<p>Pot is a plant with psychoactive properties.
It also have anti inflammatory and pain relieving qualities.
Sugar does not have any nutritional value, we don’t need it in our diet.
Marijuana has more to offer than sugar does.</p>
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I wonder what would happen if we replaced sugar…with marijuana.</p>
<p>Marijuana coated cereal.
Marijuana coated apples.
Powdered marijuana. You could sprinkle it in your oatmeal…your cookies…your pies.</p>
<p>Sugar is a sweetener. Will wager that you use honey, EK.</p>
<p>Do you ever use molasses? Maple syrup? agave nectar? Drink fruit nectar or eat fresh fruit?</p>
<p>Some opiates other than heroine may be more dangerous than heroine but heroine is extremely dangerous and extremely addictive. It is hard to regulate the amount that is injected and recently there have been many deaths in Pennsylvania and other eastern states from a batch of heroine that is mixed with fentanyl.</p>
<p>I have a close relative who became addicted to cocaine and then to percocet. We are very grateful that she got help before she went to heroine. At the same time we worry that she will go back. I agree that a non addict can never truly understand what an addict experiences. For my kids, I explained it as imagining that you are extremely thirsty but are being deprived water and you know that you can never have water again. I don’t know how else to explain that craving because I am trying to imagine something that I have never experiences.</p>
<p>I also agree that energy should be put into helping prevent young people from trying dangerous drugs for the first time. Once they start it is so much harder to deal with the problem.</p>
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This is a good comparison. </p>
<p>It’s like…you know you can’t have something that you feel you need, but know you can’t, but at the same time it makes you happy, feel good…I don’t know how to really explain it in words. The cravings…the racing thoughts…the self-hate…the disappointment. </p>
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Which heroine is more dangerous? Jayne Eyre or Scarlett O’Hara? 
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<p>EK- you want to take sugar out of our diet but then provide whats probably a sickeningly sweet pot/nutella recipe??</p>
<p>I agree that sugar doesn’t really provide anything of value nutritionally speaking, and in certain individuals can be quite harmful. I also agree that it can produce what could almost be described as an addiction. I know that in many people, it does affect the brain in a similar way to many other drugs.</p>
<p>But I can’t agree it is a “gateway” drug. More like something we’d all be better without, or at least in very small quantities.</p>
<p>“I also agree that energy should be put into helping prevent young people from trying dangerous drugs for the first time. Once they start it is so much harder to deal with the problem.”</p>
<p>Very well said, EPTR, thank you. I cringe whenever I hear a parent (or anyone, for that matter) say things like, “It’s okay to experiment…everyone tries stuff at least once” and so on. NO, NO, NO. Do NOT try it, not even once. I can’t tell you how many people I know who’ve started with a hit of weed as a kid and have eventually ended up full-blown heroin addicts. </p>
<p>The average time it takes an individual to conquer an opiate addiction is eleven years. That was explained to me a few years ago, so give or take, but whatever…that’s a long time and that’s for those that manage to do it at all or don’t die from an OD. </p>
<p>Let’s say an opiate addict manages to “get off” his/her drug of choice, whether via cold turkey, medical detox, etc. They may be beyond the excruciating pain, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, crying and discomfort (creepy-crawly heebie-jeebies) of acute withdrawal but the sleepless nights, night sweats, lethargy, etc. remain. Gradually these effects begin to lessen but the addict is still consumed by depression and despair and absolutely nothing holds appeal. Truly, at this point the addict could win the lottery and not even feel a glimmer of excitement. The addict can expect to feel this for a year or more, with some days being better than others, but most of them still bad. Exercise and diet can speed the process along, but because the addict is already feeling like crap, he/she will often look for “joy” in junk food and taking a five minute walk might as well be a five mile hike. The longer an addict can stay clean, the closer they are to getting “back to normal” but the problem, of course, is that many cannot tolerate the misery of “waiting” for normalcy to arrive and thusly, they relapse. </p>
<p>This is the horrible cycle addicts endure. I know addicts who have been through detox more than FIFTEEN times (and each time is worse than the last). Ask any addict their biggest regret…be shocked if their answer is anything but “trying for the first time.”</p>
<p>Sorry to ramble… Waiting patiently for the post police to arrive (honestly, it’s like throwing fish food in a koi pond). </p>
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<p>Awwww, man. I think I spelled it that way in every post. Totally lost my street cred, didn’t I? Lol. </p>
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Preach!</p>
<p>Actually, the studies Ive read indicate that opiates permanently change your brain, so it isnt a matter of ten, twenty or thirty years & you are out of the woods.
You are always at risk for relapse, unless you are like me & opiates dont do more than a relaxing cup of cocoa.</p>
<p>Must be all the sugar in that cup of hot cocoa :)>- </p>
<p>I think its probably that & the chocolate.
Also the warm milk.
I dont think Ive ever had morphine, they were going to give me some after my c section but I refused it because D was very ill & I wanted to be awake.
They gave her some though but I dont think it helped much.
I wonder if my lack of receptors is hereditary?
Opium never really did much either.</p>
<p>"…so it isnt a matter of ten, twenty or thirty years & you are out of the woods." </p>
<p>This is true for any addict, hence the term “recovering addict” which applies to an addict for the rest of his/her life. </p>
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<p>Give me a break. I have known literally hundreds of people who smoke pot, and never–to my knowledge–a single heroin addict.</p>
<p>I know many people who have smoked a lot of pot, done coke, acid, you name it, and NEVER touched heroin or done enough coke to be addicted. People know enough to avoid the things that are addictive.</p>
<p>Personally, I tend to think that people who do heroin have a death wish.</p>
<p>It amazes me the drugs they prescribe.
They shouldnt be prescribing Oxycontin at all, imo.
But marijuana is illegal under federal law, so they prescribe opiates for pain relief which have a fine line between a dose that provides relief & a dose that insures relief permanently.
<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/”>http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/</a>
Overall medications are improving.
We now have safer alternatives to the sedatives that killed my father in the 1970’s, but for pain relief people are more likely to be undertreated, which can make it impossible to function normally.</p>
<p>My husband was given percocet when he had mono in college. He still talks about how wonderful it was. Luckily not enough of an addictive personality to have moved on to heroin, but I’m still impressed at how big an impression it made on him.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I don’t know any heroin addicts, but I don’t know anyone who smoked pot and went on to anything stronger. I really think most people who smoke pot stick with it, or give up drugs all together.</p>
<p>“Give me a break. I have known literally hundreds of people who smoke pot, and never–to my knowledge–a single heroin addict.” </p>
<p>How many heroin addicts do you know? </p>