Drugs and Archaeology

[dannan14]

'Drugs' are the poisons made by the likes of Dow, Eli Lilly, Merck and others. The substances termed 'drugs' by the law are often plants that grow in the ground without anyone's help.

i trust Mother Nature alot more than a for profit company.

[Forum Monk]

i trust Mother Nature alot more than a for profit company.

Don't bogart that hemlock.

[Ishtar]

I don't take any drugs. Neither do I condone the taking of them.

But the ingesting of psychotropic substances is no different to taking an aspirin, except that the aspirin is legal.

What it comes down to in the end is that some plant derived chemicals are legal and produced by pharmaceutical companies - and some are not but they are also produced by pharmaceutical companies who sell them through underground and clandestine channels.

Those who decide which plant derived chemicals should be legal are politicians, and some politicians have a vested interest in pharmaceutical companies.

Alcohol is also as much a drug as mescalin or peyote, and can be equally deterimental to an ordered society. It is also much more addictive. Yet alcohol is legal and mescalin and peyote are not.

Discussing how shamans have always taken psychotropic substances is a legitimate matter for discussion on this board, as in order to understand about ancient man, we need to understand about shamanism.

[Beagle]

The substances termed 'drugs' by the law are often plants that grow in the ground without anyone's help.

That is only true for a few mushrooms. You are deluding yourself about everything else.

[dannan14]

Lots of perfectly harmless plants that can cause euphoric or psychedelic effects have laws preventing their use, possession, 'manufacture', etc.

Florida is considering passing a law to ban Salvia

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iL07 ... AD8VBHBHG0

i was only deluding myself when in high school i believed just enough of the drug propaganda to not smoke pot because i was an athlete. Years later i learned that many international sports banned cannabis not because it was illegal in most jurisdictions, but because it was performance enhancing. THC and CBD (two of the active chemicals in cannabis) actually allow more oxygen to be absorbed into the blood.

i will admit that drugs made in labs don't fall into the category of plants, but they are actually the minority of banned substances.

[Beagle]

The pot you smoke did not come from "Mother Nature". If you were to smoke hemp you would be getting the more natural amount of THC. But these plants have been altered by human cultivation over time to have a much higher THC content than you would ever find naturally.

Same with tobacco. There is now enough data available over several generations to show that smoking pot is more carcinogenic than tobacco. Making brownies is better.

And you can't kill yourself by ingesting a coca plant. It has to be artificially concentrated to get cocaine out of it. You are aware of the death rate of over two generations of people from cocaine. I won't remind you.

There is nothing natural about any of it.

[dannan14]

The pot you smoke did not come from "Mother Nature". If you were to smoke hemp you would be getting the more natural amount of THC. But these plants have been altered by human cultivation over time to have a much higher THC content than you would ever find naturally.

Same with tobacco. There is now enough data available over several generations to show that smoking pot is more carcinogenic than tobacco. Making brownies is better.

And you can't kill yourself by ingesting a coca plant. It has to be artificially concentrated to get cocaine out of it. You are aware of the death rate of over two generations of people from cocaine. I won't remind you.

There is nothing natural about any of it.

i'm not sure what data you refer to about the pot smoke being carcinogenic. The research shows that not only is pot smoke not carcinogenic, but its anti-inflammatory properties can shrink some cancers. You're right about coca leaves/cocaine. Cocaine definitely falls under the manufactured drug category, while coca leaves are a plant which can cause euphoric effects when chewed.

As for horticulturists modifying the cannabis plant what you say it true, however, there sure are more varieties of apples nowadays than there were before agriculture. Some obviously have more or less of one property or another. Thickness or skin, sweet or tart, soft or crispy. So long as we are not talking about GMO plants then i see zero difference between new varieties of food plants or cannabis.

[Forum Monk]

Learn the truth -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0128930236

[Ishtar]

i'm not sure what data you refer to about the pot smoke being carcinogenic. The research shows that not only is pot smoke not carcinogenic, but its anti-inflammatory properties can shrink some cancers. You're right about coca leaves/cocaine. Cocaine definitely falls under the manufactured drug category, while coca leaves are a plant which can cause euphoric effects when chewed.

What's really carcinogenic are the tars and chemicals that are put into entirely legal cigarettes.

Sorry to keep harking on about shamans, but it is what sparked off this discussion:

Despite the fact that the tobacco that south American shamans smoke has about 10 times the amount of nicotine (also an hallucinogenic if taken in large enough quantities) as our's do, they have no lung cancer problems because the tobacco is not mixed up with tars and chemicals.

[dannan14]

Learn the truth -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0128930236

Shoot, i was hoping that was the Mystery Science Theatre version.

[Forum Monk]

Sorry about that - I mean -

Learn the truth :

http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html

Effects on the Heart
One study has indicated that an abuser's risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana7. The researchers suggest that such an effect might occur from marijuana's effects on blood pressure and heart rate and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

Effects on the Lungs
A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers8. Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

Smoking marijuana possibly increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced evidence that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers10.

Marijuana abuse also has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains irritants and carcinogens9,11. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke12.

Other Health Effects
Some of marijuana's adverse health effects may occur because THC impairs the immune system's ability to fight disease. In laboratory experiments that exposed animal and human cells to THC or other marijuana ingredients, the normal disease-preventing reactions of many of the key types of immune cells were inhibited14. In other studies, mice exposed to THC or related substances were more likely than unexposed mice to develop bacterial infections and tumors15,16.

and on an on...

Straight people don't know, what you're about
They put you down and shut you out
you gave to me a new belief
and soon the world will love you sweet leaf
-Black Sabbath

[Ishtar]

FM, much of what this report says is also true of cigarettes - yet cigarettes are legal.

[Forum Monk]

FM, much of what this report says is also true of cigarettes - yet cigarettes are legal.

True - but cigarettes don't make you high. (though they are nasty and dangerous)

[Minimalist]

I can't resist any longer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXXTCc-IVg



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW5D5XKB ... re=related



Bill Maher.

[Ishtar]

FM, much of what this report says is also true of cigarettes - yet cigarettes are legal.

True - but cigarettes don't make you high. (though they are nasty and dangerous)

But there' s nothing wrong with being high per se. What's wrong is when it's nasty and dangerous.