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Comment by SoftTalker | Hacker News Reader

I have to believe the effects of smoking cannabis are similar to smoking unfiltered cigarettes. The difference being that most people don't smoke 20-40 a day.

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The effects on intelligence are also pretty well-studied. Chronic use of Marijuana does make you dumber, and you are also less intelligent when high if you are an occasional user.

Studies suggest this isn't permanent for users over 25 (or at least there's not enough data to say that), but it apparently takes years for the effect to wear off after chronic use and it might be permanent if you are a young user.

This is not to say that I am against consenting adults using Marijuana, but the idea that there are no effects other than making you happy is ludicrous.

I doubt this could possibly have been a controlled experiment.

Seems difficult to fully establish since no individual can both be and not be a consumer, else you could just measure their difference over life. I'd be surprised if minds aren't somewhat measurably altered by mind-altering chemicals. But maybe not in simplistic intelligence.

Years ago I was curious about the discussion around vaping, so I found some articles claiming nicotine promotes cancer growth or makes existing cancers worse, but is not itself a carcinogen in isolation.

I did that search again just now and it seems like people say that's not a huge concern.

Most people don't toke their tobacco either. Then there's the pesticide and additive loads (presumably additive is 0 for cannabis, but it's a variable). Could be closer than just the difference in cigarette quantity.

I know someone who basically chain smokes pot all day long. And somehow managers to remain productive.

So yeah, some people are smoking the equivalent of 20-40

Saying they “remain productive” shouldn’t ring in as an endorsement. We don’t have the counterfactual to know how much more impressive they would be otherwise.

I broadly agree, and - a great many people who smoke to that degree are self-medicating for various mental health issues, so the counterfactual isn't quite as cut and dry as that.

My problem is more-so with the individuals with no ailments who have been lulled into believing that marijuana is benign or even something that can act to enhance cognitive performance. We have a lot of scientific evidence to the contrary, and the anecdotes like "they're still doing fine" is reductionist and undermines the salience of my point for many people.

To be fair, there are functional alcoholics who basically have to drink all day to function..

Also I have heard some stories of what seems functional opiate users.

Functionality seems rather fluctuating bar. Some people are not functional even without any drugs and some manage well enough with drugs...

> Also I have heard some stories of what seems functional opiate users.

This is an important story that gets lost in public discussions of fentanyl. Street opiates are difficult to dose correctly and you don't know precisely what you're getting, so overdoses are high and people are dying. In prior time periods, longtime users were more able to dose correctly and survive.

you only need to be Productive Enough to Keep Your Job, to be fair

there's headroom to fuck around while working. weed and other things (e.g. video games throughout the day)

You leave my Oldschool Runescape out of this.

Ahh, but functional at what?

Many people will functionally make use of marijuana throughout the day doing say, restaurant work, and if anything, will function better (YOU try putting up with hangry customers all day without something to take the edge off).

But bring that habit into another role where speed and precision are important and the amount of people who can excel starts to dwindle.

programming

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