The post about cannabis parties got me thinking about this;

I'm not exactly a social god, I battle to relate to most, I'm sure many nexians can empathise, but I when i go out i cope. Usually with a few drinks; once I get some drinks in me I can chat to far more people far more easily. That's pretty standard.
But I don't like the borderline social-dependence on it.

When I smoke weed, even with the best of friends I usually become introverted and I have been sure to only smoke it when drinking if I am out socialising.

Do you think weed alone, being nothing but stoned can act as a social lubricant? Even if just for you, I'd like to see what you guys say, because I could never imagine speaking to tonnes of people when just stoned.

Thanks.

-Well, only if the other person is stoned..BUT why do you need to be stoned in order to simply talk???...Sounds to me like you need to practice talking to more people without all that stuff.

You're better off learning to develop confidence in talking to strangers without the crutch of weed or alcohol. It's all about mastering how to come across as being a relaxed friendly person to the other one. It's a skill that takes practice to improve. It's actually all about understanding yourself which is why people get anxious, because people spend a lot of time running away from themselves in life, and find the prospect of a stranger telling them some home truths scary.

-But trust me, the more you talk to people sober, and get used to what you say about yourself, as well as hearing what they tell you about yourself, you soon get used to these feelings, can relax, and improve in social confidence.

-Whilst drinking alcohol is considered a social lubricant, it's due to the fact that both people are drinking together, and that it's a relaxed act because it's legal. It's also pretty cheap to slowly drink a couple of glasses of red wine!

It doesn't work as a social lubricant for me, at least not when around strangers. With close friends maybe, but the conversation would happen anyway.

In the rare events where I use weed these days, it tends to be for introspection, guitar playing or philosophical conversations with close friends.

It seems to work differently from person to person, I know quite a few who use it for socializing, and one or two make it a daily habit, hold steady/prestigious jobs and have a normal social life, but happen to be stoned pretty much every day.
Me, if I did that, I'd completely shut off from the rest of the world. Really get lost inside my mind


What helped in regards to social interaction was exercise, a good diet and some reading about the topic. Well OK, MDMA as well

I was never a social weed person either. I never cared for idle bs, which is what I find in most potheads.
It seemed to me, most of them were busy talking about the government, bs philosophy, and really idealistic topics that didn't have much to do with me.

Plus at that point in my life by 10pm I was more fascinated by things like oranges, countertops, my belly button, and staring at the cosmos.

Of course now that I'm older, we take the kids to go see potheads as a matter of drug education. "Ok honey, this is jimmie... he smokes a ton of pot. He hasn't had a job in 5 years, but he plays a lot of video games and lives in his mom's basement."

Weed is everything, but a social lubricant to me. When i´m stoned, i don´t even WANT to talk to anybody anymore.

Hmmmm my take on this:

If I haven't smoked cannabis in a long time time and then smoke with people I don't know so well, I tend to be pretty introverted and find socialising more difficult. If I've been smoking regularly (A few times a week) this scenario is not so bad.

If I am with close friends, it's really not that much of a problem. Sometimes it's blissful. Sometimes it's just too much and I need to get away from people, or stop talking for a while until the anxiety passes.

Gone are the days of toking with friends and instant fun, laughter and talking. Cannabis has become very psychedelic for me.

I think in small quantities it's a great social lubricant. It's not just about the cannabinoids ingested, just having it around can change the tone and relaxation level of a get together... if they're chill people and it's a chill place, people will just mellow, even if they haven't smoked it... it's a contextual contact high sort of thing, methinks.

context is important. plus everyone is different

and also everyones relationship with mary jane can fluctuate

I agree with above post.
From what I've come to understand about weed based on my own experiences is how similar it is to something like salvia (but really any psychedelic i'd say).
There seems to be VAST differences between people in terms of effects.
With drugs especially like salvia, lsd, mushrooms 2c-x compounds etc. - Usually people can barely even relate the experiences they're having with others.
We know these drugs manifest differently and behave different and that they effect people differently.

With salvia for example... Every person I've ever seen come out of a salvia experience has a brand new crazy idea of what the hell happened to them.
The effects differ so greatly because of each person's brain chemistry, personality, memory etc. And this really speaks to how unique each person actually is.

Being that weed has several chemicals in it, with several different effects... the differences in each person's experience is likely to differ even more.

I know friends who use it as if prescribed, they believe it levels them out and would never consider life without it.
I know people that use it to feel comfortable in group settings (perhaps like the OP is talking about)
I know people who literally can't handle it (I fall into this group) because the combination of chemicals simply gets them too high.
I know people who think it makes them smarter but it's obvious that they're complete bafoons.
I know people who it genuinely does make them smarter.

The list goes on.

So i think it's pretty natural with something like marijuana that it's used by many groups, in many settings, for many reasons.
Some people get some pretty good stuff out of it, while some people get the opposite.

Not uncommon for me to get blitzkreiged when socializing, works in my favor.

weed never served as a social lubricant for me. it always created a barrier to really getting to know others. there were a few times when it did in fact elevate a social experience, and made talking a lot more fun; however, this happened only rarely. the times when i turned introverted on weed around people far outnumber the times when it served as a social lubricant. i realized that the more pot i smoked, the more this "introverted/stoned" state started becoming my "default sate." and, as may be obvious, i turned to alcohol to counteract these effects. it was only a temporary help though, and resulted in a sick body (even though i didn't drink too often).
then i had a moderately intense shroom trip on 1g, and realized the deep-seated sickness that my body felt from weed consumption, and to some degree alcohol and cigs. i had been avoiding the acknowledgement of my addiction to weed and cigs (i wasn't really addicted to alcohol actually, even though i used it). so i quit smoking pot and drinking on that day, and supplemented my healing with meditation and 100% raw food diet. I don't plan to touch those substances ever again in my life. i feel fuckin amazing...so much more alive than before.
some social fears still arise every now and then, but i see a drastic shift occurring within me. i feel like i abused weed too much, and as a result, it really messed up my head in the past.
Magicman, if you feel that weed is messing up ANY aspect of your life whatsoever, then i would urge you to quit it. many will say that a break of up to 1-2 months is good enough, but i would say to go without it for at least a year. because the changes that take place can take a long time to show up as the body heals itself from past pot abuse (at least that was the case for me..but every body is diff). I recently had journeyed on Aya for the first time, and that was also very empowering.
take care Magicman, and i would ask that if you are addicted to pot, then be willing to acknowledge it, and work towards quitting it for good if its harming you... trust me, you won't regret it. keep on glowing my brother

Strangers, no. Close friends, it can make things very silly. And with boyfriend, it's great.

I like to be alone when I am high sometimes and get lost in the music.

Sativa might work but in general weed is one of the worst medicines for socialising in my experience(can make shy etc.). Altough it's easy to meet people by offering or asking them for a joint.

If I am stoned and then I start to socialise, it can be a real drag. If I start to socialise and get progressively more stoned as the night goes on, my energy is more focussed on having fun than relaxing / unwinding / meditating etc and it is usually great fun. I often add small - moderate amounts of alcohol into the mix, which works well to bring the sillier side out. but yes, I am comfortable smoking weed in most circumstances

Only one exception comes to mind with weed, for me. There was one time I can remember during which weed actually propelled my "socialness" and I found myself at new, unimaginable heights of feel-good-about-myself-and-my-relations-with-others.

I was with long-time friends at the beach, though one of the people were new to me. I and three others broke away from the rest to go into the water, and we were high. We started to joke about going nude-- but like, REALLY joke, so well that it made the new girl comfortable enough to take off her top. Soon as that happened, the other two dudes and I threw our bathing suits off, and we were freee.

After swimming for a while I took the second step to what would be the ultimate night of nights for the rest of my life. We were by the shore, all a little nervous and embarrassed to expose ourselves in the air (I could tell, and I could also tell they wanted to, which is why) I then got up and walked over the water to the sand, my balls hanging out and free, and everyone followed, laughing and saying "ok! I guess this is what normal kids do, now! Right? haha!). We did cartwheels and made sand-angels and just acted like little kids. Yesss

To top this soul-melting experience of laughter and freedom, a FUCKING SEA-TURTLE CAME OUT OF THE WAVES TO BLESS US ALL ON THIS NIGHT. And we danced around it.

When we went to our other friends (one of whom was the boyfriend of this girl), they looked at us with disgust and, I suppose, pity. And walked away from us.

But don't be sad, because we all went on to have many nude experiences both at beaches and at community pools with all of the friends and some acquaintances, too. It's the best and I miss those times, haven't done it in about half a year. sigh

Thank you for that story Dedalus.




Weed in social situations was always a cause for anxiety for me, for years. Last year I quit drinking entirely for 6 months. Went out and was social a few times sober....and then tried smoking weed in public. I seem to have lightened up a bit and now I seem to have overcame my long held weed-induced social anxiety. Some situations, like in a noisy club or something, still may cause that anxiety to flare up again, but generally yeah, I think I'm over it.

I'd say different cannabis for different people.
Cannabis with high THC(psychotic) vs cannabis with high CBD(antipsychotic) is
like night and day.

If cannabis makes you introverted/paranoid try and get a hold of something with
a high percentage of CBD.

Where I live the only cannabis that doesn't make me paranoid is hashes like black afghan, indian charas etc.
Weed with a high cbd count is nowhere to be found=(.


My friends that are very extroverted in general never really get paranoid or introverted from high thc cannabis
while my friends who are more introverted all get paranoid and get social anxiety(including me).

To you people who think that it has gotten better after sustaining from smoking for a while (which might be true)
I suspect that you might have gotten a hold of cannabis with slightly higher cbd content.
The genetics for producing cbd in cannabis varies to some degree with every seed the plant produces and
sometimes a normally mindfuck cannabis plant throws out a seed with higher cbd content.

If you want to know more about CBD I recommend reading the info at http://projectcbd.org/

I agree fully , nowadays I can pretty much only smoke pure indicas , any sativa like bud makes me anxious , it's strange but for some reason my brain chemistry must have changed because of years of smoking....it wasn't always like it is now

I agree. I have been using cannabis for about a dozen years and I get negative effects much more frequently than I ever used to. I get anxiety more often than not and sometimes paranoia as well. I'm about on the verge of stopping all together but I still crave it even though I don't enjoy it the majority of the time; old habits die hard.

The high is definitely different than in "the beginning" but is it a physiological change or is it
a psychological change?...or maybe both.
I'm not really updated on the science so if anyone have any "new" information that would be very
interesting.

Can you relate to what I'm saying about CBD?
Can anyone?

To me it's like night and day.
People who like strong THC(to me extroverted people) usually dont really "like" the afghans...they
mainly think they feel weak in comparison to the "skunky" kind.