Live data from Hacker News

Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

nytimes.com

41–50 of 266 posts

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#41
post #8

Do I understand it right? Even in states with legalised recreational use you can't do research on cannabis without DEA approval?

Recreational use and research are different things, so yes.

They can be different but it's not a necessity - you can do scientific research for recreational purposes.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#42

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

I bet alcohol is a much bigger problem on university campuses.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#43

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

That's why I hope that if it is legalized, it would at least be banned from advertising.

The idea should be that "it's your choice if you want to use it, but people shouldn't be mass-brain washed by ads into believing it's the best thing ever that they should buy."

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#44
post #34

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

And I have anecdotal evidence of people smoking marijuana everyday for 10-20 years and remaining extremely productive. Oftentimes drug use is a symptom of a greater psychological problem/issue. Perhaps the underlying issues are causing the negative behaviors and the drugs are only enabling it.

I know both. I have family members who smoke routinely for basically their lives. You would never know, they don't let it interrupt their life. To them it is more like coming home and having a glass of wine and relaxing on the couch with a good book.

I also know and lived with roommates for whom marijuana was a real problem. The kind of person who would smoke every day, even coming home on their lunch break and taking some bong hits. I've seen them get fired from work. I've seem them completely disregard the things that need need done. I've seem how irritable they can be when they're not blazed. They may not be chemically addicted, but they surely feel as though they need to smoke for whatever reason.

None of this is to argue for or against, but the "harmless marijuana" trope is a little much. Any substance will be abused by some and will cause harm to some.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#45

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

Please delete. I can't rebut the reply—due to the legal status of cannabis.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#46

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

We used to say something similar about MUDs. Don't start, because you'll end up spending days and nights on a terminal in the basement of the library and your work/outside life/everything else will be put on hold.

Multiplayer games... the drug of nerd generation X?

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may need a good government, which is hard. E.g, I don't think SF can manage to handle so many homeless addictions. Yes, ideally it can be managed in this way. In fact, it's hard to be carried out. And the result would be catastrophic.

Maybe the $30-60,000 per year spent to incarcerate every low level drug offender could help. And it's not like they're avoiding managing it now between policing, encampments and incarceration. Not to mention health costs.

Very few non-violent drug offenders are incarcerated.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#48
post #5

And start treating nicotine like heroin.

In my experience, nicotine is no more addictive than caffeine. I vaped large doses of nicotine daily for over a year then quit because I was bored of it. It's been well over a year since I last used any.

Whole tobacco is supposedly much more addictive. Tobacco contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors which in animal models increase the addictive effects of nicotine:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16177026

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14592678

Many other users of pure nicotine report it as not strongly addictive. Conflating nicotine with whole tobacco could cause harm by encouraging tobacco use in people unaware of this difference.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#49

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

mostly agree, but 10 years behind what? Your ideal, or socially accepted view of how a life should be lived?

I wait for the day, drugs are unbanned, medicine cant be patented, religion is banned, and the world has one common global goal, space exploration! I'd stop smoking cannabis for that. ;-)

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#50
post #34

While I'm totally for drug (all drugs - not just cannabis) legalisation/regulation, I do think the "dangers" of marijuana have been really downplayed over the last few years. I know a lot of people at university who got into smoking it very often and basically lost 10+ years of their life to complete apathy to anything. Some have now stopped and are totally different people - just 10 years behind. While it doesn't ca…

And I have anecdotal evidence of people smoking marijuana everyday for 10-20 years and remaining extremely productive. Oftentimes drug use is a symptom of a greater psychological problem/issue. Perhaps the underlying issues are causing the negative behaviors and the drugs are only enabling it.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN