# Marijuana - Pros and Cons of smoking **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766 "2000-06-27T19:40:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/61 "2000-06-29T23:25:03Z")
I never had smoked until I met my first husband, who smoked 10 joints a day(seriously). He partly did it for health reasons, but he was hooked. He used to insist I smoke with him, and I did, a few times. Harmful? Just the fact that its harmful to put any smoke into your lungs. Mine used to hurt terribly when I partook, but I did go through the hostess treats. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/62 "2000-06-29T23:34:15Z")
I actually heard somewhere in a (surpressed) study that a chemical found in Marijuana may be the strongest anti-oxident on the planet, 4,000 thousand times stronger than vitimin E. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/63 "2000-06-30T00:02:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > That’s it. Everyone over to Silver\_Fire’s place. I got the weed, anyone want to bring snacks? > \*\* My favorite “high” snacks are two different combinations: 1)Pizza Rolls and Coke 2)Green\* Sunchips and Mountain Dew, although recently my tastes have changed to Red\* Sunchips. I alternate now. \*Yes I am aware that they are French Onion (Green) and Harvest Cheddar (Red) but when you’re trying to yell at someone who’s frantically running out the door on a munchie mission, you have to speak quickly. Also, the few times I did use flavor names, someone ultimately asked me which color they were anyway. Oldscratch: Along with my hookah, I have a 12" bong named Dr. Suess, 2 bats, 1 pipe, and a wide assortment of one hitters. You can have your pick first, since it was your idea to come over. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/64 "2000-06-30T00:17:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually Cervaise, if you get really skunky weed, you can hallucinate. I guess we’re spoiled up here in the Pacific Northwest; we apparently get high-quality stuff, pun intended. Either that, or we’ve been lucky with connections… Minor digression, following the previous posters– **Fave munchies:** Frozen chicken-and-cheese chimichangas. (Go figure.) Snoqualmie brand ice cream (either lemon custard, strawberry, or peanut butter flake). Seedless grapes are good if they’re sweet. **Fave activities:** Sex. (Goes without saying. Wait, I said it, didn’t I?) And, don’t laugh, but the TV show “Whose Line is it Anyway” is amazing. (The British original, not the inferior Drew Carey knockoff.) I don’t know how to describe it, other than it feels like you’re highly attuned to the emotions and attitude of the performer inside the sketch. ---
**Author:** ![Tymp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tymp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tymp)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/65 "2000-06-30T00:29:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey. There is nothing sexier then a cute girl and her 2 foot gravity bong. What are you saying here? **oldscratch** , my dear comunist friend, if you find imagery like a girl choking, sputtering and coughing while attempting to take on an oversized phallus, that’s your deal. I personally like my women to appear in control and graceful. Any marijuana smoking device kills the graceful, elegant appearance in my opinion. I’d like to point out, though, that there are not a lot of conversations that I enjoy more than those whose other ends are being upheld by one who has intentionally shattered his own reality with the help of a healthy dose of a mind altering substance. Hot damn! That’s too long of a sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/66 "2000-06-30T00:32:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > **Fave munchies:** Frozen chicken-and-cheese chimichangas. \*\* Frozen chimichangas, huh? So, in you high state of mind, you forget to cook them or something?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Initial\_Entry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e9a140/32.png) [@Initial\_Entry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Initial_Entry)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/67 "2000-06-30T00:32:17Z")
As far as hallucinations while on pot, I’ve had them but personally I’m not convinced they were the result of the pot itself. I know it’s possible to hallucinate on pot, if you have enough of it, but the quality of the hallucinations that I got lead me to believe that the heightened suggestibility that results from being high simply made it easier for me to trip myself out. (Yes of course I was trying to hallucinate at the time, it’s a lot of fun.) I would suspect that many pot-related hallucinations are more along the lines of what I experienced and not necessarily directly caused by the pot itself. ---
**Author:** ![blahedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@blahedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blahedo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/68 "2000-06-30T00:44:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > **oldscratch** , my dear comunist friend, if you find imagery like a girl choking, sputtering and coughing while attempting to take on an oversized phallus, that?s your deal. I personally like my women to appear in control and graceful. Any marijuana smoking device kills the graceful, elegant appearance in my opinion. > \*\* Sounds like someone was doing it wrong… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_G7subs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85e7bf/32.png) [@Rich\_G7subs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_G7subs)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/69 "2000-06-30T02:40:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > So much for toking and getting mellow. > > **Moderator’s Notes:** Everybody, just cool it right now. Don’t make me send you to your rooms. GaWd, this notice is especially for you. It appears to me that you posted the first abusive remarks. And your remarks in another thread today were the deciding factor in moving it to the pit. > \*\* ::sticks tongue out at GaWD:: Neenere neener…ha ha you got yelled at! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/70 "2000-06-30T16:49:46Z")
I’m probably coming in on a dead thread here But let me ring in with what is probably an unpopular view. This wouldn’t be a con for you, having discovered it at a mature 34. But generally speaking… My spouse was a major pot freak throughout high school and part of college. It started out as fun, but then he used it to get through the inevitable sh\*ttyness of teendom. He did it instead of pursuing other interests. Then, at some point (I think this was after a particularly bad semester GPA-wise) he decided he was going nowhere and quit cold turkey. Twenty years later, he is dying to have those years back. He’s a massively creative and artistic person, and he just cringes at how much time he wasted. He wonders about the art he could’ve created, the improvement he could’ve made in his guitar playing, etc. We had a rare (for us) fight one time about how g\*ddamn much time he was spending woodworking until he confessed how much it bugs him that he blew 6+ years of his life just getting high. Suddenly I got it. So he would say (and he will probably tell our son, when the time comes) that time spent pondering the beauty of the batik wall hanging and enjoying Pink Floyd’s The Wall whilst stoned might feel cool, but it has an opportunity cost. You could be doing something else, whether that’s washing the dog or becoming the next Jasper Johns. Granted, you could say the same thing about TV. Only TV doesn’t feel so cool, so I suspect it’s easier to stop TV viewing. Another con, although I haven’t evaluated the research myself: there is a possible link between paternal pot smoking and at least one kind of freaky birth defect where a fetus’ intestines grow on the outside of the abdomen. Bummer if that’s true. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/71 "2000-06-30T17:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > ::sticks tongue out at GaWD:: Neenere neener…ha ha you got yelled at! 🙂 > \*\* Feh. I did it, I’m sorry. Uncle Beer, if this has caused you undue strain or stress, I apologize from the bottom of my cockles(anyone know where the cockles are?:D) And Rich, tell me I was wrong for saying what **needed** to be said! 🙂 Just out of curiosity, did your 15 year-old write that for you? 😃 -Sam ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/72 "2000-06-30T17:30:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > We had a rare (for us) fight one time about how g\*ddamn much time he was spending woodworking until he confessed how much it bugs him that he blew 6+ years of his life just getting high. Suddenly I got it.\*\* Yup, I got it too. I think it’s called “growing up”. And if it’s not growing up per se, it’s called Maturity. I still don’t think a 34 yr. old smoking is immature or not grown up, but for me, 5 years of lounging around on my couch and sleeping all day long after work was BS, and I wasted too much time. > [@](#): > > \*\* > Another con, although I haven’t evaluated the research myself: there is a possible link between paternal pot smoking and at least one kind of freaky birth defect where a fetus’ intestines grow on the outside of the abdomen. Bummer if that’s true. ☹ > \*\* Cranky, this is absolute BS as well, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any cites at all regarding it(save the ones from DARE and other biased sources). I also don’t think you can attribute it to Paternal smoking exactly. -Sam ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/73 "2000-06-30T20:01:03Z")
The most important questions. Munchies? Why I like natural stuff. Fresh tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, are great. Anything with melted cheese, nachos and quesadillas. Chocolate milk. And that old standby, dorritos. For watching? Simpsons (bar none best time), and old MR. Show episodes. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/74 "2000-06-30T20:50:32Z")
GaWd, you’ve sent me searching. Which I knew I’d have to do if I dared reference that. A friend is facing this in her baby, and in the course of research another friend found the smoking thing as a footnote. If I can track it down, I’ll cite it. If not (and there’s a chance of that since I can’t remember the long involved name of the defect) we can stick with the “total bs” dismissal. Fair enough. I do know it wasn’t DARE. ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/75 "2000-06-30T20:55:01Z")
I tend to side with god that it’s total BS. It would be all over the news if it wasn’t. But, even if it did occur Cranky, it would have to be from smoking while pregnant. Nothing would happen if you smoked before hand. It’s like alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/76 "2000-06-30T21:13:09Z")
I gotta tell you, you can waste a lot of time in your youth whether you are stoned or not. I don’t really regret the hours listening to Pink Floyd as much as I do the hours wondering if HE was going to CALL. ugh. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2000, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766/77 "2000-07-01T04:10:15Z")
Okay, I have not found the original footnote (and remember folks, the media only picks up on major things from the New England Journal of Medicine, not little footnotes in the American Journal of Human Genetics or Australian Teratology, which is where our research was taking us) but I did find a an offhand comment from a nurse-midwife saying two studies pursued the possibility but didn’t find anything significant. I don’t know how something the sperm donor smoked could possibly effect a fetus, but then I’m a social science researcher, not a medical one. Sooooo, huff away. 🙂 But please don’t make the mistake of thinking I patter off to consult Nancy Reagan when I need drug-related health info. LOL [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-pros-and-cons-of-smoking/23766.md?page=3)