Has any of you actually think about how unique are weed's psychedelic qualities?
I was just thinking about this for a while now, and I decided to share my toughts with you.

First of let's start with the most known things.
-After psychedelic use, a weed high becomes a small "trip".
Most of you has probably experimented with psychedelics. Those who smoke cannabis might have noticed that their high is no longer the same. Sometimes it causes closed eye visuals, visual distortions and slightly increased patter recognition, even at small doses.
This is probably the cause of thc being strenghtened by your HPPD. (assuming if you have this condition, but it's very common in hallucinogen users.)
Maybe people just start noticing certain effects after a shroom trip, but I could'nt find any researches on this.

-Increased conenction with people around you.
This is not always experienced, but it's not rare to have. On occasions, weed high can cause crazy pedictions. You might have ordered a pizza, and somehow you just feel like it has arrived, and than suddenly your doorbell rings. Maybe you are talking deeply to some girl, and really strangely connect with her. You both feel it, and if you look into her eyes you feel a really strange connection and you suddenly understand everything about each other. This feeling can happen torward anyone, and it' not uncommon on other psychedelics.
You might have also noticed that someone high on cannabis really influences the mood of the friends.
These effects are ussualy belived to exist by the few who have experienced them.

-Auditory changes
Cannabis potentiates music and sound appreciation pretty simillary to common psychedelics.
This is probably the most well known perception changing quality of weed.
This one is not realy worth talking about, anyone who has smoked weed before can recall this.
It is just worth keeping in mind.

-Goes strangly well with other psychedelics
Because of its mechanism of action because of its neurotransmitting qualities, it greatly amplifies your mood, your toughts, and imagination. Because this, you can controll your experience, by going in with a specific state of mind. Lets say if you are waiting for the previously ordered pizza, and you smoke a few bowls, you will get a high where your only goal is to eat till you pass out. If you smoke a J before going to bed, you will get really tired and all you will want is to sleep. If you are hiking, you will be more energetic, and you will find it the msot beautiful moment you had. This list goes on and on.
If you are inside a shroom trip, you have a really different state of mind, and your brain is working rather uniquely. If you smoke a bowl now, your mushroom trip will get greatly amplified, the same way your mood is changed while waiting for that tasty pizza.
This causes your trip to get amplified a really different way. Not that way when you take an other psychedelic, or smoke DMT. It doesn't get more deep, you probably wont breaktrough because you smoked a joint. It just makes your current effects much more pronounced.
Because of these properties, it goes really well with most psychedelics.

Conclusion
These things I have listed might not seem that strange, but just think of it: This is a rather unique and well known substance, with millions of daily users. It has the most routes of administration, and it is well studied.
It has a unique mecahism of action, and It can be very spiritual. It is changed by psychedelic use, and it has a very good synergy with them. Can cause strong perception distortion, and can give you "telephaty" for a time. Thc tolerance builds up really differently. It is neither phenethylamine or tryptamine, but it shares lots of similar effects with them.

I'm hoping that this has told something new or interesting for you, and I'm sorry if I said soemthing wrong, I tried to factcheck everything, but most of these haven't really get discussed on forums, as far as my research go.
Please tell me if you would add anything, share a personal experience in conenction with this topic,
or if you would change or correct something.

(Sorry if I mispelled something or used wrong grammar, I'm not a native speaker and I still have to work on my english)

Are you sure that confirmation bias ain't playing a big role in your conclusions?


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Yes, you are right, I might have exaggerated there. Sorry for that, my focus was on the main part, I will pay more attention next time.

I think Traveler was joking there Bikachu...

It is indeed the Spice of Life...It can give you a little taste of what it is to 'wake up' and can get your process started...It is a gateway drug, but not in the sense it was meant by anti-drug fuck-alls.

Oh yeah...speaking of spice...Dune is being re-made! We shall see if it's done properly

Semi-joke, since it had a lot of it initially. It is better now.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Weed is indeed a lovely psychedelic.

About the interpersonal connection part though, I've once fallen crazy in love with a girl on a slight OD involving space cakes - only completely unilaterally, so much so that she was in a perfectly harmonious relationship at the time. So careful with chemically forced connections...

I think the reason why cannabis may seem like a "universal psychedelic" is because it's not just a psychedelic, it's phenomenology overlaps into many other experiential distinctions beyond psychedelic.

So, it's a psychedelic, but it's also many other things, it's an analgesic, a relaxant, an anxiolytic, a depressant, an entheogen, an intoxicant, a mood stabilizer, an appetite stimulator, an anti-nausea medication, a euphoriant, and more

...and it does all these things in a subtle enough way where most people can consume the compound without it interfering with their daily functions...

It's palatable to a wide variety of individuals because it's safe, you will not overdose or die, it's subtle (though it can be a +++ compound as well; shulgin scale), and there are very little negative repercussions for heavy or extended use, It can be used socially or alone, recreational or medically, there is no risk of physical dependency or addiction, and it's socially accepted in many places, I'm sure there are more reasons, but you get the idea.

-eg



-eg

I have to agree =), I love smoking cannabis even though I started late compared to most people it has definitely helped with seizure control!!

Cannabis has definitely intensified for me over the years after having worked with tryptamines moar deeply.

I find cannabis and being out in nature inseparable and to be at it's strongest when im in the middle of the woods. Something happens.

Cannabis does something really fundamental for me, as far as the experience of it goes - time. The experience of time can be greatly halted for me, to the point of things seeming to take on the quality of a moving still-photo [this can become really intense]. There's also this realization that can hit me during that point - the feeling I get from it is the timeless-nature of the human experience, the felt immediacy of this moment[The Moment], that this moment that im looking out upon in that very instance in and of itself ..is all there is. All this is also in conjunction with the somatic[bodily] effects that can hit me, many times very very hard. If im not ready for this barrage of effects [if I choose to smoke quickly], it can be too much ..which leads to anxiety and all that comes with that.

Cannabis, great stuff.

And on the days after tripping its extra strong

I love the effects or marijuana, if only dopamine wasn't so addictive though! Somehow I always end up convincing myself to take another hit the next day/week, and another, and another. With serotoninergics, that never happens. Sorry MJ, you loose.

I have a complicated history with cannabis. I really can't feel positive about it anymore. Even when I was in love with it, I understood it to be a very harsh psychedelic, that is, harsh at psychedelic doses.
I believe it's universal because it is so easy to grow.
Also, amongst the many actions it has, I think its action as a stupefying "drug" is probably its most widely appreciated.

Cannabis is not for everyone.

All too often I will encounter some individual that really wants to make cannabis "work" for them, but can not manage to get past some aspect of the experience...

some become overly self-conscious, some feel anxiety, some feel paranoia, and those with prior mental health issues such as schizophrenia should avoid cannabis as it tends to exacerbate their illness. (Though I have seen manic and bi-polar individuals effectively use cannabis to treat their mental health issues)...there are some that I know that only dislike cannabis when they have lost their tolerance to it, they must endure heavily smoking cannabis for 5 to 8 days allowing it to induce discomfort, until their tolerance returns and the effects become pleasurable again. Some just do not like the any feeling induced by the plant.

I understand with the changing laws and culture that a good deal of people want to be part of this evolving cannabis culture and the historic progress which it has been making, but, some of these same people have some aversion to some phenomenological aspect of the cannabis intoxication... now, I've seen people take two paths in this situation:

·some will become frustrated and bitter, they will excentuate and spread disinformation and perceived negatives relating to cannabis as a means to validate their new found stance against the plant, they use anti-cannabis rhetoric to reinforce their own biases, and they essentially become "anti-cannabis". They discourage others from smoking, usually saying things like "I used to smoke, but now I know cannabis is negative, and I can help you stop", they take a stance that because cannabis could not work for them, that they must "open the eyes" of cannabis users who still smoke, encouraging them to quit...

Or

·They participate in the cannabis community without personally smoking, they understand that for whatever reason they can not personally smoke, but they also understand that cannabis is an essential part of life for many people out there. They will be productive and supportive even though they do not participate in consumption.

Ive always seen cannabis as the antithesis of a "stupefying" drug, in many cases it induces in depth thought processes, as well as flights of creative, philosophical, and intellectual bouts of introspection. Cannabis can inspire creativity and provide novel and unique pathways for abstract thinking.

...cannabis makes one calm, peaceful, relaxed, and improves sleep, some may associate this with a compound which impairs the intellect, and causes one to become dim and slow-witted, and the majority of anti-drug propaganda would try to reinforce this misperception. The whole "drugs make you dumb" notion was heavily pushed, but without much, or any, evidence to back the claim. The following article outlines recent research confirming that cannabis does NOT "make you dumb.
https://www.washingtonpo.../?utm_term=.4dcb5f2623bc

As far as cannabis being easy to grow as a reason for its universal appeal, I don't see this. lots of psychoactive plants are easy to grow, yet they do not have the same appeal as cannabis.

I feel when a psychoactive has been in human use for thousands of years, is non-addictive, with no risk of physical dependency, is safe, meaning there is no risk of over-dose or death, and can be used heavily with little to no negative repercussions, this all vastly increases the appeal of a psychoactive.

Then, there is the cannabis intoxication itself, the phenomenological effects of the compound. Cannabis is generally a very mild, or subtle intoxication (though it is capable of producing very intense experiences ) most can smoke cannabis, and they won't "freak-out", they are not going to pass out, or slur their speech, or vomit, they remain in control of their actions. Most can smoke cannabis heavily and still will be able to go to work, take care of their families, and uphold all of their obligations, they can function fully while still using, this can not even be said of alcohol, the most widely accepted intoxicant globally. There are so many reasons why cannabis could be beneficial for so many people...

-eg

Why is weed the most universal psychedelic? Because it's dope... *badumtissss*

Unforgivably corny jokes aside, I think eg has it right that the safety, lack of serious impairment and negative health impacts, and accessibility of the experience play key roles in the drug's popularity. And even beyond that, it's the single oldest psychoactive used by humans, with archeological evidence of prehistoric consumption. That kind of heritage and history does not easily fade away from human societies, most of which have used the plant to some degree. Add to that the flexibility of the experience (I can either get a mild buzz and stare out my window sipping tea and thinking of nothing or I could delve deep into hyperspace, depending on dose and RoA) and you have an unbeatable molecular cocktail.

I hope you didn't write that big long post because you were offended by my use of the word "stupefy", EG? I'm not against cannabis, and I do still sometimes use it. I happen to like the stupefying effects of cannabis and especially cannabis combined with alcohol. I understand that doesn't agree with some people's views, but personally I consider those views an anglo-saxon puritan affliction, and it's just not my culture.
Anyway, it's the non-stupefying aspects of cannabis intoxication that no longer agree with me.
It seems a common enough phenomenon that people go "off" cannabis. Whether it's a matter of brain chemistry or psychology I don't know. For me personally I feel like I got the message, so I hung up the phone.




I think cannabis must surely give the biggest bang for buck of any easily grown plant that does not require further treatment.
What other can compare, really?

Woah! I'm really suprised that this post went this big. Didn't expect it to reach 520+ views and gain so many positive comments!
Thank you for sharing so many pesronal stories and opinions on this subject! Due to me being new to this forum I'm amazed that people have such a positive attitude here and I'm really happy to share my toughts here, It feels great to take part in this forum.
Thanks Etheogenic-gnosis for going deep into those effects, I have learned a lot.


I'd like to 100% believe in this, but some of my friends, who have only smoked cannabis and did no other psychoactive compound, had their mental capabilites worsened when they started smoking cannabis heavily. Other effects were really pronounced too, like forgetting thigs all the time, and they forgot what they wanted to say at the middle of their sentence. Everytime they had a longer tolerance brake it got better, but when they have somked a lot they actually got dumber.

I'm not saying that you are not right, but my experiences shows that some people are dumbed down by heavy cannabis use.

Yes, weed is pretty dope (see what I did there).

No, I always produce lengthy posts, consumption of cannabis extract prior to sitting down behind the key board may have something do with it...

the term "stupefying" does not bother me, I just feel it's a little inaccurate, as the root of that word derives from the Latin "stupefacere" which means "make stupid or senseless".

I feel that word choice lends credence to the popularized disinformation that "drugs make you dumb" and feeds into the cultural propaganda machine of the modern drug war.



I see cannabis as fairly low yielding, the majority of the plant is not smokeable, and as far as being "easy" to grow, that's a bit of an exaggeration as well, growing good cannabis isn't as easy as most envision it.

Psilocybe fungi, stropharia cubensis, are easier to grow than cannabis, and every part of the mushroom can be eaten or distributed.

Salvia divinorum is not very difficult to grow, and more of the plant is consumable than the cannabis plant.

Datura and belladonna plants grow like weeds, and every part of the plant is alkaloid laden, yet the experiance is so terrible that people don't actively grow these...

Opium poppies are more than easy to grow, fairly low yielding as you are collecting dried latex from cuts on the living flower bulbs, yielding raw opium, but the poppies are far more simple to cultivate in comparison to cannabis.

Which brings me back to the point, most psychoactive plants are easy to grow, yet they don't have the same appeal as cannabis.

-eg

I apologize if I come off as rude or argumentative, (though i do enjoy a civilized debate) that is not my intention, it's a personality flaw I guess, I've always been fairly grumpy and pretentious...

I have always had the feeling that the effects you describe have less to do with the cannabis, and more to do with the individuals using it, sure, you can reach +++ ( shulgin scale) with cannabis, but most choose to keep it at a ++, and won't entirely impair themselves.

There is a huge difference between "use" and "abuse", and I have very little tolerance for drug abuse, here is an example, if a person buys a research chemical they know nothing about, and consumes thousands of times the known dose, and gets injured, it's the compound that takes the blame, not the person's behavior...if a person smokes cannabis to the point where they can't function is that really a negative effect of the plant? Or is it substance abuse by the individual?

...it's strange for me to be on this side of the argument, I honestly dislike nearly everything about modern cannabis culture, yet entheogens are my life, and even though it's the most "minor" of my Entheogenic interests, cannabis is still a member of the Entheogenic pantheon that composes my psychoactive garden of tools....

-eg

Misc. Research:

Does cannabis "make you dumb?"




https://www.jci.org/articles/view/25509/figure/1
https://www.jci.org/articles/view/25509
http://www.sciencealert....-and-iq-decline-in-teens
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22874079

-eg