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As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

nytimes.com

411–420 of 686 posts

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

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I used the same schpeel (or something similar), with my kid when we found out she was smoking at 15. You know ~ it's not heroine or cocaine, but it can make you content to just do nothing, when you'd be happier doing something . Sometimes "do nothing" is exactly what we need in this crazy, hectic, busy world. Sometimes it's good to be bored. But keep it in check. Also, I have no problem with adults partaking, b…

FYI, spiel :)

More info at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spiel . Pronounced as you (gp) spelled it phonetically because it's borrowed from German.

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

#412

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…

Adjusted consumption is interesting.

Kids get their stomachs pumped from alcohol poisoning all the time.

Hardly ever is it from beer. It's almost always from liquor.

Drugs have a delayed response. You won't adjust until you start responding - which can be too late.

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

#413

I know a cannabis entrepreneur who makes high-quality gummies standardized to 150 mg THC which is, I think, too much. As a cannabis experienced user I find these make me feel hosed for six hours or so. It may or may not be a good time, but I'm certainly not going to do more than lay on my ass. If I take half of one of those (75 mg) it is a strong intoxication, pretty consistently a good time, and I can go for a walk,…

I live in Colorado and they limit edibles to 10mg per piece/100mg per pack max. 150mg for a single gummy is a bit nuts though. As someone who smokes a good amount of weed, my recommendation to people it to always stick to just flower. I've tried it all, vaping, vaporizers (different than vaping, you're superheating flower rather than using an extract), edibles, and regular pot. From my personal experience, edibles la…

> no lab equipment, extractions, chemicals or any of that

Except for widespread pesticides when growing flower in many places, often without much regulation.

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

#414
post #295

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.…

> The issue is that people adjust their consumption accordingly That was definitely not true in my case. I used to consume pretty high-% THC hash throughout the day. At first it was strong and I did it once every day or two. But you get tolerant and can handle a lot more. Eventually I was smoking hash several times a day and I ended up with a lot of the symptoms described in this article (though I am in my 30s). I re…

why is this downvoted

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

#415

I dunno. I remember the stuff making me feel very sick when I tried it in my teens in the 1990s. Kind of put me off it for life, even though I've got plenty of friends who are still into it.

Any reason to believe it wasn't K2? Or...moldy weed?

Well I didn’t just try it once!

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

#416
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like you are omitting the fact that smoking causes cancer.

One smokes flower on a much lower magnitude. If you were to compare it to smoking cigarettes it would be 1 cigarette a day vs one pack a day. Second, stress causes cancer. If one is using just a little bit to wean off the stress that'd work out. Also pollution causes cancer. I don't see anyone banning cars, not even having some regulations for large diesel trucks which leave a humongous trail of smoke...

> Second, stress causes cancer.

That is quite a statement.

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

#417

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.…

The problem is that it's almost impossible to find the "beer" of weed now. Almost all weed has been upgraded to be super powered. If I want a joint, I have to use tobacco or catnip to fill it out unless I want to be steaming. I also think that the weed culture is hostile against suggestions of problems. Almost every time I have spoken about possible dangers of weed, even when presenting peer reviewed articles or meta…

yeah very high percentage THC in nearly every variant of weed these days, for me having a joint with tiny sprinkles of weed completely fucks me up, I just choose to have hash with lower THC percentage, plus hash tastes nice. I think that the really strong stuff should be for medical patients, or people with really high tolerance, because for a teenager that doesn't know what it can do, it can really ruin them if they keep having it, especially since the strong stuff is more addictive aswell.

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

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Everyone is focusing on whether being content with working at Taco Bell is sufficient in life, but I think the more interesting question is whether they truly are content. That's not for me to answer, but if the South Park quote has any truth (and I think it has more than a little), in 50 years' time, they themselves might not be happy with how things went in retrospect. In that case, it's possible they weren't reall…

> in 50 years' time, they themselves might not be happy with how things went in retrospect

There are moments in later life where everyone feels that way.

Statistically, some paths might be show up in studies as more reliable in terms of late life contentment, but on an individual level, we all end up noticing that we left a lot of doors unopened, and can find ourselves stuck wishing we made different choices or had different opportunities.

Innumerable careerists and dedicated parents and globe-trotters find themselves stuck discontent, bitter, or resentful. And innumerable people of all paths look back, wonder what could have been different, and reconcile themselves to contentment again. And heck — some people just die before reaching their goals at all.

There’s no point speculating whether the chill dude at the Taco Bell is doing it right. They know themselves better than any of us do, and may easily end up more durably content than any of us.

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

#419

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…

Can confirm. Two of my kids use THC pretty regularly and they seem content with a life that is paying the bills but not really leading anywhere. The third does not (AFAIK) and is on a much higher trajectory. All had pretty much the same upbringing, rules, experiences, and discipline. I've never used it, so don't have personal experience.

I have seen this, but on the flip-side, the most successful person I know (and they are quite successful) is also the biggest stoner I know.

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

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many years ago I was sitting at my computer smoking after work like I normally did, and I asked myself, "What would I be doing if I wasn't smoking right now" and I couldn't answer it. I tapered off pretty easily and began to fill my time with other hobbies. I was never the type of smoker which was "active". I would smoke socially and began to hate that I could never remember people's names or conversations. It made m…

> it's still very easy for me to overshoot and get into a state I hate. Marijuana turns me into a complete idiot and creates a sort of cerebral haze I can't stand I can only enjoy THC as a sleep aid for the reasons you’ve highlighted above. For me, it feels like mj is underclocking my brain. I am aware of it and I hate being slow. It’s a terrible feeling. I enjoy alcohol much more even though mj is safer overall. The…

>For me, it feels like mj is underclocking my brain. I am aware of it and I hate being slow. It’s a terrible feeling.

That's funny. I like it because it underclocks my brain. It's not as needed these days now that I have meds for ADHD, but before I was diagnosed my brain felt like I was constantly thinking too fast. While I enjoy that I make connections quickly and that I retrain and recall information quickly, it's a depressing burden when it's out of control. So before the meds weed was the only thing that kept me feeling calm, focused and in control

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