[mildred_the_cat]

i find "special cigarettes" really help calm me down when i'm very anxious - the effect is unlike any other i get from prescribed drugs. I want to know is there any problem with having a smoke and taking ssris at the same time? Can't really ask my doctor for obvious reasons! Don't tell me to give up cos its the only thing that seems to be working for me when my anxiety is acute!

Cheers
Mildred

[mildred_the_cat]

oh ,and by special cigarettes i don't mean ones you get in a shop (well, maybe in holland where they're more enlightened!)

[denipink]

Hi Cat person~

i have smoked pot, in smaller amounts compared to many i know, for years really and all the while taking Lithium and Oxycontin which is for chronic pain and never with any kind of ill effects.

i like to smoke pot cause it relaxes me so much when my pain is particularly frustrating. rather than upping my Oxy's which is a strong, powerful Opiod pain killer, i feel smoking a bit of the "special cig" is a far better idea. i rarely smoke more than just one joint or cig tho and i would have to say that i smoke only occassionally too.

now if i felt i had to smoke daily i would be very concerned about how it interacted with my meds but as it is and with nothing that i can see being a problem of any kind i just thank the good Lord for the herb and off i go on my merry way.

i think that herb (by the way) was given to us by a loving creator for a good purpose and why others cant see it that way and label it a dangerous, illegal, harmful drug is just nutz to my way of thinking. haha.

i will be very interested to see other posts to this thread. thanks for starting it!

Denise happily smoking special cigs and playing with my cat Roxy

[kvinneakt]

(Retrieved from a previous post of mine. At this time I smoke zero pot and take zero meds. Using natural substances is almost always the safer choice. Pot has been smoked for 1000's of years and very few negative effects have been isolated. Most of the manufactured chemicals we injest have been tested for only a few months or years and have long lists of ill effects.)

I think small amounts of pot are therapeutic, for me anyway. When my life seems bleak and pointless I will sometimes have a puff or two. The effect is not "stoned", but a state of relaxed reflection. Gardening, house cleaning, dish washing or other simple activity then becomes very enjoyable rather than a chore. I have to take my happiness where it comes, and if I can promote it with a natural herb, why not?

I think it is insane that the government has assumed the right to police how I use my most privileged private possesions, my body and brain, so long as I do so not put anyone else at risk.

Certainly some people use some drugs to great harm to others, such as driving under the influence, or using drugs while pregnant. Most, however, don't do this. If all the responsible illegal drug users were to come out of the closet tomorrow we would all be amazed who they are and how many there are and how NORMAL they are.

The down and out stoners you see on the street are there for a lot of reasons. They do often abuse drugs, but there are likely a lot of other more important reasons for them to be in such sad shape. Drugs are a part of the picture, not the cause. The world has abandoned these broken people and they may have no better choices than to self-medicate. Getting high might be the only thing keeping them from worse fates like suicide.

There is MUCH more damage done to average drug users by the legal system than done by the drugs themselves. This is where the damage control needs to begin. Most drug victims are victims of the "War on Drugs", not victims of the chemicals they use.

I am very much a libertarian on this issue. If homosexuals have the right to have sexual relations, if women have rights to abortion which is certainly harmful to fetal human life, then by extension the right to choose how one uses one's own body in other ways, not harmful to anyone else, should not be abridged. (I have no issues with gays or reproductive rights, I just used these items to make a point.)

<font color=blue>[b] Wherever you go, there you are[b]<font color=blue>

[CamW]

Mildred's owner - I believe that for a majority of people smoking the "herb" is a "relatively safe" anxiolytic. Now, that being said, marijuana is not for everyone.

Cannabis psychosis is real, and probably affects a greater number of people than are seen at the Emergency Department of a hospital. Some people do become delusional after smoking pot; sometimes the pot is laced with another drug (eg. PCP, GBH, LSD etc. - EIEIO) and some cases of cannabis psychosis may be attributed to these chemicals.

Also, cannabis has been called a "trigger" for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Many people who had a predisposition to these major disorder blamed the onset of the disorder on marijuana use. This may be true in some cases, but in the others the psychotic break would have eventually occurred regardless of cannabis use, but most people need a reason why "they" were afflicted and cannabis is a good scapegoat.

Now does apathy lead to pot smoking, or does pot smoking cause apathy; I think it's a bit of both. As for memory problems - ...... erm, ..... uh, ...... I forgot what I was going to say ..... oh, yeah - as for the memory problem associated with pot smoking, it is the short-term memory (or working memory) that is affected the most (most likely due to the fact that the person is stoned at the time of the memory problems).

It also should be noted that marijuana can cause a "hangover effect" (as seen with some sleeping pills) where the person who "lit-up" the night before, is dragging their but the next morning. The reasons for this morning lethargy range from the relatively long half-life of THC (ie. still sorta stoned) to a depressant effect being caused by other chemicals (and their metabolytes) that are also inhaled with the THC.

I know that this is rambling (as it should be with this topic), but it comes down to marijuana is a psychoactive compound that causes time distortion, somnolence (tiredness, butt dragging), and incoordination. Marijuana is a CNS-depressant (CNS = central nervous system) and appetite stimulant that is additive to the depressant effects of other medications that have CNS-depressant activity, and counters the effects of medications with stimulant activity.

There are so many different chemicals inhaled with the psychoactive ones, that one cannot be absolutely sure that marijuana does not affect the activity of medications used for psychiatric disorders; but from the number of people who do mix the two very few end up with any serious long-term problems. The cannabis psychosis and triggering of psychotic disorders do occur, though.

I hope that this wishy-washy answer is okay. - Cam

[pebblypoo]

HAHA!!! You forgot one important side effect, Cam:






<font color=purple> The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated--Gandhi

Sometimes I lie awake at night in bed and I ask, "Is it all worth it?" And then a voice says, "Who are you talking to?" And another voice says, "You mean, ' To whom are you talking?'" And I say, "No wonder I lie awake at night."--Charlie Brown </font color=purple>

[CamW]

Too true, too true .... pebblypoo!