Sunmaster

Searching for more info on this... Are there any news?

wow...the thread is still going! Unfortunately, it seems to be going backwards. 😆 New players, same old arguments.

True. But the article only mentions one drug: alcohol.

Right....leadership....we've really seen leadership with those muppets I mentioned. 😄 Thanks for the laugh. 🖖

Not "drugs"....just alcohol in this case.

If someone like Bush Jr, Trump and Biden can become president, then anyone can.

And between weed and meth, do you think he lost his licence many times because of the weed?? 😂 Being 77 is no guarantee for rational and logical thinking, it seems.

List the facts then, and not just those that fit your narrative. One fact (3 actually) for example is that, compared to alcohol, smoking weed is far less addictive, far less dangerous to your health (both mental and physical) and far less dangerous tonyourself and others when taken in substantial amounts. If you drink yourself into oblivion you can die of alcohol poisoning. You can smoke non stop for 24 hours and all you will feel is a bit stupid. Now, why is weed illegal in most of the world while alcohol is not? Where is the logic? Please explain.

A criminal! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I've been "in the field" for over 30 years. Is that prestigious enough? 😄

I see the witch hunting is still going strong. Cannabis is nothing but an amplifier of the existing condition. If you are prone to psychosis, it will of course amplify that. Personal responsibility for one's own actions is key. If you're unstable and take mind altering substances, it's your own fault. Those same people could be drinking alcohol or popping pills and the results would be the same. The drugs change but the common denominator remains the same (mental instability)....but let's ignore all that and blame a plant that millions of balanced people use daily without problems.

Yes, they dance and laugh uncontrollably...eat lots of sweets...hug trees, talk a lot. Oh the horror! 😂

2.1. Marijuana Violence On March 13, 2019, Anthony Comello admitted to, and subsequently was charged for, the killing of Frank Cali, a senior leader of the Gambino family in Staten Island, New York. Both men were allegedly having an altercation over Comello’s romantic interest on one of Cali’s relatives. Although Comello had no previous criminal encounters with law enforcement, reports suggest that he drew the attention of authorities by acting strangely in a federal courthouse when he offered to perform a citizen’s arrest on New York City’s Mayor, Bill De Blasio. Previously, Comello sought a U.S. Marshal to inquire how to perform a citizen’s arrest on the United States Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Comello admitted that, at the time of Cali’s killing, he was high on marijuana and shot Cali because he feared that the senior leader had a gun and would shoot him during their altercation [4,7]. A Mafia/romantic killing, blamed on weed. 😄 On February 10, 2019, a man killed his 13-year-old nephew with a knife in Rustavi, Georgia. The man had a history of marijuana use. For days leading up to the killing, he was complaining about having dizziness, headaches, general weakness, nausea, and insomnia. He would also occasionally suffer from anxiety, irritability, and loss of appetite. His wife stated that he consumed and was under the influence of marijuana, which made his symptoms worse. The day before the killing, he tried to go to a clinic. However, the clinic rejected treatment by telling him to go to a psychiatric hospital. However, under the influence of drugs, he simply went home hours before killing his nephew [8]. A person with a history of psychological problems, yet weed is blamed for his instability. 😄 On February 1, 2018, Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and staff at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and injured 17 others. Cruz was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age three and had numerous disciplinary issues dating to middle school. From a young age, he started consuming marijuana heavily. He accounts that he would frequently “hear demon voices” and would consume large amount of marijuana to try and silence those voices. He also attempted suicide. During an interview after his mass shooting, he stated that he used “a lot of marijuana” as well as prescription tranquilizer Xanax [9,10]. Same as above. I could go on, but I have better things to do with my time. Point is, it's undisputable that weed is a psychoactive substance, but is NOT THE CAUSE for the violence. An unstable person should refrain from taking ANY substance that could exacerbate his condition. From the article you linked: In the cases above mentioned, one of the recurring conditions that most likely led perpetrators to commit violence was paranoia. If the demonization of weed is legitimized by and based on such flimsy evidence of a few cases among MILLIONS of otherwise stable users, then it would be a no-brainer to completely outlaw the use of alcohol based on the overwhelming, concrete evidence of the destructive potential of it. (PS: I like to drink occasionally and do NOT advocate for an alc ban)

You might have a point, but...

I take it that you are sarcastic. Nice one. Unfortunately, that's how this witch-hunting madness started, and as you can see from the post I replied to, the effects of the brainwashing still persist today.

Sure, whatever you say. Keep on drinking your alc then...boy. 😄

Because smoking weed doesn't make you want to do stupid things like that. Alcohol, on the other hand, is well known for being the cause of such behaviour, as well as for causing traffic accidents, aggressions and even murder. When was the last time you heard of someone stoned going on a killing spree. 🤣 Get real, man.

We all have belief systems, either religious, spiritual (non-religious) or atheist/materialist. To believe that the material BS is somehow better or more evolved is just that, another belief. And a dangerous one on top of that, because it closes your mind to other truths out there...and frankly turns you into a condescending prick that judges others without knowing anything about the subject. Thais are not "obsessed" with Buddhism but they have a deep respect for it. It's something that takes the focus away from the small egocentric worldview that so many westerners subscribe to, and opens them to something bigger than themselves. The OP may want to try that for a change.

I like that! 🖖

What if life really has no meaning? And I don't mean it as a result of depression, just as a fact of life.

The issue is not the girl, but you. Have a very good look at yourself and ask yourself a few key questions. What do I really need and want? Why do I need to mention her looks and bedroom performance on a public forum? Why am I so shallow? Why am I asking strangers on the internet for relationship advice?

Exactly. There are degrees of self-delusion, but compared to permanent self-realisation, they are all child's play. The only consolation is that the half-sleep state gives you a little more freedom compared to the fully asleep state. Like having a lucid dream, being aware that you're still dreaming gives you the ability to manipulate the dream to some degree. And you don't fall for all the ups and downs that happen during the dream.

I think both those points apply to the socalled spiritual awakening and enlightenment. If someone is ever in doubt whether he is awakened or not, you can be 100% sure he isn't. This is to say that there is a difference between thinking/believing and knowing. Knowing is not based on intellectual understanding or belief. There is no doubt when there is Knowing. Say you wake up from an ordinary dream. In the dream you may or may not be conscious that you were dreaming, but once you wake up to our ordinary reality, you know you're awake. Nobody will be able to convince you otherwise. You just know the difference between the dream state you were in and the reality of being awake. The same happens when people talk about the big awakening, with enlightenment being the permanent state of being awake. There can be no doubt to what state you've awakened to, because it will feel more real than anything you've experienced before. And if people tell you that it's just a hallucination, that you're imagining it, you will know better and just answer with a smile. The placebo effect works when there is thinking/believing involved, because it works within those mental parameters. Awakening is separate from thinking/ believing and therefore, there can't be a placebo effect. To be clear...one can have several awakenings, but most of the time they are temporary. You can still fall back into the dream state (what we call ordinary reality) while retaining some memories of the experience. Enlightenment, on the other hand, means that you have established the awakened state as a permanent reality, and there is no going back....even if you tried.

That's very true. Awakening is not for the faint-hearted. The dream (or Maya as the Hindus call it) has an extremely strong grip on us. Most don't realize it's a dream. Very few do, but still wander around in the dream. Many of these, me included, dream that they are on some sort of spiritual journey, they read books, gather knowledge, attend yoga workshops, follow a teacher or guru. All kinds of stuff designed to keep us distracted from the fact that half-sleep is still sleep.

Thank you for the link. The study sounds familiar to me. Maybe it was already shared here once. The placebo effect is a great example for the power of beliefs. If the whole point of religion were to strengthen this ability (that we can change things thanks to our belief...for example that prayers are answered), then this alone should give it a reason to be. Awakening is much more than that, though....I think.