16 ms·

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends

• warent 5y ago
  That just sounds like people in their 20s in general, even without weed. Marijuana might make it seem worse because stupid ideas sound much more profound when we're high
  • hereforphone 5y ago
    Good point, I had in mind friends / acquaintances from 20s to 50s however.
    • jxramos 5y ago
      yah I think there's something to this in an opportunity cost motivational angle. Basically there's a cost that comes to being in a high state which lowers your thresholds for profundity, satisfaction, deliciousness/appetite/taste. Basically with the thresholds all lowered one becomes satisfied with things that are objectively lesser quality, less demanding of effort and work. One would be equally satisfied eating junk food as they normally would having eaten some gourmet meal. There's no fire under your feet to hustle or put in the time to need to learn how to cook some truly delicious meal let's say or develop skills that bring longer term satisfaction that takes a while before payoff. Motivation never needs to take off because the cheapest junk already meets ones pleasure and satisfaction needs so why bother.
      • crazy_horse 5y ago
        Weed doesn't affect everybody the same. Not everyone is a stoner that gets high and says whoa dude on the couch. I didn't perceive things as more profound rather the little voice of anxiety inside by head went away and for the first time in my life I was free to figure out who I was.
        • random_kris 5y ago
          Hey this little Voice of anxiety I get it to and weed alleviated this.. or so I think. In return it makes me lazy and if I smoke too much it makes it louder and it wants me to stop smoking weed Soo much. But on other hand if I have a steady supply I cannot quit it. So fucked up
  • MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    I agree with this. I hang out at this one bar and this 22 year old I talk to really thinks he "gets it." Incredibly cocky and arrogant a lot of times. He's fun to talk to but when he get's on a major BS kick I gotta tune him out. I'm only 5 years older than him but the contrast in experiences is stark to say the least. It really makes me wonder if I was ever that arrogant too.
    • hattmall 5y ago
      I think it's a thing with liberalism as well though which has a huge overlap with marijuana use. Some people tend to think they know what's better for others without really considering the impacts it may have. Then you add in the existential paranoia brought on by being high all the time and you start espousing unconditional support for ideas that soothe your fears.
      • deleted 5y ago
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      • nate_meurer 5y ago
        I think you might be the kind of person the parent is talking about.
      • chucksta 5y ago
        "Some people tend to think they know what's better for others without really considering the impacts it may have." That's hardly limited to that demo. Also generally chronic users aren't going to get that existential paranoia you get from casual use
      • mnowicki 5y ago
        yeah true. I think it'd be best for others if they stopped being liberals. (\s btw)
        • MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
          Lol thanks for the good chuckle
• dogorman 5y ago
  > consistent arrogance and self-importance. Would you rather have people demoralized and hating themselves? I think we have quite enough of that already. God forbid an unaccomplished waggie enjoys life and likes who they are. Somebody put these uppity proles back in their place!
• xwolfi 5y ago
  I've had my weed phase between 16 and 19 and I dont know. There is a sort of arrogance that comes with ignorance in general that subsides as you learn the vastness of what you'll never know. I suppose the intersection of ignorance, criminality and drug consumption may make you think that because they smoke, they exhibit the other traits, but it could be the contrary. You need a bit of arrogance to think cannabis is on your side and you can dominate it, as I witnessed myself when I started stumbling as a teenager.
  • jefftechentin 5y ago
    > You need a bit of arrogance to think cannabis is on your side and you can dominate it, as I witnessed myself when I started stumbling as a teenager. I have had similar experiences. Without your mind you are not you, a drug which changes the minds substrate (in some ways permanently) is going to be outside the control of the effected mind. Beware the Snoop Dogg pool party.
• stevev 5y ago
  My experience with the substance is similar to yours. I’ve started again occasionally and see that the experience differs depending on the strain. I do get paranoia that wears off; there were times where I’ve experience schizophrenia like symptoms; where reality seems off or my perception of it changes temporarily until it wears off. Hopefully I don’t have early onset of the disorder. Regarding your friends, is it possible that the behavior you are seeing is when they are under the influence and not during sober?
• Ccecil 5y ago
  It is entirely possible that this is a misunderstanding of their true feelings or intents. To quote Kat Williams "Weed has a chemical in it called F*k it..." Maybe when they use they are not having the same anxious feeling that the general public feels and they do not react to others who otherwise might be perceived as "more important" than them. This would appear to the person who typically views themselves as "more important" as arrogance or self importance...when in reality they are just mildly happy and don't care at that moment about the typical societal norms and ranking. More than likely they are just going about their own business and not paying attention to how you are reacting to it. Every life has value...every person is equal.
  • babyblueblanket 5y ago
    I have a co-worker who I would described as mildly happy at all times and doesn't care about societal norms/ranking, but I never interpreted them to consider themselves superior to me. This doesn't jive with my understanding of mildly happy people.
    • mikem170 5y ago
      That makes sense. But it also makes sense that someone else might look at that same person you know and think to themselves "look at them, doing their own thing, they must think they are special, how arrogant!" Guessing what's going on in someone elses head can be pretty subjective. Sometimes it's the person looking who jumps to conclusions.
  • bobthechef 5y ago
    > Every life has value...every person is equal. What was the point of that remark? Persons may be said to be of equal dignity, but no two people are ever equal, in value or otherwise. But what does that have to do with anything in this context? Are you reading things in? The OP was not making any point about rank, only haughty behavior which has no place no matter who you are.
    • Ccecil 5y ago
• colechristensen 5y ago
  There is the persistent question: does this attract people who are a certain way or does it transform some people into being that way. But let's be clear, schizophrenia is not a personality trait.
• topkai22 5y ago
  Yes, I've noticed something simila, although way I phrase it is I noticed among high marijauna users from teens to twenties was what is a sense of delayed maturity. This overlaps with the attributes you described but it also felt like they weren't able to accept the increasing responsibility to themselves and others that comes with growth out of adolesence. I accept this is just one lived experience and there are other possible confounding factors, but I've definiutely noticed it.
• deleted 5y ago
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• bilekas 5y ago
  You've hit the nail on the head with my experience. I have noticed this with a brother who smoke daily.. I never really put it down to the marijuana use entirely, but more of an aversion to any kind of confrontation/disagreement that might make him second guess himself etc. Personally I can't smoke it anymore, I get super anxious now and nervous. I don't enjoy it, but I can see why some people who enjoy it would rather avoid any kind of mental doubt/disagreements.
  • GordonS 5y ago
    > Personally I can't smoke it anymore, I get super anxious now and nervous I've heard so many people say the same thing, that they used to enjoy using cannabis, then some years later they find it induces anxiety, jitters and nervousness - I wonder what the mechanism behind this anxiety is? Is it as simple as "modern" cannabis strains having much THC than older ones, or is it something else, possibly age-related, like thyroid hormones?
    • codr7 5y ago
      Like Shrooms, Cannabis will sooner or later confront you with aspects of yourself that you're not entirely comfortable with. There was always strong weed, and hashish; it just means you either consume less or fall asleep. Hormones are possible, I guess.
      • GordonS 5y ago
        Was there always strong weed though? Modern strains go up to 20% THC and 0% CBD. At least when I were lad (in UK), we only got brick weed (which I remember was a good bit less strong than hash), but it was almost exclusively Moroccan hash we got, and even though that is a "concentrate", THC levels have traditionally[0] been lower, and CBD levels significantly higher, than much of today's modern cannabis flower. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303871898_The_main_cannabinoids_content_in_hashish_samples_seized_in_Israel_and_Czech_Republic https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303871898_The_main_...
      • heavenlyblue 5y ago
• eloisius 5y ago
  Same observation. I also smoked weed in my teens and early twenties and I remember it making some of the most banal horse shit ideas seem profound, or like I really understand how the universe clicked together. I bet hanging out with a bunch of stoners steeping in my own bullshit for another decade would make me a(n even more) pompous ass too.
  • alabamacadabra 5y ago
    The effect is such that you are activating neurons which are engaged in the learning process. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11064-005-6978-1 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11064-005-6978-1 Because of this, to the untrained mind (most humans are not given manuals to how their mind works) these firings related to any event cause the event to have the perception of presenting deep information which one can learn from. This state allows one to perceive the banal as sublime, or in simpler terms, dumb shit seems cooler, and you can enjoy dumb things more, as you are turning on a relational learning part of your mind and also engaging in a consumption ritual to do so. Genuinely this article and the reactions are giving me some confusion in regards to how other people perceive the world.
  • stevev 5y ago
    I doubt this even happened lol.
    • jwilber 5y ago
      “I doubt that even happened lol.” Says man who, earlier in the same thread on weed-induced arrogance, writes, “my experience is the opposite.“
  • brendanclune 5y ago
    Realistically it was my teens and early twenties that made banal horse shit ideas profound. There's something to be said for age.
• deleted 5y ago
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• alanbernstein 5y ago
  My experience is the exact opposite: 1) I would not suggest that marijuana use correlates with any particular behavior very much. 2) The only thing I have noticed in common among some heavy users was stereotypical stoner behavior, primarily forgetfulness and absent-mindedness. They are usually aware of this, which means it does not present as anything remotely like arrogance.
  • stevev 5y ago
    My experience and opinion are similar to yours. A typical stoner isn’t really there, and when they are there, it’s more of a questioning or socializing activity. Alcoholic behaviors are what I would describe as arrogance and extreme impairment.
    • crazy_horse 5y ago
      It's very possible that those are the stoners that stick out. There are a lot of stoners out there that are there and you don't realize are high.
• bobthechef 5y ago
  Ask yourself why people smoke weed in the first place. It isn't because they're temperate and psychically/spiritually/morally in order. Weed stupefies and dulls a person to certain unwanted feelings, like guilt or anxiety. That isn't any more medicinal than alcoholism. In line with that, if what you write is true, it would be consistent with the idea that they have vices which cause them suffering which they then proceed to numb instead of dealing with the vices. So if they suffer from envy and pride, this will make them miserable people, so they smoke to numb the suffering. It's basically a way of coping with the consequences of denial about those vices: an intentional disintegration of the intellect to prevent conscious realization of one's vices because they can bear down on one's conscience. The only true way out is moral reform, but if you don't want to repent and face the consequences of repentance, if you are a slave to your pride and to your passions, then you will look for something else to kill the guilt and the pain.
  • QuercusMax 5y ago
    Wow, this is really ignorant. Have you ever tried cannabis? My guess is no.
  • crazy_horse 5y ago
    It may help if you asked yourself why you feel qualified to judge a bunch of people's minds.
  • burnished 5y ago
    Where ever did you get your ideas from? A D.A.R.E advertisement? Are you conflating marijuana and opioids? Seriously. You sound like my grand parents, who ascribe frankly magical effects to marijuana. Do you also believe that people regularly get high and believe they can fly?
  • shoemakersteve 5y ago
    This sounds like it's coming from someone who has 0 experience with weed and has been told their whole life that it's bad and only bad people do it for bad reasons. And judging by the "repentance" language, probably a religious aspect too.
• walleeee 5y ago
  > there's a sense of superiority that seems to crop up among them the directionality could be the inverse: e.g. insecurity driving people to social overcompensation as well as cannabis as a reprieve or escape from their anxieties
• stevev 5y ago
  My experience is opposite. My experience with cannabis use using a simple activity. Sober, I can clean my office without much thinking and if I had to repeatedly do it, I’d probably do it the same fashion every time. On cannabis, I’m able to see what I believe to be the more or most efficient way of cleaning my office, garage and rooms. I could probably come up with a few ways or road maps for doing so. I don’t know what it is. Maybe there’s a higher level of dopamine from using cannabis that influenced me to have so much attention and focus on such a menial task. I have been told that I’m usually not there mentally and never arrogant; and my friends are pretty outspoken.
  • dqpb 5y ago
    You should record yourself cleaning in both situations and then compare. Otherwise, you are merely comparing your perception of your self, which obviously is altered in the second case.
    • samatman 5y ago
      Sure, that would be interesting on some level. But I see the objective as cleaning the room, not having a clean room, so a subjective experience of being more engaged and enjoying it more is intrinsically valuable. If it takes a lot longer or the results aren't as good, that changes things, sure, but this can be settled with a timer and a before/after photo. Controlling for degree-of-mess probably adds so much noise that this probably isn't useful in practice.
  • mjbeswick 5y ago
    I imagine that's just perception; as in reality cannabis impairs cognitive functions such as motor control, and problem solving. On the other hand, Amphetamines would definitely help you clean your office more efficiently; but you wouldn't want to stop there!
• nimroddy 5y ago
  > consistent arrogance and self-importance Unfortunately, these words are vague and will only facilitate people projecting their own definitions onto them in order to either support or deny your claim. If there is a CEO making 500% more than some engineer, and some engineer complains about that, then someone may say, "Hey that person is just some engineer, how self-important and arrogant to complain to the CEO like that", but for me it's self-important and arrogant for the CEO to think the pay is proportional, and brave and commendable for the engineer to speak up. I have known many assholes. Some were teetotalers and some used cannabis. Be careful to let your own self-importance and arrogance allow you to think you can or should outright label someone else, or explain another's behavior, especially by pointing at only one facet of their life that you happen to be privvy to.
  • RIMR 5y ago
    Yeah, I'm a daily pot-smoker and many of my friends are too, and we're all generally doing great at our careers and personal lives. I did some reflecting upon reading this comment to ensure that I'm not some sort of narcissistic stoner who doesn't get any feedback, but I really can't see that in myself or any of the people I know who are heavy smokers. I'm worried that OP is just looking down on their pot-smoking peers through the lens of stereotypes with a "that's a lot of confidence for a pothead" attitude instead of recognizing that they're legitimately happy, confident people - traits they likely aren't as critical of when they comes from others.
• lrdswrk00 5y ago
  I take the position that it’s your biochemistry reacting to them. What words you label it as feeling like are subjective. I notice people from all walks of life can feel entitled, and narcissistic. I’m sure some have been stoners.
• pier25 5y ago
  I think what you describe is pretty common in humans, weed or not. What I've seen in weed users (myself included when I was in my 20s) is a tendency towards magical thinking and enjoying/accepting fantasies.
• _jjkk 5y ago
  > they may be contributing very little to society (or maybe a lot), but regardless there's a sense of superiority A sober individual's brain is operating on standard (often societally installed) reward mechanism, including "succeeding" on certain self-evaluated measures like "contributions to society" It's commonly said that weed makes you "OK with being bored". i.e. standard reward mechanisms mentioned above don't really matter much when you're high. It has nothing to do with narcissism or sense of superiority as you call it, just that their reward mechanism doesn't include things like "how much am I contributing to society". Apathy is a better word for it.
  • Barrin92 5y ago
    well apathetic individuals still rely on the society they are in, most of the time anyway. I think this is where the narcissism perception comes in. Most stoners in particular people who smoke a lot and for a long time at least in my experience become apathetic and to a degree dependent on their environment. They rely on others to organize their lives, even get simple chores done, they become sort of lethargic. And when you have an individual like that who also acts indifferently towards it you create (I think a justified) negative perception.
    • _jjkk 5y ago
      Be careful not to over-generalize from personal experience... Maybe you've just met a few examples of lethargic, dependent narcissists who smoke a lot of weed? There is selection bias at play, as someone with an admitted negative perception of stoners you probably haven't put yourself in many situations where you might meet counterexamples. In my experience, I've met many stoners whose driving force is empathy and compassion and not narcissism and apathy. Anyway, keep in mind any substance abuse is often an amplifier of issues that already existed.
      • Barrin92 5y ago
        I did qualify that I'm talking about heavy users but I don't think I'm over-generalizing. Any heavy drug use, or addictive or dependent behavior in general crowds out other things. That's just a fact of substance use. Occasional recreational use is one thing but people who are high every day, they aren't able to be as present as they would be if they were sober, and in changes them in I think usually negative ways. Not even because of the particular drug they're using, but because of the patterns of behavior that come with those levels of consumption.
• 01100011 5y ago
  That's just society these days... Actually I think you have a point and it probably stems from the way in which MJ modifies your dopamine system. In any case, the reason I ultimately gave up smoking it is it makes my overall psychological health worse. I take a more cynical and negative view of things, even if it makes me mellower and temporarily happy. It affects my memory and my motivation, even as it increases my interest in things(so it slightly helps with ADHD, but effective net benefit to my job is zero). It also costs a hell of a lot of money unless you can grow it yourself these days(thanks, legal weed). Smoked for 16 years constantly, quit for 2, resumed a couple times to help with various issues in mid life, but at the end of the day I quit because it's just not in line with my goals for my life. Weed helped me stay in bad life situations and compromised my ability to plan an effective way of changing my circumstances. It works for some people, I get it. My friend is a paraplegic and loves it for pain. I love the benefits to joint pain and general mid-life aches. That pain relief is what led me to never really dealing with my back problems until now though.
• philote 5y ago
  Honestly I've noticed the opposite. The pot smokers I've known (which there have been many) have been some of the coolest people. They've been very friendly and giving, and definitely not arrogant or self-important. Maybe it depends on the area you live in and types of social circles you're in?
• beebeepka 5y ago
  What an elaborate way if saying weed smokers are lazy bums. Have you considered you attract a certain type? The long time smokers I know live remarkably normal lives. Kids, jobs, etc
• oblib 5y ago
  I could certainly be accused of haughtiness when someone made a snide remark about me using marijuana. This is because I got fed up with arrogant people shitting on me when they found out I use it. In my experience it is those who love to flout their sense of superiority by shitting on users who are arrogant. But shit can flow both ways and when I'd point out that they too use "drugs" they'd get very defensive. Back in the 80s my cocaine using friends loved shitting on weed users. "It makes you dumb" was one of their favorite cut downs. My alcohol drinking friends who didn't smoke weed loved to cast the aspersion that weed smokers were "drug users". When I started pointing out that alcohol was a drug too they all very loudly denied it because couldn't stand the idea that they were "drug users" too. And along with and within those two groups are those who do prescription drugs. It was pretty strange to be accused of being a "drug user" by people taking codeine and Xanax and Quaaludes, ect. When I pointed out the serious side effects of alcohol, both personal and to our society at large as compared to weed smokers they started shutting up about that when talking to me. Since Colorado legalized it those kinds of encounters have been far less common, and I've certainly appreciated it. And because of that I'd probably be far less likely to be accused of being arrogant nowadays.
  • SquishyPanda23 5y ago
    > "It makes you dumb" was one of their favorite cut downs. Well, it does measurably decrease IQ. And at least in teens, this reduction seems like it may be permanent.
    • oblib 5y ago
      Yeah, I've heard people say that all my life. Some folks love to believe that. But there's nothing that really backs that up with solid proof. A lot of them whom I've heard say that were coke users, which to me would indicate a lack of intelligence. Here's a couple studies that seem to disprove that myth about weed users but, like all of these studies, they really cannot claim to be conclusive. Still better than most I've seen though: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/marijuana-may-not-lower-your-iq/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/marijuana-may-not... https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/twins-study-finds-no-evidence-marijuana-lowers-iq-teens https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/twins-study-finds-no...
• sodafountan 5y ago
  I'm not a psychologist, but I think narcissism and self-importance simply stem from a small world view. If your main hobby/recreational activity in life is smoking weed (certainly not judging anyone) then you'll likely only associate with people who enjoy the same things, if anyone at all. This leads to a very narrow world-view where you're the center of that world. Going out and meeting people, doing different activities, taking on new jobs and roles, going to school and getting an education all really help to humble people and make people realize that most of us are all very similar in our pursuit of happiness.
• asdff 5y ago
  I think part of that isn't the symptoms of the drug but the culture surrounding it. In most places its illegal or at the very least frowned upon, so being one who does this regularly makes you perceived by some parts of society as some sort of black sheep. People wear the black sheep badge proudly and can be arrogant and in your face about it. Just look at how techies act online. Smoking pot, like knowing stuff about technology, makes you 'in the know' relative to the rest of society, and can make you feel superior that you are taking part in something that most people will never or might outright refuse to experience. Even in parts of the US where its been legal to smoke pot for some time like California, the social stigma of meeting up for drinks at a bar regularly and meeting up to smoke pot regularly are not equivalent. Your employer might even drug test you still.
• self_buddliea 5y ago
  Reading this article made me recall an incident back in art college. A mature student asked if I smoked cannabis, I said I do. There was another mature student in the room with us. Upon hearing my confession she stared at me with a very serious expression, then lunged forward at me and pushed her face into mine. I was so taken aback I nearly fell off my chair. I had never met this woman before, we were never introduced and I haven't seen her since. I would argue this woman was sufficiently arrogant that she thought it was socially acceptable to invade my personal space because I was a stoner. Perhaps I myself was more arrogant when I was younger, in the spirit that user warent mentioned below. On the other hand, I'm not the type to spontaneously invade the space of others.
• krylon 5y ago
  I can only provide a single data point, but I used to smoke a lot of weed for a pretty long time, then stopped about 12 years ago, and one of the changes I noticed was that I became much more able to accept responsibility for my mistakes instead of blaming everything wrong with my life on others. After I stopped smoking, I talked about this a friend who also quit weed around that time, and he said it was the same for him. (Okay, so it's two data points.) Make of that what you want, but there is a correlation. That doesn't mean weed turns people into assholes necessarily, but it can certainly amplify preexisting tendencies in that direction. I'm pretty sure the same goes for various other drugs as well - I never spent time around cocaine or methamphetamine enthusiasts, but I've been told, some people have a tendency to become real assholes on cocaine. And of course there's alcohol, which definitely helps all kinds of unpleasant personality traits to float to the surface.
  • mikem170 5y ago
    Maybe growing older and wiser played a part? I've seen some of my friends transform attitudes like that significantly as the years go by, weed never being involved.
• trutannus 5y ago
  > there's a sense of superiority that seems to crop up among them all As a Canadian where weed is legal, I can say I've not had this experience at all. A lot of folks here use it, at all ages and all personality types. Very unusual for me to meet someone who uses it and for them to strike me as any different than the average Canadian.
• wil421 5y ago
  I noticed the opposite. In my 30s now and most of the people I know who smoke a lot are pretty relaxed and the complete opposite of a narcissist.