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As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

nytimes.com

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

#501

Post by tr1ll10nb1ll »

seadan83 wrote: post #482
tr1ll10nb1ll wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moderation is key here, I believe. If you’re looking at successful people who get high all the time , it’s safe to assume they increased their marijuana (or any other substance) intake after having a skill they’re really good at. Most don’t and that’s why we see a correlation with drugs and being not good at much.

Do we see that correlation? Until recently, anyone over 40 was underground about marijuana usage. It turned out, tons of people use cannabis, many executives, plenty of people that we view as successful. One problem with black markets, it's very difficult to get good data, hence - do we really see a correlation? Or do we just perceive a correlation (ie: confirmation bias)

I'm not disagreeing and you can be wildly successful with or without it, I'm just pointing out heavy usage on a regular basis before you ever get to sustain that lifestyle can be detrimental to your success. But yeah, it could very well just be me perceiving a correlation here.

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

#502

Post by _j5l3 »

sleepdreamy wrote: post #405
_j5l3 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

An OZ every 3 days is pretty insane I'm gonna be honest. You must've been rolling everything to go through that. Using pieces helps a lot. Hope you're doing well

I can't even roll a joint. Just bong rips all day.

And yeah, definitely not a sustainable or healthy habit...I'm ok now, but my career took a permanent hit. Oh well.

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

#503

Post by farnsworth »

ipaddr wrote: post #380
farnsworth wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, it just takes the right mindset and some effort (for me)

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

#504

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

scythe wrote: post #426
ineptech wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. While there definitely was a crescend…

> There's no real disadvantage to drinking beer instead of whisky like there is with weed.

Lower ABV products generally have more calories per unit of alcohol. Getting drunk off of beer every day will give you a beer gut. Whisky might not.

Seltzers change this equation somewhat, as most of them are essentially vodka sodas with some flavor and artificial sweetener.

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

#505

Post by _j5l3 »

surement wrote: post #372
_j5l3 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, I wasn't spending $100/day because I'd buy cheap weed in bulk, look for deals and sales, etc. But if you buy 'irresonsibly' and just pick up like an average eighth from a dispensary, it can be pricey.

I realize I'm being pretty pedantic here, you're right that spend $100/day requires massive usage plus buying moderately expensive weed. But it's not, technically, impossible.

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

#506

Post by drekipus »

codebolt wrote: post #254
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…

For a few unlucky people, it really can have disastrous side effects as described in this article. At the risk of stigmatising myself, I suffered through cannabis induced psychosis and lived to tell the tale. And I can promise that it's absolutely a real phenomenon, and one that's not adequately recognised in 'stoner culture'.

I am too!

Had a really large 3 day psychosis (including blabbering on Facebook for all to see), and ended up being locked into "involuntary mental health" ward in hospital for 2 weeks, 6 months of recovery with a nurse and 6 years of putting my life back together. Started smoking when I was 18 and had the breakdown just after 21st birthday.

I feel like weed did help me get me out of my shell at the start, but looking back now, I was in a bad place and what I needed was a bigger perspective on life. Being high and browsing the internet / playing games with friends helped that perspective, but it could've came gently.

Now I've got a degree, a good job, a wife and kid :) - not many people I knew from the era still talk to me though, me going nuts was the last impression they got.

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

#507

Post by bryans »

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.…

Your argument ignores nearly all of the factors involved with dosage -- most notably tolerance. Tolerance reduces perceived effectiveness, requiring increased dosage to achieve the desired psychological results. People regulate their consumption to that psychological effect, but the negative physical effects do not share the same curve.

Not to mention the vast difference between what it says on the label and what you may actually be consuming -- the testing and labeling processes are rather notorious for being inaccurate. Even for an avid smoker, it's virtually impossible to consume the exact appropriate dosage, if there even were such a thing. There's also social pressures which encourage people to consume larger amounts. The list goes on and on.

So, what you're suggesting as being the obvious negator of the expert opinions of medical professionals, simply has no foundation in reality.

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

#508

Post by monetus »

kromem wrote: post #429

It's a serious problem that we're getting rid of the CBD in products. CBD is a natural antipsychotic. There's some very promising research on it alone as a treatment for schizophrenia even: https://academic.oup.com/schizbullopen/article/3/1/sgab053/6... And a large body of research on how it reduces the potential psychotic side effects of THC. But go into a dispensary and ask for a 1:1 or even a 1:2 THC:CBD product,…

To back up your point with another health anecdote - epilepsy forces me to take an acute preventative for seizures that cause a delirium, drugs like qulipta or a cbd heavy strain/blend of marijuana. The cbd is a necessary ingredient, it isn't medical for me otherwise.

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

#509

Post by swatcoder »

monktastic1 wrote: post #477
swatcoder wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

> There’s no point speculating whether the chill dude at the Taco Bell is doing it right. I agree, but I think there is value in speculating whether the contentment we feel on weed is really just distraction from discontent. This applies to far more than just weed, of course, but my own experience is that weed is particularly tricky in this regard.

Sure, and you could raise exactly the same question to all the people on prescribed psychiatric regimens. They all come with tradeoffs and change the nature of how we experience our lives. That's the point of them.

I don't have the insight to guess whether George should prefer to be skinnier and hornier but too depressed to meet his career goals, any more than it's my business to guess that Jane should put down the blunts and be more tuned in with all the drama in the news.

I'm busy enough trying to make those choices for myself.

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

#510

Post by yodsanklai »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #412
ineptech wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Drugs have a delayed response.

You feel the effect of smoking weed pretty much right away. As a consequence, it's easier to get sick with alcohol than when smoking weed.

> Adjusted consumption is interesting.

Reasonable people do adjust their consumption if they want to. You can tell when something is very potent before it harms you, whether it's inhaled weed or alcohol.

Now teens don't always behave as reasonable adults. The best thing to do is to educate them on the topic of drugs.

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