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Comment by jliptzin | Hacker News Reader

With all due respect, your inability to use marijuana responsibly should not make my responsible marijuana usage illegal.

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Society does this all the time though realistically. If there is a 1:N chance of harm; and N is low, and we have no idea who will be harmed, we tend to regulate or make illegal.

How many societies have legalized marijuana?

There are many things that provably have much higher risk of harm than cannabis but have no serious attempts underway to make them illegal. Unhealthy food. Motorcycles. All kinds of dangerous hobbies. And alcohol of course. The list is long.

I don’t think it has much to do with wanting to help or protect anyone, or else you would see more consistency in the things people want to make illegal. It’s more akin to religious people who think they know the “right” way to live and want to impose those values on everyone.

Many people just have an emotional dislike of cannabis for whatever reason—seeing its effect on others makes them uncomfortable, so they want to stop everyone from doing it. Soda and motorcycles don’t make them uncomfortable, so they don’t care about those.

I’m pretty sure alcohol, cars, and guns do more harm, but good luck making them illegal.

How many societies would have made marijuana illegal had the US not done so first and then forced the rest of the world’s hand?

Not convinced. Look at Singapore. I doubt they would care what the US does. Anyway, after the US legalizes everything for “freedom”, I’m not sure that many countries will follow suit.

You're wrong about that. Every non-theocratic/ hyper-conservative country will legalize it sooner or later

Hmm, the non theocratic countries like China represent the majority and I’m not sure they will do that…

China may as well be considered hyper-conservative in drug policy.

I believe it’s left wing authoritarianism. The government said it was bad, so everyone back the party line.

Yes and they are very conservative in many social policies, including drugs (conservative = maintaining ("conserving") the status quo).

Sure if you define conservatives to mean authoritarian leftists who want to conserve their rules and laws, I agree:

Nice snarky bad-faith response. It's obviously not what I said. I hope you get better at dealing with people who threaten your sense of superiority.

With all due respect, I was a responsible user for the first year too. Good luck to you and I hope you never get addicted.

Unlike alcohol addiction, which can come on fast, weed grabs a hold of you over a longer period. It starts out as only beneficial with little to no downside. You won't notice you're addicted until much later.

Also, I find your decision to call the plant marijuana interesting. The names weed and pot have a negative connotation. But "marijuana" sounds a lot more acceptable. Nothing to do with you. Just something I noticed.

> Also, I find your decision to call the plant marijuana interesting. The names weed and pot have a negative connotation. But "marijuana" sounds a lot more acceptable. Nothing to do with you. Just something I noticed.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/29/marijuana-na...

I am a responsible user for more than ten years.

You speak as if marijuana is highly addictive when in fact it is less addictive than coffee and easier to quit.

Marijuana can be highly addictive, it depends on the person. I’ve been addicted for over 20 years, completely unable to stop for more then a week and I know a lot of people in the same situation. Not saying it should be illegal because of this, just saying that because it’s not addictive to you doesn’t mean it can’t be for other people. That is why it’s important not to advertise marijuana as a risk free substance.

Seeing the diversity of opinions and experiences here I am inclined to believe there is an interaction between the genetics of the strain, and your own genetics that determine whether your particular habit become something which is addictive for you.

This is highly fascinating, and opens the door towards in nuanced manipulation of marijuana plant genetics in order to create strains with the benefits, but without the addictive side effects and tailoring that genetic strain manipulation to the genetics of the individual user where they could undergo a kind of a genetic test, and then the strain could be tailored to meet their exact desired profile without any addictive qualities.

That would be great. I have a friend who get severe panic attack if he uses the wrong strain. Any other strain and he has a great night. I forgot whether it was sativa or Indica that does it

Plants are so fascinating. Yeah it's weird how diverse the experiences can be...and how it's about the whole of plant chemistry, not just a single compound.

I first smoked marijuana 20 years ago. Since then there have been years where I haven’t had it at all, to smoking daily for months, to going back to not having it for months at a time. I have never had any issue stopping. No withdrawal. For me it’s even easier to quit than coffee. Not that I ever said to myself I need to “quit” smoking marijuana, because it isn’t an addiction. Sometimes I’m more busy than other times and want to focus on work, so I don’t get the time. Other times I’m in a more recreational period of my life and I find it is a lot more preferable than alcohol. Did you know some people casually are able to smoke cigarettes too without getting addicted?

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