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Comment by sam_goody | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps, I do not take any recreational drugs, so I might have the wrong mental image.

But I do work with teenagers, and have heard from many that blame their lack of class or job stability on marijuana, who complain that they have lost years of their life in a cloud, or that have done stupid stuff because they were either high, or bec. they were stressed out when not high.

I know a kid who is a lost cause, and his friends claim he took contaminated drugs; are they wrong?

I cannot imagine that it isn't a gateway - its not catchy like LSD, but someone who makes out with friends is surely more likely to try LSD, Meth or Coke, no?!

Would love to hear more - I know lots of people who encourage me to try a joint or two!

BTW, I saw once a similar comparison of cigarette taxes vs related costs. Surprisingly worthy comparison.

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I think there certainly could be productivity/etc. costs from widespread weed legalization, but the way that you mention it in the same breath as LSD, meth, or coke makes me think you think of weed as a much more serious drug than it is.

If anything, the primary function weed has as a gateway drug is because people speak so terribly about it (and with LSD in the same breath) that when you try it and realize - oh this is not really scary/terrible in the way it was described, maybe they've been lying about all drugs the whole time?

Can't find the studies right now, but there has been evidence of positive societal effects from pot consumption because of how it displaces alcohol.

"makes out with friends?"

There's no comparison between weed and these other drugs. "Trying a joint or two" has no negative repercussions unless you are prone to paranoia or anxiety.

But you are describing teens who are regular users. Teens make bad decisions. Smoking marijuana every day will (can) definitely do the things they told you. Make you slow, only care about smoking, etc. The person who lost their mind either was very sensitive to some mental illness and should not have been doing any drugs, or smoked spice (NOT marijuana).

Also "government rehab" would be an absolutely fantastic thing to have for marijuana. There are tons of people with a marijuana habit who are self-medicating (and were before legalization) and one of the points of legalization is to help people NOT abuse the drugs. Unfortunately there is nothing like this where i live, even though cannabis is legal here.

Fwiw, in my experience the first ("gateway") drug that kids get into is alcohol.

> LSD

Is there actually evidence of LSD being more harmful than beneficial to its consumers? I haven't read Michael Pollan's pop science book yet, but from watching the Netflix rendition of "How to change your mind" I got the impression that it was mainly criminalized because its users opposed conscription during the Vietnam war.

LSD and Psilocybin are truly harmless substances, especially when you contrast them to the rest of mainstream drugs.

> I know a kid who is a lost cause, and his friends claim he took contaminated drugs; are they wrong?

Yes, they are wrong. There's no such thing as "contaminated" marijuana, that's an urban myth.

As far as productivity, it depends on how you look at it. You can be much more creative while using marijuana, it can also be great to boost productivity if you're tired or not in the mood to be creative...

It may have you re-examine if you want to overwork, make business your life, climb the corporate ladder... but all of those seem like positive revelations too and a much needed counterbalance to all of the pro-corporate propaganda we all drown in.

You'll never be able to afford a house or kids. The rich are getting richer at your expense. Earth's climate is on it's last legs. But at least you'll get to smoke weed and waste away in your 1bdr rental, apathetic to your meaningless and sad life.

Seems like a great deal for the younger generation.

Basically the same as pontificating on the internet was for the generation previous.

That's a lot of assumptions to make! Many very successful people smoke weed. I'd also say if you're planning on getting ahead by climbing the corporate ladder and grinding for your boss, you're going to be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

> Earth's climate is on it's last legs.

A well known side-effect of smoking marijuana is that people become way more ecologically aware and in tune with the environment. Downsizing your lifestyle, not commuting and not working for some megacorp churning out junk or ads is definitely going to be better for the environment than the status quo.

> There's no such thing as "contaminated" marijuana, that's an urban myth.

Is it a myth? In Germany black market cannabis has been found to be lined with synthetic cannabinoids in many cases. Those substances are not researched well and hundreds of their users (who typically didn't expect any synthetic drugs) required emergency medical care according to this German (sorry) source from two years ago: https://www.vice.com/de/article/m7a533/chemisch-gestrecktes-...

The German minister of health cites this situation as his main motivation for working towards legalization, so people wouldn't have to buy from questionable sources.

First hand story I was a weed smoker until the dealer had a half a Xanax bar. Struggled w that for the next 10 years…

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