Anyway, I think herbdoc215 brought up the point that using a vaporizer was like kissing your sister, that it did not yield the same type of "high"... and we all know, or should by now that the most harmful components of smoke include carbon dioxide, benzene, benzopyreene and toluene.

When I was about 15, I met a total loser who inhaled toluene, he said it made him high. It (and he) seemed stupid, so I did not go down tthat road.

But now, while I am trying to find some way to catch this buzz without coughing and feeling stupid, I read the following article, and I wonder if maybe the toluene is part of the reason we keep smoking, even when there are vaporizers, of course brownies are harder to self-titrate.

Read on:

From:

'HUFFED' SOLVENTS ACT LIKE COCAINE ON BRAIN-STUDY

WASHINGTON ( Reuters ) - The fumes from glue, lighters and other solvents that children and young adults inhale go straight to the same brain regions that are stimulated by cocaine and other drugs, researchers said on Monday in a study that shed light on the appeal of "huffing."

Brain scans show that chemicals such as toluene move very quickly to pleasure centers -- then move out to other brain cells, causing the damage that can make sniffers lose their memory, suffer vision problems and eventually develop serious mental defects.

"It's the first time we've ever shown it," neuroanatomist Stephen Dewey of Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, who helped lead the study, said in an interview.

"We have known it from behavioral studies -- people will report euphoria and they will report highs.  But we have never known this class of chemicals, these toluenes, go to the dopamine centers of the brain, much like cocaine."

Sniffing or huffing is of special concern because hildren like to do it.  Unlike illegal drugs such as cocaine, solvents are everywhere and easily accessed by youngsters who quickly learn they can give a cheap high.

"Like rubber cement -- you could roll it on your desk into a ball and then sniff it," said Dewey, who works in his local schools to discourage children from using drugs.

"I get questions from fourth, fifth, sixth graders.  They huff butane lighters," he said.  "The most striking latest statistics suggest that one in five eighth graders have done it."

Writing in the journal Life Sciences, Dewey and colleagues said they injected toluene -- the chemical that causes the "high" from sniffing - -- into baboons and then did PET scans of their brains and bodies.

"The images were really striking.  None of us expected to see what we saw," Dewey said.

The chemical went straight to clusters of brain cells that produce dopamine -- a neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical associated with pleasure.

"Then we watched it redistribute to the white matter in the brain.  And it goes to the kidneys just as quickly," he said.

This could explain the toxic side-effects of huffing or sniffing.  "What you see is over time is you get cortical atrophy, characterized by changes in cognition, disorientation," Dewey said.  Vision becomes blurred and victims can become uncoordinated.

The team next plans to recruit adults who admit they sniff or huff inhalants and do PET scans of their brains as they do.

"There is never a shortage of volunteers," said Dewey.

He expects the chemicals, when inhaled, will work even more quickly than when injected.

The team chose toluene because it is one of the most common industrial solvents, found in paints, glues, and other products favored by huffers. 

• Narcosoft.com - technology with substance

Getting heavier every day. I predict...no. I'm certain of it. The battlefront is coming to Amerika. We must prepare.

Liquid Drugs (Booze)and Driving is the #1 cause of death for 18-24 year olds
September 13, 1999
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=342.topic

Researcher Calls Claim Of Over 10,000 Studies Documenting The Harmful Effects Of Marijuana Groundless NORML News,
June 1996
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/ten-thousand.htm

How To Hold Your Own In a Drug Legalization Debate
by The US DEA
and
Reply to How To Hold Your Own by Clifford A. Schaffer
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/ACTIVIST/how2men.htm

Two complete-text books from Professor Tart are presented here.On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/tart/tartcont.htm
and States of Consciousness
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/tart/soccont.htm
From the Introduction to the Web Edition, 1997, by the author: "I am very pleased that the Schaffer Library, through the kind efforts of Peter Webster, is now making this book available over the World Wide Web. The greatly increasing interest in the nature of consciousness in the last few years makes this material even more relevant than when it was originally published in 1975.

How Americans Die
This page contains some miscellaneous stats on how Americans die, and other subjects.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/miscstat.htm

Cannabis 1988 Old Drug, New Dangers, The Potency Debate

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol 20(1), Jan-Mar, 1988 pg 47. Mikuriya, Tod H. and Aldrich, Michael.,

Summary and Conclusions:

Observation of the real world of social and marijuana use, where autotitration is the norm, renders the scare tactics of the new marijuana proponents not only inaccurate but irrelevant (*). There is much published evidence about the availability of highly potent varieties of cannabis from the nineteenth century through the present day. The effects attributed to the new marijuana are the same ones debated for centuries in many different cultures. The assertion that "all marijuana research to date has been done on 1 or 2 percent THC material" (Cohen 1968) ignores several thousand years of human experience with the drug. The old medical cannabis extracts were stronger than most of the forms now available, though the potency of illicit hash oils by the mid-1970's was approaching the level of medicinal preparations available before their removal from the USP.

I dont think i have ever heard a better description of the current state of our nation that this quote that was written over 50 years ago. This is the Wod and the war on terror described perfectly. HOW CAN YOU FIGHT A WAR AGAINST AN IDEA OR A PLANT?!?!?!?!?!?!

You cant

"If you arent with us, you are against us"

Be careful folks, this is some serious thoughtcrime going on here. People are already disappearing. Tom and Rollie, although that made the Washington Post. Ed and the others involved with the Cali raids. People like Steven Tuck in forced exile in Canada. Dont be surprised to hear about the infamous known terrorist SoberStoner being 'detained' for his involvement in a terrorist plot to overthrow the government. Just by posting here and disagreeing, we are all terrorists in the eyes of the elite. We are a nuisance to be dealt with like nothing more than the garbage you threw out last week.

I would comment about the 'super potent weed' but we all know thats complete garbage and I dont fee like possibly validating and comment that this mouthpiece spews forth..I want to comment, i really do...but i think i'll just ask this...if the parents are smoking this 'super weed' too and smoked in the 60's and 70's wouldnt they know best how potent it REALLY is and how best to 'protect the children'?? Oh sorry...i didnt mean to through logic into this steaming pile of bullshit you call journalism...oh no wait, i did.

Remeber in 1984 Oceania will be North and South America, and GB. Of course when Orwell wrote 1984 GB and U$A had just defeated the Nazi's so they were still best buds. More and more everyday i see things that make me think that Orwell wasnt wrong, he was just off by 20 years.

In reality, the Americas will be one force, while the Euros will be another and Asia will unite as well. You're already (not) seeing it happen (in mass media). The two minute hate is the nightly news with warnings of more terrorists attacks in Eastasia, err Israel.

Venezuela, Columbia, Chile....where will these maniacs stop? They basically said, "Overthrow this guy who wont sell us your oil, and we'll help"..and we're supposed to be the good guys?!?!?! No wonder people are bombing anything to do with us. The only thing I wonder is what ELSE dont we know about?

There are two passages that i read last night, in keeping with the 1984 theme of this post (yet horribly offtopic i know) that made me realize that in some twisted way, 1984 is here...

It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possession and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small priviledged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would realize that the priviledged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away.

That quote makes me think of the situation in Venezuela, as well as our own materialistic society. Think of the last few years when it seemed everyone had made their million because of the net. People began to educate theirselves and then they realized that they didnt know what they thought they knew. I think we are going to see a revolution in many ways. I fully believe we are headed for our second civil war. This one will not be North vs. South. This will be the elite versus the masses. Only the elite will have a shock coming, because just like in Venezuela, we have more supporters in their military than they think we do.

This post is already too long, so i will break it into two parts...stay tuned, the rabbit hole goes deeper.

The last paragraph says:

Mayor Bloomberg can be the martyr who changes this, whether he wants to or not, but he cannot do it alone. E-mail me at youbetihave@yahoo.com to let me know if you too smoked and enjoyed marijuana. Provide your name and let me know if you would mind your name being published. Mike has smoked marijuana and so have I. We both enjoyed it. Who else?

Richard Cowan perfectly answers this old canard. It is worth a quick read!

Heidi: Whereas in 1974 THC content averaged less than 1 percent, today's marijuana THC concentration ranges from 8 to 28 percent

Marijuana Prohibition And Potency, Price, And Safety -- "Is Marijuana Stronger Now Than It Was Back In the '60s, When Everyone Thought It Was Harmless?"

Analysis By Richard Cowan August 11, 1998

Contemporary prohibitionist propaganda has had two great marketing successes in its war on logic and meaning.

First came the Gateway, Stepping Stone, etc. "Theory," which is a classic example of the logical fallacy, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc – "After That, Therefore Because of That." This has duped many people into believing that marijuana "leads to" hard drugs.

The second is the "New Potent Pot" line, which tells us that "marijuana stronger than it was back in the '60s, when everyone though it was harmless." These two lines are very different. See Is marijuana really harmless, like everyone has been saying?

The "Gateway Drug" concept has run into a problem, not because it has been recognized as a logical fallacy, but rather because has been found that alcohol and tobacco are almost always used before marijuana.

This has necessitated the prohibitionists also labeling these legal products as "Gateway Drugs," which naturally discomfits their users and makers, who know that they and their friends have don’t have a craving for crack after a few beers or a Camel. That is, the average person knows by experience that this is nonsense.

However, the "new potent pot" line is intended to negate the knowledge gained by experience and thereby eliminate this type of objection. It is said that the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the principle psychoactive ingredient) levels of marijuana today is 5 to 100 – pick a number -- times higher than in the past.

Consider this from the May 19th Washington Post: "The marijuana of the 1960s is not the marijuana of the 1990s. A rolled joint is 10 times more potent than I would remember…" The Post seems to have settled on the ten times multiple. It is their "standard."

Or this from The Vancouver Province July 5, 1998, "Twenty years ago, the maximum THC found in outdoor cultivated pot plants was around 0.5 percent. RCMP say the marijuana now being grown in B.C. can contain as much as 30 percent THC."

The notion that today’s marijuana that your children might smoke is qualitatively different from the marijuana in the past is obviously perfect for anxious parents who have been conditioned by decades of prohibitionist propaganda to feel guilty about their youthful "experimentation." In this regard it is very successful.

That there is no data to back it up is not a problem, because the usual purveyors of data – the media – are in the anti-fact business, and have enshrined the "new potent pot" line as basic part of "conventional wisdom." Everyone knows…. Actually, it is what everyone does not know that is important.

There are several important points to be learned from looking at this particular bit of prohibitionist propaganda. . . .

continued:

http://www.marijuananews.com/cowan/marijuana_prohibition_and_potenc.htm

It's like living in two worlds. Theirs, where most participants are blinded by propaganda, and addicted to capitalism, and ours, where we have on special glasses, and can see Their world as it Really is.

How do we Do it, indeed. We Are doing it. Our Tool is Truth, theirs is Greed. Perseverance of exposes', like the Wizard of Oz, will finally topple these anti-Americans, who have America by the *****. They swear in Americas name, and regulate your freedoms, to achieve their goals. I say, regulate their freedoms, and instigate what has always been ours, the Power of the People. REVOLUTION!

But, then again, it seems the tyrants are steadily shooting their own foot. You die by what you live by, and greed and power, when abused, will eventually kill them. But we may have to help.

FoM, you got it, girl.

Welcome, LETSGETFREE

In the September 2000 study, "Impact of Peer Substance Use on Middle School Performance in Washington State", even low levels of alcohol and drug use were linked to lower individual Washington Assessment of Student learning ( WASL ) test scores for middle school students. Students whose peers had near-zero Involvement with drinking and drugs scored on average 18 points higher on the state reading test, and 45 points higher in math, than students whose peers had a moderate level of use.

I would guess is that the studens that scored better on these tests simply LIED about their drug/alcohol involvement. Their test scores reflect higher intelligence (sorry, no. It's just a test.) so they probably realized that there was probably some way for 'the man' to match up their name with poll answers.

today's marijuana THC concentration ranges from 8 to 28 percent

Please show me the 28 percent marijuana! Higher potency Marijuana is MORE healthy. Since the only known health risk is the smoking itself. People smoke however much they need to reach the level they want.

The people who DONT realize this are the people causing us all this trouble. Using higher potency as an excuse and reason to fight cannabis is insane.

-- The lady does bring up a point so I'll answer her question.

Alcohol is a dangerous and much abused substance. Kids know this.

Cannabis is not dangerous. Kids know this.

The generation that experimented freely with marijuana. in the '60s and '70s, is now the parent generation.

That's right, grandma. Maybe you should just keep your mouth shut and let them do the parenting.

OK I believe we haven't seen the end of terror and I don't think we will see peace soon or maybe ever again. That's not a nice thought but it's what I really do think.

Can anyone answer the question that all people who are dissatisfied with system come to? What can one person do to change it?

WE MUST ANSWER THIS QUESTION!

In the 2001 "Kitsap Kids" survey, 80 percent of adults and 75 percent of teens agreed with the statement, "I believe marijuana use is harmful."

What about the host of actual scientific studies that show marijuana to be a relatively benign drug with very low health risks?