4 ms·

There was a story some time ago about a high-profile politician in my country. She had shared a link to a parody newspaper article about teenagers at a party wh

There was a story some time ago about a high-profile politician in my country. She had shared a link to a parody newspaper article about teenagers at a party who died from "marijuana overdose". From her comment it was obvious that she didn't understand that the article was a fake, didn't understand that nobody ever died from a marijuana overdose.

emteycz 6y ago
Contrary to poular belief, you can get "marijuana" (cannabidiol) overdose, albeit it's rare. It manifests with vomiting, abdomen cramps and feeling of serious sickness, which could be fatal (other drugs that can cause a fatal overdose often are not fatal by itself but by the secondary effect of suffocating with vomit or other). I'm speaking from experience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482175/
- boogies 6y ago
  (Not that you can’t die from a Dihydrogen Monoxide overdose as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication.)
  - boogies 6y ago
    (Not that I'm for recreational drug legalization, I may get downvoted to death¹ but I don’t actually think Prohibition was necessarily a bad idea, perhaps just badly implemented — it should have been phased in over decades like the Founding Fathers had hoped to do with slavery, and a local issue.) ¹Edit: interesting, about ten minutes after my higher post and 4 after this, this still has 1 point but its parent lost ⅓ of its peak 6.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > it should have been phased in over decades like the Founding Fathers had hoped to do with slavery The founding fathers were a mix of people who thought slavery today, tomorrow, and forever was the plan, people that wanted it gone ASAP, and everything in between. The compromise they came up with was to lock on it for a few decades absolutely plus give enormous power advantages to the people that economically depended on it to protect it going forward; there might have been some who hoped, or at least expected, it would be phased out over time after the lock in period, but for the most part even they would have been hoping future generations might overcome the barriers they set up that made they difficult, it's not like they built any foundation for it.
- colonwqbang 6y ago
  I did not know that! Is it new research? I have read previously in many places (including NIH's webpage) that a link between marijuana OD and death is not (yet?) clearly established. Example: > Overall, the committee identified no study in which cannabis was determined to be the direct cause of overdose death. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425742/#_NBK425742_pubdet_ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425742/#_NBK425742_pub... This is a few years older than what you linked, so maybe my knowledge is outdated. But I'm not sure "popular belief" is the right description.
- subsubzero 6y ago
  I don't know about the rare part. I have a very close friend who works as a emergency room doctor and she said that she is really tired of all the cases where people can't handle marijuana, its all the same symptoms, extreme sickness, vomiting, belligerent behavior etc. I asked her what caused it (overdose?) and she said its a few things, a part of the population has a hard time dealing with large amounts of the compounds in marijuana, also she said that THC content in alot of strains being sold today is really high. So some overdose, some genetic/biology involved. Strange thing is the media/news does not report on this at all. And she said its an almost multi-daily occurrence(lives near a medium sized metro area).

emteycz 6y ago

Contrary to poular belief, you can get "marijuana" (cannabidiol) overdose, albeit it's rare. It manifests with vomiting, abdomen cramps and feeling of serious sickness, which could be fatal (other drugs that can cause a fatal overdose often are not fatal by itself but by the secondary effect of suffocating with vomit or other). I'm speaking from experience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482175/

boogies 6y ago
(Not that you can’t die from a Dihydrogen Monoxide overdose as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication.)
- boogies 6y ago
  (Not that I'm for recreational drug legalization, I may get downvoted to death¹ but I don’t actually think Prohibition was necessarily a bad idea, perhaps just badly implemented — it should have been phased in over decades like the Founding Fathers had hoped to do with slavery, and a local issue.) ¹Edit: interesting, about ten minutes after my higher post and 4 after this, this still has 1 point but its parent lost ⅓ of its peak 6.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > it should have been phased in over decades like the Founding Fathers had hoped to do with slavery The founding fathers were a mix of people who thought slavery today, tomorrow, and forever was the plan, people that wanted it gone ASAP, and everything in between. The compromise they came up with was to lock on it for a few decades absolutely plus give enormous power advantages to the people that economically depended on it to protect it going forward; there might have been some who hoped, or at least expected, it would be phased out over time after the lock in period, but for the most part even they would have been hoping future generations might overcome the barriers they set up that made they difficult, it's not like they built any foundation for it.
colonwqbang 6y ago
I did not know that! Is it new research? I have read previously in many places (including NIH's webpage) that a link between marijuana OD and death is not (yet?) clearly established. Example: > Overall, the committee identified no study in which cannabis was determined to be the direct cause of overdose death. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425742/#_NBK425742_pubdet_ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425742/#_NBK425742_pub... This is a few years older than what you linked, so maybe my knowledge is outdated. But I'm not sure "popular belief" is the right description.
subsubzero 6y ago
I don't know about the rare part. I have a very close friend who works as a emergency room doctor and she said that she is really tired of all the cases where people can't handle marijuana, its all the same symptoms, extreme sickness, vomiting, belligerent behavior etc. I asked her what caused it (overdose?) and she said its a few things, a part of the population has a hard time dealing with large amounts of the compounds in marijuana, also she said that THC content in alot of strains being sold today is really high. So some overdose, some genetic/biology involved. Strange thing is the media/news does not report on this at all. And she said its an almost multi-daily occurrence(lives near a medium sized metro area).