10 Quick Facts About Weed. Or Marijuana, Cannabis, Dope, Hash, Draw.

1. It staves off the ultimate form of memory loss – Alzheimer’s. Recent studies on mice suggest that anti-inflammatories found in cannabis prevent the clumping of brain proteins, one major cause of the disease. More Info.

2. Skunk is giving Marijuana a bad name. Before the arrival of skunk, Marijuana wasn’t seen a such a hard drug by the authorities. Skunk has changed this all and is being used to demonize marijuana by police and governments.

3. You can still buy weed in a lot of countries with no trouble at all. Holland of course – but there are also places in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Tasmania, America and Australia where the buying and selling of weed is tolerated by the authorities.

4. Nobody has ever died from a Marijuana overdose. This is not true of alcohol.

5. Marijuana helps with: Stress Relief, Pain Relief, Meditation, Eating Disorders.

6. Marijuana has been around since ancient times. It wasn’t considered a problem until a disinformation campaign about it was launched in the 1930s by the Americans.

7. £6 Billion is spent on marijuana by Britons each year. And that’s not including money spent on chocolate and munchies.

8. Driving under the influence of cannabis is not dangerous.

9. Cannabis can improve your sex life – acting as an aphrodisiac.

10. Cannabis does NOT cause violent behavior, unlike Alcohol And Cocaine

(See also: 6 things you may not know about cannabis)

teresa: Just to clarify something … it wasn’t a disinformation campaign by “The Americans,” it was a disinformation campaign by Wm. Randolph Hearst specifically, who coincidentally owned both a large amount of forest land and a newspaper empire and was very personally invested in the promotion of the wood pulp paper industry. Hemp, of course, makes much better paper than wood pulp. But since you can grow it on the same plot of land over and over again, it’s not nearly as easy or lucrative a resource to monopolize as timber. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst

tony: Thanks for the blog. I enjoyed a lot of it. One thing I didn’t agree with was the seeming demonization of skunk by yourself. Skunk is no more than 2 or 3 times stronger than the weed smoked back in the hippy days. The ludicrous figures of 25x and 30x have been debunked a number of times but still seems to get pulled out of the bag by one-time-smoker-present-day-politician types. I also think it is a shame that it isn’t true as I believe that the stronger the weed is the less I have to smoke to get to my desired “high”. The less I have to smoke the less potentially harmful substances I will have to inhale to get the desired amount of THC. (Remember kids, you should always use a vaporizer).
Anyway, just my tuppence worth, thanks again for the blog.

conor: “Skunk is no more than 2 or 3 times stronger than the weed smoked back in the hippy days.”wrong,the kinda of hash mark howard used to smoke had a much higher thc content.

CQA: Saying that driving under the influence of cannabis is not dangerous is dumb and irresponsible of you. Although a regular smoker, who has built a tolerance for pot and knows their cababilities while under the influence, can usually drive without many problems, they still wont be as alert or as good of a driver if they weren’t stoned. As for the first time users or the occasional users, it definitely is dangerous to drive under the influence of marijuana so saying it is safe is a dumb thing to say. Yes, driving under the influence of alcohol is far more dangerous than pot, but it doesn’t justify saying driving under the influence of pot is completely safe.

Jared: Marijuana has also been linked with a decrease in libido in men due to the interference of testosterone production. Also driving under the influence of any mind altering drug can be dangerous if the driver is not experienced with how the drug changes their perceptions. Marijuana is not a harmless drug, but does not deserve the bad rap it gets from media and governmental agencies. Marijuana was seen as a black jazz problem in the late 1930’s giving rise to fears that the habit would spread across color lines.

old hipster: There has ALWAYS been dope that was very powerful, folks.Thai stick for example was around in the 60s. Hell all kinds of dope with all kinds of fancy names those names were pretty much little more than marketing jive. Some dope is good, most is medocre and some is just whacky-weed. Nothing’s really changed except the sentencing guidelines.

Rollo: The best weed is grown outdoors in Nature’s sun and rain, makes you feel happy,giggly,energised sometimes too before you ultimately raid the fridge.Bad weed(such as Skunk) is grown indoors in artificial light,largely in Holland and tends to make you feel either paranoid or paralysed or both.No real contest.In any case it’s much better as an occasional ‘vice’ rather than something habitual.

Gern: Rollo- The real difference is Indica vs Sativa, not indoor vs outdoor.

Correct Steev, semantic faux pas. Genetically altered engineered. The new strains are bred, some more effectively than others. Some companies are just trying for this year’s cup winner for the tourist trade and aren’t trying for a stable hybrid. But it’s just selective pollination.

Warren & Jared- hush yourselves until you’ve had sex with a buzz. It works quite nicely, tyvm. I can’t keep my girlfriend off me 😀 No friction burns or missing libido either. Chronic users are another story- there’s a whole bunch of reasons to not do that. Even Rastas know better than that. It’s a sacrament to them, not a couch potato amusement.

I don’t recommend anyone make a habit of driving stoned, but I have found without exception that when I have, I drive like my grandmother, very slow and careful. And I don’t drive on major highways or hectic city streets when stoned. The fact that some people do is a symptom of the suppression of cannabis culture. Common sense learning needs to be passed down to new smokers. You’re not outlaws folks. Schedule 1? Who are they kidding?

Read “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer.
http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

nice level-headed Children’s book-
http://www.justaplant.com/story/index.html

another good read
http://www.juice.box.sk/newsread_print.php?newsid=417

I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to approach cannabis. Demonizing it is the wrong way, as is abusing it.

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it…Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”
– Gautama Siddhartha

metaxarox: Also, the term Marijuana was nonexistant before the disinformation campaign of henry anslinger. it is a racist term used to make “superior” whites not want to smoke something associated with “dirty” mexicans

jamie wilson: 8. Driving under the influence of cannabis is not dangerous…. right. yeah, thats not bullshit. considering that the 3 young people that died in car crashes last year were all high as kites. :/ im not against weed…just doing anything dangerous whilst taking it. its really not worth the risk, and this is really misleading

zwenkwiel: well comming from holland i can’t help but wonder what all this fuss about skunk is about. over here most people wouldn’t wanna be seen smoking skunk as it is widely regarded as junk.
skunk is however a reasonably easy plant to grow. I suspect this to be te reason for it’s popularity outside of holland. the increase in thc has more to do with new strains being developped. And more advanced growing techniqeus. as for the driving while stoned is safe statement.

Several studies conducted in various countries around the world (including:UK USA Holland) show that drivers under the influence of marijuana drive as safely (or as in some studies showed) or even safer than drivers who are sober.  http://www.cannabisculture.com/news/driving (link seems to be down at the moment hope it’s not permanent)
I personnally however have had a few moments where all I “used” was marijuana but yet I found myself unfit to drive and sat inside my car parked somewhere for several hours.
but normally I’m perfectly able to drive while stoned. I even find I drive much more relaxed and really focus on driving. this way I’m able to observe a lot more and while I might not react as quickly as normal my heightened awareness enables me to anticipate problems. where normally my mind drifts in like 8 billion different directions except for the task at hand (paying attention to the road)

Nate:You people are just misinformed and I’ll tell you why.

Everyone’s heard that old presidents like Lincoln used to grow hemp. It was the shit for building stuff and also more importantly, a renewable source. When 1900’s came around, companies developed more technology in things like plastic. These industries became so lucrative, they saw how hemp could replace what they were doing and at a much lower cost. Therefore: the ban on marijuana and propaganda to scare people away by making films such as Reefer Madness. Hemp just threatens too many multi billion dollar industries.

Ace:  For the record many researchers believe the famous martial artist Bruce Lee died of from cerebral edema caused by cannabis alkaloid intoxication. He was eating a potent form of hashish and was warned by a doctor to stop but persisted. A great loss.

Mr Candid: Pot may be less dangerous than alcohol but it’s certainly not 100% safe, and it’s no reason to make it legal, we have enough problems with alcohol in our society without legitimizing another mind-altering substance, my main problem with pot is how it kills a persons drive, alot of my pot smoking friends were good students with good grades who showed alot of promise but got heavy into their habit and are content working at crappy jobs or jobs where they don’t have to worry about random drug testing…what a waste of potential!

Phil E Drifter: Mr. Candid, hammers are not completely safe. You could easily kill someone by bludgeoning them to death with a hammer; you could even miss the nail and slam your finger! Therefore, lets outlaw hammers, they are a danger to both yourself and everyone around you.

Of course, I’m being sarcastic. What we need is a tactic that expresses responsibility, not outright racism, which was how the anti-pot laws were founded. As well as what someone mentioned earlier about protecting the timber industry. Outlawing it also protects the pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, medicine, paper, etc etc etc.

Look up these books on half.com and buy them: ‘The Marijuana Conviction,’ ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes,’ and ‘Race to Incarcerate.’

Matt: What a wonderful selection of comments you have even including Rollo, is he really from that band faithless?

Having been a past abuser of cannabis I have to question some of the statements you make but overall it’s true the effects are definately less dangerous than those of alcohol…

I was stoned for many years and as a result drove under the influence many thousands of times, it’s difficult to assess the true impact yourself but I never crashed, although I certainly didn’t drive like a grandmother as some people are saying…

Keep up your irreverence, never mind don’t read this, I can’t stop 🙂

Stefan: Weed! it’s a freaking plant! legalize it and take the criminal element out of the equation! Why is this so hard for our DUMB ASS leaders to understand!

Lin Floyd: ’skunk’ is indeed ‘genetically altered’ but then so are tomatoes and wheat and corn and okra and cows and soybeans and….well you get the point. Whenever you choose plants with certain specific traits you want to promote and you get those plants to pass these traits on to their offspring, you have altered their genes. The implication that gene splicing or any such lab procedure is responsbile is bogus. Speaking of being responsible, don’t smoke and drive. If weed didn’t alter your perception, why would you smoke it? It probably is less dangerous than driving drunk, but just try taking a test while bonked and tell me how little your reasoning has been diminished. Finally, there is no weed 30x the potentcy of good commercial Columbian or its equivalent, which has maybe 3 or 4% thc. Even a third grader would tell you that 30 times 3.5 equals weed with more than 100% thc, which is of course ludicrous. The very best weed is probably thai stick, which tops out at around 35%, or ten times as potent as typical street weed.

Kyle: You can not die from weed unless it is laced her shit was probbably laced for a fact plus she ate 2 ounces of weed it probbably fucked up her immune system n shit but ive been smokin weed for 5 years now n ive smoked like a quarterpound of dro in one session thats 4 oz’s n i just felt really fucked outta my mind but not to even the point where i felt like i was overdosing most cannabis is a clean calm high =)

Marijuana:I’ve been using marijuana for over 30 years on a near daily basis (I’ve stopped when unwell or in hospital). While I can accept it is not entirely harmless, it is far less harmful than many would have us believe. Importantly, for many it can bring enormous benefits – legalise now