3 ms·

I've been noticing when I was growing up weed was in fact the cure to all problems people had depression, anxiety, anger issues? "Smoke a joint man it makes eve

I've been noticing when I was growing up weed was in fact the cure to all problems people had depression, anxiety, anger issues? "Smoke a joint man it makes everything okay." People were out there claiming weed cured cancer, that the whole reason weed wasn't legal is because the evil pharmaceutical industrial complex didn't want people to do it because it would cure all their problems, that weed had absolutely no bad side effects and if everyone was just puffing all day all their problems would go away, etc. etc. Well weed became legal in most places and research started being done and it turns out weed didn't cure everyone's problems, weed does have side-effects and risks with using it, especially if you smoke or vape it, and it isn't the magical silver bullet to all mental health issues. I feel like I am seeing the same cycle happen again with psychedelics, especially shrooms and LSD.

closetnerd 3y ago
True... Though I think there is more to LSD. It's fair to be skeptical. If the pitch is it's going to fix everything for everyone, or the likes, then it's definitely a lie.
orthecreedence 3y ago
A lot of this, I've observed in myself at least, was caused by heavy-handed anti-drug propaganda I experienced as a kid. "Weed is addictive." "Weed kills all your motivation." "Weed leads to other much worse drugs." Etc etc. Once you take that first hit and realize none of that trash is true, or is true only in the worst cases, you start to really question everything you were told...not just about weed, but other substances as well. Meanwhile, so many of the people telling you how terrible drugs are drink themselves into a stupor every night. If you want one of the most damaging, addictive substances on the planet, one of the few drugs where withdrawl will kill you, look no further than alcohol. But that one is ok! Point being, the pendulum always swings. If weed is always terrible and always going to kill you, then when the pendulum swings, it's going to cure cancer and bring back your dead pet bunny. The truth is somewhere in the middle: it can lead to transformative experiences, but mostly just makes you slow, hungry, and often paranoid. LSD and psilocybin and the like will probably end up being the same. Microdosing works fine for some people, not so much for others. Psychadelic therapy will be great for some and really screw up others. You can have people who get bad reactions to psychadelics, and you can have terrible therapists, and you can have both at the same time. I definitely feel the need to allow this space to be explored, but with cautions in place, mainly via public education. These substances can open doors to different parts of our psyches and can open our eyes to patterns in the universe we hadn't seen before, and that should be celebrated. But they can also uncover horrors we were not meant to experience, and tear apart our sense of reality in ways that leave us much more damaged than we ever were before. Start small and start slow, and if it gets too much, stop.
krisoft 3y ago
> I feel like I am seeing the same cycle happen again with psychedelics, especially shrooms and LSD. As in we see that while research is prohibited people have all kind of wild ideas but once we let researchers research they uncover the truth about them? Honestly does not sound half bad.
refurb 3y ago
> I feel like I am seeing the same cycle happen again with psychedelics, especially shrooms and LSD. It's a repeat of the '60s all over again. Back then there was the same "miracle drug" attitude, a ton of overuse, then a bunch of negative reports, and the pendulum swung to "we need to heavily restrict these drugs". I'm waiting for that part to repeat.

closetnerd 3y ago

True... Though I think there is more to LSD. It's fair to be skeptical. If the pitch is it's going to fix everything for everyone, or the likes, then it's definitely a lie.

orthecreedence 3y ago

A lot of this, I've observed in myself at least, was caused by heavy-handed anti-drug propaganda I experienced as a kid. "Weed is addictive." "Weed kills all your motivation." "Weed leads to other much worse drugs." Etc etc. Once you take that first hit and realize none of that trash is true, or is true only in the worst cases, you start to really question everything you were told...not just about weed, but other substances as well. Meanwhile, so many of the people telling you how terrible drugs are drink themselves into a stupor every night. If you want one of the most damaging, addictive substances on the planet, one of the few drugs where withdrawl will kill you, look no further than alcohol. But that one is ok! Point being, the pendulum always swings. If weed is always terrible and always going to kill you, then when the pendulum swings, it's going to cure cancer and bring back your dead pet bunny. The truth is somewhere in the middle: it can lead to transformative experiences, but mostly just makes you slow, hungry, and often paranoid. LSD and psilocybin and the like will probably end up being the same. Microdosing works fine for some people, not so much for others. Psychadelic therapy will be great for some and really screw up others. You can have people who get bad reactions to psychadelics, and you can have terrible therapists, and you can have both at the same time. I definitely feel the need to allow this space to be explored, but with cautions in place, mainly via public education. These substances can open doors to different parts of our psyches and can open our eyes to patterns in the universe we hadn't seen before, and that should be celebrated. But they can also uncover horrors we were not meant to experience, and tear apart our sense of reality in ways that leave us much more damaged than we ever were before. Start small and start slow, and if it gets too much, stop.

krisoft 3y ago

> I feel like I am seeing the same cycle happen again with psychedelics, especially shrooms and LSD. As in we see that while research is prohibited people have all kind of wild ideas but once we let researchers research they uncover the truth about them? Honestly does not sound half bad.

refurb 3y ago

> I feel like I am seeing the same cycle happen again with psychedelics, especially shrooms and LSD. It's a repeat of the '60s all over again. Back then there was the same "miracle drug" attitude, a ton of overuse, then a bunch of negative reports, and the pendulum swung to "we need to heavily restrict these drugs". I'm waiting for that part to repeat.