Marijuana
 

Im a smart person and i do well in school. Ive smoked weed a few times.. is it smart to continue smoking week (no other drugs though) if I want to go to university and get a good job? or will it just make me dumb? a lot of my buddies smoke all the time and still do well and are smart, i just dont wanna make a mistake. :)

thx

I personally think that this is your decision and not people's decision on this forum...It's your future. I smoke weed occasionally, Just don't abuse it...It will burn you out, As far as making you Dumb...That's what everybody says, But I know people that smoke everyday and they are fine, A little care free..But not stupid.

As long as you can controll it, and not allow it to become more important to get high than to concentrate on more productive pursuits its fine. The problem is you won't really know untill its too late. Some people can do it socially with no consequences, others become addicted go downhill. Its ultimately up to you to decide if its worth the risk to you.

most things in moderation are accetable and not a problem. i'm a fairly bright person as well, and I smoke once or twice a week.

I graduated with an 86% average (over-full couarse load) in high school and I got high every weekend. Just don't go crazy and smoke till you pass out.

I used to smoke chronic several times a day. On the way to school, at lunch, and as I was leaving. I barely passed highschool and I wasted a ton of cash on my KB's. I smoke once every couple months now and I have a 4.0 at a university. Ill tell you your only stupid while you smoke it. As long as you dont use it at all before homework or class you should be able to pull it off. It is a drug and it will bring you down if you dont control it. So stay aware of what your doin.

Word. Midfulness is key. Marijuana is defintely not a drug the way crack is a drug. At this point in your smoking career, you're probably smart enough to monitor your usage, so don't worry too much about it. Just be sure that, with continued use, you do monitor your usage and how it's affecting your life.

Aslong as you don't smoke it during the day when you have important things to be doing, it won't do anything. I always smoke at night when I'm just sitting at the computer reading forums and playing games.

Thanks so much for the replys guys you helped a lot :)

Make sure you never smoke and drink- that can be fatal.

I personally stick to beer/liqour, if you're going to smoke do it rarely and not when drinking. After 10 days in amsterdam I really just don't want to touch the stuff. If you are in a group of college kids who want to get really trashed don't even leave alcohol around the room and get some munchie food so you don't decide to go wander around for food at 2am and crash your car.
I say going from the 'few times a year' to the 'few times a month' is a big difference. I had a buddy who started doing the whole few times a week thing and was burned out fast. Also a guy i used to work with in high school got really toasted one day at lunch and then decided to do some acid before gym class. He ended up having a heart attack on the track.

Here's what works for me (I'll admit I'm a pothead). If I have work or school I don't smoke before or during such things, and make sure to study both sober and high (can be twice as much work, but works for me).

If I just have to get things done, from household projects, working on cars, or what not. I make a list of what I want to accomplish that day when I get up, then I'll smoke lil' by lil' throughout the day and go about my business. At the end of the day when I've completed everything I wanted to I'll pack a nice phatty bowl, and will enjoy the feeling of stoned accomplishment. If I don't plan out my day, and I wake and bake or something like that then generally I'll barely get anything accomplished, and will feel worthless come days end. It's all about self-control and moderation. Learn your limits, pay attention to what you're doing and it will work out. If you don't trust yourself then I would say to just continue as your are (infrequent smoking), or not at all.

It is a decision you must make for yourself in the end though.

Well, you could wing it and not get screwed up, but the people I know who smoke ALOT are on some time of continuous high -they're ALWAYS faded when you see them. Weed is their life and you can tell when you talk to them. If you plan on lighting up, be sure not to let it get to the point where it starts drastically effecting you.

An excess of almost anything (except sex that is) is bad for you. I think as long as you don't overdo it, it's not going to ruin you.

A tip for avoiding excess: Always smoke *less* than you think you can get away with not as much. If you find yourself, as I did, having to have more and more to get high, or having 'one for the road', give up for a couple of weeks and have a serious think about it.

Otherwise party on! What's the point in being clever if you can't enjoy yourself?

The hallucinogen that makes marijuana users paranoid can also decrease testosterone and sperm production. That could lower your sperm count and hurt your chances of conceiving, although researches say the effect can be long or short term, depending on the person.

More importantly, a regular user should have their doctor or dentist check their mouth annually for precancerous lesions that show up in the form of red or white patches. While your lungs will get better after 15 smoke-free years, mouth and throat cancers can take 30 to 40 years to appear.

Smoking weed and doing any other drug is a mistake. Be smart and stay drug free. You're body and mind will thank you for it in about 20 years. :)

Not to be a dick or start a flame war or anything, but most of the foods and drinks we have today are far worse on your body than marijauna or other natural drugs.

Smoking weed can be great, but like all things---you gotta avoid the excess. I smoked close to once a day for much of my sophomore year in college. I never had it effect my schoolwork, but found I was a much lazier person (big shocker, eh?) and lacked the same motivation to do anything but get high. Thankfully, I woke up and now occassionally light up. But I strongly believe that firing up some home grown is 10x better for your body than hitting the bars on a Saturday night. Granted, that hasn't stopped me from hitting the Jameson's, but its still something to think about.

I'm sure sixate realizes eating a cheese burger a day isn't exactly healthy. I had started to smoke almost weekly. Then earlier this year I was in amsterdam for a week, smoked a lot every day. When I came back to the states I realized it wasn't as much fun as I had thought it was. Since then I have pretty much stopped entirely. I also reailzed how unproducitve it makes you, where as having a couple of cold ones won't shut you down nearly as much.
I agree more with Sixate, drugs really aren't worth it. I would add to that to try and eat healthily too and stay fit. It doesnt take too much effort to treat your body nicely and in return your body will treat you nicely back. The worst thing I do to my body is have an average of a half a case a week, but despite that I'm still underweight.

according to dr drew from loveline, marijuana starts to produce some emotional disorders after 6-10 years of habitual smoking.

Do you have a link, or more information about this?! (ie. what type of emotional disorders, and such). Studies like this interest me.

Heres my advice. Doing it everyday will not make you dumber. The problem is coming home from school and getting your work done. Make sure you get your homework done before you get high. In highschool its not a problem because you can do homework in study hall, but in college there is a lot more work to do and you have to read a lot.

man that is a looooong time. i like marijuana but i have to say 6-10 years is WAY tool long to smoke. People that smoke that long need to find some hobbies or something

I don't do anything ever day of my life that is half as damaging as a joint. :)

Prove this please.

Too bad Dr. Drew isn't a real scientist or an authority on drugs and drug use.

Why is smoking weed or doing any other drug mistakes?

You can also be smart and use drugs.

I think it is more like two years.

While this *may* be a risk of smoking marijuana, there has never been a case of cancer conclusively linked to marijuana, perhaps because of its anti-cancer properties and smoking trends.

Dr. Drew is not a scientist, and even then, you must evaluate the studies yourself to determine what the truth is likely to be. If you wish to read about studies on drugs, check out http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/ you wont be able to view the studies without paying money or having a subscription, though. (Ugh.) Reading articles BASED on studies doesn't count, by the way.

Will you kindly quantify the damage of smoking one joint? I really am curious.

As far as the original poster: if you want all really large obstacles out of your way in your goal for a great job, don't smoke weed. You may be drug tested and in this world it is best to not fuck around with things like that, especially for marijuana. I have seen countless emails and posts asking for immediate help for passing an upcoming drug test for a major employment opportunity and they either (A) got fucked or (B) got lucky. The best you can do from here is evaluate your performance OBJECTIVELY as possible (that includes entertaining possibilites that contradict whatever you want to believe or what you think might be true) before and after marijuana use. Good luck.

I thought he was a medical doctor with board certification, specializing in addictive behaviors. I searched his site and found no credentials or curriculum vitae. I'll post here if I find anything.

I smoke and I just got accepted into UC Berkeley - nice.

Google is your friend:

Opera, eh? I've always liked him, but that's just icing on the cake :)

Drugs are bad, mm'kay??

Yeah, but lots of things are bad for you. Driving (40,000 people a year die in traffic accidents) living in Houston (worst polution in the US) ect. We're all gonna die, live it up while you can.

Enough philosophizing. I smoke one or two times a month and its never really had any bad effects for me. I find that I don't really like it enough to do it regularly, but every now and then as a social thing or to relax its nice. Just don't let it take over your life.

About that study. What does habitual use mean? Am I gonna develop an emotional disorder from smoking "habitually" once a month?

The problem is, you don't know if you can control it. And remember that you can get flashbacks from pot. THC gets stored in the fat, and can get released if you lose weight. This is how most pot psychosises in Sweden occur. (I used to work in a hospital.)

My final answer would be: Stay off it until your twenty. That's when your brain is fully grown. Then it's up to you. I know four smokers who are fine, and one who's fucked up for life, after smoking once a week for one year. It's rare, but almost impossible to predict. And regulate your eventual intake.

the best thing you can say is watch yourself, watch other people watching you. Only you can say what is too much or little. good luck

I hate talking about pot. There is a paltry amount of evidence that is substantiated enough to make ANY claims as to it's effects on the human body because (at least my) government will not allow it to be subjected to the testing it needs and deserves to properly determine ALL the effects (positive AND negative). Yes, it's smoke. Smoke is not good for your lungs no matter what it's from. Any idiot can tell you that.

If you want to smoke, it's YOUR personal decision. If you want to know how best to keep from worrying, it's just like sex- abstain or reap the consequences if shit hits the fan. With any privilege, there is responsibility, and this is what I always try to instill in the minds to whom I speak.

If you can smoke in the morning and have a good, productive day- good for you. If you wake and bake and sit around watching cartoons when you have responsibilities, then you're fucking yourself. Take care of business FIRST. Fun is fun, and if anyone knows this it's me- a life with no fun is no life at all- but without a life, you cannot have fun. If you stall out and make a lifetime loser of yourself, how much fun will you have in 20 years when you make Assistant Burger Watcher at McDonald's? Take care of what's important, have fun when you can, and when you're successful and have made a life for yourself, you can have as much fun as your success allows-

Only YOU can determine this. Work hard. Study hard. Make the grade, get the pay.

Good luck, keep your head up.

If it doesn't make a difference to you, then save it for the summers. It does sap motivation. I speak from much experience.

Ahh, but eyeronic, that's just your personal experience. I've been smoking for a few years, and during that time, my motivation has only increased. I'm not saying that smoking increases motivation, what I'm saying is that its effects are unique to each individual.

as with any drug

indeed. although it seems some have a greater constancy with their effects, e.g. heroin.

I see nothing wrong in occasionally smoking the reefer. If you habitually smoke it, I see some people pretty toasted people. My first time was the night before my economics final, and I got a B on it so I can't complain. As long as you don't become addicted, or it starts messing with your head I see nothing wrong with it.

I don't use the stuff and never will. I don't judge those who do though but I will tell you this:

If you ever want a job in the following fields, stop now and put it behind you, otherwise, you will never get the job:

1. Police Officer
2. Intelligence Officer
3. Customs Officer

I say this because I have applied for jobs in all three areas and it's something that they ask about and they will check so don't lie. They have hair follicle tests that will tell them if you're lying or not.

They are human and understand that kids will experiment but view those who continue to smoke into adulthood as having a personality flaw.

I'm just the messenger so don't flame me and keep that in mind if you have security/intelligence/law enforement in mind for your future.

Cannabis builds up in the fat cells, and in the brain- if you smoke with any regularity, it is good to take breaks, to let your system clear out. Exercise helps. It will only make you dumb if you let it build up in your body and brain. That said, the biggest harm from it is the same thing as when you smoke anything- it isn't good for your lungs/mouth. If you cook it and eat it, there are no carcinogens. As you long as you take it easy and are responsible, and take those breaks, it's harmless. What was said before is right though, have your fun, but don't make it a lifestyle. I haven't partaken in a long time.