I dont look at cannabis as a strong hallucinogen but to say that it is, is to call nicotine(I dislike) an equal to that of cyanide via cranking up the dose to unusual levels. However, due to varying sensitivities in people, I would imagine you can find individuals that trip from THC. Most traditional hallucinogens are active via seritonin receptors if im not mistaken, cannabis is via cannaboid receptors, a different section of the brain all together

Dreams are just self-induced DMT(more intense than LSD) trips. So force the state of mind or not, something similar happens on a normal routine in the brain.

Dreaming seems to be a needed function to allow the brain to cope. (Nightmares are bad trips I guess.) I've always looked at it like digestion for the brain, flushing, reorganizing, or maybe like scan disk for a computer hard disk checking and fixing.

I think hallucinations are something your brain, and you, can take something from. Still much depends on frame of mind, setting and substance. Forcing your mind into various states of mind, or learning how to do it at will is beneficial, under the same idea, that while in that state of mind you are able to bring some of the feeling and ideas back into a somber, sober, self.

Cannabis hinders productivity or drive(I think mainly to the short term memory loss), but it does help with mood and anxiety. I personally dislike alcohol and its use, I believe it to be destructive more so than cannabis in terms of cost of human life, but more specifically the cost to other humans that did not choose to imbibe.

But I am no PhD, all of the above is simply from experience so far and a bit of research I've done out of curiosity.

Cannabis is a very safe plant to use in moderation.

Any tips on getting a prescription in California?

It would be easier to get a THC based prescription drug.

How does one go about that? Say I want a prescription for dronabinol, what is the best way to go about getting a prescription?

A person cannot be physically addicted to marijuana, but one with a weak mind can feel like they are addicted to marijuana. It seems that any drug that has a positive effect is bad for the body.

Usually it is one with a weak mind that tries Marijuana, as a means to alter ones perceptions of reality.

People try marijuana for different reasons, usually it is to fit in to a crowd, and although it does alter ones perception of reality I do not think thats why most people try it initially.

Ask a doctor.

You don't think trying it to fit in is an attempt at the alteration of the perceptions of ones reality, sense of self, sense of relationship with the world in an altered state of mind and body?

I'm curious as to why lowering the sensitivity to dopamines would neccesarilly be bad. Lets hypothesize that I'm a pot smoking 12 year old. As I age, my "reward system" prevents me from feeling complete or satisfied with a state that satiates most. Perhaps I push myself further in order to gain the dopamine rewards I seek. Couldn't this just as easily act as a factor towards me being an "overacheiver?"

Does having a lowered dopamine sensitivity mean that I neccesarilly must have a chemical high to be satisfied, or does it mean that I need higher stimulation to achieve it?

Lowering dopamine sensitivity would probably lead somebody into depression. Dopamine insensitivity, as related to motivation and incentives, would mean that somebody finds less things appealing, has less motivation and less drive towards doing things.
Increasing dopamine sensitivity would probably make a person more impulsive. Dopamine supersensitivity, can lead a person to compulsively approach (or even avoid) whatever has been associated with previous reward.

These probably both happen in dependence situations, so - an abstinent drug dependent person is presumably in a chronically lowered state of dopamine activity (amongst other things), manifesting as depression/amotivation, until drug related stimuli appear. These stimuli then overactivate the dopamine system leading to compulsive approach behaviours. It doesn't happen with other objects/activities because these things haven't been associated with intense reinforcement like drugs have.

There is a bit of research on some of the questions you ask, maybe not directly answering them, but close. I'll have a look.

Some quotes from New Scientist 2002 which I find insanely stupid (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3039):

Blaming the substance when its really the delivery method causing damage. Just like injecting vodka can cause death, as can setting it on fire whilst you drink it. STUPID.

If 'Smoking pure marijuana is at least as harmful to lungs as smoking tobacco' then how can smoking it with tobacco, thus diluting it, be worse? STUPID.

Again I believe this is mixing the problem of the delivery method with the actual substance. What about eating it or the hot air delivery system (cant remember the name) that doesn't even burn the buds?



15x stronger pot than the 60's? No way. More THC content yes, but I'm certain that does not equal 15x the buzz. So clearly theres more than THC at work in the cannabis buzz. If it really was 15x stronger then you would probably instantly vomit. The problems with 15x THC content I can't address though, simple experience suggests this is a sensationalized statistic.

May be... enough said.

Well here is the Wikipedia definition of "reality"

"Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist." [1] [2] The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that is, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas existence is often restricted to being (compare with nature)."

Based on the definition of reality I can see why you would have asked that. More and more I am discovering that I need to think more before I make a post:)

Okay people, back to the, uh, so called study. (Excuse me if someone else has made these same comments, but i sort of rushed through the long list of posts. I think Born A Dreamer actually touched on this as well, but in a more articulate manner.)

First of all, i would have to read the actual study rather than the "facts" extrapolated from the scientific study. The study may or may not show (needs to be replicated) that the use of THC during a rats "teenage years" causes them to reach a higher threshold of heroine use, and that such THC use also alters the opioid receptors in a way that does not happen to the group of THC abstinent rats.

To now say that this study is hard evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug is nonsense and going far beyond the findings of the study, mere conjecture by those just wishing to find scientific evidence for our draconian drug laws.

I dont approve of our teenagers being tokers, but i think as long as it is not used in excessive amounts then there should be no (or little) long term health risks.


And, Trojan Libido, if the below is true (which i doubt), then one doesnt need to smoke nearly as much marijuana to get the same effects as one did in the 1960s, hence less intake of smoke into the lungs and less risk of lung cancer.



QUOTE
• The average cannabis cigarette smoked in the 1960s contained about 10 milligrams of tetrahydrocanabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient. Today, it may contain 150 mg.

[/quote]

What about cannabis tea? Is that bad too?

Eating it will cause a more extreme experience, and I can understand calling it an auditory hallucinogen. But even LSD isn't a real hallucinogen, so categorising cannabis as one is just silly. But your right Dutch, and its what I've been trying to point out, most studies focus on the negative health impact of smoking cannabis. That delivery method is not the fault of cannabis! But even the most carefully planned research always gets this wrong.

If you have hallucinations from thc you probably have a neurological disorder. LSD as well unless you take very high doses.

N and A harder drugs? I think so:
I heard of people that drink alcohol and beat their wives, kill people driving, and get run over by trains. I also know a lot of people that die from smoking. The worst ive ever seen from weed is binge eating, but i guess that should be US's biggest concern...

New theory: The US maintains cannabis illegality to help the country stay fit!

Ive witnessed multiple people buy mushrooms and ecstasy from friends just because they were drunk and had lost their inhibitions. If they were high they would've probably freaked out at the idea of taking another drug.

I think that the biggest danger to teenagers these days comes in the form of prescription pills. Oxycontin, vicodin, adderall, concerta, etc..

I have heard of kids breaking these pills up and snorting them. It seems like taking a couple rips of pot would be much less harmful than taking a pill up the nose.



Yup, and I've heard of plenty of people buying more drugs because they were drunk. When a person is drunk, their ability to reason is slowed down. They don't think things through. When stoned, I think a person maintains some sense of reason. Imagine a game of chess where one player was stoned and the other drunk. Who do you think would win, assuming they had equal experience?

The stoned player, of course.

Of course, which proves that alcohol is more dangerous to one's sense of reason than cannabis.

But what if a stoned person was playing chess against a completely sober person?
Assuming that the sober person would have a better chance of winning, is there a greater difference in ability to reason between the players in the first match (stoned vs drunk), or the players in the second (stoned vs sober)?

I don't think there would be much difference and in some cases, the stoned person might do better due to more patience and focus.

Interesting

Here is an excerpt from a book I read for a class on Environmental Ethics......

(Hunting wild pig)
"I found a shaded spot overlooking the wallow and crouched down in the leaves, steadying my back against the smooth trunk of a madrone. I rested my gun across my thighs and got quite. The whoosh of air through my nostrils suddenly sounded calamitous, so I began inhaling and exhaling through my mouth, silencing my breath. So much sensory information was coming into my head that it seemed to push out the normal buzz of consciousness. The state felt very much like meditation, though it took no mental effort or exercise to achieve that kind of head-emptying presence. The simple act of looking and listening, tuning my senses to the forest frequencies of Pig, occupied every quadrant of mental space and anchored me to the present. I must have lost track of time because the twenty minutes flashed by. Ordinarily my body would have rebelled at being asked to hold a crouch that long, but I felt no need to change position or even to shift my weight.

Later it occurred to me that this mental state, which I quite liked, in many ways resembled the one induced by smoking marijuana: the way one's senses feel especially acute and the mind seems to forget everything outside the scope of its present focus, including physical discomfort and the passing of time. One of the more interesting areas of research in the neurosciences today is the study of the brain's 'cannabinoid network,' a set of receptors in the nervous system that are activated by a group of unusual compounds called cannabinoids. One of these compounds is THC, the active ingredient in marijuana; another is anandamide, a recently discovered neurotransmitter manufactured in the brain (and named by its discoverer for the Sanskrit word for bliss). Whether made by the plant or the brain, cannabinoids have the effect of intensifying sensory experience, disabling short-term memory, and stimulating appetite. Scientists still aren't certain what the evolutionary utility of such a system might be. Some researchers hypothesize that the cannabinoids, like the opiates, play a role in the brain's pain relief and reward system; others that they help regulate appetite, or emotion.

The experience of hunting suggests another theory. Could it be that the cannabinoid network is precisely the sort of adaptation that natural selection would favor in the evolution of a creature who survives by hunting? A brain chemical that sharpens the senses, narrows your mental focus, allows you to forget everything extraneous to the task at hand (including physical discomfort and the passage of time), and makes you hungry would seem to be the perfect pharmacological tool for man the hunter. All at once it provides the motive, the reward, and the optimal mind-set for hunting. I would not be the least bit surprised to discover that what I was feeling in the woods that morning, crouching against a tree avidly surveying that forest grove was a tide of anandamide washing over my brain."

Michael Pollan
The Omnivore's Dilemma



I don't know where he got his sources, but it is interesting that the brain naturally produces anandamide, a cannabinoid. Maybe THC is less harmful than many people believe, because the brain already produces something closely resembling it.