3 ms·

addiction + adverse effects on one's brain/life. There are a lot of benign addictions, which we call habits. We should be a bit more careful in casually classi

by pacala 10y ago

addiction + adverse effects on one's brain/life. There are a lot of benign addictions, which we call habits. We should be a bit more careful in casually classifying marijuana as benign on grounds that is not as bad as heroin. Edit. "Classifying" in educational sense, not in legal sense.

DanBC 10y ago
By definition addiction has a harmful effect on the user. > We should be a bit more careful in casually classifying marijuana as benign on grounds that is not as bad as heroin. Yes, definitely. I'm strongly in favour of legalisation, but I recognise that for some people cannabis will be harmful.
tankenmate 10y ago
Sure, but does it justify its place on Schedule 1? Hardly. As a whole alcohol does far more damage to society and yet it is very lightly regulated. Maybe Schedule 4 or 5 might be more appropriate? i.e Xanax, Tramadol, less than 200mg codeine, etc.
imaginenore 10y ago
By that logic sugar should be highly illegal. Obesity kills orders of magnitude more people than heroin.
- sjwright 10y ago
  Per gram (or per serve) of product, I very much doubt it.
  - c22 10y ago
    But perhaps per dollar...
thescriptkiddie 10y ago
Sure, there are benign habits, like caffeine which is arguably beneficial even though it forms a physical dependency. There are also a lot of very harmful habits which are based around "addictive" substances. Personally I had to delete my Reddit account. I started using Reddit as a crutch for boredom and browsing became a default activity for me, something that sucked up every spare moment even if I wasn't actually enjoying it. That was monumentally self-destructive in exactly the same way that people describe their experiences with "addictive" substances. Even now I consciously limit my use of this site. I think that addiction is a purely psychological phenomenon, distinct from (though often paired with) the physical process of dependency and withdrawal. I might even go as far as to say that addiction is a symptom of larger problems, rather than a problem in itself. Anyway, cannabis does not form a dependency any stronger than caffeine, so in that regard I would argue it is even safer than alcohol. As for becoming addicted to cannabis, I don't think that any particular substance is more or less "addictive" than any other. Just my two cents.

by pacala 10y ago

DanBC 10y ago

By definition addiction has a harmful effect on the user. > We should be a bit more careful in casually classifying marijuana as benign on grounds that is not as bad as heroin. Yes, definitely. I'm strongly in favour of legalisation, but I recognise that for some people cannabis will be harmful.

tankenmate 10y ago

Sure, but does it justify its place on Schedule 1? Hardly. As a whole alcohol does far more damage to society and yet it is very lightly regulated. Maybe Schedule 4 or 5 might be more appropriate? i.e Xanax, Tramadol, less than 200mg codeine, etc.

imaginenore 10y ago

By that logic sugar should be highly illegal. Obesity kills orders of magnitude more people than heroin.

sjwright 10y ago
Per gram (or per serve) of product, I very much doubt it.
- c22 10y ago
  But perhaps per dollar...

thescriptkiddie 10y ago

Sure, there are benign habits, like caffeine which is arguably beneficial even though it forms a physical dependency. There are also a lot of very harmful habits which are based around "addictive" substances. Personally I had to delete my Reddit account. I started using Reddit as a crutch for boredom and browsing became a default activity for me, something that sucked up every spare moment even if I wasn't actually enjoying it. That was monumentally self-destructive in exactly the same way that people describe their experiences with "addictive" substances. Even now I consciously limit my use of this site. I think that addiction is a purely psychological phenomenon, distinct from (though often paired with) the physical process of dependency and withdrawal. I might even go as far as to say that addiction is a symptom of larger problems, rather than a problem in itself. Anyway, cannabis does not form a dependency any stronger than caffeine, so in that regard I would argue it is even safer than alcohol. As for becoming addicted to cannabis, I don't think that any particular substance is more or less "addictive" than any other. Just my two cents.