T-S Letter: Pot Questions

A letter writer to the Times- Standard this morning asks a bunch of questions about marijuana: how much do people need vs. how much will be available, among other things. I've wrote before I'm tired of hearing about pot so those questions don't interest me at all. What did pique my interest was this statement:

"In my experience with smoking marijuana in the ’60s, I always had to smoke more to feel that first initial “high,” but never achieved that goal. Does a person who smokes medical marijuana have to smoke more to get the desired pain relief?". 

I don't get that first part. I've smoked a fair amount of pot in my earlier life, but I never had my fingers stained brownish yellow as some of the guys I grew up with. I don't get him saying he had to smoke more for his initial high.

When I used to smoke pot, I'd get high very quickly, assuming I hadn't smoked any in a while. It got worse after that as smoking more after an hour or two would just make me tired. The first hour was always the best.

I worked on a ranch back in the '70s where the owner had a modest pot garden. He'd regularly give me a good sized bag of the stuff in lieu of cash. The first joint was fun. After that it would just make me tired but, since I had plenty of pot, I'd keep on smoking. I don't know why to this day as I secretly wished I'd run out for a while to get the nice high from not having smoked for a few days.

That's what I don't get about these supposed medical marijuana patients. I'm sure it's good for some ailments, but do they really enjoy smoking pot all the time? I didn't, and assume they must have a psychological addiction to the stuff as I did. 

I recall Arcata's now gone pot guru, Bobby Harris, being quoted as saying he smoked an ounce a week. I only met him once but never got the chance to ask if he actually felt high after smoking that much pot. He claimed to be a medical marijuana user. Did all that pot really alleviate any pain, or did it just make him tired so he didn't feel his supposed pain as much?

Both sides of the medical marijuana argument go back and forth on that. The anti- pot folks saying the "patients" just want to get high. The supporters saying it actually has medical benefit and can relieve pain. From my personal experience, neither can be accomplished by smoking pot all week long. After the initial high, it just makes me tired.