3 ms·

Well, I think that a big part of those "functional" users are like functional alcoholics. They continue for many years to hold a job, but their daily usage caus

by snom380 13y ago

Well, I think that a big part of those "functional" users are like functional alcoholics. They continue for many years to hold a job, but their daily usage causes problems for everyone around them. At least that's the story you'll often hear at family group meetings. Not the usual homeless drug addict story, but people keeping up appearances while hiding some pretty big problems. My brother was a functional meth user for many year before he lost his fiancée (mostly because of the anger outbreaks and lies, we didn't know he was using then), then his license and car, and finally his job. Of course then again there may be far more people that just continue using without ending up in the same situation.

MichaelGG 13y ago
Well, I'm just gonna say arguing anecdotally is pointless. However, functional opiate and amphetamine users are not "hiding a big problem". In many cases, this is enabling them to deal with high-stress situations, or think more clearly. One example is Paul Erdős, a brilliant mathematician that used amphetamines quite a bit and found no reason to not use them. No hiding, no problem, no "keeping up appearances". Don't by into the "addiction is bad" story that DARE and the like sell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
- snom380 13y ago
  While I've had a very liberal view regarding drugs and certainly not bought into any campaign stories, I've also become much more respectful about their potential consequences in the past years from firsthand experience. It would be interesting to see more about how prevalent drug use is. I do think you underestimate the negative consequences they can have. Drugs like meth and cocaine don't just cause the users to think more clearly, it can also cause some big behavioral changes. For instance, it's not far-fetched that the economic crisis has been at least partly been caused by overconfidence from drug use: http://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2013/apr/15/cocaine-bankers-global-financial-crisis http://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2013/apr/15/co...

by snom380 13y ago

MichaelGG 13y ago

Well, I'm just gonna say arguing anecdotally is pointless. However, functional opiate and amphetamine users are not "hiding a big problem". In many cases, this is enabling them to deal with high-stress situations, or think more clearly. One example is Paul Erdős, a brilliant mathematician that used amphetamines quite a bit and found no reason to not use them. No hiding, no problem, no "keeping up appearances". Don't by into the "addiction is bad" story that DARE and the like sell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

snom380 13y ago
While I've had a very liberal view regarding drugs and certainly not bought into any campaign stories, I've also become much more respectful about their potential consequences in the past years from firsthand experience. It would be interesting to see more about how prevalent drug use is. I do think you underestimate the negative consequences they can have. Drugs like meth and cocaine don't just cause the users to think more clearly, it can also cause some big behavioral changes. For instance, it's not far-fetched that the economic crisis has been at least partly been caused by overconfidence from drug use: http://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2013/apr/15/cocaine-bankers-global-financial-crisis http://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2013/apr/15/co...