BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 04:19 PM

100th what?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 05:39 PM

Maybe the pesticides used by the grower made you ill? I doubt there is an "organically grown" component that is easily identified when you're shopping for your weed supply.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: gnu
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 06:04 PM

Paranoid.... hehehehehe

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Peace
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 06:12 PM

Ever paranoids have enemies. (I wonder who's Kissinger now?)

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 08:50 PM

If there's a lower rate of cancer among pot smokers, it's probably because they're not so stressed out as other people. It does help to relax most users. Some get a little too relaxed, though.... ;-)

I did not want to be one of those nonsmokers who was speaking from a position of ignorance on the subject, so I did smoke pot on a rare few occasions in order to see what the fuss was about. I smoked tobacco on a rare few occasions too, in Native ceremonies...and once or twice just to freak out people who knew of me as a "militant nonsmoker". That was fun, but the aftertaste wasn't so terrific.

The interesting thing was, I could see right away what people like about it (tobacco, I mean), but that didn't make me want to turn it into a habit. As for the pot, that was a little different. Godawful harsh tasting stuff. If it didn't get you high, I figure no one would smoke it! ;-)

Remember when all those silly people tried smoking banana skins? Boy, I bet that tasted awful.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 09:06 PM

Donovan explained how the whole banana skin deal got started: Country Joe and the Fish were promoting a concert by driving around in a truck with a model of a giant banana and saying that smoking banana skins get you high. They figured the newspapers would pick up on it for a day or two and they'd get publicity for their gig. However, Donovan's song, "Mellow Yellow" happened to be released that week. It contained the lines,

"Electrical banana is gonna be a sudden craze;
Electrical banana is gonna be the very next phase..."

and the media went crazy reporting that crazed hippies thought that smoking banana skins could get you high. The rest is hokey history.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 07:43 AM

Aaaahhh... The mighty Donovan, Dylan's hero.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 10:18 AM

The did a recent release of many of Donovan's hits on the occasion of his 60th birthday. I heard an interview with him on Terry Gross' Fresh Air (the interview may have been a repeat, but they replayed it upon the occasion of the release).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 01:35 PM

Donovan did a whole lot of great stuff. I could never figure why people tried to set up this competition between him and Dylan because they were/are almost totally different from one another in their approach to both lyrics and music. It's like comparing a swordfish with a gazelle or something... What's the point?

In his very early career, though, Donovan adopted an appearance that was very "early" Dylanesque (the little hat and the work clothes and so on)...so I guess that's how it got started.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Auggie
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 02:07 PM

Last week I heard the PBS interview that SRS referred to a post or two ago.
For an artist that I had always associated with a high level of drug induced stupor (but perhaps wrongly), he sounded quite lucid; engaging, funny, eminently likeable. He sang a bit in the studio with only his guitar as accompaniment and he's still in possession of an awesome, haunting voice. And while no one would confuse his chops with say, Steve Goodman's in-the-broadcast-studio licks on The Easter Tapes, he was a pretty nice sounding picker as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Peace
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 02:33 PM

"It's like comparing a swordfish with a gazelle or something... What's the point?"

Good pun.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 04:01 PM

There is evidence that dope smoking is a very strong contributary factor in triggering psychotic episodes in those who have a predisposition towards it.

Every mind altering substance is likely to have both positive and negative effects often in different people. And there is no way of knowing how it is going to affect you prior to trying it.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: *daylia*
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 10:33 AM

That's true, Guest. It would be interesting to find out why marijuana affects different people so differently. Could have a lot to do with expectations, but I think it probably has more to do with emotional state and brain chemistry.   Pot doesn't seem to affect certain people at all, while others become overwhelmingly paranoid and scatterbrained. Others go green with nausea. Some people get pleasantly energized, 'uplifted' and creatively inspired. Others just get so tired they can't get off the couch.

As a teen, I turned it down for quite a while because of the scare-mongering by police at school. Pot was no different than heroin, in my book anyway .... till a few months before my 16th birthday. I'd been sent up north to a Catholic boarding school that year, and I wasn't adapting to my new surroundings very well at all. The nuns didn't seem to appreciate my company much either. They labelled me a "live-wire", and picked on poor little me about every little thing I did! Got myself suspended / sent home twice in 4 months, the first time for smoking a cigarette while hiding out in the mausoleum. (You had to be 16 to smoke, and I wasn't yet ... and here I figured the dead nuns wouldn't mind one way or another... guess I was wrong...)

All in all, it was a very miserable year. ANd then one gloomy winter's day, out for a walk with 3 of my best friends, I had a joint passed to me (again). Seeing my reluctance, they convinced me that it wouldn't affect me at all "because it was my first time". I'd heard that before, and I was more than ready for a change of pace anyway, so I took a little puff. ANd then about 2 more.

Well! 5 minutes later I felt like I was on another planet. The ditch beside the road looked like a mountain-side, and the clothes hanging on the line looked like a work of art from the Group of Seven, and I thought we'd been away from school for hours and HOURS ... and all that because of three little puffs of lousy Ontario homegrown leaf (!?!)

Managed to get back to the school somehow, only to find the nun who was my "dorm-mother" waiting for me at the door. She was upset with me (as usual), started yelling at me for something I'd done or neglected to do (again). My friends took off, and I stood there trying to focus on whatever it was she was yelling about. But then my mind started wandering. Her voice faded out, and her face got huge ... and I stood there just spell-bound by the amazing new-found ugliness of that angry, contorted face ...

Well, woe is me, all of a sudden that face started looking unbearably funny.   In spite of my horror and my best efforts to stifle it, a little laugh slipped out ... and then, holy jumpin! Once I started, I couldn't quit!   I got "the laughs!!!" for the first time in my life, right in poor ole Sister Dolores' face! Stood there racked with helpless convulsions, tears streaming, knees quaking ... egads ...

Well, I'd never seen that nun rendered speechless before. Ordered me to my "cubicle", called my mother, and between the two of them they decided I was definitely 'emotionally disturbed'. (Which I was, but not quite the way they imagined). Booked a psychiatrist's appt for me the following week, but that's another story ...

Anyway, it would sure be interesting to find out why some people have no reaction to pot, while it catapults others right into the next world so to speak. In my case, it expands my "sense of humour", makes everyday reality seem brand-new and surreal. Which can be construed as beneficial, I suppose, when that everyday reality feels like it's too much to bear. Depression and anxiety just disappear - temporarily, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 09:06 PM

Anything that makes Catholic schoolgirls laugh hysterically at their dorm-mothers can't be all bad... ;-)

Let's airdrop the stuff to ALL the Catholic schools, I say!

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 11:52 PM

Full of SH!T!!!

<.h2>

SRS - if I were directing the FEDS to the nearest house to bust - it would be YOURS.

It has been my personal experience over the past 30 years....the ones who most vephemantly prosteltize the benilovence of POT....and the most like to use and abuse.

For six years I have attempted to tutor an adult through Algebra One. No go. Frustration, confusion, anger.

Fourteen months ago, after a major auto accident (after using pot) the individual gave up "the noble weed."

REMARKABLE!!! For the first time in 20 years....the processes are making sence...he has found a delight and organization he never knew before....He actually LOVES Algebra - and may finally move on to a teaching credential.

POT DOES mess with cereblum capasity!

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Retired officer JOE - trace the SRS and his URL - there may be bounty waiting in January if current law passes.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 12:02 AM

Thank you for useful references to other contributors to the financing of terrorist organizations.

Once a junky, always a junky.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 12:10 AM

Gargoyle,

Posting a citation and starting a thread does not a pothead make.

Methinks he protests too much. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: GUEST,Retired officer joe
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 12:36 AM

I have recorded the SRS and URL and will be reporting them to the appropriate authorities immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Peace
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 02:39 AM

Under the new bill, retired officer joe will also have a gun.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: dianavan
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 04:09 AM

Any adult who tries to study algebra stoned, obviously has other problems as well. Pot and studying do not mix. It temporarily interferes with your visual memory. Most mature adults wouldn't even attempt it. Why bother?

Frustration and confusion I can understand but I don't think you can directly link the anger to pot. I think the anger may be coming from something else. Was it directed at you?

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: dianavan
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 04:17 AM

BTW - Threatening behaviour is also cause for concern although its my understanding that pot actually has been known to curb most forms of aggressive behaviour.

gargoyle - You should try it and report back to us. We'll tell you if we notice any difference.

Guest and Guest ROJ - Save your time and the taxpayer's dollars and go find some heroin smugglers or is it that more than you can handle?

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: *daylia*
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 06:32 AM

Any adult who tries to study algebra stoned, obviously has other problems ...

Right on, dianavan. For everything, there is a season(ing). And as for contributing to terrorist organizations, that's why I refuse to file my taxes.    ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 11:28 AM

All "peace officer joe" would find around my house is lemon balm and chocolate mint and rosemary. My dogs must be real junkies--they race around through the gardens and they smell wonderful!

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 12:47 PM

SRS -

A recent local news item reported that the town cops in an adjacent village got a tip about "maryjane" being grown by a citizen. They staged a full-blown raid, ripped up plants, demolished the house with their search and then received the lab report on the confiscated plants identifying them as "sunflowers." (The official Kansas state flower).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 01:32 PM

Geez.

Well look at the turn this story took: it seems the suspect is a kid who thought his pot-growing apparatus was delivered to the wrong address. (From CNN)

Vitale slaying suspect charged with murder
Teenager described as loner, will be tried as an adult

MARTINEZ, California (CNN) -- A 16-year-old California boy was charged Friday with one count of murder in the beating death of Pamela Vitale, the wife of prominent defense attorney Daniel Horowitz. The suspect, Scott Edgar Dyleski, will be tried as an adult, according to Hal Jewett, Contra Costa County deputy district attorney. Bail was set at $1 million.

Dyleski has been described by classmates as a goth loner who followed the occult and dressed in black from the polish on his fingernails to his trench coat. Police say he apparently acted alone.

Horowitz found Vitale's body Saturday night when he returned to a trailer the couple shared while they built a dream home on a hilltop in affluent Lafayette, east of Oakland. Authorities said Vitale, 52, was bludgeoned with a strip of crown molding and fought with her killer. A Gothic cross was carved into her back.

"He was just really a Gothic kid, and everyone knew who he was just because of his apparel. When you heard the name, you were just like, 'Oh, that kid,' " a classmate told CNN. "He just definitely stood out in front of anybody in the school," the classmate added. "When he walked by, everybody talked about him -- like, he definitely didn't blend in."

Former classmates told The Associated Press that Dyleski drew a pentagram on the ground at school and that he read from "the book of Satan." They described him to the wire service as a quiet student at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, where he stood out because of his attire. "He was really Gothic, always wore a long, dark jacket," Kevin Etheridge, 16, told the AP. "He'd hang out with a few kids, but he was pretty quiet, pretty much to himself."

While authorities say the motive is not clear, the San Francisco Chronicle, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, reported that investigators said they suspect the killing was related to a scheme that involved using stolen credit card numbers to fund a marijuana-growing operation. The Chronicle's source said the boy had ordered equipment for the operation and mistakenly thought the supplies were delivered to Horowitz and Vitale's home, the newspaper reported Friday on its Web site.

The teen went there Saturday looking for the equipment and got in a fight with Vitale, striking her dozens of times in the head with a piece of molding that was left behind at the scene, according to the Chronicle's source. The boy, who lived on a remote canyon road down the hill from the estate, had scratches on his arms and legs, the newspaper reported.

A man at the house where the suspect lived declined to comment Thursday, as goats and chickens wandered around the property. A potbelly stove, a bathtub and dozens of baseballs littered the yard, AP reported. If Dyleski is convicted of murder as an adult, he would face up to life in prison. If convicted as a juvenile, he would be freed on his 25th birthday. He is too young to face the death penalty.

Subject: RE: BS: Mythbuster: Pot and brain health
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Oct 05 - 11:04 AM

There is no denying that death and violence are a by-product of the drug "industry" such as it exists today. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest the Forest Service and the Park Service and other government entities were always busting growing operations out on public land, and they approached them VERY cautiously due to the potential violence from the growers and those they hire to guard the stuff. I worked in the woods in the 1970s and 80s and it used to be that we were careful not to startle poachers or cedar thieves. That has largely changed.

Were such drugs legal there would be standardization, there would be less side effect from pesticides and herbicides, and it would take the thunder and violence out of the current growers.

It probably wouldn't be treated like tobacco and receive huge federal support in subsidies. Now THAT'S obscene!

SRS