I haven't smoked pot myself, but losing a close friend like that would make anyone reflect on their habits. A buddy of mine switched from traditional smoking to vaping years back; he felt it was a much less harmful alternative and helped him cut down gradually. Seeing his journey, I learned many products are out there now, from disposable vapes to complete kits, which let people find what works for them.

For anyone considering those options, Nexus Smoke has some helpful alternatives, offering vapes to support those on their way to a healthier lifestyle.

I can never forget what "tobacco" cost both of my grandfathers and my father-in-law. (Fortunately, the very sight of it caused my father to voluntarily quit "cold turkey." Well, alas, he died this year. But "he of the four" did not die of "smoking.")

I despair to see tobacco "vaping" being presented as something safer and certainly more "trendy," because I know full-well – as the users do not yet realize – that this mechanism "main-lines" far more nicotine into the unsuspecting lung tissue than "packs a day" ever did. Your lungs are "so redundant" that you do not see the trap closing ... until it does. (And then, you drown.)

As for marijuana, I now likewise despair to see the positive explosion(!) of highly-potent products on the market. With, apparently, no regulation nor scrutiny. (Yet.) "This isn't your pappa's 'joint.'" This is something that may well be very dangerous indeed.

I can't tell you what to do with your body, but very long ago I decided – after brief and foolish experimentation, of course – that my body would never again have anything to do with any of it. I do not regret that personal decision.

I went to college in the late 60s early 70s. Draw your own conclusion.

Now, I'd be afraid that, if I smoked marahoochie, it would lead me to harder drugs, and I might take up cigarettes again, and I've been clean for almost a decade and a half.

Many of the addictive drugs originate in plants which produce them to poison insects which eat the plants. So the various drugs that discombobulate the human brain often will completely destroy a caterpillar's nervous system.

Also some plant species and insects species co-evolve so that the plant's poison kills all caterpillar species except the tolerant species. Sometimes the tolerant caterpillars will store globules of the neuropoisons within their bodies as a defense against bird predators. So the next time you ganja enthusiasts see a caterpillar on a marijuana plant you should try the caterpillar instead of the plant.

Like everything else we put into our bodies: in balance it is medicine; out of balance it is poison.

So far, the biggest irony of the 21st century, is that CBGA and CBDA--compounds found to varying degrees in various strains of cannabi--were proven at Oregon State University to bind with spike proteins of corona viruses thwarting their ability to infect cells!

Peter Tosh sang it was good for Asthma. It's that short term memory thing--you can get so stoned, that you forget you are having an asthma attack--and since Asthma is psychosomatic, it helps the psycho part.

But if you smoke it chronically, your lungs will surely begin to look like the inside of your pipe or bong. You can clean your paraphernalia. But your lungs cannot clean themselves as fast as you are gumming them up, if you are a wake and baker.

I know, because I waked and baked for 40 years, until 2020, when I just couldn't breathe anymore. I used to be able to go 50 meters under water, and then I was down to about 10. After four years of lung recovery, I'm up to 25 meters.

Society said "just say no". But I noticed that not all the potheads in school were drop outs. Most in fact excelled at one thing or another, whether grades, a sport, a musical instrument, etc.

In my teens, I was so straight laced and doing everything by the books, that all the other partying youth couldn't relate. I felt like I needed a vice, to be human. So I tried it and liked it. I found my balance. (I hid in the basement of the chemistry building during finals week, so my friends wouldn't be able to come over and try to make me too high to study, which can happen). I got the second highest grade in premed Chemistry at Baylor University. So the propaganda that it takes away motivation was not true for me.

Now I occasionally drive a school bus, and have to take random urine tests, so I keep my system clean. But I do keep coconut butter that has been infused with sativa, in my first aid kit--and if there's another corona virus pandemic, the schools will be closed anyways, and I won't hesitate, to take a spoonful daily to keep myself protected. During the covid outbreak, I, unvaccinated, eventually did contract it, and was feeling pretty miserable, until I broke my 2020 resolution, and, since I didn't have any coconut butter made, I smoked: and I felt relief within the hour, and was over the symptoms two days later--though still testing positive.

It provided real relief.

Furthermore, I live in Oregon. I grew it in my back yard. I think it important, to be able to not depend on the western medical infrastructure for medicines. What if that infrastructure collapsed? I grow a variety of other medicines as well, such as elecampane and echinacea, and even poppies. I harvest oregon grape roots form the forest. I live an hours drive from the nearest fuel station. Someone had a heart attack while dancing to a band at a party I was hosting. It took 45 minutes from when I dialed 911, for life flight to arrive too late. So I feel it is pretty essential to have a very well prepared first aid kit. And I can't afford pharmaceuticals anyways. If I can grow something, and make a tincture or some kind of concoction, and it works to heal what ails me or a guest, then I will. This lore is way too important to be lost.

I don't care if this is a public or private forum. If the law wants to get picky, I'll challenge the law. Was already challenging the law for a long time. Now marijuana is legal in my state, as it should be.

That being said--just like alcohol, and most anything else: it can be abused. I especially believe that in any state where Marijuana is legal, elementary schools and middle schools should educate children about both dangers and benefits, so they can have good judgment by the time they're surrounded by wasted teenagers.

Cheers, LQ.