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Author: Subject: I quit using cannabis to be a safer chemist.
sodium_stearate
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[*] posted on 28-12-2019 at 04:59
Get High!


Arkoma, well said!

You obviously KNOW what works for you.
That's great so go with it.

For myself and for a few others here however,
getting high was not working so well in the long term
for us, so we eventually abandoned it.

Everything in life is a tradeoff of some sort.;)




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itsafineday
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[*] posted on 10-1-2020 at 05:11


Quote: Originally posted by S.C. Wack  


A psychiatrist would disagree with this characterization, but of course they're just in the business of pushing drugs, right? Stimulants help many people lead normal lives.

The straight edge sober living sounds great and so it appeals to religious thought, a higher plane of wisdom; it's a pipe dream nonetheless.


If psychiatrists spent any meaningful amount of time identifying and correcting lifestyle factors before prescribing , I'd have some respect for them. I'm very familiar with the industry and it's dependency on isolating a patient for a very short period of time in a very contrived environment before prescribing drugs. That fits a profit model.

Fit a patient with a body camera for 6 weeks and go through the video then spend 6 months to 2 years or longer identifying unhealthy lifestyle factors and eliminating them and I'll start to think psychiatrists are more than drug dealers with a profit motif. The inconvenient truth of human beings is that they require much more attention. The average psychiatrist spends less time with a patient than a typical auto mechanic does fixing a car.

Many people believe a "normal" life should include no exercise or time outdoors, a complete lack of self interested collaborative activity with family or friends, consumption of food lacking nutrition, hours spent online and very little sleep.
I don't have a clue what a "normal" life is, I don't believe you do either. The truth of "normal" life is thoroughly corrupt by marketing. To think someone in a psychiatrists postion , sitting on her ass all day listening to mentally ill people , is a recipe for understanding normal, is flawed thinking. Trusting their evaluation is foolish.

Stimulants help people meet expectations with little management of the greater constructs of life. Stimulants are good for people who don't/can't see beyond being "tools". (edit: this isn't really fair on my part, the unfortunate situation of most people is they are required to adapt to very unhealthy lifestyles just to survive)

I don't want to present myself as sober, either. I'm not religious or part of a sobriety cult. I don't drink or use cannabis but I got bombed on kava yesterday. I don't expect my brain to be back to normal for a week or more. I just have realized how compromising and undermining my habitual drug use has been. I won't use cannabis again as I feel like it made me mildly psychotic and I am MUCH happier, calm, content and loving without it. I'm also much less frustrated as I study chemistry. I still feel a need to alter my consciousness from time to time, though. I think that is part of a "normal" life. I'm a terrible judge of "normal" though.

I am very sorry, I won't lie, I just don't respect people on psychiatric drugs. I also feel they do damage to the general understanding of normal. The idea that some employees will be judged next to others on amphetamine sickens me.

Also, "sober living a pipe dream", lol:D






[Edited on 10-1-2020 by itsafineday]

[Edited on 10-1-2020 by itsafineday]




I am seeking to level up my Chem skills. Corrections welcome! All mentorship in madness appreciated.
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sodium_stearate
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[*] posted on 10-1-2020 at 06:17
quack "Doctors"


My take on it is that for every real doctor out there,
there are at least a dozen or more quacks.

The whole concept of having "psychiatrists" involves
concepts of what is accepted in society as "normal"
behavior, as contrasted with "abnormal" behavior.

These ideas are subjective because one person's
"normal" may not be anywhere even close to that
of some other person.

So, my advise is, go watch an old black and white
Groucho Marx movie where he portrays a doctor.

Or watch some old Three Stooges episodes where
they clown around as doctors.

Some how or other, we have decided for ourselves
that doctors are seen as authority figures.

Aside from setting broken bones or fixing up
severe injuries, most of "modern medicine" to me
is just a greedy bunch of money-grubbers
that have managed to brainwash most of society.

By doing so, they have created a multi-trillion
dollar industry.

This industry is a self-perpetuating one.
The more drugs they hand out, the sicker and the weirder
the patients become.

In other words it all revolves around repeat business.:D


[Edited on 10-1-2020 by sodium_stearate]




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mackolol
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[*] posted on 14-1-2020 at 13:05


Lately I'm taking a break from cannabis too.

I've been using it regularly during Christmas break to this point, that I became unproductive and even had few days that I remember as from a fog.

There is quite a lot going on in my life soon and I start another chemistry project so I need to be sober and fully mobilized. I keep my fingers crossed for you itsafineday!
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[*] posted on 14-1-2020 at 14:32


I'm using that stuff only rarely nowadays, growing older did quite a bit for it.
But in no time I turned into a much better chemist, which is of course no coincidence.

Well, I still do the occasional stimulants(which turn me into an even better chemist actually :o).
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[*] posted on 23-1-2020 at 23:52


Quote: Originally posted by itsafineday  

If psychiatrists spent any meaningful amount of time identifying and correcting lifestyle factors before prescribing, I'd have some respect for them.


I'm a health professional and totally agree with what you said.

As per my experience, the "level of competence/willingness to REALLY help" one can expect from a doctor/pharmacist/nurse etc. can be plotted on a Gauss curve.

Very few ones are really bad, by far the most are just "meh" and again very, very few ones are excellent.

Why is that, then?

Probably because identifying root causes to a psychological problem is much more difficult than just applying a temporary fix like writing a prescription, then if those meds didn't help, just write another.

Repeat until you can claim to "have done everything": Voila, made money without doing what you were supposed to do!

You've gamed the system, and that's just what's so deeply rooted inside every human that it defines us as individuals and our society.

We're gaming ourselves into oblivion, as is quite obvious from the current state of the world.

We are fucked.
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[*] posted on 3-3-2020 at 10:12


Yeah, it's really a bummer about the gaming. I totally agree with you. I think it's an intrinsic aspect of evolution. Then again, it feels good to have hope there might be an alternative. Naive, but it feels good.

Also, culture works against the creation of great doctors who really want to heal people. Without a supporting culture that practice is even more difficult. Success is invariably a deal with the devil in the name of our children.

[Edited on 3-3-2020 by itsafineday]




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[*] posted on 3-3-2020 at 13:04


Quote: Originally posted by karlos³  


Well, I still do the occasional stimulants(which turn me into an even better chemist actually :o).


LOL. I have been very lucky to have a good "Doctor". Miss Lisa is an Advanced Practice Nurse, and I honestly believe she SAVED MY LIFE after my motorcycle wreck. I burst into tears every time I looked at my leg. She INSISTED I take some lexapro for several months. Knew me well enough (been my healer for 14 years) to ask how my mental health was.

God Bless Her.




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[*] posted on 3-3-2020 at 14:26


Quote: Originally posted by stoichiometric_steve  
... identifying root causes to a psychological problem is much more difficult than just applying a temporary fix like writing a prescription, then if those meds didn't help, just write another.


I don't disagree, but certainly for many people medication really is the right solution...
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[*] posted on 3-3-2020 at 14:53


Quote: Originally posted by DavidJR  
Quote: Originally posted by stoichiometric_steve  
... identifying root causes to a psychological problem is much more difficult than just applying a temporary fix like writing a prescription, then if those meds didn't help, just write another.


I don't disagree, but certainly for many people medication really is the right solution...


Given the limited flexibility of our lives (employers/families etc) addressing lifestyle factors becomes too disruptive to others. Meds are most often a best solution in a list of bad solutions kind of "right".

Just the idea of having to find an alternative means of educating your child when you have to go to work to pay the bills can have some parents craving a benzo.

Naturally culture is set up to assure parents that drugging their child (or whomever) is the right thing to do , even that it's inhumane to let the poor little kid keep suffering. But if you count the number of people for whom it's a profitable and convenient solution you would be highly suspicious about any definition of it being "right".

I just saw a body cam episode where a guy stabbed his wife and some other woman and then commited suicide by cop. During the episode he grabbed a bottle of some kind of benzodiazipine and tipped it up into his mouth. No one will convince me that the entire incident wasn't caused by the benzo prescription to begin with. I'd also be seriously shocked if the vast majority of mass shootings had no connection to prescription drugs.



[Edited on 3-3-2020 by itsafineday]




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[*] posted on 26-4-2020 at 18:23


It's a bad idea to keep any illegal drugs or paraphernalia in your house while practicing amateur chemistry. You order elemental iodine from China, then a month later you're woken up at 3 AM with 3 hard knocks and "POLICE SEARCH WARRANT!!!"



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[*] posted on 27-4-2020 at 20:08


Quote: Originally posted by Cou  
It's a bad idea to keep any illegal drugs or paraphernalia in your house while practicing amateur chemistry. You order elemental iodine from China, then a month later you're woken up at 3 AM with 3 hard knocks and "POLICE SEARCH WARRANT!!!"










how does this even RELATE to a thread about cannabis use?!?!




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[*] posted on 27-4-2020 at 20:38


The great thing about living in Canada is marijuana paraphernalia is not illegal, nor are weed plants or marijuana itself. I smoke weed and I bought 7g last week right across the street from a crap load of cops and walked out with the weed in my hand. Its still surreal to me though, I have been smoking for 24 years and to walk out in front of cops from a weed store with a tub of weed is a great feeling.


Edit:
Tbh I am happy liquor and weed were considered essential industries, it makes quarantine way easier.

[Edited on 28-4-2020 by Syn the Sizer]
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[*] posted on 28-4-2020 at 10:57


Quote: Originally posted by arkoma  
Quote: Originally posted by Cou  
It's a bad idea to keep any illegal drugs or paraphernalia in your house while practicing amateur chemistry. You order elemental iodine from China, then a month later you're woken up at 3 AM with 3 hard knocks and "POLICE SEARCH WARRANT!!!"










how does this even RELATE to a thread about cannabis use?!?!

Cannabis is illegal in most places in the world x/

[Edited on 28-4-2020 by Cou]




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[*] posted on 28-4-2020 at 11:34


Quote:

Learning chemistry and trying to be safe and efficient has really brought to light just how much of an interference my cannabis habit was. I really want to be good at chem for myself (and I don't want to end up killing my dogs being daft).

I have a difficult time thinking methodically and including all the minutiae required to run an experiment successfully. Cannabis made that much worse . I would use stopping points to get high (I know BAD!) and end up making mistakes. Considering doing more interesting and dangerous things made it clear I had to make choices that allowed for more focused and safer work.

If you were performing chemical procedures while intoxicated, you were not using cannabis responsibly to begin with.

At a physiological level, cannabis is indeed much safer than alcohol. But at a behavioral level, I see no reason to make the distinction. Both cannabis and alcohol clearly inhibit effective psychological functioning. Would you do a reaction drunk? I certainly hope not. The only reason that cannabis does not cause auto crashes as much as alcohol does is that cannabis is anti-aggressive, while alcohol is pro-aggressive; the implications for driving are obvious.

I smoke weed on a daily basis. However, I am never intoxicated at work or school or while doing anything dangerous or technically challenging. I consume less than one gram per week; even hitting that number seems financially and medically irresponsible. Taking sedatives recreationally in the off-hours assumes a moderate amount of risk that is not that much worse than other recreational activities (David Nichols likes to contrast drugs with horseback riding). Doing it in the on-hours suggests you have a problem.

Stimulants are a whole different story. I don't fuck with most of them, but I use about as much nicotine as an old guy in an anime. I know it's bad for me. Nobody's perfect :P




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[*] posted on 28-4-2020 at 11:51


Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara  


At a physiological level, cannabis is indeed much safer than alcohol. But at a behavioral level, I see no reason to make the distinction. Both cannabis and alcohol clearly inhibit effective psychological functioning. Would you do a reaction drunk? I certainly hope not. The only reason that cannabis does not cause auto crashes as much as alcohol does is that cannabis is anti-aggressive, while alcohol is pro-aggressive; the implications for driving are obvious.



Alcohol also makes one dizzy, If one cannot walk straight, surely mustn't try driving. Never risk with someone else. Caffeine and nicotine are also psychoactive (less for many, more for others). There is a huge reason to make a distinction between any substances.




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[*] posted on 28-5-2020 at 12:40


You guys aren't seriously running a lab under the influence of alcohol, pot or other stuff?

I'm not anti drug by any means, but always keep work, hobby and recreational time separate.

In general. I'm not going into semantics more than this, but there are of course low level exceptions like caffeine, and then the gray area where nootropics and stimulants etc. falls into. In a controlled manner they are beneficial (amphetamine in military operations), but it usually slips recreational.
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[*] posted on 28-5-2020 at 13:07


I don't go to lab when I'm under influence, I just don't want to and know that I won't do there much, instead I will rather destroy something or harm myself.
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[*] posted on 25-10-2020 at 16:23


Should home chemists really be keeping any illegal drugs in the house?

We are always risking house searches by doing things like ordering glassware from China, ordering red phosphorus, showing pictures of our glassware, etc. It's not safe to have a drug in the house if/when the cops show up to search your house. Having balances, glassware, etc, could get you charged with intent to distribute.

[Edited on 10-26-2020 by Cou]




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[*] posted on 25-10-2020 at 17:59
Drugs


People who generally get busted for lab
equipment were using it to make drugs
or explosives. In the U.S. the emphasis
is on drugs. Ordering something like
red P raises a flag as it's on DEA LIST 1.




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[*] posted on 25-10-2020 at 19:23


In my experience, it seems different people can handle different levels of cannabis, like most recreational drugs.
I'm glad you seem to be finding a balance that works for you, itsafineday.
I'm also glad that those who recreationally/medically use cannabis get benefits from it. I hope they are mindful of how their usage affects their life at work and off work. I've seen it really benefit some people, but I've also seen it really consume others.
I think we can all agree that the legal consequences in many places are a little excessive compared with how dangerous it is though.
I'm hoping as it becomes legal in more places (I think that's a pretty obvious trend among states), we can have more honest conversations about how to responsibly use it, without all the reefer madness and proportional over acceptance by some enthusiasts.

[Edited on 26-10-2020 by Clear_horizons_glass]




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