I feel like these discussions about pot and its physical benefits/problems are only looking at like 30% of the picture. How you feel, be it in 'regular life' or on a given substance, is physical as well. And the effects of a drug on one's mental health is a huge, huge part of whether using a given substance frequently ultimately confers positive or negative benefits on its user in the long term.
[N.B. my total prejudice re: this matter——see below]
I stopped smoking weed about three months ago. Weed was amazing the first time I tried it, one of the most bizarre and psychedelic experienced of my entire life. It continued being fun, albeit with diminishing returns, for about half a year after that. After that, I continued smoking pot for four years. All it did was fuck with my sleep cycle, wig out my eating habits, and exacerbate some underlying depressive tendencies that, after an amount of abstinence, seem to have receded, thank god.
So for me, was pot an ultimately harmful thing? Well, my body's probably fine. Hell, I vaped the stuff! I may have even staved off cancer or something, who knows. What I DO know, however, is that I wouldn't have wasted four years of my life being a relative zombie, watching movies and eating corn chips, had I smoked cigarettes. I may have even done something worthwhile!
Alcohol is far worse than pot to your health and organs or whatever, but at least the occasional imbibement results in me going out with the lady and making some new friends, listening to cool music, or discovering something I enjoy.
This little anecdote, though, comes with the caveat that neurodiversity is a real thing, and I myself have known people for whom marijuana is a real gift. I guess all I'm trying to say is that any discussion about whether a given drug is 'healthier' than another is a pretty naive one unless it takes the drug's mental and behaviour-altering effects into consideration.
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Topic: 12.13.13 Punk rock, motherfucker (Read 20116 times)