4 ms·

Hard to read beyond the subtitle "Both coffee and opium come from plants. Why embrace one and not the other?" with a straight face. LOL. I mean, small differe

Hard to read beyond the subtitle "Both coffee and opium come from plants. Why embrace one and not the other?" with a straight face. LOL. I mean, small difference but I don't think anyone has ever prostituted themselves or sold their mothers jewelry & TV to buy some espresso, but hard to say! I mean we have had billions of dollars of settlements off the opioid epidemic and the resulting thousands of "deaths of despair" right?

amanaplanacanal 5y ago
Coffee is legal and therefore cheap. Opioids are illegal and therefore expensive. Maybe this has something to do with it? Imagine a world where opioids were as cheap as a cup of coffee. Do you envision people stealing and prostituting themselves to buy them?
- someguydave 5y ago
  yes, because addiction will trash people’s lives
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  > Do you envision people stealing and prostituting themselves to buy them? I'm pretty sure you'd suck a strangers dick to end the pains of opioid withdrawal regardless of cost if it was the only immediately available option. I'm pretty sure fentanyl is fairly cheap too fwiw.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  Lamborghinis are expensive too, but you don’t hear about people doing those things to afford them. I wonder if cost isn’t the only factor.
- pstuart 5y ago
  Indeed. Poppies are easy to grow and one could have large fields of them with little effort or expense. I believe that all drugs should be legal but along with the regulation/taxation of same, society needs to have "grown up" conversations about addiction and abuse.
- steveBK123 5y ago
  Do you understand how physical dependence works and how opioids are some of the most addictive substances known to man? Most anyone can go a day, week or month without coffee and not end up sweating or vomiting, nor attempting to rob a Starbucks to get a fix. There are not special drugs, medical treatments, clinics and counseling to help people quit coffee, right? I wonder what the difference in dependence is?
- voisin 5y ago
  Not even imaginary - just read up on opium dens, which operated very similarly to coffee shops.
slibhb 5y ago
I agree with you that the notion is absurd. But the article isn't making that argument and neither (according to the article) is Pollan, it's just reporting that the argument has been made by decriminalization activists. I get the impression Pollan is a reasonable guy. I am skeptical of the idea that drugs (alcohol, caffeine, psychedelics, etc) are at the root of human culture and civilization. Based on what I've read of Pollan, he thinks caffeine is responsible for capitalism, which I find unlikely.
- andreilys 5y ago
  Have you heard of the stoned ape theory? Terence McKenna believed that psilocybin mushrooms were the "evolutionary catalyst" from which language, projective imagination, the arts, religion, philosophy, science, and all of human culture sprang. McKenna's hypothesis concerning the influence of psilocybin mushrooms on human evolution is known as "the 'stoned ape' theory."
s5300 5y ago
People typically don't turn to caffeine as a way to cope with a traumatic life. Plus, a couple hundred years ago, we worked literal countries of slaves to death just to have simple spices. Your arguments aren't very intriguing.

amanaplanacanal 5y ago

Coffee is legal and therefore cheap. Opioids are illegal and therefore expensive. Maybe this has something to do with it? Imagine a world where opioids were as cheap as a cup of coffee. Do you envision people stealing and prostituting themselves to buy them?

someguydave 5y ago
yes, because addiction will trash people’s lives
spywaregorilla 5y ago
> Do you envision people stealing and prostituting themselves to buy them? I'm pretty sure you'd suck a strangers dick to end the pains of opioid withdrawal regardless of cost if it was the only immediately available option. I'm pretty sure fentanyl is fairly cheap too fwiw.
tshaddox 5y ago
Lamborghinis are expensive too, but you don’t hear about people doing those things to afford them. I wonder if cost isn’t the only factor.
pstuart 5y ago
Indeed. Poppies are easy to grow and one could have large fields of them with little effort or expense. I believe that all drugs should be legal but along with the regulation/taxation of same, society needs to have "grown up" conversations about addiction and abuse.
steveBK123 5y ago
Do you understand how physical dependence works and how opioids are some of the most addictive substances known to man? Most anyone can go a day, week or month without coffee and not end up sweating or vomiting, nor attempting to rob a Starbucks to get a fix. There are not special drugs, medical treatments, clinics and counseling to help people quit coffee, right? I wonder what the difference in dependence is?
voisin 5y ago
Not even imaginary - just read up on opium dens, which operated very similarly to coffee shops.

slibhb 5y ago

I agree with you that the notion is absurd. But the article isn't making that argument and neither (according to the article) is Pollan, it's just reporting that the argument has been made by decriminalization activists. I get the impression Pollan is a reasonable guy. I am skeptical of the idea that drugs (alcohol, caffeine, psychedelics, etc) are at the root of human culture and civilization. Based on what I've read of Pollan, he thinks caffeine is responsible for capitalism, which I find unlikely.

andreilys 5y ago
Have you heard of the stoned ape theory? Terence McKenna believed that psilocybin mushrooms were the "evolutionary catalyst" from which language, projective imagination, the arts, religion, philosophy, science, and all of human culture sprang. McKenna's hypothesis concerning the influence of psilocybin mushrooms on human evolution is known as "the 'stoned ape' theory."

s5300 5y ago

People typically don't turn to caffeine as a way to cope with a traumatic life. Plus, a couple hundred years ago, we worked literal countries of slaves to death just to have simple spices. Your arguments aren't very intriguing.