I think this thread is important for a few reasons:

1.) To explain, in detail, my relationship with Cannabis, both positive and negative aspects, which, based on my experiences on the Nexus, others will be able to relate to; and

2.) To dispel any myths one may personally hold about Cannabis being an all-benevolent, all-curing, magical mystery plant that has no potential for addiction, and no negative effects.

I will start by saying that I'm not attempting to convince anyone that Cannabis is objectively "bad"; it's not. I dislike blanket statements. I don't believe that any drug is objectively "good" or "bad," be it Cannabis, Psilocybin, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, meth, cocaine, whatever, (though pharmaceuticals are a different monster all in themselves). It is the responsibility of the user to partake in a substance responsibly and in moderation. Here is one way I put it in another thread discussing this same subject: if I hand you a gun, then you turn that gun to yourself and blow your brains out, did I kill you, or did you kill you?

It is also important to mention that I have never been prescribed medical marijuana for any reason, nor am I claiming that it is ineffective for treating certain conditions, both psychological and physical. Again, this is just a documentation of my own personal experiences with it. I also never researched different strains of Cannabis in depth, never have had any experience cultivating my own plants, etc; I always just smoked whatever I could get my hands on. I've heard the argument that referring to "Cannabis" as a drug is almost inaccurate, since different strains have drastically different effects on the body and mind - so maybe my experiences are completely meaningless in the eyes of those who hold that opinion. No matter.

It's been about four years since I began smoking Cannabis. Throughout those four years, the longest I've gone without it hasn't been more than a few days, except for a brief stint after my first DMT journey that lasted about three weeks (more on that later). During that period, I indulged in a number of other drugs as well - psilocybin, DMT, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, a variety of pharmaceuticals (mostly benzodiazepines and amphetamines, as well as a variety of SSRI's, antipsychotics, tricyclics, and others that were prescribed to me by a psychiatrist), etc. At first, Cannabis was a wonder drug for me. It provided some relief from chronic anxiety and depression, and allowed me to live a functional life. In fact, I found that sometimes I was more functional with it than I was without it. At no point in time did daily Cannabis smoking ever really "ruin" my life. I'm financially independent, live alone, perform well at every job I've had in the past few years, etc., and this has all been with a daily Cannabis habit.

Slowly but surely, I cut other drugs out of my life: first tobacco, then alcohol. Shortly thereafter, I stopped using pharmaceuticals recreationally and only took them as prescribed. After the aforementioned DMT journey, I flushed all my pills down the toilet and never looked back: I haven't taken a psychopharmaceutical since. I will never lose my affection and gratitude to hallucinogens, but these drugs are in a class by themselves, because, at least for me, they were not necessarily habit forming: when I took mushrooms or smoked DMT, of course I enjoyed it, but I never had the urge to do it over and over again, for days and weeks on end.

Here is the thread I made regarding my first DMT journey, about a year and a half ago, that opened my eyes to the nature of habituation and compulsion, as in relation to drugs, specifically Cannabis:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...&m=438032#post438032

For those who don't want to read the whole thread, it can be summarized with this excerpt:



Other users in this thread also experienced a similar change in perception after using DMT, so I know I'm not the only one that was affected this way. So after having these experiences, why did I go back to using Cannabis? I really don't know; there were many factors. One very well may have been boredom. The company I kept was another major factor: drug buddies, whose only social interaction, and only motivation to socialize with me, was to get stoned, talk for ten minutes, then go home; friends at work asking me to get stoned at lunch time; being in the midst of a miserable five-year relationship with a miserable person whose only desire was to get high all day, lay around the house, and complain about how miserable and pathetic her life was, while simultaneously taking NO action to make it any better.

To go back to my previous metaphor, no one held a gun to my head and put a pipe up to my mouth - I was not forced to smoke. It was my own choice, despite the prodding of other people. I have no delusions where I was "forced" to get high when I didn't want to. That's just silly.

Anyway, since that first DMT experience, I have indulged maybe 15-20 more times, and have gained a much deeper understanding of my habits and compulsions, not just in relation to doing drugs, but in my life in general. Since I began using Cannabis habitually after that experience, I noticed a change: suddenly it wasn't so great anymore. Sure, I'd feel on top of the world, optimistic, loving towards all people and things around me for an hour or so after blazing, but then I crashed violently. My thoughts turned negative and self deprecating. I hated everyone and everything. I wanted to be alone all the time, sitting in my apartment, staring at a wall, thinking of how miserable and pathetic my life was. So what was the solution? Well, get high again, of course! And so the cycle repeats. Those feelings of warmth and love came back for an hour or two, then I came down hard, and so on and so forth, all day, every day, for years, during work, during school, during time off, all the time.

"But pot is great!" I told myself every time a negative thought so much as creeped to the corners of my consciousness. Why? I don't know, really. It's just an attachment I formed with the substance. In the same way that one might enjoy their morning cigarette with their coffee, then their cigarette on their way to work, then their cigarette on their lunch break, then their cigarette on their way home, etc., and, in turn, almost develop a relationship with that substance, so did I with Cannabis. You have your drug buddies that you hang out with. You have your stash box with all your papers, your roach clip, your cool butane lighter with a pot leaf on it that your friend bought you when she went on vacation to Vegas because you're a complete stoner and that's all anyone knows you for, or associates with you, you have your favorite pipe, your favorite bong, your favorite vaporizer. Soon it's basically just a hobby, and you can't stop, because if you quit smoking pot, then you suddenly realize you won't have any friends, since you surround yourself with other potheads, you're bored all the time, and you spent all this money on paraphernalia, so you really have no choice to keep on going. At least that was my mindset at the time.

So on and on went, feeding the cycle, getting high out of my mind every two or three hours, all day, every day, coming up, and then crashing violently. But it can't be pot. No way. It doesn't affect me negatively at all. I'm pretty much the same person whether I'm high or not. No decrease in cognition or mental faculties. Hell, I worked 70+ hours a week during my heaviest periods of smoking, and how could I not get high every few hours, going through a grind like that? But Cannabis is good. It's benevolent. It's a friendly plant that comes from the earth; it's not a pharmaceutical poison that turns my mind off, making me feel nothing at all instead of feeling bad, like an antidepressant. All my friends smoke. I won't have any friends if I stop. What do I do?

So one day last week, I just stopped. For two or three days, I did not feel well at all, both physically and mentally: I was very hyperactive, very anxious, pissed off at everyone and everything around me, but after that adjustment period, I began to feel "normal" again. I recently suffered a back and neck injury from a car accident and have missed weeks of work from it, putting me in a very bad financial situation, obviously causing me some stress. After my three days of sobriety, I figured what the hell, I might as well get high and forget about it. So I did, and I felt like complete and utter shit. It was the usual routine: for an hour or two, I was on top of the world. "Whatever," I thought to myself, "it's just money. Everything will work itself out in the long run." And then came the come down, pacing around for hours, being inexplicably furious at the situation I was in, at the people I surrounded myself with, hating my life, and, to be completely honest, being a complete ingrate about the things in my life that were going well, such as the fact that I only escaped the aforementioned car accident with a sore neck and back, though I very realistically could have died (I got rear ended by a car going 60mph while I was sitting still in traffic and collided with the car in front of me - all three cars were totalled, mine being the worst since it was right in the middle).

So I smoked DMT, blew my brains out of my skull, and pieced my consciousness back together. That was three days ago, and I have not smoked Cannabis since, nor do I have any desire to. I don't want to say I'm never going to again, because who knows what will happen. However, when I stop using a drug habitually, it generally follows this pattern. When I tried to quit cigarettes, I always told myself that I might have one once in a while - never say never. But then I started smoking again. The only way to completely quit was to essentially demonize tobacco - I convinced myself it's terrible for me, it has no positive effects on me, and that I have to stay as far away from it as possible. When I quit drinking, I convinced myself that it was terrible for me, has no positive effects on me, and I have to stay as far away from it as possible. When I decided to stop breaking up benzodiazepines with a razor and sending them up my nose, I convinced myself that it was terrible for me, has no positive effects on me, and I have to stay as far away from it as possible. Are you seeing a pattern here?

At the end of the day, the problem is that I have no self control and no concept of moderation. I can't drink "once in a while," I can't have a cigarette "once in a while," and, honestly, I don't think I'm capable of smoking Cannabis "once in a while," so it's really better just to call it quits and be done with it once and for all; the only exception to this rule, as I said before, is hallucinogens, which are in a class all by themselves, in my opinion. I have no more feelings of attachments or positive connotations when I think about Cannabis. It's not the "friendly" plant I smoke when I'm down to feel better - I associate its use with feeling worse now. I don't even like the smell anymore. All my pipes are sitting in a drawer somewhere collecting dust. I'm not longer in the aforementioned relationship, and my relationships with my stoner friends are on the downward spiral, but honestly, I don't really care that much anymore, because if the only thing you have in common with another person is the desire to get high, it doesn't really make for a meaningful friendship or relationship.

So yeah, I think I'm done with it for good now. This isn't supposed to be some sort of self-glorifying, triumphant "I quit weed, and you can too!" motivational post, and I'm not trying to say that I'm better than anyone that does smoke pot every day, or smokes cigarettes, or drinks, or blows Klonopins and Ativans; I'm not trying to say Cannabis is "bad," I'm not trying to say that medical marijuana isn't a "real" solution or a "real" medicine, I'm just conveying my personal experiences, which, in essence, were a few years of delusion and attachment to something that I told myself had an overall positive effect on my life, when in reality, the positive effect had long gone, and it was now detrimental.

This was much longer than I anticipated, and if you made it all the way to the end, I sincerely thank you for reading.



edit: To whoever edited the title of the post: I didn't mean to be vulgar in my original title, but I don't believe that using the word "hate" properly conveys the message I am trying to get across in this post - I do not consider Cannabis to be "good" or "bad," nor do I "love" or "hate" it - my point is that there is no objective perspective on whether any drug is beneficial or detrimental - it's up to the user to determine that.

Cannabis changed my life for the better, fact.
Later, it got even better stopping cannabis.
Grateful for both stages.

(No general wisdom, just my path.)

I can say the same thing. It has helped me through some of the most difficult times of my life, and for that, I am eternally grateful for it. By no means am I suggesting that I wish I had never started using it, or any other drug for that matter that I no longer use. The person I am today is a result of the cumulative experiences that I have gone through up until this moment; any changes in the past would change who I am right now, and since the past cannot be changed, this is not worth even thinking about.

Thanks for reading.

cannabis kills my time, motivation, and gives me anxiety. I don't like going out in public high.
smoking/vaping it makes me nauseous, I also can't fall asleep while high.

Cannabis continues to further open my curiosity, appreciation and creativity for just about everything.. especially for music and an increase in body / mind connection. Sativa is nice for the day, while indica for the night.. it varies from user to experience.

Regular smoker for 12 years now. I rarely drink, and even more rarely get drunk. I eat healthily, act responsibly, and live an active lifestyle.

I see no negative side effects that don't go away after a stint of abstinence.

For me it is a constant reminder of my own consciousness. That statement might seem silly to some, but they should consider the relentlessly unwavering job that mainstream society does to suppress it.

What I've noticed is that when I smoke, I appreciate the little things. I savor the moment. I value family and friends over material things...

Basically, when I smoke, I want to do all of the things that people on their deathbeds wish they did more of.

To me, cannabis is benevolent. Why else would such a thing be illegal?

Well this sucks, we have a wealth of topics all listed to fill this section with, and one of the first topics is cannabis hate? Somthin funny going on here or what ?

I'm not hating on Cannabis.



The original title of the thread was "The (F-word) Cannabis Thread," which got changed for some reason, even though I blanked most of the word out with asterisks. As I explained several times throughout the post and the edit, I am not hating on Cannabis, nor am I suggesting that it's "bad" or that nobody should use it. I'm really not sure why the title of the topic got changed, but clearly it changes the whole connotation of the entire body of text.



I agree with this, and I feel the same way when I smoke as well. The problem with me is that I come down hard, and go from one extreme to the other.

I have a very odd relationship with cannabis myself. When I first started in my Teen years i truly enjoyed everything about it. However, after a series of difficult LSD experiences my whole relationship with cannabis changed. It became something that no longer made me feel.good but brought on paranoia and anxiety.

I gave it up for years , I'd say over a period of 15 years I smoked maybe once every couple years, and never enjoyed the high.

Fast forward through these fifteen years and during this time I had sever addiction to cocaine at one point, the heroin, and then alcohol . it was during the end of this period when all of the medical benefits of cannabis started being discussed . I was hopeful that maybe it could help me so I started experimenting with it again.

Due to having no tolerance at all to it, it would bring up a lot of anxiety when I used it and I basically just concluded it wasn't for me. However I met my wife, who is a daily smoker, and after a while i begin using it again daily . after my body had time to build a tolerance I stopped having the anxiety issues. Now I generally smoke ateast 5 days a week. And what I notice is that it always causes me to focus on what I'm doing wrong in my life. This has made me realize that it is not something that I can use to escape or relax with as I once could. And for awhile I wrote it off as it causing paranoia and delusion. Now I'm convinced that it is actually a plant teacher that is trying to get me to focus on what needs to change in my life. I still drink far too often , use other pharms, and waste money on things I shouldn't. It generally also brings up stuff in regards to how I handle emotion and treat other people.

The problem is that none of this stuff it reveals to me ever sticks. As soon as the effects subside I totally forget the lessons its pointed out, either that or I choose to just ignore them when there not so in my face. I see it as a teacher like the rest of the psychedelics. None of which are a magic bullet and the real work must be done after the effects subside.

However with cannabis its just different. If I have a very profound experience with LSD or mushrooms it can and will have lasting effects on my behavior for weeks or months which will help motivate me to change. With cannabis it just goes away.

I truly have a weird relationship with it and I question why I even bother with it most of the time. I guess I still hope that one day the lessons I learn will carry over into my daily life. But I'm still stuck wondering what purpose it serves as this never happens.

This is pretty similar to what happens to me. I smoke, see everything I've been doing wrong, see what I need to do to change it...and then I come down, feel like crap, and have to sleep it off. I've tried to counteract this for years, only smoking in the morning, only smoking at night, consuming caffeine when I smoke so it doesn't knock me on my ass as much, etc., but nothing seems to work. Honestly, I feel that Cannabis is similar to DMT in the sense that it gives you a brief, fleeting glimpse at enlightenment, then goes away as fast as it came; however, with DMT I feel that the psychological and physiological effects last much longer, and the message is much easier to take away than it is with Cannabis.

It seems to me the focus of this thread is really self-medication and addiction, not so much having having anything to do with cannabis. You could run through and replace the word cannabis with cookies, or sex, or television, or what have you.

It is easy to use cannabis for self-medication, it's easy to become addicted to anything that changes your state of consciousness and to the subsequent changes in your neurochemical balance. That fine line between medicine and medication is a very thin one.

I fully agree the psychedelics are of a different order, their function to dissolve ingrained patterns and offer perspective is unmatched, not to mention the neurological reset button aspect. Even these can be abused however, it's pretty easy to take low doses to get f'd up every weekend at the club and never experience the true depths of what these compounds are capable of.

I guess what I'm getting at is it's up to us to cultivate a healthy relationship with the various substances in our lives and to recognize what does and does not serve us at any given point along our life path.

I am reminded of this excerpt from The Way of the Peaceful Warrior:

That is definitely a big part of the thread. However, one of the other points I wanted to get across was the general perspective that people seem to have on Cannabis, (at least in my experience), ie., it's just a plant, it's completely benign, it has no negative effects except temporarily making you lazy and making you eat more than you normally would, etc. This is part of the reason I continued using it for so long, shrugging off the negative effects or trying to pin them on something else.

Don't get me wrong - I'm also not trying to say it's some sort of deadly narcotic, and you should go check yourself into rehab for it, either. The fact that it's still illegal blows my mind, as well.

Cannabis leaves me not wanting for much of anything in particular. It just slows my pace of life down and levels my desires

Which is great if your goal is to relax more, not so good if you have plans and goals that you wish to achieve

Thats kind of like saying sleeping in makes me lazy. Sure does, but that doesnt mean all of a sudden i have no ability to reverse that negative side effect by making myself active.

I dont really see the point in this threads particular direction. All the negative side effects i've read here seem more subjective to me. Sure some strains are called "couch lock" for a reason but i dont see how that could be categorized as being lazy. If so then dmt has the strongest effect of laziness on people out of all drugs, just layin there and stuff jeez.

I'll admit i become less motivated when i get stoned, but when i force myself to be active then its amazing. The way in which you use it is important and mirroring what dreamer is getting at none of the points i have read here is really an attribute of marijuana in and of itself. Self medicating marijuana, imo, would be an incorrect method of using it therefore you were only getting temporary positive effects from it. User error, nothing to do with marijuana itself. Also people are all different so in order to get positive effects from something, you often have to find a way that works for you. Which sometimes is complete abstinence but i feel there is another way.

I cant smoke very often since i dont have a tolerance built up and i get blasted way to easily to far. What i once thought were negative side effects of marijuana (anxiety, restlessness, stupor ect) were actually attributes of myself coming out because of various reasons. One being fear. Marijuana didnt cause those things, i do.

Maybe smoking once in a while (once a week, once a month, once a year, whatever) will work better for me. These are just observations I've made of myself from habitual, daily use. I've never used it any other way.

I have also made a lot of changes in my life over the past two or three months, dieting, exercising much much more, having a steady yoga/meditation routine (which, again, in my experience, Cannabis is detrimental to - makes me too foggy mentally), minimizing caffeine intake, vaporizing instead of smoking, smoking at different times of day, etc., but I have still not gotten to where I want to be with my physical and mental health when I continued to use Cannabis even after making all these changes. This led me to believe, through the process of elimination, that Cannabis was causing the negative effects I was trying to get rid of, or at least reduce.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't get insights or positive effects when I do use Cannabis, such as reduction of stress, ability to let things go more easily instead of lingering on them/holding grudges, etc., but my biggest problem is that when I come down, I come down very hard, and end up going from feeling very good to very bad.

Like i said, theres possibly a reason your comedown is effected that way rather than just effects from marijuana. Sure its not for everyone, some can be daily smokers others cant. Although i personally feel the best use of any of these drugs is through personal benefit and moderation is key here.

I use rarely. When i do use, i pay attention to the feelings or thoughts i get and this often leads to a better understanding of certain things. Its still recreation, its still fun half the time, but i get something out of it.

Most people just need to decide if the benefits are there for them. What would you do if all your dmt trips were rough/bad trips. Quit and say the effects of dmt are negative? Maybe if you feel the negatives out weigh the possible benefit.

Your story syncs up with mine so much! I found that I am more or less a weed-o-haulic and I should not smoke it anymore. Some people, especially with addictive tendencies like us, simply should not take substances like marijuana or alcohol because once is too much and 100 times is not enough!

After reading this, and contemplating my life and goals, I am pretty sure I will never smoke weed again; even after I get off probation in 5 years.. It's just counter-productive to my life.

A few of my DMT trips have been very rough, and I've had psilocybin trips in the 5g+ range where I'm literally screaming at the top of my lungs, crying hysterically, and pulling my hair out praying to some higher power that it'll end. The difference is that after an experience with these drugs, I walk away with a positive message and an idea of what I can do to better myself. With Cannabis, I feel like I understand the meaning of existence for an hour, then I'm burnt out, cranky, and tired.

My relationship with cannabis has been a strange one over the years. I've gone through a pretty crappy addiction phase with it, and that's a cycle I can't seem to fully defeat. So I smoke everyday at present, then I'll go months or even a couple years without using it...then I start the cycle again.

It's that I love it too much. I hate myself for abusing it and coming to a point where I might have to leave it behind forever.

I realize the original title didn't include the word 'hate', but I find that the real negatives from almost any psychoactive plant come when you abuse it or misuse it somehow.

People with this sort of relationship with cannabis, or any other psychoactive substance, should treat it like a social thing and never start taking it alone. Like was discussed, I think it's just too appealing and enjoyable for some of us

Agreed. I feel like I have a sort of "all-or-nothing" personality, and it definitely carries over into my use of drugs. Like I said in the opening post, I'm either intoxicated 24/7, or I swear off the substance in question and never want to even think about it or be around it again. Cannabis is a tough one, because I can legitimately say that it has been a very positive force in my life in the past, and has helped me get through some of the most difficult times of my life, therefore, I feel an emotional attachment to it. This has made it very difficult for me to simply say "never again," a problem I didn't have with drugs like alcohol or tobacco, because I can say with certainty that those did absolutely no good for me and all harm.



Yes, "love" is a word that has definitely described my relationship with Cannabis in the past, which is a reason why it's so hard to swear off it permanently. I agree with what you're saying about abuse/misuse, though.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think it's better as a social thing? I have enjoyed it socially plenty of times, but I felt that I've gotten the greatest benefit of it when using it alone.