Fed up with hash smokers...

[Lowglow]

I'm in the UK and in the last 5 years there has been a noticeable increase in drug users. Today was the day where I almost lost my cool - and that takes some doing!

I had two seperate drivers with hash fumes whaffing out of their car drive extremely erratically - one signalled right and went right but then turned left across me almost taking out me and my family - missed by inches but didn't even react. The other drove through a pedestrian crossing as the pedestrian was walking without slowing. So close.
Now I've been tasked with training a new starter who is a user - smell it on his clothes and he's out of it after lunch. Working with dangerous Voltages it's very risky. He's already damaged a nice power meter.

I walk along the pavement beside a busy road to work and the amount of drivers openly using is incredible to me.

Just as we are getting over alcohol addiction something just as bad is taking over. From my interactions, (non medical) users feel it's a positive for them but its obvious they are a user. The drivers I encounter going all over the place probably think everything is just fine. It isn't. I've seen groups of primary school pupils using too.

What's it like around your way? Just as bad? I honestly find it proper depressing.

 

[bluflaam777]

Living in California in a relatively large city that is filled with pedestrians/bicyclists, granny walking her dog etc. where all this use is legal (to some degree), it's everywhere. And as you say, when using behind the wheel of a car/truck it becomes an assault vehicle. Drivers are bad enough here when they're sober, but impaired? Forget about it.

 

[thermal guy]

What's hash even smell like?

 

[Lowglow]

What's hash even smell like?

Like a heavy burning rubber mixed with leaves sort of smell. It really carries and sticks on clothes.

 

[alpg88]

Same here, in NYC, pretty normal these days to drive, and smell weed from passing cars. and unlike cigarette smoke, it lingers for much longer. pot shops are all over the city, hundreds of them, licensed and not. You can walk on the streets, and smoke a joint, and no cop will stop you for that, they used to arrest for it. Just like in UK here one political party going full force to allow it and normalize it.

 

[bluflaam777]

What's hash even smell like?

The hash that I've come across over the years has a somewhat earthy, spicy, kind of a floral smell. A little like pot but with more of a (relatively) sweet/floral and spicy smell.

 

[bykfixer]

I used to think the population of skunks had exploded recently and that they were spraying cars. Turns out all of these people are smoking the skunk weed. It's everywhere these days. Pop culture is not pot culture. So called conventional wisdom tell us to think it's harmless. It's not.

As a former user I know first hand that this stuff out there these days aint your grandpas Mary Jane where you and two friends smoke a lunch baggy full like Cheech & Chong, smile and laugh at everything for 4 hours, eat a box of fruit loops and go to sleep for a few hours.

No this new breed you take a few puffs from a pipe and you're stupid stoned for the rest of the day..... until you build up a tolerance. There inlies the problem. Once the tolerance is there it takes more and more, which in turn begins to cause the brain to stop producing happy hormones because the Maui-waui keeps supplying it. The resulting crash(es) can be devastating.

Last time I smoked it I hadn't smoked it in months. My brain had fixed itself after about 2 years of pills, therapy and worse. Suddenly I was happier than I'd been in a long time for about 4 hours but after that it was 2 days of anger, fear, sorrow, anything but happy. I hope to never smoke that $**** ever again.

 

[alpg88]

Well it will only get worse if we keep it up. Every morning, on my walk thru my parking lot, I see hundreds of school kids walking from a train to school. about half a mile away there is intermediate school, quite a few of them smoke joints on their way to school, kids who are 11-13 years old kids, get to school stoned, it happens everyday. my parking lot reeks of weed. No doubt school knows about, yet they seem to think there is nothing wrong with it, Imagine what these kids will become in the future. Yet, certain party in gvmnt seem to be doubling down on it. They are basically creating generations of deadbeat stoners, no way it is unintended consequences. Seems like it is by design. In my age we used to smoke cigarettes the same way these kids smoke pot today. We have strong antismoking campaign for decades, Yet pot seem to be promoted. The worst thing is, every school has kids drug dealers, ask any kid who goes to school, especially HS. they will tell you easiest place to buy drugs is school.

 

[Lowglow]

I used to think the population of skunks had exploded recently and that they were spraying cars. Turns out all of these people are smoking the skunk weed. It's everywhere these days. Pop culture is not pot culture. So called conventional wisdom tell us to think it's harmless. It's not.

As a former user I know first hand that this stuff out there these days aint your grandpas Mary Jane where you and two friends smoke a lunch baggy full like Cheech & Chong, smile and laugh at everything for 4 hours, eat a box of fruit loops and go to sleep for a few hours.

No this new breed you take a few puffs from a pipe and you're stupid stoned for the rest of the day..... until you build up a tolerance. There inlies the problem. Once the tolerance is there it takes more and more, which in turn begins to cause the brain to stop producing happy hormones because the Maui-waui keeps supplying it. The resulting crash(es) can be devastating.

Last time I smoked it I hadn't smoked it in months. My brain had fixed itself after about 2 years of pills, therapy and worse. Suddenly I was happier than I'd been in a long time for about 4 hours but after that it was 2 days of anger, fear, sorrow, anything but happy. I hope to never smoke that $**** ever again.

Interesting to hear your experiences - and pleased tohear you are clean.
It was when I was at engineering college in the 1990's that I was first introduced to cannabis. Drugs were everywhere then. One fellow student offered me a drag on his roll-up. I remember the weeks before his quality of work had really dropped and he had started off really promising. I remember not wanting anything to do with it as I really wanted to do well so said no thanks. It did pay off as he ended up dropping out. Later one of my colleagues was a heavy user and dealer and on visiting his house it was something else. Weighing up and bagging and hubble-bubble pipes creating a thick fog. I left absolutely reeking and driving home I had a police car behind. I thought if I get pulled despite not having smoked I'm going to be obviously smelling. I really didn't want to be involved.
That colleague soon after was in a life-changing motorcycle accident whilst under the influence which again was a real reminder.

 

[Lowglow]

Well it will only get worse if we keep it up. Every morning, on my walk thru my parking lot, I see hundreds of school kids walking from a train to school. about half a mile away there is intermediate school, quite a few of them smoke joints on their way to school, kids who are 11-13 years old kids, get to school stoned, it happens everyday. my parking lot reeks of weed. No doubt school knows about, yet they seem to think there is nothing wrong with it, Imagine what these kids will become in the future. Yet, certain party in gvmnt seem to be doubling down on it. They are basically creating generations of deadbeat stoners, no way it is unintended consequences. Seems like it is by design. In my age we used to smoke cigarettes the same way these kids smoke pot today. We have strong antismoking campaign for decades, Yet pot seem to be promoted. The worst thing is, every school has kids drug dealers, ask any kid who goes to school, especially HS. they will tell you easiest place to buy drugs is school.

Sad. Seeing 11 year olds already on a downward spiral is actually quite upsetting to me. It's at this point where a passion for life, hobbies and friends is at its strongest so seeing almost numb children just sat on benches off their heads is the absolute opposite of what they should be doing.

I know from experience from attending interviews that quite a few young people entering the job market these days are unemployable even if given plenty of slack. They crave constant stimulation and just stop working if it's a 'boring' task. This absolute lack of interest in anything coupled with drugs is not a good sign for the future. And nobody is doing anything about it.

 

[PaladinNO]

Reading horror stories like this makes me really glad the strongest I have ever consumed in my almost 40-year life is soda and grinded carolina reaper pepper (both separately and together). But that was an experience too...

Never tried smoking, never tried alcohol and certainly not tried anything through a needle. I haven't even tried coffee yet, only a single sip of a really expensive cappuccino. And I never will try anything of the above either - I enjoy being in charge of my own mind, thank you,

 

[bykfixer]

When I was a kid everybody's parents smoked cigarettes. Well, nearly everybody. Some parents did not. And in most cases those with parents who smoked became cigarette smokers. Often by 12 years old. And I remember a group of up and coming hippies in middle school would stand in a circle and pass around a pink cigarette to each other. But me, oh I'd never do that.... until the day I did.

After a while it became a lifestyle. And it's everywhere. Income and status don't matter. It's becoming legal in numerous places in America. While the gubment spends its resources (read our money) on thwarting the youth from consuming tobacco products they turn a blind eye toward that same youth getting hooked on pot. Not physically addictive like nicotine, it has a psycological addiction that scientists are yelling at the top of their lungs about but nobody is listening.

I've been sober around 20 years now. And I've seen some of my kids use it and get hooked on it. They are sober now thank goodness but it wasn't until it wrecked their lives. Some of their friends got sober and some did not.

 

[leeholaaho]

The hash that I've come across over the years has a somewhat earthy, spicy, kind of a floral smell. A little like pot but with more of a (relatively) sweet/floral and spicy smell.

I used to think the population of skunks had exploded recently and that they were spraying cars. Turns out all of these people are smoking the skunk weed. It's everywhere these days. Pop culture is not pot culture. So called conventional wisdom tell us to think it's harmless. It's not.

As a former user I know first hand that this stuff out there these days aint your grandpas Mary Jane where you and two friends smoke a lunch baggy full like Cheech & Chong, smile and laugh at everything for 4 hours, eat a box of fruit loops and go to sleep for a few hours.

No this new breed you take a few puffs from a pipe and you're stupid stoned for the rest of the day..... until you build up a tolerance. There inlies the problem. Once the tolerance is there it takes more and more, which in turn begins to cause the brain to stop producing happy hormones because the Maui-waui keeps supplying it. The resulting crash(es) can be devastating.

Last time I smoked it I hadn't smoked it in months. My brain had fixed itself after about 2 years of pills, therapy and worse. Suddenly I was happier than I'd been in a long time for about 4 hours but after that it was 2 days of anger, fear, sorrow, anything but happy. I hope to never smoke that $**** ever again.

Yep, the happy tank empties quick and it's the devil to refill it.

 

[pnwoutdoors]

What's it like around your way? Just as bad? I honestly find it proper depressing.

In my area (in the U.S.), there are the occasional whiffs of MJ that I catch, while out and about. But it's fairly rare. Once or twice, I've smelled it in the neighborhood.

Here, the biggies are meth and fentanyl. So, no obvious smells from use. And given that so much of the fentanyl is adulterated stuff, there are lots of overdose deaths.

Almost makes one nostalgic for the 1950s, when booze was king.

 

[aznsx]

I just voted for a local ballot measure / proposition today which would make cell phone use while driving a felony charge, with a minimum jail term, and maximum penalty of death;-)