Posted by tancu on January 4, 2003, at 11:34:02
In reply to Re: What's so bad about Marijuana?, posted by michael73 on January 3, 2003, at 13:21:54
Hello to everyone, and thank you all very much for sharing your experiences. Upon reading the entire thread I felt compelled to offer up some facts about cannabis that have gone unmentioned thus far. Scientists in the late 80’s classified marijuana as a “natural psychedelic”, although there is no evidence that it typically produces the visual hallucinations associated with the use of other natural psychedelics such as mescaline (Physiological Psychology 3d ed. 1986). What makes this classification seem haphazard is the nearly complete absence, well into the 1980’s, of scientific research into marijuana’s effects on the nervous system. It seems to have been classified as a psychedelic simply because it alters consciousness in a way that has yet to be clearly defined. I invite anyone who believes that the neurological effects of marijuana and the cellular mechanisms involved are even remotely defined to spend an hour or so reviewing the literature. You will immediately notice a very large number of incongruities. Perhaps the most obvious incongruity is the notion perpetuated by our government that marijuana is best classified as a “dangerous drug with no medicinal use”—a “Class 1 narcotic”—possessed and used by “criminals”. The definition of “narcotic” is any substance (usually an opiate) that induces profound sleep, lethargy, and relief of pain. Marijuana is clearly not derived from the opium poppy, and while varying doses may induce “profound sleep” in some people others report anxiety, confusion, paranoia, withdrawal, talkativeness, elation, enhanced sensation and creativity, increased libido, the munchies, etc. There could easily be hundreds of psychosocial factors at work here that may prove to be as “affective” as the hundreds of psychopharmacological and neurological factors that clearly exist in “some” form to “some” extent. I won’t even mention the facts that fiberboard made from hemp (even the kind that don’t get’cha high) is stronger than concrete, that hemp textiles/cloth are hundreds of times stronger than current materials such as cotton, or that you don’t need pesticides to grow hemp…thanks.
IMHO--pot is truly a mystery...we seem to know more about black-holes and quantum physics than we know about pot...wonder why?
poster:tancu
thread:133136
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021230/msgs/134451.html