31–40 of 58 posts
Twenty five years later: four of my school friends are dead from alcohol. Fuck - that kind of takes the fun out of it - I loved those people.
Most people can handle drugs and alcohol just fine. But a lot of people can't.
"Nov 2nd 2010"
Where does the societal harm from anabolic steroids come from? Is it because anabolic steroids have an illegal black market? Why don't LSD and mushrooms have that same black market induced societal harm then? And how does harm to self from anabolic steroids come under harm to self from cannibis? Has anyone ever killed their liver with cannibis? Anabolic steroids can do that, and much more, to your body. This whole th…
> Where does the societal harm from anabolic steroids come from? I think the argument for this would be similar to the argument for using models with less atypical body types. If all the guys I saw on TV when I was a kid were super jacked, I'd probably feel more pressure to be that way and possibly use anabolic steroids to get there.
Step one, well before dosing up, is diet and exercise. Anyone wishing to imitate the muscleheads on TV would have to go through that distinctly self-improving step first. I suspect that anyone who continues on to use steroids after that would be well offset by all those who dropped out before reaching the point where self-harm becomes involved.
This seems to me like a really simple-minded article--who is surprised that the most available, legal, inexpensive, socially-acceptable drug has the largest impact? By this measure walking down a flight of stairs is more dangerous than mountain climbing.
Indeed. If everyone were using shrooms like they drink beer, highway driving would be an adventure. Doing this sort of analysis "right" (trying to determine which drugs are least-bad, quantitatively) would be a daunting challenge.
Alcohol ranked #1 in terms of "harm to yourself". In order for "harm to yourself" they found: 1. Alcohol, 2. Heroin, 3. Crack Cocaine.
There are many issues with this study, obviously. Dosages / use can significantly differ between drugs, etc.
From the original study: "Many of the harms of drugs are affected by their availability and legal status, which varies across countries, so our results are not necessarily applicable to countries with very different legal and cultural attitudes to drugs." (1) And I'm still confused - are they weighting for per-user, or overall? Under a per-user model this is interesting. Under an "overall" model this is obvious (lega…
There are "individual harms" that take account the harm done to the user himself or herself.
But, "the extent of individual harm is shown by the criteria listed as to others take account indirectly of the number of users"
(emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, parts of the study are well-thought, but others, not so much.
Economic cost (CW 12·8) - others
Injury (CW 11·5) - others
Crime (CW 10·2) - others
Family adversities (CW 8·9) - others
Drug-related mortality (CW 6·4) - users
Dependence (CW 5·7) - users
Drug-specific impairment of mental functioning (CW 5·7) - users
Drug-related impairment of mental functioning (CW 5·7) - users
Drug-specific mortality (CW 5·1) - users
Loss of tangibles (CW 4·5) - users
Loss of relationships (CW 4·5) - users
Drug-specific damage (CW 4·1) - users
Drug-related damage (CW 4·1) - users
Environmental damage (CW 3·8) - others
International damage (CW 3·8) - others
Community (CW 3·2) - others
Where does the societal harm from anabolic steroids come from? Is it because anabolic steroids have an illegal black market? Why don't LSD and mushrooms have that same black market induced societal harm then? And how does harm to self from anabolic steroids come under harm to self from cannibis? Has anyone ever killed their liver with cannibis? Anabolic steroids can do that, and much more, to your body. This whole th…
I agree however
> Has anyone ever killed their liver with cannibis?
Liver damage from steroid abuse only applies to use of oral steroids. And even that is "only" comparable to drinking alcohol. Looking as to how professional bodybuilders utilizing steroids tend to lead a vastly more healthy lifestyle (diet, workout) than most people it'd assume it somewhat reduces overall health risk. Assuming the fictional situation where I would have to pick between option
a) a friend starting to use steroids, cleaning up his diet and working out most days of the week
or b) smoke pot every day, play video games and eat Ben and Jerrys
I would pick option a) by a wide margin.
Personally I have smoked pot in the past and while casually smoking a little weed is all good and fun (like having a few beers), repated use has a zombifying effect on me which is very strong. For me it's as if my whole brain is slowed down. I've seem people who still get along just fine smoking pot regularly but I've also seem people whose personal development just completely stopped and their social life is centered around smoking bud as the result of regular pot use. I am all for legalization but don't make the mistake of assuming that just because delta 9 THC is a chemical that occurs in a plant it is a drug without any negative consequences or addiction potential for anyone.
