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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

#591

Post by hmmdar »

tsol wrote: post #541
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.

Drugs are functionally different, I'd argue. You can quit games any time without pain, given enough mental resolve or motivation. No matter how good a reason it is you still have to deal with physical withdrawal when it comes to drugs

I found this a good review of the physical and chemical impact quitting marijuana. https://youtu.be/7u_cm5b1s7Y

I'd argue that the chemical withdrawal effects of marijuana, are nothing compared to habitual smoking, alcohol or other "hard" drug use. But there are still some chemical withdrawal effects.

Personally I've had Minor irritability after not having an edible for a few days if I've been consistently having them nearly daily for few days. But I've also realized this, and moderate use more to only once or twice a week, and only 5-10mg at a time. I've grown to like the feel of 5mg in the evening overall. Accounting for the blah feeling the next morning/day.

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

#592

Post by tempestn »

Taywee wrote: post #378
worker_person wrote: post #336

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.

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…

What if we took a more extreme version of this? Like your kid builds and sells a startup (this being HN), so now they're set for life financially, and they decide what they'll do with it is buy a lifetime supply of heroin, hire a caretaker to take care of their basic needs, and basically get high indefinitely. They're happy, they're not hurting anybody, they're even providing a living for someone. Assume they're perfectly happy too. Is that good?

I mean, you can certainly argue that the meaning of life is entirely arbitrary, and there is indeed nothing wrong with that if that's what someone wants to do. But I feel like the world is generally a better place when people in it strive for more than mere contentment. And for me personally, a couple of the key things that give life positive meaning are building relationships with other people, and striving to better myself—learning things, building skills, etc. I'm glad I do these things, rather than living an alternate life where I was equally (or maybe even if I were somehow more) subjectively happy, but less active.

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

#593

Post by scythe »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #504
scythe wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

500 mL of Guinness (for example) has an ABV of 4.2% and offers 177 calories. 500*0.042 = 21 mL of ethanol with a density of 0.789 which is 16.57 grams at 7 calories per gram or about 115 calories, which is around 65% of the total calorie content. So yes, you can save about a third of the calories by cutting out other components, but the major caloric component in the typical alcoholic beverage is alcohol. In practice, I'd wager most liquor is consumed with added sugar.

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

#594

Post by tempestn »

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…

Watched my dad struggle with this for much of his life. Smoked (cigarettes) from 12 until his early 50s, and pot from some point early in life until late 50s. Struggled for years to quit both, but he says the pot was harder to give up. It may not be a physiological addiction, but you can sure develop a strong habitual/emotional dependency. Certainly watching him struggle with it was enough to make me never want to go down that road.

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

#595

Post by Der_Einzige »

sandworm101 wrote: post #82
iamdbtoo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument always pops up as if there aren't a wealth of very successful daily cannabis users.

Yes, many successful (ie rich) people smoke pot and do not suffer because of it. Those traits are not related. Rich people do not suffer most of the negative social/financial side effects of drugs use. That's the great thing about being rich. It insulates you against most negative consequences of your actions. Normal (ie poor) people do not have such protections. They suffer massively. A 100$/day habit for a wealthy…

Hold on, maybe living in Oregon has spoiled me, but 100$ buys like 3 1gram cartridges or more than an oz of weed.

Who the duck is smoking that much in one day???? I don't know a single one of my massively addicted stoner friends who do even a third of that in a day...

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

#596

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

scythe wrote: post #593
rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

500 mL of Guinness (for example) has an ABV of 4.2% and offers 177 calories. 500*0.042 = 21 mL of ethanol with a density of 0.789 which is 16.57 grams at 7 calories per gram or about 115 calories, which is around 65% of the total calorie content. So yes, you can save about a third of the calories by cutting out other components, but the major caloric component in the typical alcoholic beverage is alcohol. In practice…

Perhaps surprisingly, Guinness is actually one of the most efficient beers.

I only know this because I built a stupid android app one afternoon in college that let you look up different drinks to see how to get drunk without getting fat. (It was named "ThinWasted," which I thought was very clever.)

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

#597

Post by Der_Einzige »

I know some founders of 10K+ star GitHub projects who are also low-key massive stoners. They write lots of the code for their libraries stoned.

Most of the people here don't realize that the majority of the cognitive impairment from weed is from the oxygen deprivation and nasty chemicals in smoke. Vaping or eating it has almost no impact on cognitive function once you have some level of tolerance.

It basically turns into less nasty cigarettes for habitual users. You probably don't know when a lot of people are high around you, even if you think you do.

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

#598

Post by propogandist »

drost wrote: post #85
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'm struggling with this right now. Using during the day is still an uncommon occurrence, but it's happening more and more. The real issue I'm having with it is that I'm using pretty much every night. I come from the gym, take a shower, and grab the vape pen and sit on the couch. It just makes me so lazy. I stopped cooking and just eat pizza and ice cream nearly every night. Thankfully my weight hasn't taken a hit. B…

sativa strains? force yourself to not use it for a few days. Also, if you do sit lazily on the couch watch some cooking shows (or something similar) so you can inspired for something to cook (or do) later when you’re not feeling lazy.

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

#599

Post by nradov »

nshung wrote: post #329
SoftTalker wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

Contentment is overrated. Contentment is a path to stagnation and decay. It's more important to achieve something of lasting value, even if that means a certain amount of angst and dissatisfaction along the way.
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