cannabisnews.com: Bringing The Gateway Theory Back Bringing The Gateway Theory Back Posted by CN Staff on July 06, 2006 at 07:32:03 PT By Maia Szalavitz Source: Stats.org News Nature — the news affiliate of one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, which tags itself as providing “the best in science journalism” — is not usually a source of drug war propaganda. But this week, in covering a new study on the effects of marijuana on the brain, it sure sounded like one. The story was purportedly about research on rats which found that those given marijuana during the period roughly equivalent to human adolescence tended to take larger doses of heroin when given access to that drug later in life. It’s an interesting finding and could add to our knowledge of how exposure to one drug can affect responses to other drugs. But Nature covered the study of just 12 rats as though it gives important support to the long-discredited idea that marijuana acts as a “gateway” drug, causing users who start “just smoking pot” to rapidly turn into heroin injectors or cocaine smokers.News Nature said: “ Neuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs.”But the article did not note that the problem with the “gateway theory” is that the vast majority of cannabis users never try harder drugs. While most illegal drug users start with the most widely available illegal drug — marijuana — most marijuana users start and stop with cannabis. Some 50 percent of high school students try marijuana before graduation, but just eight percent try cocaine, six percent try methamphetamine and less than one percent try heroin. This is why the Institute of Medicine, in a 1999 report on the use of marijuana as medicine, gave no credence to the gateway idea.And while the article said that cannabis use might similarly predispose to amphetamine or cocaine use, it did not mention that the same authors had previously published a study finding no such effect with amphetamine.Further, News Nature sure made both the researchers and the reporter covering the study sound far from disinterested and unbiased. The article quoted one of the study’s authors as saying that policies softening the law on cannabis were “ridiculous” in light of the existing evidence, and closed with the following:“The discovery also warns against complacency that cannabis does not have any lasting effect in young people who use the drug. ‘Lots of mothers say 'oh well, at least it's not cocaine’, [the researcher] says. But this is not about the short-term effects. For adults to do it is one thing, but we have to consider the effects on children."Let’s see: For the last 40 years or so we’ve run an uncontrolled experiment exposing at least half of the America’s teenagers to cannabis. Obviously, it would be better if teenagers didn’t take the risk of exposing themselves to any psychoactive substances.However, so far, no one has found any effects on mortality, there is no link with lung cancer, there are no deaths from overdosing, cognitive effects are minimal once the drug has worn off in all but the heaviest of users, and rates of use of cannabis and other drugs have waxed and waned over time. This scientist may believe her kids to be equally at risk when trying cannabis or cocaine — but she sure isn’t basing this belief on data. This is an interesting, but preliminary study which should be covered; but it shouldn’t be covered not without context. Note: News Nature hypes study on twelve rats.Source: Stats.org (DC)Author: Maia Szalavitz Published: July 6, 2006Website: http://www.stats.org/Contact: http://www.stats.org/contact_us.phpCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #32 posted by FoM on July 08, 2006 at 09:09:11 PT Picture from CSNY's Tour This tour has me really excited about voting this November for the first time in my life in a non presidential election. I appreciate CSNY's SoapBox 06 tour as they called it. This picture says alot to me.http://rustedsister.smugmug.com/gallery/1640455/1/80200002 [ Post Comment ] Comment #31 posted by FoM on July 07, 2006 at 15:20:45 PT For Those Interested in CSNY's Tour The recording of the first live show last night is being played now on Rust Radio. They just said all you people up on the lawn smoke a fat one. Everyone cheered! http://www.rustradio.org/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #30 posted by FoM on July 07, 2006 at 07:45:50 PT Toker00 Check Out CSNY's Setlist I am so excited I can't wait. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/rust/message/165087 [ Post Comment ] Comment #29 posted by afterburner on July 07, 2006 at 01:07:10 PT Thanks, Telarus #28 Good stuff! [ Post Comment ] Comment #28 posted by Telarus on July 07, 2006 at 00:07:03 PT: Interconnectivity in the Brain, THC, Serotonin Hey, I caught the discussion of THC vs/ Opiates, and I thought that anyone interested should really read the 7 page PDF I'm linking to at the bottom of this comment."THE INTERCONNECTIVITY OF MIND, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR IN ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: FOCUS ON SHAMANISM" by Peggy Ann Wright, BS, MEdWhile she was specifically studying entheogens in a shamanic context, what really jumped out at me from the article was the easy to understand flow-chart near the end of the paper. I do recommend reading the paper before really grokking the flow-chart, and it will really help you make sense out of it. The interesting stuff is what she says about the serotonin system, and how it relates to other brain functions: P4 "A simplified summary - derived from Mandell's hypothesis - of the serotonergic processes directly relevant to shamanic, mediumistic, and meditativestates is as follows. 1. There is a decrease in cell output of the eurotransmitter serotonin. This decrease may result from (a) drug inhibition of serotonin-dependent neural pathways, (b) meditation or sensory i s o l ation leading to decreased cell stimulation and neurotransmitter release, or (c) physiological driving through stress or activity, leading to initial serotonin release followed by feedback inhibition and cell arrest. 2. The above process results in a loss of serotonergic inhibition of the CA-3 neurons in the hippocampus. 3. The CA-3 neurons become hyperexcitable and lose their ability to "gate," or match internal (limbic) events with external events. Under some conditions cell death occurs. The loss of Ňc o m p a rator functionÓ results in a feeling of unity as dualistic debates and conflicts disappear. 4. The CA-3 hyperexcitability leads to high-voltage, hypers y n c h ronous, slow - w ave discharges from the hippocampal-septal area of the brain. 5. The combination of the feeling of energy from the highvoltage, slow-wave discharges, coupled with the loss of comparator function, results in a feeling of ecstasy."P5 "Plant-based euphorohallucinogens include: - indoletryptamines and indolamines - tryptamine, dimethyl tryptamine (DMT), diethyltryptamine (DET), butenine, harmine, psilocybin and ibogaine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and ergot alkaloids - b-phenethylamines (mescaline, mysristicin) - tetrahydrocannabinols All three families inhibit serotonergic systems, potentiating temporal lobe disinhibition and HSHH. Some produce HSHH that may last days or weeks after one administration. Anticholinergic psychotropic drugs create similar changes in hippocampal-septal activity, although the general toxicity generally outweighs the hallucinogenic activity. Opiates may act directly on the hippocampus to produce slow waves. Even acute nicotine intoxication - through the ingestion of tobacco products (widespread in South American shamanism) - may have direct effects on the hippocampus."---------------- Basically, what I got from the map flow-chart at the end was that THC (listed under hallucinogens as a euphoro-hallucinogen), inhibits the serotonin system, which leads to a DISinihibtion of the hippocampal cells, where as Opiates create a direct Dis-inhibition in the hipocampal cells, and an increase in dopamine production. This difference, if I follow this correctly, realated directly to all of the expericences described in the previous comments.Basically, with Opiates, you are highjacking the way the hippocampus functions, but with CANNABIS, you are allowing your brain to tweak the hippocampus to an optimal functioning level using the tools it needs to to keep it regulated.I'd suggest anyone interested to do some research on the different functions of THC(cannabinols) VS Optiates on the Serotonin system, the Hippocampus, and Dopamine system. The differences should become redily apparent.Namaste, Telarus, KSC http://www.alternative-therapies.com/at/pdfarticles/9507-wright(pages).pdf [ Post Comment ] Comment #27 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 22:17:49 PT Injecting THC? What's That All About? Excerpt: The researchers injected the rats with the THC equivalent of about three-quarters of a joint (scaled down for a rat's size) every third day for 3 weeks until they reached mid-adolescence, about 7 weeks old. [ Post Comment ] Comment #26 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 22:15:43 PT Related Article from ScienceNow: Gone to Pot? By Mary Beckman, ScienceNOW Daily News July 6, 2006In what could be a coup for antimarijuana forces, new research shows that rats exposed to pot's active ingredient at an early age devour more heroin as adults than rats without early exposure. Some experts, though, say the jury is still out on whether the finding is enough to officially label marijuana a "gateway" drug.According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most adults who take illicit drugs start doing so in their early teens. In addition, the earlier kids start smoking dope, the more likely they are to use harder drugs later on. For example, of people who first puffed weed before age 15, 62% went on to use cocaine and 9% to use heroin. But of those who started smoking pot after age of 20, only 16% moved onto cocaine and 1% to heroin. Some researchers think this means that marijuana is a gateway drug--one that leads to harder drug use. Others point out that such a claim is hard to prove because the same factors that lead people to use marijuana in the first place might also lead them to use other drugs.To see through the smoke, neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd, now at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, gave 4-week-old rats THC, the most common psychoactive component in cannabis. The researchers injected the rats with the THC equivalent of about three-quarters of a joint (scaled down for a rat's size) every third day for 3 weeks until they reached mid-adolescence, about 7 weeks old. The dose probably created a mild buzz, but not high enough that the rats stumbled. After a week-long break, the rodents were allowed to self-administer heroin using levers that provide the substance.Rats that had been exposed to THC as "teens" took about 25% more heroin than did their just-say-no peers. Biochemical tests of the adult animals showed that THC-doused brains had the same number of receptors that responded to THC as unexposed rat brains, but more receptors for heroin and more of a compound associated with reward behavior in their neurons, the team reports online 5 July in Neuropsychopharmacology. Whether this indicates marijuana is a "gateway" drug depends on the definition of "gateway," says Hurd. She says both groups of animals took the same amount of time to start taking heroin, suggesting THC use doesn't start them on the path to hedonism, but the THC-primed rats got more into it, suggesting it paves the way for increased use."The important finding is the fact that adolescence is a time of increased vulnerability to drugs," says neuropharmacologist Sari Izenwasser of the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida, who notes that such behavior may alter fundamental brain processes. But pharmacologist Aron Lichtman at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond inserts a note of caution. "The data really are very provocative," he says, but not conclusive. He questions whether other reward-reinforcing behavior, such as eating food, would also be increased under these conditions.Copyright: 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Sciencehttp://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/706/1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #25 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 20:41:43 PT Wayne It's ok. It really is. Most people know after all these years that I've been doing CNews that I am a woman. I look at issues like juveniles doing drugs from a mother's perspective. I want very much to see the laws changed on cannabis for adult use. Those that oppose us always mention the children. I don't fight for the rights of children because they have parents that should fight for their right to party if they want to. I want parents to be responsible for their children. I am not young anymore and maybe I still believe that parents need to tune in to their children and know why they want to do drugs instead of doing something that might help them in their future adult life. [ Post Comment ] Comment #24 posted by Wayne on July 06, 2006 at 20:33:37 PT oops how embarrassing I understand the desire for anonymity. My apologies, nonetheless.. [ Post Comment ] Comment #23 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 19:46:27 PT Wayne I first want to mention I am a sister not a brother. My name doesn't say what I am and I early on thought that was best. What happens to a juvenile if they get caught drinking a beer? What is the penalty? I never read of any young people getting in serious trouble if they get caught for underage drinking around where I live. They get chewed out and a small fine and that's it. I think the laws for juveniles and a little cannabis should be the same as underage drinking. [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by Wayne on July 06, 2006 at 19:35:26 PT re: FoM, and a few other things Amen brother! I believe the saying was, 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' I only heard that saying once when I was young, but I believed it. And I still believe it now. I too was kept busy when I was growing up. After I got my license, in order for me to borrow the car, I had to have a job to pay for my gas. And thank God, keeping me busy was the best thing my parents ever did for me. I'm proud to say I've been working since I was 16, and except for a minor speed bump or two, I've stayed out of trouble.Kids huff chemicals because they can't smoke weed. Period. We would rather that kids stay off recreational substances until they are older. But unfortunately, some kids want to get high and be cool. And alcohol and cigarettes are, apparently, too hard for them to get a hold of these days. And cops will drag a 15-year-old to jail for smoking pot just as quickly as they will with one of us. So they're left with no choice, really. (Except for 'abstinence', and THAT usually goes over like a lead balloon as well..)As for this whole GATEWAY b.s., I firmly agree with Truth (comment#1) that alcohol is the biggest gateway drug out there. It's the one kids have the most exposure to early on because it's advertised on TV. Here is my take on the gateway theory and why it will NEVER hold water:"Over 72,000,000 people in the U.S. have tried marijuana. But only 600,000 have become hooked on cocaine, and even fewer on heroin. That is a ‘gateway’ rate of about 0.8%, or about 1 in 120. You would deduce a much higher 'gateway' rate by saying that Mountain Dew is a gateway substance to coffee, which is a gateway to tobacco." [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 18:24:51 PT BGreen Why do some young people do that? Don't their parents notice? We saw a show on the news and young teens were doing some seriously dangerous things just so they might get on the news or on the Internet. I didn't have time to even think about doing anything like that when I was a teen. I was always kept very busy doing something. A common expression back then was idle hands are the devil's workshop. All that meant is stay busy and you won't get in trouble. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by BGreen on July 06, 2006 at 18:03:55 PT Kids Hacking Freon They did a story on the local news today about kids as young as 12 cutting the lines on central air units so they could hack the freon to get high.The reporter said the effects on the user are "similar to marijuana," including "glassy eyes" and a "mellow nature."The problem is, freon gets you "high" by depriving your brain of oxygen, and is extremely deadly.How many more kids heard this news as "freon = marijuana" and are going to die?Lying about cannabis = the death of more kids.The Reverend Bud Green [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by potpal on July 06, 2006 at 17:44:54 PT pot is the stopping stone My first drug was tobacco, then alcohol, then pot.Air is the gateway drug. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by whig on July 06, 2006 at 15:57:11 PT Toker00 Yes, the evil ones take cannabis too. They take it for their own enlightenment and to form their own plans for the domination of society. It is a trip any of us can fall into if we are not for anyone but ourselves. If you are selfish and you take cannabis, it does not make you selfless. You have free will. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by Toker00 on July 06, 2006 at 15:51:19 PT Storm Crow Testify, bro. Cannabis will keep you away from alcohol and any other drug of destruction. Cannabis is the MOST SAFE recreational substance on the planet. And I did not say Harmless, K? :) It's Far Safer than the most Unsafe recreational substance, alcohol. It's a Far Safer medicine that the Most Safe Pharm-pushed medicine. Stay off the pharms if you can, cannabis will keep you away from the rest. It has, for me, for the last fifteen years. When I can't find my medicine is the worst time. But it is do-able. Weeks at a time get a little hairy, but a slight relapse does not mean a full fledged bender. And it doesn't mean you have failed in your struggle. It gets easier each year, for me, how about you?You are absolutely right, Storm Crow. It is a Gateway out of alcoholism, and many other miseries. There is no Natural reason for it to be Prohibited. Only an Evil Supernatural reason. To deny Earthly Benefits, so that Evil can prosper and maintain it's Unnatural Rule on the rest of us. It would not surprise me to learn that many of the elite enjoy the very finest of Her buds, while denying the sick and dieing a legal access to even Her lowly Schwagg. It Ain't Right. That's why WE are going to make it Right. Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 15:01:42 PT Related Article from United Press International Study: Marijuana May Lead To Other Drugs***NEW YORK, July 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they don't believe the theory that experimentation with marijuana is harmless and won't lead to further drug use. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York note that, or cannabis, is often called a "gateway drug," suggesting addiction to one drug could make a person vulnerable to abuse and addiction of harder drugs. The most common argument against the gateway drug theory is that adolescents move to harder drugs because of peer or emotional pressures. But now Professor Yasmin Hurd and colleagues say they've demonstrate in animal models that cannabis can affect future sensitivity to heroin. Studying neurobiological events after cannabis exposure, they found marijuana affects the human brain's natural chemicals called endogenous opioids, which are known to play a role in heightening positive emotions, and creating a sense of reward. That's the same system stimulated by hard drugs. The team's results dispel the common belief that drug experimentation doesn't affect the brain and demonstrates the brain may "remember" previous usage and make users vulnerable to harder drugs later in life. The research appears in the online edition of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.Copyright 2006: United Press International, Inc.http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060706-030656-3622r [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by mayan on July 06, 2006 at 14:42:24 PT Gateway My Butt Since cannabis prohibition concedes control of the cannabis trade to dealers who often sell harder drugs and don't care how old a potential customer is, why not regulate cannabis like alcohol and tobacco? If the government was truly concerned about teens they would, but they aren't concerned about anything but their precious little power trips. The policy of cannabis prohibition has been an absolute failure. Even the U.N. admits that. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by lombar on July 06, 2006 at 13:13:12 PT whig I know exactly what it is. I do not take anything without researching it, whatever the source. It was a generic name like oxycocet but I think that is just the generic name for percocet. Oxycontins are what so many prefer because of the lack of tylenol and hepatic toxicity.Sadly, I came across a post in a forum about a man who was trying to extract the codeine from t-1s and t-3s for his spouse. He remarked how sad it was that he an american is forced to remove the POISON from the painkillers because the doctor won't prescribe what they need to do the job.Having many addictions all my life, I am familiar with the craving set up by conditioning to drug usage. I recognized it immediately. I smoked ciggarettes for 22 years, and quit about 5 years ago. That same 'will' to cease can be applied to anything, including food(ie fasting excerises will to overcome craving, what craving is most familiar? :)). I am not afraid of addicition. When you are in pain, does it matter? The only thing that really matters is if the medication is truly harmful to some organ or other, will the meds screw you up more than the pain? I think not since the debates about 'addiction' are so skewed by the drug war, the totalitarian puritanism. I would rather the world was littered with junkies than occupied by standing armies of police... Cures not wars, peace not war, treatment not prison. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 12:45:06 PT Pain I took Tylenol 4 for years in high doses because of back pain from a horse injury. It worked at first but then I needed higher doses to eliminate my back pain so I could keep on riding and training horses. It caught up with me. The pain in my back was almost unbearable and I realized that something had to change. People can only consume so many pain pills at least in my experience. When I went thru withdrawal the pain was the worst in my back where the injury was. I remember in the hospital asking my doctor what was I going to do without pain medicine since I didn't want a monkey on my back anymore and he said narcotics are tricky. He said your back might be better but as the drug wears off it makes the pain return to the point of injury. I still have a weak back and always will where it was injured but I don't have pain other then it being achy which a bufferin takes care of. I believe the tylenol in the codeine was hurting my liver and or kidneys and that was alot of the pain. Pain means slow down something is wrong but it's easier to pop a pill and keep on going at least for a while. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by sam adams on July 06, 2006 at 12:25:41 PT oops, wrong thread how'd that happen? nfm [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on July 06, 2006 at 12:25:01 PT Putin No surprise there. All the most corrupt governments will cling to Prohibition for the longest time. Another truism: all the LARGEST governments will keep Prohibition the longest as well. The larger and more distant the body of government decision-makers, the more oppressive their laws will be. Do you think if the US government was based in Sacramento instead of DC they'd still vote by 2 to 1 to keep raiding patients in CA?Almost from the first day the EU was put together, the EU has tried to stamp out Holland's policies and push more punitive drug laws on its member nations. “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws” - Corneilus Tacitus [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by whig on July 06, 2006 at 12:23:17 PT Storm Crow Cannabis is what took me away from other, more dangerous drugs. Cannabis saved my life. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by whig on July 06, 2006 at 12:14:58 PT lombar Percocet is oxycodone, same as OxyContin. The only difference is Percocet also includes acetominophen, making it more dangerous.I was on Percocets for a few weeks after my hip replacement.It's not codeine, is my point. Not to disagree with anything else you are saying.Opiates are very, very addictive. I quit percocet as soon as I could tell I was starting to enjoy it. That meant to me that the pain was manageable without that, and it was bad for awhile but it was better than getting hooked. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by afterburner on July 06, 2006 at 11:56:54 PT So The Researchers Prohibited Cannabis and ... Made Heroin Available. Just like the US Government does with their asinine interdiction policy and actions. Then, they are surprised that rats or humans seek the solace of heroin as a pain killer. Rigged! For shame! What do they expect?Oh, yeah, I know: they expect to drive mice and men (apologies to rats and women) to hard drugs. Thus, they create the self-fulfilling prophecy of a "gateway" effect. The gateway is prohibition. In a free drug market, approximately 10% of consumers become addicted to hard drugs. Even in the doctor community with unlimited access to hard drugs, the percentage of doctors addicted to hard drugs is the same as the general population, approximately 10%. [I'm still searching for the citation that demonstrates this fact. If anyone knows or remembers, please post the link.]The persistence of the hard drug addiction rate shows that addiction is not caused by the drugs themselves alone, but in combination with some social factors like PTSD based on physical, sexual, emotional, mental, financial, vocational or wartime stresses. The persistence of the hard drug addiction rate shows that the gateway is bunk. The rats in the study were stressed-out and/or bored silly, lacking normal activities and positive social interaction, like prisoners in jail, where we know that drug use is rampart, including hard drugs. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by lombar on July 06, 2006 at 11:32:43 PT Opiates I won't bust Rush 'Pills' Limbaughs but for using Oxycodone,(being a hypocrite is another thing) as I had the misfortune to suffer a rather severe but (solved thankfully) pain in my hip. Aspirin, tylenol, codiene, cannabis, all inneffective. I just took it for a few weeks. A friend gave a few percocets.. one 5mg relieved the knots of pain enough for the treatment to become effective and within 2 days, the cause of the pain was eliminated. I could not have gotten that from my doctor.One 5 mg oxycodone I think is about the equivelent to 200mg codeine although the pharmacological action is quite different. I can see how they become addictive, to me the euphoria was similar to cannabis but stronger. I would not want to get too used to that. I do not like codiene, and since codiene works by being converted to morphine, I doubt I would like morphine either. Heroin is gross, I've not tried demerol or any other opiates because I generally do not seek new 'drug experiences' and do not want to use painkillers except for pain. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 06, 2006 at 11:25:12 PT Storm Crow Thank you so much. I believe you are correct. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Storm Crow on July 06, 2006 at 11:14:29 PT For me, it IS a gateway drug! This is the honest truth. I am an alcoholic when I am "straight". I open a bottle, I drink until it's gone or my kids (now 30 & 26) disgustedly tell me to go to bed. I don't like this part of me. My family is all either alcoholics or abstainers. When I have cannabis, I have no desire for alcohol. Gates can work both ways, you know. Cannabis is my gateway drug OUT of alcoholism. It's not a perfect solution, but I am an unkind drunk. On the other hand, I'm a cheerful, energetic, creative cannabist. I also suffer from trauma induced headaches which cannabis virtually eliminates. (Alcohol just dulls the headaches.) I use a vaporizer to minimize any harmful effects. Thankfully, I am in a "sane" medical cannabis state and am what passes for legal. So I have this choice-- (A) Drinking -Being a b***h, wrecking my health, wrecking my family, and getting only partial relief from the constant headaches, (B) Abstaining- Constant headaches or trusting that whatever medicine the doctors give me won't dull my brain (I work in education)or give me side effects (I've had some interesting ones before) and mood swings (I'm not bipolar like my mom was, but I am a bit "moody"- cannabis moderates things), (C) Cannabis- being happy, miminal health effects, artistic surges and very good headache relief. I can drink "socially" (1 drink) at functions, without fear of starting again. If it had been ANY other herb that did this good of a job eliminating the headaches, moderating my mood swings and eliminating alcoholism, it would be touted as a miracle cure! Cannabis is my gateway out of hell. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by whig on July 06, 2006 at 10:30:33 PT E_Johnson The strange thing is that I actually feel my bones hurt more often when I use cannabis. But it's an awareness that I can live with. In my more sober state of mind I do not feel the pain as much because I'm less prepared to accept it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on July 06, 2006 at 10:26:08 PT I hate opiates and always have I can't even stand to take a single Vicodin after surgery. I swear I'd rather have the pain. The pain is real. Vicodin puts you in a place that is not real in any way.Pot dulls the pain without taking reality away along with it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by mai_bong_city on July 06, 2006 at 09:03:41 PT i agree i began smoking cannabis at the age of 14 and before that, i found i could not tolerate alcohol very well and didn't like it. what's odd is that some ten years after i began ingesting cannabis, my body altered itself in the ability to tolerate narcotics - opiates. whereas i could use those things previous, something in me changed and systemically i could no longer take anything along that line. so i wonder - did my body realize it needed nothing more than the truth and perfection it had found? that's true i think that many many that use marijuana do not go on to use other things - those with a preferred tolerance to the similar effects of alcohol and sedating narcotics perhaps at a cellular level have maybe overlooked truth, therefore keep searching for what was under their (ahem) noses all along. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Truth on July 06, 2006 at 08:46:05 PT the true gateway Of the thousands of folks that I've smoked cannabis with, (thank you Jerry) I've never had one tell me that they didn't first drink alcohol before they tried cannabis.Alcohol is much more of a gateway then cannabis will ever be. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment