More Americans report near-constant cannabis use • Hacker News Board

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#221

Post by 01100011 » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

dfsegoat wrote: post #3

I know people that have kicked opiates and tobacco cold turkey - but who could not give up using cannabis if their lives depended on it. This is a legitimate concern in the current tide of de-criminalization / legalization.

Agreed. Myself, I've been on pills and quit without issue. I can smoke tobacco(cigs, pipes, nicotine gum, etc) for weeks or months and just put it down. Quitting weed was rough. No sleep. No appetite. Depression. Aggression. Then all that went away and I felt like my mind was razor sharp. I could finally start to get things done and negotiate my way through life.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#222

Post by dang » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

knuththetruth wrote: post #182

mjevans wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly that. I strongly believe that those who /do/ use drugs like this are self-medicating to escape the seemingly/maybe actually intractable social issues for which there is no single easy answer or method of escape. Compared to /trying/ to get a good job somewhere and trying to find housing that isn't outrageously over-priced and trying to more or less win the lottery game that is presently life in western societ…

>presently life in western society Let’s be clear, this “kill the poor” precarity is mostly an American problem (maybe to a lesser extent in the UK and Canada). There are huge swathes of western society (i.e. European social democracies) that don’t fall prey to this insane ideology.

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle and ignoring our requests to stop. We ban accounts that do this, regardless of their politics, as I've explained many times (https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...). Would you please not create accounts to break HN's rules with?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#223

Post by another-cuppa » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

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 had a very similar experience except I was a student at the time. I had no job and therefore gradually my sober life became less and less. I'd stay up later into the night, wake up later, and light up earlier. Eventually I got to the point where I was high all the time, but not happy. I had to move house and ran out of weed so I just decided not to get any more. The next couple of weeks were weird. I couldn't sleep properly. But things got better. I've smoked a couple of times since but have no desire to do it again now even though I know it does feel good.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#224

Post by hcnews » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

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 am fine with doing nothing even as a non-user. Recently things have been getting boring but I find it pretty hard to take the initiative and get to know more people. Its the same process all over again (meeting a new person; finding common interests etc.) which bores me to death.

Not sure what to do in life at this point. I see some sense in just participating in the circus and wait till death comes.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#225

Post by ilove_banh_mi » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

The few times I've tried it I experienced paranoia lasting several hours, and when I became aware of it I additionally experienced anxiety because I couldn't tell whether I was voicing these thoughts about people around me or keeping them inside my mind. I would then proceed to develop violent scenarios in which I had to attack and fight the people who were making me feel paranoid; the anxiety increased because I suspected they could hear me muttering such thoughts, so I was trying to clamp my mouth shut, deliberately painfully so I could remain aware of it being shut. Last time, I thought I was being very clever and quick to see all these paranoid connections, but when I happened to pay attention to a clock I realized that each sentence/proposition took me about 2 minutes to "think", examine word by word, and self-approvingly re-think.

Further, when someone was speaking near me or to me, I felt that I could catch at best one word per sentence; relatedly, their motions appeared disjointed, jumping from position to position in space, a hand would be open then closed without intermediary steps.

So, no thanks.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#226

Post by 01100011 » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

loblollyboy wrote: post #219

01100011 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your choice. If you feel it's not holding you back then go for it. IMO, pot is great when you're stuck in a situation in life which you can't escape for other factors. It can make a bad situation tolerable. IME, pot increases your tactical thinking skills while reducing your strategic thinking ability. For instance, I spent years as a programmer doing well in my job while I was high all the time. It was great during…

How did you manage to stay so high at work?

I was an engineer at a design services firm. My 'boss' was 500 miles away, along with the rest of my team. People threw bugs and tasks at me and I did them. At my company, I'd walk in, go straight to my cube, and sit there all day. Occasionally I'd get social. Even when I was assigned to other projects working with local teams, or even leading teams of people, I managed to make it work. People just got used to me being that way I guess.

I wasn't really hiding it. I have long hair(usually worn down) and had a reputation as being a party guy. But I had an outstanding technical reputation and that shielded me from scrutiny. I was making my company a lot of money and as long as that continued I don't think anyone really gave a shit.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#227

Post by willbw » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:27 PM UTC

mmanfrin wrote: post #10

Simulacra wrote: post #8

When things got stressful at work I started smoking cannabis daily. It was really detrimental to my overall productivity. It was great for the stress, and made me feel wonderful, but it’s severely dulled the sharp edges of my mind.

When things got stressful at work I started smoking cannabis occasionally. It was really helpful to my overall mental well-being. It was great for stress, and made me feel wonderful, and it severely enhanced the creative part of my mind.

You realise this type of parroting only works for logical arguments right? It's pretty pointless to flip the meaning of everything in an anecdote, you can't refute an anecdote by disproving it logically.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#228

Post by mjevans » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:29 PM UTC

lvspiff wrote: post #142

After legalizing it in Vegas I've noticed a constant lingering smell from a couple neighbors in my neighborhood. Its gotten to the point where its getting to be annoying cause most of them don't want to make their own house smell bad so they smoke outside. I'm for pot legalization and thought it was a fair idea, but like with regular smoking if your doing it within 20 ft of someone who's not and doesn't want to smell…

I feel this way about /all/ sources of smoke.

I would __really__ prefer if cannabis were only in edible forms since that would probably be a healthier way of using it.

I seem to have less of an issue with properly diffused natural gas / propane; though smoldering fats that fall on to grills get really annoying really fast.

Everything else should have a negative draw scrubbed exhaust (at least a percolating water type) to reduce the fine particles.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#229

Post by some1else » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:31 PM UTC

handsomechad wrote: post #210

yesdocs wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have taken many jobs where I had to stop for long periods of time so that I may pass a drug test. Do you really think that in 30 years I was never sober enough to make this determination? This attitude stems from the 'you're a pot smoker, you probably don't know what you're talking about' camp. If the subject was about the effects of tea, we wouldn't see comments like this. For the record, is a person who is on pro…

A lot of people seem to be willing to kowtow to the current dogma of the medical / psychiatric community with regards to mental illnesses (depression, ADHD, etc.) Once you categorize these things as objective "chemical imbalances / medical issues", the next logical step is to treat these with "medicine", like Prozac or other SSRIs, or amphetamines in the case of ADD. Many people don't seem to have the same respect fo…

I wouldn't describe those as "slavish". Unless we're in a negative feedback loop, we should probably follow established principles and improve them constructively. I have seen some conspiracy videos where authors refer to psychiatry as an educated guess. I have never seen a lucid individual diminish science like that. Can you elaborate on what you see as "dogma" in this respect?

Disclosure: I smoke more than most.

Re: More Americans report near-constant cannabis use

#230

Post by qwerty456127 » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:35 PM UTC

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…

The "downsides" are still much better than those of alcoholism. I just hope (and believe this may happen this way) more people are going to give up booze and drugs and switch to the weed. As soon as I've tried (for a number of times, the first experiences may be confusing and even scary) the weed I've forgotten vodka as a nightmare, now I just smoke some weed about 2 evenings a month in average.

I still highly recommend to stay away from the weed if it's not legal at your location however - messing with criminals and cops can really ruin your life. If it's legal for medical use only - don't hesitate to ask the doctor (but don't be pushy or play an expert, doctors hate this), some progressive doctors at some locations may actually prescribe it for addictions, depressions and eating disorders treatment, not only for cancer/aids.