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Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

nytimes.com

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Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#61

Post by kristianc »

Donzo wrote: post #52
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>anecdotal evidence of people smoking marijuana everyday for 10-20 years and remaining extremely productive. // What roles, in what areas, have they risen to in this time?

Designers, architects, engineers, carpenters, administrators, teachers, writers, and so forth. I've seen daily marijuana users rise to the top of major industries. Of course, I've seen other daily marijuana users remain stationed at the front counters of gas stations, but that's my point. I don't think that daily marijuana use is the factor that accounts for the relative successes or failures of these individuals. Th…

And as other people have pointed out, neither should we present building a company as the pinnacle of human achievement simply because it's how a large number of people on HN want to spend their time.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#62

Post by vidarh »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #24
e40 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you think heroin is a demon and marijuana(or alcohol) is ok you are sadly mistaken. 1 of the 3 is ok, by some definition of ok. My definition: doesn't have serious health effects and users can (and do) live normal lives.

I can't for the life of me work out which one you think is OK. Neither marijuana nor alcohol, in non-excessive quantities, will necessarily cause serious health effects, and people consume either whilst living perfectly 'normal' lives.

Neither will medical grade heroin usually in non-excessive quantities, and people consume that too whilst living perfectly normal lives.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#63

Post by metaphorm »

mtgx wrote: post #43
martinald wrote: post #13

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."

its legal to advertise pharmaceuticals. why should there be a special ban for advertising cannabis?

if your objection is to "mass-brain washing", I think you're gonna have a lot of 1st amendment trouble arguing that case legally.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#65

Post by meows »

martinald wrote: post #13

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 think that exaggeration of the dangers of a drug can lead to an excessively strong counter-narrative. Unfortunately it is part of political play for major nations to state any case on anything to its weakest or strongest form, and not anywhere inbetween -- as if adversaries are going to negotiate the truth down to the middle, so we mind as well start at the extremes.

Children should hear a realistic profile of effects for different substances, among other things.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#66

Post by koolba »

sago wrote: post #46
martinald wrote: post #13

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?

> 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?

MUDs, MUSHes, Doom, Quake, Starcraft, shit posting on Reddit, dropping knowledge bombs on HN[1] ... the venue changes but it's all the same waste of time. Not necessarily a bad thing either.

[1]: Feel free to swap HN and Reddit.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#67

Post by tunap »

blahi wrote: post #55
maccard wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people have opiod problems and live normal lives.

I once tried to make the argument that heroin addicts do not look like TV leads you to believe, on HN. It did not work out.

As history as proven time and time again, the crowd loves a good witch hunt. Demonizing, deriding X is an incredibly effective tool of governance.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#68

Post by snarfy »

arca_vorago wrote: post #19
snarfy wrote: post #2

I've been a daily user for about 30 years now. It's more like coffee and cigarettes than it is like heroin or alcohol.

Wow, 30 years! Is it for a medical condition? I have a friend with ptsd who uses regularly, but he claims he feels a "buildup" in hos brain so he does a week or two on and a week or two, sometimes more off. Do you feel that as well?

I have/had stomach ulcers and was self medicating for a long time before getting it treated. Now it's mostly habitual. Your body builds up a large tolerance rapidly, like 10x difference when you are a daily user vs casual user. I can see why your friend takes a break once in a while. If I smoke 0.5 gram (about 5 large pulls from a pipe), the effects wear off in about 2 hours. If I take a break for two weeks, one tiny pull from the pipe will last about 4-6 hours or longer. I might not feel clear headed until the next day.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#69

Post by vidarh »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #57
aaron695 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'd rate marijuana the worst. Obviously many people use heroin and have normal lives. Alcohol is destroying, but in incidents rather than marijuana which I think is long term damage. Heroin destroying lives is so complicated because most of it is societal based, it's not the drug destroying lives in current society.

> Heroin destroying lives is so complicated because most of it is societal based, it's not the drug destroying lives in current society. How is this different from marijuana?

It isn't. It's just that the effects of heroin use today is much worse, even though the drug if consumed in reasonable quantities of medical grade supply is one of the safer opiates.

The biggest problem with heroin is an adulterated supply, cut with anything from other - often more dangerous - drugs to brick dust, putting the user at substantial health risk both due to the stuff they've put in it and due to uneven doses.

The second biggest problem is societal condemnation that makes it hard for those who function well on heroin to seek help if something goes wrong.

Marijuana is less likely to be mixed with other crap, and you're less likely to face condemnation if you tell someone you use it.

Other than that, heroin has a higher potential to cause damage in itself. You certainly can overdose on it, and damage yourself seriously with it in ways you'd find impossible with marijuana. But you can also use heroin your whole life with few ill effects if you have a clean and predictable supply.

In terms of addiction we like to treat heroin is if it is insanely addictive, but there's little indication it's worse than alcohol in that respect (not that alcohol is a standard to aspire to when it comes to addiction potential).

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#70

Post by contemporary2u »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #37
Donzo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>anecdotal evidence of people smoking marijuana everyday for 10-20 years and remaining extremely productive. // What roles, in what areas, have they risen to in this time?

Top banker at major Investment bank on Wall street. From what i understand smoking marijuana there is like having a soda..in certain branches/areas anyway.
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