Is marijuana actually a drug?

Honestly, everything is just some kind of addiction—whether it’s booze, weed, cigarettes, or even just junk food...

But hey, I still love getting high 😁 Obviously, though, I try to keep it somewhat moderate 🙄 😁

Morgan Cook10 said:Making weed illegal isn't going to stop anyone from buying it and lighting up, but it does create these extra hurdles that basically push users closer to harder stuff like heroin.

Oh, really? Is that so?
Man, you can read just about anything on this forum. 🙄

Otherwise regarding legalization, I honestly think discussing it is pretty pointless given the kind of environment we're living in right now! I don't even have a solid take on it because, I guess, I can't even visualize how it would actually work here.

restlessmarlin6 said:Oh, really?
You can read just about anything on this forum, I guess. 🙄

And that’s not just my take either—it’s how a whole lot of people actually working in this field see things too.

I’d suggest you take a long walk down to my psychiatrist over in Chicago and let him point you toward the crowd of thirty-somethings who ended up with schizophrenia after years of smoking weed.
It feels amazing at first, doesn't it? Everything is hilarious and you're just having a blast, right?
Well, give me a few years—just wait until the paranoia and psychosis start hitting you hard—then you can figure out the reality of the situation for yourself.

Morgan Cook10 said:I don't think it's just my take on this; I believe a whole lot of people working in this field would tell you the exact same thing!

I don't doubt that at all, which is probably why there's so much debate surrounding this "issue" in the first place.

I suppose Ziza would be more like a milder high, if you ask me.

As for those stories about the sparrow, I've heard them mentioned here and there, but honestly, it feels more like an urban legend to me, if I'm being perfectly candid.

NoWa said:... hard drugs

Is it up to 10 years or what?

It’s all just drugs... weed, LSD, ecstasy, speed... not to mention cigarettes and alcohol.
The only reason tobacco and alcohol are legal is because they became part of the culture long before anything else. Once society realized how easily accessible they are to kids—those under 18—that's when people start trying to fight against it.

Eric Wells3 said:I would strongly suggest you take a long walk down to the local psychiatric clinic here in Chicago and ask them to point you toward the crowd of thirty-somethings who have developed full-blown schizophrenia after years of heavy marijuana use.

🤣

Marijuana use is widespread these days, ranging from eleven-year-olds to grandmothers watering their garden plants for their grandkids. Access is so effortless now that, frankly, legalization doesn't change the fundamental availability.
Whoever wants to smoke will find a way to get a joint. You might see a sudden spike in consumption right after legalization, but I suspect it would settle back to a baseline fairly quickly. Take the Netherlands, for example; you wouldn't expect to see massive numbers of heroin addicts there, even with such liberal policies in place.
Cannabis is a relatively mild substance with minimal systemic damage, though it really depends on the individual. I know people who have smoked daily for years without becoming any less intelligent, assertive, or paranoid; for them, it’s just a way to unwind after a long day, much like having two glasses of wine. On the flip side, I also know people who became completely unmotivated, lazy, sluggish, and dim-witted because of it.

A joint here and there won't kill you.
😁

Look, I wasn't even saying that Skittles or whatever is inherently bad, but there are certain people out there who were already struggling with massive trauma long before they ever touched a substance. For them, drugs became a way to cope with a broken life, leading to a cycle of self-destruction day after day. Even after five or six years of being totally out of control, the reality remains: most of these individuals were dealing with deep-seated issues beforehand, and the addiction just made an already difficult situation ten times worse.
At the end of the day, it’s not one-size-fits-all. What destroys one person might not affect another; it really just comes down to the individual.

Morgan Cook10 said:This isn't just my take—it’s the consensus among plenty of people who actually study this stuff!

Morgan Cook10, you basically admitted you can get weed whenever you feel like it, so your whole argument about how hard it is to find doesn't really hold water. Anyone buying marijuana with that kind of cash is essentially funding organized crime.
Alcohol and cigarettes have age restrictions, and marijuana would probably follow suit. I know law enforcement in the US can be a bit of a mess sometimes, but that’s hardly an excuse for keeping it illegal.
How is it that you aren't on probation if you're smoking weed? Do you think it could just be a matter of individual discretion? Honestly, between my upbringing, my general outlook on life, and the way I view certain types of people, the thought of trying heroin never even crossed my mind. To me, that belongs in its own category—essentially a slow-motion suicide.
Right now, I'm hooked on nicotine, and frankly, I hate being dependent on it. Getting off marijuana was much easier for me—though maybe that’s just because I couldn't exactly pick it up at a local 7-Eleven?
🤔 )
I don't think there's a single "right" answer to the legalization debate, since every perspective seems to have a grain of truth in it. Marijuana definitely isn't healthy. Even if people argue over whether it damages the brain or causes addiction, most would agree it's terrible for the lungs. Ideally, it wouldn't exist at all, which would save us from having to make these decisions in the first place. But it’s here, and the choice I’ve made personally is that I won't buy marijuana on the black market. That has nothing to do with the drug itself—it's just about respecting the law.

Eric Wells3 said:marijuana just makes everything in their lives go downhill.

Once again, we are dealing with complete nonsense. Marijuana CANNOT make things worse.
The only people capable of making such a claim are those judging cannabis through the lens of some narrow-minded, small-town bigot who wouldn't know reality if it hit them in the face.

Not really. 🙂

(honestly, I tried smoking once in my life—it just wasn't my thing)

goldenowl said:What, like 10 years or something?

It’s all just drugs... weed, LSD, ecstasy, speed... and don't even get me started on cigarettes and booze...

Honestly, the absolute craziest thing 🙄 to me is this whole "soft drugs" vs. "hard drugs" classification. Everything is flipped upside down—it couldn't be more nonsensical if they tried.

We’ve reached a point (though it happened a while ago) where things like MDMA are labeled as "light" drugs because, you know, they're relatively cheap 🙄 , while cocaine is categorized as this incredibly heavy (and obviously expensive) drug.

Just so nobody gets the wrong idea here—I'm not trying to downplay ecstasy. In fact, I hate how it's minimized. To me, it’s one of the WORST things out there, maybe even right up there with heroin.

It absolutely kills me to see people after an ecstasy bender (like I saw once on the subway). It seriously pisses me off to see them acting so erratic and aggressive 👎

restlessmarlin6 said:It’s long overdue, but we really need to reclassify things like ecstasy as light drugs—especially since they're relatively cheap 🙄—while treating something like cocaine as the heavy hitter it actually is.

Exactly. Cocaine just leaves you feeling like crap, whereas a bad trip on MDMA leaves you looking like a beaten-up Bambi for three days straight. Total injustice.👎

😁

I’m convinced the most addictive drug on the planet is just pure, unadulterated junk food.
And honestly, I’d swear by a damn good glass of Napa Valley Cabernet too. 😁

I’m all for legalization. Honestly, I don't think whether we classify cannabis as a "drug" or something else even matters.
The whole classification thing is incredibly murky—just look at nitrous oxide. It's a drug, an anesthetic, laughing gas, and they even use it for... what was it... welding and fuel, right?

You can easily categorize cannabis as an industrial crop (paper, rope), a drug (given the THC is psychoactive, no matter how you spin it), an ornamental plant, or just damn weeds.
In India, it’s been growing like a weed for centuries, and people smoke it without giving a single damn.
Even back in the day here in the States, people were smoking it—indirectly, of course. They grew hemp for rope. You’d have crowds of workers harvesting it, and any parts they couldn't use (like the flowers 😁) would get tossed into the fire, leaving the whole family high as a kite.
In some cultures, lighting up a hookah is just part of the social fabric, much like grabbing a beer here in the US. (And in those places, alcohol might be banned). It’s the same deal with coca leaves.
I don't see any compelling reason why smoking weed should be treated as a criminal offense.
People view weed as a gateway drug solely because of its "drug" label. If coffee were banned, they’d treat it like a gateway too. Aaaah, drugs! Panic, panic!
I know plenty of people who act like total addicts but have never touched a "drug" in their lives. "Ugh, gross, it ruins your brain." Suddenly they’re seeing needles everywhere... total Rolls-Royce types...
If it were legalized, they’d probably eventually realize that the path to heroin is just as wide open as a drive through downtown Chicago... whatever...

In today's world, marijuana is treated much like a standard pack of cigarettes. It’s already legal in several states, and alcohol is widely available too, so why shouldn't weed be legalized across the board?

If someone is going to use it anyway, it's better if it's legal. That way, they aren't buying it under the table from shady sources where you have no idea what kind of nasty stuff is being mixed into it.

How can you even tell if the marijuana is pure, or if there's something else laced in there?

It really needs to be legalized.

Whether something is considered a "hard" or "soft" drug—that should be up to the experts to decide, or they should determine if it even qualifies as a drug at all.

mistyhound2 said:Is marijuana even worth debating? Like, should it be banned or legalized once and for all?
Me and my buddies are getting blasted every single day until our brains turn to mush. We get so high we actually start feeling stupid, so we figured we had to drop a question about whether this relaxation stuff should just be legal or not.
Stay stoned, your local legend mistyhound2🙂 🙂

Man, give me a break. That’s total nonsense.🙄 You’ve got a serious problem, dude. If you think acting like some edgy burnout makes you cool, then you’re just a kid who hasn't grown up yet. Actually, let's be real—you *are* just an immature kid.🙄

Caffeine is a drug, nicotine is a drug... even marijuana is a drug. Let’s be honest—humanity has been getting high on something since the dawn of time.
Legalization? Absolutely. If we did that, people wouldn't have to go rubbing shoulders with those sketchy, suspicious characters just to get what they need.