Social Question

Seelix's avatar

So... Who doesn't smoke pot?

Asked by Seelix (14952points) April 11th, 2011

First and foremost, I just want to say that I don’t intend for this to become a debate about whether smoking pot is good or bad. So please don’t make it into one.

Every so often, someone on Fluther mentions smoking pot, or making magic brownies, or something like that. I know that a bunch of Flutherites do partake (and I don’t mean to put any of you down – it doesn’t bother me one way or the other), but I also know that I can’t be the only one who doesn’t.

So, for those of you who don’t, why don’t you? Have you tried it? What has contributed to your decision to abstain?

As for me, I’ve tried it a handful of times, and it didn’t really do anything for me. Personally, if I’m looking for a buzz, I’d rather have a few drinks. It’s legal, doesn’t smell so bad, and I can do it pretty much anywhere.

What about you?

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100 Answers

optimisticpessimist's avatar

Me either, never have.

nikipedia's avatar

The first time I tried it, it didn’t do much. The second and third times it made me feel completely crazy, like I had no grasp of reality and all my thoughts were falling forward out of my head. It was terrifying and not enjoyable at all. I have no desire to ever try it again.

Mariah's avatar

I never have. In high school I didn’t have friends who did, so I just wasn’t really around it nor had an opportunity to try it. If I had had an opportunity, I wouldn’t have taken it due to my health paranoia and just basically having no desire.

I’m on a quest to get over my health paranoia and one step in doing so is going to be trying pot at least once at some point in college and observing the fact that it doesn’t make me spontaneously combust or anything.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

I don’t and haven’t in years.I’m not crazy about the buzz and like to be more in control of my actions.Pot never helped that.XD

KateTheGreat's avatar

I don’t go out and buy pot, but whenever it is at a party or my friends invite me to smoke with them, I will do it. I prefer alcohol to pot any day.

Atacama's avatar

I’ve smoked twice in my life. First time I ended up covered in vomit and passing out for about an hour. Second time I ended up covered in vomit, excrement, urine and every other bodily fluid my body could muster. I blacked out for several hours, and when I woke up I had extreme tunnel vision and from what I’m told a heart rate about half of what is normal. I am fairly sure I have an extreme allergy to marijuana…

shego's avatar

I don’t. I have tried it a couple times, but I can’t stand it, I dont like being so paranoid.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

I haven’t done it because I don’t have any connections. Whatever, I’ll try Salvia instead.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

I haven’t smoked pot since New Year’s Eve, 2003. It’s not that I made any sort of decision not to smoke it again, I just haven’t so far.

DominicX's avatar

I’ve tried it (via a vaporizer), but I don’t care for it. I’m a drinker :)

Seaofclouds's avatar

I don’t. I did it when I was younger and honestly, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. My asthma has gotten worse over the years and the smoke came to bother me more than anything else. Now with my career and family, it’s just not worth it.

Cupcake's avatar

I haven’t ever. I’m not interested. I have a family history of addictions. Plus, I have control issues that would not mesh with drugs/alcohol.

Berserker's avatar

I’ve done it quite often, especially as a teenager. I enjoyed it, but over the years I wasn’t able to handle it anymore. It got to the point that everytime I smoked it, I tripped real bad. Anxiety and paranoia attacks, and very often I’d end up throwing up. It’s like my body doesn’t accept it anymore. In my early 20’s I smoked it every now and then to see if that problem went away, but the same thing kept happening, so I gave up on it. Well not true, I had a bit about two years ago, but I was already drunk and didn’t smoke enough of it to really be affected. But I felt it coming.

So no, I don’t smoke it now, but I probbaly still would if it didn’t make me freak out all the time. Or maybe not. I’m too busy these days, and my pot resilience is rather weak. One joint and that’s me gone for three hours. Unlike drinking, I can’t focus or do much of anything while stoned.
Incidentally, LSD was another drug I really liked, but it started doing the same thing as the pot. But LSD is something else entirely, and tripping sessions are way more intense than pot, so when you trip bad on that, you trip bad.

I’m stuck with booze these days lol.

ddude1116's avatar

I don’t because it’s too impractical for my current place in life.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

@Symbeline Amen on the LSD thing. I never really had what you would call a “bad trip”, but I had a few pretty intense ones. One day in class, I had to force myself not to scream when my Physical Science teacher’s head blew up like a balloon and exploded.

prolificus's avatar

I don’t, never have, not that I don’t want to try it! Reasons for not: initially, because I saw how it negatively affected others, so I didn’t want the same consequences. As I got older, when I really wanted to try it, I worked in jobs that did random drug testing. So, I couldn’t! Now I’m working in a very long-term job without a drug policy. Although I’m very curious to try pot, because I know how hard it was for me to quit smoking cigs, I don’t dare light a joint. Plus, I know I wouldn’t be able to smoke weed and act right!

KateTheGreat's avatar

@Symbeline Hahaha, LSD fucked me up completely. I remember one time I was in gym class I was laying on the floor and I was tripping so hard on LSD that I was pretending I was swimming in the ocean.

laureth's avatar

I don’t.

And even if I did, I wouldn’t talk about it on the internet.

Berserker's avatar

@WillWorkForChocolate and @KatetheGreat Yeeeah LSD is some messed up business. Got plenty of stories too, but I’ll keep those for a rainy day haha. (although I might still take it today too, if it behaved once in my system lol)

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

@Symbeline I don’t think I could ever take it again. Too many experiences with melting furniture, breathing walls, teacher’s head exploding, my school desk turning into water….... It’s been about 17 years and I still have “tracers” sometimes. I’ll just stick to wine and cocktails! =0)

Berserker's avatar

Interesting about the tracers. I don’t know if this is true or not, but people who have used LSD heavily, especially back in the sixties and seventies when it was acid bits and way more potent than our wussy dipped sheets, often experience the effects of the drugs years after not taking any…how much did you do lol? Rainbows glowing around lights…these days I only see that if I swim in a pool with chlorine in it for too long. XD

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

A lot… all within a two month period. Every day. All day. Before, during, and after school. My eyes were nothing but ginormous pupils for two months.

perspicacious's avatar

I’ve never used pot in any way.

Jeruba's avatar

Not since about 1975; but in the sixties I did enjoy my share of smoke. (That stuff was a lot milder than what’s going around now.)

I quit when it started making me sick to my stomach and I figured that meant I was getting too old for it.

KatawaGrey's avatar

I have smoked pot exactly twice in my life. The first time, nothing happened. The second time, I had such a terrifying experience that I would never do it again. Before I got high, I had heard that people’s senses became super sensitive and that happened to me except it happened the wrong way. I became fiercely aware of everything that was going on inside my body. I couldn’t see anything except the blood pumping through my eyes. I couldn’t hear anything except the blood pumping through my ears. Every time my heart beat, I could feel my whole body expand and contract. When the high first hit, I threw up, only I didn’t know I was throwing up. Someone asked me if I was okay, and I looked down and realized there was liquid spewing out of me at a great rate. It was awful.. Even worse was that for a week or two after, every time I woke up, I had the same feeling for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. I don’t remember much from that night except that my boyfriend and I got into some kind of fight and that my puke was bright orange, but I don’t know if I ate something that color or if that was just the pot affecting my vision.

JustJessica's avatar

There was a point in my my early life 12–16 where I smoked occasionally, but never really liked it. I obviously don’t smoke it now (due to me not liking it). I actually think I may be allergic to it, when I hear other people explain how it makes them feel it couldn’t be further from the way my body reacts to it. I literally feel like I’m going to die when I smoke, I feel like an elephant is on my chest and every breath I take is a huge effort, if I am in any pain (I have chronic back and knee pain so that’s all the time) it makes my pain 10,000x’s worse! I have no time to get happy and hungry like everyone else because I feel like I’m fighting for my life. It may be for some people I’m just not one of them. But whatever tickles your pickle! I just hate hearing excuses from people who do smoke about why they smoke. Just say you enjoy getting high and leave it at that!

AmWiser's avatar

I don’t and have only tried it a few times back in the 70’s. Those around me that did partake in smoking refeer/doobie refuse to let me partake because it made me toooo silly. I never liked the sh#t anyway.

muppetish's avatar

I don’t smoke and I am not especially interested in any mood or mind altering drugs.

There are too many people in my life who have been effected by drugs and alcohol for me justify consumption of either. I know plenty of people who have a smashing good time thanks to moderation, but it’s not for me.

augustlan's avatar

I don’t. I just don’t like the feeling it gives me. I’d rather be tipsy from alcohol than high, any day. When I’m tipsy, I feel in total control of my mind (if not my laughter, or even my body). Pot makes me feel like my mind is floating away. I hate that feeling. Even when I was put under ‘twilight sleep’ at the oral surgeon’s, I freaked out.

john65pennington's avatar

Never have and never will.

Aster's avatar

I don’t. But if I were in terrible pain? Then I’d take anything available to stop it if it worked.

rebbel's avatar

Pot is overrated, is my experience.

faye's avatar

I tried it in college and went to sleep, missed the party. I’ve read so much about the pain control people get from it so I tried some about a year ago. It made me so paranoid, I didn’t even want my daughter to see me! So it’s booze for me.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

I don’t. My fiancée doesn’t. My parents don’t (any longer).

To me, pot smells like cat pee, tastes like I inhaled dead animal and makes me instantly paranoid, horribly hungry and then passes me out.

crisw's avatar

I never have. I have no interest in smoking anything.

Response moderated (Writing Standards)
BarnacleBill's avatar

Never have. Only a moderate social drinker.

DeanV's avatar

I tend to think I live in the pot capital of the world, and about half of my friends smoke regularly, but I’m just not really into it. It barely affects me, so what’s the point?

jca's avatar

I don’t. When I was young, like late teens, early 20’s, I would take it if someone passed it to me, but did not care enough for it that I bought it or craved it. I never really cared for the way it made me feel (racing thoughts, etc), and I don’t miss it at all.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

I don’t now, I used to when I was younger.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

I don’t. I did smoke regularly for a really long time, but I just kind of grew out of it. I quit several years ago, just because I wasn’t feeling it anymore. No biggie.

filmfann's avatar

Guilty back in college. Clean for 33 years.

snowberry's avatar

I don’t. It’s not worth it on so many levels.

However, for those who deal with chronic pain, you have my full sympathy and support. If it works for you, use it.

yankeetooter's avatar

I never have…

Cruiser's avatar

I never inhaled.

optimisticpessimist's avatar

@Cruiser Planning to run for president?

Facade's avatar

I smoke everyday. I’m about to light up now, in fact. I just finished a very challenging paper, and should celebrate =) I’d rather smoke than drink because it’s less harmful and because I like feeling high more than I like feeling drunk. Yay weed!

Cruiser's avatar

@optimisticpessimist Gotta be careful…you never know when you will be vetted. ;)

El_Cadejo's avatar

For those above talking of the downsides of LSD and bad trips, I really must say in the scenarios youve described it going bad, it wasnt exactly a smart idea on your part to be taking a drug such as LSD at those times, the only one to blame is you, not the drug.

Porifera's avatar

Smoking pot is still illegal right?

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Symbeline and @WillWorkForChocolate just for the record, I still catch trails and have had one flashback, despite not having touched the stuff for 8–9 years.

KateTheGreat's avatar

@Porifera You are in the year 2011. Pot is still illegal. There are many debates still going on about the legal use of pot. Obama is the president of the United States and we have not colonized the moon yet. :P

incendiary_dan's avatar

I don’t. Not my scene. Funny thing is, I do smoke other herbs.

Berserker's avatar

@uberbatman Yeah I know. When you feel like crap, don’t do drugs. But I really didn’t know that at the time of my LSD bad trip. (or bad weed trips) I’m not sure about weed, I still attribute it to physical factors, at least partly, but that bad LSD trip I had, I remember I was really anxious about something before taking it. Someone explained that to me before, that some drugs will compliment your mood at the time you take it. Except with weed, whatever I was feeling I was always tripping bad.

jonsblond's avatar

@Facade want some company? :D

Facade's avatar

@jonsblond Come on over!

Porifera's avatar

@KatetheGreat Well, I had to ask. The way some of you are talking is like smoking pot —not to mention LSD—is like a walk in the park or drinking a glass of water. I don’t engage in illegal behavior in any way and was just wondering what drives people to break the law so brazenly. I don’t see the funny side of it.

El_Cadejo's avatar

@Symbeline ahh that sucks. Different strokes for different folks. Everyone has their own reactions to every substance. But yes, LSD is a tricky one, you need to really make sure you are in the right mind and setting prior to taking it.

@Porifera eh I dont believe in following a law that has no actual ramifications to others when I partake in said act. Im not going to not do it “because we said so”. Fuck that lol

SABOTEUR's avatar

I did as a teen, but stopped once I entered the service.
(Random drug tests play hell with one’s career.)

That was over 25 years ago.

Then I got married for the second time and had a daughter soon after. My wife works at night and I during the day, so I frequently held the responsibility of caring for the baby alone. The worst case scenario for me would be something happening to the kid and not being able to respond properly from being high.

So after being away from it so long, I never really missed it; and assuming greater responsibility meant it no longer had a place in my life.

Heck, I rarely even drink anymore.
It is what it is.

Seelix's avatar

Hey guys. I’d like to point out that, in my question, I said that I didn’t want this to turn into a debate over whether smoking pot is good or bad. I was hoping to hear from non-smokers about why they decided not to smoke. Thanks.

El_Cadejo's avatar

Im sorry Seelix :)

Seelix's avatar

No worries, a little meandering is bound to happen. I just don’t want to see things getting ugly! :)

Porifera's avatar

@Seelix I was not in any way promoting a good/bad debate on the matter. My answer was meant to indicate why I don’t do it which is what I understood your question was. Some people that participate in these discussions need to be prepared to hear the opposite side of their views without taking offense or feeling they are being attacked. We are all entitled to our own opinion on any matter.

Berserker's avatar

I don’t think it was getting ugly, not yet, but yeah, we’re off track a bit lol. ’‘zips it’’ :)

saintDrew's avatar

I never smoked anything a day in my life.
I guess it was because of my upbringings..so I never really felt the urge to.
Now that I’m in school and away from home It seems like everyone here does it.. yet still I don’t feel the urge to. my roommate smokes pot almost everyday. he just came back in from smoking a jay haha

Pied_Pfeffer's avatar

I tried it once when I was about 26. It was under the watchful eyes of friends, fortunately, as I became a laughing fool. Never again, thank you.

crisw's avatar

@Seelix

“I was hoping to hear from non-smokers about why they decided not to smoke.”

I don’t like feeling out of control (which is probably why I also never drink and never have been drunk). I hate smoke- cigarette smoke even more. I don’t like being around people who are stoned. Many of my college friends smoked, so I had plenty of opportunity, but I was never even remotely tempted.

YARNLADY's avatar

I don’t and I never have. I’ve been around a lot of people who did. It totally ruins a party when people slip from interesting conversation into a weak stupor. They lean back, their talk becomes disjointed, or degenerates into mmmmmmmmmmmm. Plus it stinks up the clothes and room.

I was always the designated child care provider in our group, along with one or two other “clean” adults.

jerv's avatar

Tried it, didn’t like it, don’t do it.

SpatzieLover's avatar

I’ve never tried it. I actually always wanted to try it once, but haven’t. Maybe I’ll add it to my bucket list.

Brian1946's avatar

I didn’t toke at all during the last half of my fifties.

Raven_Rising's avatar

Tried it a couple of times but decided it just wasn’t my thing. It doesn’t do it for me but different strokes and all…

FireMadeFlesh's avatar

I don’t, and I don’t plan on starting.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@jerv said it best for me. Tried it, didn’t like it, don’t do it.

optimisticpessimist's avatar

@Seelix Since I gave no reason previously… It was not available when I was a teen and I doubt I would have tried it anyway. Drug tests in the military; I would have lost my clearance and my job. Children right after getting out; not something I would do with kids in the house. At this point, I do not think I have missed anything so I doubt I would ever try it.

Blackberry's avatar

I don’t, because I’m in the military, although even if I wasn’t in the military I probably wouldn’t because I would feel like I hadn’t left highschool yet. It was fun in the past, but I have priorities now.

basstrom188's avatar

I don’t then I don’t smoke and never have

Buttonstc's avatar

I don’t and never have. I hate any type of smoking and I don’t find being out of control to be the least bit appealing in any way.

But reading these responses has been very enlightening for me. I currently live in a state which allows Medical Marijuana and was thinking about getting a MM card primarily because I have no cartilage left in my knees and Synvisc hasn’t exactly done wonders.

I’d rather use something like MJ for pain (especially when awakening at night) as opposed to one or another type of narcotic pain pills.

Everything I’d read up till now was all glowing testimonials about how wonderfully it worked for pain.

Well, apparently that’s not always the case. Interesting.

@DominicX

When you used it with a vaporizer, what did it smell like, if anything? Obviously there isn’t any smoke since it doesn’t get hot enough to burn but I’m curious if it eliminates that obnoxious smell as well.

OpryLeigh's avatar

No. I never have.

Facade's avatar

@Buttonstc Obnoxious? More like amazing =)

Buttonstc's avatar

I was referring to the smell. NOT the effect :)

Porifera's avatar

@Buttonstc So was she, I think.

Facade's avatar

As was I! lol

Buttonstc's avatar

Well, to each his own :)

Jude's avatar

I don’t and I truly don’t have any interest.

Did in my early 20’s.

Response moderated (Spam)
ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

“The one damn feature I get complimented on.” One feature? That’s absurd, you are gorgeous. Just saying.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

I know, she doesn’t just get compliments on her eyes; her mustache is sexy too!

Response moderated (Spam)
ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

That’s the trilogy of hotness right there. ;)

SavoirFaire's avatar

Never even tried it. No deep reason, just never been interested.

mattbrowne's avatar

I don’t. Never even tried it. I’m still shocked that so many people think it’s completely harmless compared to alcohol. To my knowledge people need to know what they are doing when they consume alcohol or THC. While abuse is possible, the vast majority of people use these psychoactive substances in a responsible manner.

laureth's avatar

Hey, a relevant article that I found today. :)

cockswain's avatar

I used to a lot in the past, now just here and there. I like the different perspective it gives me. For example, it helped me understand why the harmonic series diverges, as well as helped me figure out how to do a backside 180 on my snowboard. Sometimes you just need a different point of view to help make something click.

SpatzieLover's avatar

@laureth I lurve freakonomics…cool!

zensky's avatar

I don’t.

likipie's avatar

My mother. I’m sure if she tried it she would understand what I’m “waisting away” for.

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