posted June 07, 2012 01:54 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
Don't mean to be rude, but I never understood the whole point of narcotics. Never had before and never will.

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Escapism. People are not able to relax, ruminate, reflect and dream by other means so they use quick aids to "get there."

At least that's what I've always observed.

I've heard it so many times from so many different "users": "It's a shortcut. What you can do with meditation in a year, you can do with drugs in 10 min."

posted June 07, 2012 05:08 PM            

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Imagination is intelligence having fun.
—George Scialabba

posted June 07, 2012 10:33 PM            

You stopped by the thread. Thank you.

I totally agree with you. I think a poster on the original thread also mentioned how he himself and people he knew used it to avoid dealing with emotions they didnt want to face, and now as a result he and those people he knows are emotionally stunted and act very immature when it comes to facing rejection or other fears. He calls it still acting like an adolescent.

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Imagination is intelligence having fun.
—George Scialabba

posted June 09, 2012 11:47 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
I'm equally against drinking. Both activities breed crime and make individuals unproductive members of society.

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Well, I wouldn't say they breed crime. But they do make unproductive members of society.

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Imagination is intelligence having fun.
—George Scialabba

posted June 09, 2012 02:25 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Randall:
I've never understood drinking.

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Me neither! It's very strange to me...

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Imagination is intelligence having fun.
—George Scialabba

posted June 09, 2012 09:38 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by amowls**:
I don't get people who are totally fine with drinking but have a problem with pot. It's almost the same **** . Except pot actually let's you explore your emotions instead of just numbing them like alcohol does. You also can't OD on it, unlike alcohol.

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I've always considered it surreal that people say "alcohol and drugs" when alcohol is just another recreational drug.

And here's a vid I think you'll appreciate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0or9-xYdU0k

posted June 09, 2012 09:54 PM            

TBH & maybe strange, right now... I don't think i could ever trust someone who has never 'experimented' in their life before.

I also steer clear of people who say they "never drink"...ever, ever... Extremeism scares me. I come from a family on both sides who drank a lot and it's natural. Yes, some of them had drinking problems.

Even the Jesuit priest on one side was secretly a major lush. But I hear that is common with them anyway & I remember seeing it with other priests as a kid.

The only people I have known that completely write off drinking......have had a ton of issues that they were very afraid would come out, if they tipped the bottle. They knew it would open doors for them that they could never shut.

One openly admitted that he didnt drink only because he knew if he did, he would cheat on his wife (as it happened many times before -- and he was a friend of my mom's). Otherwise he would, but he couldnt because he couldnt trust himself.

I feel like if you can't have a drink or two without completely ruining your life, you are either extremely weak, or have way too many demons at the door...trying to break free.

and those kind of people make me nervous.

I have nothing against pot smokers, but that was never my thing.

Everything in moderation, is my motto.

posted June 10, 2012 01:01 AM            

..And I maybe going out on a limb here, but the most productive people I've met have dabbled in pot.

And the most unproductive people I met are usually considerably "sheltered" and live in 4 by 4 space.

I'm talking about engineers, technicians, honor roll students.

I know when people think of "stoners" they think of people who are baked on the couch in their Bob Marley t-shirts and plaid pajama with cheeto puff crumbs engraved in the clothes and blabbering nonsensical b.s...

...But this just has not been the case in my experience.

The recent old school pothead I've met is a Capricorn who build Cessna planes and can restore old junkers like new and he is probably one of the most intelligent and refined people I've met. Almost close to that is my Capricorn ex and his Gemini cousin who built computers like sand castles and became entrepreneurs, because of it and both dabbled in pot.

posted June 10, 2012 01:08 AM            

Some of them even more functional than the straight-edge, or abstinent people of our society.

I'm sure many people have known other people like this. So, get real.

posted June 10, 2012 02:15 AM            

All you need is a light buzz...

a little less.

It's great.

Like, a buzz would be the equivalent to a couple of wines, or a couple of beers.
Stoned is like drinking the full six pack.
Baked, is well, just stupid.

I go through a couple of bottles of wine a week so if I smoke pot I'm not the sort to get baked or wasted. I like the buzz. It's an art to get right. A buzz is a personal thing.
The only paintings I've ever done and the only book I've written was because I was buzzed. It gets the creative juices flowing.

Getting wasted on anything is something I still don't understand, yet I lived with a alcoholic for many years. Now I live with someone who is zen, like me.

Everyone I know, from a senior police officer, to an entrepreneur all smoke pot, for the buzz.

If you compare pot to crack around here people laugh.

posted June 10, 2012 04:20 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by amowls**:
I don't get people who are totally fine with drinking but have a problem with pot. It's almost the same **** . Except pot actually let's you explore your emotions instead of just numbing them like alcohol does. You also can't OD on it, unlike alcohol.

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Not just pot, but also with smoking. Its almost acceptable to drink with family members during special occasions where as smoking is a flat out no.

RAS,

I generally enjoy your posts/threads, but its kinda a given how some users would respond to this thread, I don't know why you posted it.

Everyone who has respond so far, has responded how I thought they would.

posted June 10, 2012 11:02 PM            

Interesting to see people so serious about making it to the grave, that is what happens no matter how you dodge it.

Hut 1-2-3-4 Hut, I admit I wanted to hang around for awhile.

posted June 11, 2012 08:18 AM            

I agree with Randall that it isn't worth the risk from a legal standpoint. The prison complex thrives because of drug laws and many a non-violent human being is in prison for life now, thanks to pot's illegality and the three-strike drug laws.

Which amounts to human slavery in my opinion: locking people up for substance abuse, and putting them to work in chicken processing factories and other non-paying jobs. But that's a whole other topic.

As for me, I think drugs can have a place in a spiritual quest, under controlled circumstances, as they can broaden one's understanding of life:

Buddhist philosopher Alan Watts on drugs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qg__ffkDDY

As one who is highly sensitive to color, I enjoyed Aldous Huxley's essay "The Doors of Perception" very much. This is about certain revelations he had while taking mescaline, as part of a scientific experiment.

Stan Grof on the Healing Potential of Non Ordinary States of Consciousness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn-P-S6eFxQ

My point is, while drugs are used for escapism, I do not regard them as a clear-cut "bad" thing.

Another point I want to make is, I wish people would understand who is really behind the drug trafficking. Hint: the Iran-Contra scandal wasn't an isolated incident, and Afghanistan is the world's top producer of poppies/heroin.

posted June 11, 2012 08:40 AM            

One joint will put you away for a long, long time. Any minimal quantity will mean a death sentence, so you might as well shoot it out with the police and take out a couple of them (same with armed robbery, armed assault or guns in general).

Most people where I am from are indifferent to such laws because it doesn't concern them or their families. The government pitches it as the fast way to weed out the miscreants (ok, sorry for the lousy pun). Therefore, there is no drug usage among the youth. There isn't even a school campagain against drugs. Freaked out parents nag their kids to death (again, lousy pun).