I would agree, and say that pushing anything, not just intoxicants, on someone who declines is just rude.
AGain, while there are people who are like this with pot, that’s not the vibe I’m gettinig from the OP. For some people it’s more a quasi-religion than simply a good time. For a famous example, see Timothy Leary, who really believed that acid was not only a good time, but would make you a better person and provide a genuine spiritual experience. It’s an attitude that seems unique to hallucinogens, including pot.
I believe it is no coincidence that I wandered from this thread to the one about buffets…
Anne - absolutely. It doesn’t matter if it’s pot or sugar cookies or wine or another cup of coffee or even a hand-me-down shirt. Rude is rude.
He’s a douche.
Yeah, upon reread, I have to agree.
Well, since you asked, it’s possible that your friend, like I do, thinks “I don’t feel like X” is in fact the least rational argument you could make. There are in fact no rational reasons at all in that argument. So maybe your friend is continuing to urge to you try this experience because a) he found the experience valuable and enjoable, and b) you haven’t really given him a reason why you shouldn’t at least try it. Possibly, though I actually doubt this, your friend thinks that his repeated urgings might get you to examine your real reasons for avoiding this experience, reasons which evidently you either don’t understand or don’t want to admit, as you can’t seem to articulate them in any rational way.
Apologies if I came off too harsh, but the thread seemed to already have plenty of unconditional support for you and sympathetic red-faced ear-blowing. And you did say you wanted to understand.
I was being facetious when I said that the most “rational argument” I could present was that I don’t feel like smoking marijuana. My point was to make fun of the idea that I was under any obligation to defend my choice. I was not. There’s a girl I’d like to go out with me, and she doesn’t want to. Should she have to articulate reasons to not go out with me? If I don’t think her reasons make sense and articulate that to her, am I entitled to some sort of constructive rebuttal?
It doesn’t matter if all of my actual reasons for not wanting to use marijuana are bad. He was going on about it for one and a half hours. Even if my only reason for not wanting to use marijuana was because I don’t like using substances whose names start with the letter m, he still should have gotten the picture within the first five or ten minutes.
Your skepticism is justifiable, but you’re buying into the idea that there was some obligation on my part to defend my preferences to him at all. There wasn’t. I didn’t want to smoke pot. Case closed.
Correct. Even if you still want to pit me over your GD thread, you’re right on this one.
This is what I think. If you smoke, then it means there’s nothing wrong with him smoking. Because you’re a pretty together person. If you’re refusing, that means you think there’s something wrong with it, which he feels is a judgement on him.
Oakminster, I was infuriated by one or two pieces of phrase you used in that thread which indicated that you were expressing bitterness more than anything else. If you had given your statements in that thread a more straightforward tone, I would actually have found myself helpless to disagree.
I disagree. Many things in life are a matter of taste, and de gustibus non est disputandum. When there’s no rational reason for preferring one taste over another, it’s deeply rational to refuse to enter into what can only be a pointless debate.
The reliable way to reject those who push undesired options on you is simply to endlessly repeat: “No, thanks” “Sorry, not for me” “No, I don’t care to” etc., etc.
All of the above. Like boozers, he doesn’t like to smoke alone. He probably feels a bit guilty about it and has had people say nasty things to him about it (though not necessarily you). He’s a bit of a narcissistic jerk. And he was high.
These kind of comments sort of trivialize what a powerful experience pot can be. For instance: I was raised listening to the Beatles. For my whole life, I heard every Beatles album there is. My dad would play them, and then when I was 10 or so, I got my own CDs. But the first time I heard Abbey Road while stoned, it was just a totally mind-blowing experience. I imagine it must have been kind of like hearing it when it had just come out and there was no precedent for it at all. I started noticing all kinds of really specific little details about the music that I never picked up on before, accompanied by the most vivid kind of mental imagery that went with every song. It really was a magical feeling. I was lucky in that I had someone else to talk to about it at the time, who was equally astonished and enthusiastic about it. But even so, I still told people about it afterwards. It was that unique of a feeling.
I can understand, though, why someone might not want to smoke. I don’t do it anymore because for some reason I started feeling more paranoid than anything else. I guess that just happens to some people.
LOL, there is some truth to this actually. At least the puking is accompanied by a strong emotional response. The fear definitely accompanies the puking. But of course the stuff is also pretty hard on your stomach, and you need to not eat certain things beforehand, generally a fast is recommended because part of the concoction is an MAOI.
Well, I don’t think you need to. I know you too, and I think your particular methods are working for you. Whether you view it as mysticism or not, your approach seems to be as effective. As long as you are reaching higher and deeper, and coming up with something worthwhile then it doesn’t really matter.
I bet your friend doesn’t know shit about futures markets in Roman Egypt. 
Dude, Tool is like the most awesome band ever, have you seen the video with the Lateralus/Fibonacci connection? Damn, Maynard is a genius bro!
Bith People get into lots of things. That kind of Evangelism is usually a wish for a greater level of intimacy with another person, and they see their particular like as a way to achieve that.
I agree that Marijuana can help a person reveal things, but mainly because it is psychoactive, and switching ‘channels’ so to speak helps one gain different perspectives. This is the point of meditations and Zen Koans, they are supposed to unlock particular mods of thought, that a person can achieve a different perspective on the reality they experience. This is true for Pot, LSD, DMT, and good Sushi. Run a marathon and push past the Runner’s Wall to finish it, and I guarantee you will break out of whatever perspective you are currently locked into.
However, if you do that via a marathon, you and your friend will be separated by the disparity of experience. It may ruin your friendship, not so much in a dramatic way, but just in the way that people doing different things that require a time commitment takes them on different paths. They want to draw you more into their world, and their world includes smoking pot.
There’s been lots of worthwhile responses already, so I’ll just add that, for new aficionados, marijuana tends to be quite a novel experience, and becomes a bit of a “hobby”. Your friend, who sounds like he is still in this “honeymoon” phase, is just gushing over this new experience the same way you might be so inclined if you just took up a new pasttime - in short, your friend sounds like he wants you to share his new experience, if for no other reason then he finds it fun, and it’s fun to do fun things with your friends.
This enthusiasm is undoubtedly buoyed by the effects of the drug itself. Pot smoking does create (naturally) a high which is going to enhance whatever joy any new activity would already engender, so your friend really likes it.
So, you may just have a friend with a new “toy”, who’s all excited to share his experience, but who’s perspective and level of enthusiasm (impromptu poetry? oy vey…your patience far exceeds anything I may have) is tainted by being stoned.
Over time, I’d expect that this exceptional joy to fade. Either your friend will eventually get bored of getting stoned, and stop altogether, or may just find it a normal and mundane part of his routine (such that it’s not so amazing that it needs discussion), or he may become a burnout who gravitates away from you and only interacts with similarly addled tokers. Whatever happens, the “evangelical” preaching is not likely to continue (unless your friend is just a seriously boring person).
But, seriously dude, you really should just smoke a little grass.
When you find something like like, you want to share it.
You could ask the same thing about religion. Why do people knock on your door and try to talk you into their narrow definition of enlightenment even though you want nothing to do with it.
How many poems and songs and books and movies have been written about how the holy spirit lives in them and the blood of the lamb has washed away their sins?
We are a word-of-mouth species. When something works for us, we shout it from the rooftops. Doesn’t matter if it’s a great dry-cleaner they found across town, a particular way to order a coffee at Starbucks, a smokeable plant, or a regimen of beliefs about invisible space monsters and talking snakes/donkeys/bushes.
I think you should just smoke some weed and relax.
I’m joking (well, maybe half-so), but in all seriousness, it’s not cool to push intoxicants on someone that has clearly said No. I think your friend just likes getting a rise out of you, which can be sport for some (looks around the SDMB). If it bothers you as much as you say, you should end the friendship.
I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs. I’ve come to the conclusion that people act the way you described because they are losers for doing drugs, they understand that they are losers, and it makes them feel better when they can drag someone down to their level.
I don’t see any other reason for it.
LOL
I think this says more about you than it does about stoner psychology.