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Comment by xupybd | Hacker News Reader

Comparing the impacts of recreational marijuana laws on opioid deaths seems tricky to me. While there may be correlations I'm not sure there is enough to infer causation.

I'd say they'd want to focus more on the effects of the arrest rates going down. I think that is where you are going to see the biggest positive changes.

That said I think we still need to see marijuanna as a health danger. Much like smoking tobacco, long term irritation of your lungs is not a good thing. I hear a lot of people calling marijuanna a cure all and remember my grandmother telling me how she was told to start smoking as a cure to her anxiety. Not the same, but this was something she told me as I was watching her die slowly from a lifetime of smoking.

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More study is always needed for any given substance that we introduce into the envorment/human body. But due to its federal classification it is very hard to do. The major drawback of marijuana ignoring the effect on the lungs is the hit to the reward center if the brain. But the same can be said about any shortcut to a reward. Especially when you consider the potency increase of marijuana since the 70s. The root problem here as with smoking is that humans are goal driven and if they cannot achieve and do, they will find a way to simulate that feeling.

Also the main medical use of marijuana is via CBD not THC which is the high you feel. For myself it relieves my hand tremors and reduces axiety with no high, which I take as a tincture droplet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol

I agree that smoking in general is probably harmful; marijuana can be vaporized, though, which seems like a good alternative.

One thing that worries me is that, at least around here, teenagers and young adults will often stretch the marijuana they can afford by mixing it with tobacco (from cigarettes). That's another reason for legalization: you get to actually impose rules on sellers, like giving away bags of more healthy filler herbs. Try doing that with the street dealer!

Or it could be they aren't stretching and simply taking lessons from other parts of the world, in which marijuana is usually mixed with tobacco or a herbal smoke blend. This is in part because it burns better and more completely and not really due to wanting to stretch their supply.

That said, there is no reason to force folks into giving away healthier filler herbs. Tax tobacco more, fine, but folks can buy their own fillers. And honestly, without testing the safety of the fillers, there isn't a real way to know how the safety compares to tobacco, especially if folks aren't using tobacco daily or regularly.

Well, yes, my friends and the other people in their social groups could be lying to me for some mysterious reason, but barring further evidence, I'm going to believe them. It's true that tobacco burns better, but the general agreement is that they would smoke pure marijuana if they could.

That said, there is no reason to force folks into giving away healthier filler herbs. Tax tobacco more, fine, but folks can buy their own fillers.

Fair enough. Just having it available at the shop, even if people had to buy them, would be a great improvement. Currently it's not easy to find around here.

And honestly, without testing the safety of the fillers, there isn't a real way to know how the safety compares to tobacco, especially if folks aren't using tobacco daily or regularly.

Right, so we should test them.

It doesn't mean your friends are lying. Sure, some folks could do that. My circle surely never mixed the two - we were more likely to mix pot and cheap alcohol to make the pot last a bit longer. The other point does exist in different pot cultures, just like some folks use slightly different tools to smoke.

Right, hence my initial "at least around here" :)

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