They say that it causes brain damage, this that and the next. Does it really just boil down to ‘lungs only supposed to breathe air’
In: Biology
Health aspects aside, I’ve been a regular (almost daily) user for 25 years and I’ve got advanced degrees, a successful career, and support my family. So take the “it’ll ruin your life” comments with a pinch of salt, but YMMV.
My partner has been working with the same dude for 7 years. In that time period his weed usage went from occasional to chronic. In the past 3 years his memory has gotten shockingly bad, like he can’t remember stuff that happened in the past, where previously he was able to use past experiences to plan out work schedules.
He had to stop doing weed about 3 months ago, because of other health impacts, and my partner says that he’s started seeming more normal, engaged and can remember small things from week to week again. She only found out about the weed stoppage after she noticed he had been improving.
So yeah significant damage.
My friends parents are stoners, and they have said how smoking it will always be bad. No exceptions. But consuming it in the form of food is fine, however its heavily dependant on the individual. Said friend gets very anxious and scared with alcohol and drugs and so cannot take it without having several nervous breakdowns. Some people also have negative _physical_ reactions to it, its highly dependant on the person.
It’s all relative, is it less bad than alcohol yes, is it less bad than a big Mac ? Also yes.
Smoking anything is bad for you in the relative way. Strictly speaking about pot, the danger is with getting psychologically hooked and becoming an everyday user. You end up chasing the high, and your tolerance for it will grow, requiring more use. As you start to use more heavy, you won’t be able to achieve dream phase during your sleep cycle, preventing you from getting enough rest. After several months of not getting enough rest, you’ll be moody and get angry easily. Your whole life will revolve around staying high and getting weed and you won’t have any ambition for anything else.
Huberman lab has an interesting podcast episode on cannabis and all of its pros/cons come up
Can become bad. Isn’t necessarily. And you probably feel hella good for a while. If you feel content in your life, take it and have some fun, if not, better stay away to avoid rasing some demons 👍
Depends, but from personal experience it’s not great. I can’t really speak to its health issues but people who smoke excessively or base their entire personality around weed are seriously deadbeats.
I have 2 groups of friends in Uni that smokes weed. I mainly hang around my cousins group, which while they smoke they only do it at nights and weekends.
The other group does it pretty much everyday and it’s what they are known for and they lean into it. They smoke weed everyday and miss classes. They don’t know shit and panics everytime assignments are due and exams are near. Great guys but are man child. House is a mess, I mean more so than your average young adult male. They didn’t start out this deadbeat, but doing it for months on end seriously changed their behaviour and I can see their motivation get sucked out.
It’s important to remember humans have a subjective experience. What may benefit one person will be detrimental to another.
The immediate thought to cross my mind is how anything other than oxygen entering your lungs is not good for them. In this regard yes it’s bad for you, however the impact of this varies person to person.
There’s also individuals who get anxiety/paranoia while smoking.
I personally don’t think this can be answered one way or the other. There’s plenty of people who experience positive effects from it.
It really depends more on the person than the drug itself.
THC is a drug that, on paper, is a “stimulant”. This is the same class as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, cocaine and methamphetamine. These drugs all cause your brain to release dopamine or will attach to dopamine receptors, which is why they cause the pleasant feel-good feeling that they do. THC does not attach to all dopamine receptors, and it also will attach to cells in your gastrointestinal system as well. THC is also a “fat-soluble” drug: it dissolves in fat and oil rather than water, and as a result you can only consume so much before you essentially have to “force” more THC into your system since your blood stream won’t readily absorb it.
Everything below this is speculation and not backed by medical science.
There are generally three potential types of reactions one can have when they consume THC. The most common one is “some dopamine receptors speed up, so some others slow down”…the couch stoner. You feel pleasant, but you also feel relaxed. The first uncommon one is “some dopamine receptors speed up, other dopamine receptors remain exactly where they are”…the artist stoner. For this group, THC is more like a stimulant like Adderall or other ADHD meds, and it doesn’t have the “lazy stoner” effect. Finally, “dopamine receptors speed up, other dopamine receptors decide it’s party time”…you shouldn’t consume THC again because if you fall in this category, you will develop schizophrenia.
So the risk of falling into “group three” above is why there is concern about brain damage from THC usage. If you don’t have that happen when you smoke pot, it’s probably not going to happen unless you go for a high dosage of edibles or smoke a concentrate.
Latest Answers