The truly frightening thing about all drugs is that they influence that part of yourself that is capable of deciding whether or not drugs are good for you, and this influence extends way beyond the time that you are actually doing them. Until you understand that you don’t understand drugs, alcohol, cocaine and heroin especially but IM not so HO marijuana can be bad that way too.
But hey, don’t listen to me, I’m just some guy that has seen the thing way too many times.[/quote]
This is puting ethics into it. Sure there is an influence, but there is nothing frigthening about it. God or bad, depends on the time and circumstance of use. No offense bob but your line of reasoning also also applies to excesive posting on forumosa, your morning coffee, or afternoon tea, Gary Glitters proclivity for immature females…all of these things have long and short term influences on ones state of being. Until you understand that why contemplate…or villify the use of some substances over others.
Anyway you cut the quote to early…the social consequences are the hardest to overcome.
[quote=“chodofu”]I’m smoking some good shit right now and wishing I was in Taiwan. Does that make me crazy? I’m smoking it and I am depressed, but I wont be when it wears off, the biological facctor is minimal. The psyhchological one is temporary. The social one is the hardest to over come, what with moral cops prattling about every place.
The invisble hand does indeed work on the balck market in Taiwan as elsewhere. Mayhaps, it works there beter than at R.J. Reynolds or Starbucks or some other sanctioned entity. Price and quality are fairly well controlled by the hands workings. The insanity? My guess is its the reslut of some other chemical in balance. The frequency of madness observed… coincidence drawn from Mordeth’s depraved existence
Haha…sorry Mordeth, nothing really strange going on here except for your (our) proximity to tales of ordinary madness.
I beg to differ. The biological consequences can be very costly. For every joint you smoke its like the equivalent of 10 cigarettes. When you inhale deeply and hold the smoke as long as possible for maximun effect you greatly increase your chances of lung cancer. Your lungs, and psyche, though. Have a ball.
[quote=“tot”][quote=“chodofu”]I’m smoking some good shit right now and wishing I was in Taiwan. Does that make me crazy? I’m smoking it and I am depressed, but I wont be when it wears off, the biological facctor is minimal. The psyhchological one is temporary. The social one is the hardest to over come, what with moral cops prattling about every place.
The invisble hand does indeed work on the balck market in Taiwan as elsewhere. Mayhaps, it works there beter than at R.J. Reynolds or Starbucks or some other sanctioned entity. Price and quality are fairly well controlled by the hands workings. The insanity? My guess is its the reslut of some other chemical in balance. The frequency of madness observed… coincidence drawn from Mordeth’s depraved existence
Haha…sorry Mordeth, nothing really strange going on here except for your (our) proximity to tales of ordinary madness.[/quote]
I beg to differ. The biological consequences can be very costly. For every joint you smoke its like the equivalent of 10 cigarettes. When you inhale deeply and hold the smoke as long as possible for maximun effect you greatly increase your chances of lung cancer. Your lungs, and psyche, though. Have a ball.[/quote]
Please provide sources to back up your assertion - I’m afraid I don’t believe you.
You’re right not to believe him/her. That’s because it’s complete BS. Marijuana does not cause lung cancer and is not 10 times more harmful than cigarrettes. In fact the opposite is obviously true. Many millions die every year from tobacco related illness. I challenge all these scare-mongers who know nothing about marijuana to come up with evidence of just 1 person who has ever died from marijuana.
Nor do dealers spike pot with chemicals. Why would they go to the expense, hassle and legal risk of doing so when it would serve no purpose. Sure, there may be a one-in-a-milllion case of some psycopath doing that for kicks, but most pot dealers simply sell the buds of a plant, and any pot smoker knows that.
Knowing nothing about engines, I wouldn’t jump into a thread on motorcycles and tell posters how to boost their oxygen intake on their carburetor, or whatever. So I find it odd so many people who obviously know nothing about drugs try to pretend that they know anything about the subject.
[quote][url=http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html]Marijuana use also has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains irritants and carcinogens(12, 13). In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke(14). It also produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form
[quote]ou’re right not to believe him/her. That’s because it’s complete BS. Marijuana does not cause lung cancer and is not 10 times more harmful than cigarrettes. In fact the opposite is obviously true. Many millions die every year from tobacco related illness. I challenge all these scare-mongers who know nothing about marijuana to come up with evidence of just 1 person who has ever died from marijuana.
[/quote]
Typical defence but keep in mind that it’s possible that 95% of pot smokers are also heavy cigarette smokers as well. So it would be hard to determine which would kill you first.
Meh…whatever.
Drugs wear you down with time and it’s no surprise that a few of us in Asia have gone postal.
Keep up the debate. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction which can be said about this arguement and many others pertaining to drug usage.
I was at work. Thanks for defending my argument MONSTER.
As far as quoting sources go—how about this… Why don’t you just reason it out for yourself? Marijuana smokers inhale deeply and hold as long as possible. Most joints are either unfiltered or use little pieces of cardboard which do not work nearly as effectively as cigarette filters. You can’t see where this heavy amount of tar would damage your lungs? Like MONSTER said… a typical defense.
P.S. I’ve probably spilled more on the floor than you’ve smoked.
The truly frightening thing about all drugs is that they influence that part of yourself that is capable of deciding whether or not drugs are good for you, and this influence extends way beyond the time that you are actually doing them. [/quote]
I have done many different kinds of drugs in my day, but not very much of any one type. I had a bad Acid trip once…and am now unable to do anything that gives more of a mental high in comparison to a physical one. Two puffs on a joint and I’m back in the same darn acid trip…litteraly. But chances are I’d be ok doing something with a more physical high…like amphetamines for example.
Anyway, the reason I quoted the above quote is because the only time in the past that I truly never want to try anything again was when I had the clarity of thought that went along with doing it. It was at those times with the accelerated thought process that I really wished to never see it again. Ironic.
[quote=“mod lang”]Foreigner goes insane from doing drugs in Taiwan?
How do you stay sane in Taiwan without doing drugs?[/quote]
How to stay sane without drugs? That should have its own thread, but the answer is…
…hobbies, find something to do in your free time that helps you to “escape”…much in the same way that drugs do. I’d recommend VIDEO GAMES, or MOTORCYCLING. Both give you a sense of freedom and provide entertainment. You could also get a membership at a swimming pool and set personal goals for yourself in regards to how many laps you can do. Not only does it give you a cheap entertaining hobby…but you’ll get healthier in the process…in this aspect very unlike drugs.
I never said it didn’t have adverse health effects. I said it doesn’t cause cancer, it has never killed anyone (unless you count someone driving really stoned), and it is nowhere near as harmful as alcohol or tobacco. I stand by those statements and will continue to do so until some provides credible evidence to the contrary. Incidentally, your online MD link doesn’t work.
In any event, back to the topic – foreigners going crazy in Taiwan – that’s definitely not due to drugs, though some such people may have trouble with drugs or alcohol. It’s because those people were mentally fragile in the first place and life in this crazy society sent them over the edge.
Going to have to strongly disagree there. If you go to the home website for Crystal Meth users…you’ll read of hundreds and hundreds of stories of people going insane on it. So unless 20% of the population are lunatics waiting for a bit of drugs to make them snap…then I’d say it’s the drugs that cause them to go insane.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the “Third” guy I mention in my original post wouldn’t be a perfectly sane and respectable member of the community right now, if it weren’t for drugs.
You get no disagreement from me at all re crystal meth. That’s definitely a bad drug that makes people go crazy, destroys their lives and kills them.
Pot’s another matter. It’s very mild, doesn’t kill people like alcohol or tobacco and doesn’t cause people to go mad. For most people who enjoy using it the adverse effects are relatively minor and under the user’s control. Some people have trouble keeping their use in moderation, but the worst it does to such excess users is screw up their breating passages, their short term memory, their motivation and their ability to interact well in social situations. After they’ve stopped for a few weeks those problems will subside completely.
If someone in Taiwan (a) smokes a lot of pot and (b) goes crazy, it’s wrong to assume those are the cause and the effect. It’s equally possible that b caused a; a caused b in conjunction with other factors; or a and b are unrelated. For example, I would bet that all of the crazy people you met brushed their teeth, but I doubt that tooth brushing is a common cause of insanity.
Having been around lots of pot smokers over the years, very few of whom went crazy and many of whom are very stable and responsible, I don’t believe pot drove your friends crazy. I would hazard to guess (as I already did) that the people you met were all mentally fragile before coming to Taiwan and life in this crazy place drove them over the edge.
Because alcohol espescially, but pot as well, have a stronger influence on your state of being than most other things. I’ve been addicted to pot and I’ve been addicted to posting on forumosa and believe me the time spent on forumosa has been more productive, and I am more conscious of whether I am wasting my time or not. Drugs are powerful psychoactive agents. That is what they are. It’s nice to sit by the fire once in awhile but be careful you don’t fall in. That’s all I’m saying. I would not generally be inclined to offer the same advice about most other things, but I did see someone warning people about getting hooked on language study in the back of a phrasebook the other day and I was tempted to nod in agreement to that one.
I think we can glean from this thread --which is turning into a back and forth about pot-- that some foreigners fall into bad habits in their lives here. I think it’s obvious that in the examples given the people fell into unhealthy patterns with tragic consequences. It’s easy to do in this environment. I think the lesson to be learned from these examples is to watch your habits, stay healthy, stay in touch with people who support you and avoid excessive intake of any drug (no matter how much people try to argue that they’re harmless).
Online games come with very serious warnings about playing too much. They recently became illegal in China (or illegal to some degree). When I first got into MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role playing games) I’d often play for 14-18 hours in a day.
I can remember stumbling out of my room and talking to someone…and when they answered me right away I’d think “Wow, response times are fast now…no lag at all.”
Or after a 10 hour comic reading binge…I’d talk to someone and when they’d answer I’d be looking above their head searching for the bubble to read their answer.
