14 minutes ago, sabai-dee-man said:

I have three friends who regularly smoked weed from their mid teens. One kicked the habit in his late 30s, early 40s, and is fine, the second progressed to hard drugs, and thankfully managed to get clean about 8 years ago... but his brain is frazzled. He was my best friend at school, but we lost touch when I went to work and he went to college, and got in with the wrong crowd. Drugs totally f****d his life up. The third guy, here in Thailand, now in his late 20s, had a good job and had bought a nice house... lost the will, lost his job, and lost his house! Now lives with his mother in Issan, and no longer even chats with anyone. He's just stoned all the time.

 

I'll pass, thank you. Doesn't appear to be as "harmless" as people claim.

Nothing in your post suggest harm from dope. It seems like individual choices. As for your 3rd friend are you saying he lost his will, his job and his house simply because he smoked dope?

46 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Who would have guessed, smoking drugs all your life destroys your brain.

Says who? I'll guantee there is more evidence that says alcohol abuse does more damage. Keep in perspective we are talking about drug abuse not simply drug use. As for drug abuse legal or illegal it will continue to happen. 

16 minutes ago, proton said:

 

Three old friends who kept it up daily all their adult life's are long dead, all with brain hemorrhages.

Did they smoke? Were they overweight? Did they suffer from hypertension? Did their death certificate have cause of death as brain hemorrhage from cannabis consumption? 

4 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

You are unusual. Most of my friends, and I, who started smoking dope at 14 is have developed paranoia and social issues. 

You're paranioa and social issues have been diagnosed as a direct result of smoking dope then? Getting drunk on brandy is not a good thing for me so I don't drink brandy. Dope relaxes me and makes me feel happy so I like the occassional spliff. I don't drink brandy because I know my limits. I have a spliff because I like it. This should not make me a criminal. Different strokes for different folks as they say. .

9 minutes ago, watchcat said:

 

At what age did the start to smoke it?  Under the age of 20, there is the problem.

14. I'm ok. LSD, magic mushies, speed, coke. I'm ok. Didn't abuse any of them but I regularly smoked dope. Not as much these days but I don't drink as much either. I think it's called getting older. 

9 minutes ago, bamnutsak said:

 

This "verdict" is incorrect. I declare a mistrial.

 

"Powerful" cannabis" poses no more, or no less, of risk than 'regular' cannabis flower. It just means you consume less, or more, for the desired effect.

 

No one ever ODed from cannabis.

 

It's a bit like Whisky, WIne and beer.

 

There are cannabis products with 50%, even 90% THC, and people consume these with the same 'risk', they just consume less (mg THC).

 

 

I agree except for the alcohol bit. You can drink yourself to death. A mate commited suicide this way.

52 minutes ago, JoePai said:

Everyone agrees the taking of cannabis can cause health problems but so do other “drugs” like tobacco and alcohol so why are they not being classified as a scheduled narcotics ?

Agree. The abuse or overuse of basically anything can be detrimental to ones health. As for what is and isn't a narcotic is debatable. These days it's more assiatiated with opiates, opioids and amphetamines.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The verdict is in: frequent use of powerful cannabis poses serious risks to mental health, casting a shadow over pot shops nationwide. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Cannabis, while not solely responsible, has been consistently linked to the onset of psychosis, mental disorders, and even more severe conditions. Alarmingly, suicidal thoughts are reported among regular users as well.

This is true but it's people who already have an existing mental health disease who are heavy users. It's nothing at all like meth that can cause mental health issues for all abusers having or not a pre-extisting mental health issue. For the vast majority of users it's simply not the case. Apart from this what exactly is frequent use. a joint a day? A few joints a week? Complete rubbish and just more demonising of dope from the bloke that said papaya leaf tea can cure cancer.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/deputy-pm-somsak-makes-false-claim-over-cancer-cure/

Thailand is not electing a new senate. Looking at the headline you would think it's a national election. It's not but it should be. A select few are being selected. Of course 50 of Prayuts lackeys remain.

38 minutes ago, Puccini said:

 

Hasn't it always been free choice to get vaccinated or not?

As long as you didn't mind losing your job for some. Proof of vaccination to fly. Demonisation if your weren't getting vaccinated. I guess it's sort of freedom of choice.

5 minutes ago, transam said:

Perhaps you should bypass these Covid threads, we all know where you are coming from, sadly...

Yep I'm coming from a position of not blindly following what big pharma, the CDC, governments, WHO and the access media tells me to believe. I'm glad I have this ability and sad that so many don't. The OP is alarmist nonsense that gets rolled out every now and again.

31 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on turnover intention among nurses in emergency departments in Thailand: a cross sectional study

 

2023 Sep 27

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand, a large volume of COVID-19 patients were referred to hospital emergency departments (EDs). This increased job demand and job strain among ED nurses, resulting in a high risk of intention to leave their organization.

...

This cross-sectional study investigated 322 ED nurses.

...

During COVID-19 pandemic crisis, 72.8% of ED nurses in dark-red zone areas desired to leave their organization. The factors of motivation, exhaustion, and cognitive impairment positively influenced turnover intention among ED nurses in dark-red zone areas. Low availability of organizational resources was associated with an increase in the turnover intention rate. Maladaptive regulation, exhaustion, and cognitive impairment positively influenced turnover intention among ED nurses in non-red zone areas.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10523753/

 

AND

 

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Hospital and Outpatient Clinician Workforce:

May 3, 2022

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has put extreme stress on the health care workforce in the United States, leading to workforce shortages as well as increased health care worker burnout, exhaustion, and trauma. These pandemic-related challenges have taken place in a context of significant pre-existing workforce shortages and maldistribution, as well as in a workforce where burnout, stress, and mental health problems were already significant problems.

 

https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/covid-19-health-care-workforce

 

And globally:

 

Health and Care Worker Deaths during COVID-19

 

20 October 2021

 

WHO estimates that between 80 000 and 180 000 health and care workers could have died from COVID-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021, converging to a medium scenario of 115 500 deaths¹.

 

https://www.who.int/news/item/20-10-2021-health-and-care-worker-deaths-during-covid-19

 

It's SAD from some of the comments posted in this thread to see how people seem to forget, or try to forget, what the reality of things was.

 

 

Washington Post

Mar 27, 2020

People all around the world, including Italy, Spain and Turkey, are gathering on their balconies to applaud the health-care workers on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus.

 

 

Push, push , push the narrative. 2020 LOL.