Yeah this makes sense. High THC makes SWIM paranoid not relaxed and mellow like lower doses. If someone was prone to mental illness this could get way worse.

Do the synthetic cannabinoids differ in these negative effects, or is it something you just have to take for granted with all cb-receptor agonists?

I am interested in that question. Sensitivity and expression levels of cannabinoid receptors could change with constant use and play a role too.

THC is technically considered a partial agonist of CB1 receptors. Strong synthetic cannabinoids like CP55940 (great name right?) are considered full agonists. Need to hear dose response experiences from people who have tried a number of different synthetic cannabinoids.

Who are you people calling weed out as a psychedelic? Its about as psychedelic as a peanut butter sandwich and some mixed ilex tea. I haven't smoked weed in about 5 months and I'm completely indifferent to it. I agree with 69ron that its a waste of time, but you know different strokes for different folks. What annoys me most is that it spawns these fake hippies and gangsters... and that it's so easy to get in legal trouble with. I don't know what else to really say about it. It's pretty much neutral. No offense to anyone here as I said, if its good for you and your life than more power to you, but I don't see how theres this whole stoner culture off such a low level high.

^^it can be psychedelic in high doses used infrequently, but lets be honest..most 'potheads" do not use it that way..but I just dont enjoy it really at all anymore..Every time I try it now, which has been like 2 times this past 3 or 4 weeks(last one 4 or 5 days ago)..I end up feeling fucked up and shaky for the next 2 days, I dunno why, but I dont like it.

I agree it's nothing at all in comparisonto tryptamines. I love tryptamines..cannabis doesn't even come close to the experience and truths certain tryptamines canbring one to..I honestly think I would rather smoke some mapacho tobacco to just relax and think these days..

If people want to smoke it that's fine..I did it multiple times daily from the time I was 19 up until a couple of weeks ago..that was 6 years of basically not comming down. Now that my brainhas started to clear up I can really see the haze that all my old friends are living in..they say that pot makes them happy and feel good, but none of them really act like it..none of them seem all that happy or enlightened. Most of them stopped taking entheogens for the most part becasue they are too afraid, they onyl want to take "easy" comfort drugs..and lets face it, DMT and mushrooms are anything but "easy" and comforting..maybe comforting but you usually need to sort of earn it.

For me I am fine with a mushroom or aya trip every week or so now..pot just does not even compare to that..Im just going to dive in full force into shamanism from now on..and dropping weed and realizing the problem I had was just the first step.

Sort of does creat "fake hippies" as well. People who have never really had a psychedelic experience, or whenthey do they fight it and never do it again..and then they run around quoting other stupid people on they're "flashbacks"..I used to know someone like that...real ignorant..drug snobs who think pot is god.

Even with chronic users, strong edibles can easily manifest a psychedelic cannabis experience, complete with OEVs.

^^ sorry to hear that..I have gone through many phases of depression as well. I had real manic thoughts for a year straight after a bad break up 3 years ago, and threw myself completley into weed, all day long, at home, at work, middle of the night, all the time. I wrote constantly, real dark horrible depressive poetry and stoires, always stoned out my head. I sat in my room hating the world, hating everything..that is just one example but I felt sort of like that all through high school as well..

I used to have anxiety real bad, and still do just not nearly as much, and cannabis after a while started to make it worse and worse. I would get shaky and feel like crawling into a whole crying for no reason..I would constantly put myslef down and degrade myself always comparing myself to others with this stupid internal dialogue I could not stop for the life of me...until one certain ayahuasca trip that really brought all this shit up to the surface...it really was like looking in the spiritual mirror..for once I was able to really just be okay with me and see myslef as beautiful..and it's weird becasue before I would never have been able to accept that all this hatred and axiety welling up within me was all comming from my perspective of myself...and I could finally see why I was basically hiding myself for myself with my cannabis addiction..still, it took a few months after that to finally really want to quit smoking pot.

When i did stop, I really realized that there is a physical side to the addiciton as well. I felt disphoric and shaky, for days after. ANd this wasn't particualarily mild either..it was horrible and I felt like shit, like physically there was something wrong with me. I didn't know what to do, I even went and talked to my mom becasue I thought my brain had been fucked..but after about 5 days it cleared up and the disphoric shaky feeling left..but when I smoked again after 2 weeks..I felt the same way again, but only for 2 days...I feel like I owe my sanity to that jungle vine now..and I told everyone around me straight up that if it were not for aya, i would prob still be smoking away in mysery...funny the look on peoples faces when I try to tell them I quit a drug by taking another drug..though i hate to call aya a drug..

Now I just dont want to smoke. Other tryptamine psychedelics and salvia do not do that to me..it's only cannabis. I find now that if I do get sort of down I drink some cacao tea and it REALLY helps..thats stuff is my heart opener I swear..those mayans didn't eat it all day for nothing. I think that the cannabis messed up my seratonin levels or something..cacoa has lots of tryptophan and maois so it would help with that. Same with ayahuasca and even mushrooms..both really help me for days and even weeks after it seems.

Hope all goes well for you and you find some peace..we all deserve that at least.

It's crazy how much this thread rings true with me. I have been smoking pot every day for about ten years straight and have experienced nearly everything that's been posted here, good and bad. It's weird, I'm totally conscious of why I need to stop but there's this other side of me that's totally indifferent. I do plan on turning to aya and perhaps mescalito for some guidance. Any other advice to help break my routines?
Great thread, I feel connected to all of SWIY.

focus you're desire for cannabis on the fact that without it you're dreams will be soooo much more amazing..For me it's that way anyway. I feel like cannabis was literally robbing me of some amazing dream content. Plus all the other benifits..spice will seem clearer, cleaner..you will have more energy..more time and $$ for extactions and other mad scientist type of stuff

Cannabis is wonderful again!..or at least right now it is! It's been probabily about 3 weeks sinse I last smoked...and I just took a hit of some nice homegrown organic maybe 20 minutes ago and I feel great!..Like a kid again! Food is awesome and music is even better...

So glad she decided to come out and play again and be freinds!..I am bowing down to the ganja spirit and making time for a weekly ritual with the goddess now..

It's so much better I think when I work with her like this..for now anyway..

I think Cannabis is awesome if used responsibly.

Smoking or using Cannabis about 3-5 times per month (about once a week) seems fairly responsible and non-damaging to me.

SWIM used to get uncomfortable symptoms from ganja, until acid taught him that he could deal with them. A dry eyes or throat can be healed by concentrating on the image or feeling of comfort. Sometimes SWIM will get dry eyes and end up over-compensating to the point of having to wipe a tear or two away.

So, anyone know anyone who's experimented with the synthetics? JWH or others? Is there any info available about their potential safety, either in pure USP form or what the online vendors have?

I am interested in the synthetics as well..

I never had problems with my eyes or throat..well maybe my sinuses but not enough to stop..I only had problmes with the anxiety I got from it..prob from smoking it all day every day and getting super potent hydro grown crap that was full of chems and not flushed at all

Anyways I am baked now and seem to be fine...

BTW...for the last 2 days whenever coatl responds to something...I cant read his posts, they dont show up..I can see that he has posted on recent posts..but they arent there when I check the thread..weird.

iv been smoking 7 years mostly daily... im stoned as shit
cheers

I was just thinking, with all the problems the UK seems to have with lowlife dealers passing off whatever garbage they can as hash, it would be surprising if some English stoners haven't been smoking this stuff for quite some time without realizing it.

Wouldnt surprise me...btw..is that grit weed stuff really true?? God thats horrible if it is..soo glad I dont have to put up with sketchy dealers who dont know what the hell it even is they are selling anymore...theres ALOT of shit cannabis around here that everyone who doesnt know anything thinks is great just becasue it smells strong...burns black and crackles..filled with nutes and other chemicals..

I'll take low grade organic dirt grown grass over all this toxic grown "chronic" any day..honestly I like the stone of my mid to low grade normal cannabis and dont have the desire to smoke anyone elses herb at all now, even socially when it's offered..I dont trust it because none of my friends grow and they basically just buy the buds that smell the most and are the hardest(thinking it's better when it's denser, but I think good bud should be sorta fluffy, not like fucking rocks)..without smoking for weeks I am sensitive enough to my stuff anyway..no need to puff on some other questionable stuff..I dont like being too stoned in public all all either, only at home alone cus I dont smoke too often lately(although I prob will smoke a bit more now)..so all this hydro grown chem shit might make me start tripping hard and ruin it..I know my stuff though so I know exactly how much to smoke to get where I want to be..

I keep wondering if cannabis inthe 60's was like that...I doubt it...brick weed I bet is a diff stone..and maybe not so bad if that's all you ever smoke..I think the THC ratios compared to other cannabinoids has been fucked because alot of people didnt get the whole ratio of cannabinoid thing and bred the highest THC possible...

Of course they had hash back then, but most of it was comming from india and whatnot, and from mexican brickweed that had more balanced ratios so the stone wasn't over stimualting like most stuff today..

I have found that my favorite thing to smoke, believe it or not, is the female sugar bud leaves..the small leaves poking out of the buds all covered in trichomes..I dunno why but they give me the nicest stone..and still taste nice..and dont overwhelm me even after weeks of abstaining and no tolerancy...I save the buds for when I really want to trip..

I also want to add that one thing I really really miss about smoking pot every day, is the amazing closed eye visuals I get while fallins asleap at night while stoned, like full scenes in crystal clarity..sort of like remote viewing I guess I dunno...I dont have them anymore unless I smoke at night..I really miss them. I used to have them every day..So now Im going to smoke at least one night a week just for that reason.

They sell the synthetics here for like $100 for 3 grams and although it gets you high, i wouldn't call it the same or as good as good weed. It tastes a lot like crap to be honest.

OK, now on the ganja, of which i've been smoking daily about 20 years... i love it... obviously i'm addicted yes but i also know why i like it.... it makes/keep my mind wide the fuck open.. TOO open for some activities... but it makes mundane life much more rich because i notice the details.... it keeps me relaxed enough to do the computer work i do too, otherwise i'd probably have to get a manual labour job to calm me down.. i'm very hyperactive naturally and would be in prison by now probably without the weed to chill me out.

As for the culture, it's based on being a connaisseur... there are vast differences between different strains... compare it to "red spice" we all get so excited about here.. well there are at least 20-30 readily identifiable strains through taste, bud size, high quality, body buzz, head buzz, etc. Weed for me is like beer for the next guy, it's always been a heck of a lot more consistant than women, work, money, or most things in life Its always there for me to feel good with.

Thats not to say I haven't been to narcotics anonymous for it though hehehehe.. but each time the reality was i was either BROKE or just BROKE UP with a girl, so i was depressed. But give me money and a woman and a good job, you bet your ass there with be an ounce of some of the kindest bud my city has to offer. What the hell else am i alive for? To WORK and WORK OUT all the time? I can't trip on DMT while watching a movie or browsing the net or you bet i would, weed is certainly psychedelic.. it opens your mind.. BUT not if you are smoking indica.. only sativas have psychedelic qualities. Problem is sativa growers DON'T SELL, so many people in the USA especially have absolutely never in their entire life smoke real sativa weed. Mabye week hybrids, but to get good yield they always cross with indica if they will sell it.

No different than DMT probably.. i never saw it on the market but they'd probably try to sell you one crappy hit mixed with earwax for $60 and you'd never really know what you're missing. Same with LSD/ACID.... i speak to people who "think" they've done LSD and i get all excited to disucss with them and then woooah.. doesn't take long to realize they had something way way less intense. Even exctasy, so many kids have only touched MDA or speed and RC combined to pretend to be E.... the clen poweder is rarer.

ok i'm blabbing, but i'm trying to say the ganja culture is strong because:
1. it keeps thug/criminal/hyper types calm enough not to hurt anyone
2. there are many varieties, with many falavor and qualities, like wine
3. it keeps the mind open, thereby young.

to prove my point i wish you could see each of my friends as they got married and had to quit pot smoking daily IF their wives demanded it... one by one they became whipped nerds with no life, no love for music or the arts, no personal sense of inner freedom... society had taken over their soul.

Now i look at those frineds who have kids and DO SMOKE POT STILL and whoooah.. even those 50
and over are still giggling fools who enjoy watching movies, going out together, and basically keep an open mind about having fun. They have much better relationshps with their kids for the same reason....

In fact, you gotta see my BEST friends when he's compared to when he's not... i come over and 20 minutes later i think his son is wondering why his dad is acting so nice! I'm a huge weed proponent..... except these are the negatives:

- it's a psychedelic, if you're depressed beacuse you are broke, your girl left you, you're lonley, failed school etc... NOT a good idea to smoke just like NOT a good idea to take shrooms
- when you can't find weed, when the government succeeds, then it becomes a major bitch.... i hate being addicted only when i can't find good stuff! So man, i don't blame the stuff, i blame the fucking law
- the cost can get really really high if you don't grow it, don't watch your intake, and smoke freely.... i can easily smoke $1,000 a month. $40 for 31/2 of top quality bud a day... thats not a problem when i'm making 4 and 5k a month, but its a BIG problem when i lose my job/contracts! BIG fucking problem! BUT to be honest when i am going down on cash, i cut back to about 1/2 the qantity, and i go searching for a cheaper/slightly lower quality. i can get down to $400 a month.

THATS IT! My rant and rave about MJ.... i can't say i'd ever had tried lsd or dmt or shrooms had i not known mary jane well.. and in fact, there are plenty of non-drug things i may have never done without the love of MJ behind me... it's almost a confidence booster for me, like knowing you having a wife at home who loves you unconditionally [sorry mr. romantics, i said unconditionally, not what women pretend, or can pull off for maybe 3-4 years hehe]

^^ha ya, sweet sweet janes never left my side!..through all the good and bad times..more than I can say about all the women who have been in my life...

^yes since I now only smoke my own stuff that is just sorta mid grade and smoke way less often it's a better relationship I have with the plant..

I smoke my own stuff grown with love, flushed properly, and I try to smoke only 1-2 times a week max.
That's my dose and if I go over that I start to feel anxious and paranoid.

But if I show discipline and don't smoke more I really enjoy it. And it works good against depression in the right dose. But too much makes me depressed.

I've had some of my best times in my life stoned but I've also been tortured by weed.
It took me 10 years to gain control and now I just enjoy weed. But I have to be careful not to smoke too much.