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I wish they would just go ahead and legalize recreational use nationwide. As someone who binge drank a lot from ~16yo to 22yo, I can't imagine what kind of lun

I wish they would just go ahead and legalize recreational use nationwide. As someone who binge drank a lot from ~16yo to 22yo, I can't imagine what kind of lunacy causes someone to think alcohol is safer or more acceptable than marijuana use. Maybe the people behind propaganda didn't like how marijuana can make people less social and more eccentric, but since drinking alcohol is seen as a way of socializing and camaraderie, it's acceptable? The older I get the less I like alcohol. Hangovers suck. I was (un)lucky enough to have a bad lifetime case of acid reflux/GERD which is exacerbated by alcohol, so between that and not liking the hangovers, I generally can't imagine being an alcoholic. But alcohol ruins a lot of lives. I don't know how many lives marijuana ruins, except maybe out of laziness or lack of motivation.

andrei_says_ 7y ago
No one who has data thinks it’s safer and I don’t think anyone on the political level really cares that much. Mj prohibition is ultimately racially and politically motivated and entangled with political image as well as a lot of funding for enforcement and incarceration. Most likely we will move beyond its insanity but it’ll take time.
- repsilat 7y ago
  > Mj prohibition is ultimately racially and politically motivated On the other side of the equation, there's also the (much more charitable) point that we tried banning alcohol and it didn't work. It has a substantially larger cultural purchase, so banning it is naturally more expensive -- both in terms of the cost of enforcement and the number of upset people whose habits you've made illegal. Marijuana might become impossible to ban if its use keeps climbing, but it certainly wasn't in the 20th century.
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    My old dad said they banned marijuana after prohibition to give the prohibition enforcement agents something to do.
zarmin 7y ago
> I can't imagine what kind of lunacy That would be racism.
- devmunchies 7y ago
  no, just brainwashing and social stigmas. like the "reefer madness" ads.
  - mffnbs 7y ago
    The brainwashing and social stigmas are a result of racism.
  - inscionent 7y ago
    The war on drugs is a racist policy.
    - vonseel 7y ago
      Maybe a relic policy of racist era is more appropriate. I would think today’s lawmakers are more likely to oppose mj because they see it as something lazy hippies and stoner kids do rather than a tool to oppress minorities.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - chillwaves 7y ago
        The War on Drugs is a racist policy. You can ignore the reality of it, but the facts speak for themselves. https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/analysis-finds-racial-disparities-ineffectiveness-nypd-stop-and-frisk-program-links https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/analysis-finds-racia...
        burner831234 7y ago
        +1 and if you need a pop culture version to explain it to you check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlqsdezhhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlqsdezhhk (adam ruins everything) complete with references
bad-joke 7y ago
The modern drug war was designed to be a cudgel aimed at political enemies, not a public health effort. Quoth Nixon's advisor John Ehrlichman: > The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.
- mieseratte 7y ago
  What's the source on that quote? Best I've found is a Harper's Weekly article from 2016.
  - mikestew 7y ago
    That's the best you're going to find, some journalist's reminiscence twenty-some years after the fact. So I would caution anyone to be wary of whipping that quote out to make a point.
    - mieseratte 7y ago
      So that is the only source then? I've previously asked and never received an answer. If so, I feel worth pointing out the quote was allegedly acquired some 20 years prior to publishing, 17 years past the quoted's death.
      - mikestew 7y ago
        So that is the only source then? As far as I can tell, all roads lead back to that one Harper's article. I haven't bothered to try and find the book the author said he was working on. The quote is poorly-sourced enough for me to just not use it, and golly-gee-willickers is it a convenient one now that the quoted is long dead and buried. (EDIT: I will point out that I want to believe the quote is real, or close to it. It certainly doesn't strain credulity to imagine Erlichman saying that. Which is all the more reason to be skeptical. <g>)
cr0sh 7y ago
> I was (un)lucky enough to have a bad lifetime case of acid reflux/GERD Have you seen your physician about this and/or do you have it under control? If not - try this. I am not a doctor, so this is just friendly advice, but it worked for me. Where it came from is my wife had a friend who had basically the same issue, and she was a hypochodriac to boot - her doctor basically recommended the same thing, though. So - when my GERD became bad, my wife had me try this - and so far, it has worked great. No more waking up in the middle of the night choking and thinking you're having a heart attack, or at worst unable to breath because you aspirated acid into your throat and/or lungs... When you wake up - before you eat, take one each of: 20mg Esomeprazole (1 tablet) - acid controller 20mg Famotidine (1 tablet) - acid controller 150mg Ranitidine (1 tablet) - ulcer preventative Do the same in the evening, before you eat dinner. Also, eat dinner earlier (5-6pm - I was in the habit of eating closer to bedtime, which made things worse). You're also supposed to avoid drinking alcohol with these - I've never had a problem having an occasional beer or alcoholic beverage long after I took them, but ymmv (and I know you said you don't drink anymore - but I'm relating this in case others want to try it out). If in doubt, don't drink anything alcoholic. These amounts may seem large, but they are (supposedly) no where near the limits of what a doctor can prescribe (it's like ibuprofen - OTC is 200mg tablets, but prescription levels are upwards of 2400mg max per day, depending on your weight - and you also have to have blood work done at that level, too). I currently take two of each pill, mainly because I prefer my diet as-is (I'm a stubborn fella). If that still seems like too much - then just do the same regimen of the first two pills, twice a day. That's what I did for a few years, then my symptoms started to return. My wife suggested adding the third, I did - and things got better. But you might find yourself needing a higher dose after a few years, which is why I take two of each. As I note below, I started with the first two, then doubled up, then added the third. That's been working for me. Note that this won't make things perfect. You can change your diet to help, of course, the frequency you eat, your portions, etc - all of that helps too. Also, drink a lot of water vs other liquids - that's a big help overall. But I can tell you that it should help you to sleep better at night, and make you feel better overall. Finally - if you notice anything weird while on this regimen, then see your doctor. Really, all you need to do is check the whites of your eyes - if things start tinging yellow, then your liver and kidneys are being stressed hard, and you'll want to back off and drink a ton of water of course (and maybe see your doctor too). If you're in decent health otherwise with no major issues, your body can take a lot before you keel over (I mean, seriously - look at how much drug abusers put their bodies thru - the body is actually insanely resilient). Now - I'm probably going to be chastised for being facile about this advice and such - so again, this is only offered knowing what it's like having extreme GERD and not wanting others to be in the same pain. So again - if you are at all unsure about this advice, talk to your doctor about it if you aren't already under the care of a physician. But the truth is, they're going to tell you the same thing: 1. Eat less, exercise more 2. Stay away from spicy and fatty foods 3. Stop smoking 4. No caffeine 5. Lose weight 6. Take one or more pills I've already mentioned That's the absolute truth - other than #6, it's like their mantra or something. I'm not saying it's bad advice - I'm just saying it should be "common sense" advice. It's also, imho, advice that takes some of the fun out of livin' - so take it all in moderation, too. None of us are getting out of this alive. Might as well have some fun before the end.
aaroninsf 7y ago
Re: AR/GERD, have you tried "intermittent fasting" of the 16:8 variety (that is: no fasting days; just, limiting food to a small e.g. 8 hour window)? My parents developed later-life GERD and I believe I was starting to. Started IF for other reasons and the GERD-like symptoms more or less vanished for me. I think part of that is the necessary gap between last-food-intake and becoming horizontal for sleep... which is now a few hours minimum...
- vonseel 7y ago
  My symptoms started at 19 (30 now) and I have not been off PPIs since then. IF and raised bed helps. Some weeks the symptoms are under control, some weeks they get worse.
Nursie 7y ago
> As someone who binge drank a lot from ~16yo to 22yo, I can't imagine what kind of lunacy causes someone to think alcohol is safer or more acceptable than marijuana use. "I enjoy beer and it's never done me any harm" "I don't have a problem with beer, I only use it socially" "I'm not like those... druggies" I agree. Hangovers suck terribly. give me a nice slow, sleepy morning of last night's weed fading out any time.
swsieber 7y ago
> GERD Here's a link to a discussion about a paper you might be very interested in - basically a supplement with 100% OTC ingredients had 100% efficacy in eliminating GERD https://www.reddit.com/r/GERD/comments/adt6vh/regression_of_gastroesophageal_reflux_disease/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GERD/comments/adt6vh/regression_of_...
swsieber 7y ago
I'd be all for banning alcoholic stuff too. That's of course hard to do with how socially accepted it is.
- filoleg 7y ago
  >That's of course hard to do with how socially accepted it is. Or maybe it has been tried before, and people saw what an utter disaster it was (the prohibition era). To which you might say that the war on drugs has been a similar disaster, and I will fully agree with you on this.
  - Throw_Away_5473 7y ago
    Prohibition was somewhat successful. If it has lasted longer it would probably have become even more effective, since culture could change. > Second, alcohol consumption declined dramatically during Prohibition. Cirrhosis death rates for men were 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 and 10.7 in 1929. Admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis declined from 10.1 per 100,000 in 1919 to 4.7 in 1928. > Arrests for public drunkennness and disorderly conduct declined 50 percent between 1916 and 1922. For the population as a whole, the best estimates are that consumption of alcohol declined by 30 percent to 50 percent. > Third, violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition. Homicide rates rose dramatically from 1900 to 1910 but remained roughly constant during Prohibition's 14 year rule. Organized crime may have become more visible and lurid during Prohibition, but it existed before and after. > Fourth, following the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption increased. Today, alcohol is estimated to be the cause of more than 23,000 motor vehicle deaths and is implicated in more than half of the nation's 20,000 homicides. In contrast, drugs have not yet been persuasively linked to highway fatalities and are believed to account for 10 percent to 20 percent of homicides. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/16/opinion/actually-prohibition-was-a-success.html https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/16/opinion/actually-prohibit...
    - DonHopkins 7y ago
      A lot of people would agree with you that prohibition was somewhat successful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Prohibition-era_gangsters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Prohibition-era_gangs...
chadlavi 7y ago
It seems the main way marijuana ruins lives is by being illegal to have.
- braythwayt 7y ago
  This reminds me of the old argument for barring homosexuals from serving in sensitive government positions. Why? "Vulnerable to blackmail." Why vulnerable? "Because they can be fired if the word gets out." So what are you doing about it? "Firing anyone we think is vulnerable."
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - inimino 7y ago
    To be fair, they could also be excommunicated, divorced, socially ostracized, and made unemployable everywhere, not just government jobs. So it's not quite as absurd as your presentation makes it seem. Anyone with a secret is potentially vulnerable to blackmail.
- refurb 7y ago
  That’s a very simplistic yet accurate statement. We should be asking ourselves, are people better off after these laws are passed? Clearly not with marijuana.
marble-drink 7y ago
It is indeed ridiculous. I've personally stopped drinking alcohol at all. There is simply no good reason to imbibe a poison that makes me sleep worse and feel worse the next day. I've stopped using other drugs too, but there are several that I would use over alcohol. But alcohol is a huge industry. There just isn't any money in other poisons.
dTal 7y ago
>I don't know how many lives marijuana ruins, except maybe out of laziness or lack of motivation. Depending on your definition of 'ruin'- a lot. As a counterpoint - alcohol consumption is in most cases self-limiting, for the reasons you describe. Your body tells you in fairly clear terms that you're imbibing poison. Most people learn not to over-indulge, particularly as their tolerance drops off towards the end of their 20s. Marijuana, however, is more subtle. You won't have a raging headache the next day - but you will be slower, less motivated, and less socially skilled. These negative effects are not painful, and depending on how demanding your daily activities are, possibly imperceptible. If you're an intelligent person stuck in a boring situation, it might even make your experience more tolerable. And, because weed makes you lazy and weed is a lazy solution to boredom, it traps people in a vicious cycle. They're not lying in the gutter, blacking out or vomiting, so they think they're doing fine; but their life devolves into doing a boring job to pay the bills, and smoking weed to make themselves stupid to relieve the boredom. They never hit "rock bottom" in the alcoholic sense, so they circle the drain for the rest of their lives. It's not "cool" these days to say the marijuana is a dangerous drug that ruins lives - ridiculous over-the-top propaganda saw to that. But it is, and our "cultural antibodies" need to catch up to the new reality of legal weed. I've definitely known a few people for whom alcohol became a visible, functional problem - but I've known at least dozens of people who could have achieved so much more if only they'd managed to tear themselves away from weed's anesthesia. None of this is to say that banning is the answer to anything. But the right of legal weed comes with the responsibility of owning up to its problems.
- vonseel 7y ago
  Your response explains why I made that point. I’m aware of it and agree. Maybe I should try marijuana. I’m lazy, unmotivated, and fatigued - but otherwise generally happy - without any of the fun parts.

andrei_says_ 7y ago

No one who has data thinks it’s safer and I don’t think anyone on the political level really cares that much. Mj prohibition is ultimately racially and politically motivated and entangled with political image as well as a lot of funding for enforcement and incarceration. Most likely we will move beyond its insanity but it’ll take time.

repsilat 7y ago
> Mj prohibition is ultimately racially and politically motivated On the other side of the equation, there's also the (much more charitable) point that we tried banning alcohol and it didn't work. It has a substantially larger cultural purchase, so banning it is naturally more expensive -- both in terms of the cost of enforcement and the number of upset people whose habits you've made illegal. Marijuana might become impossible to ban if its use keeps climbing, but it certainly wasn't in the 20th century.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  My old dad said they banned marijuana after prohibition to give the prohibition enforcement agents something to do.

zarmin 7y ago

> I can't imagine what kind of lunacy That would be racism.

devmunchies 7y ago
no, just brainwashing and social stigmas. like the "reefer madness" ads.
- mffnbs 7y ago
  The brainwashing and social stigmas are a result of racism.
- inscionent 7y ago
  The war on drugs is a racist policy.
  - vonseel 7y ago
    Maybe a relic policy of racist era is more appropriate. I would think today’s lawmakers are more likely to oppose mj because they see it as something lazy hippies and stoner kids do rather than a tool to oppress minorities.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - chillwaves 7y ago
      The War on Drugs is a racist policy. You can ignore the reality of it, but the facts speak for themselves. https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/analysis-finds-racial-disparities-ineffectiveness-nypd-stop-and-frisk-program-links https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/analysis-finds-racia...
      - burner831234 7y ago
        +1 and if you need a pop culture version to explain it to you check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlqsdezhhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlqsdezhhk (adam ruins everything) complete with references

bad-joke 7y ago

The modern drug war was designed to be a cudgel aimed at political enemies, not a public health effort. Quoth Nixon's advisor John Ehrlichman: > The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

mieseratte 7y ago
What's the source on that quote? Best I've found is a Harper's Weekly article from 2016.
- mikestew 7y ago
  That's the best you're going to find, some journalist's reminiscence twenty-some years after the fact. So I would caution anyone to be wary of whipping that quote out to make a point.
  - mieseratte 7y ago
    So that is the only source then? I've previously asked and never received an answer. If so, I feel worth pointing out the quote was allegedly acquired some 20 years prior to publishing, 17 years past the quoted's death.
    - mikestew 7y ago
      So that is the only source then? As far as I can tell, all roads lead back to that one Harper's article. I haven't bothered to try and find the book the author said he was working on. The quote is poorly-sourced enough for me to just not use it, and golly-gee-willickers is it a convenient one now that the quoted is long dead and buried. (EDIT: I will point out that I want to believe the quote is real, or close to it. It certainly doesn't strain credulity to imagine Erlichman saying that. Which is all the more reason to be skeptical. <g>)

cr0sh 7y ago

> I was (un)lucky enough to have a bad lifetime case of acid reflux/GERD Have you seen your physician about this and/or do you have it under control? If not - try this. I am not a doctor, so this is just friendly advice, but it worked for me. Where it came from is my wife had a friend who had basically the same issue, and she was a hypochodriac to boot - her doctor basically recommended the same thing, though. So - when my GERD became bad, my wife had me try this - and so far, it has worked great. No more waking up in the middle of the night choking and thinking you're having a heart attack, or at worst unable to breath because you aspirated acid into your throat and/or lungs... When you wake up - before you eat, take one each of: 20mg Esomeprazole (1 tablet) - acid controller 20mg Famotidine (1 tablet) - acid controller 150mg Ranitidine (1 tablet) - ulcer preventative Do the same in the evening, before you eat dinner. Also, eat dinner earlier (5-6pm - I was in the habit of eating closer to bedtime, which made things worse). You're also supposed to avoid drinking alcohol with these - I've never had a problem having an occasional beer or alcoholic beverage long after I took them, but ymmv (and I know you said you don't drink anymore - but I'm relating this in case others want to try it out). If in doubt, don't drink anything alcoholic. These amounts may seem large, but they are (supposedly) no where near the limits of what a doctor can prescribe (it's like ibuprofen - OTC is 200mg tablets, but prescription levels are upwards of 2400mg max per day, depending on your weight - and you also have to have blood work done at that level, too). I currently take two of each pill, mainly because I prefer my diet as-is (I'm a stubborn fella). If that still seems like too much - then just do the same regimen of the first two pills, twice a day. That's what I did for a few years, then my symptoms started to return. My wife suggested adding the third, I did - and things got better. But you might find yourself needing a higher dose after a few years, which is why I take two of each. As I note below, I started with the first two, then doubled up, then added the third. That's been working for me. Note that this won't make things perfect. You can change your diet to help, of course, the frequency you eat, your portions, etc - all of that helps too. Also, drink a lot of water vs other liquids - that's a big help overall. But I can tell you that it should help you to sleep better at night, and make you feel better overall. Finally - if you notice anything weird while on this regimen, then see your doctor. Really, all you need to do is check the whites of your eyes - if things start tinging yellow, then your liver and kidneys are being stressed hard, and you'll want to back off and drink a ton of water of course (and maybe see your doctor too). If you're in decent health otherwise with no major issues, your body can take a lot before you keel over (I mean, seriously - look at how much drug abusers put their bodies thru - the body is actually insanely resilient). Now - I'm probably going to be chastised for being facile about this advice and such - so again, this is only offered knowing what it's like having extreme GERD and not wanting others to be in the same pain. So again - if you are at all unsure about this advice, talk to your doctor about it if you aren't already under the care of a physician. But the truth is, they're going to tell you the same thing: 1. Eat less, exercise more 2. Stay away from spicy and fatty foods 3. Stop smoking 4. No caffeine 5. Lose weight 6. Take one or more pills I've already mentioned That's the absolute truth - other than #6, it's like their mantra or something. I'm not saying it's bad advice - I'm just saying it should be "common sense" advice. It's also, imho, advice that takes some of the fun out of livin' - so take it all in moderation, too. None of us are getting out of this alive. Might as well have some fun before the end.

aaroninsf 7y ago

Re: AR/GERD, have you tried "intermittent fasting" of the 16:8 variety (that is: no fasting days; just, limiting food to a small e.g. 8 hour window)? My parents developed later-life GERD and I believe I was starting to. Started IF for other reasons and the GERD-like symptoms more or less vanished for me. I think part of that is the necessary gap between last-food-intake and becoming horizontal for sleep... which is now a few hours minimum...

vonseel 7y ago
My symptoms started at 19 (30 now) and I have not been off PPIs since then. IF and raised bed helps. Some weeks the symptoms are under control, some weeks they get worse.

Nursie 7y ago

> As someone who binge drank a lot from ~16yo to 22yo, I can't imagine what kind of lunacy causes someone to think alcohol is safer or more acceptable than marijuana use. "I enjoy beer and it's never done me any harm" "I don't have a problem with beer, I only use it socially" "I'm not like those... druggies" I agree. Hangovers suck terribly. give me a nice slow, sleepy morning of last night's weed fading out any time.

swsieber 7y ago

> GERD Here's a link to a discussion about a paper you might be very interested in - basically a supplement with 100% OTC ingredients had 100% efficacy in eliminating GERD https://www.reddit.com/r/GERD/comments/adt6vh/regression_of_gastroesophageal_reflux_disease/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GERD/comments/adt6vh/regression_of_...

swsieber 7y ago

I'd be all for banning alcoholic stuff too. That's of course hard to do with how socially accepted it is.

filoleg 7y ago
>That's of course hard to do with how socially accepted it is. Or maybe it has been tried before, and people saw what an utter disaster it was (the prohibition era). To which you might say that the war on drugs has been a similar disaster, and I will fully agree with you on this.
- Throw_Away_5473 7y ago
  Prohibition was somewhat successful. If it has lasted longer it would probably have become even more effective, since culture could change. > Second, alcohol consumption declined dramatically during Prohibition. Cirrhosis death rates for men were 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 and 10.7 in 1929. Admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis declined from 10.1 per 100,000 in 1919 to 4.7 in 1928. > Arrests for public drunkennness and disorderly conduct declined 50 percent between 1916 and 1922. For the population as a whole, the best estimates are that consumption of alcohol declined by 30 percent to 50 percent. > Third, violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition. Homicide rates rose dramatically from 1900 to 1910 but remained roughly constant during Prohibition's 14 year rule. Organized crime may have become more visible and lurid during Prohibition, but it existed before and after. > Fourth, following the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption increased. Today, alcohol is estimated to be the cause of more than 23,000 motor vehicle deaths and is implicated in more than half of the nation's 20,000 homicides. In contrast, drugs have not yet been persuasively linked to highway fatalities and are believed to account for 10 percent to 20 percent of homicides. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/16/opinion/actually-prohibition-was-a-success.html https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/16/opinion/actually-prohibit...
  - DonHopkins 7y ago
    A lot of people would agree with you that prohibition was somewhat successful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Prohibition-era_gangsters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Prohibition-era_gangs...

chadlavi 7y ago

It seems the main way marijuana ruins lives is by being illegal to have.

braythwayt 7y ago
This reminds me of the old argument for barring homosexuals from serving in sensitive government positions. Why? "Vulnerable to blackmail." Why vulnerable? "Because they can be fired if the word gets out." So what are you doing about it? "Firing anyone we think is vulnerable."
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- inimino 7y ago
  To be fair, they could also be excommunicated, divorced, socially ostracized, and made unemployable everywhere, not just government jobs. So it's not quite as absurd as your presentation makes it seem. Anyone with a secret is potentially vulnerable to blackmail.
refurb 7y ago
That’s a very simplistic yet accurate statement. We should be asking ourselves, are people better off after these laws are passed? Clearly not with marijuana.

marble-drink 7y ago

It is indeed ridiculous. I've personally stopped drinking alcohol at all. There is simply no good reason to imbibe a poison that makes me sleep worse and feel worse the next day. I've stopped using other drugs too, but there are several that I would use over alcohol. But alcohol is a huge industry. There just isn't any money in other poisons.

dTal 7y ago

>I don't know how many lives marijuana ruins, except maybe out of laziness or lack of motivation. Depending on your definition of 'ruin'- a lot. As a counterpoint - alcohol consumption is in most cases self-limiting, for the reasons you describe. Your body tells you in fairly clear terms that you're imbibing poison. Most people learn not to over-indulge, particularly as their tolerance drops off towards the end of their 20s. Marijuana, however, is more subtle. You won't have a raging headache the next day - but you will be slower, less motivated, and less socially skilled. These negative effects are not painful, and depending on how demanding your daily activities are, possibly imperceptible. If you're an intelligent person stuck in a boring situation, it might even make your experience more tolerable. And, because weed makes you lazy and weed is a lazy solution to boredom, it traps people in a vicious cycle. They're not lying in the gutter, blacking out or vomiting, so they think they're doing fine; but their life devolves into doing a boring job to pay the bills, and smoking weed to make themselves stupid to relieve the boredom. They never hit "rock bottom" in the alcoholic sense, so they circle the drain for the rest of their lives. It's not "cool" these days to say the marijuana is a dangerous drug that ruins lives - ridiculous over-the-top propaganda saw to that. But it is, and our "cultural antibodies" need to catch up to the new reality of legal weed. I've definitely known a few people for whom alcohol became a visible, functional problem - but I've known at least dozens of people who could have achieved so much more if only they'd managed to tear themselves away from weed's anesthesia. None of this is to say that banning is the answer to anything. But the right of legal weed comes with the responsibility of owning up to its problems.

vonseel 7y ago
Your response explains why I made that point. I’m aware of it and agree. Maybe I should try marijuana. I’m lazy, unmotivated, and fatigued - but otherwise generally happy - without any of the fun parts.