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Comment by whymauri | Hacker News Reader

Literally digital opium.

I say as I type into a seperate social network. It's hard to escape, honestly...

Lots of civilizations have struggled with drug problems in the past. The Americas, China, India all had lots of problems with opium addictions during colonial times, IIRC. And of course the USA post-WWII has dealt with a slew of drug problems, from cocaine heroin to meth. How have past civilizations broken free from the yoke of drug addiction? Maybe we can take some cues from the past.

Seeing how smoking cigarettes went from being popular to being rare in a lots of places I would say:

1 - make it uncool (no more james bond smoking in cinemas, packaging that reminds of diseases)

2 - make it expensive (tax the hell out of it)

3 - make it a hassle (no smoking in closed spaces, airplanes, universities etc)

The thing is, both weed and social networks became popular right about when smoking stopped being popular. So maybe there is an extra step, a perverse one:

4 - provide a substitute addiction.

I like to think that for step 4, you can provide a healthy substitute.

Personally, the thing that got me to quit smoking weed was getting really into brazilian jiu-jitsu.

It may be possible to generalize this.

Besides that, I really like your post, the 1st 3 points are solid. ^_^

Sin tax is fascism. I don't need you squeezing me because you THINK you know what's best for me.

It is a slippery slope.

What's next?

No more cup cakes because sugar gives you diabetes?

How about no more hip hop music because it largely celebrates violence and influences kids to join violent gangs?

No more cars because AOC might whine with another 24 tweet wall of bar-stool wisdom?

If it is a slippery slope, why have sin taxes have been limited to nicotine and alcohol despite existing for literally centuries?

Internalizing externalities is one of the primary functions of government. I’m incredibly happy I rarely have to smell cigarette smoke.

Many countries and some (mostly left-run) cities in the US have implemented a sugary drink tax:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax

that's the thing, they don't break free without some exogenous factor that forces a total reckoning. e.g. China with opium, getting humiliated by western powers in the opium wars. this sort of thing always marks the end of a declining empire. even after the opium wars, it took a century before resurgence. stuff like trafficking drugs in China now are punishable by death, they've learned their lesson for sure.

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