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

181–190 of 266 posts

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#181

Post by dietrichepp »

choko wrote: post #174
dietrichepp wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds a lot like World of Warcraft, the way you describe it. Maybe we should criminalize MMORPGs? That part is a bit of a bad joke, but I've known people who have lost chunks of their lives to WoW, and the criticisms you outline for cannabis seem to mirror my perception of WoW very closely—"addictive", "causes them to be extremely unmotivated", and "a lot of people end up really trapped by it". To be honest, when I…

Whoa there! I don't think the poster to which you responded said that marijuana should be criminalized, only that the risks are downplayed significantly by supporters of legalization. As a user myself, I tend to agree. It can be very easy to go overboard if you aren't careful. For many people, weed can completely sap motivation if abused. The exact risks are really unknown though, since research into marijuana has be…

Whoa there yourself! I thought I made it clear that the bit about criminalization was just a "bad joke" (my words). I was just pointing out that if we're going to talk about the dangers of cannabis, we should not be comparing the dangers of cannabis against the dangers of abstaining from cannabis, but we should be comparing those dangers against other risks which we consider completely acceptable, like World of Warcraft.

These threads can easily get out of hand when people think that other people are misinterpreting other people, a kind of chain of misinterpretation.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#182

Post by chillwaves »

wcummings wrote: post #119
iRobbery wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

People can disagree without one of the opinions being "bullshit".

Traveling opened my mind and gave me much larger perspective on things. Sometimes it is leisurely, other times it is not (I have foreign family and not a lot of resources and no background in this country).

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#183

Post by al2o3cr »

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…

You probably also know more than a few people from university who've been addicted to nicotine and/or curled up in a bottle of booze for the last twenty years. Your point, exactly?

Bonus points for the pun in the last sentence, since we're talking about drug prohibition which LITERALLY "traps" people in jail for possessing a plant...

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#184

Post by al2o3cr »

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…

" 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 smoke it. - Property managers of apartment properties"

Indeed, being in a position of authority is an incredibly dangerous gateway drug. Makes you start thinking that you've got all the answers. Next thing you know, you're shouting at strangers on the street just to get the next fix of self-righteousness.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#185

Post by jacobr »

dietrichepp wrote: post #181
choko wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa there! I don't think the poster to which you responded said that marijuana should be criminalized, only that the risks are downplayed significantly by supporters of legalization. As a user myself, I tend to agree. It can be very easy to go overboard if you aren't careful. For many people, weed can completely sap motivation if abused. The exact risks are really unknown though, since research into marijuana has be…

Whoa there yourself! I thought I made it clear that the bit about criminalization was just a "bad joke" (my words). I was just pointing out that if we're going to talk about the dangers of cannabis, we should not be comparing the dangers of cannabis against the dangers of abstaining from cannabis, but we should be comparing those dangers against other risks which we consider completely acceptable, like World of Warcr…

I find it reasonable to warn about the risks of unhealthy usage of both WoW and cannabis, without criminalizing either.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#186

Post by Houshalter »

dietrichepp wrote: post #150
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…

Sounds a lot like World of Warcraft, the way you describe it. Maybe we should criminalize MMORPGs? That part is a bit of a bad joke, but I've known people who have lost chunks of their lives to WoW, and the criticisms you outline for cannabis seem to mirror my perception of WoW very closely—"addictive", "causes them to be extremely unmotivated", and "a lot of people end up really trapped by it". To be honest, when I…

http://lesswrong.com/lw/h3/superstimuli_and_the_collapse_of_...

>At least three people have died playing online games for days without rest. People have lost their spouses, jobs, and children to World of Warcraft. If people have the right to play video games - and it's hard to imagine a more fundamental right - then the market is going to respond by supplying the most engaging video games that can be sold, to the point that exceptionally engaged consumers are removed from the gene pool.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#187

Post by thomyorkie »

youngButEager wrote: post #162
superswordfish wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Imagine showing vacant apartments to prospective renters since 1993 -- for 23 years. Lots of units, lots of prospective tenants. In 1993 I had no pool of 'before move-in/after move-in' experience with tenants. 23 years on, I have a large number of 'before move-in/after move-in' tenant experiences. So when a tenancy went bad, over time I started making a mental note of 1) the social cues the tenant made when I first m…

I understand that you've had some bad experiences with people who also happen to smoke marijuana, but you are painting with much too broad a brush.

You must ask yourself: how accurate are you in your assessment of who smokes marijuana and who doesn't? For some of your tenants, I'm sure it's obvious that they partake. But, I'd wager many of your 'good' tenants do as well, and you have no idea. It's really not hard to hide marijuana use from your landlord. And from what it sounds like, the tenants who don't make any effort to be discrete with their marijuana use are also the tenants who don't care if their car is blocking another car. Perhaps a DGAF attitude would be a better thing for you to screen for than marijuana use.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#188

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

themartorana wrote: post #170
poof131 wrote: post #82

The DEA needs to go bye bye, and be replaced by the DRA, Drug Rehabilitation Agency. While I respect the risks operational agents take against crime syndicates, the war on drugs is a disaster. Even the government’s own RAND corporation concluded enforcement is far worse than rehabilitation, with rehab being 7 times more effective than policing, 400 times more effective then border interdiction, and 800 times more eff…

Good God, 7x, 400x, and 800x! How is continued marching down a ruinous path and destroying lives in the wake not entirely criminal, if not a massive human rights violation?

because all of you potheads are too stoned to get off your asses and kill the people who require killing.

you're all completely pathetic.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#189

Post by vertex-four »

lisivka wrote: post #147
Clubber wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a huge confirmation bias. You only hear about the horror stories, while people who are perfectly fine are afraid to admit so much, because of social stigmas and prejudices. Hell most companies require a drug screening as a condition of employment. People who smoke pot aren't going to come out and mention it at the water cooler for fear of retribution. I was talking with a co-worker about US laws in general a…

Yeah, we are hearing only horror stories about people walking on red signal, while majority of people are perfectly fine. It's time to legalize walking on red sign.

Many of us in other countries (almost anyone without kids with them) do just this. People rarely die. We learn how to look out for cars as soon as we're able to walk.

Re: Stop Treating Marijuana Like Heroin

#190

Post by coldtea »

themartorana wrote: post #170
poof131 wrote: post #82

The DEA needs to go bye bye, and be replaced by the DRA, Drug Rehabilitation Agency. While I respect the risks operational agents take against crime syndicates, the war on drugs is a disaster. Even the government’s own RAND corporation concluded enforcement is far worse than rehabilitation, with rehab being 7 times more effective than policing, 400 times more effective then border interdiction, and 800 times more eff…

Good God, 7x, 400x, and 800x! How is continued marching down a ruinous path and destroying lives in the wake not entirely criminal, if not a massive human rights violation?

Because human rights is what the powerful call that.
Post reply on HN