4 ms·

Having never done weed, if I smoke one will I preform worse at cognitive tasks than I would if I had a beer? I know, comparing uppers and downers, not the same

Having never done weed, if I smoke one will I preform worse at cognitive tasks than I would if I had a beer? I know, comparing uppers and downers, not the same effects, etc.

semanticjudo 5y ago
Depends on a few factors like what task, innate ability, etc. Which is not a non-answer - it is THE answer: in my experience, some things are easier on one than the other and vice versa. FWIW, here's my definition of a "hard" drug: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028924
colinmhayes 5y ago
They're not really comparable. It mostly comes down to dosage, if you have a beer I don't think you'll be much worse than if you were sober.
mdpye 5y ago
It's difficult to say what an equivalent dose might be and this is just my experience, but... Definitely cognitive tasks would be considered more impaired by weed than beer, at "roughly equivalent to a pint" level. Likely neither would be a big deal. Weed is neither upper, nor downer really, it an hallucinogen. That means less ordered thinking. Quite possibly an increase in creativity and lateral concept matching (say, making or appreciating witty comments) but also an impairment to short term memory and direct logical reasoning. For motor skills and reaction times, beer definitely hits harder.
- mdpye 5y ago
  Oh, and on dosage, I'm from the UK. In my experience in the US a single joint is rolled to a potency I'd consider equivalent to "a mug full of whisky", not a pint of beer!
edgyquant 5y ago
In my experience I can code on alcohol (unless I get completely shit faced.) Weed makes me more creative and I want to code more, but I also make a lot of mistakes that I wouldn’t normally. This is why I quit cannabis, in math classes I would mess up simple things like forgetting to multiply by -1

4 ms·

Having never done weed, if I smoke one will I preform worse at cognitive tasks than I would if I had a beer? I know, comparing uppers and downers, not the same

by tomjen3 5y ago

Having never done weed, if I smoke one will I preform worse at cognitive tasks than I would if I had a beer? I know, comparing uppers and downers, not the same effects, etc.

semanticjudo 5y ago
Depends on a few factors like what task, innate ability, etc. Which is not a non-answer - it is THE answer: in my experience, some things are easier on one than the other and vice versa. FWIW, here's my definition of a "hard" drug: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028924
colinmhayes 5y ago
They're not really comparable. It mostly comes down to dosage, if you have a beer I don't think you'll be much worse than if you were sober.
mdpye 5y ago
It's difficult to say what an equivalent dose might be and this is just my experience, but... Definitely cognitive tasks would be considered more impaired by weed than beer, at "roughly equivalent to a pint" level. Likely neither would be a big deal. Weed is neither upper, nor downer really, it an hallucinogen. That means less ordered thinking. Quite possibly an increase in creativity and lateral concept matching (say, making or appreciating witty comments) but also an impairment to short term memory and direct logical reasoning. For motor skills and reaction times, beer definitely hits harder.
- mdpye 5y ago
  Oh, and on dosage, I'm from the UK. In my experience in the US a single joint is rolled to a potency I'd consider equivalent to "a mug full of whisky", not a pint of beer!
edgyquant 5y ago
In my experience I can code on alcohol (unless I get completely shit faced.) Weed makes me more creative and I want to code more, but I also make a lot of mistakes that I wouldn’t normally. This is why I quit cannabis, in math classes I would mess up simple things like forgetting to multiply by -1