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TA's Official Stoner Thread (pg. 152)
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View this Thread in Original format
| BigStu |
| quote: | Originally posted by nifty narcotix
I know a guy with this one. It's pretty damn hi-tech and even comes with a remote so you don't have to move when you're super baked |
We added cinnamon and nutmeg to the VTower bowl last night to make it a festive holiday treat... worked out really well actually. |
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| MarkT |
some interesting news this week:
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/min...ins-study-finds
| quote: | Smoking pot every day can permanently alter a teenager's brain, new research from McGill University says.
The results of the study at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre so surprised the scientists, they redid it twice. "We didn't believe in our results, so we did it three times. We always had the same results. All of the subjects responded in the same manner," Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher and McGill professor, told the Star.
Those results showed that long-term use of marijuana by a teenager decreased the compounds serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain, which in turn sapped the subjects of motivation and the ability to handle stress while increasing depression. The study suggests the long-term effects are irreversible.
"It means cannabis is more dangerous than we thought for adolescents," Gobbi said.
"It's not an easy message to transmit. In the last 10 to 20 years, marijuana was perceived as a safe drug. It's not easy to change this culture."
In the short-term, Gobbi said, there was evidence that marijuana in low doses increases serotonin, giving an "antidepressant effect." The long-term effect, however, was the opposite.
"This doesn't mean adults are not affected," said Gobbi. "But we didn't expect to see this strong an effect on adolescence" when brains are still in development.
Previous studies have tracked changing attitudes in teenagers who smoke pot, but Gobbi said this is the first to nail down the impact on "the neurobiology mechanism," or chemistry of the brain, when tracked against consumption.
The McGill study used rats, which have a 20-day adolescence, said Gobbi. They were exposed to marijuana for all 20 days.
"The implications are that there should be a warning about the consumption of cannabis during adolescence because of the long-term effects in the brain devoted to the regulation of emotion."
The study was funded by the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation and published in Neurobiology of Disease. |
this is a link to the abstract:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...ac82bec33c321a2
a subscription is needed to view the entire study. while the abstract seems to imply that no such negative effects were observed for the adults in the study, the comment "this doesn't mean that adults are unaffected" was made. well, what was observed for the adults?
a blog from the other side (obviously) of the fence that will certainly not see the front page of any mainstream newspaper:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/21381
| quote: |
Beyond Prohibition Foundation: McGill Study shows no damage to adults from extreme marijuana use
by Jacob Hunter - Saturday, December 19 2009
Adults that use marijuana daily face no brain damage or neuro-chemical changes a study from McGill University suggests. Researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre gave daily doses of an extremely potent and highly concentrated synthetic cannabinoid agonist. Cannabis is a weak semi-agonist, meaning the study used something dramatically more powerful than natural cannabis. Despite this, adult rats in the study showed no ill effects, even after 20 days of daily exposure to this extremely potent chemical.
“The extremely potent chemical these researchers used produces an effect that would be impossible with natural cannabis”, said Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, “yet, it produced no ill-effects. Worse, the study was reported as suggesting cannabis use by adolescent humans might be dangerous. That kind of extrapolation is unscientific and fuels anti-cannabis reefer madness. We see the effects of this hysteria in Parliament, with the Conservative government trying to jail Canadians for growing even 1 marijuana plant.”
The Conservative Government is currently engaged in an intense media campaign attacking it's opponents on C-15. The bill proposes for the first time in Canadian history to apply mandatory minimum sentences to a wide range of drug offences, including relatively minor offences like growing 1 marijuana plant. The bill was recently amended in the Senate to remove some of the harshest sections, yet the Conservatives have attacked the Senate for even those minor changes.
“In order to appear 'tough on crime' the Conservative government is trying to jail people for growing 1 marijuana plant” said Jacob Hunter, Policy Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, “The majority of Canadians want marijuana regulated and taxed for sale to adults only. It is clear from the evidence that this will decrease crime and access by youths. The Conservative government ignores the majority of Canadians and evidence, endangering our streets and ensuring easy access by our children” |
It would be interesting to hear a reply from those behind the study (or to know more about it myself...i.e. did they really use a chemical or potency that is not reflective of actual pot use?) |
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| MarkT |
merry christmas to myself...I just walked over there and picked up the same one :)
lifetime warranty and the company is in Kitchener. nice.
how do you like it? |
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| Aleks_B |
| ^i had a v-tower for a year and even after some serious abuse(knocked off a desk many times h4h4h!) it still worked fine. I would still be using it if it didn't up grade to the volcano yo! |
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| kotsy |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
how do you like it? |
LOVE IT! and so does everyone else that tries it :D
-there's almost no smell at all compared to other ways of smoking
-its WAY better on your lungs
-your pot lasts longer
-and the best part... it gets you higher!! :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: |
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| Aleks_B |
| mmmm enjoying the taste of this Grape Skunk ala vapour on this chilly night! Invigorating yet relaxing. Off to get some more work done.... |
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| SPANIARD |
| happy 4-20 everyone! |
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| MarkT |
happy 4/20!
legalize pot :whip: |
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| Aleks_B |
| Hey TA herb lovers i am selling my classic model(analog) Storz&Bickel Volcano vaporizer for 400 cash. Pm me if you are interested! This unit is in great working order. I have all the parts with it too. I hate to see it go but im moving and my next place i will not be able to enjoy it indoors...so its back to outside toking j's for me! LOL |
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| kotsy |
| I feel so pathetic smoking vaporizer leftovers in my bong but am still completely amazed that I'm able to get even more out of my weed :eyes: |
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| Aleks_B |
| Now i definitely know what all the Purple Kush hype is about. So sweet, smooth and skunky. !0/10 |
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| kotsy |
Huge step forward for the US, One big step back for Canada...
| quote: | Originally posted @ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...tates-loosen-up
Canada toughens pot laws, two U.S. states loosen up
OTTAWA—The same day that voters in two U.S. states approved the legalization of marijuana, the Harper government in Ottawa was bringing into force tough new mandatory penalties for pot.
The states of Washington and Colorado both voted in favour of ballot-box propositions Tuesday that remove criminal penalties for the possession and sale of recreational marijuana, while a similar provision in Oregon was defeated.
Tuesday was also the day that drug measures in the Conservative government’s omnibus Safe Streets and Communities Act, passed last spring, came into full force.
Canada’s new law provides a mandatory six-month jail term for growing as few as six marijuana plants, twice the mandatory minimum for luring a child to watch pornography or exposing oneself on a playground.
“Today our message is clear that if you are in the business of producing, importing or exporting of drugs, you’ll now face jail time,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a release Tuesday, before U.S. polls closed.
By day’s end, Colorado had voted to permit adults over 21 to grow up to six pot plants in private, and Washington had voted to permit state-licensed growers to sell adult individuals up to an ounce of marijuana at a time.
Nicholson was not available Wednesday to comment on the American state votes but his spokeswoman reiterated in an email that “our government does not support the decriminalization or the legalization of marijuana.”
Julie Di Mambro added that “the production and trafficking of illicit drugs is one of the single most significant sources of money for gangs and organized crime in Canada.”
Contrast that with Geoff Plant, a former British Columbia attorney general who supports the Stop the Violence BC coalition that is campaigning for legal changes.
“The take-away for politicians is to realize voters on both sides of the border are increasingly wanting this change, and that should make politicians both nervous about what will happen if they don’t listen to voters and also less nervous about the risk associated with change,” said Plant.
In Mexico City, Luis Videgaray, the main adviser to Mexico’s president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto, said the Washington and Colorado votes will force the Mexican government to rethink its efforts on halting marijuana smuggling across the border.
And Sean McAllister, a former assistant attorney general in Colorado, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper Wednesday that “I really think this is the beginning of the end for marijuana prohibition, not only in the U.S., but in many countries across the world, including the U.K. We didn’t just legalize it, we created a regulatory system.”
The disconnect highlights a hemisphere-wide debate that is challenging the decades-long “war on drugs” that even the most staunch prohibitionist must concede has not succeeded in eradicating the illicit trade or use of drugs.
Eugene Oscapella, who teaches drug policy and criminology at the University of Ottawa, said one of the biggest impacts of Tuesday’s state legalization votes may be on Canadian perceptions.
He noted 14 states have decriminalized pot, plus two that have now legalized.
“People have begun increasingly to realize the current system, the use of the criminal law, imports terrible, terrible collateral harms — and it doesn’t stop people from using drugs,” Oscapella said.
The Colorado and Washington votes, he said, help undercut one of the most powerful arguments used in Canada to kill talk of relaxing the country’s pot laws — American border concerns and the implications on trade.
“It’s not a pro-pot measure,” Oscapella said of the stateside votes. “This is a pro-sensible drug policy measure, looking at minimizing the harms of drugs in our society.”
The federal Liberals are the only party with a legalization policy, which came after delegates to last January’s party policy convention voted 77 per cent in favour of legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana for personal use.
A spokesman for the Liberal party’s youth wing, David Valentin, said a policy group in B.C. is working to flesh out a fully developed proposal.
Bob Rae, the interim Liberal leader, said the Conservative government is swimming against the tide.
“Any public opinion poll I’ve seen shows that Canadians believe there’s a profound futility in the current punitive approach of the law, that we’re filling our jails with people who shouldn’t be there, and that the law does not serve a practical purpose,” Rae said outside the Commons.
Legalization, he said, is “a direction the country needs to take and will take over time.” |
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