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As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick

nytimes.com

521–530 of 686 posts

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

#521
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…

Actually I'd say its got some sort of anticholinergic effect.

The whitey that people experience, usually first time users or infrequent users, is a release of glutathione, and obviously its messing with the endocannabinoid system.

Its also got a very potent memory wiping effect, which makes it useful for criminals doing stuff to you, like raping you in your sleep if you have been spiked with prescription sleeping pills and/or off the shelf anti histamines sold to aid sleep.

Its a very nasty combination of drugs, when that sort of stuff has been done to you in your sleep, and criminals never tell you what they plan to do to you!

Dont make it easy for them, the legal system wont help you!

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

#522
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.

They wouldn't be able too. It's a great job for a high school kid or one with a low IQ that has limited options to start with. But it should be temporary to teach you how to be responsible, show up on time, do your job correctly, etc.

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

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 b…

That's fair, and I think it is also responsible to share our experiences with these things with others. Mine (and friends') is that weed is especially insidious in this regard, but it is indeed up to each person to decide for themselves.

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

#525

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.

not sure what stereotype you have in mind but I don't see why this should be something keeping a parent from being proud. it's simple, yet honest work and that's about it. so what? not everybody wants or has to be a surgeon ffs

But taco bell is the pinnacle of your kid's career ambition? I know as a parent I'd be very disappointed.

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

#526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is largely the problem with mobile phones as well. Like you probably aren't going to go mad or get rectangular eyes or whatever, but you can just sort of sedate that sensation of boredom with scrolling reddit or facebook or whatever, which does all of bupkis for making us happy in the long term.

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.

Being addicted to cannabis is not really any different [from non-chemical habits]

On a psychological level, perhaps. But it is pretty obviously not so when it comes to physical risk (if one smokes in whichever form).

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

#527
post #368
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honestly sounds like you're having a great time lol

It's not a bad time. But I'm doing nothing. I spend each night channel surfing between YouTube, AppleTV, Hulu, and Netflix. It would be so boring if I were doing it sober.

I have a similar lifestyle.

I am starting to realize it's not laziness that's holding me back. It's full-blown burnout, stress, and anxiety. I have realized that I am actively avoiding doing anything to make my life better. Upon further inspection, I was doing this before I touched cannabis (about 1.5 years ago). If anything, cannabis just dulls my feelings down enough that I can keep my head above water while going to my dead-end and toxic job that I've been at for almost 6 years.

I know what I need to do and I cannot bring myself to do it. I am still trying to figure out why. Again, this existed prior to my cannabis usage too.

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

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is largely the problem with mobile phones as well. Like you probably aren't going to go mad or get rectangular eyes or whatever, but you can just sort of sedate that sensation of boredom with scrolling reddit or facebook or whatever, which does all of bupkis for making us happy in the long term.

agreed. I started bookmarking a specific open source repo and automechanic wiki and I’m slowly conditioning myself to read those if I want to waste time on my phone. I enjoy reading them anyway as much (or a lot more) than Reddit or w/e, just needed to make it habitual bc I didn’t think about going to those as a first stop to get lost in. Def helps and returns the joy of having internet access, lot of cool stuff to l…

Consider using an RSS reader and bookmarking that! It’s nice to be able to grow your list of things to “default browse” to, over time.

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

#529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I see some parallels but my own problems spiralled a bit further than yours. I was struggling with hallucinations and paranoia on and off for a period of a few years in my early twenties (but luckily didn't leave a trace on social media).

It started after a period of habitual smoking and got progressively worse anytime I smoked. Mental health ward twice (once in a country where I didn't speak the language, but that's another story). Haven't had any problems since I cleaned up my lifestyle and fully ditched weed many years ago. These days I'm also happily married with kids (three), a house and a decent career.

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

#530

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".

Cannabis and jogging make a lovely combination.

Lovely?

Based on what it's doing to your lungs and circulatory system, I'd put it more in the "it rocks, until it doesn't" category.

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