The methylxanthines (alkaloids in coffee, etc.) are ANNOYING!

Everything is relative. Cannabis is definitely not the killer that tobacco is. Chocolate is nowhere near as stimulating as un-decaffinated coffee. The opium the Chinese smoked for relief of their miserable lives wasn't as dangerous as the acetominophen sold over the counter in drug stores today. I acquired a salicylate sensitivity and a mouthwash with salicylates in can wipe me out with severe leg pains. Salicylates are the class of chemicals to which aspirin(aceto-salicylic acid) belongs.

Cannabis is maxing out at about 4.5% THC which is about 1.5% more than was commonly available in the 1960s. If fools try to smoke it like the 1% dirt weed that they bought then they may have a problem. Sensible people adapt when using stronger chemicals or herbs by paying attention to what is happening to themselves.

I went thru caffiene withdrawal several times in the 1970s before I gave up un-decaffienated coffee. Using caffiene to treat migraines is problematic because it may cause migraines. It did for me. .

Lethal depends on the individual. Some people might be willing to chew coca leaves but would never use cocaine HCL or cocaine base.

You are about half right on your remarks. I suggest a course in pharmacology and some more extensive reading in real books. Or you could look up some of the non-DEA drug information sites. Brian Bennett who posts to talk.politics.drugs has information from government studies on drug mortality.

I snipped the nonsense about the growers breeding very strong plants because it is not accurate. If people want a more intense cannabis high they have to either eat it or use hashish. Here in California at the medical cannabis shops they have edibles and tincture of cannabis available but they still need smokable cannabis for the acute chemotherapy nausea and some related conditions. Tincture

of Cannabis until 1937 was in the United States Pharmacopia.

I was born the same year as cannabis was removed from the USP.

I used to drink people who since died from alcoholism under the table but stopped when I realised how much it affected my athletic training performance.

Almost everything the DEA says about drugs is wrong because if they told the truth their budgets would shrink.

later bliss -- aka bobbie sellers

Dear Shyne,

My recommendation to you is to find your nearest Narcotics Anonymous group and get involved! They can teach you how to live a drug free HAPPY life IF you let them. The first thing you will learn is that the problem is YOU, not everyone and everything around you. Sugar, caffeine, and other mild mood altering substances are only a problem if your use of them makes your life unmanageable. If you find it annoying that you have to read the labels to ensure that you don't ingest what amounts to poison to you, then either get over it or get back on the drugs. The world is not going to conform to your weaknesses, and just because you cant handle something doesn't mean that other people cant. All of that hogwash about legalization of drugs is just rearmaments of your drug addicted past. The problem that you are dealing with right now is that you have lost your best friend (drugs) and you haven't figured out how to live at peace with yourself with out them. Excuse me for not being very sympathetic, but I know from experience that you can either be miserable, or you can live at peace with yourself, and the choice is yours not anybody else's. Seriously, go find a NA meeting, it will absolutely be the best possible move you can make! There will be many people there who have been EXACTLY where you are right now.

Been there, done that, came out the other side..... Clean and sober for 16 years.

Mike P.

Thanks. Mike. I couldn't have said it better myself. I come from a family of drug users- alcoholics. During a very bad period of my life I dated several dry drunks in a row. Both groups thought drugs were the Devil; the only thing on which they disagreed was whether alcohol was healthy. quite frankly I found the dry drunks more annoying- because they couldn't drink or be near alcohol, nobody could use it. One of them didn't even want me to use rum in a cake, even though the alcohol would have evaporated during the cooking process.

Cannabis is not healthy. It's a drug. Caffeine is a drug too. The healthy opium poppy enslaved much of China, and the drug at that time wasn't nearly as pure and dangerous as it is now. Cannabis is purer than ever- and I know plenty of hop heads whose brains are fried. Of course, they think they're fine- but they don't move as quickly or accurately as others who aren't habitual users.

Caffeine can be a horrible drug if one is suffering from withdrawal- but most people aren't using that much of it if they are tea drinkers. It's a big deal nowadays if I have two cups in a row. There are plenty of people like me who don't suffer from java jitters or anything else. In every society, mild psychotropics can be found. Even in the wild, animals such as apes and elephants gravitate towards fermented fruit and plants that make them 'feel good'. While there are numerous unfortunate cases of people who suffer from addiction most people and animals don't.

Coca is not chewed in the US, sending small trace amounts into the body. It's snorted or smoked or shot- all of which are lethal delivery systems. Popy juice is not but with wine and used in minute amounts in the US- it's processed to deliver the biggest hit it has. And as for pot, any grower will tell you that the plants are bred to give a much higher high than they did in the 50s or even 70s- the cannibis available now is not mild. Meanwhile, one can easily buy decaf coffee, tea and cola, and different types of these products have different levels fo the drug in them. Not a single person so far as anyone knows has died solely of caffeine poisoning from drinking too much tea, or suffered brain and/or motor damage. I can show you plenty of f***ed-up potheads though, just as I can show you plenty of f***ed-up alcoholics, cigarette smokers, and dope fiends.

>

It's important to note that, though many foods contain evil-sounding chemicals, those chemicals are just names we have assigned to organic compounds we've analyzed. Caffeine is one of many chemicals that happen to exist in the non-poisonous plant kingdom.

Dark chocolate (truly "dark", that is around 60%+ cacao bean solids) has recently come to the spotlight has being a beneficial health food and not really a candy. Yet its chemical analysis appears horrifying, having over

500 different organic chemicals (try chomping on cocoa nibs...it doesn't taste so good). But it's still a plant food and has proven benefits to humans who ingest it regularly.

Geoff

(snip)

It depends on how it's made, and how much you consume... chocolate could be healthy. Milk chocolate candy is mostly milk fats and waxes.

I really preffer making my own chocolate- boil some water, put in some Hershey's chocolate baking powder, stir a while, add a little sweetener. It's almost like coffee in how strong it tastes.

Ya, you betcha!

I always go for chocolate bars, or even chocolate chips (Guittard is a good brand) for eating chocolate.

I don't mean candy bars which have lots of other stuff, and which usually have inferior chocolate in them, too.

I haven't explored all the high-end chocolates, but I've found that Ghirardelli Dark (semi-sweet?) baking chocolate is pretty good!

And, I've had something called Cafe Tasse which is a solid bar, maybe with some coffee flavor?

most foods have this unless it's certified "organic" and free from animal by-products....for instance jelly beans. heh.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.