Research into medicinal marijuana grows up.

captainzib wrote: I would really be interested in a Mythbusters-style auto-x test. Six drivers of similar experience level and body styles, 2 sober, 2 with x number of drinks in them, and 2 who smoked the same amount of marijuana.

Top Gear/5th Gear actually did an episode on this exact topic, I spent a few minutes searching youtube and the googles with no luck. I'm sure someone else can come up with a link.

Interesting results for sure.

I remember the episode you're talking about ansonivan. They had a guy do a general driving test (not a performance test) while he was sober and while he was high, and they found almost no difference. And if I remember right, the host was riding with him and asking him questions while he was sober and high.

I'm not sure if driving slowly (actually doing the legal limit????) while high is because of paranoia. I think it has a bit to do with just being way more relaxed. Crank the tunes and just enjoy the ride. No need to speed or get road rage, you feel gooood man. It's like the part in Pulp Fiction where they show John Travolta driving his car high.

Just be sure you remember to roll the window down before you try to flick the last of the joint out of the car.

Salanis wrote: Just be sure you remember to roll the window down before you try to flick the last of the joint out of the car.

That would be littering and... littering and... littering and... smokin' the reefer!

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Thorny: [after pulling car over] Do you know how fast you were going back there?

College Boy 1: Umm... 65?

Thorny: 63.

College Boy 1: But... isn't the speed limit 65?

Thorny: Yes, it is.

College Boy 3: [stoned] I'm freakin' out, man!

Rabbit: Yes, you are freaking out... man.

So basically, smoking instantly transforms one into a senior citizen on the road. I can't help but make connections between the senior who drove through a town plaza out west, killing like six people, and the commercial where a stoner leaves the drive-through and hits a girl on a bicycle.

aircooled

Thank you for the logical, reasoned, factual information you have provided.

If they legalize it maybe the usage of weird objects to make pipes will go down. Then maybe people will quit stealing the damn screens out of the aerators for the sinks in all the fast food restaurants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJx0GqR3P_o

Here's the clip in question.

Salanis wrote:

PubBurgers wrote: As with any other drug, be it caffeine, sugar, alcohol, etc. you will have people that abuse it, these people tend to be the vocal minority.

Sugar isn't a drug.

Mood altering, addictive, and bad for you in quantity.

Nope, not a drug at all!

I have been dealing with a sugar addiction for a long time. It was easier to quit smoking.

MitchellC wrote: and the commercial where a stoner leaves the drive-through and hits a girl on a bicycle.

Yeah, 'cause the anti-drug ads are always SO accurate! Like the kid that gets high, and shoots himself in the head, 'cause he thinks he's invincible! Man, so many of my stoner friends have almost done that!

If you couldn't tell, that was my sarcastic voice.

noisycricket wrote:

Salanis wrote:

PubBurgers wrote: As with any other drug, be it caffeine, sugar, alcohol, etc. you will have people that abuse it, these people tend to be the vocal minority.

Sugar isn't a drug.

Mood altering, addictive, and bad for you in quantity. Nope, not a drug at all! I have been dealing with a sugar addiction for a long time. It was easier to quit smoking.

A drug is anything that alters your body chemistry that isn't food. Sugar is food. Therefore, sugar is not a drug.

You might as well say that oxygen is a drug, considering how hard it is to kick that habit.

Alcohol is also a food, then, since our bodies can metabolize it and get nutrition from it.

Sugars are in food, just as alcohol naturally occurs in fruits (which is why we can metabolize it, and dogs, which have been hanging around eating leftovers from us primates for many millenia, can too, but cats cannot) but it's the dose that makes the poison, or drug. We discovered thousands of years ago how to concentrate the alcohol content in order to catch a buzz, and we discovered a couple hundred years ago how to refine sugar for that sweet, sweet buzz.

It is entirely possible to get addicted to sugar, in the sense that you physically need it and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you don't get your fix, even when getting what is necessary nutritionally. It alters your brain chemistry similar to what caffeine does.

noisycricket wrote: Alcohol is also a food, then, since our bodies can metabolize it and get nutrition from it. Sugars are in food, just as alcohol naturally occurs in fruits (which is why we can metabolize it, and dogs, which have been hanging around eating leftovers from us primates for many millenia, can too, but cats cannot) but it's the dose that makes the poison, or drug. We discovered thousands of years ago how to concentrate the alcohol content in order to catch a buzz, and we discovered a couple hundred years ago how to refine sugar for that sweet, sweet buzz. It is entirely possible to get addicted to sugar, in the sense that you physically need it and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you don't get your fix, even when getting what is necessary nutritionally. It alters your brain chemistry similar to what caffeine does.

I could be mistaken, but doesn't alcohol not actually provide any nutritional value? We can get nutritional value from all of the other stuff around the alcohol, but not the alcohol itself.

Uh oh, more stoner scientists saying it might have a benefit in addition to getting high.

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=pot-joins-the-fight-against-alzheim-2008-11-19&ec=su_potalzheimer

Scientists from Ohio State University report that marijuana, contrary to the conventional wisdom, may help ward off Alzheimer's and keep recall sharp. Their findings, released today at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington D.C.: chemical components of marijuana reduce inflammation and stimulate the production of new brain cells, thereby enhancing memory. The team suggested that a drug could be formulated that would resemble tetrahydroannibol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot sans making the user high. But the research may ultimately drive those who fear impending dementia to roll their own solution to the problem. Study co-author Gary Wenk, a professor of psychology, had already devised a preliminary version of a THC-like synthetic drug that improves memory in lab animals. His team at the meeting said that it works by activating at least three receptors in the brain targeted by THC—proteins on the surface of nerve cells that then trigger cellular processes resulting in reduced inflammation and production of new brain cells that can boost recall. Understanding how the compounds work may pave the way for a pharmaceutical company to prepare its own med for human clinical trials. The researchers ducked the obvious question of whether it might be simpler, faster and cheaper to simply light up a joint. “Could people smoke marijuana to prevent Alzheimer’s disease if the disease is in their family?" Wenk said in a statement. "We’re not saying that, but it might actually work.”