Weed use amongst children

[Malcolm]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 924860.stm

(sorry about yet another BBC News link by the way)

That's truly staggering. Six, eight and nine year olds? You hear of fourteen year olds smoking weed but this is really something else.

You've got to ask yourself why people are starting on it that early, let alone starting on it at all. For the record, I'm 20 and have never once taken any illegal substances. These people are aged six and doing it enough to become addicted, although people say you can't get addicted to cannabis.

Thoughts on this?

[rob 'f*ck off' wine boy]

Oh dear.

[Cain]

I read the subject as Weed use among chickens.

That would have been interesting.

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Big X]

Quoting Malcolm from 22:10, 31st Jul 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 924860.stm

(sorry about yet another BBC News link by the way)

That's truly staggering. Six, eight and nine year olds? You hear of fourteen year olds smoking weed but this is really something else.

You've got to ask yourself why people are starting on it that early, let alone starting on it at all. For the record, I'm 20 and have never once taken any illegal substances. These people are aged six and doing it enough to become addicted, although people say you can't get addicted to cannabis.

Thoughts on this?

you definitely can get addicted to weed, if you had lived in JBH you would know this

[hr]

"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[mhuzzell]

Well, sure, you can get addicted to anything. I am addicted to the internet; I get antsy if I can't check my email and facebook and such regularly.

But there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between psychological addictions and physical addictions. I am also addicted to caffeine, for instance, which is a physical addiction. If I don't have my coffee/tea/whatever in the morning, I am slow, confused, can't think straight and sometimes get withdrawal headaches.

Other physically addictive substances include nicotine, cocaine and heroin.

NOT marijuana.

[hr]

I FOUND JESUS... he was behind the couch the whole time!

[AuZ]

Although, if you look at the thread, it's in Manchester, can't really be surprised with that. I say blame the parents, the kid too young to know what he is doing.

[Big X]

Quoting mhuzzell from 21:25, 1st Aug 2007
Well, sure, you can get addicted to anything. I am addicted to the internet; I get antsy if I can't check my email and facebook and such regularly.

But there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between psychological addictions and physical addictions. I am also addicted to caffeine, for instance, which is a physical addiction. If I don't have my coffee/tea/whatever in the morning, I am slow, confused, can't think straight and sometimes get withdrawal headaches.

Other physically addictive substances include nicotine, cocaine and heroin.

NOT marijuana.

[hr]

I FOUND JESUS... he was behind the couch the whole time!

ok, you tell that to one of my JBH friends who didnt have ajoint for 2 dyas after smoking pretty much everyday for 3 years, woke up sweating, seeing stuff and feeling very ill. so he smoked up and felt fine and went back to bed

[hr]

"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[Frank]

Quoting mhuzzell from 21:25, 1st Aug 2007
Well, sure, you can get addicted to anything. I am addicted to the internet; I get antsy if I can't check my email and facebook and such regularly.

But there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between psychological addictions and physical addictions. I am also addicted to caffeine, for instance, which is a physical addiction. If I don't have my coffee/tea/whatever in the morning, I am slow, confused, can't think straight and sometimes get withdrawal headaches.

I struggle to see, though I'm no medic, psychologist or otherwise suitably researched person, why the above couldn't be a psychological addiction. I mean, it isn't unfeasible to imagine that one's mind could subject themself to being slow, confused, unable to think straight and stress oneself enough to induce a headache. I don't see how the above qualifies as strictly a physical addiction rather than a psychological addiction. I call bad science on your reasoning.

Quoting mhuzzell from 21:25, 1st Aug 2007
Other physically addictive substances include nicotine, cocaine and heroin.

NOT marijuana.

Orly?


[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[munchingfoo]

and how many people smoke weed without tobacco(okay ONCE - but I mean generally)?

Even if weed isn't physically addictive, surely the joint is?

[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[Daniel]

Quoting Big X from 00:46, 2nd Aug 2007
ok, you tell that to one of my JBH friends who didnt have ajoint for 2 dyas after smoking pretty much everyday for 3 years, woke up sweating, seeing stuff and feeling very ill. so he smoked up and felt fine and went back to bed

The most addictive thing in a joint is the nicotine, so perhaps that explains your friend's unusual behaviour.

Quoting Frank from 02:02, 2nd Aug 2007
I don't see how the above qualifies as strictly a physical addiction rather than a psychological addiction. I call bad science on your reasoning.

Although psychological dependencies can manifest themselves psychosomatically I don't think Molly was reasoning from her own experience to an empirical conclusion. I think she was using an example to support the underlying facts which are: weed is simply not chemically addictive. It doesn't affect that part of your brain.

Quoting Frank from 02:02, 2nd Aug 2007

Quoting mhuzzell from 21:25, 1st Aug 2007
Other physically addictive substances include nicotine, cocaine and heroin.

NOT marijuana.

Orly?
Yup.

Daniel

[novium]

it chemically effects your brain, doesn't it? Just like alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, heroin, ritalin, whatever?


surely things like being addicted to the internet ("addiction" in the same way as we say we "hate" things) are mental crutches? because it's damn hard to put the internet in your body and have it screw with your brain.

So, the fact that pot is used with the intention of screwing with brain chemistry makes me think it falls more into the physical addiction category.

[hr]

quem neque periculi tempestas neque honoris aura potuit umquaum du suo cursu aut spe aut metu demovere.

[Daniel]

Quoting novium from 16:01, 2nd Aug 2007
So, the fact that pot is used with the intention of screwing with brain chemistry makes me think it falls more into the physical addiction category.

Yes, but then nearly everything affects your brain from the food you eat to how much excercise you take. In analysing the effects of a drug you need to look at what parts of the brain the drug effects. Cannabis does not directly affect the reward centre of your brain which is why it isn't chemically addictive.

Daniel

[[James]]

Quoting novium from 16:01, 2nd Aug 2007
it chemically effects your brain, doesn't it?

Quoting Daniel from 16:10, 2nd Aug 2007
Yes, but then nearly everything effects your brain from the food you eat to how much excercise you take.

Please see http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/affect.html

[rob 'f*ck off' wine boy]

That was some good affection, yo.

rob 'f*ck off' wine boy

[MrGreedy]

IIR the rule of thumb whether something is physically addictive or not is the presence of a withdrawal syndrome
(See here http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?withdrawal+syndrome)

[boris]

weed is not physically addictive to put it one way there is no chemical within weed that when smoked the body becomes dependant on, only the pychological effect of feeling happy and relaxed... where as with nicotine the body craves the chemicals within cigarettes making it harder to quit.

The person in JBH is clearly a loony and should be carted off..

[sweet]

Quoting Frank from 02:02, 2nd Aug 2007

I struggle to see, though I'm no medic, psychologist or otherwise suitably researched person, why the above couldn't be a psychological addiction. I mean, it isn't unfeasible to imagine that one's mind could subject themself to being slow, confused, unable to think straight and stress oneself enough to induce a headache. I don't see how the above qualifies as strictly a physical addiction rather than a psychological addiction. I call bad science on your reasoning.

Quoting mhuzzell from 21:25, 1st Aug 2007
Other physically addictive substances include nicotine, cocaine and heroin.

NOT marijuana.

Orly?


[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

Haha I have a caffeine headache right now and no tea. Anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Tolerance_and_withdrawal

Caffeine affects the architecture of yer brain and is physically addictive (and no doubt psychologically so as well).

[Raindog]

I had it in tea once as i waas trying to give up smoking too many joints. Fuck me i was scuppered. I came up watching the shining. Shat myself. Just stuck to joints untill i was 16 then moved on to cider

[UanarchyK]

Quoting Malcolm from 22:10, 31st Jul 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 924860.stm

(sorry about yet another BBC News link by the way)

That's truly staggering. Six, eight and nine year olds? You hear of fourteen year olds smoking weed but this is really something else.

You've got to ask yourself why people are starting on it that early, let alone starting on it at all. For the record, I'm 20 and have never once taken any illegal substances. These people are aged six and doing it enough to become addicted, although people say you can't get addicted to cannabis.

Thoughts on this?

If you had read the article you had linked to you'd see later on (after they shocked you with their initial information) that the average age is around 14 and is pretty rare to get much younger. Furthermore, the person interviewed said that alcohol is the real problem drug and that the addicted children nearly always come from a background of family and other problems.

I feel that that Western civilization really overlooks the health dangers associated with alcohol. Feel free to prove me wrong, but it seems like everything I've read which objectively compares drugs shows that alcohol is significantly more damaging than marijuana in both direct health effects as well as consequences from induced behavioural changes.

That said, weed is getting more and more dangerous. The weed your parents smoked in the 70s was not particularly bad for you (and in fact, some argue that it is actually somewhat beneficial), but the superpotent "chronic" strains of marihuana are fraught with ill effect.

As far as joints go, inhaling smoke is always going to be bad for you, and if you cut the weed with tobacco (which isn't the custom in the States) you're basically smoking pot and also a cigarette as well and it obviously can become physically addictive with the nicotine in it. If you have to use weed, you should try to avoid smoking it if possible. If that's not feasible, you should try to smoke it through a waterpipe constructed with safe materials and avoid cutting it with tobacco. I mean, that's if you're concerned about your health.

[Malcolm]

Quoting UanarchyK from 17:32, 7th Aug 2007
I feel that that Western civilization really overlooks the health dangers associated with alcohol. Feel free to prove me wrong, but it seems like everything I've read which objectively compares drugs shows that alcohol is significantly more damaging than marijuana in both direct health effects as well as consequences from induced behavioural changes.

No, I do agree with that. Alcohol has been shown to be much more harmful and I do certainly drink a lot despite never touching drugs. Alcohol causes not only severe health defects but social problems such as alcoholism which can destroy families and ruin lives, drink driving, drunken fights etc. The legalise weed campaigners argue that these are not the side effects of cannabis use.

But alcohol's completely legalised and cannabis is stuck in at class C, most likely because the government can make a mint out of taxing alcohol sales rather than for any other reason. I believe that's why it's illegal to distil your own spirits at home as opposed to the severe health implications of moonshine.