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Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

nytimes.com

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Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#121

Post by taurath »

e40 wrote: post #75
SkyBelow wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) Last I remember from my psychology classes, it was 25 to 28. 21 feels like a number picked to reflect law and cultural norms, not the science. But my information is a decade out of date and there could have been new findings since.

I thought 25 was chosen because that's when brain development is mostly completed.

This has become quite the meme lately as a pop-neurology fact, but its... clearly untrue the ways people try to apply it. It creates a sort of fatalism about being able to improve or change your mind that in no way reflects whats actually possible.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#122

Post by hoistbypetard »

ars wrote: post #16

Unlike other drugs (smoking, drinking) adults (at least the noisy ones online) very much want marijuana. And because of that they are very poorly motivated to stop its use among teens. So this isn't going to get better, it'll get much worse. Adults also believe marijuana use is perfectly fine, and risk free, which may or may not be true for adults, but is not true for teens. But because they believe it's risk free th…

> But because they believe it's risk free they aren't exactly telling teens not to use it.

Citation, please. My personal experience as a teenager two and a half decades ago and as someone responsible for the care of teens and pre-teens now is quite the opposite of this. The teens/kids I observe are being told very stridently not to use it, in the same terms and even by some of the same organizations (D.A.R.E.) that we were in the '90s.

While there might be a (strong, IMO) argument that teens are disregarding real, serious risks because they find out some of the bogeymen presented by D.A.R.E and similar are overblown and assume all of us are over-articulating risks, I don't think kids are being told any less to "just say no." As if that helped in the first place.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#123

Post by TheOperator »

userbinator wrote: post #91
drdeadringer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like some perspective on what a 6-8 IQ point difference actually means in real life. I know IQ is on a curve so if I'm on the lower end and dope up I might not qualify for the military against had I not doped up by such a margin window. For an average person, what can the person sitting next to me do +8 IQ that I can't? What can the person sitting in front of me not do at -8 IQ that I can? Granted I've encoun…

100 is defined as an "average" IQ, yet I suspect everyone on this site is quite a bit above that, likely in the 110-120 range and skewed heavily upwards, and have not actually interacted constantly on a long term with someone who has a ~100 IQ, much less a ~92 IQ.

It's actually somewhat amazing how isolated you can get from the average person if you stick to settings & persuits associated with "intellectuals". I recall ended up in a friend group of 8 people once that included 3 geniuses.

Sometimes you really have to take a step back and realise that you're not as normal as you feel. You can spend your time on hackernews feeling very insecure and then apply 5% of what people talk about here and then the average person will treat you like you invented fire.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#124

Post by vanusa »

drdeadringer wrote: post #51
JimboOmega wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who use heavily in Adolescence can lose something like 6 or 8 IQ points, among other negative effects. Those who start as adults and stop don't seem to have the same effects[1], but it is unclear how much that reflects lower baseline IQ of users vs. the impact of marijuana itself. [1] https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/mari...

I would like some perspective on what a 6-8 IQ point difference actually means in real life. I know IQ is on a curve so if I'm on the lower end and dope up I might not qualify for the military against had I not doped up by such a margin window. For an average person, what can the person sitting next to me do +8 IQ that I can't? What can the person sitting in front of me not do at -8 IQ that I can? Granted I've encoun…

If we think in terms of a race -- an IQ of 100 puts you at the 50th percentile -- so half of the contestants are faster than you, and the other half are slower.

A loss of 6-8 points puts you at about at about the 35th percentile -- meaning 65 percent of the people in the race will be running more faster than you. Or (back in real life terms) be that much more likely to get admitted to college, get a decent job / spouse, and so on.

That is, to the extent that definitions of IQ are valid and can be measured accurately, and so on. But given the amount of research that has gone into this -- and we know a lot more now that we did a few decades ago -- it seems the risks (of heavy cannabis use) are potentially quite serious.

(BTW, as to how one gets from "6-8 points" to "35th or 40th percentile": it has to do with how the IQ scale is defined. By the traditional scale approximately two-thirds of the population scores are between IQ 85 and IQ 115. Meaning (on a scale from 1 to 100) 15 points of IQ equals a difference of about 33 percent. So 6-8 points is about half that, or very roughly 15 percent).

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#125

Post by JimboOmega »

Solvitieg wrote: post #88
drdeadringer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like some perspective on what a 6-8 IQ point difference actually means in real life. I know IQ is on a curve so if I'm on the lower end and dope up I might not qualify for the military against had I not doped up by such a margin window. For an average person, what can the person sitting next to me do +8 IQ that I can't? What can the person sitting in front of me not do at -8 IQ that I can? Granted I've encoun…

It's a good question. Arguably more important, are the side-effects permanent? Or has this IQ drop only been measured during cannabis consumption?

The theory is that heavy use during adolescence leaves permanent changes in adulthood. Heavy usage that starts in adulthood doesnt' seem to have the same level of permanent effects.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#126

Post by liveoneggs »

denkmoon wrote: post #120
kalessin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and ben…

It's certainly not a good thing. Is it comparatively better than other risky activities associated with young adults, such as binge drinking? I think yes.

that oil-causing-lung-failure thing was no joke

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#127

Post by thrower123 »

knight17 wrote: post #116
Geimfari wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first source is a bad one but here is a review: [1] The association is really not strong but the authors do advice against indiscriminate paracetamol use. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29341895 [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26930528

Is there any alternatives suggested for this medicine?

Naproxen is far, far better for pain, and doesn't have anywhere near the possibility of cooking your liver.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#128

Post by jrace »

Gatsky wrote: post #105
tannedNerd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I also assume you fully support prohibition of alcohol then? Since it kills 1,000s a year in the US?

This is a foolish argument. 1. Vaping is at the stage where it can be controlled, whereas alcohol is beyond that point. Public health is not best served by a logically coherent approach where every product is treated fairly. 2. Alcohol will not burn your lungs and kill you in a few days at recommended usage levels, whereas vaping random juice apparently will.

Drinking ISO alcohol will make you go blind. Drinking moonshine can kill you.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#130

Post by proc0 »

nwienert wrote: post #63
proc0 wrote: post #59

I'm an avid user for many years, and when I used vaping pens for a couple weeks, I felt the damage in my lungs, it was uncomfortable. Burning oil was a little better but it still felt like the hot air was burning your lungs, and burning wax had a completely different problem where I literally felt wax on my esophagus and lungs the more I vaped. Never had any of these problems smoking from a bong. I'll stick to what h…

You may have been a bit paranoid, wax isn't actually wax it's just pressed weed so you remove plant matter. When you smoke it through water it you're inhaling a healthier product because you're not incinerating leaves and stems, and typically you're doing it at a more controlled and lower temperature.

This was wax/shatter inside a vape pen. I'm sure it was the correct use. Whether or not that is actual wax, it definitely left some kind of residue that I could detect just by breathing.
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