Random reaction to all your posts:

I am nearly 60. I spent many years doing the hippie thing in San Francisco and elsewhere during which I was a sometimes full on stoner. When I grew bored with this I quit all drugs and had no problems doing with one exception-tobacco. To this day after 30 years with only 3 cigarettes, I still smoke in my dreams.

I have spent very many years since childhood with full on depression during which I have had every kind of treatment going on from just talk to multiple meds and talk. Most of that time has been pot-free. From the wide variety of these experiences I have found that a modest amount of pot is the most reliable way to quickly feel much better. I rarely smoke to get "stoned" and do that where appropriate such as an outdoor rock concert. (Yes, old people still love to do this.) I smoke for about as much "buzz" as 2, sometimes 3 shots of liquor. That is sufficient and is only done in safe circumstances.

Much of my life has been hellish from depression, but I am still in my 1st marriage, have 2 great adult children, a beautiful small home with the mortgage paid off, and a debt-free lifestyle with a part-time job. I simply don't see that smoking pot in my life has any actual risk. As far as the legal status, the hell with what the government says is right and wrong for me to do with my own mind and body. I take good care and have results to prove it.

I have been on more psych meds than I could possibly count. Today I am on the highest dosages of Remeron and Effexor, which I have read is a combo of last resort. This helps immensely, but not completely.

I smoke pot for the same reason I take psych meds-simply to feel better and happier. I see no evidence I am causing myself or anyone else any harm, or I would change my behavior. I am very responsible.

Smoking pot can be harmful. So can overeating. Either can wreck a life in excess, but I have never heard of anyone suffering from pot the range of horrors that will most certainly come from obesity. Yet, pot is illegal and eating immensely of poor quality food is widely promoted, and even subsidized by government policy in many indirect ways. (Of course it could be said that pot munchies contribute to this obesity!)

Cheers.

End of random rant.