this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 149 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Congratulations drugs for winning the war on drugs

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Drugs took the Quellcrist Falconer approach to war.

She named herself after a seaweed dries up in absence of water and seems like it's dead, but, as soon as it gets even a drop of water again, it grows ten fold. That seems like a good analogy to how drugs prevailed.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Daily alcohol: blunts my emotional pain, causes awful feelings in my stomach, does damage to multiple organ systems, is physically addictive, and gives you a hangover the next day.

Daily THC and other cannabinoids consumed via edibles: blunts my emotional pain, blunts my physical pain, has a minor effect on working memory when used over years that does not further inhibit cognitive ability or motivation, is not physically addictive, and has no impact on the next day.

Used to self medicate in vaguely controlled doses, it is a no-brainer. MJ is not perfect by any means, but it is world better than booze for frequent users.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Seems like an easy choice. You'll feel the effects of daily drinking with in a week or two, but pot smoking? Doesn't seem to affect the day to day

[–] [email protected] 49 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'd agree weed is the healthier choice but I don't think it's fair to say it doesn't affect the day to day. I used to smoke everyday and it really messed with my short term memory and sleep.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did you smoke everyday? Or all day?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Both. For a couple years it was definitely all day but through college it was just in the evenings. The mental effects were a lot worse when it was all day but I noticed it still when it was just evenings.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah lots of anything can get you My brother has bad memory from that too

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I’ve smoked a lot of weed, and known a lot of people who have smoked a lot of weed, and this is my theory:

Marijuana makes it easy to get into a headspace where you simply aren’t recording memories. It is sort of like daydreaming and then snapping out of it and not knowing what the lecturer has been talking about.

People such as myself who have used weed to avoid feelings of depression tend to seek out that state, and once you get in the habit of doing that, it is hard not to fall into it again while high. You can counter it with practice, but like any mental discipline, it is a tricky thing to accomplish.

Some people seem to have a personality that keeps them more actively focused on external things rather than their internal thoughts while high, and those people don’t seem to have the same memory problems. Same goes for people who smoke for only part of the day—their brain has more time to be focused on outside stimuli and not get in the habit of being internally focused all the time.

Needless to say, my memory is shit when I’m not intentionally trying to remember something. It is sort of a blessing for me though because it makes me less anxious about things when I can move on from them without a strong memory.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

Also, only one of the two is physically addictive. You can get psychologically addicted to cannabis, but you can get psychologically addicted to eating carrots.

So if you feel like you're using too much cannabis, it's a hell of a lot easier to stop.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

marijuana is not a drug I used to suck dick for coke

[–] Lmaydev 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I would suck dick for weed. But I like sucking dick so it's more like a benefit.

Coke also isn't physically addictive surprisingly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

You ever see the back of a twenty dollar bill... on weed?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Be careful with your concept of physically versus psychologically addicted, it's not really a 100% seperatable dichotomy like that. Your brain is your brain after all, whether you decide to call something physical or psychological it's all happening inside the brain. I think because cannabis doesn't tend to have severe withdrawal effects (like alcohol withdrawal, which can kill you) people assume that means they're not dependent or that it doesn't have direct effects on the reward processing centers in the brain to reinforce its use again in the future. That's what distinguishes addictive drugs from things that are just generally pleasant so we want to do them again, they have a direct chemical interaction with the neural circuits that are supposed to be helping decide if a behavior should be done again or not. Kind of tipping the scales in their favor, making you want to do something again more so than just the pleasentness of the past experience alone would otherwise do. You're going to have an easier time quitting carrots than you will cannabis, even if you find them both equally pleasant in the moment.

Don't get me wrong though, cannabis is waaaay less addictive than things like nicotine or alcohol, and has far less harmful effects than those. I think there is a tendency (especially with things like DARE lying about drug dangers when people were younger) to over correct and say things like it's a miracle drug that's non addicting and can never harm you and can fix everything wrong in your life! I'm for recreational cannabis legalization, but people should understand it's actual risks, even though they are much less than other recreational drugs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3069146/

The cumulative probability estimate of transition to dependence was 67.5% for nicotine users, 22.7% for alcohol users, 20.9% for cocaine users, and 8.9% for cannabis users. Half of the cases of dependence on nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and cocaine were observed approximately 27, 13, 5 and 4 years after use onset, respectively.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7605022/#ref4

Cannabis-derived psychoactive compounds such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and synthetic cannabinoids directly interact with the reward system and thereby have addictive properties. Cannabinoids induce their reinforcing properties by an increase in tonic dopamine levels through a cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor–dependent mechanism within the ventral tegmental area. Cues that are conditioned to cannabis smoking can induce drug-seeking responses (ie, craving) by eliciting phasic dopamine events.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

It does have day to day effects, but it’s definitely less dangerous than alcohol. It’s still overloading your dopamine levels when you use it, and effecting your dopamine production. I used daily for over a decade, and I still use once every couple months, but my emotional regulation has been so much easier since I quit daily smoking. Less frustration, less depression, just a better baseline emotional state. Several long term studies show this also. This podcast has a lot of great info from a neuroscientist with a history of addiction.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Drinking everyday is hell on your body let me tell you.

Daily cannabis feels great though.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I know several people who used cannabis to help them quit drinking and turned their lives around.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I tried that, but then I discovered doing both at the same time was even more fun.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

riding the edge without spinning out is an art

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

That's me, sorta. For the first time since I turned 21 (so almost 15 years), I can have just one drink and not want another. I didn't even really try to cut back, it just happened naturally after I took up cannabis.

Looking back, it's kind of incredible how much alcohol was bringing me down.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I've lost 50 lbs in the past year. It is almost entirely due to the fact that I replaced alcohol with weed after it became legal here. I sleep better, eat better, I'm less anxious, and I actually look forward to working out now.

It's very hard to see any downsides.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

i honestly don't think this is good for your mental health, but i'm glad your body feels better (i hope you're not smoking it)

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It’s me, I’m the statistic

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

I’m a dapper dab man.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Technically, I am a daily consumer of cannabis, but in reality I microdose (one to two hits off a vape pen) before bed to combat chronic insomnia. I know many people have a glass of wine with dinner or a "night cap" before bed. I guess I am wondering what they mean by daily use.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Daily use would include what you do while also including people that consume it all day long.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Well done Mary Jane. Knew you could do it.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Newly legalized drug being used at a faster rate than when it was illegal.

Amazing. What a scoop.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I think you misread. The headline itself says that weed is being used more than alchohol, not more than it was when it was illegal.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Recently quit drinking. Went to hit my disposable (only because I only got high once every few months or I'd have bought a refillable vape) and it was dead. Went to a shop yesterday to replace it. Found the gummies that we'd bought last year while doing spring cleaning.

We have a lot planned for today (Saturday) including going into farmland where you can pay to pick fresh fruit plus running some errands. But I'm getting high tonight.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's awesome. I hope it helps you stay sober!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Cool, whatever stops you from drinking yourself to death I guess.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I don’t trust a news source still calling it marijuana. Marijuana is a Mexican weed that was used as racist propaganda against cannabis in the early 20th century.

I’m happy to see the wide-spread adoption of cannabis. It’s non-addictive (it can be habit forming), you can’t overdose on it, and withdrawal is non-existent. Alcohol is addictive, you can def die from consuming too much in a single sitting, and withdrawal can literally kill you.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I agree with you about it being a propaganda word, but you really should trust the Associated Press as a source.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/associated-press/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, AP is good. But this does show a lack of understanding on the part of the author. I expect better of them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It does show a lack of understanding, but I don't expect better of them because that's something that, in general, has been lost to history. It's just not widely known. Plenty of regular cannabis users still call it marijuana.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My mother caught me high as fuck when I was ~16yo and asked me, "Have you been smoking the pot?"

The pot.

I laughed so hard it was impossible to lie that I wasn't high.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

The nomenclature doesn’t really matter. In Oklahoma its called a “Medical Marijuana Card” you have to get to consume

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

So statistically speaking, at least some of the cool kids are doing it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Shiny happy people all around!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly why marijuana will remain illegal in France. The wine industry will not allow such verdant competition.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's only marijuana if it's from the Marijuana region of France. Otherwise, it's sparkling cannabis.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This is a beautiful comment.

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