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Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

nytimes.com

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Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#151

Post by maxerickson »

youngButEager wrote: post #145

INSIGHT: Being in a position to observe the behavior of users -- MANY users -- over a period of time, and non-users in the same settings. Most of you probably don't have that experience. - Parents do. Ask parents "how did your kid change after commencing use of pot?" - Teachers do, if they know a student imbibes. These days teachers have a great chance to see the difference between regular students and those who smok…

You seem very certain that all users have noticeable behavior changes. How would you correctly count users who do not have noticeable behavior changes?

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#152

Post by superswordfish »

youngButEager wrote: post #145

INSIGHT: Being in a position to observe the behavior of users -- MANY users -- over a period of time, and non-users in the same settings. Most of you probably don't have that experience. - Parents do. Ask parents "how did your kid change after commencing use of pot?" - Teachers do, if they know a student imbibes. These days teachers have a great chance to see the difference between regular students and those who smok…

How exactly do you know which of your tenants are using cannabis? Do you drug test your tenants?

> You should not need to live in an altered state, intoxication, and if you are frequently choosing intoxication from pot as 'recreation', something is wrong.

Your comment is ironic evidence for insobriety. Anger, stress and frustration are all palpable, and you may need some help to unwind. Hell, I could use a beer after reading it.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#153

Post by thescriptkiddie »

pacala wrote: post #25
qaq wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost anything can be addictive not much we can do about it.

addiction + adverse effects on one's brain/life. There are a lot of benign addictions, which we call habits. We should be a bit more careful in casually classifying marijuana as benign on grounds that is not as bad as heroin. Edit. "Classifying" in educational sense, not in legal sense.

Sure, there are benign habits, like caffeine which is arguably beneficial even though it forms a physical dependency. There are also a lot of very harmful habits which are based around "addictive" substances. Personally I had to delete my Reddit account. I started using Reddit as a crutch for boredom and browsing became a default activity for me, something that sucked up every spare moment even if I wasn't actually enjoying it. That was monumentally self-destructive in exactly the same way that people describe their experiences with "addictive" substances. Even now I consciously limit my use of this site. I think that addiction is a purely psychological phenomenon, distinct from (though often paired with) the physical process of dependency and withdrawal. I might even go as far as to say that addiction is a symptom of larger problems, rather than a problem in itself. Anyway, cannabis does not form a dependency any stronger than caffeine, so in that regard I would argue it is even safer than alcohol. As for becoming addicted to cannabis, I don't think that any particular substance is more or less "addictive" than any other. Just my two cents.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#154

Post by lettergram »

IsaacL wrote: post #135
lettergram wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to the antidotal evidence... Ive smoked a lot of weed for a long time, I finished college, have a job paying well above average, I work on projects / my startup, I have a wife, and am looking to start a family (at which point I'll stop smoking for a bit). Further, my startup is starting to make money and I'm up for promotion at work. Then to tie this in nicely which the argument that people with issues will ig…

All of that is insanely stressful and I would argue if weed would have caused issues, I would have had larger problems. I did say "If you have your s... more or less together, you can probably use weed semi-regularly without too much damage." I'd even expand my argument, and say any vice including videogames, cars, etc. Anything can get out of hand if people are trying to avoid a problem. People use many things as ps…

I guess what I'm trying to relay, is that it doesn't appear to be more dangerous than other crutches. There is some evidence from research to support both sides, but in general it's agreed marijuana is less dangerous than say cocaine or heroine.

I'd be careful not to say it's bad, until that research is overwhelming. I say this because a large number of people I know who smoke(d) regularly end up in prison for it - which of course makes them way less productive.

It's just hard without a ton of evidence whether or not it is more dangerous inherently or if we make it more dangerous with our society.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#155

Post by adrusi »

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…

Hemp smoking can let you not feel bad about your apathy while you're high, and if you don't have much in your life that you can't do while you're high, there's nothing stopping you from being high all day. Once you're high all day, you can be apathetic about everything all day.

This is just like alcoholism, except it won't kill you and it won't make you do stupid/dangerous things and it's not physiologically addictive. And like alcoholism, it's only really attractive to people who meet certain preconditions. If you feel a lot better about your life while smoking hemp, and you don't have to give up anything you care about to smoke it all day, consider setting restrictions for yourself on when you smoke it. I think there's a place for escapism, but maybe restrict it to after 9pm, for instance.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#157

Post by caub »

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…

smoking has indeed no positive effects

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#158

Post by caub »

Retric wrote: post #148
bko wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Pot is an expensive habit in large quantities which is not really conducive to staying on welfare. The issue is self sufficiency is not really enough without 2.2 kids thing break down long term. Further without economic growth our system is completely unsustainable. So, if parity is not enough and everyone must be a net contributer, well that's a cog.

expensive cost for the body

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#159

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#160

Post by caub »

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…

jeanne calment has lived 118-ish years, some people said she sometimes smoked, which is likely at that period of history. But how is it a proof of any kind regarding life expectancy, wouldn't she have lived 125/130 years without.. same goes for you

smoking definitely affects brain, all the body, it has no positive effect

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