Everone on here keeps talking about their tolerance and how they have to smoke a lot to get high. Yet everything I've ever read on the science of it says there is not much of a noticible tolerance and that disappears after a few days of not smoking. So is it just a mental thing or what?
i dont know but... i have a few questions towards tolerance, maybe u could answer them for me or maybe anyone could, or maybe u^^^ have the same questions, when i smoke i ussually get rele goofy, and i scream and laugh and say funny things and i have so much fun being stoned, things are so funnny when im high and i love it, but the past few days i have had these really shitty highs where im acting like the people who make fun of my goofy ways!!! help me! i want my high back, i want to be goofy again, what should i do...take a break? and if so, how long? i ussually smoke everyday! oh yeah and if i take a break will i still be able to get stoned from smoking one bowl???
i think its largely to do with teh fact that its not a chemical tolerance, its a mind tolerance. the brain can start to function more normally under the same chemical conditions, psychologically, not physically. you dont feel teh same satisfaction in being stoned. thats why teh best satisfaction is your first time because that has had no preceding high. hterefor its impossible to get that same amount of satisfaction after the first time u get stoned (well, properly stoned)
People who say tolerance isn't real obviously do not smoke a few times a day and have not experienced a build up in tolerance so they just assume its not real....Once you start smoking 4+ times a day for a few years, you won't need to question tolerance...Usually my tolerance goes down a little by the next morning, and a good wake n bake will always do the trick..But once you 're-up' your highs throughout the day, you will see a difference..It's harder to get high, and your highs don't last as long... It's a fact that your body gets used to being high after a while.. Sure, you still get a buzz if your tolerance is high, but you'll notice changes..Like I said; highs dont last as long and they just aren't the same.. They sorta lose the magic after a while.. But that's when some A-grade, FMCD(fully melt-clear dome) bubble hash comes into play =P
I miss the good old days when pot made me really goofy, or when I smoked so much I couldn't move. Now it's not a drug as much as it's a background substance. I still can get high from just one good hit, but it's nothing like the times when I first started smoking. Don't smoke too much or it'll happen to you too. Beware.
I agree with StonerBill. It's you getting used to the drug, not the drug losing it's effect. I actually think calling it a "tolerance" pretty much implies that. Psycho, if you're smoking everyday and feel like you're becoming tolerant, try going a week without smoking.
Well, I was just saying, none of the studies I've heard of seem to support what everyone's saying. i don't smoke daily or anything so I haven't noticed any tolerance issues, which is why I asked, but it just seems strange that the studies say the opposite. With alcohol or heroin, it's a clear thing, where there are physical changes in the brain that make you require more of the drug to get the effects, but not with weed. So I take it it's all in the mind?
With weed it seems like there is a physical tolerance, but learning how to handle being high is my best tolerance. I've taken time to understand how I feel each time I ingest the plant and now if I don't get high enough, I hardly feel high at all. There is also that tolerance think was talking about, where you get high your first smoke of the day but then when you smoke more it doesn't affect you as much. In this way, I've smoked a lot without getting too high.
Well, think about how it is that THC gets you high. It binds to cannabinoid receptors in all areas of the brain, thus releasing chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, etc. There's another chemical that does this in your brain, and it's called anandamide. It's nearly molecularly identical with THC. Normally, anandamide is what binds to these sites, under normal consciousness. It regulates the release of these chemicals based on environmental factors, or just a set pattern. These factors can be external, internal, subjective or objective. When you're high, what's binding with these sites is THC, and the pattern of release, and what causes the release is different. It's like re-learning how to function. Imagine it as when you're a small child dealing with consciousness, and learning how to understand it. I believe that when you get high, you're introducing yourself to a new type of consciousness. Just as you have to learn to understand the normal consciousness from when you're an infant, you gradually learn and understand the altered consciousness. What use to be new, exciting, and different is now not interpreted by your mind as anything too different. I believe that people who smoke daily that develope a tolerance do so because they spend so much time being high, that their brains do become use to it. That doesn't mean the drug is not having an effect; it just means you're not really noticing the effect. It doesn't feel any different. I think StonerBill could probably agree with this. I've remembered him talking about how that somtimes, being sober for him is like being high. I know a lot of people who have the same thing happen to them. So, looking at the way it works, it doesn't really seem like it's even possible to have a tolerance to the chemical itself. If you were to develope a tolerance to THC, then wouldn't you develope a tolerance to anandamide? Organizations like NIDA have thought this might happen; and claim that it could lead to psychosis, depression, disasociative disorder, and a whole array of other things. How many of you that smoke and claim to have a tolerance think that they have any metnal disorder, or have been diagnosed?
I did a little bit of research. This article is pretty interesting, it says that if you try to smoke more to compensate for tolerance, you're just screwing yourself because your brain decreases the number of cannabinoid receptors with heavy use. So if you're smoking all the time, you're going to continually get less and less effects since you'll have fewer receptors. It seems to make more sense to chill on the constant smoking so you can regenerate some receptors, then keep usage at a more optimal level. "Most marijuana users regulate their use to achieve specific effects. The main technique for regulating the effects of marijuana is manipulating tolerance. Some people who like to get "stoned" on pot, which (unlike the initial side effects of other drugs) can be enjoyable. These people smoke only occasionally. [this article uses "stoned" to indicate the short term memory loss and disorientation, and "high" to refer to the cognitive stimulation and other pleasant effects] People who like to get "high" tend to smoke more often, and maintain modest tolerance to the depressant effects. But this is not an indefinite continuum. Just as joggers encounter limits, regular users of marijuana eventually confront the wall of receptor down-regulation. Smoking more pot doesn't increase the effects of the drug; it diminishes them. The ideal state is right between the two tiers of effects. One of the great ironies of prohibition is that most marijuana users are left to figure this out for themselves. Most do, and strive for the middle ground. Some just don't figure it out, and this explains two behaviors which are identified as marijuana abuse. First is binge smoking, often but not exclusively exhibited by young or inexperienced users who mistakenly believe that they can compensate for tolerance with excessive consumption" Also, according to this article, cannabinoids have no direct effect on dopamine levels, which is a major reason that it isn't physically addictive. http://www.pdxnorml.org/brain2.html
I went for about a 2-3 week period where i was smoking everyday and I smoked a bowl one day and i went inside and I just thought, what the fuck! I'm not even high, not even a little buzz. After that I havent smoked more than a week w/o taking a break for a day or 2
strange, this is my first day where i havent smoked pot in a month and ive been running around and acting stupid all day.. maybe my brain was so used to being high that when i finally wasnt high it was like a whole new feeling..
