Dad was "refer madness" infected his entire life. Drinking like a fish was just fine, gambling, fighting, womanizing--all alcohol enhanced activities of his were just fine... but weed, well, that was drugs, illegal, make you lose your mind, make you lose control of yourself. We were admonished severely if we even mentioned the stuff.

Dad quits drinking at age 40. Too late. Many health problems from overeating, alcoholism, etc. Then, at age 80, cancer in his ribs and lungs from 40 years of heavy smoking. Gets ribs and part of a lung removed. He can't take the pain and wants to do himself in. I tell him to try eating some weed. It will help him sleep, take out inflammation, and make it so he can eat and hold down food. He resists for months until he can't take it anymore. Breaks down and calls me to bring him some weed, he'll try anything! I bring him some weed. He eats a big bud, eats a big dinner, crashes in his bed and sleeps like a baby all night. Now, he won't live without it.

The fact that he made it to 80 is pretty amazing. My father was pretty healthy until alcohol took over his life. He was a drinker but functional and he hit a point where he couldn't go to work anymore, in his 50s, I think. He lasted until his late 60s, only because he would dry out for a while when he got too sick.
I'm an alcoholic and I quit drinking in my 30s after getting pretty sick myself, bleeding ulcer, etc. A doctor I saw included me in a study of alcoholic children of alcoholic parents. It was interesting.

Happy 4/20 btw.

I drank some myself, but don't like it. Booze is not for me. Blech.

Dad's 84 now. Still walkin' around. Even he can't believe it.

Doing anything while impaired is unsafe and stupid.

Years ago, a buddy opined that I would really enjoy surfing a lot more if I was a little high while doing it. It seemed harmless enough, so I gave it a try.

The place was "C Street" ... a point break in Ventura. Unfortunately, it is known for being a tough paddle. The result was that paddling out seemed to take FOREVER. It was probably only a few minutes, but seemed like ages, and I seemed to be making no progress. I finally got impatient and just turned around to catch the next wave.

I can still hear all the cuss words floating about ... I apparently cut off some people who had already caught the wave. I fell off the board, my leash broke, and now I was a good 100 yards from shore and had to swim back in. With the currents being what they were, that meant a long swim AND a long walk.

To cap it all off, we all lost track of time, and were all 2 hours late to work that evening. The only reason we weren't all fired is that they didn't want to replace all 3 of us.

Another fun one. SO is diagnosed with cancer, and that set me off on a track where I thought "what the hell ... why not ... we're all going to die eventually anyway" and consumed a bit of blackberry brandy before skiing.

I found myself taking jumps I never had the guts to try before. And I landed all of them ... except one. Got my bell rung good and boy did that hurt.

So no ... not for me. I love cycling and it is dangerous enough already. My bones are too brittle for a lot more falls ... I've already had my share.

Especially if you go to Smorgabobs...

Did have that effect when I was younger on the MTB, probably still would but since I now ride with my kids and not other adults exclusively I haven't in a while. The numbing effects for me always meant I could ride longer and I have less inhibitions for technical riding. Also once rode completely lit from Amsterdam to Paris, other then getting lost a bit here or there I had no problem riding all day and enjoyed myself.

Scientific analysis of riding while high:


Happy 4/20 to one and all.

Not necessarily. I've heard raw weed needs to be decarboxylated but I didn't know that when I was a teenager in the 1970s. I had to eat a couple of joints quickly. Took a couple of hours but the effect was intense. Only side effect was mild stomach cramps for a few minutes (which might have been from the rolling paper). And this was the lame stuff we got in the '70s, which was mostly leaves and stems, rarely buds.

A couple of years ago friends gave me samplers to try while I was recovering from injuries (hit by a car) and surgery for thyroid cancer. Still having a lot of pain and the health care system I was with at the time wouldn't renew prescription pain meds.

My allergies and asthma are so bad I didn't want to smoke the stuff. I did try smoking a couple of times to test assertions that smoking cannabis relieves asthma, but it didn't work for me. So I read up on recipes for edibles. Most recommended decarbing first, but I tried a few without the preliminary decarb process, just baking the weed into cookies, etc. I couldn't tell any difference between the stuff made with decarbing first, and the batch just baked without decarbing. Same effect -- pretty potent, difficult to calibrate. Some days I felt almost nothing. The next day, couch lock and movies. Much harder to find a balance than with smoking.

I also tried just swallowing a raw bud. Same effect as decarbing, or baking without decarbing. Very slow onset, about two hours, then pretty potent and lingering for hours.

I also made some homebrewed tinctures, using MCT and other oils. It worked about the same as edibles, but a bit quicker when the oil is used sublingually -- same technique recommended for CBD tinctures. But still difficult to calibrate. An experienced lab could probably make better cannabis tinctures with predictable dosages.

Unfortunately I've lost my taste for the buzz I enjoyed as a teenager so I didn't get any more after finishing those samples. It just made me sleepy... which ain't bad. If I was seriously chronically ill, sure, I'd use it again. Oddly, I didn't notice any significant pain relief from full spectrum cannabis with higher THC content. If anything the familiar psychoactive effect of weed made the pain more present in my consciousness, so I ended up moping over my usual moderate chronic pain, rather than having it as my usual daily background noise. That wasn't pleasant.

For now I prefer high potency CBD for moderate chronic pain, and it also helps me sleep. But I can also work out without any distractions from psychoactive effects. I ride bikes, jog, whatever.

That's some funny stuff right there. :lol: Thanks for posting.

I never really thought of THC as a pain reliever but in 2017 I had Shingles in my right eye. The headache was intense but the eye pain was off the chart. It felt like my eye was being squeezed by pliers. Primary doc gave me Gabapentin and some opiate. All the Gab did was render me unconscious and I never tried the opiate, Percocet, maybe?

I couldn't go to work, just sat around until a friend gave me some THC tablets. I can't say it eliminated the pain but it allowed me to stop thinking about it, to stop concentrating on the pain. I was able to function around the house and it was the best treatment I could have hoped for.

Life is full of choices. Getting high after a ride seems reasonable if that’s your thing. Cycling while high- not so much- take care.

A quick hit or two before hitting the road makes the ride more cerebral, I use sativa for a more focused event. nice.

These days there are several ways to ingest it. And products that don't make you 'stoned' but take the edge off.

ditto

I simply do not understand why anyone would want to do anything while impaired by both legal and illegal drugs.

You are commenting but apparently have no experience upon which to base your opinion. Back in the early '70s, I worked in a drug intervention walk in center aimed at younger users. While we tried to develop alternative activities for kids, we discovered that many of the things we recommended were more enjoyable while stoned.

One person's "impairment" is another person's enjoyable alternative mental state.

Oh, I dunno. I'm a great dancer after I've had a few beers. And my singing is awesome. I don't do much when high, but walking, stretching, light weight-lifting, listening to music, and light chores around the house are all much more fun after a microdose.

But to be clear, I was not advocating anything in my original post. I was just curious. I came to the 50+ forum because I assumed we've all pretty much determined how fast our lanes are by this age. Nobody's here is going to be persuaded to go get high and ride a bike simply because I asked a question.

How do I close this thread?

Why do you want to close it? It hasn't been nasty. You can ask a moderator if you really want to close it.

I take a hit before most rides, and sometimes another after an hour or so. I've been doing this for 40 years, and it feels great.

I stopped taking Vicodin, anti-depression meds and Xanax for years. Chronic neck pain was keeping me from doing the things I enjoyed doing (like biking). Sleepless nights are brutal - especially when I was working. I started using the medical marijuana program here 2 years ago right after I retired (I couldn't try it while I worked because we were tested). I use a small does of THC oil in the morning - the size of a grain of rice - and another in the evening. The pain isn't gone but its easily tolerable now. I sleep through nights now always. I broke my toe a couple months ago and the THC did nothing for that pain, but the chronic neck pain that had me about to go crazy 2 years ago it seems to do wonders on. I don't get inebriated and no one knows that I use it. I know that there are many skeptics and naysayers out there, but that's their thing. I'm just stating what the facts are in my personal case. If there's something out there that can help people get through their lives easier and in less pain why not give it a shot? Alcohol is multitudes worse for you and causes many deaths yearly but it's not the case with marijuana.

Sorry I didn’t see this earlier. The thread does need closing. While weed is legal in many places, it’s still not allowed across the board. Thread closed.