You all knew this topic was coming.
So what up d-realmssssss, let's talk drugs. Wonderful, awesome drugs. I'm your master of ceremonies, Ophanim, and I'm here to tell you all about the magical monstrosities that your parents don't want you knowing about. Follow me, and we'll delve into a wonderland that you've never before dared to imagine, and never knew you had the capacity to envision. My primary motivations here are going to be to educate, and to entertain. So read onward, my dearest reader, and learn things you never knew you wanted to know.
We'll start off with marijuana. A few slang terms include: weed, bud, ganja, reefer (I will ridicule you endlessly if you use this), grass, pot, trees, and a few other terms.

I'm sure a great many of you have seen this iconic leaf, but how many of you have taken the time to get to know this drug? For instance, a common misconception is that the leaves are the least bit important, when they are in fact entirely irrelevant to anyone aiming to get high. You see, the THC (which is a cannabinoid!) and various other goodies are primarily located in the reproductive organs of the plant, and then only in females. Males have next to no THC and will make your crop seedy if left to their own devices, so kill those ♥♥♥♥ quick. The buds, when alive, look like this:

That's where those delicious little nuggets of get-me-baked-goodness come from on the plant. When dried, they look like this:

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. This little guy is responsible for all that fuss. But most of what you see here is just inert plant matter, which really doesn't do a whole lot. Let's take a closer look, at our dear friend, THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.

This, along with a few other cannabinoids, is where the magic happens. This little guy is responsible for that wonderful fuzzy feeling you get when you get high. This little guy binds to your cannabinoid receptors, of which there are two types, CB1 and CB2. CB1 receptors are primarily found in your brain, and are responsible for the mental aspect of getting high, namely where everything is ♥♥♥♥ hilarious and you lose your car keys four times. CB2 receptors, however, are found primarily in your immune system, and are responsible for the physical sensations of getting high, namely where everything in the house looks like it was cooked at Le Cordon Bleu and you want to sleep forever. THC binds to both of them, partially, and the various other goodies in yo' drugs bind to different ones (the balance of the two, as the more experienced of some of you may have guessed, determines whether your weed is a sativa or an indica plant, sativa giving a more heady high [favoring CB1] and indica giving a body high [favoring CB2]). Now, the real bright ones among you might have posed the following question: Why are these receptors in our brain? The obvious conclusion is correct, ladies and gentlemen. Just like opiate pain-killers, our body produces cannabinoids naturally, and these compounds are known as endocannabinoids. This is entirely irrelevant, but it is interesting, so I'm including it and you can't stop me nyah nyah nyah.
Now we're going to address methods of administration of this wonderful drug, or as I like to call it, how to SMOKE WEED EVERY DAAAAAAAY.
The most common method is also the oldest method, good ol' fashioned combustion. Be it joints, blunts, bongs, or pipes, you're gonna need a method of delivery. I mean sure you could hold the nug and burn it but that's a pretty terrible idea. Anyway, we'll start out with the classic, and indeed iconic, joint:

A joint is often referred to as a marijuana cigarette, for that is indeed exactly what it is. You break your bud up (you can use your fingers, scissors, whatever, but many prefer a grinder.), sprinkle it onto your paper, and at this point some people add what is called a crutch, which is just a strip of cardboard rolled up into a tube. This stops weed from getting into your mouth as you smoke, makes it easier to roll, and you can smoke all of what you put into the joint without having a roach left over. Your end product should look something like this. From there it's the simple process of rolling, which is actually fairly hard to master. There are plenty of video tutorials on the subject, a quick youtube search will yield some fairly comprehensive ones, which will do a better job of explaining this than I. From there, you just light the end that doesn't have your crutch in it, and inhale. Remember, that's the point. Now, we move on to blunts.

Blunts are much the same thing, only generally using either a prerolled tobacco cigar split open and stripped of its outer leaf, or a blunt wrap (it's worth the trouble of doing the former rather than buying wraps.) However, if you choose this method, remember: The wrap is tobacco, and it does cause cancer. While the effect is minimal if used sparingly, it is still there, so keep this in mind. Again, a video tutorial or some other method will do a much better job of explaining how to roll one of these than I can. Blunts are often preferred because of their size, in that you can fit much more weed into a blunt than you can into a joint, blunts being larger. Blunts also have a distinctive taste to them, and are often flavored, to great effect.
Now we'll move onto gorgeous, gorgeous glass:

Glass is beautiful, wonderful, and everything you never knew you wanted. Just smoking out of such a gorgeous piece of art makes me feel good. Glass is often preferred because of ease of use, the fact that it looks ♥♥♥♥ amazing if you get good pieces, and to save money if you are a heavy smoker. Glass is categorized into two types, dry pieces and wet pieces, and further from there.
Dry Pieces:
We start with the humble spoon, otherwise known as a bowl:

Up in the top left you'll see the bowl, which is where you put your goodies. At the bottom of this bowl is a little hole that extends down a bit into the central cavity of the pipe. The mouthpiece, where you do your suckin', is on the right. Not visible is the carb, or carburetor. It's just a little above where that nub of glass is, just on the opposite side. When you're inhaling, you hold your thumb over the carb, which prevents air from getting in, until you're almost ready to stop, at which point you take your thumb off the carb (while keeping up that inhaling), which clears the smoke in the pipe. Waste not, want not. Otherwise, operation is pretty simple. Remember, though, that you don't need to hold the lighter to yo' drugs forever. It'll burn on it's own, and you'll be glad that you didn't, because butane tastes pretty bad if you're getting a bigass lung-full of it, and you'll be inhaling really ♥♥♥♥ hot air. Trust me on this one.
Next we have the one-hitter:

I chose this particular image because it shows off the design, form, and function of the pipe very well. Weed goes on the left, mouth goes on the right, smoke weed erry day. Simple things which will make your life better.
Next up, HAMMER!

Again, this should be fairly self-explanatory by now. The advantages of using a hammer is that chamber at the bottom allows the smoke to cool a little bit before reaching you. If you like the taste of a dry piece and prefer it (I do, most of the time), but have trouble with the harshness of a spoon, a hammer is for you.
Now we move onto my personal favorite, the sherlock

There really is no advantage to choosing a sherlock over a spoon, nor disadvantage, but I personally love these things. They're comfortable in your hand, generally being pretty heavy, but not big and unwieldy like a hammer. Plus you can impersonate Holmes when you get baked, and that's always a rip-snorting good time.
Wet pieces!
First, a bit about using water in your pipes. The general point is to cool filter the smoke, making it a smoother smoke, and it really does help. This also has the downside of pulling some of the good stuff out too. It's not a huge difference but it's there. Wet pieces also need to be cleaned, a lot, and the water has to be changed after every use. This is not an option, don't leave bong water sitting, it's ♥♥♥♥ gross and you'll get nasty ass hits and ugh just please. Aside from that, the only general suggestion I have for using water pipes is this: cold water. Add ice to the ♥♥♥♥ if you want, you'll love it. It makes it so smooth and sexy. Just trust me on this.
Anyway. we'll start off with the humble and unassuming bubbler:

This is where we cross over into the wet pieces, with something that is similar to both. In the image, we can see the bowl. Coming down from the is the downstem, which extends down into that bottom chamber (which, as you may guess, will be filled with water). The downstem goes down below the water level. Inhaling through the mouthpiece creates negative pressure in that little chamber, which pulls air down from the bowl through the downstem, drawing the smoke through the water (this is where that cooling and filtering happens), and up through the stem of the pipe into your lungs. This same principle is how all water-pipes work, and it works pretty good. Bubblers are my preferred method of smoking if I want to use water, because I don't have the lung capacity for our next subject, which is, at long last
BONGS!

Ah, bongs, how I love thee. Anyway, on the right there you can see the bowl, which is attached to the downstem (good bongs, instead of a carb, have detachable bowls, allowing for variety in style and replacements. The joint is clearly visible.), which goes down into that bottom chamber, which is filled with water, filters the smoke, fills the bong, and fills your lungs. Bongs, as you may imagine, require a lot of lung capacity. You have to be able to inhale all the air in the bong, twice. Once to fill the thing, and once to clear it. This is more than I possess, so I prefer smaller pipes. But you might not.
And that about does it for water pipes. Small selection, no? Now we move onto a few bullet points before I close

Quick information for savin' the nation from disinformation.

• Marijuana is addictive. So is caffeine. Caffeine being the more addictive of the two. The withdrawal symptoms for marijuana are nigh-unnoticeable, and are limited to mild moodiness and loss of appetite, among other things. Any argument of this fact is prohibited unless you are citing an independent study that you can prove isn't funded by any governing body of any country, and can give me full notes on experiment and show me that you understand what you're talking about. This means you, CrazyMLC.
• Marijuana does not cause cancer. This fact is also inarguable, but I'll be a little gentler on this subject. Marijuana is actually suspected to help fight cancer, but this is widely disputed. Yes, we know that you're thinking "Well, of course inhaling smoke isn't good for you!" and I'm not going to allow three hundred posts in this thread saying this. Marijuana has never been proven to cause any sort of permanent lung damage, and has never been proven to do anything to your lungs at all beyond temporary minor bronchial irritation. No, it does not inhibit your oxygen intake. No, it does not cause decreased lung capacity. In no way does it cause any sort of decreased lung function.
• No, marijuana does not kill brain cells. No it does not damage your short term memory. No, I will not allow any "Hehe dumb stoner." jokes in this thread. They are annoying and patronizing, and there is no place for them here. Keep them to yourself. Marijuana is suspected to stimulate brain cell growth, but again, this is fairly widely disputed. Marijuana does affect your short term memory while you are high and that is it.

So, basically, if DARE told it to you, it was probably a lie. In fact, DARE was one of the most disgusting propaganda campaigns the US has ever run, blatantly lying to children to support laws which are unfair and founded on intuition and not scientific fact, and often ignored fact. But that's a discussion for another topic. Google Harry J. Anslinger if you're interested in learning more.

So, children, I open the floor for discussion, and indeed encourage it. I will answer any questions to the best of my ability, and remember no question is a dumb question. Ask as much as you like, without fear of repercussion, but remember that when you are asking a question, you are asking because you don't have knowledge, so please don't try to argue with me unless you've done some research first. I understand that this is not something a lot of you will be exposed to often, because of America's fear of drugs, and there will be mindsets in place which are the product of lies and deception. There have been pretty heavy misinformation campaigns against marijuana for quite a while now, and I hope to do a little bit to combat this. So if you've read this far shaking your head and thinking "Well that DARE officer told me this and my parents told me that and Ophanim you're wrong.", go read a little bit. Expose yourself to the other side of the argument. Become well-informed. I imagine you will find, as I did, that you were misled, just as your parents were misled, and their parents were misled.

Next up: Psychedelics, of the traditional sort, and later, research chemicals.

NOTE: Proofreading here is minimal. Point out any mistakes, grammatical or otherwise, please. It'll help me a lot.

Okay I didn't think I'd need to do this, as I expected you all to be intelligent about this, but apparently I was wrong. I'm writing this little tidbit at the behest of p3lb0x, who you will note has a red name. All of the above is not to be taken as stone-cold fact, it's to be verified and considered and thought about. I'm giving you this information because most people aren't exposed to this viewpoint, which is a sad thing, I think. I've been given permission to make this topic, so barring weasel's intervention, it's here to stay. All discussion is to be conducted in a civil and intelligent manner, and with as little prejudice as possible. This is a touchy subject, and people have strong opinions on it, so keep this in mind. Also, this stuff is still drugs. Misuse can still cause harm. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Play it safe, be informed, and have fun.

I approve of this message - p3lb0x
Hey here's some rules for you guys, heavily adapted from Something Awful's drug forum rules (not visible to public).


Tucker ran these rules by me, and I was cool with them. - D
THIS ♥♥♥♥ IS IMPORTANT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_urban_legend READ THIS.
NOW.
I'm not kidding. You're going to be surprised by at least a few of the things on there.
This is also informative as ♥♥♥♥, but pertains only to marijuana.
http://forum.grasscity.com/legalization ... ol-bs.html

DRUGS DON'T MAKE YOU COOL

Here's a gift from me to you! A very, very image-heavy gift. I'm learning AS I WRITE THIS so it is especially important that if you don't understand something you either ask so I can delve deeper into that particular area or look it up yourself (and tell me if I'm wrong).
Vocab words are in bold and important ♥♥♥♥ is bright red.

Welcome to the psychedelics portion of this wonderful megathread! I'm going to be doing the psychedelics portion of this write-up in pieces, because this is a class of drug rather than a single drug like marijuana. It'll be over the course of the next week or two. Today we're going to start with the mythical and wonderful Lysergic Acid Diethylamine, or LSD, and then I'm going to move onto phenethylamines, then tryptamines, and dissociatives maybe. There are vague plans far off for some other things, but that's my current plan.
Anyway, Acid.
probably NSFW link
^that's a few hundred hits of acid soaked into blotter paper
Today we'll begin with and by dispelling a few myths about acid.
Acid does not make you insane. It just doesn't, sorry.
Your friend that told you about the guy who thinks he's a glass of orange juice? He's lying. Someone told him the story and he turned it into a friend of a friend thing. Story's not true.
LSD doesn't stay in your spine. That makes no god damn sense. Your spinal fluid is completely refreshed about every three days, and if all you had to do was crack your back to trip again, why would people buy the ♥♥♥♥ more than once?
No, giving someone X amount of acid/magic mushrooms doesn't count as manslaughter, or plotting against the government, or whatever the ♥♥♥♥ else your friend told you.
Now that that's out of the way.
Acid is the most wonderful drug on the planet, my fair fellows. Its effects are close to indescribable, if not so. It will open your eyes to the colors of the world. Everything around you is fresh and new and wonderful. The air seems to hum with the joy of being alive, and the wind tousles your hair like an old friend. Whites are filled in with subtle rainbows, and everything seems coated in a thin coat of gold. You melt into the chair you sit in, absorbed in the musical spectacle that is playing in your head. Time slows to a stop, while paradoxically racing. Should you ever find yourself in this situation, I promise you it will be the most memorable experience of your life. It really is a hell of a drug. You will experience a depth of emotion previously unavailable to you, and your mind will supply you with all things wonderful and happy, if you let it.
I love this drug.
Anyway let's start with the basics.

Acid will come in several forms. Either a clear, colorless liquid, the blotter paper you see above on the sheet and on the gentleman's tongue, microdot, or geltabs, blotter being the most common.
Microdots:
Geltabs:
Liquid:
Dosing for acid is very, very small, which is what makes it so easy to conceal. Doses measure in micrograms (abbr. ug), which is one one millionth of a gram. Common doses are 50-150 ug, which is about a tenth of a milligram. Obviously a very potent drug. Regardless of the form, the administration is the same: Put it under your tongue. The onset, which is marked by the first effects of the drug, should start after about 20-40 minutes. During come up, expect to feel very stimmy and energized, and restless. You may feel a tightness in your chest, but it's doubtful it'll be unpleasant. Just relax, try not to think about it, and immerse yourself in something. It'll happen on its own time. Then you begin what is known as coming up, which is just rising to the plateau of the trip. Things will start to get very intense after a while, but don't worry. Remember, you took this to have fun, and whether or not you do that is entirely up to you. After the peak is the much longer come down, which I find to be more pleasant than the peak. Sit somewhere comfortable, talk to someone close to you, and just enjoy the way the world works.
Here's a handy chart (From erowid, as is a lot of my resources and knowledge. http://www.erowid.org donate they deserve it!!!)
So now you're peaking on acid, tripping your ♥♥♥♥ balls off, pupils like dinner plates, etc etc. The world has taken on an alien look, and absolutely everything is fascinating. You have ahead of you a few hours of the peak, and I suggest not sitting around staring at bricks. Go do something. Suggested activities include, but are not limited to: Reading (this only works on low doses due to attention span and also reading is hard when the words are moving), locating your pet (animals are awesome while tripping, and you'll understand them much better), the classic music visualizer, music in general, videogames, good conversation, and basically anything that you normally like. Things to avoid: Anything negative. Seriously. If it's stressing you out, creeping you out, weirding you out, or making you uncomfortable, it's gotta go. Acid is a fickle drug, and even though you're almost guaranteed to have a great time, you can have the infamous, the awful, the horrendous, the
BAD TRIP
But don't worry.
No, really, don't worry. A bad trip is basically your brain shying away from it's natural inclination to feel happy and getting caught in something negative, the most common of which is simple anxiety. Just don't worry about it. Put it out of your mind. If you can fix it, by all means, but if not, hey, it's not that bad. Just remove yourself from whatever's stressing you, relax, and take your mind off of it. Just breathe easy, little one, and remember your mother's arms.
So, that's the basics of acid. How to take it, what to do on it, etc etc. I know this is short, but there'll be more soon. Next up: Either the biochem/history portion of acid or a short segment I like to call Dealing with Dealers

Reserved

I found where my dad keeps his reefer a few days ago, so I'm gonna give some of my dad's reefer to one of my friends 'cos he occasionally smokes reefer and so he's got a bong he could use with which to smoke that reefer.

User was warned for this post - Trolling - p3lb0x

This is a beautiful topic, Ophanim.

That said, I find it odd that you don't provide any references to the many positive effects you attribute to marijuana. I guess you could be trying to encourage independent research, but people are lazy.

You've got an image that dislikes being hotlinked, and the text needs to be broken up more, I think.

I wonder if you have any insight with regards to growing? Outdoor, preferably, but indoor is fine too.

>Positive Effects

God I love me some schizophrenia.

Correlation does not imply causation.

Edit:
Heh, the DARE website is hilarious!

Why yes, yes I do. Marijuana is a very hearty plant, the term "weed" isn't used lightly. Growing outdoors the only thing you have to worry about is pests. Hot peppers, or some sort of predator urine (fox urine is easily bought and works fine) will keep your herbivores away, and there are various other natural remedies (please don't use pesticides) for any pests you may have. Gardening websites and stuff will tell you how to keep stuff like slugs and other critters off your plants.

I'm going to address this. Marijuana does not cause schizophrenia any more than it causes reefer madness. Repeated studies have shown that nothing of the sort has ever been observed to happen. However, marijuana CAN and more than likely will aggravate existing mental conditions, and you should always talk to your doctor before using drugs, legal or otherwise, if you have a medical condition. Your doctor cannot report your habits to the police, his job is to prevent you from coming to harm as best he can, without breaking his Hippocratic Oath. Be safe, and be smart.

You touched a little on the subject that our body has a use for those cannabinoid receptors,
but you didn't mention the effects of what artificially introduced cannabinoids can have on your system.

Brief History: Over millions of years, we've evolved these receptors and these endocannabinoid hormones.
They were "made" to give us a break when we experience something intense.

Now, your endocrine system regulates the production of endocannabinoids and other hormones (an endocannabinoid is a lipid hormone which is sorta structured like a fat molecule) using a negative feed back loop.

In normal circumstances, when your body produces enough of these hormones, your endocrine system senses that there are enough in your body through your receptors, and it stops the production of endocannabinoids.

When you artificially introduce cannabinoids into your system, your body thinks that it produced them itself, and it shuts down your endocannabinoid gland(?). Of course this won't work because the cannabinoids are coming from the pot you're smoking so your brain may have to use its amazing synaptic plasticity and rewire itself to deal with all that pot (this is bad).

Basically what happens after you're done potting, you don't get the same pain-killer cannabinoids that your body is used to naturally producing because your cannabinoid gland is fried, and you feel like ♥♥♥♥ all the time until you get another joint (and after a while, even this won't work as well because your brain is still rewiring itself and it may be closing off its receptors.)

This happens with basically every addictive drug in existence.

tl;dr Marijuana really DOES fry your brain.

Other than this little bit of info, the rest of your article appears to be spot on.

This is interesting, and I've heard things like this, but without any sort of citation, this is the equivelant of saying don't drink caffeinne or you'll never be able to stay awake again. Basically, [citation needed].

And yes, I realize I didn't cite a damn thing in my OP, but I've spent hours and hours looking at that edit box and ♥♥♥♥ doing it more. If you bring up something or doubt something or have questions and want citation, just ask, and I'll do my best.

Zalo for the life of me I can't find anything relating to what you're talking about but I'll address it as best as possible with my current knowledge:
From what you've said, it sounds like you just said "Marijuana is addictive I'll explain addiction and assume it applies to marijuana." You perfectly described opiate addiction. This process is what makes opiates so dangerous and addictive, because the receptors in your brain are basically responsible for your happiness. It's what makes 'em feel so damn good. But, as you can see, I've addressed marijuana addiction, and it's relative mildness. I'm trying to find citation but a lot of this is hearsay and personal experience. I will give you anecdotal (and as soon as I find it, scientific) citation though: I'm a pretty heavy smoker. I smoke daily, throughout the day, and am high most days, with the recent exception being the past 3 weeks. I can't say I've felt any different than normal, there's no craving for it, I don't even mind not having weed. Sure, it's sort of a bummer, but I'd probably be more upset if my computer broke than if I couldn't get weed for the next little while. It's really not a big deal to me, and I've never met anyone whose day was ruined because they found out they couldn't smoke weed for a little while.

lmao all the bongs look like penises

User was banned for this post - Trolling - p3lb0x

Well, caffeine according to Wikipedia:
It doesn't sound too nice when they say it like that, does it? Personally, my dad is trying to quit his own caffeine addiction, and after being a long time drinker, it isn't without side-effects.

Anyway, most of the stuff about Negative Feedback loops I learned from Honors Bio (Still awaiting my AP grades), and I learned a small bit about receptor inhibition and synaptic plasticity from a video on methamphetamines (it still applies to Marijuana, just different receptors (Cannabinoid receptors are hormone receptors on the cell membrane, and dopamine is a neurotransmitter which goes directly into a neuron's post-synaptic membrane)).

Also, a lot of that was what I learned about lipid hormones in Honors Bio.

My main resource other than just what I remember: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system

That's a bunch of wikipedia articles, not citations.
Also here I edited this into an earlier post
Zalo for the life of me I can't find anything relating to what you're talking about but I'll address it as best as possible with my current knowledge:
From what you've said, it sounds like you just said "Marijuana is addictive I'll explain addiction and assume it applies to marijuana." You perfectly described opiate addiction. This process is what makes opiates so dangerous and addictive, because the receptors in your brain are basically responsible for your happiness. It's what makes 'em feel so damn good. But, as you can see, I've addressed marijuana addiction, and it's relative mildness. I'm trying to find citation but a lot of this is hearsay and personal experience. I will give you anecdotal (and as soon as I find it, scientific) citation though: I'm a pretty heavy smoker. I smoke daily, throughout the day, and am high most days, with the recent exception being the past 3 weeks. I can't say I've felt any different than normal, there's no craving for it, I don't even mind not having weed. Sure, it's sort of a bummer, but I'd probably be more upset if my computer broke than if I couldn't get weed for the next little while. It's really not a big deal to me, and I've never met anyone whose day was ruined because they found out they couldn't smoke weed for a little while.

I quit caffeine last September, since I was pretty much drinking a litter up to a litter and a half of the stuff every day. I went completely cold turkey and pretty much felt like crap for two days with constant headaches and wild mood swings. The next two to three weeks I felt anxiety, more headaches [much less severe, mind you] and had high irritability.

And this was coffee, which is still a drug, but you can't really get high from it (unless you drink ungodly amounts, as in, to the point you have a constant 140bp ratio), so I assume that pot would have worse symptoms.

assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume assume
This is not an intelligent attitude to have. Your assumption is entirely incorrect, and it's worse than misinformed, it's not informed. Please, before you post, at least make some attempt to comment on the situation in an informed manner, rather than posting to prove your ignorance.
Yes I am going to jump on everyone's ass about this as it's the most annoying part of the argument against drugs.