I'm not really interested in the plant itself too much, in that I don't grow it (obviously...I don't relish the idea of spending any part of my life in jail!) so how it looks, how tall it gets, how bushy, how fat the buds are...none of that is really relevant to me.
It's interesting to learn about the different varieties and how different types of weed will create a different buzz. For instance the Sativa type of plant creates more of a head high and can cause you to be more creative, have magical thoughts and what not. The Indica variety will give you more of a body stone, which means you'll have a heightened awareness of your body while still feeling more clear headed. This is the type of weed most often used for medical Marijuana.
Cannabis is illegal, it has been for many many decades and will most likely continue to be illegal for many decades to come. The fact that there has been progress in making it legal for medicinal purposes doesn't really mean that we're any closer to seeing this stuff sold to the public. Even in Amsterdam, the laws are not as liberal as you might think. It's not actually legal there, it's decriminalized. Which means that you can legally smoke it and buy it from licensed coffeeshops but you can't have more than a certain amount on you at any time, you can only buy a certain amount at one time and you can't grow it.
Most people who use Cannabis, smoke it. It's the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to consume it. Some people eat it, but you'd need to use a fair bit (at least a gram even just for a cup of tea) and you have to use it with a fat, as it is fat soluble. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but you won't get the THC from the plant absorbed into your body without fat, it bonds to it. So in other words, you won't get stoned by just munching on a handful of weed.
Of the people who smoke it, most people smoke joints. They are fast and easy, and make smoking in public much easier. It's also much easier to share with friends that way. Unfortunately it's also the unhealthiest and least economical way to use it. Most people use tobacco in their joints for a smoother smoke and also because they think it'll make their weed last longer. It might mean that you can roll a few more joints, but the amount of weed you will need to get stoned won't change so you'll just end up rolling more joints.
Some people like water bongs. It's controversial as to whether it's any healthier to smoke this way. The theory is that the water would filter out some of the tars. There is a lot of mixed information about this on the internet though. Some people say that it also filters out the stuff that gets you stoned so you have to smoke more which makes it as unhealthy as joints. From personal experience, I'd have to disagree with that. A few hits from a bong will get me just as stoned as a joint will. It means that I use exactly what I need, no wasted weed and more control over how stoned I get. With joints you can smoke a joint quickly and then end up more stoned that you wanted.
Some people use vaporizers. Having never seen or used one, I'm no expert on how it works. I believe there is a heating element in it which controls the temperature at which the weed is heated. When it reaches a temperature that releases the THC then you can smoke it. It isn't really smoke though, as nothing has been burned, it's a warm vapour, so it's much healthier for your lungs. People that use medical Marijuana usually smoke it this way so as not to create additional health problems.
Which brings me to the actual benefits of this herb. A lot of people go around saying that it's an herb from the earth and therefore completely safe. It would be safe, physically, if you didn't smoke it. It's the smoke that causes the most problems. Any time you burn something and inhale it, it is toxic. Some people say that it is less toxic than cigarette smoke. I don't know. However, the two are smoked differently. Cigarettes have filters, which greatly help in reducing how much tar enters your lungs. Also, people that smoke weed tend to hold it in their lungs longer which isn't very healthy. Therefore, according to a lot of the info out there, one joint of weed is the equivalent to five or more cigarettes. Some people say it's like 20 cigarettes but I have a hard time believing that. I used to be a light cigarette smoker. However, there were nights when I'd go out and smoke a pack of cigarettes at a bar or a party. The next day my chest would be sore, my throat would feel scratchy and I'd be coughing a bit. I could definitely tell I'd smoked a lot of cigarettes the night before. With weed though, I could smoke a few joints and the next day not really feel very different.
Apparently there is not a single case of death directly related to weed. That is kind of a controversial statement. I'm sure that a lot of people are dead because of weed. First off, how many people have died due to gang related violence over selling or buying it? I'm pretty sure that many people have been killed by trying to steal from a field where it's being grown. There are probably a fair amount of people who have killed themselves after going through a Marijuana related psychosis. Some people develop schizophrenia which may have been triggered by weed. In other words, Cannabis does not cause the illness, but it can be triggered in individuals who might have a propensity to develop it. Well, some of those people might have gone crazy and killed themselves. Some people have died of lung cancer that might not have got it if they had never smoked. There is also a study out there saying that you are at a higher risk of developing a heart attack within the first hour after smoking. However, based on how much I have looked into any information on this I'm not sure it's accurate.
We know that there is a link between tobacco and lung cancer and there is a lot of advertising out there to discourage you from smoking. I would have thought that a heart attack would be a great scare tactic for anti drug campaigning. However so far, I've only read of one instance of a person dying from a heart attack after smoking weed. A mother in the U.K, who had a history of smoking weed, died of a heart attack at 38 years of age. It's impossible to know if she had a weak heart to start with or if she would have had the attack whether she smoked or not. There is just not any evidence that says 100% that the weed is what killed her.
I do still think that it should be legal. According to what I've read about Cannabis is the Netherlands, their crime rate has gone down and the rate of people who smoke has not gone up. I think that putting people in jail because they sell, grow, or smoke weed is just a waste of money, resources and time. But there is a lot of information on the American justice system and how they have privatized their jails so that it has become a profitable industry. They use the inmates as borderline slave labour. 25% of the worlds prison population live in the States. They have more of their population behind bars per capita than any other nation on the planet!
Clearly the war on drugs has failed. Young people are always going to find drugs. If you make drugs hard for them to get they will find more creative ways to get high. There is a legal weed you can buy in stores, which is marketed as an incense or something, but it'll get you high. However, there are no studies on what it is, or what is in it. So it's not really safe. Kids will sniff things out of aerosol tins, glue, they will steal their parents medication or find cold medication at the pharmacy. There are so many ways that a person can get high, and they will get high whether it's legal or not. It would just be a lot safer for everyone if it was legal. In the Netherlands their philosophy is that it's your body and your decision what you do with it. So by legalizing it, you aren't saying that it's healthy, and that you should use it. You are simply making it safer for people to use it who are going to use it anyway.
The same thing for heroin. There is enough evidence out there to show that using the drug is dangerous. Most people will never even try it. However, there are people out there who will try it and who will become addicted and will continue to use no matter how risky it is and no matter what they have to do to get it (steal, sell their bodies). By opening up centers for addicts you provide them with a safe place to inject with clean needles, a place to rest so they aren't passed out on the street and the possibility of getting treatment when they are ready. I also think it would be beneficial to just provide the addicts with pharmaceutical grade heroin. The catch would be that they would have to get and use the heroin at special centers. The benefit would be that it would be pure and safe. There are so many overdoses every day in Canada and the U.S and almost all of them could have been prevented if they had used clean and pure heroin. The stuff that is sold on the streets is always different, and often severely cut. The problem is that when an addict develops a high tolerance of the drug they get used to using a lot of it at one time. Let's say they usually inject a half a gram each time. If the stuff they use is usually very cut, then they can predict how high they will get. If they suddenly get their hands on very pure stuff and still inject a half a gram, they could die from an overdose.
Anyway, I'm too old be a stoner anymore. It was cool and fun when I was a teenager. It was an integral part of my identity and I chose friends based on whether they smoked. I never found a lot of people to smoke with who were as enthusiastic about it as I was, which looking back is probably a good thing. I still think it's a bit sad that our society gives young people "free passes" to be silly, party like crazy, get crazy wasted on alcohol, experiment with drugs and lot's of other things. Then suddenly you are a 30 something person and you are expected to have a good job, start a family, live in a nice house and just be "normal" which means that you don't get drunk anymore except on special occasions and even then you can't get "wasted" anymore it's just not cool. You most certainly can't smoke weed anymore. Come on, that's just for losers right? You see it in movies all the time. It's always the deadbeat loser who still lives in his moms basement, works as a cashier at a grocery store, is overweight and not overly hygienic and doesn't have a girlfriend. That's your stereotypical 30 year old stoner. They are often portrayed as being quite "dull", as in not very smart.
Of course, there also comes a time in a persons life when they start to realize their own mortality and try not to do things that will shorten their life. When you are 16 you feel like your whole life is ahead of you, so it really doesn't feel at all harmful or dangerous to get stoned or drunk. When you smoke cigarettes you know that at 16 your lungs are in pretty perfect condition and that when you stop you'll have plenty of time to heal. When you are in your 30's you don't feel like a young fresh human anymore, and you realize that smoking is terrible for your lungs, teeth and skin and you don't want to look like an old hag! With regards to getting drunk, when you are in your 30's the pain of the hangover the next day lingers in your mind as you drink and so you know when to stop. When you are 16 a hangover is a joke! Ok, I had some really bad ones where I would say that I would never drink again! But in your 30's, it's just really really awful and you end up in bed all day the next day!
