Time for a rethink?

A married couple I know have smoked it for over 20 years,and they're both suffering from schizophrenia. Whether it's cause and effect,I don't know,but there seems to be a pattern emerging as regards this particular drug and mental health issues.

Reebok Trotter wrote:I know somebody who is a plasterer by trade. He is in his late fifties and has been a casual cannabis user for at least fifteen years. He only smokes it at weekend and isn't aggressive or psychotic or anything like that but I have noticed a definite change in his behaviour. He is a lot more lethargic and is nowhere as sharp as he was fifteen years ago.

I wouldn't feel comfortable about employing him for a plastering job.

Come on Reebok Trotter, who is as sharp in their late fifties as they were in their early/mid thirties?

I used to smoke it a lot but I haven't had a chuff in over ten years now. I gave it up because of the cost.

I've never tried what folk class as hard drugs, I've never even seen them. I don't even take over the counter drugs like Lemsip or paracetamol.

It's the weak minded and the people who don't know their limit or the dangers of over indulgence in drugs (alcohol included).

Having said what I have, I wouldn't legalise it or follow the Colorado experiment or the Dutch way. It just wouldn't work here because it would be too expensive to buy (we like to tax the fook out of everything) and folk would still want to get it on the black market (like vodka, ciggies and other legal drugs).

You would have to know the guy to know what I mean. He was as sharp as a button before he started on the wacky baccy. He used to play darts to a decent standard but now he is a shell of his former self. I'm not convinced that marijuana/cannabis doesn't have any long term effects but I could be wrong. I think some people might be more susceptible to the side effects than others but his missus never smoked it and she is still in good shape. If you saw them sat together you would never know they were husband and wife.

Reebok Trotter wrote:I know somebody who is a plasterer by trade. He is in his late fifties and has been a casual cannabis user for at least fifteen years. He only smokes it at weekend and isn't aggressive or psychotic or anything like that but I have noticed a definite change in his behaviour. He is a lot more lethargic and is nowhere as sharp as he was fifteen years ago.

I wouldn't feel comfortable about employing him for a plastering job.

Ha! I think I know who you mean. Does he live in Farnworth? His neighbours have started calling him Fungi, off benefits street, he's a wreck! He was looking after 2 young kids and he was off his head at an early kickoff, not that long ago.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:
It's sad when people have to depart reality on a more permanent basis, how low and lacking in self esteem must you get?

Are you talking about Angry Dad?

I think I'd have to say that the comment I made is more likely to fall at an attention seeker's door like you than Angry Dad's!?!

Does Angry Dad smoke cannabis?   

It could explain his nocturnal rants!   

Fair enough Reebok Trotter, we're all different and it sounds like the chap that you know needs to get off it pronto.

We have told him but he just laughs it off and pretends it isn't a problem. He wrote his car off some time back when he crashed into a drystone wall. He claimed a fox ran in front of him and he swerved to avoid it. I certainly wouldn't get in a car if he was driving. I prefer to drive myself as I have never been comfortable putting my life into another persons hands.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/this-is-how-much-the-uk-would-actually-make-if-it-taxed-cannabis?utm_source=vicefbuk

Good article that examines the economic benefits I was getting at.

Good to see all the comments at the end of the blog from folk who are battling for general acceptance of their habit!

Soul Kitchen wrote:Good to see all the comments at the end of the blog from folk who are battling for general acceptance of their habit!

  

You're not even capable of putting a proper dig together SK! I just came across an article today so thought I'd stick it on there for anybody interested. This thread was never intended to be about the moral or political arguments, just economic.

In fairness I wouldn't recommend you going anywhere near cannabis, I don't think you've got the brain cells to spare.

To be fair, though.....

All the negative comments about weed/cannabis/whatever you want to call it nowadays are coming from outsiders who have nothing but overwhelmingly negative comments about its effects on the brain, based off empirical evidence of people they have actually known in real life.

The "Oh, weed's great, so leave us alone because you don't even smoke it, so what do you know?" crew are only putting up their own experiences as proof that it doesn't fuck your brain up.

Hardly conclusive evidence is it, given that you wouldn't know that it's frying your brain, would you really...?

Clegg's on the right track at last - 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28703142

Shouldn't be long until we see sense and stop filling our prisons with drug users at massive cost to the tax payer.

It's a pity he'll never be in a position do fuck all about it!
I would have thought even in your puffing haze you'd see that?

Surely even you can recognise the importance of a mainstream 'big 3' political party making a statement like this SK?

It's not rocket science.

No it's not rocket science,  it's vote time!!
Clegg must be really desperate for votes if he has to get the druggies on side!?! 
Hold on, he is!!!!!!  

Very true, Im sure appealing to the younger voter who see the war on drugs for what it really is would be his main motivation here. But it's still massive progress to have this sort of opinion in mainstream politics and getting over what's been a taboo subject for far too long.

Nick Clegg has proved himself to be a political joke.

His party abandoned all their policies at the first hint of a coalition with the Tories.

He's spent the last few years cosying up to Cameron and going along with everything he's said and done but now, suddenly, because it's nearing election time, he's trying to convince us that he's a serious politician again and is desperately trying to put some distance between himself and the Tories.

Does he think that all these pricks who waste all their time smoking weed will actually get off their arses and go and vote for him......?


It's a shallow trick and if he's so desperate that he's having to resort to trying to get the feckless stoner vote, he really is fucked.




Good - he deserves to be a laughing stock in my opinion.

So you think that people should be locked up for drug use? 

Despite the fact prisons are over-crowded and cost an ever growing fortune .

And despite all studies/rational thought indicating it does nothing to help prevent re-offending or help re-habilitate them into society?