Cannabis

[Doc Alan]

Cannabis is most often used for its relaxing properties. Since its non-medical use is illegal in many countries including UK and Philippines, the number of users is only an estimate ( up to 200 million worldwide ). As with other illicit drugs, that's far fewer than for alcohol or tobacco.
Just how effective - and safe - is it ?
The plant is usually rolled into a cigarette, but can also be smoked in a pipe, brewed as a tea or mixed with food. It can't readily be injected. It's a mild sedative, releasing inhibitions, and is mildly hallucinogenic. Cannabis extract may be prescribed in the UK ( "Sativex" ) for multiple sclerosis.
1. Acute toxic effects / overdose : Unlike other common illicit drugs, it's difficult or impossible to overdose fatally on cannabis.
2. Intoxication : cannabis impairs thinking and behaviour, especially for sustained attention tasks like driving. There is a risk of road traffic accidents, but much less than that for alcohol.
3. Dependence : cannabis is the illicit drug most commonly used and most widely available. Despite this, it seems only a minority - perhaps 1/10 - become dependent. There is an association between use of alcohol and tobacco, followed by cannabis, and then other illicit drugs. Risk factors often co-occur - young males with social and family disadvantages, poor performance at school, and peer pressures. Psychotic illness like schizophrenia is more likely in vulnerable individuals. It's not proven to cause depression or suicide.
4. Chronic diseases : a. Emphysema ( increased size of air spaces in lungs due to damage ). As with tobacco smoke, common sense suggests that inhaling smoke from any burning object is harmful. There's some evidence that heavy cannabis users may be at risk of emphysema.
b. Cancer. Cannabis smoke contains cancer-forming substances, and it's often mixed with tobacco when smoked. But we don't know yet for sure whether or not cannabis itself causes cancer.
There are many problems in deciding how safe cannabis is. There is the unintended consequence of it being illegal. In such countries it's hard to get accurate data on usage and possible adverse health consequences. Despite use for thousands of years, there is less good evidence than you might expect. " Confounding variables " are the large number of chemicals ( around 400 ) in cannabis, and the fact that it's often taken with tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs. The whole topic is controversial, emotive, and influenced by a huge amount of anecdotal evidence. We don't even know how much harm from cannabis ( and other drugs ) derives from illegal status, or how much that status reduces its use.

[mickcant]

Very interesting, I am of the generation that has never even seen any drug except alchol.
Mick.

[Terpe]

An interesting, factual and well written piece

Like Mick, I've no experience of cannabis.

[Bluebirdjones]

... is this part of your planning application to open your coffee shop ?

[Tawi2]

mildly hallucinogenic

Only the Sativa,trippy-up high is how smokers describe it,very well written piece,I couldnt have put it better myself Oh,and there is or rather was a school of thought that were investigating whether cannabis could be used against cancer tumours,I do know that cannabis is documented as a medicinal plant going back thousands of years,the chinese first recorded it,good piece doc,none of the knee-jerk media hype
Little bit of pinoy info,pinas used to be the worlds 2'nd largest cannabis producing country according to DEA stats,several years ago a governmental minister called for the plant to be legalised in Pinas to increase tourism,and when I was there recently approx 600,000 plants were found on a plantation in Mindanao,apparently the locals didnt realise the plant was/is illegal???Their crop was guesstimated at 161 million pesos in value.

[imagine]

i smoked cannabis for about about 35 yrs, occasional sociably at 1st being young at that time,in my early 20s i began to use regulary , i had a dudinal ulcer , it helped with the pain,ever since then up to about 7 years ago i still used for pain,beleiving i still had an ulcer though having so many endiscopys which didnt find anything, but still suffered pain all those years, untill eventualy 7 yrs ago i was taken into hospital as emergency, which they found what this problem was i had suffered for so long, i had a perferated bowel,which when i ate, the reaction to most foods was liken to being poisend,
i had part of my bowel removed, and was at last free of pain, i continued to use cannabis untill just over 2 years ago, i couldnt stop smoking tobacco while using cannabis so it had to go, what i must add is in all that time i never became addicted to the weed,

in my generation all illegal drugs were available, perhaps its the circles you move in wether these things are noticed in your generation, but they have always been there

[Tawi2]

"Drug" is a scare word used by governments around the word to categorise marijuana,understand a little about prohibition and the effects of plants and you realise theres a lot of popular myths,lies and downright untruths spread about cannabis,I remember someone telling me about the new genetically modified "Skunk" weed purportedly 10x stronger than anything around,I still chuckle about that,I asked which lab did the THC gas chromatography test they looked puzzled and said they had read it in the Sun
J

an 10, 2012

Exposure to cannabis smoke, even over the long-term, is not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function. That’s the conclusion of a major clinical trial published today in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Investigators at the University of California, San Francisco analyzed the association between marijuana exposure and pulmonary function over a 20 year period in a cohort of 5,115 men and women in four US cities.

Predictably, researchers “confirmed the expected reductions in FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration) and FVC (forced vital capacity)” in tobacco smokers. By contrast, “Marijuana use was associated with higher FEV1 and FVC at the low levels of exposure typical for most marijuana users. With up to 7 joint-years of lifetime exposure (eg, 1 joint/d for 7 years or 1 joint/wk for 49 years), we found no evidence that increasing exposure to marijuana adversely affects pulmonary function.”

The study concludes, “Our findings suggest that occasional use of marijuana … may not be associated with adverse consequences on pulmonary function.”

To those familiar with the science of cannabis, JAMA’s findings should come as no great surprise. They are consistent with previous findings reporting no significant decrease in pulmonary function associated with moderate cannabis smoke exposure. For instance, according to a 2007 literature review conducted by researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (and summarized by NORML here), cannabis smoke exposure is not associated airflow obstruction (emphysema), as measured by airway hyperreactivity, forced expiratory volume, or other measures.

Further, in 2006, the results of the largest case-controlled study ever to investigate the respiratory effects of marijuana smoking reported that cannabis use was not associated with lung-related cancers, even among subjects who reported smoking more than 22,000 joints over their lifetime. (Read NORML’s summary of this study here.)

“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles stated. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect” among marijuana smokers who had lower incidences of cancer compared to non-users.

A previous 1997 retrospective cohort study consisting of 64,855 examinees in the Kaiser Permanente multiphasic health checkup in San Francisco and Oakland also reported, “[E]ver- and current use of marijuana were not associated with increased risk of cancer … of the following sites: colorectal, lung, melanoma, prostate, breast, cervix.”

Separate studies of cannabis smoke and pulmonary function have indicated that chronic exposure may be associated with an increased risk of certain respiratory complications, including cough, bronchitis, phlegm. However, the ingestion of cannabis via alternative methods such as edibles, liquid tinctures, or via vaporization — a process whereby the plant’s cannabinoids are heated to the point of vaporization but below the point of combustion –- virtually eliminates consumers’ exposure to such unwanted risk factors and has been determined to be a ‘safe and effective’ method of ingestion in clinical trial settings.

[Tawi2]

i couldnt stop smoking tobacco while using cannabis so it had to go

A lot of people who dont take tobbacco but use cannabis to counteract pain use a vaporister to inhale pure THC,CBD and other cannabinoids,I suspect due to your geographic location most of what you have used in the past 35 years has been hash,solid,soap bar etc.

[imagine]

i had been led to believe that skunk was geneticaly altered and had more harmful effects, though i had tried it , i did keep away from it for fear of harm, but besides that i found it too strong when all i needed at the time was the relaxing effect and pain releif and not being stoned out of my head,but i dont need it anymore

this area of scotland is limited to soap bar, and just a few others, where as when i lived in yorkshire, there was much more choice and plenty of, black,gold seal,slate , leb,and others,
many other drugs readily available such as acid, E,s speed, coke, and not to forget magic mushrooms

[Tawi2]

believe that skunk was geneticaly altered

Fallacy mate,media gutter-press scaremongering,I could even give you the lineage of the original Skunk off the top of my head,skunk is a generic street word for weed nowadays though that is being overtaken by the more popular generic cheese,I knew you were in soap country

[imagine]

doc alan enlightened me on the false belief that it was geneticaly altered a while back, so im better informed now

[Tawi2]

doc alan enlightened me on the false belief that it was geneticaly altered a while back, so im better informed now

I lived in asmterdam for a while mate,met some strange people doing even stranger jobs,newspapers like to control people with their stories of triffid like plants

[imagine]

I lived in asmterdam for a while mate,met some strange people doing even stranger jobs,newspapers like to control people with their stories of triffid like plants

i had one long weekend there, caffee's and window shopping

[Doc Alan]

Thank you all for your contributions so far
I have also never taken illicit drugs. During my working lifetime, of the many fatal cases I concluded were due to such drug use, none were due to cannabis.
For members of this non-medical forum, I prefer to explain what original articles have said wherever possible. Far from " dumbing down ", it's to save their time . The one from JAMA ( Journal of American Medical Association ) quoted by Tawi2 is, like many others, only obtained by payment / subscription in any case.
JAMA commented as follows:-
" Marijuana smoke contains many of the same constituents as tobacco smoke, but whether smoking marijuana causes pulmonary damage similar to that caused by tobacco is unclear. In an analysis of data from 5115 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which included repeated measures of pulmonary function and smoking habits during 20 years of follow-up, Pletcher and colleagues found that occasional or low cumulative marijuana use was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function. "
In other words, occasional users may not have breathing difficulties . Dependence is also far less likely with cannabis than other illicit drugs. It's probably easier to give up than tobacco smoking when either / both are infrequent.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/current

[Tawi2]

Doc you have a well balanced perspective on the subject,like yourself I have never taken any illegal drug,though I was partial to coffee for a while but I knocked that on the head one day when it gave me palpitations,theres a plethora of books explaining why cannabis/marijuana is illegal,but I bought a couple of pairs of trousers earlier this week from wickes DIY stores,it was only when I got home and looked at the label I found they are made from...........Hemp

[imagine]

Doc you have a well balanced perspective on the subject,like yourself I have never taken any illegal drug,though I was partial to coffee for a while but I knocked that on the head one day when it gave me palpitations,theres a plethora of books explaining why cannabis/marijuana is illegal,but I bought a couple of pairs of trousers earlier this week from wickes DIY stores,it was only when I got home and looked at the label I found they are made from...........Hemp

stone washed ?

myself when younger i did experiment with different drugs, those being acid, speed or whizz , coke,magic mushrooms,i would also steal my mothers supply of librium, all these only occasionaly just enough to satisfy curiousity, i would even back then never had considered long term abuse,

[Tawi2]

Just bog standard Hemp trousers,hardwearing and longlasting,Levi Strauss original trousers were made from bolts of hemp cloth

[imagine]

Just bog standard Hemp trousers,hardwearing and longlasting,Levi Strauss original trousers were made from bolts of hemp cloth

if they start getting tight and feel like they giving you a wedgie , then you know their high

[Tawi2]

I have just been looking online at an exceedingly stylish and futuristic house in the states,built entirely from hemp/cannabis,they are having to import their building materials from the UK as its illegal to gorw it over there,though legal here under government licence,its being called the Hempcrete house,though i think Canncrete has more of a ring to it Theres actually a number of canncrete houses in the UL including the Grand-Designs housing estate in swindon

"Hempcrete is a bio-composite that blends industrial hemp with a special lime-based binder which is then formed into building blocks. The building material is lighter, stronger and more elastic than concrete and is able to absorb and hold sunlight, making it highly sustainable. Other than offering high thermal insulation, hempcrete blocks will also pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it, offsetting the building’s construction.

[Terpe]

Now that info about hempcrete blocks is very interesting. First I've heard about that.
Worth doing research I reckon. Who knows what might develop

[Tawi2]

Hemp?I could ramble on about it for hours Most people hear the word cannabis and recoil in horror brainwashed,theres more,far more to it than that,I am wearing a hemp t-shirt as I type,washed my hair in hemp shampoo a few days ago,and eat hemp seed each and every day I have a couple of friends who import large amounts of hemp clothing into the UK from their cutters and manufacturers in Hong Kong from their hemp fields in china,its a lot more than some dried herb rolled into a spliff.

[imagine]

I have just been looking online at an exceedingly stylish and futuristic house in the states,built entirely from hemp/cannabis,they are having to import their building materials from the UK as its illegal to gorw it over there,though legal here under government licence,its being called the Hempcrete house,though i think Canncrete has more of a ring to it Theres actually a number of canncrete houses in the UL including the Grand-Designs housing estate in swindon

i guess it will be high rise flats their building

[Terpe]

i guess it will be high rise flats their building

[imagine]

skin up maaaannnn

when i was in the plumbing trade we used hemp to seal threaded joints, if it gets wet in the joint (no not that kind of joint ) it would supposedly swell to create a better seal,
these days a roll of ptfe tape is used instead ,though you can still buy hemp for this purpose

[Tawi2]

I saw the pre ptfe hemp-fibres mate,remember them well.

[Terpe]

Getting back to the original thread, my brother smoked and ate Cannabis for over 30 years.
He also indulged in plenty of other drugs too.
That was the death of him.

It's a tough call, and it might just be a biased view, but I feel that his strong inclination to get involved with cannabis did encourage him into other drugs.
I did see his personality change.
Maybe he was easily influenced and would have changed anyway, I don't know.
Maybe his personality,character and behaviour was always going to change the way it did. I don't know.

I do know his story, and it changed me too.

[Tawi2]

I guess I am lucky,I have a very non-addictive personality,dont drink,smoke,gamble nothing really,quite lucky as it happens because I remember a few times being in houses in pakistan which held massive amounts of illicites

[imagine]

iv heard it said that cannabis leads onto harder drugs, but im my opinion i beleive that much depends on the individual, as iv said earlier i smoked cannabis for around the same amount of years, it didnt lead me into other drugs,
though as a young lad, i tried other drugs , i knew then enough about them to know their dangers,
i knew that LSD would damage or kill off my brain cells,i knew speed would rot my teeth or even my nose as with heroin if snorted, i would never even think about a needle,that to me is gone too far,
i always understood and believed cannabis was no worse than smoking cigerettes

[Rosie1958]

I have a very strong sense of right from wrong. I have never tried illegal drugs of any description and have never ever felt an inclination too. I have empathy for those that feel that they need to take cannabis for relief of severe pain but recreational use is an entirely different matter.

[Rosie1958]

I guess I am lucky,I have a very non-addictive personality,dont drink,smoke,gamble nothing really,quite lucky as it happens because I remember a few times being in houses in pakistan which held massive amounts of illicites

I also have a very non-addictive personality but put it down to choice rather than luck