Occasionally, when certain acquaintences bring it over (maybe 3 or 4 times a year)

Having already 'fessed up to drinking bhong water, I might as well acknowledge that I did inhale, and did experience euphoric sensations.

In my final year of high school I did not smoke. I got a part time job. I failed that year.
I repeated my final year the next year, started smoking - rapidly reaching a 4 to 7 days per week rate - and passed.
I continued to smoke at uni, not every single day but most days, occasionally drying out for a few weeks, sometimes going through phases where due to depression I was into the bhongs-for-breakfast behaviour. This is not a good way to manage your life. :p Nevertheless, my marks continued to rise, my final year was straight As, I wrote my honours thesis with a bud-loaded tobacco pipe on my desk, and got a "clear first" which got me a scholarship to do a PhD.
The PhD was written in phases of smoking and not smoking, which were about equally productive. I do not like to get really wasted, just a little to get things flowing. The effect seems conducive to rearranging ideas in new ways, but can really mess with your ability to write a grammatically correct sentence.
I have learned not to go to work (as in paid work) stoned. If anything slightly out of the routine happens, it is such a bloody hassle. And it is an inefficient way to enjoy your stash.
However, in the event of an emergency, I have been able to pull myself together and handle the situation, probably not at 100% of my capacity, but enough. As a senior resident in a dorm I twice led responses to fire alarms and once handled a first aid incident in this way.
Since leaving uni, I've been traveling, working, or both. I sometimes enjoy a small smoke after work before going for a stroll in the park. Hiking and sitting by a stream is also very much enhanced by smoking, as well as the previously mentioned activities of musical appreciation and eating.
For the last two years, I haven't touched the stuff, but that's because I've been in Japan and (a) can't get it and (b) the consequences of being busted are very severe.


For most people, occasional cannabis use has only a temporary mental effect. However, long term daily use can lead people into the "withdrawal trap". You get baked and don't do whatever it was you were supposed to do that day, your life gets crappy, so the next day it becomes more attractive to get baked again ...
Furthermore, for people with an existing mental illness or even a disposition to mental illness, cannabis can trigger an acute episode. "Reefer Madness" is 98% BS, but there is a grain of truth buried in amongst it.
Medically, inhaling smoke is bad for your lungs and mouth. Cancer, emphysema, that kind of stuff. A bhong filters out a lot of the bad stuff. Better yet, an aromatherapy vapouriser just delivers the good stuff without the bad. Also good is eating cookies, except the dosage can be hard to judge. I believe cannabis relaxes your immune system.
While there appears to be little or no chemical addiction, it is both psychologically habit forming and just plain fun. If I want to give up or go dry for a while, I have to run out or entrust my stash to a friend. If it is in the house, I find it very hard to resist temptation.


In the long run, smoking cannabis almost certainly HAS shortened my life expectancy. But I read a good line in response to that. IIRC it was by Luciano de Crezenso.
What'll it be? 85 years on the straight-and-narrow, or 80 years with frequent visits to cloud nine and playing with the pixies deep in the magic woods?

as in all things, moderation is key. too much just makes you a bum.

Never tried it, probably never will...but I'm pro legalization (with regulations similar to alcohol.)

I have to say, I find it really hard to believe that the majority of those who voted have never tried it. Unless we have a secret Mormon conglomerate on here. But even then.

Reality is for people who can't handle drugs.

I haven't voted yet, but I've tried it. Maybe I should vote.

I think I'll get a snack first though...hmmmm...I'm hungry. What was I gonna do again?...oh yeah, get a snack cause I'm hungry, then something else, but first...maybe a little nanna nap...ZZzzzzzz...

Funny, I used to agree with you. I also thought "everybody smokes it" Strange how when I got out of the circle of those who did, how many there were that knew nothing about it and/or never tried nor wanted to try it. Still amazes me.

I do see what you're saying. But...I was referring more to people here, on the Cellar.

What Blue is saying Classic is that she has always thought we were all a big bunch of potheads. ;)

Exactly. Sort of.

interesting in light of the very first post, in which LJ says he thinks more people have tried it than not; and that CellarDwellars are a bunch of nerds.

:)

I think it depends somewhat on your age, your circle of friends, your interests, your location, etc. When I was a teenager, certainly no one with any claims to coolness ever refused pot. It was ubiquitous.

The whole point (back then) was not just to get loaded; it was to expand your conciousness; to think in ways your parents didn't; to enhance creativity and attempt to reach Nirvana by chemical means; and to have fun, of course.

Things have changed.

i think it's funny that it used to partially define me. i was pot. and now...i never smoke.

Ohhh, gotcha. Well I smoked so much in my youth that I'll, probably be termed a "stoner" for life.

Boy have they ever!

It used to totally define me, in fact, my life revolved around it. All my "friends" did it, my income was derived from it, my personality and entertainment were all based upon it. I was conscious of it 24/7. Getting it, smoking it, not getting caught with it... It completely absorbed my life.
Once I stopped, most all of those "friends" didn't hang around anymore and were replaced with others. My time and money went to more productive and lasting outlets. The paranoia left me and I didn't cringe at the sight of a cop. My entire outlook on life and my drive changed completely.
I don't dislike those that do it, in fact some of them I envy. For me though, its a dead-end road that sucks the life and motivation outta me.
Lotta great memories that I wouldn't trade for the world, but thats where its gonna stay, a part of the past.

that's pretty much a definition of addiction (whether or not cannibis is physically addicting or not). So, I'm glad for you, because if you can't control [insert substance here]; it controls you.

I tell you what disturbs me more though, and I realize this is a bit off topic: I have many young friends in their 20s who abuse alcohol worse than I ever abused anything. Their whole social life revolves, not around being in a social setting and having a few drinks with their friends, but getting totally smashed several nights a week. I mean passing out, puking smashed. It's sad to me, not to mention gross.

always preferred cannibis to alcohol, which is probably why I've stuck with it throughout my life.

That, and I never want to grow up. :)

I'll use it a few times a week when hanging out with my friends or when my band wants to jam.

My friends and I are thinking of cooking it more now. If I smoke it is out of a hookah or bubbler so its rarely intense smoke but I still would prefer not smoking it.

a couple 4th of Julys ago, I ate a cookie made with ghee. i ate it a 5:30 on an empty stomach. at 7 i was wondering if it was bunk. at 7:30 i was so cooked that i started having a panic attack. it lasted until 1 am. every 20 minutes it came in waves. oh my freaking god. there were no fireworks at our house that year. that'll larn me.

Haha, yeah it takes a while to get the effect. It took me about an hour or so.

But funny story concerning pot brownies. My friend made brownies before break and he had four left so him, my friend, and I decided to have one and then give the last one to my other friend who just went on a month break from pot and wanted to just get baked that night. When he came over to my friend's house we had some complications since the dealer he, the guy finishing his break, was buying from was taking awhile and we didn't have enough room in the car for me and my two friends so we stayed back, gave him the brownie, and he drove to another house where he was going to meet up with our dealer.

Apparently we forgot to tell him that the brownie was laced so he started to feel the effects while waiting and freaked out thinking that his body was producing an illusion because he was really looking forward to smoking that night. He got made fun of so much that night for acting like an idiot (well he was high).

I tried it once, when I was in grad school, maybe 23 years old. At the time, Red was a produce manager of a large grocery store. He caught one of his employees rolling a joint in the cooler. He confiscated it, and brought it home to share with our neighbors, whom we were good friends. I tried several inhalations, but never really felt anything. *shrug* Red did a lot in high school and college. He pretty much had quit both smoking and drinking when we started hanging out. At that point in his life, he was getting over a severe alcohol problem. I'll let him post about that if he wants.

In high school, I pretty much hung out with 'good' kids, and didn't really even drink a whole lot. In fact, I was the 'bad seed', heh. Pot just wasn't something that any of us had access to, so no one I knew, save one friend, ever did it. I just didn't want to get busted with it, and kicked out of college, or have it affect my record when I wanted to work...so I just stayed away.

I was a slut instead. :lol: Sex was legal, and in my mind a whole lot safer, and not to mention more fun to me. Boys were a lot easier to find than booze, and if you played your cards right, you could get both at the same time :D.

ha! how funny. back in the days of "free love" (aka after the pill and before Aids) everyone slept around--except me. Because I was in luuuuuve and faithful.

Silly me.

32% isn't a majority. It just isn't subdivided into further categories.

ghee != clarified butter?

huh?

I've never tried it myself but I've had a contact high once. A couple of friends and I were in a relatively small car waiting for another friend to get off work so we could all go for dinner. One guy decides he can't wait until after dinner and lights up in the car. Out of curtesy, he rolls down his window and does his best to fan the smoke out. It doesn't work and he ends up fogging the car. So by the time we got to the restaurant the two of us who didn't smoke were giggling non-stop. Everything was hilarious. EVERYTHING.

I was pretty pissed off afterwards though.

bud butter, BigV

Ghee itself does not imply drugs. It is a main ingredient in every Indian cookbook and I guarantee you they're not talking about serving pot to your family every night for dinner. Ghee is often mixed with drugs, however, because

well, my lipids were totally penetrated, lemme tell ya.

sigh. I guess I should have said, "I can't believe the Never Tried It option has more votes than each of the other choices." That would be correct...right? ;)

I think the term you were looking for is the mode.

Or you could also call it a plurality.

This is a surprisingly educational thread.

Ah, that is a good one, and I believe, in this case, more appropriate.

Yes, I just wanted to point out that according to the poll, two out of three people have tried it, and 45% still use it. I don't think that's especially Mormon.

Stay on topic, you potheads.

fo-cus!

"Stay on target! Stay on target!"

. . . a gratuitous 70s reference for all us potheads, brought to you by the Letter Ghee. :D

"We're too close!"
"Loosen up!"