Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 396 posts

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#111

Post by Rumperuu »

insickness wrote: post #17

In the past I was addicted to pot. I was addicted in the sense that pretty much everything felt better when I was high. I was more relaxed and had less anxiety. Sex was better. Food tasted better. I was more creative. I thought about much deeper things. I spent less time online and in front of screens. The biggest downside for me--and the reason I ended up quitting--was that my sober life just sucked in comparison. I…

>I wasn't as ambitious. I was less social. In other words, it made me feel fine just hanging out in my apartment doing nothing.

Incidentally, this echoes my experience with romantic relationships. Have you considered that you may have started dating the pot and not noticed?

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#112

Post by Diederich »

dgzl wrote: post #31

I have been smoking marijuana for just over a decade straight (about 2/5 of my life), withholding various times of abstinence due to lack of access or finances, looking for a new job, or trying to lower my tolerance. I grew up in a very poor and dysfunctional household, and narrowly managed to a) get into college, b) successfully pursue a STEM degree, and c) find a job that's well above anything the rest of my family…

Sure!

Why smoke, with the known health impact? Why not edibles? They last a lot longer, and it doesn't harm your lungs.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#113

Post by failrate »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #102
saturdaysaint wrote: post #97

I'll take these "findings" seriously when they show that pot smokers are getting divorced and fired at statistically significantly greater rates than the general population. In a country where a huge percentage of marriages end in divorce and many fields are grinds with high turnover, it's naive to just nod our heads and accept self reports of "ruined marriages" at face value. In our highly regimented, low paid holid…

Isn't it still a problem if people identify as users with a problem, users who would like to quit but struggle to do so? I believe it's the same with video games or porn or other "non-toxic" addictions. Even if it's healthy and useful for some, and not dangerous to anyone, if it's a negative habit that's hard to shake, public health should pay attention and study, and perhaps employ a policy nudge.

A personality type exists that can be addicted to literally anything. I have this type. It feels like an OCD and is triggered by high stress. My theory is that for some people, it will manifest as pharmaceutical addiction, others sex or videogame addiction. This doesn't imply that sex, drugs, or videogames are bad.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#114

Post by kaoD »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #77

Overdosing on marijuana was probably the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life. Certainly by far the worst experience I've ever had on a recreational drug. People always frame the discussion of drug overdoses around lethality, and on that scale marijuana compares very favorably to every other drug, and advocates tend to end the discussion there. But on the scale of how horrific the experience is as the person…

Dude. What? The worst case I've had to assist was a couple that ate a huge space cake (oblivious to its cannabis content) and, even if they got high by mistake (which is the worst case of bad trip) it was nowhere near close to your experience. Lots of fainting involved, but not much John Malkovich. And it didn't last 12h.

How much did you eat/smoke? Maybe you're especially sensitive to cannabis? (Genuinely curious here, not trying to discredit your story).

Your case sounds closer to a panic attack than cannabis overdose. Maybe the bad trip triggered a panic attack, which in turn fed the bad trip back.

> But on the scale of how horrific the experience is as the person overdosing, I don't think there's anything worse than marijuana.

Psylocibin bad trips beg to disagree. Or any psychedelic, for that matter.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#115

Post by idoh »

wafflesraccoon wrote: post #38
idoh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't listed because it viewed as self evident to some people. I'd list the problem of having high functional people who use marijuana everyday as: A - MJ, while a mild drug, is still a drug, and it seems like people who use it everyday are addicts. B - On the one hand I'm OK with people making their own decisions as to how they want to live their life, but on the other hand if we are talking about the ty…

Small point, marijuana isn't a hallucinogen.

Fair point. It is psychoactive but not exactly a hallucinogen.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#116

Post by aldoushuxley001 »

Has anyone else taken notes while they were high?

I started taking notes when smoking around 10 years ago and it's probably the single thing that's most dramatically increased my intellectual development. The simple act of writing down my ideas helped solidify them and turned them into a foundation for future evolution of the idea. I now have 5500 notes on my computer and 2000 on my phone and you could effectively trace my intellectual history with them.

Just curious if other people have similar success with smoking weed and taking notes?

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#117

Post by Omnius »

umvi wrote: post #67
insickness wrote: post #17

In the past I was addicted to pot. I was addicted in the sense that pretty much everything felt better when I was high. I was more relaxed and had less anxiety. Sex was better. Food tasted better. I was more creative. I thought about much deeper things. I spent less time online and in front of screens. The biggest downside for me--and the reason I ended up quitting--was that my sober life just sucked in comparison. I…

Another downside you might not have considered is that you may have also adversely affected your neighbors if you live in shared housing. Not everyone enjoys the smell of pot, and I've had neighbors that made me miserable from the constant pot stench seeping through our shared wall.

This is why i don't use pot. The smell destroyed my house. I had pancretitus and quit drinking and thought i would just smoke once in a while (smoked in high school but that was decades ago).

Bought some, put it in a zip lock bag, in a zip lock bag, in a zip lock bag, in a glass container, inside a gun safe. By the way i didn't start with this configuration by when i reached it and still could smell it everywhere i knew it had to go.

No thanks. Not opposed to using when out and someone has some but the smell was just to much to keep any in my house (this was an 8th).

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#118

Post by scarecrowbob »

dgzl wrote: post #93
magic_beans wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had zero obligations or goals in life, I would smoke pot all day every day. But since, like OP, it makes me want to sit at home and do nothing (not inherently a bad thing), it impedes my goals of producing creative work. There is a fine line, I think, between people who can smoke pot responsibly (every few days or only once a week) and people who cannot go a single day (or even a few hours) without smoking.

As I've said in another post, I smoke about everyday, but I don't have any problem pursuing my goals, producing creative works, or excelling in my career. The fine line you're talking about does exist, but it doesn't have anything to do with the frequency of usage. Responsibility can be achieved with or without pot.

I'm always glad to hear that people find a balance.

One thing that is difficult for me, however, is to understand how things affect me without long periods of abstinence.

Like, I'm an alcoholic, though I've become more and more functional. I pretty much only drink on the weekends and around other humans, now. But I went through about 6 months of total abstinence from drinking and I can say with a great deal of certainty that I didn't realize the various subtle ways that substance abuse was impacting my life.

It's a relavent epistemic problem, and so when I hear people saying what you're saying, I am not at all skeptical-- I believe that it is true that "Responsibility can be achieved with or without pot". I also believe that I personally was unable to fully understand my position when I was drinking every day.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#119

Post by sktrdie »

ralusek wrote: post #86
coldtea wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In other words, it made me feel fine just hanging out in my apartment doing nothing. That should be the natural state of man, though, I'd extend it to meeting with friends, cooking, playing, etc -- that is, being "non-productive". It took a lot of advertising and protestant ethic working hand in hand through opposing ends to move the needle towards full on consumption and full on productivity. "All human evil comes…

Not everything is a social construction. The default state of life isn't being relaxed and comfortable, the default state is starvation and defending against disease, predation, and conflict. In your world where everyone is cooking and playing, who provides the food? Who staves away conflict? What lifeform on Earth let you to believe that the default state of being was effortless comfort?

I'd argue that would be the state of men when they lived in forests. But we live in a society where most of our natural instincts are "suppressed": living in square boxes with just 2-3 people we trust; having to spend time at "work" in order to afford a living; looking at screens; the instinct to hunt; etc etc.

So in a way we do need something to help us "relax" in a world where we can't naturally.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#120

Post by lowhangingnuts »

insickness wrote: post #17

In the past I was addicted to pot. I was addicted in the sense that pretty much everything felt better when I was high. I was more relaxed and had less anxiety. Sex was better. Food tasted better. I was more creative. I thought about much deeper things. I spent less time online and in front of screens. The biggest downside for me--and the reason I ended up quitting--was that my sober life just sucked in comparison. I…

> I wasn't as ambitious. I was less social.

Would that be perhaps because you were smoking or eating an Indica strain? I'm sure you know that the experience can vary drastically depending on the strain.

I used to be laser-focussed and ambitious when on a Sativa, and completely shut down and slump over on the couch when on an Indica.

Lot of people relating their personal experiences haven't mentioned what strain they were on, or tried, so it's difficult to get any meaningful insight from their experience IMO.

Only thing common across all strain, I've noticed, is the short term and long term memory loss, like someone else had mentioned about not comprehending tech conversations and such. That was a deal breaker for me also.

Post reply on HN