Not like me...

to quote the news but i was blog surfing today and came accross a link to this article in the Daily Mail.

So if you've had a look you'll see its about experimenting with cannibis to discover the how it affects us really.

I was understandably quite interested as i have been known to dabble, a lot when i was younger, less as i get older admittedly but i'm not sure i believe all the hype surrounding it lately.

I could be wrong and i'm open to that but this article wound me up for a few reasons...

"I felt absolutely terrified," recalls Nicky, a divorced mother-of-three, thinking back to her first experience just over a month ago.

"Paranoia set in, and I felt as if I was having a panic attack. At one point, I was simply too frightened to get out of my chair.

"I had a feeling the drug had unlocked some sort of paranoia in my head that would never go away again - I suddenly felt everyone hated me. Without doubt, that was one of the worst moments of my life."

Ok fine, sometimes it affects people that way but considering they took this woman to Amsterdam for a month to conduct this experiment, during which time she had to undertake a job in a foreign country with a BBC camera crew following her about, well i'm sorry pass me the joint because i'd be a little paranoid too...

"I wanted to know whether there is any truth to the claim made by dope smokers that you can smoke cannabis and carry on with life as normal. And I wanted to find out if the drug really does drive you into madness."

Well i can understand she wanted to find out if she could carry on as normal. So discounting the fact that as i said she was in a foreign country, with a new job and a camera crew she tried.
Well to my knowledge most people who smoke cannibis and carry on as normal didnt start out doing that straight away, it was more of a gradual thing and for the people i know who have done this and the very few i know who still do this started when they were younger, when jobs/rent/responsibilities were less of a problem.
They were already used to living their lives like this by the time they had responsibilites to live up to.
Dont get me wrong, i have friends who have stopped and their lives are much much more productive and happy and they are indeed less sluggish and paranoid but it doesnt mean its the same for everyone.

"Although the paranoia had gone, I was left dazed and my mind seemed to be operating much more slowly than it usually does," says Nicky. "I had no motivation and just wanted to go back to bed. I had no idea how anyone could get stoned at night and then function properly the next day."

People do this all the time, in my office alone there are at least five people who do this, some in management positions but again it isnt something they suddenly started doing it was a gradual thing.

"I'm a very active person, with a mind that normally works at a million miles an hour. I thrive on multi-tasking and getting through my daily 'To do' lists. Yet, with cannabis in my life, I reached the end of every day feeling frustrated that I'd achieved so little.

Fair point, i'm a lazy couch potato at the best of times and it was never any different when i was stoned, a friend of mine is superactive, drives me mad she's got so much energy and was also the same when she was stoned....its just not the same for everyone.

"I was suddenly gripped by the idea that the scientists conducting the experiment were characters from a horror film who were somehow out to get me," she says.

"I later found myself fantasising about jumping out of a window and crawling away somewhere that I would never be found. I was increasingly agitated and convinced they were trying to trick me in everything they said to me."

I have never known anyone to react like this from cannabis alone. With something else also yes but not from cannabis alone.

"Until now, I hadn't really considered cannabis had that much more effect than a bottle of wine might do, but now I know that's far from the truth.

Why is alcohol so acceptable?? Like it isnt equally as bad for you...

I'm not trying to say that using cannabis is fine and dandy and off you go and get on with it, it just riled me that the whole experiment seemed so one sided and was reported on in a way that told you how terrible it is. In this day and age most people who use it know the reputation it has for altering psychosis and yet they do it anyway.....

No doubt i'm in for a world of pain in the comments, i'm not trying to offend....