When I Started

[Van Stank]

You'd be smart to explore perfectly balanced ratios and micro dosing. There are some excellent balanced strains out there. Maybe a hybrid with 50/50 indica/sativa too. You have a very sensitive system and you deserve the benefit of a nice, balanced euphoric experience that doesn't make you that loopy. You're gonna take some creative tweaking, aren't you? Lol!

I am, I have a ton of seed strains to choose from. This grow I went with the ATF, which was amazing with my back based on the stuff I purchased at the Tacoma dispensary. I haven't smoked a lot of variety, but i liked the high when I took it in smaller doses (its a sativa dominant variety, I have seen ATF seeds where they are indica, but the indica knocks me on my ass). I also chose blueberry based on reading good reports of it as a pain killer and helping with the back. I selected the Blue Kush which is a 60/40 sativa dom strain to try that balance that you speak of (hopefully with the medicinal benefit of the blueberry that is mixed with the kush), and then I selected the Durban Poison for just the high, supposedly an energetic type of high (might help do some garden work when my back isn't bothering me too much).

Next grow I am going to go Northern Lights (heard good thing medicinally), Blue Dream, Girl Scout Cookies, a CBD strain that I haven't chosen yet ( have about 10 to choose from) and then one last strain that I haven't decided on yet, though I looking for a good hybrid that is close to a 50/50.

 

[Van Stank]

I smoke the ChemDawg 4 before bed. Its good on the pain, (not as good as the ATF) and I sleep like a baby. But forget about taking a hit of that if I want to do much of anything because I am going to be out like a trout in about 30 minutes! I do like that body stone it gives me. The ATF will fuck with my mind too much if I take it right before bed...definitely a day time strain.

 

[maineiac]

Great stories, here. I love to see people helped by using cannabis. Fun to read them!

Thank you SweetSue for bringing these people with stories together. We all love you too!

 

[SweetSue]

Great stories, here. I love to see people helped by using cannabis. Fun to read them!

Thank you SweetSue for bringing these people with stories together. We all love you too!

You're welcome maineiac. In truth, the inspiration calls and I've learned not to question. I let it flow and watch the beauty follow. This membership motivates me more than you all realize.

 

[Radogast]

2;30 AM - why not answer?

Like Sue, I was raised by a Fundamentalist Christian mother and went to church 3 times a week: twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday night. My father stayed home from the church he had helped build, finanicially and physically, after persistent arguments with supporters of the vietnam war. He was a decorated WW2 Marine who despised war. Anyway, he and my mother always presented a socially aware but united front on moral values. My dad was a formerly practicing alcoholic (PTSD) and my mom was a public health nurse. They believed all drugs and alcohol were bad, and prescription drugs should be viewed with skepticism until looking them up in the Physicians Desk Reference and making an informed opinion. Recycling was mandatory (in the 60s) and plants and animals should not contain drugs and pesticides.

At 11, on the way to school, I was offered window pane acid - but I saw no reason to buy window pane because I knew how to cut and replace window panes

At 17, I moved out of the house with a roommate. I sampled alcohol. We shared wine a few times and then scotch several nights a week.

Because I had a car, I became my brother in-law's regular ride to his dealer Norm's house. We would hang out for 30-90 minutes while Norm smoked up my brother in-law and other customers. I would turn down weed, but when he had cocaine I would take a bump. After about 6 months, I was standing in line at the bank after playing chess with Norm when I started giggling. I tried hard to keep my shit together, but wasn't really successful. The bank teller I got was cute, also about 18. She said "I know what you've been doing, you're high - I'm high too." We then tried to figure out how to deposit my first bi-weekly paycheck (I had been using a check cashing place at my previous job.) We got it wrong and I ended up depositing my pay stub instead of my pay check. We sorted it out 2 weeks later when I got my next check - but anyway, I had a serious contact high. Medical research says contact high doesn't really happen - my experience says otherwise

After getting acidentally high, knowing a dealer I trusted, living in California in the late 70s where the fine was $50 and the cops took your weed, I started smoking regularly on nights and weekends. After about 3 months I started working nights and weekends as a computer operator (mainframe - they didn't have PCs yet.) At this time I started smoking at work, with coworkers on a regular basis. My boss introduced me to the fun of golfing by taking me to a 9-hole golf course where we smoked before every tee shot - then went to work. We did cocaine and speed on the consoles, but all the weed was smoked in cars in the parking lot or away from work during lunch break. By 21 I was a supervisor of Network Operations with the word Executive on my corporate credit card.

Between the ages of 18 & 24 I was pretty much always a bit stoned. It wasn't about medical, it was about getting high. At 24, there started to be paraquat residue and rumors of dangerous street drugs lacing weed. I definitely got some bags that had been 'enhanced' with addictive drugs. I slowed down and became very picky about the weed.

On my 26th birthday, I went to a blowout halloween party after a morning drinking wine, took one hit off a joint, and 5 minutes later fainted in the kitchen, smashing a glass table and ending up in an emergency room. The ambulance techs were much more interested in the scantily clad ladies dancing around the dry ice punch bowl than me collapsed on the floor.

At the time, my ex-wife and I were expecting our first child and I stopped smoking cigarettes, marijuana, and mostly stopped drinking alcohol. I was living and working in San Francisco, during the pre-aids era of gay pride, so this straight laced behaviour was unusual. During the same era they did a study of San Francisco Bay seagulls. When the gulls are sitting on eggs and raising chicks, they stop going to garbage dumps and trash cans and eat mostly bay fish and seafood. After the chicks leave the nest, they go back to junk food - so I consider my idea of 'cleaning up my act' to be natural.

For the next 28 years I did not smoke marijuana. For most of those years I did not drink any alcohol or eat meat. I meditated. Most people I met thought I was a stoner, I think it was the long hair, beard, and valley girl/surfer dude California accent.

When my current wife was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, planter's fasciatis, neuropathy, and liver and kidney damage from pharmaceuticals - when her pain and suffering got so bad that she gave up her professional license - she became one of the first 200 Medical Marijuana patients in the state of Massachusetts. There was no legal place to buy marijuana, so the state granted everyone defacto permission to grow their own. I found a local grow shop (there were dozens of unlawful growers withing a mile of our house) bought 600W HPS lights for flower, T5 HO lights for veg, built a grow room, planted some seeds, read Jorge Cervantes 'bible' and came here to 420 to find out what to do next.

I don't have medical issues. The rest of the family smokes medically and recreationally. I grow recreationally and am just starting to get comfortable using cannabis recreationally. Most days I don't partake.

When I was 18 and moving furniture, there was an old folks subsidized housing where the men on the 2nd floor sat on the balcony and smoked lots of marijuana. My 18 year old dream was to retire and live stoned off my ass. I'm working on it.

 

[SweetSue]

Interestingly, my daughter figured out that the reason she kept her shit together as a severely anxiety-driven teen was that we never hid our cannabis use and regularly smoked with the children wandering in and out of the living room or bedroom while we were busily chasing the latest buzz, so she was getting a contact high.

I'm convinced that over 90% of the studies on cannabis are bad science, and unfortunately that's the science they based our restrictive access on. Sit in a smoke filled room when the joint's are flying by. I dare you to find a way to keep from getting a contact high.

I have the very same retirement plan Rad. Time for the morning capsule.

I almost never smoke anymore. These capsules are that potent. Maybe a dozen hits during the late night hours from 9 to 4 AM, but that's about it these days. I like this retirement plan.

 

[Imhigh85]

I dated an older woman when I was 16 and she smoked a lot I bitched and yelled for two years about her smoking till one day her dad Road one for my birthday and made me sit down and smoke so I could see the difference ever since I have been smoking since the age of 18 to 23 I grew outside with no one knowing when I turn 24 I started working for a dispensary now I do breeding for them and I love what I do I still smoke and I probably will never quit

 

[kelticBlue]

My 18 year old dream was to retire and live stoned off my ass. I'm working on it.

I have the very same retirement plan Rad.

I started my dream (same retirement dream) around 16 y/o as a punk arse kid in suburban ny. I do know it was the year I saw Frank Zappa at an outdoor amphitheater during a thunderstorm. The year of my first outdoor grow.

But. Stories for another time, I need my rest right now. sleepy time. G-nite.

 

[Lazarus13]

I think i was about 13 the first time i smoked. I know i was at my moms house on one of my irregular visits that i got with her(when she had her shit together enough to remember to come pick me up). Her and her scumbag bf had gone to the bar to fuel up to beat the crap out of each other again and i found their stash in a film canister and a bowl and figured I'd try it out. I had always seen my dad and all his hippy friends smoking and having a great time listening to music, etc... I don't recall it doing anything to me on that occasion but the smell and taste were captivating.
I always had friends older than me and most of them smoked, so i just started joining in. We had a lot of good sativa back then(mid to late 80s) thanks to my dads friends. Panama Red, Columbian Gold, Oaxacan... We would smoke and get such a speedy high. That smoke fueled a great young adulthood and i look back very fondly on those years.
Then, around 20 or 21 i was in a bad car accident and was given tons of opiate pain meds and that was the start of a terrible sequence of events that, long story short, ended with me strung out on heroin. My beautiful childhood faded to a bleak, hopeless hell that seemed to last an eternity. I started getting arrested trying to support my habit and that started a revolving door pattern of jails and institutions. During this time i stopped smoking altogether as i was either perpetually moneyless, as every penny went to feed the monkey, or i was on probation and everyone was worried about what my pee contained. For almost 15 years i fought with that demon and finally found my way out of the darkness. I had beaten myself up a good deal during those years and as i qas getting older the aches and pains from all the self-administered abuse started to take their toll. I knew if i didnt find someway to deal with them i would end up right back in the pit of despair i had just climbed out of.
I met a girl and she was an everyday, heavy smoker. Since i actually had $ and was finally free of everyones curiosity about the contents of my bladder, i started smoking again with her. Wonder of wonders, it helped with my pain but, i know midgrade weed, and that was all we could find. I decided i was going to try and grow my own meds and that led me here. Thanks to the knowledge on this site i now grow enough quality medication for myself and my girl. I make edibles and tinctures which are simply amazing for the types of pain i have and my girlfriend has started realizing the medical benefits as well. We've decided to try and find some high CBD strains to grow on top of the high THC that i grow now. Lol never thought I'd be interested in smoking weed that doesn't have a buzz. Thats growing older, i suppose.
It has been a strange trip and im glad i have had cannabis by my side for the best parts of it. I'm really hoping the country wakes up and things keep changing rapidly as i would really love to turn this into an outdoor hobby and be able to provide meds for my family without having to worry.
Its great to read other peoples experiences and im glad i got to share mine. Sorry if its a bit ramble-y. Sativas still send my brain all over the place.
P.S. Thanks SweetSue for starting this great thread... And everything else you do for everyone here. Your threads on the ECS and stuff are always informative and entertaining. Growers love...

 

[SweetSue]

Reading the story I was struck by the irony that it was pain pills that sent you down the rabbit hole of herion, when someone with an agenda would skim right past that to "See??? He started with cannabis as a teen and graduated to herion. Gateway Drug!!!!"

It's so easy to slip and fall between the cracks into hell with the opioids.

Your story moved me tremendously. Let me say it here loud and clear, please ramble when you post these stories. My theory is holding out. The vast majority of us started young and didn't turn into ax murderers or rapists. We grew up to be regular citizens, doing our best to get through life with the least pain and the best mental attitude we can muster. Cannabis is a basic nutrient, not some evil drug to be feared and vilified. I always told my own children to choose your addictions wisely, and for recreational purposes I recommended cannabis above all other choices.

Yeah....there wasn't anything "normal" about growing up in my house. That was before I knew we had an Endocannabinoid system.

Thank you for the compliment Lazarus. (Now I understand the user name.) You all inspire me. I'm glad my contributions are helpful.

 

[Lazarus13]

Yes, the user name was chosen after the 2nd time i woke up and the paramedics said "welcome back from the dead" Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Dear MrStank, let MrsStank know that migraines will be ancient history if SweetSue has anything to do with it. The daughter was daily migraines that stopped short the day we started her on a capsule regimen. It's been over a year now and she's still amazed at that benefit. The same for her chronic pain. There are administration routes that don't offer euphoria, only relief.

I'm in too. I have a friend who would benefit very much from these "capsules", you mentioned.

 

[SweetSue]

I'm in too. I have a friend who would benefit very much from these "capsules", you mentioned.

Good morning Guy. Here's a link to the thread dedicated to the making of BioBombs, using CCO


https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/biobombs-cannabis-oil-kick.356122/

And one to the thread on the fresh harvest infused oil

Fresh Harvest Infused Cannabis Oil

You can use any infused oil, but this one is particularly potent. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. We're still refining the techniques, so any input is welcome.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Good morning Guy. Here's a link to the thread dedicated to the making of BioBombs, using CCO


https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/biobombs-cannabis-oil-kick.356122/

And one to the thread on the fresh harvest infused oil

Fresh Harvest Infused Cannabis Oil

You can use any infused oil, but this one is particularly potent. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. We're still refining the techniques, so any input is welcome.

Sorry Sue, could you please post up the second one? Just starting some light Saturday morning reading lol. Thanks in advance!

 

[beachbumcindy]

Following for some really great reads that I'm sure will be posted! I'll post mine as soon as I get a chance.

 

[Lady Dory]

.... I get stoned and I am the most nonfunctional person on the planet. I hate when someone is trying to have a conversation with me....because I am generally sitting there trying to act like I understand what they are talking about, all the while I am thinking "What the freaking hell are they talking about, just keep nodding, maybe they won't realized how high you are and what a bumbling idiot you are when are high, that's it, keep nodding. Holy shit I am tired, I just want to sit down. What the hell is this person talking about....is he still talking about the same thing he was 30 seconds ago?"

Roaring laughing, good gut belly laugh! OMG, I am the same way, doesn't take much and I'm gone! and this was back in the late 1969, early '70's. Unknown weed species. Totally blasted. I know those "conversations", can't remember a dang thing either, I do remember the music was nice... Love your thoughts while stoned... I'm still snickering and smiling!

The adventure awaits...
Dory

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

Hello all! I am a 58 year old man who started smoking when I was about 14 years old. Growing up in that time, it was often referred to as "The Evil Weed". I grew up in a small town about 60 miles Inland from San Francisco, California. Obviously, we took a lot of trips there in my teenage years. That was where we were able to score the quality strains of the time such as Columbian gold, thai stick, michoacan, redbud and a few others that I cannot remember the names of now. We would sneak off campus in high school every day at lunch and get super stoned, then go to the school store and have red licorice, chips excetera as our lunch. I cannot tell you how many times I was caught eating red Licorice and class.
I smoked almost daily until I was done at college. I quit to go to work, although on the weekends I would still in dolch. I completely quit when my first child was born, as my wife at the time insisted upon it. After I left her, I started again. This was in my early forties, so I had been about 15 years or so completely dry. I started again and have not looked back since. Unfortunately, the time I spent dry, allowed a buildup in cholesterol within my arteries and I suffered two massive heart attacks, one over eight hours long, that affected the main artery that supplies the blood to the heart muscle on the left side. It is called the Widowmaker artery. It kills 95% of the people it hits. Over the next five years, my chest was opened up for open heart surgery three times. First for a double bypass, 2nd to install a heart pump and third me for a heart transplant. During the heart transplant procedure something happened and my optic nerve was destroyed, blinding me. I firmly believe that I got through all of that not only with God's help, but also with the cannabinoids being ingested and affecting my recovery... Which was nothing short of phenomenal according to every specialist, nurse and general doctor that Witness my recovery.
I have since quit smoking and now Vape exclusively and also use our home made balm for the pain of my two rotator cuff tears that were repaired and re-torn and the chronic back pain of a work injury. Not to mention just the general aches and pains of getting old. I even have the approval of my Drs to use medical marijuana. As long as I don't smoke it.
My wife Kelley and I have started trying to grow our own meds, as the price is quite restrictive to buy because of our limited and fixed income. So... There you have it. In a nutshell. And old Stoner from the sixties and 7 Dees who has come full circle and is quite thankful that I have. I would really hate to see the condition I would be in if I was not using this magical and wonderful plant. God bless, everyone!

 

[Wastedknight]

Ok here we go. First let me explain where I am today, then I will flash back to where it all started.
Today I am legally allowed to grow for 2 people. One is my wife that was almost killed by pharmaceutical drugs that were prescribed by her doctors. The other person is someone that like us can't afford to use the dispensaries. My biggest problem today is the fact that my whole life this had to be hidden and lied about so you would not be arrested and have a criminal record for life. My entire life has followed the code of tell no one and hide everything. So even though I am legally allowed I still have a very hard time feeling legal. But I am getting better with this. Because of the great people in this site who I have learned so much from I will share my story as asked by Sue. Maybe it's my way of giving back a little.
Here goes. Ever since I was a kid I always looked older and thought older than everybody my own age. So I guess it was only natural that I hung around with older people. I grew up in a Roman Catholic home and went to a Catholic school that had a church in the building. Every day started with mass and ended with mass. I was 11 years old playing basketball with my friends who were 15-18 years old. We also were in school/ church grounds because they had a nice court with nets on the rings and painted lines for the courts. Anyway I was driving hard at the hoop ( because of being younger than everyone else I always had something to prove) and I got my legs tied up with another. I hit the ground hard! When my friends picked me up I had a goose egg on my head that was more like a dinosaur egg. My head was killing me. Not all of these friends knew how old I was and one of those people said " I've got something that will take your mind off it" and proceeded to roll a fat joint. I had never even seen a joint before but with the something to prove attitude I just smiled and waited to see what happened next. He out the joint and took a few puffs and handed it to me. Meanwhile everyone else just formed a line after me to get some as well. I didn't know what I was doing so I just tried to do the same thing I saw the guy that rolled it. What a mistake! The first big haul I took gave me what felt like a lung shutdown of coughing fit. When most of the People stopped laughing, everyone had a puff by this time. I was told to only take a small puff and see if I could handle that. So I did and I did cough a little but not a system shut down like the last time. People kept asking how my house was and to be honest I really didn't know what they were talking about. I really had no exposure to weed before this experience so I just kept saying it's good. I was trying to figure this out without looking like the young kid I was. The one thing I did realize was the pain in my head was almost gone. I didn't want to start asking questions with these guys so I just went along with it. After this I asked my cousin who was older and I trusted him what the deal was with weed? I told him what happened that day and followed it up with " it got rid of my headache but why would you pay so much for headache relief when you could buy aspirin for so much cheaper? Of course he laughed and told me that sometimes it takes people 2 or 3 times before they get the high part. So he willed out a little tin candy box that held his baggy of weed and papers and filled one up. I did not get the high again. I for the life of me could not figure out what the big deal was! It was a few weeks later that a girl I had my eye on asked if I wanted to go for a walk and I didn't care what the walk was for I just knew that I would of walked over crushed glass bare foot if it meant spending time with her. So off we went! When we got to a secluded area she sat on a rock and pulled out a little pipe and stuffed it with bud. In my mind I was like oh crap she is going to think Im a weirdo when I don't get buzzed kind of thought. But I was not going to say no to anything she asked so I smoked that pipe like a pro! lol. I found myself looking at her and was wondering why I didn't notice how cute her ears were before this. I mean there were a lot of cute things I did notice, that's why I went for the walk in the first place. But then while I was looking at her ears I noticed the stars behind her then the clouds and trees and so on. I was trying to think why it seemed like I was seeing these things for the first time. I then realized It must have worked this time! I was stoned!
Hanging out with the older crowd I was introduced to alcohol and other man made drugs. Thankfully I always preferred smoking pot and never got heavy into the other substances. But I became addicted to pot! To the point I would walk in snow storms to get more when I ran out. I wanted to be high all my waking hours! I was asked to take a trip one day but I said I couldn't because I could not come up with the money because I spent everything on pot. My friend told me to quit for a month and then I would have more than enough cash. I told him that I could not do that because I was addicted to pot and did not want to go through the D T's of trying to stop. The look my friend gave me, I will never forget. But he then said there are 2 kinds of addiction. One is a physical dependence like you get when doing most drugs and alcohol to much and the other kind is a mental dependence when you just want more but don't really need it. I was skeptical and I told him that I knew how I felt when my bag of weed started to get low. He immediately stopped me mid sentence and said there you go that's proof of mental dependence because I had not even ran out but was worried about running out. I still didn't believe him. He then said ok here is a deal I will make to you. If you TRY to quit to save money for the trip and go into the D T's start smoking again and I will pay your way. If you don't go into the D T's you can pay your own way and thank me forever for setting you straight. Well it's been over 35 years since that conversation happened and I am still thanking him.
So in closing I have smoked most of my life. Have grown for over a decade but had 3 kids under 2 , ended up with bugs from a friends clone and started to get paranoid so gave up growing. Jump a decade and we can't afford to buy from the despensery for my wife's needs so I am starting again. This time it's not for fun it's to help my wife. But I forgot how much fun and how much enjoyment I do get from growing this wonderful plant. Thank you all for putting up with my ramblings. W.K.

 

[SweetSue]

Thank you W.K. Every share makes my point that there's nothing to fear with cannabis and those of us below some arbitrary age line in the sand.

I also convinced myself for many years that we were addicted. Looking back...... *sigh*. I prefer to look ahead. This site saved me from the subterfuge of prohibition. This is an interesting history we're leaving behind.

 

[Graytail]

Hey, it's great to see this thread resurrected for some more stories!

I didn't want to post mine right away - wanted to hear from some others first - and then it faded away for a couple months. So, here's mine.

In high school I had a friend a year younger than me - he a freshman and me a sophomore. We were partners on the debate team. And he was one of those kids that was always doing things he wasn't supposed to, just for the fun of it. In junior high, he was the one who would climb the bus wall and crawl through a window instead of coming in the door in front. Didn't have a good reason, just wanted to do it. When we'd go on overnight tournaments, we'd roam the hotel, exploring etc. For instance, we rode the tops of elevators in one hotel - even found the side door that opened into the cab, so we spent a hour or so walking in when it came to a stop to freak people out. He later turned out to be a latent bipolar, something no one knew about back then. He totally went nuts in college when the hallucinogens finally triggered it.

He had a cousin in Seattle and went to visit him that first summer after school, and scored a bag of weed from the U district, and brought it home. So that week his parents went out one night and we got it out and smoked a corncob bowl between us. Gawd it was ratty herb! Thick fat sticks and big dried fan leaves. We passed out. Woke up about an hour later and wandered around in a sleepy daze ... I remember that looking in the mirror was pretty freaky. Eyes looked weird and everything about my face. Anyway, that wasn't much fun. But by the weekend we were hitting it again and it worked jus' fine. I was 15 years old.

From that point I continued to smoke on the weekends along with drinking. We were smart good kids and our parents didn't worry about what we might be doing. We quickly went into whites and acid and mescaline, etc, and by the end of that school year, we were pretty experienced in the full variety of illicit drugs. Never did a needle though.

But over time, pot stuck with me and the others didn't. By the mid 70s I was smoking every evening (I didn't smoke during the day back then), and by the late 70s I was sick of paying for the crap I was getting so I started a little shop-light grow in my basement, which quickly turned into a 1000W Metal Halide. After a couple years of that, I ran into a guy who had a 40x60 foot barn on a farmstead and wanted to grow but wasn't having much luck with his first try. I had found three of the few books available back then on the subject, and I said I could guarantee his crop if he took me on as a partner. So that started 8 years of growing Lumbos under MHs. We had 8 of them in bloom with 10 plants under each one, and another two in the veg room. We started with 80+ seeds and labeled each one, and then took cuts, eventually narrowing it down to a half dozen phenos, including some very special ones. We didn't have enough light, but we'd manage to get a few ounces off each plant. Back then, we were the first and only suppliers of sensi. In fact it was so fresh, we'd have to sell it in paper sandwich bags to let it breathe. We even were worried in the beginning because it was green pot - we couldn't figure out to make it turn brown - thought it might not sell. It sold!

That lasted 8 years. Those were good years. Then I had to grow up and get married and be responsible n stuff. Fortunately, that's over now. Whew! Now I not only smoke every evening, I smoke whenever I want to, day and night.



Oh, and the addiction thing? Twice over the years, I quit. Once for two years and once for a year. Got afraid for my freedom once and thought I had gotten over it another time. Each time, when I ran out, I ran out, and that was that. I read books for a couple weeks to fill the unstoned time, and that was that. Had a little trouble staying asleep for a couple days, had vivid dreams, and that was that. *shrug* I don't understand the addiction thing. Obsession maybe, addiction no. I like coffee in the morning, every single morning. I sip on my own brewed iced tea the rest of the time. I don't like not having it at all. I don't like it. I want my iced tea every day, I want my coffee every day. If I didn't have them, I would physically suffer for a few days from caffeine withdrawal, and I wouldn't enjoy a cold beverage until I finally found some substitute. Other people have obsessions with food or exercise or alcohol or picking their faces.

I've been smoking the herb now for 50 years, every day for 42 of those years. Why is it that the experts don't contact people like me? Wouldn't I be in a position to know something about pot? Wouldn't my physical condition be interesting? (I'm 65, I don't take any medication, have no ailments, weigh 145 lbs and can lift and carry a couple hundred pounds - maybe smoking pot isn't very harmful, huh?). Anyway, people are finally giving up on the nonsense. I've already heard from several people who have convinced their problem drinking friends to smoke more pot and drink less, as well as several who know opiate users who have been able to cut WAY back on their meds.