Do any of you smoke it and if so do you find it helpful or a hindrance?
I don't smoke ANYTHING. Smoking is gross and its a waste of quality herb.
Back in the dark days of prohibition and no vaping technology everyone who used cannabis smoked it, and it was all a bit similar, and expensive. The first thing people want to know is how high they will get for their money. This meant that the cannabis available in the black market had been bred for usually no active compounds
other than the THC. That was all that people valued.
The inhalation of combustion products with THC and
entirely devoid of CBD is a 100% completely different drug experience to the inhation of a known, personally preferred, balanced ratio of CBD and THC vapours.
The scare stories about the danger of skunkweed seem to be from this time of prohibition, and related only to the THC-only varieties that developed
as a direct result of prohibition.
There is a significant hangover from the prohibition. Thousands of varieties of cannabis exist but most of them were bred in the bad old days. The price of this easily grown garden herb is still ridiculously insanely high, and people's main concern is often still how high they can get per dollar/quid spent.
People are still setting it on fire and sucking up the combustion products. It will change, I'm sure, but it will take time. One day it will cost the same as tomatoes. Or just grow your own lol. One day more people will have a less adolescent attitude towards using it. There'll always be idiots who want to prove their masculinity or that they're grown up by consuming more than their friends. They don't represent anyone but themselves and they don't represent the plant!
People have existed for the last 200,000 years and there have ALWAYS been cannabis plants. They were here first! The plants are part of the universe. How can one
person tell another
person that a certain part of the universe is permanently forbidden and out of bounds?
Besides we got along well enough for 200,000 years until the stuffy politicians made it illegal in 1971. Then the problems started.
But to answer your question about whether it's helpful...
(If you vape or eat but don't smoke it) Yes, it has a lot of positive effects for
this autist. I put that down to the knowledge and respect that I have for any and all mind altering compounds, though.
To take some shady mildewy unknown "stuff" willy-nilly and in no particular
set and setting (mindset, surroundings, time of day, in company/solitude, on full/empty stomach, on the couch or standing, with/without other substances, etc!) would be irresponsible and likely to result in undesirable experiences. It's only useful if you know what to do with it.
For my autistic mind, the RIGHT amount of the right CBD:THC ratio for the time, in the right
set and setting, can be a better way to relax and let go of stress than anything else I've ever experienced.
I like to let my thoughts organise. They are so jumbled sometimes. All those experiences and interactions, and my thoughts and feelings from the day.
Like my thoughts are the shapes in the game
Tetris, I need to get the thoughts to fit together cohesively and settle, take up less space.
I need to defragment my hard drive.
Then when that's done I can really relax. I like soothing music and soft cushions, my furrrry heated blanket, a hot chocolate, and maybe some reading later, or watch an upbeat movie/anime.
I'm so glad that nature has provided me with such a useful tool for altering my mind in a deliberate, controllable, pleasant, and predictable way. I'm so glad that I have been born with the enquiring mind and reasoning ability to use such tools responsibly and safely, and for my own benefit.
I'm so glad I don't follow the rules laid out by greedy strangers in positions of authority who don't care what's in my best interests. I'm so glad I can think for myself, do my own research; take ownership of my body, my mind, my self.
I am so glad I'm intelligent and autistic, and I am so glad that I have access to proper connoisseur cannabis with known and proper CBD:THC ratios. I'm so glad that Dinafem bred the variety "Dinamed CBD Plus".
Others may condemn you for using a herb. You may want to keep your use of this part of the universe a secret. But please don't stop thinking for yourself.
Those people I think could be made into something more useful such as... dog food. Or maybe fertilizer.