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

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

#511

Post by detritus » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:36 PM UTC

monktastic1 wrote: post #396

daveslash wrote: post #192

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 :)

Personally I prefer 'schpiel' :)

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

#512

Post by xbar » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:36 PM UTC

solitus wrote: post #353

xbar wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an old 4% strength THC I-used-to-be-a-stoner argument that is completely irrelevant to the "real" dangers (multiple) to teenagers, which include: concentrated THC in teenagers causes psychosis; moderate THC in teenagers makes them permanently less intelligent. THC users like to downplay them.

Can you provide sources for "moderate THC in teenagers makes them permanently less intelligent". This study implies that it's not really true: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516648113#sec-5

This one comes to the top:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1206820109

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

#513

Post by undersuit » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

spywaregorilla wrote: post #131

undersuit wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I track my cannabis consumption. Every time I buy I record the weight, price, date, and strain info. My daily consumption in grams per day averages out to 1.5g. Yet there are days when I'm consuming 3+ grams, and if you look at my spreadsheet you can see that more often then not those heavy days fall in a row. I'm not having days where I intake more THC, I'm having days where I consume more cannabis than normal from…

Great. Are you an outlier or a typical user?

I definitely think I'm smoking more than most people but I don't think I'm that extreme. Maybe 80th percentile, not 99th.

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

#514

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:41 PM UTC

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.…

> Regardless, THC negatively impairs learning,[...] particular when it comes to memory and retention.

This is true, and I believed it without caveat until I was in my 30s, and met a very productive programmer who smoked when they studied. Learning under the influence of cannabis is just something that has to be practiced, and since people rarely study stoned, they rarely get to that point. After you've realized this, cannabis just allows you to study longer and more imaginatively.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't had the example, and the practice that I used was playing the game minesweeper under the influence. I do feel that I might have ruined some of the joy in being stoned, I never feel as out of control or confused as I could feel before, but I'm now of the belief that this was weird cultural baggage. When you're intoxicated, society gives you permission to be out of control, so you feel that.

I've always known people who drank for the impunity. The kind of people who start saying and doing unforgivable shit and slurring their speech after the first can of O'Doul's.

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

#515

Post by thirtyfivecent » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:42 PM UTC

nklende wrote: post #428

disqard wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I was previously at a place in my life where I compulsively did endurance exercise (including 3 marathons) to keep myself fatigued and numb my feelings. It was not too different to how some people smoke weed or drink, except that everyone in my life thought it was great and healthy. I spent a long time not making some very hard but positive life choices, and now my stomach lining is shot from pounding NSAIDs to keep…

Count yourself extremely lucky if you know for certain it was caused by NSAIDs. Thats easy to fix compared to a bacterial infection. I have done a two week water fast to let ulcers in my stomach/gut heal in the past with great success.

People claim these systems dont shut down as you are still digesting body fat, but they for the most part do shut down and somewhere in doing that they heal very quickly. I have done it a few times (for NSAIDs and other pain killers having done damage to gut and stomach and when i get glutened giving me ulcers in my gut).

A benefit is that things like food dont rub against the ulcers which are basically like little cuts and that helps too heal too during the fast. You can go on having pain for months or years trying to deal with them in another way. Remember to dose some losalt for potassium and sodium ( your electrolytes ) while you fast to limit the dizzyness and fatigue. Im not sure magnesium powder would be a good idea due to it being tough on the stomach normally... it would stop the muscle cramps you will get... but it might stop the whole thing working ... i never used it while healing ulcers and lining damage .... but i have more recently when fasting to lose weight and it does make it easier .. magnesium tablets or capsules would be a terrible idea though those are really tough on the stomach and have a lot of added ingredients in the fillers and capsule depending on the company. Smaller fasts would also help. Good luck.

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

#516

Post by akhmatova » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:43 PM UTC

alexk307 wrote: post #103

akhmatova wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You nailed it -- that's exactly what makes habitual use of the substance so insidious. Like, why deal with life (which involves risk and rejection, and ick, work ) when you can just blast trippy movies through your head all day? (Fun though these movies can be, for a while).

Have you ever used cannabis as a medicine or daily for a long period of time? Do you think we all just watch movies and act like morons all day? Why do you care if other people do or don’t want to deal with your version of life?

Why do you care ...?

I don't. It's just an observation. That doesn't mean I care.

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

#517

Post by rglover » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

hprotagonist wrote: post #41

You can green out, like notable NYT columnist maureen dowd did, but I don't recommend it. You can also do shots of everclear, but I don't recommend it. There's trouble when the marketing and availability of legal cannabis in dispensaries is the equivalent to a situation where you go to a liquor store or grocery store and you are only able to buy 80+proof and the attitude is "well, consumers are smart, they'll just wa…

> green out

> lawnmower beers

> totally zooted

Oh I like you.

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

#518

Post by palmetieri2000 » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

blazingfrog2 wrote: post #432

Taywee wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 actu…

> I'd be proud of it, if they were a good person, took care of themselves I honestly don't know how anyone (good person or not) can properly take care of themselves on a Taco Bell hourly salary.

Yes, It is the workers fault that they do not get enough funds to properly take care of themselves while working full time.

Really dumb take.

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

#519

Post by sva_ » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

Dracophoenix wrote: post #458

sva_ wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Sadly you have to install it via dev mode, and chrome seems to deactivate the extension whenever there is an update (as it needs more permissions for more sites), and I haven't found a way around it yet. https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean Hint: you can use it in Firefox Nightly on Android by defining your own extension collection: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-exte…

Try using ungoogled-chromium or Vivaldi. Both allow any crx extension. The only hassle for the former is having to download every new browser update manually.

I use Vivaldi, actually. It does update the extension, but disables it as described, when new sites are added.

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

#520

Post by margalabargala » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:47 PM UTC

iamdbtoo wrote: post #464

margalabargala wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means the person you originally replied to was correct to call it a "danger", because while it doesn't preclude the possibility of success as you noted, it does make it less likely for a given individual.

No, it doesn't. It just proves the whole point is meaningless. There are successes and failures in both weed users and non-weed users, so you can't use that as a variable for anything. Interepting it that way just always casts judgement on the user.

> There are successes and failures in both weed users and non-weed users, so you can't use that as a variable for anything.

That's not how that works. The existence of both successes and failures in weed users does not prevent a comparison of the rates of successes and failures between weed users and non-weed-users.

Making the above comparison and noting that successes per capita are lower in weed users of an otherwise identical demographic doesn't cast judgement on anyone.