Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization • Hacker News Board

Re: Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization

#151

Post by joquarky » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

krispyfi wrote: post #86

LoganDark wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol requires an astronomical intake compared to most drugs, and I'd say the indiscriminate action and lack of any particular affinity is what makes it a poison as opposed to a drug. It is also generally assumed that alcohol is not exactly in the same category as drugs. ("drugs or alcohol" etc.)

"drugs or alcohol" I usually encounter this framing from alcohol drinkers who are trying to be self-righteously judgemental about users of other drugs without getting hit by their own boomerang, so seeing it used for what is essentially the opposite opinion (i.e., that alcohol is worse than other drugs) is quite refreshing. I still disagree with it, though. Alcohol is clearly a drug.

Yep, alcohol is one of a very small number of recreational drugs that can kill addicted people who quit cold turkey. Even hospitals have to provide ethanol to heavy drinkers to prevent withdrawal.

Re: Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization

#152

Post by joquarky » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

webern777 wrote: post #115

klrefg wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are these traits inherited by descendants who don’t consume drugs that increase the plasticity of their brain themselves?

This is from the intellectual con artist Terence McKenna. McKenna never let things like this get in the way of his theory. There was a flaw in the math of his ridiculous Time Wave Zero idea that when pointed out to him, didn't change anything. I was super into McKenna as a dumb teenager. I even had the dos program of Time Wave Zero. The idea McKenna would be taken seriously on anything after December 21, 2012 is real…

You'll get more buy in on your ideas if you didn't present them so bitterly. Your comment seems like you were let down after getting highly attached to the theory.

Re: Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization

#153

Post by 999900000999 » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 11:01 PM UTC

wellthisisgreat wrote: post #131

999900000999 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Crack was legal today would you light up a pipe ? Maybe right after filing your taxes ? The most dangerous part of any illegal substance is the illegal economy existing to support it. Drug dealers generally can’t sue each other so they resolve disputes via other means. Law Enforcement has the right to suspend all your so called rights because someone you may or may not know might have an unauthorized substance. Se…

> If Crack was legal today would you light up a pipe ? I wouldn’t but I don’t drink either, while many ppl drink themselves to incapacitation. The difference between crack and a bottle o’ Jack though is that consequence of a crack-filled weekend isn’t just a hangover. Maybe a society with all drugs legal would eventually figure out tolerable dosages for heavy recreational crack use (I really did write this ha), but d…

You mean a society that doesn’t give millions of people criminal records for what’s ultimately a health issue ?

Probation still doesn’t work. You don’t have a whole lot of bootleggers now do you ?

Regulate, tax, educate.

Re: Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization

#154

Post by LoganDark » Sun, Sep 13, 2026, 9:24 AM UTC

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #140

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7-Up contained lithium citrate until 1950. The soda jerks were literally treating manic depression during WWII. There were advertising signs for it at crosswalks on city streets. Make 7-Up Yours, Baby! Any product that contains ethanol but is not intended for consumption will be adulterated with ingredients that make it really unpleasant to consume. Any drug, OTC or sometimes even prescription, that has a risk of abu…

By the way, Wikipedia attempts to contradict the claim about 7Up containing lithium citrate and says it was never an ingredient . There is no source supporting this claim. An unreliable source, by "Bill Lockhart and Bob Brown" never makes any claim about 7Up's ingredients, but focuses on weirdly-long names that had never been used by the company. On the contrary, multiple sources insist that lithium citrate was in 7U…

> the FDA had banned this usage in 1948, and that is why it was removed! If it was never in 7Up to begin with, it seems odd to ban a thing that wasn't going on!

Did the FDA ever say if 7Up was the one using it?