smoke signals

[BandAide]

:p Are there people out there who don’t smoke pot?

Lately, I feel as if I’m the only one!

I don’t smoke pot because I don’t want to. The end. It has nothing to do with pot being bad, addictive, evil, a gateway drug and blah, blah, blah. I just don’t feel like smoking it because I really like being sober. I love my life. I want to experience it and when I’m high, I’m unable to do that. I become very numb and glossy when I’m high. I would never be able to drive high. I can’t speak well. I’m not able to hold a conversation. I feel paranoid. Smoking pot is a pretty bad time for me. So, I choose not to do it.

I also choose not to smoke pot because I don’t want to smoke anything. The air pollutes my lungs enough, I don’t need any extra help.

I understand that many people who are reading this post will not share my experience. Are there any people here who do?

I can’t help but notice a lot of posts that lump all people who don’t smoke marijuana into these anti-drug warriors who are misinformed and ignorant and don’t understand the value of the plant. Or, as stupid, mindless zombies who live their lives glued to the television watching Fox 5 and Rupert Murdoch’s latest ploy to keep America hanging on her right wing. How weird is that? I, and most other educated people, understand the medicinal, spiritual and positive effects of ingesting marijuana and believe it should be legalized. I simply don’t choose it for my own life; just as I don’t choose to smoke cigarettes. Just like I don’t choose to wear tons of make-up. Just like I don’t choose to go tanning. Just like I don’t choose to wear artificial nails or worship any God. I, personally, think all drugs should be legalized because in theory, no one should be able to tell anyone what they can or can not do with their body. But that’s a whole different thread altogether!

[Evil Hippie]

I smoke weed, but I really like your veiw on things. :)
Very Cool :cool:

[toman]

I totally understand what you're saying, and it's no problem for me... I know plenty of people who don't smoke or do so rarely, and it's fine! But, it seems like the people I'm closest to and have the most in common smoke, or at least used to. For me, herb just works really well with my personality and mindset and I find that it does nothing but enhance the quality of my life. But I do understand that people react to different substances differently, and I think there are some that are equally evil in all people despite how many people do it and seem to have no problems. My biggest example is alcohol; no matter how strong you think you are or how little you plan to drink, my advice is this: Don't ever, ever do it. At the very best, it won't do much damage. But the odds are pretty good it will have a negative impact in one way or another, and if you're like a lot of people it will completely fuck your life up. So yeah... if you don't want to smoke grass, thats cool... by the way, are you sure the stuff you've smoked in the past has been decent quality? It makes a big difference...

[BandAide]

Yep. I'm certain I've smoked some pretty good stuff. Like you, Toman, people I find myself drawn to generally smoke a lot of herb. My husband (who has a daily pot smoking habit) and I once had a roomate who was a marijuana connoisseur of sorts and I passed out (literally) after puffing the tinsiest, weansiest bit. I have wondered if perhaps what I have smoked has been too good and too strong.

I remember in high school when we'd get bags that were all shake and stems and seed. And I remember how crappy that felt, but now the feeling is that but magnified by 1000.

I've tried to like it. I've wanted to like it. I'm pro-it (as much as the next girl.) I just don't dig it.

You don't drink? Do you smoke cigarettes?

I agree that alcohol is a pretty poisonous substance. It's physically addictive and pretty much corrodes your body from liver to skin, dehydrating and aging you all the while and laden with empty calories. That being said, wine is one of my guilty pleasures. When indulging, I try to focus on how good it can be for one's heart ;) .

I had a semester abroad in England and our only beverage options at dinner time were wine or water. Drinking is popularly accepted and even encouraged. When I came home I looked like a shriviled up version of my once hydrated self.

[ladywithafan]

I still consume weed on occasion, but I agree with you band aid. My bf and I won't smoke it, but we make brownies or some other confection and usually eat it. I like to eat it than smoke it b/c it isn't bad for my system. Some people just can't handle weed. And as for alcohol.... I think that it is good in moderation. I like to have a tall Guinness with my meal sometime. And I love to go to a laid back bar that is playing kick ass music and have a good conversation with someone while drinking some dark beer. that is just how I am though. Of course if all you do is drink alcohol, or pop for that matter, you will not be in the best condition.......

[delta9]

It's totally cool if you don't smoke. No drug works for everyone. No one is saying, I hope, that *everyone* should smoke. But certainly most people can agree that certain people *should* be able to smoke. The thing is, no one that I know who smokes is trying to convince everyone to smoke, like everyone should be doing it. However, it's a lot more prevelent that sober people try to tell smokers they should be sober, too. It's kind of like how most highly religious people are a lot more likely to try to convince you of their religion if you're not coaligned, and that we all know is a pointless excersize.

Maybe I'm just saying live and let live? Acceptence for individualism?

[wyldflower]

That's a good point you bring up about how simplistic it is to reduce the isssue to either/or. Personally, I've never been able to explain myself to other people in those terms when it comes to pot, cigarettes, or alcohol.

Pot I'll indulge in every couple months or so -- not because it's not available (my boyfriend also has a daily habit) but because I don't like to experience the effects of it on a regular basis. What I do enjoy about it, I don't like to feel all the time. I get lazy. My mind feels hazy and heavy. But it's nice every now and then. Does that make me a smoker, and addict, in some people's eyes? Maybe, probably, but how reductive and ridiculous is that -- to label someone on the basis of something they do, literally, for only a few hours out of any given year? I'm glad other people here seem to understand.

And, for me, it's the same in differing degrees with alcohol and cigarettes. I like a good glass or two of red wine. It's lovely with food, carries a pleasant, warm "buzz," and as BandAide said, it's good for the heart. I usually have wine a few times a week. Does that make me an alcoholic? I don't think so.

Cigarettes I smoke when I'm under a lot of pressure, like when I have a twenty page paper due the next day and have only two pages written. Then I start smoking -- probably not the healthiest thing, but I always stop when the pressure eases and don't have any cigarettes for months at a time.

Can I be a smoker and a non-smoker, both? Can I go back and forth between one and the other? Or does it just make more sense to say that I'm neither and to stop labeling people by what they choose to put or not put in their bodies?

[BandAide]

Hey Wyldflower,

I have a 25 page paper due in 8 days and I have NOTHING written. I have, oh idunno, maybe 200 pages of research still waiting to be soaked into my brain and an 8 month old who wants all of my attention all of the time.

Talk about smoke signals...

If cigarettes relaxed me... I'd be a chimney.

If crack relaxed me... I'd be an addict.

[wyldflower]

They don't relax me, but they do keep me awake and focused in a broodingily intense haze of (I often fear pointless) abstraction.

They make me wheeze, too -- never a good thing.

I can't imagine doing this with an 8 month old! How do you manage?

[toman]

I guess I'll throw it out here: I'm physically adicted to alcohol. I started drinking seriously shortly after I lost my job. I couldn't pass a drug test, so i started drinking, which I knew i had a problem with. A year later, I have a serious drinking problem. I'm drunk right now. I have smoked pot for ten years, off and on for years at a time, never having a problem with it. I want to quit drinking more than anything in the world and I can't. I hope this gives a little inspiration to someone... the herb is a beautiful thing, meant to give us beauty and inspiration. Alcohol is evil; given to us to make us dependent on evil; capitalism, greed and hate. Don't make the same mistake I've made, think for yourself and use what nature has given you, not what you society has forced upon you in order to make an otherwise indivual nothing more than a tool in a system that exploits human beings into nothing more than sheep.

[BandAide]

Toman,

That's a pretty big deal you just typed in that little box.

Have you checked into resourses in your area who can help you with alcoholism?

I can really understand the temptation of alcohol, though I'm not physically addicted to it. My sister died almost two years ago and the only thing that made me feel any better at the time was wine. I was only happy after I'd had a few glasses. It got to the point where I was drinking a large bottle every night. Then I got pregnant and I had to stop drinking. But in the few months when I was drinking so much, I felt horrible. I gained 20 pounds, I was depressed, dehydrated and perpetually hung over. Yet, drinking made me feel better... so I'd just drink until I was spending less and less time sober.

Do you have support from your family and social group? Are they aware of your feelings about this?

[delta9]

The thing is, Toman, you can indeed beat it. I'm 38 days into no cigarettes (and I've been smoking for many years). It feels so good to have beaten my physical addiction - and you can too!

[moonflower]

I smoke pot way too much I've decided, it consumes my day which is never good, but ciggerettes are the worst things in my life right now. I tried quitting and quit for 9 days but I got stressed and eased into the comfort of a cigg. I hate breathing ahrd after stairs, I hate waking up in the morning and weezing- I need to quit once and for all. Does anyone have any suggestions of ways to quit? Natural remedies?
Peace
Kat

[suneshinenflowers]

Why quit smoking or drinking you guys? So you can be healthy and get shot, unsuspecting, in your home one day? At least lung cancer is a sure bet. I am, even now, sucking delightfully on a ciggarette, visions of blackened lungs dancing in my head. :rolleyes:

[delta9]

Physical addiction is my main reason. Towards moonflower, here (http://www.happyhippie.com/vb/showthread.php?p=187) is the story of how I quit the dirty little camel.

[wyldflower]

Wow, everyone, I have to admit that I find the discussion of addiction a little bit baffling. I know addiction is a serious problem. I know it ruins lives...

But I can't be the only one who can pick things up and put them down again -- smoke cigarettes for a week while I'm under pressure and then put them down again for four months, smoke some weed or eat a brownie once in a blue moon, have a few glasses of wine without any inclination to get plastered. I know I'm not the only one without the addiction gene. Am I?

Seems to me there's a difference between addiction and habit. A habit is something you get used to doing, but you can decide to stop, and stop without more than a little temporary discomfort. An addiction is a dependency. You can't stop without serious consequences.

So, I don't know. I had a point, but I've lost track of it. I guess it was that before you can talk about "quitting," you have to know whether you're dealing with a habit or an addiction.

For all the good that people claim about pot over alcohol, it can be just as addictive and just as destructive. There are people I know who smoke weed not because they enjoy it or because it's a beautiful gift from God, but because if they didn't, they would suffer serious physical and emotional consequences. That sucks. It's evil -- not the substance but the addiction. And observing them, I think, is one of the reasons I choose to smoke so rarely. I'm glad I have the choice, but thinking about them makes me sad, and I wish they would/could get help.

And Toman, for whatever it's worth, I hope you find some way to deal with your alcoholism. You don't seem like a "drunk" here at all, but really as one of the more thoughtful, insightful people...

[delta9]

But I can't be the only one who can pick things up and put them down again -- smoke cigarettes for a week while I'm under pressure and then put them down again for four months, smoke some weed or eat a brownie once in a blue moon, have a few glasses of wine without any inclination to get plastered. I know I'm not the only one without the addiction gene. Am I?
You're not without an addiction gene, you just never got addicted. Believe me, you can't call smoking cigarettes for a week coming in contact with any kind of addiction, nor can you call having a few glasses of wine without any inclination to get plastered coming close to reaching alcohol dependence. What you're talking about is experimenting and touching the edges of these things... Thankfully, and I wholly suggest you continue the route you are on with any substance, you have never had to come to grips with actual ADDICTION and DEPENDENCE.

I once thought the same way you do.... but my life sent me through a different path, and I no longer believe the way you do :).

I mean, just because I've done cocaine a few times but feel no desire to do so now, does not mean I'm immune to becoming addicted to cocaine... It just means I didn't go very far into it, and I didn't find it that enjoyable ;). I don't know, this is what I am *really* trying to convey to you - don't think for a second that just because you can "touch" these other substances and be fine that it will always be so with every substance, or even the same substances forever. Hubris has brought many a great person down... You may not have gotten physically addicted to nicotine or alcohol in your life (or for that matter, marijuana to what little extent it CAN), but that doesn't mean heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamines WON'T hook you - and it doesn't mean just because you weren't hooked on the first time around that you won't be later (you may one day find yourself on another one of those week long binges of cigarette smoking and continue on...). DON'T get addicted to anything, please. Addiction is, like you said, evil. DON'T overestimate yourself or underestimate these substances.

You're also confusing part of habit with addiction and dependence, I think. Or we're just all reading from different personal dictionaries - these things happen with online meetings :).

[wyldflower]

I guess it's all a matter of how you look at it. Maybe we are looking at different dictionaries, but I see a difference between the terms habit and addiction. They're not quite synonyms.

Also, if I seemed (or seem) to be indulging in a bit of hubris, perhaps it is because I have not expressed myself very well or filled in enough details.

When I was in my early twenties, I did smoke A LOT more, like almost a pack a day. I smoked weed almost every day, and hung around with other people who did. I also "experimented" with a number of other substances. I chose to be unsober more often than not because I was enjoying myself. My friends seemed to be enjoying themselves, too.

To make a long story short, I eventually got tired of it. Bored is actually a better word. As BandAide described in her first post, I decided I rather enjoyed sobriety instead. I don't know how to explain it other than that I just lost interest. Over a period of a coupole of months, I gradually stopped putting these substances in my body on a regular basis.

Now, almost ten years later, some of those same friends are stilll doing what they did then -- not because they enjoy it, not because they aren't bored, not because they don't want to stop throwing their money away. They don't change their behavior because they CAN'T without serious consequences.

That's where my experience differes from theirs, and that is where I see the difference between habit and addiction.

I would hardly call where I am now, "experimenting and touching the edges of these things." Believe me, I've been way past experimenting and touching the edges. What I've found over time is moderation and balance, and I'm lucky to have done so.

Medical research has shown that there IS an addiction gene. Some people have it, but many people don't. For people who have that gene, even limited use of substances will trigger dependance. You're right in saying that I haven't experienced dependance, but it's not for lack of trying. Maybe I should be less confident and more careful. Maybe my "trigger" will be activated down the line, but I have no reason to think so.

My experience has been fundamentally different from that of my friends and people like them, and my point before was simply that we should make a distinction between habit and addiction, because it can make all the difference in how a person deals with "quitting" something.

[delta9]

Ah, thanks for the explanation, I was off base in some of my thinking...

I wasn't saying that addiction and habit are the same thing, and neither were you. We'll just leave it there, for now.

Scientifically speaking, there's mental addiction and there's physical addiction. You are physically addicted to things like water, oxygen, and food. You will suffer physically in the absence of these things. Of course, all of those things can cause you death without - but so can going cold turkey from a real bad heroin addiction. If you've never suffered DTS, you've never personally come to grips with actual physical dependence on alcohol. That is addiction. That is ugly.

Mental addictions... like talking to people, reading, listening to your favorite band... are just about everywhere in everything. Many substances are both mentally and physically addictive. In fact, I'd even say MOST are, in these fairly loose definitions we're speaking here (in actual medical/scientific terms, only drugs carry addictions of either kind, we're just expanding it out for our purposes here).

Smoked for years, but have you walked through a parking lot at three-thirty in the morning looking for reburns because you hadn't had a cigarette in two days? Of course not, you've never been addicted. ;)


Now, almost ten years later, some of those same friends are stilll doing what they did then -- not because they enjoy it, not because they aren't bored, not because they don't want to stop throwing their money away. They don't change their behavior because they CAN'T without serious consequences.
Are these your words or theirs? Not that I want to turn this thread into banter between us, but this goes back to what I said earlier... The "straight" crowd are a lot more likely to put their views onto the rest than vice versa. Again, I don't want to make this thread about you or your friends, but I mean, honestly, how can you say if they enjoy it, are entertained by it, think they are or are not wasting money on it, or think they can't stop without serious consequences? The simple answer, is of course, because they told you so! Which is totally acceptable...

However, in my experience, and all of us experience life differently, of course, I've found that people who were (and now I'm going to head back to hemp) smoking in their younger years purely socially and as a diversion, eventually come to a point where they no longer find it a good diversion (like yourself, wyldflower)... Unfortunately, they tend to think their reasons for doing it are the only ones, and they like to tell their friends "still doing the same old shit" they should quit because they're addicted and it's holding them back.......... To me, these people were doing it for all the wrong reasons in the first place.

(wyldflower: thank you very much for "sparking" that for me... while I am talking towards you and using your words as examples into what I am talking about, I do not really mean YOU - I'm commenting on a more general situation, you just helped me find an example and the right words)


Medical research has shown that there IS an addiction gene. Some people have it, but many people don't. For people who have that gene, even limited use of substances will trigger dependance.
Right, but it's directed at specifics and there's a lot of other factors involved. And even then, some people have addictive personalities and can get addicted to ANYTHING. What I was saying in reference to you was, I guarantee, you snort strong cocaine habitually for several months, you will become physically dependent, regardless of whether you are with or without any "addiction gene", because the substance is physically addictive! The chemical changes your cellular structure to NEED it, and that is physical addiction. Some people's bodies may more quickly change to accomidate these substances, but no one's body is stopping it from happening.

That's what I meant by the whole hubris thing... At the time I was assuming you were somewhat younger (as you can probably tell) and I was trying to convince you moderation is the way - but you already knew that :).

Still, the point is there, reinforced twice now, for young readers to take in, and that's what makes this all worth it...

Meh. I should go do something, like work ^_^

[wyldflower]

A couple of things to respond to (sometimes, directly to what you said delta9, and sometimes just in a general sense of trying to work things out):

First, I don’t agree with the idea that ” You are physically addicted to things like water, oxygen, and food” or that there are “Mental addictions... like talking to people, reading, listening to your favorite band.”

We are dependent on things like food water, oxygen, and sleep. We need them to survive, but we’re not addicted to them, because the initial choice is not ours. We form habits for things like talking to people, listening to music, reading, biting our nails, etc., but we are neither addicted to nor dependent on them.

I’m making a distinction between dependence, habit, and addiction that has to do with choice. And I’ll be a nerd and quote the dictionary (OED online):

Dependence
“The relation of having existence hanging upon, or conditioned by, the existence of something else; the fact of depending upon something else.”

There’s no choice involved.

Habit
“A settled disposition or tendency to act in a certain way, esp. one acquired by frequent repetition of the same act until it becomes almost or quite involuntary; a settled practice, custom, usage; a customary way or manner of acting.”

There is always some choice involved.

Addicted
“Attached by one's own act”

Addiction
“A compulsion and need to continue taking a drug as a result of taking it in the past.”

There is choice involved at the beginning, but gradually, the power of choice begins to erode, and habit turns into dependency.

Second, why do I care about this enough to blabber on at such length? Not because I’m interested in getting into an argument with anyone, but because the one person in this life who means the world to me is addicted to the herb, and the consequences aren’t good. By this I mean that when he is unable to smoke for more than a day (for whatever reasons), he begins to have horrible mood swings that worsen over time, has trouble eating and sleeping, can’t concentrate, becomes suicidal…

There’s no choice involved here, and it’s not about what his reasons for smoking are, or mine (or yours for that matter). It’s not about “the "straight" crowd […] put[ting] their views onto the rest.” It’s about a medical condition, which is not analogous to breathing, or eating, or biting one’s nails. And it shouldn’t be viewed in the same way.

Obviously, not everyone who smokes weed or cigarettes, drinks coffee, or snorts coke develops this condition. And, again, it’s not about what one’s reasons are for doing it in the first place. One may initially seek pleasure, entertainment, enlightenment, inspiration, conformity, relaxation…

Who has the right to judge someone else’s reasons as right or wrong?

(BTW, I haven’t made any presumptions about your reasons, delta9, so why do you assume I was one who smoked in my “younger years purely socially and as a diversion”? I never said that those were my reasons -- nor are they now when I choose to smoke. I said that I gained enjoyment, which hardly scratches the surface. Nor did I say that I reached a point where I “no longer find it a good diversion.” I said that it no longer became a good way to spend ALL of my time. And I never said anything about how my old friends “should quit because they're addicted and it's holding them back..........” What I said was that some of them, like my significant other, no longer have much choice.

For some people, whatever their initial or even ongoing reasons, for choosing to do what they do, that choice goes away…

Maybe they are the ones with “addictive personalities.” Maybe they have the gene variation:

“Researchers have discovered that one of the genes is responsible for the sensation of pleasure. Roughly 10 percent of the population has a variation of this pleasure-seeking gene, known as the A-1 variation. People with the A-1 variation have fewer receptor cells in the brain for dopamine, the chemical associated with pleasure. That may inhibit their ability to feel “normal” levels of pleasure. Addictive behaviors boost the production of dopamine, which may increase stimulation to those few pleasure receptors. Investigators have found 50 percent of patients with addiction problems have the A-1 gene variation. The researchers theorize the need for pleasure-receptor stimulation may lead to the development of addictive behaviors.” http://www.wtajtv.com/health/addicgen.html

I’m not saying that the potential doesn’t exist for addiction to develop in everyone. The jury still seems to be out on that. What I am suggesting, though, and what research seems to suggest, is that some people, i.e. people with this gene variation, are more likely to engage in behaviors, such as “snort[ing] strong cocaine habitually for several months,” that lead to addiction.

Maybe, and this is pure speculation, what I started to feel back then was a habit in the process of turning into an addiction. Maybe I started to feel my power of choice eroding. Maybe that feeling had something to do with why my behavior changed. Maybe I was lucky, but it just may be that some people never get that feeling to warn them…

[theREALsun]

may I suggest a great book to anyone and everyone.....
its called "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey
anyone heard of it?
its a memoir and its brillant

i only skimmed through the previous replies in this post
but
i do want to say just this.....
my best friend my whole life, my brother,
is a heroine addict
there is nothing more horrific (that i have experienced)
than watching someone you love destroy themselves.
whats amazing though,
is that i find myself carrying an addiction as well
not of a physical kind
a co-dependancy issue
i feel like i ride the same rollercoaster as my brother
i have an addiction to him
and trying to help him
its unhealthy
its not fair

addiction makes you someone out of character
with physical addictions
the drugs make you into someone you cannot control
the drugs control you
this was a eye opener for me
i have always believed that the only way to find any kind of truth
was within yourself
which i still believe
serious addicitons can change the person

***********************************
as for smoking weed.....
its a personal preference
never would i judge someone on their smoking preference
i enjoy refers
but if someone else doesn't
i respect that
***********************************
i think that i lost my train of thought

so, Have a nice day :D

[spaced]

Hey, it's your choice, but your missing out I'm telling you.

[mamasharones]

Right on! I mean I don't think that being a hippy means that you have to smoke pot. And I hate those people that think that all hippies smoke pot. I don't think drugs are for anyone and at least you realize that and no it's not for you. The worlds already full of people that do things for stupid reasons and at least your not one of them. I totally agree with you. And if some one is gonna hate on you cause you don't smoke what does that say about them? It just shows you don't get sucked into what people think you should do rather than what you think you should do!