From: mason@dante.uucp (Mason Jones)
Subject: Re: Daily use of mj
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 21:10:50 GMT
Organization: Charnel House Prod.

ben@ut-emx.uucp (Benjamin J. Sloan) writes:
: I have a friend who gets high every single morning before work, 
: every lunch, and most evenings.  His job allows for this sort of
: departure from his faculties.  He claims he couldn't deal with
: work otherwise. 
: 
: My question, as one in favor of recreational drug use but somewhat
: uncomfortable with more serious, addictive-type use, is: what is
: this doing to him?  Is he dealing with life?  Is he with us?  Can
: he accomplish the great things he hopes to and do all the hard work
: he expects to do?  Is he just a dreamer?  Is mj addictive?  What
: are your experiences?

   The only time I've known people who got high that frequently was
back in college.  I can at least say that those people dealt with
their schoolwork fine, graduated quite handily, and as far as I know
got fine jobs.  At that point, for whatever reasons, they tended to
stop getting high quite that frequently.
   What's it doing to him?  I don't think there's any way to know
or predict; medically-speaking there haven't been any long-term
effects proven that I know of (but I'm no medical expert).  Mentally,
it seems to be an escapist outlet for him, based on his claim that
he couldn't deal with work otherwise.  The best thing would probably
be to find another job!  I'm not against getting high that much, but
in his case it sounds like he'd be better off with another job, even
if he continued to get high constantly.
   Is he dealing with life?  No, that's why he's trying to use the
pot to cope with his job.  Assuming he's getting the work done, seeing
his friends, and generally handling day-to-day details, then sure,
he's dealing with life.  Likewise, he's with us.  There's no way for
someone to tell unless they're a good friend of his -- if you think
his behavior's suffering because he's getting high too much, then I'd
say maybe there's a problem.  If you don't see any problems, then maybe
there aren't any.
   Can he accomplish great things?  Of course.  It depends on what he
wants to accomplish, obviously enough.  Baudelaire accomplished great
things while taking hashish regularly.
   Is mj addictive?  Mentally/psychologically, sure.  It sounds like
your friend could be addicted -- if he's getting high to escape from
the downside of a bad job, then he's addicted to avoiding the bad
environment, not to the mj itself.  Anything that allowed him to gain
that same escape would probably suffice.  If he drank, though, he
probably wouldn't be able to deal with the job, while being high from
mj isn't always as incapacitating; those are generalizations, of
course.
   It comes down to the circumstances.  If he hates his job and he's
getting high because of it, finding a decent job will probably
eliminate the problem.


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             Mason Jones           Charnel House Productions
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs