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Post by Joanna on Apr 13, 2016 18:03:45 GMT -5
Study Shows Long-term Pot Users are LosersInternational research has revealed that the more cannabis you smoke, the more likely you are to be a loser in a low-paying position who has difficulties in relationships. The study followed subjects from birth up to age 38 and found people who smoked cannabis four or more days a week over many years ended up in a lower socioeconomic level than that into which they were born. Financial, work-related and personal difficulties were also experienced by those using the drug and such difficulties worsened through the years. The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Magdalena Cerda at the University of California and Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt at Duke University, appeared in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
“Our research does not support arguments for or against cannabis legalization,” said Cerda. “But it does show that cannabis was not safe for the long-term users tracked in our study. Our study found that regular cannabis users experienced downward social mobility and more financial problems such as troubles with debt and cash flow than those who did not report such persistent use. Regular long-term users also had more antisocial behaviors at work, such as stealing money or lying to get a job, and experienced more relationship problems, such as intimate partner violence and controlling abuse.”
Researchers claimed the study was important because it addresses an array of “potentially confounding factors” not included in past studies assessing the effects of long-term cannabis use. Economic and social problems persisted in long-term, regular users of pot even after the authors accounted for other potential differences between regular cannabis users and other participants. These factors included socioeconomic problems in childhood, lower IQ, antisocial behavior and depression in adolescence, higher levels of impulsivity, lower motivation to achieve, criminal conviction of cannabis users, and abuse of alcohol and hard drugs.
“These findings did not arise because cannabis users were prosecuted and had a criminal record,” said Caspi, a psychologist at Duke University and King's College London. “Even among cannabis users who were never convicted for a cannabis offense, we found that persistent and regular cannabis use was linked to economic and social problems.”
While both heavy alcohol and cannabis use were similarly associated with declines, the authors found those dependent on cannabis experienced more financial difficulties. “Cannabis may be safer than alcohol for your health, but not for your finances,” asserted Moffitt.
For the study, 947 participants had completed at least three of the five adult cannabis assessments from ages 18 through 38. Eighteen percent, or 173 participants, were considered marijuana-dependent in at least one wave of the study, and 15 percent fell into the regular cannabis use categories. If You Want to Achieve Anything in Life, Don't Smoke Pot
This advice runs contrary to the current popular culture. Recreational marijuana use has gone mainstream in the past few years as various states have legalized its use. Celebrities such as Wiz Khalifa, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus (above) have admitted to using it, and openly promote legalization at the federal level. Marijuana, which was once considered a gateway drug, is now lauded for its medicinal properties and has been rebranded as a safe, herbal alternative to achieving relaxation.
Drugs are bad. Not too long ago, smoking pot was considered a bad thing. Everyone knew it wasn’t as bad as the so-called “hard drugs” like heroin and cocaine, but no one regarded it as a good thing. People who smoked lots of pot were called “burnouts” or “stoners” because the excessive marijuana consumption killed their ambition and made them stupid. Pot was also believed to be a gateway drug that leads to the use of harder drugs. If you grew up in the 80s, you probably remember the “This is your brain on drugs” commercial featuring an egg sizzling in the frying pan or the D.A.R.E. program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) that was taught in virtually every school.
The trend carried over into the 90s with a similar PSA featuring one time “it” girl Rachael Leigh Cook, slamming pots and pans to demonstrate the effects of drug use on all aspects of life. At the time, there had been a rash of Hollywood and music industry deaths related to drug abuse such as that of actor River Phoenix and Sublime lead singer and guitarist, Bradley Nowell. The message back then was clear – all drug use is destructive and should be avoided at all costs.
A makeover for pot. At some point, attitudes toward marijuana changed. It was probably a combination of the libertarian movement to legalize drug usage and the medical marijuana movement that gave pot-smoking a rehabilitation. Whatever the cause, smoking pot is no longer viewed as something reserved for life’s losers. Now, smoking pot is cool.
The other night, I watched the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. As I am not a 12-year-old girl, I wasn’t terribly interested in the performances. Who wants to watch Miley Cyrus prancing about in ridiculous outfits with her disgusting tongue hanging out? But the VMAs are a good bellwether for where our society is headed. This year’s show provided an interesting glimpse into MTV’s progressive and ultimately degrading message: Smoke pot, because Miley and virtually every other talentless bonehead on stage does, too. Miley’s entire shtick for the evening could be summed up as “the wild child who loves weed.” Cyrus even closed the show with the line, “Yeah, I smoke pot.”
But this passion for “Mary Jane” extended to other honorees as well. Kanye West, who received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, gave a rambling speech in which he used the word “bro” a lot and let slip that he got high before going onstage. West then concluded with an announcement that he would be running for president in 2020. I suppose his pot use won’t hurt him, as President Obama was the leader of the Choom Gang when he was in high school.
If all these great “successes” are smoking weed, why shouldn’t you? It turns out there are some good reasons to throw away your pipe, bong and rolling papers.
Pot and schizophrenia. The use of marijuana has been correlated to schizophrenia. For those who are unfamiliar with the disease, schizophrenia is a terrible, disabling brain disorder that causes its sufferers to experience psychosis. Typically, people who suffer from schizophrenia hear voices and feel that some group is monitoring them. I knew a schizophrenic man who told me that the Vatican was following him. It would have been pointless to try to reason with him. Schizophrenia frequently crops up in notorious murder cases. Almost invariably, if the perpetrators turn out to be schizophrenic, they are also heavy marijuana users. For example, Colorado theater shooter James Holmes and Tucson shooter Jared Loughner were both pot smokers.
I once attended a lecture by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia. Torrey mentioned that if he could do one thing to reduce the incidence of schizophrenia among young people, he would post a huge sign at every rock concert warning users that smoking pot increases your chance of becoming schizophrenic by 10 times.
The most recent studies seem to indicate that marijuana can trigger the onset of schizophrenia in people who are predisposed to the condition. That is, many people will be able to smoke pot with no risk of ever developing the disease. But is it worth the risk? Are you feeling lucky?
Smoking pot can stifle motivation. All drugs have side effects, but the popular media would have us believe that pot is an exception. The worst side effect that I have noticed in heavy pot users is loss of motivation. These folks seem to be content with frittering their lives away, achieving nothing, and doing as little as possible except smoking weed. But my evidence is anecdotal. However, there is some solid research that backs up the observation that using pot stifles ambition. A 2013 study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London determined that long-term cannabis users produce less dopamine, a chemical linked to motivation. This study led researchers to conclude that: “Long-term cannabis use may blunt the brain’s motivation system.” The bottom line is that if you’re someone trying to your life, smoking pot is going to take you in the opposite direction.
Other side effects of cannabis use. There is currently a debate in scientific circles concerning the effects of marijuana on sex. The research is contradictory. In animal studies, cannabis has been found to lower testosterone levels, but the human studies have not been conclusive. While we are waiting for a study to definitively settle the question, the prudent course is to avoid using anything that would negatively impact your testosterone levels. The testosterone levels of American men have been dropping since the 1980s – you probably already have lower T levels than your father or grandfather. It doesn’t make sense to do things that might lower it even more.
If you want to succeed, don’t numb yourself. Even if marijuana didn’t carry the risk of triggering schizophrenia, stifling motivation, or decreasing testosterone levels, it would still be a bad idea. To achieve success takes a lot of work. Numbing yourself, whether by drinking too much alcohol or smoking pot, will interfere with and adversely affect achievement, and there’s always the risk such addiction will lead to your downfall.
Truly successful people focus on achieving their goals. Real estate titan Donald Trump has a strict no drugs/no alcohol ethic that he has passed to his children. Gene Simmons, leader of the rock band Kiss, also avoided drugs and alcohol, even when the band was at its peak of popularity. Founding father Benjamin Franklin was a teetotaler in his younger days. It was only after he had accomplished great things in business, science and politics that he indulged in the occasional bottle of wine.
Conclusion. A self-absorbed populace is easy to rule. That’s why rulers have always provided diversions to keep the masses distracted. In ancient Rome, it was the games in the Colosseum. Today, the media, our celebrities, and other members of our new “aristocracy,” encourage us to enjoy life and light up our medical marijuana cigarettes. If you require additional reasons to avoid using pot, take a look at those who are pushing its use. This alone should be enough to convince you to do the opposite.
Sources: Alexander Robertson, The Daily Mail, April 2, 2016, and Michael Sebastian, Return of Kings, September 4, 2015.
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Post by pat on Apr 14, 2016 0:01:45 GMT -5
This is true. I have a friend whose son is a heavy pot smoker and he's never amounted to anything, but her other 3 children, who aren't pot smokers, are very successful. If I had ever caught my son smoking pot, or using any other drug, I'd have sent him to one of those teen boot camps.
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Post by natalie on Apr 14, 2016 11:08:47 GMT -5
I read that it kills brain cells, that may explain why they become such losers. It also makes you lazy.
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Post by Joanna on Dec 30, 2016 1:43:18 GMT -5
Rise in Mysterious Illness Linked to Marijuana LegalizationNEW YORK – For more than two years, Lance Crowder was having severe abdominal pain and vomiting and no local doctor could figure out why. Finally, an emergency room physician in Indianapolis had an idea. “The first question he asked was if I was taking hot showers to find relief. When he asked me that question, I basically fell into tears because I knew he had an answer,” Crowder said.
The answer was cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. It’s caused by heavy, long-term use of various forms of marijuana. For reasons that are unclear, the nausea and vomiting are relieved by hot showers or baths.
“They’ll often present to the emergency department three, four, five different times before we can sort this out,” said Dr. Kennon Heard, an emergency room physician at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. He co-authored a study showing that since 2009, when medical marijuana became widely available, emergency room visit diagnoses of CHS in two Colorado hospitals almost doubled. In 2012, the state legalized recreational marijuana. “It is certainly something that, before legalization, we almost never saw,” Heard added. “Now we are seeing it quite frequently.”
Outside Colorado, when patients do end up in an emergency room, the diagnosis is often missed. Partly because doctors don’t know about CHS and partly because patients don’t want to admit to using a substance that’s illegal.
CHS can lead to dehydration and kidney failure, but usually resolves within days of stopping drug use. That’s what happened with Crowder, who has been off all forms of marijuana for seven months. “Now all kinds of ambition has come back. I desire so much more in life and, at 37-years-old, it’s a little late to do it, but better now than never,” he observed.
CHS has been recognized only for about the past decade, and nobody knows exactly how many people suffer from it. But as more states move toward the legalization of marijuana, emergency room physicians like Dr. Heard are eager to make sure both doctors and patients have CHS on their radar. Source: Jonathan LaPook, CBS News, December 28, 2016.
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Post by kitty on Dec 30, 2016 3:40:05 GMT -5
The people that I know who say that they smoke marijuana for pain don't really need it. They're just looking for an excuse.
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Post by Joanna on Sept 29, 2017 2:20:07 GMT -5
CHS Patients Increasing in Pacific Northwest
Doctors in the Pacific Northwest are faced with a mysterious illness that baffles patients and even other medical professionals. The sickness is called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, known as CHS, and it is linked to chronic marijuana use. It’s so new there are no hard numbers on how many people are affected across the country. Doctors believe using large amounts of marijuana frequently triggers a painful vomiting syndrome – but only in certain people.
Dr. Sean Bozorgzadeh has been treating Jigna Howland, who over the past few years, began battling what seemed like a strange, unexplained illness. “The pain is so intense, I can’t make it go away,” Jigna Howland said. “I can’t make the vomiting stop. You are literally just retching and retching and it’s painful.”
Howland has smoked pot for decades and uses it daily, in part to combat high blood pressure and anxiety. She has also worked at Cannazone in Mount Vernon since it opened earlier this year. But she could not figure out what was causing her sudden illness. “I had no idea what was going on other than I was getting sick once a year – and it was a pretty heavy illness,” she continued.
She appeared for treatment five times and doctors told her tests were inconclusive. Then, four months ago, doctors at Peace Health United General in Sedro-Woolley suggested pot might be at the root of it. “So you did not know it was marijuana related,” KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon asked.
“No,” Howland replied. “Of course, I would smoke more marijuana to alleviate the nausea – which was actually making it worse!”
CHS symptoms include nausea, intense cramping, and vomiting, which can lead to severe dehydration. People who have it say hot showers and baths are the only things that ease the pain. “I would just stand in the hot shower,” Howland added. “I don’t know why and the doctors don’t even know why.”
Dr. Bozorgzadeh was the first to suggest Howland had CHS. In 2009, he saw two to three cases a week. Since recreational marijuana was legalized in Washington, he says that number has increased. “So how many are you seeing a week now?” Sheldon enquired.
“Right now, we see one or two a day, almost … it’s much more common,” he said.
KIRO 7’s investigation led to other cities and hospitals. At Providence St. Peter in Olympia, doctors reported seeing one or two cases a week. Harborview sees one or two cases a month. So does Virginia Mason. Overlake reported seeing a case every two to three months, and Swedish Hospital told KIRO 7 it sees CHS cases “often,” but did not offer details.
Dr. Otto Lin at Virginia Mason co-authored a case study of a man who reported “vomiting for 16 years,” while he struggled with the undiagnosed sickness, all the while “consuming at least four to eight marijuana doses (joints) per day.”
CHS is gaining national attention, too. People across the country have started speaking out, and a recent story in The Atlantic asked in its headline: “Will Smoking Pot Make Me Vomit Forever?”
It is still unclear how and why pot has this effect on certain people. However, Bozorgzadeh explained, “We do know that people who use it chronically and they use a lot of it, you know, sometimes three to five times a day – are more prone to developing this.” Once patients are treated with IVs and medication, doctors say the symptoms usually stop after a couple days, after which Bozorgzadeh recommends a trial phase of no pot at all. “So they go through a period of time where they do not smoke cannabis and if the condition improved or went away, that’s proof that it’s causing it,” he continued.
Howland switched for a while to marijuana products with low levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical in pot that gets people high. She now smokes fewer concentrates, which she personally believes may have helped trigger the sickness in the first place. “Some people refuse to believe it,” she claimed. “They think it’s a very anti-marijuana stance. It is not anti-marijuana. It’s how I make my living – is selling marijuana. I enjoy marijuana. There is nothing wrong with it. It just comes back to moderation.”
Source: Linzi Sheldon, KIRO, September 27, 2017.
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Post by Joanna on Feb 26, 2019 2:27:19 GMT -5
Pot Smoking Leads to Cognitive/Behavioral Problems, CHS, Other IssuesAt present, there are 10 states where recreational marijuana is legal and an additional 23 states allow its use for medicinal purposes, and this is reason for concern. Marc Siegal, M.D., an internal medicine specialist says: “As a practicing internist, I am very aware of the distinction between medicinal and recreational use of any psychoactive substance. Unfortunately, when it comes to marijuana, this distinction is too often and too easily blurred.
Marijuana has been studied and found to be an effective treatment for nausea and certain categories of pain and many patients swear by it. “I am all for it,” Siegal continues, “especially when the alternative is an opioid, or when the disease is severe or terminal.”
But he draws the line at recreational use where, he says, the problem becomes how much an individual is smoking and for what period of time. Studies indicate regular pot smokers are at greater risk for developing cognitive and behavioral problems, depression and anxiety disorders.
According to a recent study at NYU Langone Health, chronic marijuana users, i.e., those who smoke more than 20 days per month, have almost a 1 out of 3 chance of developing Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS), a serious condition associated with varying degrees of pain and uncontrolled nausea and vomiting, which can last several hours. Dr. Joe Habboushe, associate professor of emergency medicine at NYU and first author of the study, the weed-induced vomiting doesn’t respond to routine anti-nausea drugs, but only to several hours of hot showers or capsaicin (derived from peppers) cream. While Habboushe acknowledged that small amounts of marijuana (containing cannabinoids) suppresses nausea and pain in the brain and nerves, at the same time, too much of it over time may “overstimulate and turn off the very receptors that were suppressing nausea and pain in the first place.” The only way to cure the problem is to cease smoking pot altogether. This works 97 percent of the time, but if an individual begins smoking again, the problem is likely to return. Despite the growing number of cases of CHS, many doctors are still unfamiliar with this condition and may misdiagnose the problem. Patients have had multiple diagnostic tests and even had their gallbladders removed unnecessarily as a result of misdiagnosis.
The bottom line to this story is there is no free lunch when it comes to medications. You may not consider marijuana a medicine, but many physicians do and all medicines have side effects, especially with long-term use.
Medical marijuana was first legalized for medical use in California in 1996, but the first states to legalize it for recreational use were Washington and Colorado in 2012. Last year, a landmark study in JAMA Pediatrics showed that legalization of recreational marijuana use significantly reduced perceptions of marijuana’s risks among young users and this is a very disturbing trend.
“I am for the medical use of marijuana.” Siegal adds, “but against chronic use for recreational reasons. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome is a wake-up call about the overuse of this drug; so are the long-term behavioral changes and effects on judgment, memory and decision-making. I learned in medical school and throughout my career that the human body is a complex system of careful checks and balances. It is therefore not surprising to me that what may work for the body at lower doses turns against it over time at higher doses. This medical truth may not solve the current firestorm over whether to fully legalize marijuana or not, but it’s a good place to start.” Sources: Fox News, February 25, 2019, and Jeremy Berke and Skye Gould, BusinessInsider, January 4, 2019.
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Post by pat on Feb 26, 2019 13:33:03 GMT -5
I hate potheads. I had a friend who was run down and killed by a 19 year old man who was so high on marijuana that he didn't even know where he was. A lot of people say it's harmless, but they're wrong.
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Post by Joanna on Feb 26, 2019 14:12:02 GMT -5
I hate potheads. I had a friend who was run down and killed by a 19 year old man who was so high on marijuana that he didn't even know where he was. A lot of people say it's harmless, but they're wrong. I'm sorry to say that my state (Maine) is one of those that has legalized recreational marijuana and that was a gigantic mistake. We already had an inordinate number of potheads living off the taxpayers and now we have even more. I have family members and friends who own various businesses and they have a very hard time finding employees because they drug-test workers periodically. My brother and his wife started drug-testing their employees after a teen they employed part-time during the summer was hiding in a storage area smoking pot and started a fire that caused thousands of dollars in damage. Pot smokers are careless and can't be trusted.
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Post by chris on Feb 27, 2019 1:41:55 GMT -5
When I was a kid, I tried pot a few times and I could see that it was having a bad affect on me. After smoking, I would have a hard time getting up for school and I got fired from a job that I had after school because my boss said that I just wasn't "cutting it anymore," and I had worked for him for over a year. Then after my dad found a joint in my room, he raised so much hell about it that I never smoked again and I'm glad that I didn't.
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