Well, here's the thing about pot that most people do not understand...
Pot is a MAGNIFYING DRUG (I hate calling it a drug but whatever) or should I say it has MAGNIFYING PROPERTIES, by that I mean it enhances everything! This is why everytime you eat something while high, or even read something, watch something, hear something, etc.. you experience it 5x better than when sober.
With that being said, it can also MAGNIFY your laziness or bad attributes about yourself, some people say that weed makes them lazy when in fact that person was lazy to begin with, all it did was enhance what was already there and the same thing applies when it makes you more productive, it simply enhanced what was already there.
Tribes use to use marijuana for reflective purposes (shows you your true self) just like ayahuasca. Then if you see something you don't like about yourself, you can then correct it.
For the most part, most people who says that pot makes you lazy might have had an INDICA strain and most people who say pot keeps them up and more productive most likely had an SATIVA strain. I notice that most people tend to have a lack knowledge so they jump to conclusions and simply state their "bias opinions" because they did not have the adequate knowledge about what they were taking/doing and end up passing the wrong info (which paradoxically happens all the time on BHW

)
Not to mention, just like with alcohol, if you take to much, you tend to get a negative effect. This is why I like to get high and not stoned, to me getting stoned is exactly that, you become a rock.. LOL
For those of you who say weed makes you lazy, if weed is legal in your state, go ahead and ask your local weed shop for the strongest PURE sativa they have. Bet you won't feel lazy then
On that note, don't make weed a crutch, this can have severe consequences on your energy centers (known as chakras) which can cause you to manifest stuff you did not intend but that's a conversation for another day.
Pot is NOT a "magnifying drug". I'm sorry but that's horseshit.
It's as much a "magnifying drug" as opiates are. First time I used opium 12 years ago I thought I was "magnified" back then. Opiates make you empathetic, caring, social, they make food taste better (especially sugary foods), they "magnify" coffee cause it's a potentiator like sugar, they "magnify" cigarettes, they magnify your abilities to pick up women, to not be nervous on job interviews, however...... have you ever heard that classic phrase "what goes up must come down"? You're only focusing on the first 2-3 hours of a high. Which are "magnifying". Problem is the 20+ hours that follow are DEmagnifying.
People say pot effects people differently, I think pot is the same as all drugs. Whatever drug takes you "up" will inevitably take you right back "down".
With opiates, your kappa receptors fire off and go "up", then when you're high, everything is better and "magnified" as you say. Problem is, once that shit wears off everything become demagnified, distorted, and debilitating. And the comedown lasts much longer than the high. Ask any doctor and they will tell you regardless of the drug, all drugs have 2 different phases. The therapeutic effects which only last a few hours, then the side effects which can last for weeks.
Pot isn't as strong as opiates, but the same rules of gravity apply to brain chemistry. "What goes up must come down". When you're high on pot, your brain is firing out dopamine which makes everything seem a little better. Makes food taste better. Makes movies better. Makes music better. But why do potheads always leave out the shit that pot doesn't magnify? Does it magnify running? No. How many people smoke pot then go for a jog? Does it magnify going to the gym? Definitely not. Does it magnify any aspect of exercise? No. You'll be coughing, breathing heavy and tired as hell. Even if you don't feel tired it will be amplified once the blood starts flowing and all those shitty, sedating THC metabolites kick back up into your brain. Does it magnify your ability to do math? No. Does it magnify your memory? No. Does it magnify your attention span? Does it magnify your IQ? Hell no. Just read the medical journals.
So we've established that even when you are high, there are lots of things (subsets of memory, attention, iq, exercise) that pot doesn't magnify.
What's worse, after that initial dopamine spike, when the weed wears off, things become dull as hell. Bye bye "magnification". And no offense, but I'm getting sick of people saying "it's most likely the strain". I have access to most strains you can think of, sativa and indica. And although some effect you more in the body, and are more sedating, all forms of pot are sedating. Anyone who doesn't believe that, go smoke your favorite sativa strain than immediately go for a run. The next day, don't smoke anything and go for a run. Then tell me that sativa's don't sedate you. The only real difference if you ask me is sativa's are a bit lighter on the body. As in, you don't feel it so much in your muscles. But you do feel it in your head (that burnt out feeling).
I will also speak to purity. I've smoked cannabutter, hashoil, some of the purest forms of weed that exist and they ALL burn you out. Because they ALL fire off dopamine which suppresses and burns out those receptors.
I've also seen guys toke a bowl then "work" for 10 hours straight. But guess what? The quality of their "work" is usually atrocious. They misspell shit, misinterpret things, over analyze things, go on rants about the weirdest shit. There IS a small group of highly intelligent people in which pot doesn't have such obvious effects. Like people with natural social skills or people who are naturally very intelligent. Like Tommy, he's a guy with high social intelligence. He's got a great personality. But if he stopped smoking weed tomorrow, his IQ would increase. His memory, attention and wits would get that much sharper. So in his case, it's not so obvious that pot is effecting him.
Same thing with engineers. Or people who are brilliant at math. I'm sure they can smoke a bowl and go do calculus for 16 hours. Same way I can smoke a bowl and synthesize speed or MDMA without killing myself. Most people can't do that sober. Put me in a fully stocked lab and I'll make LSD right in front of your eyes. Get me some rye grain, some chelated zinc and water, I'll make ergot, ergotamine then finally LSD. I'll show you how to extract the strychnine under a UV light with a turkey baster so you don't poison yourself before you trip. The point is, YES, certain people are naturally intelligent at certain things. So weed doesn't seem to effect those people so much. But I dare any pot head to dive into a medical database for 12 hours, read all the studies about weed, then come back and tell me weed doesn't have serious effects on your motivation, memory, attention span and overall IQ.
I have to clarify, I'm not saying pot turns everyone into a lazy bum. But it DOES diminish brain activity. It suppresses the reward center of your brain in more ways than 1. So things become dull and boring when the high wears off. You become much more prone to procrastinating and a royal case of the fuckits.
One final thing. This may sound radical but it's something I think about all the time. And I think it draws strong parallels to real life. If you were a soldier, were sent to the front line and had to fight for your life .... would you wanna smoke a bowl to "magnify" that experience? LOL. I don't think so. I think most people would be smart enough to know that's a great way to get killed. This may sound like a crazy analogy, but life is very similar to war. Many people say, "life IS war". It's just a really slow, watered down version of it. Everyday you wake up you're getting ready to fight for your life. To make money so you can eat. To have a house over your head. To be healthy and live a long life. To protect your livelihood, business and family.
I remember my last dog. She was a diabetic. I got high as hell 1 night and guess what? About 40 minutes after I lit up she went into diabetic shock. Couldn't walk, couldn't stand up, then started vomiting and having a seizure. It was like 1am in the morning and I'm thinking "this dog is going to die tonight but I can NOT drive to the vet in this condition"? I was FREAKING OUT. I went from perfectly calm and chill to almost having a seizure myself. I didn't wanna leave her, didn't want to go to the vet, had to go to the vet, but couldn't even grab my keys to get the car. I was so afraid I'd come back and she'd be dead. My thoughts were spiraling so fast I became paralyzed. I just sat there on the floor crying, petting her and holding her tongue. Fortunately she didn't die that night and and hours later she was back on her feet. But that scared the shit out of me.
Then, a few months after that, I get a call at 11pm. It's my mother frantically crying. Again, I'm high as f#ck. She's screaming at the top of her lungs, "your brother just collapsed and is on his way to xxx hospital, we don't know what happened but you need to get there NOW!!!". I hung up and thought, "you gotta be kidding me"? On the way to the hospital I had to stop at a store just to buy visine. I was the last 1 to show up and found out he went into atrial fibrillation. Nothing fatal but it was pretty serious.
A few weeks pass by and my brother calls me up. He says, "bro, I know you were high at the hospital that night". Then he says, "let me ask you something... what are you gonna do when you're high and mom or dad have a stroke"? And I didn't even answer him. I just sat there thinking "he's 100% right". The next day, I flushed all my weed down the toilet. About 2 months after that my dog died. And yes I was sad but thank god I wasn't high when that happened. Cause I could never forgive myself. My parents are over 70 now and I know I don't have many precious years left with them. I'm getting old. My brothers are getting old. And it's not so much a matter of death as it is a matter of life. I want to live. I want to be sober. I wanna be fully coherent when those unexpected emergencies happen. Even if it's a small emergency like someone NSEO'n my site. I need to know I'm in a clear state of mind when making pivotal decisions in my life. Maybe this stuff doesn't matter to other people. Maybe it doesn't matter to potheads. But it sure as hell matters to me.
-BB
ps. This message was directed at chronic pot smokers, not recreational.