Further Reading on Cannabis

I searched and didn't find this, but I've seen lots of threads about documentaries and books get bumped down the page pretty quickly... Could we use this thread to fill with reading or video contributing to further knowledge of cannabis? Just a thought...

Here's my contribution... you may have seen it, but it's a good documentary pertaining to the very science of it, more or less in layman's terms. It is the most seemingly factual video I've seen, really documented the discovery well:

http://documentaryheaven.com/cannabis-the-evil-weed/

mattybass said:

I searched and didn't find this, but I've seen lots of threads about documentaries and books get bumped down the page pretty quickly... Could we use this thread to fill with reading or video contributing to further knowledge of cannabis? Just a thought...

Here's my contribution... you may have seen it, but it's a good documentary pertaining to the very science of it, more or less in layman's terms. It is the most seemingly factual video I've seen, really documented the discovery well:

http://documentaryheaven.com/cannabis-the-evil-weed/

Click to expand...

Just by reading some comments it seems like it's a biased video. People have been smoking cannabis for thousands of years. There has been nothing to prove it's bad, besides smoking it, we all vape it.

tbh I didn't get time to finish it last night like I wanted to, didn't see this bit about "John"... well it's good to see information from both arguments. Seeing as there is basically no unbiased information on cannabis I would say it's fair to volunteer articles from both sides.

Konrad_Zuse said:

Just by reading some comments it seems like it's a biased video. People have been smoking cannabis for thousands of years. There has been nothing to prove it's bad, besides smoking it, we all vape it.

Click to expand...

Actually this doco isn't too bad. For others who haven't checked the link - it doesn't include punctuation you won't get the real title of the program from reading the link. It's actually called "Cannabis: The Evil Weed?" - note the question mark.

It's not a doco made by either stoners or anti-drug nuts, but from the perspective of conventional medicine via the BBC. And as such it doesn't go for the sensationalist, alarmist approach. It's the sort of doco you can show straightlaced conservative sheep to loosen up their opinionated positions without having them roll their eyes at all the hippy-dippy crap.

While it raises certain health issues, it also offers plenty of airtime to enthusiasts, and the conclusion that is reached is that the main downside to using weed is that it can be a waste of time. Well what they call time wasting I call living.

The BBC have made quite a few documentaries about weed. All of them seem to conclude with at least slight anti-weed sentiments (like this one), some of them with very strong anti weed sentiments.
This one was awful: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7314812.stm
(the article is even far more balanced than the programme)

The woman went from one extreme to the other. Of course it wasn't going to end well. If she worked in a bar and drank spirits all day everyday I'm sure she would have had a horrible time as well. It wouldn't have been a very persuasive argument to ban alcohol though would it. She even injected THC?!?!
The first time she used in Amsterdam she was given a brownie and was told to eat a quarter of it and wait for half an hour or more and see how she felt. She waited about 10 minutes and then ate the lot. Surprise surprise it was too much for her.
The programme was also obsessed with the idea that today's weed is far stronger than it was when she was a student. I just hate that argument. It assumes people are clueless about cannabis and cannot be responsible in their use of it which is plain wrong. If it were legal everyone would be educated on its dangers anyway.

I've also seen others where a mother is interviewed, who is now an anti cannabis campaigner. Her son dropped out of high-school aged 17/18 and was a heavy user of marijuana. She couldn't accept that he might have some deeper problem, so concluded it had to be cannabis. Even he said in the same shows that his behaviour and excessive use of cannabis was more to do with being an angst filled teenager and trying to escape the pressures and direction of his life that his parents were forcing. But his mother is always given the last word. If someone is an alcoholic they look for a deeper psychological reason for that behaviour, they don't just simply blame alcohol itself.

I don't like the way the bbc present many of their documentaries. They appear unbiased, presenting both sides to an argument, but are inherently biased through the way they are directed. They always seem to give the pros of an argument, and then the cons. It leaves an unbiased viewer with the cons of each argument and thus obviously doesn't actually give an impartial opinion. It is subtle but nevertheless effective.

Sorry rant over!!

I'm sure at this point a lot of people ave seen it but I just watched The Union: The Business Behind Getting High for the first time last night, I highly recommend it.