4 ms·

I think you have it upside-down. It's tobacco and alcohol that have special treatment, not pot. My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco

by phh 5y ago

I think you have it upside-down. It's tobacco and alcohol that have special treatment, not pot. My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco and alcohol were global when we started taking care about global health issues, so we left them, but banned any newcomer

eurasiantiger 5y ago
There are plenty of psychoactive substances on the shelves of any major supermarket and most of the stuff is completely unregulated. How is coffee different from tobacco? How is nutmeg or saffron different from drugs? How about artificial flavonoid—xanthine concoctions such as Red Bull?
- Cederfjard 5y ago
  > How is coffee different from tobacco? The difference in effect on health is severe, for one? There’s room for more nuance than ”both of these are psychoactive substances”.
  - eurasiantiger 5y ago
    Sure. But how about the fact that tobacco and coffee actually share the same psychoactive substances, i.e. Harmala alkaloids?
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      Do they or don't they have the same harmful effect on health? It's a new one on me that coffee contains nicotine, the principal addictive agent in tobacco.
      - eurasiantiger 5y ago
        They do have the same effects on the central nervous system as far as Harmala alkaloids are concerned, including deleterious effects. Some of the aforementioned alkaloids are neurotoxic, are deposited in brain fatty tissues, and can proceed the development of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The public is largely noninformed about the constituents of coffee and tobacco smoke. Only nicotine and caffeine are ever mentioned, and even scientific articles routinely confuse the effects of pure nicotine and tobacco smoke, and those of pure caffeine and coffee. It is a collective illusion. I never claimed that coffee contains nicotine: rather, what coffee and tobacco have in common are these Harmala alkaloids, the most abundant of which act as so-called monoamine oxidase inhibitors in humans. However, some rather unexpected things do contain nicotine: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and green peppers.
- fy20 5y ago
  > How about artificial flavonoid—xanthine concoctions such as Red Bull? In my country, 'energy drinks' cannot be sold to anyone under 20 (same as alcohol and tobacco) for exactly this reason.
ElFitz 5y ago
> My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco and alcohol were global when we started taking care about global health issues, so we left them, but banned any newcomer That narrative just doesn’t hold up. Opium, heroin and cocaine were pretty much global when we started taking care about global health issues. Not consumed by everyone all around the world, for sure, but readily available and consumed nearly everywhere. Heck, heroin was considered a magical cough syrup safer than morphine at one point. It took nearly 30 years for it to be banned in the US [1][2] Compared to tobacco and alcohol, it certainly is a young one, but cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms hardly qualify as newcomers. [1]: https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/from-cough-medicine-to-deadly-addiction-a-century/ https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/from-c... [2]: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1953-01-01_2_page004.html https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bu...

by phh 5y ago

eurasiantiger 5y ago

There are plenty of psychoactive substances on the shelves of any major supermarket and most of the stuff is completely unregulated. How is coffee different from tobacco? How is nutmeg or saffron different from drugs? How about artificial flavonoid—xanthine concoctions such as Red Bull?

Cederfjard 5y ago
> How is coffee different from tobacco? The difference in effect on health is severe, for one? There’s room for more nuance than ”both of these are psychoactive substances”.
- eurasiantiger 5y ago
  Sure. But how about the fact that tobacco and coffee actually share the same psychoactive substances, i.e. Harmala alkaloids?
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    Do they or don't they have the same harmful effect on health? It's a new one on me that coffee contains nicotine, the principal addictive agent in tobacco.
    - eurasiantiger 5y ago
      They do have the same effects on the central nervous system as far as Harmala alkaloids are concerned, including deleterious effects. Some of the aforementioned alkaloids are neurotoxic, are deposited in brain fatty tissues, and can proceed the development of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The public is largely noninformed about the constituents of coffee and tobacco smoke. Only nicotine and caffeine are ever mentioned, and even scientific articles routinely confuse the effects of pure nicotine and tobacco smoke, and those of pure caffeine and coffee. It is a collective illusion. I never claimed that coffee contains nicotine: rather, what coffee and tobacco have in common are these Harmala alkaloids, the most abundant of which act as so-called monoamine oxidase inhibitors in humans. However, some rather unexpected things do contain nicotine: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and green peppers.
fy20 5y ago
> How about artificial flavonoid—xanthine concoctions such as Red Bull? In my country, 'energy drinks' cannot be sold to anyone under 20 (same as alcohol and tobacco) for exactly this reason.

ElFitz 5y ago

> My main guess for that special treatment is merely that tobacco and alcohol were global when we started taking care about global health issues, so we left them, but banned any newcomer That narrative just doesn’t hold up. Opium, heroin and cocaine were pretty much global when we started taking care about global health issues. Not consumed by everyone all around the world, for sure, but readily available and consumed nearly everywhere. Heck, heroin was considered a magical cough syrup safer than morphine at one point. It took nearly 30 years for it to be banned in the US [1][2] Compared to tobacco and alcohol, it certainly is a young one, but cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms hardly qualify as newcomers. [1]: https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/from-cough-medicine-to-deadly-addiction-a-century/ https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/from-c... [2]: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1953-01-01_2_page004.html https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bu...