Some of you obvious have some balled up anger that you cant control (moonshiner, blindmice). Smoke a joint and hit a pillow or something. I saw how much you flamed the original poster for comments on the grow show.. and thats just wrong. He was making comments so that the producers of pot-tv know what aggrivates us watchers. He made very legitimate points. Still... He gets flamed.. Like i said... go smoke a joint and hit a pillow. Dont go off on someone trying improve a show by pointing out their flaws. Gawd! Take a few breaths and say "Im a peaceful lamb" it will make you feel better.

"Take a look to the sky just before you die..its the last time you will" - James Hetfield

Chris,

You're absolutely right that MJ is going to help us in the future in many ways. But it will be controlled by the state and distributed by the state for the medical users. And it will continue to be cultivated underground by people who use it otherwise. Above all, I hope that hemp cultivation increases very soon.

The future is not determined by the past. I hope that after all of the rallying around cannabis through the centuries that activists and growers and people who like weed know as much about it as they can, perhaps more than our ancestors did. Of course people have always used drugs and always will. But there are people like Stanislav Grof (author of LSD Psychotherapy) who figured out ways to induce psychedelic experiences through breathing exercises. He may have learned from using LSD, but realized that those little nuclei of understanding that exploded into the psychedelic experience were already there inside him and maybe didn't need LSD to "unlock" them or to "do" anything. People in the future could learn to induce these experiences without LSD. Just an analogy.

When you really look at the matter, there is no matter. Cannabis did not create people. We do need cannabis. It will save the atmosphere for one. But I think people are pretty much the same regardless of where you go in the world when it comes right down to it. The depth of understanding from culture to culture and person to person changes but we're all the same. That's why we have common beliefs and values and why we recognize each other, not because of cannabis.

Hey threeblindmice,
I'm sorry to have to point out that you have the bad habit of distorting what other people say in order to make your point. I did not say that the commanalities of beliefs in the world's religions was due to cannabis, what I said was that the many different cannabis using cultures came to similar if not identical beliefs about the herb itself, and this was definately due to cannabis.

Yoga, without which there would be no Buddha, is said by some researchers to have been created to imitate the effects of the ancient world entheogen the soma, as it became scarce. (Yogic technique has used cannabis and other entheogens since its beginings.

In my humble opinion Stanislav Grof's holotropic breathing exercises have not proven at all to be as effective in inducing religious expereinces as psychedelics, and his work has suffered because of this switch. For every single example of a mystical expereince induced through holotropics dozens of psychedelic expereinces can be offered.
From personell expereince I would have to say my most profound moments have occured well under the influence of entheogens. I've been swallowed by Shiva's light and expereinced that eternal moment of ego-death, have you?

ahem ahem ahem

whine whine whine
cheese cheese cheese,you need a prozac fella,your posting on what is apparently Canada's and perhaps one of the world's largest pot forums,aak ,and you posrt like its yahoo chat,im impressed,please continue?,

I've been reading through this thread and its full of hot air. It's clear that everyone on this page loves marijuana; some people love it so much that they can't say a bad word about it. I love marijuana too, I firmly believe in the legalization of marijuana. But that doesn't mean that its perfect. Like every drug (tobacco, alcohol, fast food, etc.) marijuana has negative consequences when used in excess. Who is going to argue with me that it isn't bad for your lungs? It's every bit as bad as cigarettes, to be sure. While it certainly opens the mind to new perspectives that can lead to great ideas, its pretty detrimental to getting off your ass and doing anything with those great ideas. Excessive use of marijuana lowers energy levels, plain and simple. Who hasn't been so burnt that they felt like doing anything at some point or another?

The problem with most of the people in this discussion is that they refuse to acknowledge the negative aspects of marijuana. I smoke marijuana in spite of these drawbacks because I believe the benefits outweigh them. But refusing to acknowledge them to yourself is pretty stupid. You're walking around with your eyes as closed as they were before you ever took your first toke.

All you people attacking the guy who's not afraid to discuss this are as big of Nazis as those who today prevent its legalization. You twist and outright dismiss facts to strengthen your arguments. No one will ever sit down and listen to you because you guys spew pro-dope propaganda.

Marc, and those of you who maintain this wonderful and powerful site, keep up the excellent work. You are fighting for one of the most just causes, and you are bound to win. We must not fear the truth, we should embrace it, because therein lies the key to our victory.

Jeez"yerafuckin"idiot,
I'd like to smoke a fatty and beat on you for a while ya fuckin' motor mouth.

after all, It's only a weed that flowers in your mind!

Howdy Bilbo,

Thanks for putting in your two cents, but why don't save it unless you have something substantial to contribute to this discussion. I might be a bit rough around the edges, but I believe something. And you can't take that away from me. Thank you, jackass, I will continue.

Chris,

Just to let you know, you don't "have" to point out anything. You choose to point out to me that I have a bad habit. Talk about passing judgment. That thing inside you that itches to respond to my banter--that's you, your EGO, mediating reality and your desires. Yes, I know, like most people who have had a profound psychedelic experience, what ego-death is. I know that moment when things fall away and nothing means anything and you're alone and silent and meaningless. But let me tell ya, you wouldn't be able to communicate at all without your ego, whether it be intact or a little twisted. It comes back once the trip is over. And yours has come back with a vengeance. Were you really wondering if I'd experienced ego-death, or are you trying to be cool? No offense. I like your show and I think you're one of the good guys.

With regard to the other points you made.... Beliefs are cultural extensions of feelings and values, so coming to similar beliefs about the herb itself still means that people, not cannabis, ascribed things to what the drug meant to them. Meaning is a cultural thing, usually expressed in language. Meaningfulness in life doesn't exist on its own. Cannabis no doubt can provide for certain things and not for others, so there are limitations on what we can make of it. But it is because people choose and act that things become real. You say yourself that "cannabis using cultures came to similar beliefs about the herb itself". In other words, societies in which people chose to use cannabis formed similar ideas about cannabis. And there is nothing weird or mystical or particularly interesting about that. It doesn't warrant cannabis worship. As MJ Man says, we've all got this plant under a microscope.

Interesting thread going here; it provoked me to register. Chris has said a lot of good things, worth re-reading. One thing he said earlier which I think worth repeating:
"If everything is Everything in consciousness, so is it also in the material world, and you are just ingesting yourself anyways."

Some of the folk in this discussion seem to be a bit troubled. I can only suggest that you try to focus, contemplate, and resolve the negative energies that may trouble you. After all is said and done we are all, everyone of us, just a collection of chemicals/elements. Whatever term you wish to use: drug, medicine, food, vitamin, etc. etc., it is still basic chemistry. As Chris said we are, in fact ingesting ourselves. This realization may not come easily to some but it is nonetheless true. And as long as we are not doing harm to our fellow beings why should we feel the need for prohibitionist or otherwise punitive controlling law. If you don't feel that you could benefit from using ganja most of the day, that doesn't mean that someone else couldn't. L8R

Capricorn,

I have a soul and it can't be explained by chemistry or physics. But we are all one. If we are not hurting each other then go ahead and smoke your weed. But if you were my friend or my family and I saw you stoned more than sober, I wouldn't just brush it off. If I'm smoking weed to control my mood and it works, then it certainly took me a long time to get to this point. Like several years of hardcore use until I was a healthy stoner. Before that I was getting too high to function while stoned. I have my own story. You have yours. Let's not act like there is nothing to be said. There simply is no explanation, and I think there ought to be one. That's what I'm saying. And people in this thread are resisting that, perhaps because the state has already done enough damage to us pot-smokers. Yes, I have been arrested before. But if we can't fight off the prohibitionists with whatever fire power they have and the logical and illogical tricks up their sleeves, then we will never get this plant legalized.