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What's most interesting about this article IMHO is that these results were found with "long-term cannabis users" defined as those who use "typically 1-4 times w

by AlanYx 4y ago

What's most interesting about this article IMHO is that these results were found with "long-term cannabis users" defined as those who use "typically 1-4 times weekly". That seems like relatively casual use.

varispeed 4y ago
Author obviously has a conflict of interest. He fails to acknowledge that correlation is not causation and that these studies fail to take into account other variables that could influence the outcomes.
- austin-cheney 4y ago
  I read the article and did not see anything that would qualify as a conflict. Correlation is not causation only on its face, which is why researchers compare their findings against control groups.
  - varispeed 4y ago
    > a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction medicine. And typically their are missing confounding variables.
- SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
  I don’t think you’re using conflict of interest correctly. You’re saying here the author has secondary motives, such as being sponsored by an anti-weed org or something, which they would have to disclose in their own section (as per basic academic standards). You might want to instead if you want to criticize the research say the authors clearly have a personal agenda or bias.
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    This is par for the course. When anyone suggests that weed may not be beneficial to your health people who consume it tend to get very defensive.
  - varispeed 4y ago
    It is common for people working with addiction to demonise drugs, so that they can have stream of scared patients lined up.
    - starkd 4y ago
      I don't think they have any shortage of patients in rehab. There is already a steady stream of them. Rehab counselors are often former addicts just trying to help others live through what they did. It is not exactly a way to get rich.
- f6v 4y ago
  > correlation is not causation True. But then there’s something that makes you stupid and makes you use cannabis at the same time. This is as bad as just cannabis making you stupid.
  - varispeed 4y ago
    It's the same situation as observing that people who take pain killers have headache, therefore pain killers are causing headaches. This is the level where OP's article is at. It's baffling that people upvote that drivel.
mckirk 4y ago
That highly depends on your frame of reference, I suppose. In most of Germany that would be considered fairly 'heavy' use already, whereas most of the West Coast would probably consider that to be rookie numbers.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  I had roommates at UCSC where 1-4 times a day was a minimum. Dude eventually quit cold turkey for a 6+ months. Also quit booze, coffee, and tobacco, dropped out of Uni and hung out at an uncle's cabin in the mountains, real Walden Pond sorta stuff. Did him a world of good, but then he got a job w/ a FAANG and went back to the "smoke two joints" routine again.
legitster 4y ago
It's pretty shocking how many people I know who are essentially high 24/7.
scythe 4y ago
If you look at the description of the cohorts you'll find that most of the people classified as long-term cannabis users were using cannabis quite a bit more frequently than that (median ~300 days per year). It just happens that the analysis here split people into boolean subgroups rather than trying to quantify a dose-response effect (as the primary outcome; dose-response effects are claimed but not emphasized). I would be most interested in seeing a correlation with sleep disturbances. Some cannabis users claim that they smoke weed to help with sleep disturbances; critics argue to the contrary that persistent cannabis use may cause sleep disturbances. Chronic sleep disturbances are known to correlate with a variety of negative outcomes, and the use of sleep-inducing drugs is known to correlate with a variety of problems as well (including the great boogeyman, all-cause mortality). From my own perspective, I stopped smoking weed last year, but I don't think the overall change has been very noticeable. The use of means can distort perceptions when distributions are not symmetric. Notably, my sleep habits aren't great right now, though I'm working on it.

by AlanYx 4y ago

varispeed 4y ago

Author obviously has a conflict of interest. He fails to acknowledge that correlation is not causation and that these studies fail to take into account other variables that could influence the outcomes.

austin-cheney 4y ago
I read the article and did not see anything that would qualify as a conflict. Correlation is not causation only on its face, which is why researchers compare their findings against control groups.
- varispeed 4y ago
  > a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction medicine. And typically their are missing confounding variables.
SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
I don’t think you’re using conflict of interest correctly. You’re saying here the author has secondary motives, such as being sponsored by an anti-weed org or something, which they would have to disclose in their own section (as per basic academic standards). You might want to instead if you want to criticize the research say the authors clearly have a personal agenda or bias.
- edgyquant 4y ago
  This is par for the course. When anyone suggests that weed may not be beneficial to your health people who consume it tend to get very defensive.
- varispeed 4y ago
  It is common for people working with addiction to demonise drugs, so that they can have stream of scared patients lined up.
  - starkd 4y ago
    I don't think they have any shortage of patients in rehab. There is already a steady stream of them. Rehab counselors are often former addicts just trying to help others live through what they did. It is not exactly a way to get rich.
f6v 4y ago
> correlation is not causation True. But then there’s something that makes you stupid and makes you use cannabis at the same time. This is as bad as just cannabis making you stupid.
- varispeed 4y ago
  It's the same situation as observing that people who take pain killers have headache, therefore pain killers are causing headaches. This is the level where OP's article is at. It's baffling that people upvote that drivel.

mckirk 4y ago

That highly depends on your frame of reference, I suppose. In most of Germany that would be considered fairly 'heavy' use already, whereas most of the West Coast would probably consider that to be rookie numbers.

red-iron-pine 4y ago
I had roommates at UCSC where 1-4 times a day was a minimum. Dude eventually quit cold turkey for a 6+ months. Also quit booze, coffee, and tobacco, dropped out of Uni and hung out at an uncle's cabin in the mountains, real Walden Pond sorta stuff. Did him a world of good, but then he got a job w/ a FAANG and went back to the "smoke two joints" routine again.

legitster 4y ago

It's pretty shocking how many people I know who are essentially high 24/7.

scythe 4y ago

If you look at the description of the cohorts you'll find that most of the people classified as long-term cannabis users were using cannabis quite a bit more frequently than that (median ~300 days per year). It just happens that the analysis here split people into boolean subgroups rather than trying to quantify a dose-response effect (as the primary outcome; dose-response effects are claimed but not emphasized). I would be most interested in seeing a correlation with sleep disturbances. Some cannabis users claim that they smoke weed to help with sleep disturbances; critics argue to the contrary that persistent cannabis use may cause sleep disturbances. Chronic sleep disturbances are known to correlate with a variety of negative outcomes, and the use of sleep-inducing drugs is known to correlate with a variety of problems as well (including the great boogeyman, all-cause mortality). From my own perspective, I stopped smoking weed last year, but I don't think the overall change has been very noticeable. The use of means can distort perceptions when distributions are not symmetric. Notably, my sleep habits aren't great right now, though I'm working on it.