Well like everybody else said, I didn't see anybody bashing anything. The defensiveness implied by using that particular word is something to notice, though.

One of things often said about ganja is that it is an aid to meditation: in my long experience with it I did not find this to be so. But my understanding of the effects that were not good that it had on me didn't really dawn on me till I stopped using it.

I write every day, and when I got high I would get all excited about this project and that, and work on it intensely, only to have a new idea and start on something else...it caused a dispersing rather than a unifying energy, though it was definitely an energy, and since this was the best I knew to do in terms of inspiration, I kept doing it, so I didn't see how much better and more focused and more calm and more high I could be without it. It is a relatively new experience for me, seeing things through from the beginning to the middle to the end and hanging in there.

I wonder what meditation really is other than the ability to be fully present in the moment with what we are doing or thinking.

In the medical literature which is reputable (and a lot of it is not--the 'powers that be' consider it a threat) ganja is, for example, not a good idea for people in the manic swing of bi-polar, because it intensifies the mania. Where it has been used medicinally it has been as a relaxant, but in some cases it can have the opposite effect. I have seen this a lot. I know angry people who say they use it to calm down, not seeing that it plays a part in their not dealing with their anger. I know people who use it and immediately 'space out' into various states that, if ones don't know better, could cause them to believe they are really getting somewhere, spiritually speaking.

But speaking for myself, now I know much better, more sustained, and on-point highs that make me completely disinterested in using ganja again. And the highs have to do with approaching doing the best I can, being as thorough as I can. In my experiences and observations I have to say that a lot of ganja smokers really have a hard time with the small stuff, the crucially important little things that, taken together, improve and refine our conduct and make us useful to ourselves and others.

Also, speaking as a woman who watches how a lot of males operate on this board, it's a lot of 'me me me' and big-ups to the bredren guys' club sort of displays--I wonder if ganja use contributes to a focus on self which is narcissistic and encourages not-so-great habits of thought and speech. Just an out-there kind of thought...