I met a Martian

[jlittle]

IME of family and friends, pot smoking is a major risk for tobacco smoking. I recall people who had quit tobacco for years starting pot now and then, resuming tobacco.

However, it should be pointed out that cancer is not the worst health effect of tobacco; that's heart and other vascular disease.

Regards, John Little

[GreyGeek]

Excellent points, JL

[vinnywright]

Fatal car crashes doubled since pot approved in Washington State
https://www.livescience.com/54693-hi...alization.html

and it goes on and on.

this is an absolutely ridiculous assessment ,,,,,,THC shows up in you blood and urine for weeks after smoking/ingesting it ,well after your high is gone .

I would suggest that the higher # of people showing THC in the blood in states where it's legal are dew to the higher # of people with THC in them ,,,,NOT that this is the cause of the accidents specifically .

I am going thrugh a situation at work right now where I failed a drug test for THC ,,,,,they tested me a week and a half to 2 weeks after new years ,,,during which I did indeed smoke some ,,,,,,,,,, I was in NO way still inebriated when they did the test ,,,but failed .

I explained this to them and assured them that I never smoke before work I never smoke during work I never bring such thing to work at all (witch is true)

being that I have/am a hard to replace skill set , they gave me a chance to give a clean test ,,,I told the HR person to wait 2 more weeks and it would be assured .

during that 2 weeks they precluded me from operating my saw's as though I was still under the influence or something ,,,,,I gave them their clean pee and am back to my work .

BUT their own drug policy clearly addresses ONLY work situations with drugs and that they try to stay out of your personal life ,,,,BUT that is EXACTLY what has happened for now I cant take the chance that my occasional few puffs of pot will take my job ...and yes pot has actual uses as a natural replacement for a lot of pharmaceuticals .

I consider my self an expert on the subject of just what this drug (illegal ones) or that do to one as far as the effects go .
from 1974-1985 their was not a drug in existence (ok maybe a few) that I did not do in excess until a severe cocaine addiction almost killed me .

and I will tell you emphatically that pot is FAR less of a danger to ones self or others than alcohol as far as what you may do that is not what you wold normally do,,,no pot smoker becomes a raging mad man on pot like many do on alcohol ,,,,you do not get falling over you feet high on pot (unless you smoke an incredibly large amount) you dont catch a buzz on pot and then start weaving down the road or dive into traffic just because of the pot ,,,,like many do on alcohol .

O but pots a gateway drug that will lead you to do other more harmful drugs,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I'll tel you why that was the case for all the teens I new when I was a young teen , because they/you lied to us with all the propaganda that lumped all the drugs together ,,,all the horror stories we were told that were more or less true for the hard drugs ,,,,were bull s41T for pot ,,,so we thought ,,,,,he11 it's ALL lies and tried other things ,,,and more and more ,,,BIG mistake ,,,,,the horror stories were true for them .

it has been said that you can do a study on anything and correlate the data in a way to prove anything you want to from it .
I thing a deeper amount of research into the underlying circumstances is required than just the #'s

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

I'm glad you survived your drug addiction problems, VINNY, KFN is better for you being here. I hope the long term affects of your additions don't spell organ damage later on, down the road. The fellow whose eulogy I'll be giving a week from tomorrow had, just from 40 years of smoking, damage to his brain, his eyes, his heart, lung, liver, and peripheral arteries and veins. He spent the last year being treated for a variety of aliments related to smoking until the explosive growth of SCLC took his life in just a month. But, some people smoke and drink till their 95 and die of old age, just because of the healing power of their DNA. There is a lady in Sweden who is 76 but doesn't look a day over 26. It's in her DNA.

When my wife and I were house parents at a children's home a kid came in late one afternoon and was acting goofy and behaving like he was almost drunk. He claimed he had bought some pot. I searched his room. He had tied a string to the bag, taken the faceplate off of a light switch and lowered it down behind the wall and put the faceplate back on. He failed to notice a little bit of string sticking out from the edge of the face plate.

One advantage of being a college chemistry teacher, and teaching analytical chemistry, is knowing the tests for a variety of drugs and chemicals. One test for pot (THC) that is easy to do is to take a pinch of the suspected fiber and put it in a test tube (or small jar) and add 5-10 ml of 95% Ethyl Alcohol. Shake it for a minute or so and then add a drop of real vanilla extract. The clear stuff. If pot is present the solution will turn blue. How dark a blue color depends on the strength of the pot. The stuff the kid had was tea. He was conned out of $5 for a bag of tea. It even smelled like tea, not like a smoldering hay stack. When I showed him, and the other 8 kids in our cottage the results of the test he became instantly sober. He was behaving the way he though he should behave as if he had smoked pot.

There are several cannabinoids in pot that each have their own half-lives, which ranges between 10 hours and 2 weeks or more. Each have varying strengths of psychometric activity. A minimum of 5 half-lives is required for THC to drop below detection levels of most THC test kits. It is better to strive for 10 half-lives to be sure. Also, THC is fat soluble and continuous and/or heavy pot smokers will store lots of THC in the fat of their body. Body fat cycles every 3 -6 months or so, just like the skin does. It is entirely possible for someone who has quite smoking pot, but is relatively obese, to test positive four months or more after smoking his/her last joint because of cycling of fat reserves. This is also true for a lot of other fat soluble drugs besides THC.

Some tests use snippets of hair and heat them in a gas-liquid chromatograph to release the THC. A strip chart recorder draws peaks as the various components pass through the filtration beads in the GLC column. The time of the peak identifies the component and the area under the peak identifies the amount of that component. Depending on the beads used it is the most accurate test. To avoid detection of pot by the hair test many pot users chose to shave their heads and keep them shaved. It may take several normal hair cuts to clear the hair of THC. They also have to shave their entire body as well, including pubic hair, eyebrows and under arm hair. Have you seen those guys around? Or girls?

Unlike alcohol blood volume, because people's reaction to THC varies by weight and physiology, it is not possible to say that a certain level of THC will incapacitate someone's judgement, but for legal purposes the courts have accepted certain levels, independent of personal physiology, as evidence of incapacitation. As they say, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/marijuana4.htm

http://best4drugtest.com/_thc_calculator.html

[Qqmike]

I agree with Vinny on this:

and I will tell you emphatically that pot is FAR less of a danger to ones self or others than alcohol as far as what you may do that is not what you wold normally do,,,no pot smoker becomes a raging mad man on pot like many do on alcohol ,,,,you do not get falling over you feet high on pot (unless you smoke an incredibly large amount) you dont catch a buzz on pot and then start weaving down the road or dive into traffic just because of the pot ,,,,like many do on alcohol .

I think this is certainly true when the pot is unadulterated (e.g., not cut with some crazy Cambodian Red or opium or hash), or taken concurrently with anything else (e.g., with speed or acid).

and I agree with this:

and yes pot has actual uses as a natural replacement for a lot of pharmaceuticals .

I don't know about the actual chemistry, but I am convinced that some (maybe many) people may find relief for various ailments/diagnoses (e.g., autoimmune, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, certain pain conditions, etc.)

And, for some people, the effects of pot just simply do not set well for them (anxiety, panic, paranoia, etc.).

A helluva lot of people are using it, I can't help but notice that, everywhere, so it seems.

[vinnywright]

There are several cannabinoids in pot that each have their own half-lives, which ranges between 10 hours and 2 weeks or more. Each have varying strengths of psychometric activity. A minimum of 5 half-lives is required for THC to drop below detection levels of most THC test kits. It is better to strive for 10 half-lives to be sure. Also, THC is fat soluble and continuous and/or heavy pot smokers will store lots of THC in the fat of their body. Body fat cycles every 3 -6 months or so, just like the skin does. It is entirely possible for someone who has quite smoking pot, but is relatively obese, to test positive four months or more after smoking his/her last joint because of cycling of fat reserves. This is also true for a lot of other fat soluble drugs besides THC.

and this is why drug tests for pot should not be done in the work place ,,,,,it in NO way shows someone was high at work ,,,the rest is none of their business.

VINNY