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Comment by ksaj | Hacker News Reader

You didn't say anything about your age, which would be important given that the article is about the developing brain. It's already pretty understood that the negative impact is significantly less in the adult brain.

The majority of people I went to HS with that were potheads are in exactly the types of jobs and whatnot that the Surgeon General suggests is most likely. Of course there are a lot of outliers. Nobody said this was 100%. The musicians are still pumping out great music. The artists are still doing artistic things.

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I'm 38 and started smoking daily when I was 13. There's been some periods of break in my life, but mostly I've been a daily smoker for 25 years.

I'm the lead developer at my company, who I've been with for 10 years. In my late teenage years I ran my small own software company for a couple years and then a small custom pc builder company for a couple years. I've done manual labor at times. I built furniture for a while.

I'm a bit of a homebody, and feel lazy at times, but thinking also of the list of personal hobbies and projects I've done in the last 20 years, I can't really say I'm very lazy at all.

I'm also an active father, and polyamorous and in two long-term relationships.

Fair enough. I started at age of 22 and I'm currently 32. Lots of friends started when they were teenagers and most of them have some issues that can be related to that phase. But also a lot of friends that didn't smoke but watched the same amount of TV have issues that are related to laziness, lack of focus, depression, ADHD, Game addiction.

Correlation, not causation

That doesn't apply in this case, because the causation is well documented. The developing brain can suffer various types of delays when thc or just about any other intoxicant is distracting said developing brain's ability to actually develop.

Problems occur when the brain is too preoccupied in La La Land to develop optimally for the real world. There's a huge difference between the "thinker" and the "space cadet" when it comes to how one's brain handles thc in their youth.

Space cadets tend to stay space cadets. Thinkers tend to stay thinkers. The space cadet is who the Surgeon General is concerned about, because thc pretty much obliterates their chances of getting out of La La Land mentality.

Nobody says pot stops the brain from developing. You're going to get a notable Bell Curve. Some potheads go total 70's/80's movie revival mode. Others become Carl Sagan. Almost everyone around these people can identify which one is the Carl Sagan and which is the Tommy Chong (character) pretty early on. That's half of the pot humour in those movies, so it's not like only non-users notice this.

Funny point: I do think that we have a better ratio of Carl Sagans/Tommy Chong in the universe of pot smokers than in the non-smokers universe. Maybe the tommy chongs that don't smoke are a little bit smarter, but they probably are more sad/depressed.

That's actually why I suggested Tommy Chong's character. In real life, he's a smart guy - which you can tell when he's interviewing, versus when he is in character.

He definitely understands the dichotomy, and as an ironic twist, has become one of the most successful professional potheads in the world. He's a thinker who is very good at emulating the opposite side of the Bell Curve.

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