I was dealing with my mail last week with one ear on BBC Radio Four's Women's Hour and was well annoyed when some bod or other arrived on the prog and starts waffling about cannabis. Sadly it was mostly the same old tosh. I used cannabis for over 20 years and of course, inhaled it enthusiastically. It never made me ill unless I was stupid enough to drink copious amounts of alcohol first, and I only recall a couple of people who it really seemed to disagree with.
I gave it up overnight without a problem or even intention, when I realised I was hopelessly addicted to tobacco and gave that up for health reasons. I had tried to stop smoking for years without success but finally succeeded via the cold turkey method. After a fortnight of taking long walks, sucking on mints, munching comfort foods and occupying myself with various distractions, i realised i had finally succeeded. I also realised I had not smoked any cannabis for a fortnight although this was not my intention.
I have never believed that organic natural cannabis was particularly dangerous or addictive and many years of experience have only served to convince me that i am right. I do however believe it should be eaten rather than smoked (smoke of all kinds is not good for the lungs unless you are keen on developing cardio vascular problems) and I also believe it should not be used by people under 18 who generally dont seem to be able to use it wisely. I really do not recommend the use of "skunk" which is usually just genetically manipulated crap often full of unknown chemicals, and as I always avoid GM crops, I see no good reason to make an exception here.
Skunk weed is of course very high in THC which does get you very high, but there's more to getting high than THC. Normally, Cannabis also contains other cannabinols which do seem to stabilize and regulate the high so users dont normally go doolally, or develop a grumbling psychosis and acute symptoms of paranoia. This latter, is usually controllable with organic cannabis and a bit of paranoia is quickly recognised as an indication that the dope is of reasonably good quality.
Having said this, i still think that getting off your face all day and every day, starting with a death bong for breakfast and finishing off the day with a fat spliff for bedtime is not a good idea. If you have important or urgent or dangerous work to do, smoking dope is best left till after you finish. When health and Government bodies started to take a serious interest in the issues associated with cannabis use, I did what I could to help. I worked with my MP who was a supporter of Cannabis for pharmaceutical purposes and also gave info to the Police Foundation and to the House of Lords Select Committe on Cannabis in the hope that any new legislation would be sensible and based in facts rather than the usual ill-informed meddling. I viewed the downgrading of the drug to Class C as a move in the right direction and as this removed some of the naughtiness and glamour, use amongst young people seemed to fall.
There were always however, many who hated and resented this and who seized upon any opportunity to reverse this change. Skunk weed was just the weapon they needed. Quite a few young people used it but could not handle the effects and fetched up at the local psychiatric ward thinking they were talking to god. Young people often do this with whatever they can get their hands on, whether it be alcohol or solvents but the authorities should wise up to the fact that no matter what the drug, there is an important difference between use and abuse.
Seizing on poor evidence the Government next decided to reverse its declassification despite evidence and advice to the contrary from is own advisors. This has ???????? torestored the illegal glamour and seems likely to actually promote cannabis use rather than reduce it. This is what happens when you have a stupid government which is convinced it knows best and proceeds to make repressive laws in a high handed manner. This lack of knowledge combined with the urgent need to be seen to be doing something is rather well illustrated by the fact that people are criminalised for taking a recreational drug such as cannabis or extasy but then forced to take fluoride in their drinking water under the mistaken belief that it will reduce tooth decay. As usual its a case of do as we say, not as we do.
In this tedius and repressive nanny state it is little wonder that many young people become bored and disillusioned and drift into doing nothing at all except smoking dope. The sixties generation were often attacked for getting wasted but the fact remains that many of us did in fact "get our shit together" If we had not done so, i dont think that there would be the trend to alternative medicine or organic farming or even the active environmental movement that there is today.
I firmly believe that cannabis does not make you anything you are not already. So if you are artistic, creative and active, it can enhance it, but equally if you are an unmotivated and lazy sod who just like to tosh about with like minded friends, then cannabis will help you perfect your laziness and self indulgence. Alas even larger numbers are doing the same with alcohol but I would certainly rather put my fate in the hands of a cannabis smoker than a drink sodden MP or Peer who seems to have only a very slight grasp on life and reality. We are ruled by people who should serve but who enter politics with the intention of ruling because they have low self esteem and like to feel important by talking about things which they know little or nothing of and then passing ill-judged legislation to compel everyone to do things they dont want to do and generally conform to a grey template cobbled together by a political halfwit and seat polisher who hasnt had an original idea since he or she left school.
Everything we eat and drink will have an effect on us depending on our personal level of sensitivity and the addictiveness or ability to form habits in our personalities. We should all stop living in this ad world fantasy and behaving like Homer Simpson, lay on the couch all day, eating crap food and watching crap TV. There is more to life than this and we should get off our collelctive arses and not blame cannabis, a natural euphoric and mild sedative for our own stupidity or laziness. If you, your son or your daughter smoke a lot of dope and turn into a lazy unmotivated layabout or basket case, its usually because that is what you or they were before they took it.
Cannabis often strips away the thin veneer of acting often referred to as personality and reveals the true being within. The only reason that many drugs including alcohol have any political power is because people make a lot of so called legitimate money out of them. Hemp is an extremely useful if not essential plant which could save us all from environmental disaster if we used it properly but do we use it sensibly? of course not. Its an easy soft target with no strong lobby in parliament or business to promote it, so no change.
If i was to put fluoride in your drinking water I would be condemned as a terrorist, but a government can do whatever it wants without proper consultation with those it effects and then proscribe anything that the public discovers on its own, whether this be cannabis or dancing all night. What breathtaking hypocrisy. I could go on about psychosis, crime and much else but when people are so stupid as to believe anything that politicians say, why should I bother? My only advice is both tried and tested and and dates back well before New Labour and its dire focus groups and the ravages of Health and Safety tyranny. ...... Do What Thou Wilt and Harm No One, For This Is The Whole of The Law
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