The access, selection of price ranges & types, legality, ingestion methods, all light years ahead of the dark days of dime bags and reefer madness.   I do think potency is stronger now generally... other than maybe the old Maui Wowie .

Sure, why not.

Since I was 13 (1971)

Yes, I've had Thai stick once or twice back in the day (mid 70's)

Smoking over edibles. I micro dose. Two maybe three hits off a small wood carved foot pipe. I'll attach a picture when I get home. We call it suckin' the big toe. (see below)

Favourite strains are Citrus Skunk (very hard to find now) & MK Ultra.

I have a very green thumb and a large garden plot at the homestead so usually 4 plants per year with yields of 9-13 oz. per plant depending on my trimming and when I planted that particular year. I started keeping seeds from my 'purchases' back in the late 70's early 80's and probably have about 100 left or so. Always fun to see what springs up from these 'mystery seeds'

I used to smoke it but i got really tired of the short term memory loss. I've tried it every now and again and don't like it any longer. After psychoanalyzing myself i discovered i was only getting high to avoid certain emotions i needed to sort out. After having done so my need for being stoned pretty much went up in smoke!

Of course it should be totally legal. Nobody should go to jail over a victimless activity. As stated above, the medicinal benefits of CBDs are phenomenal but unfortunately many strains have bred out the CBDs in favor of higher THC levels. I still love the smell of it! My housemate grows outdoors and nothing is more heavenly than smelling someone trim in a room

It's been legal in the Netherlands (where I work) for decades, but of late restrictive policies have appeared: mainly towards foreigners/tourists that can not behave properly and tourism pressures growing tired locals (but that's +/- global). It doesn't help that coffee shops have been also a façade for harder drugs since the mid-90's. Other neighbouring countries hace variable policies that can change from one decade to another. There isn't a European Union policy towards weed, so members statescan do whatever they wish. Right now is not good to be caught with small amounts weed in Belgium (for ex), whereas 10 years it was "forgotten" about.

I've started toking around 75/6 (age 13) and it helped me understanding much more of the music I was enjoying. FTM, I could almost make the shortcut: weed = prog. It didn't hinder my schooling much (IMHO), though I'm not sure some HS teachers might say the same. While going thru Uni, I even dealt it for a while to get my stuff free, but this was small scale stuff (buying quarter-pounds). We even toked during exam study bouts - as it can help you concentrate more. It never lead me to smoking tobacco, even if it was needed for those hashoils or hash bars. I've never experienced a dependency on it and it never lead me towards harder drugs.

Weed: I've got to taste some rare & exceptional stuff (Hawaiian Blue, for ex), but what was easily available was Thai weed, Ganja (lamb's bread) and Columbian gold. I liked weed, because it was always social & jumpy (dancing mood), but unfortunately I discovered that mixing weed & alcohol wasn't always a good experience. Sometimes, the mixing lead to "bad trips"".

Derivates: by the early 80's, oils were best stayed away from, because all too easily cut with crap.  Never a big fan of blond (moroccan) or red (lebanese) hash (or even that green turkish stuff), I always preferred the "black stuff" from central asia (I've even tried opium-laced stuff but didn't like it much).

Upon my crossing the Pond back to the Old World, while hardly abandoning it, I successfully managed to cut back on my toking, but this was partly because of the way Europeans toke: way too much tobacco, even in weed joints. If a normal cigarette's tobacco contents lasted me three or four doobies, in Europe, it's often 1.5 cigaterre going inside those rolling-paper assembly cones. Soooo, I mostly toked by myself in the 90's, whereas my 70/80's toking was always very social. We'd be looking for someone to share the doobie (hoping for a return favor in the future), even if we weren't planning on hanging around together in the following hours. I've grown my own plants for roughly a decade (seeds coming from world weeds), and had mixed results - because always outdoors and foreign weeds not always able to acclimatize.

Never was any kind of user ... it just didn't go well with me, but I did partake of various psychedelics in my time, and enjoyed those trips a lot more, specially when I had music in my ears ... which was really far out ... and an experience that I'm not sure folks can have as much today, considering how much some stuff is broken down and mixed with a lot of garbage. The originals, Purple Haze, and Sunshine, still were, and likely are, the very best of the whole lot ... and Peyote was not my thing. Did some mushrooms a few times, and they were fine, but not anywhere near the quality of the originals ... at all!

Let me tell you ... listen to The Rite of Spring on it, as a regular piece of classical music, and then go listen to Tomita's version ... and enjoy the trip ... something the metal heads, I'm not sure will ever understand, as it appears it's mostly about loudness ... not quite/exactly the music! At least that's how I see it!

If weed didn't exist, I'd smoke cigarettes.

I love breaking those vape cartridges and dabbing it over a joint, and then quickly cover it up with kief.

Maybe my attitude will change if someday I need or want it medicinally but the only the future knows that. Even if that comes to pass it will be edibles only. I will never smoke anything. Not gonna happen.

It stinks, it perpetuates a horribly nasty criminal enterprise (even in countries where it is legal), and I have personally always preferred to use the brain God gave me in order to "understand" (man) the music.

In other news, I have not had a cigarette since March 2022, either. I really do believe I have beaten it this time.

 Actually, he is stopping with us at the moment, and he does enjoy a couple of beers himself.

Howould you know if you've never tried it?

In the NL, the Weed trade was "given" to the bikers (HA or Bandidos) , so they'd have something to live legal & declared upon, but unfortunately after a couple of decade, they "expanded" to other substances

=============

Ha.

Also interesting that Rick's biggest song is where he tries to sound like Roger Hodgson.

I tried it as a teen, around 1981. Did not like the experience...AT ALL! I have never smoked cigs so that has never been an issue for me.....I too am of the camp that legalizing this drug has/will not improve anything. Again, politicians promise of the huge windfall of sales tax money that was to improve/build schools and God knows what other BS they mentioned to get it passed........Seems all those promises went up in smoke .

I smell it everywhere I go now, that sh&t stinks! Remember that TV advert.......

 

Maybe where you live it went up in smoke, but that's not the case in many places:

https://www.fool.com/research/marijuana-tax-revenue-by-state/" rel="nofollow - https://www.fool.com/research/marijuana-tax-revenue-by-state/

For the record I don't really have a strong opinion about this topic. I have never smoked anything my entire life.

I don't give a flying F#@K about the politicians desire for revenues. As long as I can grow my own it gives me more disposable income to buy the stuff I either need or want...there's your economic benefit.

Next, as long as I can grow my own, I don't support criminal organizations. There's your social improvement component.

I drank from 13 to 26, then told that 5h!t to go f#@k itself.

I tried smoking cigarettes for about three weeks in the summer of 1970 (I was 12). I told that 5h!t to go f#@k itself.

Cannabis is a satisfying addition to my every day consumptions. But like all consumptions it's about moderation and consideration for those around you. I don't diss those who drink, provided it's responsible.

I have absolutely no use for tobacco smoking but can understand why someone might be predisposed to that particular addiction. I just wish they'd treat that addiction with gum or patches vs actual smoking. Maybe it's not the same thing. And I guess vaping is just the backwoods cousin to tobacco.

         I am proud to say that I recently celebrated my 40th year completely free of pot and all street drugs! The best decision I ever made. And of all the people I used to get stoned with decades ago, most of them are still getting high to this day.

          Well, that's my story in a nutshell.

I can't say that I have had a bad experience with any of it, but mostly, I was rather on the conservative side of this whole thing right through the late 60's, and into the 70's. 

In the 70's a lot of the music that was being released was done almost strictly to appease the getting stoned crowd, and my thoughts were that a lot of the music was simply not important or had much value within a socio/politico/philosophical context. 

For me, doing any drug taking, was about the inner experience, and having read Aldous Huxley, I understood what was being said about the chair or the piano legs (for example) and many other things, and later I decided that exploring that side was interesting, however, I made friends with a "psychic" and lecturer, with an incredible ability and who was doing a lot of very important jobs with it at the time, which he would not divulge then, but 20/30 years later explained a wee bit ... they included IBM, Apple, AMD, Intel, and even Microsoft, in their attempt to "find out" about the future, and how to be prepared for it. 

It was then that I undertook an "internal" study of things, which would take me through many "occult" books, and through other novelistic approaches (Castaneda), only to find out ... the most important comment about it all from don Juan in one of the later books ... was the dope necessary? No, but we had to shut you up so you could see something else!

The "dope" is not for people on the search, who don't need it. But it is used by many folks that don't care either way ... although my neighbor has Parkinson's and he needs it (medical clearance) to help keep his headaches down ... and be able to even get some sleep.

But other than that example, I'm against it, and hope that people understand the fallacy behind it all ... it isn't for everybody and should be measured out with care and responsibility!

 

 

 

 

You bet !   If it weren't for spiders & their webs the air would fill with flying insects in a matter of weeks.

progaardvark wrote: ^What's really interesting (at least to me) is that when you have a heavy morning fog, condensation shows up on all the webs in the yard making them more visible and the scale of it is incredible. I would estimate on my 0.4 acre yard there are about 400 different webs ranging from small ones all throughout the shrubs to some amazing multi-feet wide orb webs. I imagine the scale must be even more impressive in more warmer climates.

Mine too.

Started the cottage week off with a trip to the Indigenous Dispensary 'Medicine of the Earth' out past Port Franks today.

1/2 oz Gold Seal Black Hash

1 oz God's Gift Blonde Hash

1 oz - Red Kashmir Hash

1/2 oz AK 47 Bud

4 gm Mushrooms

It was even 10% off for seniors day. I kid you not !

As a teenager I romanticized cannabis a lot, especially because of the inspiration that many musicians allegedly got from smoking it, so I told myself it would make me a better composer. Actually, I don't think it really made a difference in that respect. But it did influence me, albeit not necessarily in a good way. Several times I was stoned during university lessons, and that was really not good. Fortunately, I was quite good at quitting it when necessary, and I never smoked in exam periods. But I did have times when I smoked way too much, and it even caused anxiety attacks with hyper-ventilation and the like. I finally quit it for good in 2011.

I think I would support legalization of cannabis, but one should always consider the problems it can cause.

^ Of course. Many people do indeed benefit medically, and there would have been no "Norwegian Wood" if it hadn't been for cannabis.

I believe there should be some official guidelines at least. Like with alcohol...

TBH, I don't know how this kind of "free/legal access" to dope would've been good or harmful if I was nowadays a Uni student in my 20's and spending the week in the Wasaga Beach area (I preferred Georgian Bay to Lake Huron and  North Bay/Nipissing to Simcoe Lake). I mean legalization  could lead to severe form of addictions of harder stuff, once the THC has got little effect on the body/mind nymore.

Back in the 70/80's, despite me dealing the stuff for a while (whenever I could find it) to get my share free, it wasn't that easy to find (and illegal - which in a weird sort of way was fun), which also meant we had to go easy on our consumption, which was probably beneficial to our lungs.

This type of easy access is kind of scary (I live in the NL, and coffeee shops have existed for decades), , because IMHO, it probably creates more drug casualties than it did back then. Sure, making it legal does remove the crimes for providing, but does it remove the potential crimes committed to acquire the money to spend for it?

The Anders wrote: As a teenager I romanticized cannabis a lot, especially because of the inspiration that many musicians allegedly got from smoking it, so I told myself it would make me a better composer. Actually, I don't think it really made a difference in that respect. But it did influence me, albeit not necessarily in a good way. Several times I was stoned during university lessons, and that was really not good. Fortunately, I was quite good at quitting it when necessary, and I never smoked in exam periods. But I did have times when I smoked way too much, and it even caused anxiety attacks with hyper-ventilation and the like. I finally quit it for good in 2011. I think I would support legalization of cannabis, but one should always consider the problems it can cause.

Well, I can easily see how canabis could help you create "out there" music (especially in the 60/70's, when it was groundbreaking) as it certainly opens "doors of perception", but when it came down to the actual recording and restituting whatever was created, I witnessed plenty of high musicians who thought they'd done a superb performance, but the others around him (high or not) didn't think it was the case.

However, as I stated before in this thread, when I managed to use the stuff to concentrate (instead of letting loose), I could go on study sessions that became very productive. I even twice managed to learn something on my own (well a buddy was there too) that I had missed out on (absent) or that I hadn't grasped during the tear. I never had better grades than in Uni (above 80% average), though I'm not sure I can attribute that feat alone to my canabis consumption.

.

As to your comment on shifting crime to acquiring funds for 'legal' drugs I don't necessarily disagree, but it's more likely that those who do are more likely predisposed to that course of action already.

I do wonder though, where are the libertarians shouting  " Great ! Get out of my life and let me be free!" ?

Almost harvest time !

This is approx two Colas from three different plants that I kept. I gave most of my plants to my brother-in-law.

Been hanging for two weeks now. I'll jar it up on the weekend.

I love it when this happens.

While jarring up my Purple Kush plant this little beauty fell out !

Next year I get a second generation plant.

Happy to keep it 'rolling' along.

(tee-hee, see what I did there)

BTW, this is WHY it's called PURPLE Kush

Yes, the Dutch cops take a somewhat more relaxed approach to drugs use. 

I've tried CBD for fun, and I have to say that I prefer it to the THC. It doesn't make you fell sick or asleep, it's relaxing without bad effects and it doesn't affect driving or working. 

I have just smoked some pot. for therapeutical effects on pain relief you need higher quantities of active principles. It's not pot and it's not very cheap. A little bottle of CBD oil here costs about 100€, but it looks like the therapy consists in no more than 3 oil drops in the morning