As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick • Hacker News Board

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#371

Post by lovehashbrowns » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:19 PM UTC

julianlam wrote: post #340

nshung wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, a life that is in content and has meaning trumps all those whatever higher trajectory means. I mean.. isn’t achieving those higher trajectories the goal of being content and having achieve the meaning if it exits at all?

It's a nice line of thinking, sure—that you can achieve happiness and contentment without having to strive for the "best". That's the whole point of the matter though, isn't it, that if you don't have ambition, then you voluntarily get yourself stuck in a rut of your making. "I'm content in that my life is shitty in X or Y way, but cannot do anything about it". There was a time when I found comfort in thinking that I…

I don’t understand the thought process of putting someone down based on what they do for a living. Particularly when it just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. The world around you revolves around people that clock in and out day after day. Maybe one day we’ll have 7.5 billion CEOs in the world, huh?

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#372

Post by surement » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:22 PM UTC

_j5l3 wrote: post #310

sleepdreamy wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is simply false. I'm not going to discuss pricing here but, with Dabs and several forms of in-take you do not need to spend 100/day to be stoned all day. I live in a recreational state(Lived here for 13 years while it could ruin your life). In the past this might hold true but no longer.

At the peak of my own usage, I smoked around an ounce every 3 days while (pretending to be) working from home. $40/eighth + taxes a pretty average price in the Bay Area, so that works out to almost exactly $100/day. That's pretty extreme, even for heavy smokers, but far from impossible.

I've seen billboards in other states advertising $5 eighths; probably not the same quality but it's not necessarily as expensive as you make it out to be.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#373

Post by farnsworth » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:23 PM UTC

mesofile wrote: post #119

lacker wrote: post #57

The real danger with cannabis is not that it'll make you sick or have some nasty side effect like this article describes. The danger is simply that you will like it, you'll end up using it every day, all different times of the day, and it won't really hurt your health as much as it will make you live your life in a somewhat dopey, detached, less-intelligent way. As time goes on it won't feel "fun" it'll just feel "no…

I thought the way that South Park put it (in the voice of Randy Marsh) many years ago was just about perfect: “Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and ...it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorists, but... Well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored and... It's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or... being creat…

This quote stuck in my brain for a long time and I resonate with it and how I used it at a certain period in my life. It doesn't have to be like this if you approach it differently but in a certain context and state of mind, it's like an anti-adderall. Makes the day go by in comfort and nothing at all gets done.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#374

Post by civilitty » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:24 PM UTC

_j5l3 wrote: post #345

R0b0t1 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THC is THC, but there are other compounds in the plant that appear important in the texture of the experience. Many people report the same, and following the delta-8 legalization wave they are apparently fractionally distilling the plant extract and separating out many of the active components.

https://bedrocan.com/international-research-shows-no-genetic... > The research shows that genetically it is impossible to prove whether a cannabis plant is an Indica or Sativa. There is no difference in the genes. > The overall chemical profile, like the genetics, shows no apparent difference between the labels.

The GP is talking about the "overall chemical profile" that depend on the strain and growing conditions. There are over a hundred cannabinoids identified in cannabis that have a variety of effects in humans (not to mention the terpenes/terpenoids), including several that are produced when THC oxidizes so the "overall chemical profile" depends on the age of the plant matter in question as well as how it was processed and stored.

Whether the Indica/Sativa marketing labels correlate with that chemical profile or not is besides the point. We know that different batches of the same strain can have different concentrations and ratios of all the of the relevant compounds because most legalized states require testing every batch. I don't know of any high quality research that studies how the subjective experience correlates with different doses and ratios but given that at least one of the most common compounds in cannabis is FDA approved to treat epilepsy (Epidiolex) and all the anecdotal evidence, it's really not a stretch to see how different strains produce different highs in different people.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#375

Post by Werewolf255 » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:25 PM UTC

disqard wrote: post #275

blowski wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same argument with all consuming vs producing. It's why there was a moral panic in the 1800s over Jane Austen style fiction, in the 1930s over radio, and so on. Being addicted to cannabis is not really any different to playing computer games 12 hours a day, doing endless marathons, watching sports, investing, or many similar activities.

I'm 90% sure that "endless marathons" referred to "watching entire seasons of shows on NetFlix", not "running 26.2 miles over and over".

That runner's high is something else after the 104th mile!

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#376

Post by rgifford » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:27 PM UTC

Can't help but think of Mac Miller's Tiny Desk performance of his song 2009 [1]. Mac started using weed heavily in his teens to cope with the stress of touring. 2009 was a big year for him: two major mixtapes, the cusp of fame and his intro to harder drugs. The song is celebration and acceptance and resignation, and totally unapologetic. He died of an OD two months after this performance at the age of 26.

1. https://youtu.be/QrR_gm6RqCo?t=699

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#377

Post by ineptech » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:28 PM UTC

ineptech wrote: post #342

photochemsyn wrote: post #19

This line has been reliably trotted out every few years since the 1990s at least: But experts say today’s high-THC cannabis products — vastly different than the joints smoked decades ago — are poisoning some heavy users, including teenagers. The issue is that people adjust their consumption accordingly, just as with alcohol - drinking one liter of beer, everyone knows, is not the same as drinking one liter of vodka.…

Yeah, I'm calling BS. 1) That line has been trotted out continuously because weed potency has been going up continuously. In the late 90s, good weed was anything above 4-5% THC; the store near my house currently has nothing below 23%. For your beer/liquor analogy to work, you'd have to live somewhere where the bottle shop only sells triple IPAs and fortified wine, and Coors is in the soft drink section. 2) I don't be…

edit to add: for all that, if we're asking what's changed in the last twenty years, I don't think the change in potency is as important as the change in cost and convenience. Sure, there were people who stayed high all day in the 90s, but it was a difficult, expensive, and inconvenient thing to do. It just isn't anymore, so it's no surprise that more people do it.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#378

Post by Taywee » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

worker_person wrote: post #336

nshung wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, a life that is in content and has meaning trumps all those whatever higher trajectory means. I mean.. isn’t achieving those higher trajectories the goal of being content and having achieve the meaning if it exits at all?

Watching your child being content to work at Taco Bell for the next 50 years is not something to be proud of. Regardless of contentment.

I'd be proud of it, if they were a good person, took care of themselves, took care of the people around them, and were truly happy in their lives. Some people are perfectly happy working low-level positions in restaurants, sanitation, retail, and the like for their lives, and maybe maintaining a few hobbies and relationships that give them personal meaning off their work hours.

It's only a problem if they aren't actually content. I've known tons of people working minimum wage who sneer at "elites", don't seek higher things, and get high all the time, but really resent the fact that they never did anything with their lives. They don't build their hobbies, they don't seek higher levels of employment or skill, and they constantly talk about how they want to do great things that they never do.

There will always be an infinite amount of achievement that you never accomplished. There will always be an infinite number of things you never did. The best thing you can do is prioritize, accomplish the things that you really want to accomplish, and try to do your best to be happy with what you are able to do. Live your life happily, and make the people around you happy.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#379

Post by Volundr » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

worker_person wrote: post #336

nshung wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, a life that is in content and has meaning trumps all those whatever higher trajectory means. I mean.. isn’t achieving those higher trajectories the goal of being content and having achieve the meaning if it exits at all?

Watching your child being content to work at Taco Bell for the next 50 years is not something to be proud of. Regardless of contentment.

Why not? My first job was Wendy's and honestly... It's not the least satisfying job I've had. My unwillingness to do it now has more to do with having become accustomed to the luxury that comes with a software developer salary than anything negative about fast food (same reason I won't go back to being a security guard, which was hands down the best job I ever had).

I feel like there's a strong argument to be made that the person working at Taco Bell and is satisfied with their life is better off than a random cube dweller slowly losing their soul in the name of material comforts.

Re: As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

#380

Post by ipaddr » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:30 PM UTC

farnsworth wrote: post #373

mesofile wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the way that South Park put it (in the voice of Randy Marsh) many years ago was just about perfect: “Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and ...it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorists, but... Well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored and... It's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or... being creat…

This quote stuck in my brain for a long time and I resonate with it and how I used it at a certain period in my life. It doesn't have to be like this if you approach it differently but in a certain context and state of mind, it's like an anti-adderall. Makes the day go by in comfort and nothing at all gets done.

Until you train yourself to get more things done when stoned which is step 2.