Have you ever...

[badasshairday]

Smoked MJ?

I just want to see how many future doctors may have smoked MJ.

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[spicedmanna]

There's already a poll similar to this, posted by texasfool, a while back.

 

[jochi1543]

Lots of my friends did in undergrad. I never had a hard time saying no, but I did light up right before graduation, just because I wanted to know what it's all about. I wasn't too impressed. I'm actually at my alma mater right now, just to see my friends, and I've been intoxicating myself pretty hardcore in all ways possible, MJ being one of them. But it doesn't do much for me. However, substances are not a part of my regular life - there's definitely not going to be any pot smoking once I leave here on Tuesday, I'm just doing it because I'm on vacation and all my friends drink and do drugs (and many do drugs much worse than pot).

 

[degoo_]

Yea occasionally if its around, Like alcohol. Personally, mj doesn't work very well on me.
Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have this problem: high tolerance to mj, but very low tolerance to alcohol? I'm a modest sized guy (170lbs) and always find it odd that 2 beers will get me floating, while amounts of mj that would get someone ultra high just gives me a light head?

 

[spicedmanna]

Yea occasionally if its around, Like alcohol. Personally, mj doesn't work very well on me.
Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have this problem: high tolerance to mj, but very low tolerance to alcohol? I'm a modest sized guy (170lbs) and always find it odd that 2 beers will get me floating, while amounts of mj that would get someone ultra high just gives me a light head?

Alcohol "tolerance": deficiency in alcohol dehydrogenase, perhaps? There is genetic variability.

 

[Hednej]

Yea occasionally if its around, Like alcohol. Personally, mj doesn't work very well on me.
Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have this problem: high tolerance to mj, but very low tolerance to alcohol? I'm a modest sized guy (170lbs) and always find it odd that 2 beers will get me floating, while amounts of mj that would get someone ultra high just gives me a light head?

I think the problem with the high tolerance has to do with two things: the quality and the technique. I also here that, from my friends who're really into it, that beginners have high tolerance for some reason. Doesn't make sense to me but might explain your dilemma.

 

[Green Pirate]

i bet the beginner's "tolerance" is actually just poor technique. when you're first starting you have a tendency to try to swallow the smoke rather than push it down into your lungs.

 

[baylormed]

You guys are scaring me with your knowledge of drugs.

 

[Green Pirate]

You guys are scaring me with your knowledge of drugs.

meh. we're just talking about mj. it's one of the softest drug out there... it's not even as bad as alcohol really.

 

[pcu]

meh. we're just talking about mj. it's one of the softest drug out there... it's not even as bad as alcohol really.

Alcohol is much worse.

 

[baylormed]

When I said drugs I was also including alcohol.

 

[sejin8642]

MJ is the most detrimental drug out there for med students because it physically does not harm body as much as the other toxics such as cigar or alcohol. But it makes you really really STUPID because when you smoke MJ, many toxical substances will stick into your brain fat cells and you will end up being one of those RENO 911 guys.

 

[NCF145]

MJ is the most detrimental drug out there for med students because it physically does not harm body as much as the other toxics such as cigar or alcohol. But it makes you really really STUPID because when you smoke MJ, many toxical substances will stick into your brain fat cells and you will end up being one of those RENO 911 guys.

I wouldn't say it makes you stupid. I have never seen anybody that I have known become dumber from smoking pot. The idiots that give stoners the dumb stereotype were more than likely dumb before they started smoking. Some of the smartest people I have ever met smoked very frequently.

 

[Green Pirate]

yeah that's why you develop self control (since mj is not addictive) and separate smoking from school. I never smoke during the semester (nor do I drink for that matter). But when I'm home with my friends, I have no problem just "being stupid" for a while.

 

[jochi1543]

Yea occasionally if its around, Like alcohol. Personally, mj doesn't work very well on me.
Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have this problem: high tolerance to mj, but very low tolerance to alcohol? I'm a modest sized guy (170lbs) and always find it odd that 2 beers will get me floating, while amounts of mj that would get someone ultra high just gives me a light head?

Yeah, mj doesn't do anything for me, but as little as one drink can make me feel different.

 

[badasshairday]

Yeah, mj doesn't do anything for me, but as little as one drink can make me feel different.

Maybe you guys aren't inhaling.

Bill Clinton style.

 

[Cirrus83]

Funny thing is that my high school did a survey like this once...and apparently 3/4 of the people at my high school had smoked weed before, lol.

And I didn't go to a bad high school, it was/is arguably the best high school in NYC...but apparently the high stress/competition meant lots of boozing and drug use.

Funny thing was that while I did drink in high school I never smoked weed, but I did try it during my college years, so I guess I caught up with my high school cohort.

Anyways, I'm surprised this poll shows that most people on SDN actually haven't even tried it...oh man, when they finally crack one day it's gonna be ugly.

Seriously, sometimes it's better to just try something, realize it's not really for you and get on with your life, instead of being way too uptight, then eventually cracking (reminds me of those studies which showed some publically uber conservative religious people were really kinky bastards in their private lives).

 

[Cirrus83]

I wouldn't say it makes you stupid. I have never seen anybody that I have known become dumber from smoking pot. The idiots that give stoners the dumb stereotype were more than likely dumb before they started smoking. Some of the smartest people I have ever met smoked very frequently.

It might not make you stupid, but it does eventually trash your memory...I've met chronic users who've been using for decades...and the effects definitely show

Plus anyways, MJ isn't exactly a highly motivating drug...you just want to lie around and watch your Aqua Teen DVDs again then pass out. Not exactly conducive to being brilliant

 

[DropkickMurphy]

There should be a choice for "accidental occupational exposure". My firefighters and I developed contact highs from a fire that started because one of the local geniuses decided to stow his stash- on the order of a few pounds of pot- in the plenum (the main heating ducts coming out of the furnace). We got the fire out (but there was still a fair amount of smoke hanging in the air), and pulled our SCBA masks off to start salvage and overhaul. You can figure out the rest.

 

[scrubsaresexy]

There should be a choice for "accidental occupational exposure". My firefighters and I developed contact highs from a fire that started because one of the local geniuses decided to stow his stash- on the order of a few pounds of pot- in the plenum (the main heating ducts coming out of the furnace). We got the fire out (but there was still a fair amount of smoke hanging in the air), and pulled our SCBA masks off to start salvage and overhaul. You can figure out the rest.

Didn't that happen in an episode of Rescue Me? All in all, I think that makes for a pretty good day at work

 

[etf]

There should be a choice for "accidental occupational exposure". My firefighters and I developed contact highs from a fire that started because one of the local geniuses decided to stow his stash- on the order of a few pounds of pot- in the plenum (the main heating ducts coming out of the furnace). We got the fire out (but there was still a fair amount of smoke hanging in the air), and pulled our SCBA masks off to start salvage and overhaul. You can figure out the rest.

i've got a similar experience - i volunteer at a place where a lot of the patients smoke (legally) as part of the "medical marijuana" program. part of my job is to help them light their joints, and then sit around and talk to them while they are high. at the end of the day my clothes reek of the stuff, and i'm praying that i don't get pulled over on the way home. anyway, how do i put this on amcas?

 

[cnoevil]

i've got a similar experience - i volunteer at a place where a lot of the patients smoke (legally) as part of the "medical marijuana" program. part of my job is to help them light their joints, and then sit around and talk to them while they are high. at the end of the day my clothes reek of the stuff, and i'm praying that i don't get pulled over on the way home. anyway, how do i put this on amcas?

shhhheeetttt....tell them you spent your days high as a kite and you had an epiphany...that is what made you decide on medicine....

you might want to say that you have been getting clinical experience for a while and you have seen different areas of alternative medicine that you find fascinating and "stimulating"

 

[Green Pirate]

shhhheeetttt....tell them you spent your days high as a kite and you had an epiphany...that is what made you decide on medicine....

you might want to say that you have been getting clinical experience for a while and you have seen different areas of alternative medicine that you find fascinating and "stimulating"

that was beautiful.

 

[stoic]

MJ is the most detrimental drug out there for med students because it physically does not harm body as much as the other toxics such as cigar or alcohol. But it makes you really really STUPID because when you smoke MJ, many toxical substances will stick into your brain fat cells and you will end up being one of those RENO 911 guys.

sorry bud, that's incorrect. the literature is fairly clear on this point: the most detrimental drugs (in terms of pt care duties and personal life) are short acting IV opioids. average time from beginning of use to discovery by employer is around 6 months. that's a heck of a slope. ~20% or so of physician users are discovered via accidental overdose before they were suspected otherwise.

i'm not sure which drugs are most dangerous for the patient an impaired physician is treating - probably the narcotics or alcohol.

opioids and alcohol both produce physical dependence after prolonged use. if an someone is physically dependent and they don't get a fix, they are not in a good state of mind. if they do get a fix, well they're drunk or stoned on skag and therefore more prone to mistakes.

marijuana does not cause the kind of intense withdrawls that drugs such as alcohol and opioids induce. people who are truly dependent on alcohol or opioids have to use often, not to get high, but to stay withdrawls so that they can function.

there is also no strong evidence of this stupor you speak in association with marijuana. all that i've ever seen strong data for is reversible short term memory deficit associated with chronic, heavy marijuana use. and even then, in most studies the users short term memory still falls within "normal" ranges for average adults. there appear to be no major cognitive, long-term memory, or other neurological deficits associated with chronic marijuana use.

take a look at the research yourself. it never seems to find much nor are results consistently repeatable between studies. in fact, the results are decidedly inconsistent which tends to suggest to me that long term marijuana smokers may be a littler "dumber" for their lifestyle choice, but not to an extent that affects their ability function in society. the consistent findings with users of marijuana is something we already know - smoke damages the lungs. as such there are increased rate of pulmonary disease in those who smoke marijuana.

finding "representative" population samples for marijuana use is difficult. a great percentage of younger alcoholics or "hard drug" addicts also abuse marijuana, but cannot be used in marijuana only studies because of their polypharmacy. so who then do you study? college kids? everyone i got stoned with in college has graduated and moved on to law/med/grad school. how do you find the adults out there who truly use only marijuana and are willing to step forward and proclaim it? for this reason, as well as the inconstant data and the relatively minor and generally reversible deficits (when found at all) observed with long term use, there really is not consensus opinion about the damage marijuana use can cause. don't get me wrong, any person is smarter while sober vs when stoned. but there simply is not proof out there that marijuana use causes long term psychological problems.

further, given the widespread use of marijuana in the general population one would expect to see significant occurrence of marijuana related neurotoxicity or other pathology. how wide spread is use? these figures came from http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/marijuana/index.html:

40% of adults have tried marijuana at least once.
10% of adults have used marijuana in the last year
6% of adults have used marijuana in the past month

by age:
16% of those 18-25 have used marijuana in the past month
4% of those 26+ have used marijuana in the past month

simply put that's a lot of chances for marijuana to cause harm. but even studies looking for that harm have a tough time proving it on a consistent basis.

i'd also like to comment specifically about the whitehousedrugpolicy.gov site. the site provides lots of statistics and info about every common drug of abuse and even addresses some of the medico-social aspects of drug use. however, alcohol is not listed on the website as a drug of abuse. frankly, i think that's completely unacceptable.

i hate so much the common believe that alcohol is not a drug. alcohol is by FAR the most damaging drug of abuse in the US. the impact is so large that it's truly almost unbelievable. the evidence supporting this conclusion is very strong. we literally have entire lectures devoted to the medical aspects of alcoholism, the social impact of alcoholism, the treatment of alcoholism, the detection of alcoholism, and the effects of alcohol on development. and those are just the lectures i can recall right now from the past year that were specifically devoted to the problems arising from alcoholism.

alcoholism causes a great deal of medical problems in addicts, many of which are life-threatening. the pathology caused in alcohol users is diverse, from the GI tract to the entire nervous system. alcohol withdrawal itself can develop into a life threatening condition that has historically killed 10-20% who develop DT's (though this is rare now that withdrawal is generally done in a controlled setting).

even more, the harm caused to others in society by alcohol abuse is staggering. a huge percentage of murder, rape, domestic battery, and other violent crime is associated with alcohol. same with MVC's and traffic fatalities. some stats from emedicine:

-Alcoholism is prevalent in 20% of adult hospital inpatients.
-One in 6 patients in community-based primary care practices had problem drinking.
-The following apply to the US adult population:

* Current drinkers - 44%

* Former drinkers - 22%

* Lifetime abstainers - 34%

* Abuse and dependency in the past year - 7.5-9.5%

* Lifetime prevalence - 20% in men and 8% in women
-Worldwide, alcohol is responsible for a percentage of a number of conditions, as follows:

* Cirrhosis - 32%

* Motor vehicle accidents - 20%

* Mouth and oropharyngeal cancers - 19%

* Esophageal cancer - 29%

* Liver cancer - 25%

* Breast cancer - 7%

* Homicides - 24%

* Suicides - 11%

* Hemorrhagic stroke - 10%
-Of men aged 18-25 years, 60% binge drink. (Binge drinking is defined as 5 alcoholic drinks for men [4 for women] in a row.) Binge drinking significantly increases the risk of injury and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
-In the US, 60-70% of reported domestic violence incidents involve alcohol.
-Alcohol is responsible for fully 7% of the total disease burden in the US

when you start thinking about how much alcoholism really cost in terms of dollars, it's literally mind blowing. we're talking law enforcement money, HUGE health care money, social service money, auto and health insurance cost increases spread to everyone, and lost time and productivity from the workforce. no one really knows how much alcoholism really cost the US in dollars, but no one argues that the number is huge - as in potentially percentage points of the GDP. Estimates of the economic costs of alcohol abuse, collected by the World Health Organization, vary from one to six per cent of a country's GDP. (World Health Organization Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004 Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004)

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so what does all this mean?

in a nutshell, alcohol is a much more dangerous drug on every level than marijuana. alcohol causes a much more serious (and often life-threatening) dependence syndrome than does marijuana. alcohol, acutely and chronically, is far more likely to result in harm to the user or others than is marijuana use.

in terms of neurological function, long term alcohol use is a much larger risk than marijuana use. declining mental function in long-term alcoholics is well established, predictable, and caused through several different mechanisms ranging from head trauma to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome to metabolic disturbances.

medically, alcohol (ethanol) has very few uses. it's used to compete with other more toxic alcohols (methanol, ethylene glycol, etc) for alcohol dehydrogenase (slowing the formation of toxic metabolites). but really, 9 times out of 10, alcohol is used "medically" to keep alcoholic patients who are in the hospital from going into withdrawal. ask around. many hospital pharmacies stock beer/whisky/etc specifically for this purpose.

marijuana/cannabinoids have a number of "real" applications both now and especially in the future. marijuana and derivatives have a huge margin of safety in that many, many times the dose used for treatment will not cause significant harm to a patient. try to LD50 some rats with THC. you have to infuse such a high concentration that the THC crashes out of solution in the lungs and kills the subject - short of that, it's basically impossible to kill a rat with THC. acute overdose in uncommon in humans and generally only serious in those with underlying cardiac disorders (marijuana overdose usually results in panic---> increased HR/BP).

why do i bring this up? honestly i'm sick of the hypocrisy. there's no medically justifiable reason for alcohol to be legal and marijuana illegal. i was pretty sure of that before starting medical school, and now that i've had 2 years, i'm even more sure. socially current policy doesn't make much sense, either. marijuana is less dangerous in every way than alcohol, but even the white house still refuses to even call alcohol a drug on their drug policy website. it's a joke and honestly i don't see how any reasonable person can look at the data and not see instantly that there are huge gaps between what the DEA and government say about the dangerous of marijuana vs. what science supports. it should be just as obvious that the real drug problem in this country is alcohol and that given the scope of the problem, it is woefully under addressed in every possible way.

this is the age of evidence based medicine, right? it would be nice if the government could at least attempt to catch up. the controlled substance act specifically provides for the power to regulate drugs based specifically upon these following issues:

(c) Factors determinative of control or removal from schedules In making any finding under subsection (a) of this section or under subsection (b) of section 812 of this title, the Attorney General shall consider the following factors with respect to each drug or other substance proposed to be controlled or removed from the schedules:

(controlled substance act: title 21, section 811)


(1) Its actual or relative potential for abuse.

(2) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known.

(3) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug or other substance.

(4) Its history and current pattern of abuse.

(5) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse.

(6) What, if any, risk there is to the public health.

(7) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability.

(8) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this subchapter.


as one reads through the factors which are supposed to be considered when deciding the scheduling of drugs, i think it's just astounding that alcohol is unscheduled. consider the 8 factors listed above first for alcohol and then for marijuana.

Alcohol.
1) common abuse of alcohol in all age and socio-economic groups. virtually all adults have tried alcohol (something like 95%). common development of high risk behavior which commonly leads to dependence. remember that 60% of 18-25 year olds binge drink and that this is by definition a high risk behavior. 20% lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence in men (8% women). you go get drunk with 2 friends. chances are at least one will develop an alcohol problem.

2) effects moderately understood both centrally and peripherally. therapeutic use limited to treatment of a few toxic alcohol ingestions; however, there is also a commercial alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor available as a reasonable and effective treatment alternative. by far the most common medical use of alcohol is keeping patient's with alcohol dependence out of withdrawal/DT's.

3) our knowledge of alcohol's health affects is pretty good. we also have a firm grasp of the epidemiology/risk factors for abuse/dependence. there are many ways for alcohol to kill the user or someone else.

it is important to consider how strongly the use of alcohol affects individuals other than the user. no other drug of abuse is associated so strongly with harm to others. we know that as long as people can drink, there will be DUI/wrecks and violence occuring as a result that likely would not occur had the offender not been drinking.

4) historically and currently, alcohol use, abuse, and dependence are ubiquitous. the public has shown a strong will to maintain access to alcohol, regardless of monetary cost or personal risk.

5) the scope/duration/significance over alcohol use is enormous. to the point of being a major public health issue. drinking in moderation is common, but problem drinking is nearly as common. dependence occurs as a predictable result of long-term problem drinking behaviors and leads to predictable negative health affects.

i think the significance of alcohol abuse in our country is tremendously downplayed by just about everyone. there is a collective unwillingness to even acknowledge the enormous price our country pays to "enjoy" alcohol. we pay a fortune. in money and in human life.

6) the risk posed to the public is tremendous. individual users are at risk of developing any number of health complications and non-users are at risk from users who are impaired. in young, otherwise healthy adults, MVC's and homicide are leading causes of death and a very large percentage of these involve alcohol.

7) both psychological and physical dependence commonly develop in patients regularly using alcohol and who represent a larger than representative proportion of the hospitalized patients and patients being treated for chronic disease.

withdrawal from alcohol is one of the withdrawal states that is life threatening.

8) N/A


Marijuana:

1) not entirely clear. nearly all patients using marinol do so without developing abuse/dependence issues. most commonly used "illicit" drug, so abuse is surely occurring. however given that nearly half of adults have tried marijuana at some point but only 4% of 26+ year old adults report having used marijuana in the past month it appears that much use is social/experimental and dose not necessarily lead to continued use/abuse/dependence.

generally speaking data of the abuse liability of marijuana is difficult to obtain. a large proportion of regular marijuana users are polydrug users, but in these cases marijuana is usualy NOT the primary drug of choice. data is lacking regarding marijuana use and development of abuse/dependence in adults without polypharmacy and another primary substance abuse disorder.

(2) complex pharmacology. endocanabinoids represent a promising family of drugs with a wide variety of potentially very significant results. led to discovery of endocanabinoid system in central nervous system. marijunana itself is effective in several conditions including chacexia, MS, nausea from chemotherapy.


3) importantly marijuana/cannabinoids have a very large margin of safety and few (if any) long term safety risks when used in the medical context. we know more about marijuana in the context of recreational use than we do in the context of medical use. acutely, the primary clinical entity encountered is a anxiety/panic reaction. generally not serious in most individuals; can be serious/life-threatening if there is pre-existing cardiovascular disease. long terms health risk primarily involve pulmonary function. regular marijuana users do develop increased occurance of bronchitis. there is no consensus regarding long term neurological effects.

more research is needed, but it appears that marijuana use probably does not lead to the breadth and severity of illness associated with alcohol use.

also, it is significant that marijuana use is not associated with increased rates of violence and crime against people other than the user.

4) has long been a popular drug among young people, musicians. use has fluctuated over past few decades, is currently relatively steady. like alcohol, prohibition has proved ineffective to curb the publics appetite for marijuana. many city and state law enforcement agencies have publicly moved to lower enforcement priority of simple marijuana possession law citing limited resources and the need to focus on personal and property crime. several cities and states have moved to legalize the use of medical marijuana. public acceptance of both medical and personal marijuana use is likely growing.

5) scope/duration/significance of marijuana use in USA not clear. a large percentage of people will try the drug, many will use it regularly in their 20's but few will continue using into adulthood. significance is not clear. does not appear to cause the breath and severity of disease associated with regular alcohol use.

contrary to popular opinion, marijuana is not the gateway drug. most people try alcohol before marijuana and tobacco before alcohol. of concern is the "black-market" associated with marijuana currently. exposure to violence/availability of harder drugs are both increased in this fashion.

6) risk to the public is generally secondary to drivers under the influence of marijuana. there's not much data hear to look at. no associated increase in violent person/property crimes.

7) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability is controversial. It has become generally accepted that moderate psychological dependence can develop, but physiological dependence - if it occurs - is to a much smaller degree than with alcohol/opioids/sedative-hypnotics and does not cause the profound physiological changes seen in alcohol withdrawal.

just for fun, consider the schedule status of some other drugs:

cocaine, schedule II (medically accepted uses, but highest potential for abuse. no call in rx's, no refills.)
methamphetamine, schedule II.
marijuana, schedule I. (means no medically accept use, federal law dictates that it cannot be scripted for legally in any circumstance)
marinol, schedule III. (means medical uses with some abuse potential, but less than the most abusable of medically used drugs which are schedule II. can issue refills and call in.)
-marinol is pure 9-THC, the most well known active compound in marijuana.
-in generally marinol is less prefered by patients. this is due to several issues:
1) marijuana contains over 60 cannabinoids, some of which have discretely identified rolls in inflammation, immunoregulation, hunger, etc. marinol lacks these other cannabinoids and is much less useful for treatment of MS/pain.
2) marinol is taken orally while marijuana is inhaled. marinol takes a hour to kick in while marijuana takes effect instantly and is easier to titrate.
3) due to the extensive first pass metabolism of orally taken 9-THC vs inhaled, a highly psychoactive metabolite is produced from marinol that does not occur in marijuana naturally and is not produced when marijuana is smoked. basically it's the difference between a joint and magic brownies.

clearly, just because a drug is scheduled doesn't mean that it's scheduled correctly. right now, the DEA - by virtue of their own scheduling system - proclaims marijuana to be a bigger threat to the public health than methamphetamine. marijuana and heroin are both schedule I, while methamphetamine and cocaine are schedule II.

can you really argue that current drug policy makes any sort of sense? do you think the public should respect, support, and trust government agencies that engage in such disregard for the data their charter dictates they use to make decisions?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

so there you go. i didn't exactly mean to unload on one poster, but you caught me when i had some free time and this is an issue i've worked on before and am interested in. i've been active on the city level in helping pass decriminalization legislation making simple marijuana possession and non-arrestable offense and providing a system for distribution of legitimate medical marijuana.

i'm a second year med student and i don't smoke marijuana anymore. simply put, it's not worth the trouble it can cause your career. however in my younger days i did indulge frequently, for many years. my brain is not fried. i'm not a total **** up. over the years i've met quite a few successful people in fairly respected positions that you probably would not expect still indulge in occasional marijuana use. these people are not fried, either. they aren't lazy or in trouble with the law. they're just regular people who (understandably) choose to keep this particular information fairly private. personally i find it more enjoyable to pass something around with friends than to head to the bar and get drunk. i've seen no halfway decent argument as to why such a choice shouldn't be a legal and acceptable one.

alcohol use in medical school is known to be wide spread, frequent, and generally quite heavy. even so, on several occasions throughout the year, our administration brings kegs and food ON CAMPUS for us to enjoy after tests or for dinner with the aim of building camaraderie. How can it be so acceptable to use alcohol in moderation despite the clear risk of alcohol abuse to both the user and others, but not marijuana in moderation even in light of the clearly lower risk to the user and lower risk to the public? how can it be that we are competent to make decisions regarding personal use of alcohol, but not another intoxicant that is known to be less dangerous and less addictive? or any intoxicant for that matter? you can't allow the public the decision to use alcohol or not, but deny the right to make the same choice with other intoxicants. how is someone qualified to make the decision to use or not use alcohol, but equally unqualified to make the same decision for every other drug?

also, i was surprised at the fairly normal distribution of students i know from my school and others who either sometimes still do or used to smoke marijuana. there are studies out there confirming this (the last one i remember showed 24% of first years and 20% of third years had smoked marijuana in the past month.) honestly it's not that big of a deal, except for the potential legal ramifications. knowing that someone enjoys smoking pot sometimes doesn't really tell you anything about that person other than that they are probably in their 20's.

now as for the legal stuff, that's playing with fire for people who want to eventually have a DEA#. i can't imagine any quicker way to end your career that having the DEA on your back as a med student. i think the laws are crap and think my arguments are sound and well supported, but i don't think my interpretation of the situation matters much to the DEA.

I hope someone found my marijuana manifesto interesting. honestly, i haven't proofed it because it's far too long for that, so I'm sure there are many typos. i generally stand by facts and statements i've made and in most cases have references available. there's nothing in here that's a secret and not easy to find on pubmed.

 

[Hednej]

wow, longest post in SDN and it's about ...

Marijuana!

 

[jochi1543]

Maybe you guys aren't inhaling.

Bill Clinton style.

Haha, no, I am (used to smoke cigs as a teenager as well). We had some brownies this past weekend too, and they didn't do **** for me either. In the meantime, our roommate was rubbing himself on walls and moaning that his toes felt like purplies.

I had shrooms last night, now THOSE are the ****.

 

[pcguy2]

Haha. I love how 50% do smoke!

 

[stoic]

actually the numbers from this poll reflect the literature nicely.

 

[Neelesh]

Look at my avatar. Guess.

 

[jochi1543]

Look at my avatar. Guess.

Oh god....best movie ever. As an international student and a one-time Econ major, I could SO relate. "so....what's it like to be an investment banker?" "It's aw.........it's awesome."


My favorite part is Kumar's romance with the bag of weed.

 

[patrickd223]

Weed isnt really harmful much physically but psychologicly it can have some downsides. Lack of motivation(obvious), lots of people have anxiety, short term memory defecit.... As long as my doctor isnt stoned while I am seeing him I could care less though. Also, keep in mind weed potency has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Some people argue that in large doses it can be addictive.

 

[NCF145]

Some people argue that in large doses it can be addictive.

So can caffeine.

 

[lina123321]

So can caffeine.

starbucks has got me hooked on their lattes lol...

 

[mshheaddoc]

ahhh the skewed poll results of SDN ...

 

[armybound]

OP reminded me of my bad asshair days.

Wonder if I should Nair it

 

[c0mpletec0ntrol]

Yea occasionally if its around, Like alcohol. Personally, mj doesn't work very well on me.
Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have this problem: high tolerance to mj, but very low tolerance to alcohol? I'm a modest sized guy (170lbs) and always find it odd that 2 beers will get me floating, while amounts of mj that would get someone ultra high just gives me a light head?

you need to smoke some better stuff.

 

[degoo_]

Nah, I've tried various techniques and inhale properly. I haven't tried the baked goods yet, maybe that'll work on me. I hear its much more potent when baked.

Not to take this thread to far off topic, but in Harold and Kumar, when the interviewer goes: But you have perfect MCAT scores!, what do you think Kumar got?

 

[lsumedgirl]

MJ is the most detrimental drug out there for med students because it physically does not harm body as much as the other toxics such as cigar or alcohol. But it makes you really really STUPID because when you smoke MJ, many toxical substances will stick into your brain fat cells and you will end up being one of those RENO 911 guys.

Confession: I've never done drugs... but I do like Reno 911.

 

[Soggun]

Wow gotta say im surprised. I assumed virtually everyone who had reached college-age or more had tried it. I thought I was one of a very, very small minority that hadn't. Looks, based on these, albeit skewed, results that I was wrong though. And on a personal note, I have never done any drugs or smoked anything and am pretty proud of that fact.

 

[greeniz]

Anyone see the movie Reefer Madness?...funny as hell, check it out if you havent!