This feels like a long form rant that anybody with a modicum of self reflection already had concluded on an individual basis.
The New Smoking (2021)
121–130 of 162 posts
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
To clarify, are you claiming that nicotine's psychoactive effects are minor or even positive?
When operating a moving vehicle, in comparison to THC? Yes, absolutely. That was the context in which I was speaking. Nicotine calms nerves while improving focus. There's a reason people like smoking tobacco. Marijuana, on the other hand, slows your reaction time and hampers decision making, as well as (in a small percentage of people, but including me) triggers depression, paranoia, and psychosis. Although it is leg…
Consumption of marijuana in public places is perfectly legal depending on your jurisdiction. Allowing smoking of marijuana wherever smoking of nicotine is allowed seems “only fair.” Examples in the USA include Oklahoma and New York.
On the other hand. The impairment you are talking about has been shown to affect non regular users more.[0] and to be negligible to regular users.
I wouldn’t want to be driving on the road with someone after they smoked their very first cigarette. I remember what that was like the first time I inhaled. It’s all relative. Marijuana can be less psychoactive than nicotine depending on the person and their tolerances. Just anecdata but people also report some cultivars of marijuana calms nerves while improving focus.
[0] https://norml.org/news/2022/06/16/study-regular-cannabis-con...
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anything, tiktok/instagrammers are too prevalent in natural areas these days, harvesting those areas for likes and influence.
Out of the 63 national parks and thousands of state parks in the USA, can we have just one experiment with totally blocking those apps? The obvious place would be a park that has had problems with people going off the trail to take photos when they're not supposed to. I know you'll still need to offer people cell service so they can call 911 in emergencies, but why not block everything else, as an experiment? Put a b…
A Data-Free zone. I love it. Probably you can find plenty of dead zones, but creating one purposely in a tourist spot? Genius.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#124Not to be pedantic, but smoking is actually the new smoking. Its just now being normalized through weed (which is rationalized as healthy or cool) and vaping (which is seen as less harmful than smoking cigarettes). The sheer number of smoke shops has exploded.
Vaping is significantly less dangerous than smoking, it’s not just some “false” perception. Without added flavors you can argue it is completely harmless and in some ways beneficial (nicotine has several health benefits).
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it really bugs me how inconsiderate weed and vaping smokers can be. I’ve had weed smokers casually walk by my family blowing smoke everywhere without care, like this was the 1950’s. In a sense this is even worse as not only did I not agree to me or my kids breathing in this cancerous cloud of smoke, but it is psychoactive too.
I hadn't thought of cannabis consumption as being unequivocally associated with cancer risk. I haven't paid much attention, but there was a pretty big JAMA paper a decade or so ago that didn't demonstrate much risk at something like "a joint per day for 40 years" level consumption. Vaping may well have its own -- perhaps even greater -- risks, but I hadn't assumed propylene glycol to be particularly carcinogenic. Is…
There are studies[0] indicating that PG/VG as vapor cause damage & inflammation to the lungs, independently of nicotine. The FDA's statement of GRAS mainly applies to PG used as a food additive, not necessarily it being inhaled as vapor. So, seems like potential damage from long term use, not necessarily on the scale of smoke but not necessarily great for you either.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#126Many, many people point this out but most of them don't seem to have much insight beyond the symptoms. I've thought about the apparent paradox that I keep distracting myself with a phone/computer while also not getting any fulfillment out of it. Right now I think it is about self-loathing and hating my own company. I hated being undistracted since that meant more attention for my thoughts. Those nagging, awful though…
> I did try to carve out some 10 minutes here and there where I just sat with myself, focused on the moment, and didn't look at my phone
You say you didn't pick up meditation again but what you describe sounds like meditation to me :p
The meditation guide I use always assumes that my mind will be wondering off and gently reminds me to come back to focus, just like you've been doing by yourself!
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#127Not to be pedantic, but smoking is actually the new smoking. Its just now being normalized through weed (which is rationalized as healthy or cool) and vaping (which is seen as less harmful than smoking cigarettes). The sheer number of smoke shops has exploded.
Smoke shops have exploded but it isn't clear to me that there is higher availability - every convenience store in the US sold cigarettes and most still do. Even pharmacies like CVS/Walgreens used to sell them. I think just now you have dedicated storefronts for certain types of smoking products.
interestingly you had head shops(paraphernalia) before legalization. everyone knew what they where for but nothing illegal until it was used for that specifically. you can even buy crack pipes in some of the seedier neighborhood stores.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#128I miss smoking (well, not really; I'm not a smoker). But all the rituals around it were very important for modulating the cadence and even nature of conversation, offering shared rituals, give-and-take, and, by convention, forced but acceptable pauses.
Lots of people use coffee (cafe culture) for that here in Australia, which has the benefit of actually slightly reducing all-cause mortality.
I pop out at least once a day for a coffee break away from our work building, often with a coworker or two. I try to basically never get a takeaway, it’s so much better to pause and have a real worm break sitting at the cafe.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hadn't thought of cannabis consumption as being unequivocally associated with cancer risk. I haven't paid much attention, but there was a pretty big JAMA paper a decade or so ago that didn't demonstrate much risk at something like "a joint per day for 40 years" level consumption. Vaping may well have its own -- perhaps even greater -- risks, but I hadn't assumed propylene glycol to be particularly carcinogenic. Is…
Smoking causes cancer. Not tobacco. Not marijuana. Inhaling smoke causes cancer, pretty much independent of what is being burnt. (Though obviously some substances are even worse still.) For some reason people think it is tobacco that causes lung cancer, and therefore joints are safe/healthy. Ridiculous. It is inhaling all that ash that gives you lung and throat cancer. Vaping avoids the carcinogens of cigarette smoke…
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#130> This extends to video games, usually of the free-to-play type. Free games are mostly hot garbage, with a couple of rare exceptions. Many of these are also pay-to-win games which strike me as the most preposterous use of time imaginable.
This frustrated me the most. In the particle walking about League of Legends and Warzone as two examples. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's free to play, its to do with how addictive they are to play, they're fun games afterall.
People used to walk about World of Warcraft being incredible addictive and that's not free.