Baby Boomers turning to weed, say it improves memory and mood. Doctors agree.

[SilentEchoes]

What can I say, it's legal where I live. There's a first time for everything. benzinga.com/markets/cannab...

[MarionP]

The w**** of Gupta saying something is not research. One actual researcher who hasn't done the study (which sounds like self-report anyway, which is useless) on people who also claim to have had no history of substance abuse, says "might." A study full of self-report is like a junkie saying "sure it works, good s*** man!" Not ready for prime time if you're using it as justification for decreasing dementias and decline from aging. Fine for recreation and feeling good.

[SilentEchoes in reply to MarionP]

I don't have a history of drug or alcohol abuse and I've never smoked pot. I'm more interested in the medicinal properties of cannabis. I'll take any help I can get and if it helps with memory it's a bonus. Inhaling combustibles isn't healthy, there are other ways to use cannabis 🙂

[MarionP in reply to SilentEchoes]

Well that's good you didn't spend your youth burning your cells, that's good. As to the rest, I don't disagree, but what you said changes nothing, not one thing, of what I said.

Without actual real research (science), taking anything that messes with your cannabinoid receptors is a gamble and an experiment...and there are no convenient "if's" for you to qualify your way out of that fact. The most you could possibly get is a placebo effect, which is variable and individual. And I said nothing about smoking (inhaling combustibles).

So by all means go ahead, and then after some time please report for the rest of our benefit, in terms that a person can see or hear. Feel free to design your own experiment too, as long as none of the output requires interpretation or subjective info, and in terms that are measurable. That's what I plan to do when they legalize it where I live, until there is some real science to accumulate.

It's a little different for you, I am clearly not as impaired as you are and I don't trace what happened to me from a definite acute or chronic dose of pesticides like you do, I got all of mine by just living in our gradually air- and water- and food- and materials-polluting and poisoning society. (By the way, do you have any idea what particular pesticides (or other chemicals, exfoliants like the "quats" maybe) did it to you?

Actually what I'm waiting for are the hallucinogens, I suspect those are going to have a lot more to do with relighting dead branches and regrowing the perception/cognition tree that got pruned over time and that will recover more lost potential. (Though I am very interested in the hypothesis that "cannabis" doesn't make you stupid when you're older, the way it very definitely does when you're younger. ) But that's going to be a few more years before one can get peyote or mushrooms etc. those without a prescription or breaking the law. (Have no interest in that ahayuasca, don't want anything to do with those muscarinic receptors except turn them off!)

[chartist]

I tested medical marijuana (MM) for over a year as a test for sleep. I didn't notice a memory improvement, but in general it was moderately effective for helping me sleep. The downside for me was that I found it mild to moderate in terms of addiction. I incorporated it into my sleep routine and found that I still had a strong desire to use it months after I stopped using it. I found myself trying to rationalize using it for sleep well after I had stopped using it. I think it took at least 6 months for that desire to go completely away. I have never felt that desire with melatonin.

Another issue for me is that MM reduces REM sleep and I preferred to not reduce my REM sleep. I should note here that I used Indica with very high THC and relatively low CBD. I also found that MM can get expensive especially as your burn rate goes up.

I also found that vaping MM was even more addicting to me in the sense that it is so easy to use. I would generally leave the vape in my nightstand drawer right next to my bed and it was just too easy to reach over, grab the vape and take an extra draw or two with just a push of a button. It doesn't even require a lighter or an ashtray. It doesn't smell as strong as the bud either. I realized it was too easy right away and stopped vaping. For me the only reliable way to use MM for sleep is to smoke it or vape it because the results are fastest. Edibles and tinctures were not as fast and reliable for the purpose of sleep. The other obvious problem to me for long term use, the way I was testing it, is that I did not like that it would be bad for my lungs.

If I was going to use it long term for something other than sleep, I would probably choose tincture over edibles or smoking. Maybe even a lotion or ointment for topical application. If I found that it was very effective for relieving disease symptoms, I very likely might be willing to overlook what I saw as addictiveness. I think smoking the bud is the least expensive way to use MM and tincture can get significantly more expensive depending on the dose that is required to achieve the desired effect('s) for the individual.

I found edibles could have what I considered an extremely long period before you could start to feel the effect and this varied significantly depending on what I had eaten and when I had eaten it. One time when I was testing edibles for sleep, it took four to five hours before I felt the effect coming on. It was so long that I had forgotten I had even taken the edible.

I don't think MM is for everyone, but in some people it has been very helpful for various health conditions. I am willing to experiment and I am glad I experimented with MM for sleep, but I also found that sativa is more suited for use during waking hours, is not as effective as indica for sleep and to me had a completely different effect on me than indica did. I might consider sativa socially in a similar manner as I consider drinking alcohol. It seemed to wake me up rather than put me to sleep and it tended to make me more sociably inclined when using it.

Some meaningful studies in terms of application to specific health issues would be useful.

Art

[ssrs in reply to chartist]

My husband uses the RSO tincture which helps him sleep at night. He doesn’t like to feel “high” so the tincture works great for him.

[SilentEchoes in reply to ssrs]

That's my intention too. Even though I qualify for MM, making RSO myself might have gotten me in legal trouble for the quantity needed. Recreational use is legal now but unavailable. I can cultivate too. At least I won't get in legal trouble and embarrass my kids.