic lights, you can smell it being pumped out of cars by the air con units. I was standing at the bus stop waiting for a bus the other day and two kids, early teens if that, were brazenly just standing there smoking it like a cigarette. No attempt to hide it. The Community Support officers just look at them and do nothing.
You can argue the pros and cons of legalising it all day long and you'd never get anyone to agree. I can actually see both sides too. At the end of the day though, the research says its causes mental health issues and I'll believe that because I've seen the damage it can cause first hand. Of course, it wont affect every one the same. Its like smoking cigarettes. Some will smoke 40-a-day for 50 years and live until they're 90 and then you'll have someone that develops terminal lung cancer through passive smoking in their late 30s. Everyone is dealt a different hand of cards.
Obviously the smokers of it will be defensive about it, dont blame them tbh. I would be if anyone tried to stop me having a beer at the end of a heavy week to unwind.
I dont know what the answer is. Individuals know the risks, they've got the knowledge to make their choices accordingly. However, to dismiss the research as not applicable to them would be foolish in my eyes.
[Fish, I'm not based at the IoP now, I'm at Whitechapel under Barts Health/QMUL but still involved with KCL and the IoP]
Secondly, the type of people who would smoke it in the same room as children are the type who sit around all day, spending their hard earned dole money on Jamaicas finest are already doing this...........
Regardless, what I'm saying though and from what I'm told by people who make a living out of studying the effects of drugs on society, the research states that it does act as an introduction to that "community" at the very least if you like. Like others, I get that one individuals experience may be vastly different from another's and on that basis they are going to get defensive of their choice to smoke it.
But, the facts of the matter are that it can, not always but can, lead to all sorts of negative impacts on the users lifestyle. My own view is very much that the use of cannabis is so far reaching now that we shortly may need to focus attention away from they legality of the issue and onto the long term health effects of regular use in the same way we do with tobacco.
Poor old maybe_baby he must be sitting there reading this and absolutely chomping to get involved.
For some predisposed, a gateway drug.
For the rest (the majority) it isnt.
Thanks for your comment anyway.