5 ms·

Like many others will likely comment, I'm a huge advocate of the legalization of marijuana. I smoked quite a bit of it in my younger years. I could go as far as

by cwilson 14y ago

Like many others will likely comment, I'm a huge advocate of the legalization of marijuana. I smoked quite a bit of it in my younger years. I could go as far as saying I was a connoisseur. These days I find it cripples productivity and turns me into a zombie. I stay away from it. This leads me to conclude that this article is total shit. I honestly can't name a single engineer, designer, or writer I know who regularly smokes pot. Yet this article ends with the following line: "There is a raging culture of marijuana use among tech workers in Silicon Valley." How this was allowed to be published is beyond me. Edit: A better story would have been "How Silicon Valley is high on innovation. And Adderall."

ubojan 14y ago
that's because you smoked indica instead of sativa.
- TillE 14y ago
  Indeed, cannabis can have a wide range of effects because it's not just one chemical. It's multiple cannabinoids which interact with each other. A classic sativa variety will contain almost nothing except THC, which produces an "up" high on its own. Higher concentrations of CBD and CBN, as commonly found in indica varieties (eg, "kush" in California) and weed that has been harvested too late, cause a more "stoned" effect and sleepiness.
rdl 14y ago
I think I know more silicon valley tech people who smoke marijuana once or more per month than who smoke tobacco, but the primary drugs of use (and abuse) are clearly caffeine and other stimulants, followed by alcohol.
- lcc_tn 14y ago
  You've reminded me of this video talking about coffee now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg Is there really any good reason why I shouldn't be drinking a lot of coffee? It seems I see as many researches claiming I shouldn't drink much coffee as I see researches claiming I should. I'm not sure what to think about coffee at this point.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - fzzzy 14y ago
    Doctors also used to recommend that people smoke cigarettes.
  - wglb 14y ago
    At one period of my life, I drank enormous amounts of coffee. One weekend, I found myself yelling at every member of my family. I decided to totally stop. This was painful with headaches and irritability for about a week. Then, once that was all out of my system, I noticed that my sleep was different. More calm, somehow. The last bit convinced me to continue not drinking coffee. I now do perhaps one cup a week, or less.
- samstave 14y ago
  There was a time, maybe two years ago, when I did a mental survey of about ~75 people who I knew closely in tech and ~90% of them all smoked pot. I worked with a guy, who was literally on his A-game at work (meaning he had absolutely stellar performance, owned his role and pretty much his whole department) and he smoked every single day on the way IN TO the office. He even used to go and smoke at lunch. Even recently, working with a client, we sat in a conf room and the conversation turned to how much the staff of my client smoke pot.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
So because you don't like it and don't know anyone who does... no one does? On the contrary, I know half a dozen and I was only out there for a summer (and I'm returning in a month). And regarding the sibling comment, my caffeine withdrawl is (for me) worse than cannabis withdrawl (ie: nearly non-existent, from smoking daily 2 years -> cold turkey results in a caffeine headache for a few hours on the third day or so and that's about it, minus any sleeping trouble depending on your habits). Plus, really, using in the evenings has zero affect on me at work the next morning other than a weird sense of calmness generally). edit: For anyone curious, and for full disclosure, it can muck with your falling asleep for a few weeks if you are used to using it in the evenings before bed. Camomile tea, melatonin and increasing exercise in the evening can help clear that up much faster and is probably not that bad of an idea for me anyway.
- throwaway25173 14y ago
  As a frequent smoker, I'm very curious about this. I'm a grad student but I've interned at Google Mountain View a couple times. At Google I had a couple intern friends who also smoked but I would absolutely NEVER consider admitting to being a frequent user among coworkers I wasn't outside-of-work friends with, as none of them ever seemed to talk about having drug experiences (other than alcohol/caffeine) so I feared they'd think less of me for it. I'm sure most were likely in favor of marijuana legalization as most of their politics seemed to go that way, but none of them would ever openly admit to using it regularly. (This seems similar to the attitude on HN, hence why I'm on a throwaway account while admitting to be a frequent smoker.) As such, I found myself agreeing with GP, that the article seemed quite off-base. But of course this is definitely all anecdotal evidence - I wouldn't be surprised if there were teams even at Google where people openly admit to smoking weed regularly.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    Yes, I still fear stigma. Having a more carefree friend (roommate in college) that had the same internship as me helped me meet others, though I keep the actual act of consumption to myself. I fear being judged, but I think that will dull with time, especially in places like CA, WA, CO. Long story shorter and more relevant: I've picked up a knack for knowing what "hot topics" I can talk about with certain coworkers or friends (or most of all, family). I certainly err conservatively. As for HN: I've noticed the same trend here. It seems really mixed and it is kind of enjoyable that people still feel comfortable expressing themselves. Reddit has it's dissenters but most people don't say much beyond "I support legalization" even if they disagree with cannabis usage. I've come into more contact with "pot makes you waste your life" types around here, and I'm okay with that. I don't need anyone to judge me, finding happiness in life is an extreme priority for me, so "haters gonna hate" I guess. (But you'll note that my username here on HN is not attached to my real name in anyway as far as I know). But more directly to the point, if it were to come up at work, I wouldn't have a problem with admitting to using or conversing about legalization. Via my internship my team knows that they can rely on me and I think my work stands for itself. And most of all, I'm really hopeful that my employer isn't interested in my personal life beyond my work. Frankly, if anything else, I've noticed a shocking amount of presumption that I must have smoked because I'd been to college...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
argonaut 14y ago
The vast majority of the engineers/designers I meet are young twenty-somethings doing startup, and I've met a significant proportion of pot smokers among them. In fact, in almost any meetup I attend, I will usually meet several people who smell like pot. Several times at house parties I see people coming inside (from outside) and I'll make a joke about what they were doing outside, and almost every time they will tell me they were smoking pot.
dguaraglia 14y ago
That's interesting. I know a bunch of people involved in startups (engineers and otherwise) and I can say that every single one of them I haven't met in a professional environment smokes pot at a level I had never seen before. The amount of expensive smoking paraphernalia I've seen laying around (and being carried around, which I found quite interesting) is phenomenal.
eliasmacpherson 14y ago
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2009/04/have-you-ever-legalized-marijuana.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2009/04/have-you-ever-legaliz... "I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count." Steve Yegge seems to have been a pot smoker. Most in my circle of friends stopped smoking pot before their finals in university. Just about anything other than a good night's sleep and a nice glass of water cripples my productivity and turns me in to a zombie, and this wasn't always the case.
Evenjos 14y ago
In my experience, very few productive people are regular pot smokers.
nonamegiven 14y ago
You may not know many people who regularly smoke pot because you "find it cripples productivity and turns me into a zombie. I stay away from it." You may be seen by users as either hostile, or at least not obviously friendly to their activity, so they self select you out of that information. I think similarly, people who are anti-gay don't seem to know a lot of gay people, despite the fact that N% of the population are gay.
- jwoah12 14y ago
  Excellent explanation of the confirmation bias, and I suspect this is exactly what's at work here.
- bluekeybox 14y ago
  Completely concur with your observation, except your analogy with gay people (something beyond one's power of choice) is somewhat uncalled for.
  - nonamegiven 14y ago
    But in both cases one can choose to let it be known or not. You can choose to share that you smoke or not, and you can choose to share that you're gay or not. It's that choice to share information or not that I'm talking about.
flywheel 14y ago
You don't know how to use Marijuana. You don't need to get completely baked to have positive benefits while working. It's really all about dosage and the way you consume it. I don't smoke it anymore, but I take THC pills that I either make or buy at a dispensary. It is a very clean and useful way to consume Marijuana that doesn't need you to get "baked" and out-of-your-mind stoned.

by cwilson 14y ago

ubojan 14y ago

that's because you smoked indica instead of sativa.

TillE 14y ago
Indeed, cannabis can have a wide range of effects because it's not just one chemical. It's multiple cannabinoids which interact with each other. A classic sativa variety will contain almost nothing except THC, which produces an "up" high on its own. Higher concentrations of CBD and CBN, as commonly found in indica varieties (eg, "kush" in California) and weed that has been harvested too late, cause a more "stoned" effect and sleepiness.

rdl 14y ago

I think I know more silicon valley tech people who smoke marijuana once or more per month than who smoke tobacco, but the primary drugs of use (and abuse) are clearly caffeine and other stimulants, followed by alcohol.

lcc_tn 14y ago
You've reminded me of this video talking about coffee now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg Is there really any good reason why I shouldn't be drinking a lot of coffee? It seems I see as many researches claiming I shouldn't drink much coffee as I see researches claiming I should. I'm not sure what to think about coffee at this point.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- fzzzy 14y ago
  Doctors also used to recommend that people smoke cigarettes.
- wglb 14y ago
  At one period of my life, I drank enormous amounts of coffee. One weekend, I found myself yelling at every member of my family. I decided to totally stop. This was painful with headaches and irritability for about a week. Then, once that was all out of my system, I noticed that my sleep was different. More calm, somehow. The last bit convinced me to continue not drinking coffee. I now do perhaps one cup a week, or less.
samstave 14y ago
There was a time, maybe two years ago, when I did a mental survey of about ~75 people who I knew closely in tech and ~90% of them all smoked pot. I worked with a guy, who was literally on his A-game at work (meaning he had absolutely stellar performance, owned his role and pretty much his whole department) and he smoked every single day on the way IN TO the office. He even used to go and smoke at lunch. Even recently, working with a client, we sat in a conf room and the conversation turned to how much the staff of my client smoke pot.

drivebyacct2 14y ago

So because you don't like it and don't know anyone who does... no one does? On the contrary, I know half a dozen and I was only out there for a summer (and I'm returning in a month). And regarding the sibling comment, my caffeine withdrawl is (for me) worse than cannabis withdrawl (ie: nearly non-existent, from smoking daily 2 years -> cold turkey results in a caffeine headache for a few hours on the third day or so and that's about it, minus any sleeping trouble depending on your habits). Plus, really, using in the evenings has zero affect on me at work the next morning other than a weird sense of calmness generally). edit: For anyone curious, and for full disclosure, it can muck with your falling asleep for a few weeks if you are used to using it in the evenings before bed. Camomile tea, melatonin and increasing exercise in the evening can help clear that up much faster and is probably not that bad of an idea for me anyway.

throwaway25173 14y ago
As a frequent smoker, I'm very curious about this. I'm a grad student but I've interned at Google Mountain View a couple times. At Google I had a couple intern friends who also smoked but I would absolutely NEVER consider admitting to being a frequent user among coworkers I wasn't outside-of-work friends with, as none of them ever seemed to talk about having drug experiences (other than alcohol/caffeine) so I feared they'd think less of me for it. I'm sure most were likely in favor of marijuana legalization as most of their politics seemed to go that way, but none of them would ever openly admit to using it regularly. (This seems similar to the attitude on HN, hence why I'm on a throwaway account while admitting to be a frequent smoker.) As such, I found myself agreeing with GP, that the article seemed quite off-base. But of course this is definitely all anecdotal evidence - I wouldn't be surprised if there were teams even at Google where people openly admit to smoking weed regularly.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Yes, I still fear stigma. Having a more carefree friend (roommate in college) that had the same internship as me helped me meet others, though I keep the actual act of consumption to myself. I fear being judged, but I think that will dull with time, especially in places like CA, WA, CO. Long story shorter and more relevant: I've picked up a knack for knowing what "hot topics" I can talk about with certain coworkers or friends (or most of all, family). I certainly err conservatively. As for HN: I've noticed the same trend here. It seems really mixed and it is kind of enjoyable that people still feel comfortable expressing themselves. Reddit has it's dissenters but most people don't say much beyond "I support legalization" even if they disagree with cannabis usage. I've come into more contact with "pot makes you waste your life" types around here, and I'm okay with that. I don't need anyone to judge me, finding happiness in life is an extreme priority for me, so "haters gonna hate" I guess. (But you'll note that my username here on HN is not attached to my real name in anyway as far as I know). But more directly to the point, if it were to come up at work, I wouldn't have a problem with admitting to using or conversing about legalization. Via my internship my team knows that they can rely on me and I think my work stands for itself. And most of all, I'm really hopeful that my employer isn't interested in my personal life beyond my work. Frankly, if anything else, I've noticed a shocking amount of presumption that I must have smoked because I'd been to college...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

argonaut 14y ago

The vast majority of the engineers/designers I meet are young twenty-somethings doing startup, and I've met a significant proportion of pot smokers among them. In fact, in almost any meetup I attend, I will usually meet several people who smell like pot. Several times at house parties I see people coming inside (from outside) and I'll make a joke about what they were doing outside, and almost every time they will tell me they were smoking pot.

dguaraglia 14y ago

That's interesting. I know a bunch of people involved in startups (engineers and otherwise) and I can say that every single one of them I haven't met in a professional environment smokes pot at a level I had never seen before. The amount of expensive smoking paraphernalia I've seen laying around (and being carried around, which I found quite interesting) is phenomenal.

eliasmacpherson 14y ago

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2009/04/have-you-ever-legalized-marijuana.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2009/04/have-you-ever-legaliz... "I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count." Steve Yegge seems to have been a pot smoker. Most in my circle of friends stopped smoking pot before their finals in university. Just about anything other than a good night's sleep and a nice glass of water cripples my productivity and turns me in to a zombie, and this wasn't always the case.

Evenjos 14y ago

In my experience, very few productive people are regular pot smokers.

nonamegiven 14y ago

You may not know many people who regularly smoke pot because you "find it cripples productivity and turns me into a zombie. I stay away from it." You may be seen by users as either hostile, or at least not obviously friendly to their activity, so they self select you out of that information. I think similarly, people who are anti-gay don't seem to know a lot of gay people, despite the fact that N% of the population are gay.

jwoah12 14y ago
Excellent explanation of the confirmation bias, and I suspect this is exactly what's at work here.
bluekeybox 14y ago
Completely concur with your observation, except your analogy with gay people (something beyond one's power of choice) is somewhat uncalled for.
- nonamegiven 14y ago
  But in both cases one can choose to let it be known or not. You can choose to share that you smoke or not, and you can choose to share that you're gay or not. It's that choice to share information or not that I'm talking about.

flywheel 14y ago

You don't know how to use Marijuana. You don't need to get completely baked to have positive benefits while working. It's really all about dosage and the way you consume it. I don't smoke it anymore, but I take THC pills that I either make or buy at a dispensary. It is a very clean and useful way to consume Marijuana that doesn't need you to get "baked" and out-of-your-mind stoned.