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Alternative headline: citizens of deeply broken society turn to least harmful drug available to them to dull the pain of their shitty lives.

omegaworks 8y ago
With that framing, you're omitting the most important part of the article: All of the most powerful, most predatory actors in that society are gearing up to make that drug more widely available, experiment with its potency, and capitalize on the notion that it is "the least harmful." I'm grateful they quoted a Stanford professor speaking truth: "We’ve learned enough about capitalism to know that’s very dangerous."
- Herodotus38 8y ago
  I agree with you. When I read articles like this: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5368243/corona-mariguana-cannabis-canada-investment https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5368243/coro... I feel like we are repeating similar mistakes we made with the tobacco industry. That company will be doing everything it can to try and increase cannabis use to make more money. Just like the alcohol and tobacco companies.
  - iak8god 8y ago
    > I feel like we are repeating similar mistakes we made with the tobacco industry. Pot is so much less addictive and damaging to health than tobacco and alcohol, that it makes perfect sense to have it legal and as readily available as those things.
    - Herodotus38 8y ago
      I think that based on the evidence we have you are right about the relative risks. However I 1) think that if we had a do-over, we should outlaw tobacco but keep nicotine legal and 2), based on anecdotal experience I think we will end up finding in 30-40 years the true health/mental health outcomes of cannabis since it will be more easily studied 3) my big worry is less the legalization and more of the perverse incentives companies will have to promote its use through industry funded health studies, advertisements, etc...
colemickens 8y ago
Yup. Americans invented it in the last couple decades and all of us thate use it, at any frequency, are losers and burnouts with shitty lives. Edit: removed the rest of my comment, going to be hopeful and assume the reply I got was correct. Sincere apologies for not reading in better faith.
- nothrabannosir 8y ago
  GP is empathising with pot users. It’s a comment on the unreasonable stresses of life for a majority of people in modern society, and the taboo on medication and drugs policy.
draw_down 8y ago
Yeah.
dv_dt 8y ago
Yup, this article should put the use into context of other legal and abused drugs like alcohol and opoids etc, as well as illegal drugs. I would bet that substance abuse is increasing across the board in the US due to the stagsperity of our current economics.
- AngryData 8y ago
  It is no coincidence that all the old decayed manufacturing and mining towns are chock full of opioid and meth addicts.
  - WalterSear 8y ago
    Well, cannabis isn't legal in red states.
mjevans 8y ago
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 society... it's so much easier to "treat" the issue with a "magic pill"/bottle (or other form of ingesting the drugs). I strongly feel that if this particular drug weren't an option they'd drink alcohol or smoke...
- knuththetruth 8y ago
  >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.
  - dang 8y ago
    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=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily%20regardless 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dqpb 8y ago
  There is an easy answer though. You do what successful humans have done for thousands of years: - educate yourself - join or form a community that supports each other - fight for your survival like every ancestor in your genetic tree did before you. Life isn't easy. But you also aren't naturally weak. Unfortunately, once you start doing drugs, you risk corrupting the source code of the machine you rely on.
EpicEng 8y ago
>deeply broken society What hypothetical utopia are you comparing against exactly? If the US is "deeply broken" then so is every society ever.
- dolzenko 8y ago
  Not every, there are at least 22 above the US according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index
  - EpicEng 8y ago
    So any society below those 22 on the "Satisfaction with life index" is "deeply broken"? I think you're missing the point; I'm not saying that the US is the most super awesome society in existence, I'm saying that we're much better off than most, and we're _obviously_ much better off than most historical civilizations. The term "deeply broken" implies that the whole thing needs to be upended and reformed. A more reasonable and informed observer would note that there remain issues to be addressed, but we have seen incremental improvements for quite some time now and there's no good reason for e.g. revolution.
    - andbberger 8y ago
      I vehemently disagree, we should absolutely revolt. Show me the non-technological incremental improvements. The US is not a democracy, legislative power is sold to the highest bidder. Legally. Couple that with unregulated capitalism and things are looking quite bleak. Inequality is on the rise and there is no reason to think that trend will reverse. But at least we have iPhones. We're very young as a species. Our current structures of power are not intentionally constructed but inherited. There is no reason to think this is the best we can do as a species. Why don't we put the same level of effort into designing our social structures as we do into literally everything else we develop as a society? Where is the rigor? Now look me in the eyes and tell me everything is fine.
      - 8y ago

omegaworks 8y ago

With that framing, you're omitting the most important part of the article: All of the most powerful, most predatory actors in that society are gearing up to make that drug more widely available, experiment with its potency, and capitalize on the notion that it is "the least harmful." I'm grateful they quoted a Stanford professor speaking truth: "We’ve learned enough about capitalism to know that’s very dangerous."

Herodotus38 8y ago
I agree with you. When I read articles like this: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5368243/corona-mariguana-cannabis-canada-investment https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5368243/coro... I feel like we are repeating similar mistakes we made with the tobacco industry. That company will be doing everything it can to try and increase cannabis use to make more money. Just like the alcohol and tobacco companies.
- iak8god 8y ago
  > I feel like we are repeating similar mistakes we made with the tobacco industry. Pot is so much less addictive and damaging to health than tobacco and alcohol, that it makes perfect sense to have it legal and as readily available as those things.
  - Herodotus38 8y ago
    I think that based on the evidence we have you are right about the relative risks. However I 1) think that if we had a do-over, we should outlaw tobacco but keep nicotine legal and 2), based on anecdotal experience I think we will end up finding in 30-40 years the true health/mental health outcomes of cannabis since it will be more easily studied 3) my big worry is less the legalization and more of the perverse incentives companies will have to promote its use through industry funded health studies, advertisements, etc...

colemickens 8y ago

Yup. Americans invented it in the last couple decades and all of us thate use it, at any frequency, are losers and burnouts with shitty lives. Edit: removed the rest of my comment, going to be hopeful and assume the reply I got was correct. Sincere apologies for not reading in better faith.

nothrabannosir 8y ago
GP is empathising with pot users. It’s a comment on the unreasonable stresses of life for a majority of people in modern society, and the taboo on medication and drugs policy.

draw_down 8y ago

Yeah.

dv_dt 8y ago

Yup, this article should put the use into context of other legal and abused drugs like alcohol and opoids etc, as well as illegal drugs. I would bet that substance abuse is increasing across the board in the US due to the stagsperity of our current economics.

AngryData 8y ago
It is no coincidence that all the old decayed manufacturing and mining towns are chock full of opioid and meth addicts.
- WalterSear 8y ago
  Well, cannabis isn't legal in red states.

mjevans 8y ago

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 society... it's so much easier to "treat" the issue with a "magic pill"/bottle (or other form of ingesting the drugs). I strongly feel that if this particular drug weren't an option they'd drink alcohol or smoke...

knuththetruth 8y ago
>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.
- dang 8y ago
  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=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily%20regardless 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dqpb 8y ago
There is an easy answer though. You do what successful humans have done for thousands of years: - educate yourself - join or form a community that supports each other - fight for your survival like every ancestor in your genetic tree did before you. Life isn't easy. But you also aren't naturally weak. Unfortunately, once you start doing drugs, you risk corrupting the source code of the machine you rely on.

EpicEng 8y ago

>deeply broken society What hypothetical utopia are you comparing against exactly? If the US is "deeply broken" then so is every society ever.

dolzenko 8y ago
Not every, there are at least 22 above the US according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index
- EpicEng 8y ago
  So any society below those 22 on the "Satisfaction with life index" is "deeply broken"? I think you're missing the point; I'm not saying that the US is the most super awesome society in existence, I'm saying that we're much better off than most, and we're _obviously_ much better off than most historical civilizations. The term "deeply broken" implies that the whole thing needs to be upended and reformed. A more reasonable and informed observer would note that there remain issues to be addressed, but we have seen incremental improvements for quite some time now and there's no good reason for e.g. revolution.
  - andbberger 8y ago
    I vehemently disagree, we should absolutely revolt. Show me the non-technological incremental improvements. The US is not a democracy, legislative power is sold to the highest bidder. Legally. Couple that with unregulated capitalism and things are looking quite bleak. Inequality is on the rise and there is no reason to think that trend will reverse. But at least we have iPhones. We're very young as a species. Our current structures of power are not intentionally constructed but inherited. There is no reason to think this is the best we can do as a species. Why don't we put the same level of effort into designing our social structures as we do into literally everything else we develop as a society? Where is the rigor? Now look me in the eyes and tell me everything is fine.
    - 8y ago