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Comment by denerio-a | Hacker News Reader

Less harmful than alcohol, without a shadow of a doubt. Zero recorded deaths, in thousands of years of medical use - can :any: other substance say the same?

And yes for many, many people it absolutely improves their quality of life dramatically.

So, I have no idea why you’re taking issue with this statement (unless you work for a pharma co / drug gang, in which case I totally get why you would).

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I'm taking issue with that statement because I think the rhetoric around marijuana is misguided. I think it's swung too far to the "there's nothing wrong with marijuana at all" side and that's dangerous. Like alcohol it's important to recognize that it is not harmless. That doesn't mean it should be illegal, just that it should be regulated and reported on accurately.

There is something wrong with it, obviously. But is not deadly and way less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol.

What is obviously wrong with it? If you removed the criminal aspect to obtaining it, then what is wrong?

Zero deaths...ZERO! Not even Potatoes can claim that.

I’ll agree with that, but you should know that’s not how your statement came across, especially the part where you seemed to deny that people could improve their quality of life with it.

If you want people to have reasonable awareness of the potential issues, that’s nice and all - but there will be a pendulum swing from the decades of bullshit from its demonization. If you want to lessen the effects of that, try to be more specific on potential harm without denying the positives.

Yeah, that's fair criticism.

Do you need your coffee in the morning to be able to function properly? is that harmless? What about 3,4,5,10 coffees a day? At some point pretty much anything can grow in an addiction and will hurt you health: pot, vine, coffee, coke, sweets, bagels with cream cheese... nothing is harmless if you overdo it...

So if you are taking issue, what harm are you taking issue with?

My personal experience is that there are people who'll smoke marijuana to the point of not functioning properly in everyday life. It does appear that it is less addictive than alcohol but it's important that people realize that marijuana is not problem free and not a cure all. Which is sometimes the rhetoric from people who pushed for legalization.

People will play video games for days on end and not contribute to society, and could even been seen as "not functioning properly in life"...many people pushed for legalization because there are health benefits (non-addict pain relief, cancer fighting properties, seizure reduction....) - not because it is some cure all.

Ultimately the issues comes down to personal freedom. If you are not allowed to ingest something that does not cause pain or hardship on others...are we truly free?

The thing i've noticed with people like that though, is of they weren't smoking weed to ruin their life, they'd be addicted to video games, or alcoholicss or they get tummy aches, or have so much anxiety they can't go outside or interact with people, or just have some other debilitating addiction or excuse that stops them from getting on with life.

Some people just don't function in life...weed or not.

It might be fixable, just too subtle and deep to fix itself on its own. The mind is vast.

A few will, however: For most folks, it is like being drunk. Sure, you'll drink to the point of not functioning, but that's occasional, on weekends, after work, and so on. It is more likely that you run into people all the freaking time that are doing their jobs while being stoned. They do this pretty happily, and so long as folks are able to do their jobs safely, I don't see an issue. A cashier has no real reason not to be a little stoned at work, for example. This is because of the way tolerance builds with it, and the fact most folks aren't that stoned when they go to work.

I'll add that the only people I've known that had actual trouble quitting pot had other mental issues as well. The other cases are more rare. (Folks often must test this to take work-related drug tests). If someone is going to have an addiction, this is one of the better ones to have (outside of caffeine, perhaps). And we can better research actual methods of helping folks.

It's true that it's often a logical relativism. Some would say whataboutism these days. If alcohol is legal, and weed less harmful thus I can overdo it too :)

We should definitely recognize that marijuana can be harmful along with many other unhealthy and addictive substances wrongly perceived as "harmless", such as Coca-Cola and Hostess cakes. None of those substances should be sold or given to children, for example.

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