Cannabis is a psychoactive substance that should be handled very carefully. I think that it’s not as dangerous as many other drugs, but it is more dangerous than many people think. I think that people sometimes underestimate the risks involved with chronic cannabis use. I think that people have a tendency to underestimate the risks inherent in most things that bring them pleasure, and this can be devastating in the long term. I think that the risks associated with chronic cannabis use are real.
I did try it in my university days and it was an awful experience. It was a mixture of terror and boredom. However, it appears to help some people with chronic pain and with certain emotional problems. So, it depends on how you respond to it. In general, I would recommend not using it because we haven’t done enough research to know how it will impact you long-term. I believe there are some people who have reported negative psychological consequences.
That’s a long story. The short one is I discovered it in my teens when I was quite troubled. It provided much-needed relief. But that relief was a double-edged sword — I became dependent on it and then addicted. Ultimately it took me 30+ years to recover. My experience is this: for some people — and I’m one of them — smoking pot doesn’t allow you to solve your problems; it helps you ignore them by making you dumber. I also suffered from psychosis as a result of cannabis, which is extremely difficult to describe.
I’m quite wary of it, particularly for young people. It’s very difficult to determine whether it’s harmful or not. I think it’s pretty clear it’s not as harmful as many of the other recreational drugs that people use, but we have very little data on long-term outcomes. My sense is that it is better to avoid it, particularly for young people, for whom even a small reduction in intelligence and motivation has a massive cost.
I have a little experience with Cannabis, and I do not think that consuming it is necessarily an unalloyed good. I think it is dangerous for young people because their nervous systems are not fully developed. There’s lots of research that suggests that chronic cannabis consumption by young people is associated with poor outcomes. I have nothing against recreational drugs, but I think there needs to be moderation and a certain degree of orderliness. I think that Cannabis can be useful in some circumstances but needs to be handled in a very careful and responsible way, and I think that people have a tendency to go overboard with Cannabis.
My experience of cannabis is that it’s a much milder form of intoxication than alcohol, although there are potential risks of excessive or chronic use of cannabis over time. That’s where the risks are. But we can’t deny that both cannabis and alcohol have been around for so long and they’re so thoroughly integrated with our cultures to the extent that it is a bit unlikely that we could simply say to people: stop using it! Because that doesn’t work.
I’ve had some really bad experiences with cannabis. I have absolutely no control over my sense of perception. Things can go sideways in a brutal manner, and there’s no limit to the depth of my paranoia and anxiety. It makes me not want to touch anything like that, whatsoever. It’s much more like an episode of psychedelic chaos, as far as I’m concerned – as opposed to the more regular forms of recreational alcohol use. I think of it as being much more akin to an hallucinatory substance like psilocybin or LSD.