Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 266 posts

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#111

Post by davidf18 »

davidf18 wrote: post #102

A problem is that women are smoking marijuana and may not yet know they are pregnant. Medical marijuana laws and pregnancy: implications for public health policy. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27422056 "Although there is much to learn yet about the effects of prenatal marijuana use on pregnancy and child outcome, there is enough evidence to suggest that marijuana, contrary to popular perception, is not a harmles…

Why are people allowed to downvote medical studies from highly regarded journals? Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology?

What kind of human being would want increased babies neurologically deprived from marijuana exposure or additional stillbirths?

Instead of downvoting, why don't you explain why you want these effects in infants?

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#112

Post by bko »

Retric wrote: post #56
67726e wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 takin…

We seem to be ok with people dropping out and becoming monks, but somehow living a relaxed lifestyle is somehow a major problem. Is it ok for people not to be a cog in the machine that makes your lifestyle possible or not? Sure, I might be happier if my past self saved even more money, lived a vegan lifestyle, or learned to play an instrument. But, I don't think it's a problem that I have failed to optimize for makin…

I would rephrase be a cog in the machine to "contributing to society". If someone wants to live a hedonistic carefree life, more power to them. But this is often coupled with abusing the social safety net designed for people who are down on their luck and can't contribute enough to society due to no fault of their own.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#113

Post by nine_k »

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…

Alcohol's effects are similar and often worse. Prohibition is still widely regarded as a mistake, and literally tens of millions people in the US consume small doses of alcohol without becoming adficts.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#114

Post by will_brown »

forloop wrote: post #45
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…

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

>A "better" ratio of THC:CBD

Here in Florida I think CBD oils were recently legalized and I think a single strain of marijuana (with negligible THC and high CBD) had been permitted for epilepsy patients. To be honest I haven't followed to closely after the last medical marijuana bill didn't pass.

Anyway, is the CBD/THC ratios interdependent? Meaning as one goes up, the others go down? Or are there some strains with significant amounts of each and others with low amounts of each?

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#115

Post by MichaelGG »

theAnonMe wrote: post #97
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?

I've smoked for 15+ years, I earn in the top 5% of the UK writing software for big players if that is a metric you respect. Only as a software developer although I've had the opportunity to be "promoted" I chose to write code...for more money. However I recognize that the amount I am smoking of current is affecting my cognitive load (I think). If I was drinking alcohol in the same amount I smoke cannabis I'd be an al…

There are top earners on opiates, too.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#116

Post by IsaacL »

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've also known three people who smoked marijuana regularly and developed serious life problems as a result, along with a larger number who didn't develop major problems but who definitely "stalled".

I also knew many who smoked it regularly without major issues, so I'm not saying it inevitably causes problems, but I am 99.99% certain that if you already suffer problems with motivation or life direction, marijuana can majorly f... you up.

I used to smoke it occasionally myself and I definitely saw its positive effects - for computer scientists, it's a fascinating springboard into understanding consciousness and meta-cognition. It makes good music and art even more enjoyable.

It's also one of the most seductive drugs out there. Alcohol leads to very painful hangovers, which is a clear signal for people to slow down. Psychedelics are too mind-blowing and the trips last too long to be used regularly. Heroin, crack, meth etc are widely seen as dangerous. Cocaine is expensive.

Cannabis is affordable, and can be enjoyed on a weekday evening without strong next-morning effects. So some people end up integrating it into their routine: surfing the internet stoned, listening to music stoned, playing video games stoned, chatting to friends stoned.

If you have your s... more or less together, you can probably use weed semi-regularly without too much damage. But if there are one or more real problems in your life, things which would take real effort and motivation to fix (poor social life / grades slipping / lack career direction / etc), weed will tempt you to chill out and ignore said problems. You concoct wild rationalisations about why you don't really want X, why people who chase X are manipulated by the system, etc, etc.

Long-term, you run the risk of becoming paranoid and demotivated, struggling to make everyday decisions or to get a grip on your own thinking. Given that this isn't a universal consequence of weed usage, it might not be solely due to the weed but also certain personality traits which weed amplifies.

I rarely smoke it at all any more - personally, I found training myself to enjoy good art, and reading deep philosophy/literature gave me access to much more profound pleasures and insights than weed ever did.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#117

Post by discardorama »

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?

Country singer Willie Nelson?

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#118

Post by bahularora »

ryanlol wrote: post #33
mbrock wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of that might be because they are afraid if they go outside they'll be arrested.

Is that actually common? Don't know about the US but haven't seen very much of that in the rest of the world.

It's quite lax here in India.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#119

Post by wcummings »

iRobbery wrote: post #98
martinald wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Behind where they want to be (not my opinion, theirs). They look round when they come out of the weed stupor and realise that everyone else is 10 years further ahead in anything . I'm not just meaning careers - often they never go on vacation abroad/travelling (past maybe Amsterdam). They look around and see their friends who have been all over the world after university, when they've done really nothing.

Ah okay i didn't think of that, that is a pity then yes, as travelling broadens/opens the mind better then cannabis hehe. Specially seeing how other people have to live, struggle or live glamorous, etc. Using cannabis (being high) does make it easy to postpone things, and before you know it its indeed postponed 10 years. Though i have had this idea/thought too, i'm still getting less convinced about this. I've seen t…

>travelling broadens/opens the mind

This is bullshit. Most travel is leisure, just like cannabis, and not at all mind expanding.

This is just a game of "my hobby is better than yours".

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#120

Post by ams6110 »

theAnonMe wrote: post #97
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?

I've smoked for 15+ years, I earn in the top 5% of the UK writing software for big players if that is a metric you respect. Only as a software developer although I've had the opportunity to be "promoted" I chose to write code...for more money. However I recognize that the amount I am smoking of current is affecting my cognitive load (I think). If I was drinking alcohol in the same amount I smoke cannabis I'd be an al…

> wonder if there is a genetics issue

I believe it is fairly well established that addictive behavior runs in families.

Post reply on HN