81–90 of 105 posts
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You have sex? You must be the odd one out on this site :)
Hacker News is where the literate, success/money-minded bright people come. Perhaps this is elitist, but I'd bet that this community is thinner, richer, and more socially capable than most communities online. Probably younger as well, since there's the whole core of high school/college YC wannabes, myself included.
Remember, just because people who advocate keeping marijuana illegal are horrible human beings, doesn't change the fact that marijuana is a psychoactive drug and we don't really understand the human brain all that well. My own brain is idiosyncratic and doesn't always react as expected (e.g. to caffeine) and I've heard friends say that they think that taking marijuana during college might have permanently dulled the…
Not too mention all the stuff that's in our regular drinking water: instead of avoiding pot, I'd start by avoiding tap water.
Remember, just because people who advocate keeping marijuana illegal are horrible human beings, doesn't change the fact that marijuana is a psychoactive drug and we don't really understand the human brain all that well. My own brain is idiosyncratic and doesn't always react as expected (e.g. to caffeine) and I've heard friends say that they think that taking marijuana during college might have permanently dulled the…
No drugs, no alcohol, no nicotine for me. What's gone in the brain tends to be gone forever, and forever is a long long time.
Decriminalization of drugs is a really good thing though. If all the money that went into this silly 'war' (another nice example of a word that has been stretched beyond its original meaning) on drugs was put to good use then jails would be less full and people would be less scared for doing something relatively innocent.
Where to draw the line ? Harddrugs ? Drug pushing ? Hard to tell. But it's too easy to make someone a criminal right now and that ought to change.
When a good sized portion of the population is in jail for something that you can argue is much less severe than consuming a nights out of alcohol there is a change to be made.
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For someone whose main preaching is a religion of caution and skepticism, you speak with a lot of moral certainty. Why should holding a very common view (which probably not a lot of thought went into) make a person a "horrible human being"? I even allow that some of the people that disagree with us might have good reasons for doing so. Should I excise a person from the company of "the good guys" because one of his fa…
Anyone that supports drug prohibition is either extremely ignorant, extremely stupid, or extremely evil, or some combination of thereof. A brief look at any history book covering alcohol prohibition should be more than enough to convince any reasonable and honest person that drug legalization is a moral imperative.
This is a sentiment that is usually agreed to in the abstract, but is often shunned in practice.
But don't worry, you're really, really right and you can be 100% sure of that, so it's okay if we jettison the trappings of civilized discourse.
Remember, just because people who advocate keeping marijuana illegal are horrible human beings, doesn't change the fact that marijuana is a psychoactive drug and we don't really understand the human brain all that well. My own brain is idiosyncratic and doesn't always react as expected (e.g. to caffeine) and I've heard friends say that they think that taking marijuana during college might have permanently dulled the…
Elizer, I'm going to respond to you not because I disagree with what you said, but because you stated concisely the view that's opposite the one I hold, and I figure it might be neat to provide the foil view. I don't hold my mind's current state sacrosanct. That is to say, I respect my mind incredibly, but I don't have any belief that says my mind was built the way it was for a reason, or that there's something wrong…
I find marijuana is a great tool for brainstorming if used in moderation but I advise people keep it away from their actual work process. It's good to approach it like having a beer to relax after a hard day.
I think too many people often confuse creativity with a controlled state of madness. Just this morning, I found myself singing "Alouette" while dancing the robot after I just got out of the shower (true story) with no explainable reason why I was doing it... I just was. Shortly after, I thought I was just being creative. Now I'm currently questioning my sanity.
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Elizer, I'm going to respond to you not because I disagree with what you said, but because you stated concisely the view that's opposite the one I hold, and I figure it might be neat to provide the foil view. I don't hold my mind's current state sacrosanct. That is to say, I respect my mind incredibly, but I don't have any belief that says my mind was built the way it was for a reason, or that there's something wrong…
I never got into smoking dope, but a number of my friends did. It ended up being really boring to hang around with them, they would be content doing nothing and getting stoned. I wanted to do something. They also stayed like this for a number of years, whereas I moved on, finished my degree, got a job. They are now doing working in gas stations.
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I did a heck of a lot of research before I tried drugs at age 19, and then had a lot of fun on drugs for a few years before giving it all up entirely. My main issue with most drugs is that you can get most of the positive effects of the less addictive drugs with training, without the nasty side effects. My favorite was hashish, which I found cleaner and more clear thinking than marijuana, though it's less readily ava…
Excellent points all. Anybody who wants to use social drugs should take a look at meditation and self-hypnosis, because you can get the same emotional states that you'd get with drugs through a little practice. As lionhearted mentioned, hallucinogens are the one exception.
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I did a heck of a lot of research before I tried drugs at age 19, and then had a lot of fun on drugs for a few years before giving it all up entirely. My main issue with most drugs is that you can get most of the positive effects of the less addictive drugs with training, without the nasty side effects. My favorite was hashish, which I found cleaner and more clear thinking than marijuana, though it's less readily ava…
Excellent points all. Anybody who wants to use social drugs should take a look at meditation and self-hypnosis, because you can get the same emotional states that you'd get with drugs through a little practice. As lionhearted mentioned, hallucinogens are the one exception.
After training myself to remember at least one dream whenever I sleep, a few hours of REM is more than enough hallucinating each day. Some might say it is better to be hallucinating while running about the real world, but I prefer the ability to instantly wake up out of a 'bad trip'.