More Americans report near-constant cannabis use • Hacker News Board

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#151

Post by prolikewh0a » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:14 PM UTC

yesdocs wrote: post #64

I have been smoking pot since I was 14 years old, I am 51 now. I would stop smoking from time to time, sometimes to prepare for football, sometimes because society wanted me too. I am not a lazy person, I smoke a sativa strain to get me motivated, it acts like a stimulant that can help me focus.. laser like focus to drown out daily distractions. I'll smoke an indica strain to sleep well at night. I have been a highly…

>Most everyone who meets me or knows me wouldn't believe I smoke pot, but I smoke more than most pot heads could even imagine. Pot has been a miracle drug to me, much like Prozac is to others, without the liver damage. F those who diss pot smokers, there are many more of us than you can imagine.

I was going through 2-3 .5g 80-90% THC concentrate cartridges every week, and nobody would never know. It is a miracle drug for me as well, and took me off of many highly addictive prescribed benzos I would've really preferred to not been on. I cut down and switched back to flower now since concentrate doesn't really give me the full spectrum of effects like flower does. I have so much more money in my bank now too!

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#152

Post by MFLoon » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:15 PM UTC

jeremy7600 wrote: post #48

It was strange how the article kept talking about the downsides, and the downsides were just anecdotes, and nothing else. Did I miss something in the article, or was I just supposed to know the downsides before I read this? Risks like "budtenders providing medical advice" have zero to do with near-constant cannabis use.

I mean, that's why the article is titled "America's Invisible Pot Addicts" (emphasis added). It's harder to quantify when the harms are mostly psychological/relating to QOL decreases, rather than explicitly medical/criminal outcomes. And because it flies in the face of the pro-legalization/decriminalization narrative.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#153

Post by Animats » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:17 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #44

insickness wrote: post #17

In the past I was addicted to pot. I was addicted in the sense that pretty much everything felt better when I was high. I was more relaxed and had less anxiety. Sex was better. Food tasted better. I was more creative. I thought about much deeper things. I spent less time online and in front of screens. The biggest downside for me--and the reason I ended up quitting--was that my sober life just sucked in comparison. I…

> In other words, it made me feel fine just hanging out in my apartment doing nothing. That should be the natural state of man, though, I'd extend it to meeting with friends, cooking, playing, etc -- that is, being "non-productive". It took a lot of advertising and protestant ethic working hand in hand through opposing ends to move the needle towards full on consumption and full on productivity. "All human evil comes…

"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room." - Blaise Pascal

Now that's out of date. Between TV, video games, and the Web, there's now way too much ability to sit still in a room.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#154

Post by MFLoon » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

phillc73 wrote: post #78

sbmthakur wrote: post #28

Slightly off topic: Do cannabis have any significant advantage to health?

There have been very positive studies regarding cannabis use to treat epilepsy.[1][2] [1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2172683-first-cannabis-... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157067/

It turns out these are basically the only conditions for which medicinal use is roundly supported by the data. Everything else is basically "Well, weed makes lots of people feel good, couldn't hurt to use it for [pain/nausea/anxiety/whatedver]."

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#155

Post by ams6110 » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

insickness wrote: post #17

In the past I was addicted to pot. I was addicted in the sense that pretty much everything felt better when I was high. I was more relaxed and had less anxiety. Sex was better. Food tasted better. I was more creative. I thought about much deeper things. I spent less time online and in front of screens. The biggest downside for me--and the reason I ended up quitting--was that my sober life just sucked in comparison. I…

Don't forget that smoking (whether tobacco, or any other leaf) is doing physical, partially irreversible damage to your lungs.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#156

Post by trophycase » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:20 PM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #11

sonnyblarney wrote: post #2

It's unconventional given the liberal/libertarian aspects of the current movement, but this is a problem. I know at least two people very well, and a few more less well who smoke - all - the - time. They vape it like tobacco. They are basically permanently 'kind of high' - completely functional, you'd never really know it to meet them ... but this is more than a little distressing. One is in finance, the other a heal…

One in six Americans takes psychiatric prescription drugs, mostly antidepressants. Weed is basically an antidepressant and pain killer. I think the bigger question is, why are Americans self-medicating so much?

Our society is a hollow shell of the reality of the one we evolved in for millions of years. So we watch sports, porn, and run in place at the gym to simulate the feeling of actually doing something. And we all have our super awesome, super cool tech gadgets to thank

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#157

Post by prolikewh0a » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:21 PM UTC

losvedir wrote: post #139

I've tried pot a few times and my subjective experience was vastly different from all the comments here. It must affect people very differently, because I couldn't fathom being high "near constantly". I had trouble doing basic things like remembering to keep chewing the snack that I was eating or keeping track of the sentence I was in the process of speaking. Each time I come away thinking, "well, that was an awful e…

You eventually learn how to control and mold your high, how to be productive and creative on it, and live a normal life. You need to experiment with what your dose should be and how it effects you, and then you have a baseline. If you're forgetting how to chew and 'breaking your reality', you're getting way too high. I always recommend beginners start with a cannabis vaporizer and stay under 370F/188C.

It's not for everyone though, and that's perfectly fine.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#158

Post by mnm1 » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:22 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #72

mnm1 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poverty, loneliness, helplessness, hopelessness, lack of other healthcare options, lack of community, overwork, hate by others (racism, sexism, etc.), lack of any say in government, getting fucked over by companies over and over again, etc. I bet all those are top reasons for self-medicating in America. When you're one accident away from being homeless, alone, and have no hope of changing anything about your life, it…

With the exception of healthcare options (and then only for a subset of Americans) none of these are problems unique to American life.

I never claimed they were. They are quite ubiquitous in America, however.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#159

Post by prolikewh0a » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:23 PM UTC

rhcom2 wrote: post #108

mindgam3 wrote: post #58

For those seeking the anti-anxiety benefits of a daily dose of high grade medicinal cannabis without the cognitive impairment associated with THC (notably impairment of short term memory, which is crucial for maintaining flow state while doing complex tasks like coding or chess) - may I recommend looking into high CBD, low THC flower. You want THC 10%. I recently switched over to a high CBD strain and it has been a g…

> Another nice benefit of minimizing daily THC intake is I have started dreaming and remembering dreams again. THC tends to suppress dreaming activity. I had the same experience with increased dreams but they were just all anxiety dreams for a month or so, it was very unpleasant.

I took a 2.5 week break about a month or more ago after 3 years of continuous use, and my dreams are WILD in a good way.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#160

Post by Confiks » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:24 PM UTC

I think it's a mistake to legalize cannabis and continue to treat it like any other consumer product, opening the floodgates to gratuitous advertisements and dubious health claims. Instead, the sale of cannabis (and perhaps other drugs) should be treated as a public health issue, where the sale is permitted as long as it isn't advertised and proper information is given about the product.

The Netherlands partly has this system, where cannabis sale is 'tolerated' for shops with permits, and where advertisements are forbidden. The system is far from ideal, but I think better than complete (de)criminalization. Additionally, the discussion about drugs is very open thanks to a number of publicly funded organizations. They do not hesitate to also note the positive sides of certain drugs, which all the more encourages a conversation about the responsible use of drugs.

Portugal has gone even further in decriminalizing other (more addictive) substances [1] with fairly good results.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...