Why more American seniors are getting high | Hacker News Reader

Why more American seniors are getting high

economist.com

21 pointsbookofjoe36 comments

"Critics have long denounced marijuana as a gateway drug to riskier substances. Some day it could be considered a life-saving one."

That denunciation only ever came from people with low life experience and oversimplified mental models of "bad".

I am all in favor of broad cannabis legalization, but there there is something to the gateway theory.

Most users of harder drugs indicate past use of marijuana. Additionally, marijuana gives many their first taste of doing business with drug dealers and 'breaks their cherry.' When they decide they want to try something else they have already gained experience locating dealers and engaging with them. Legalizing cannabis helps here because its users won't engage with dealers to score, they'll go to the store and buy a regulated product.

I agree completely that marijuana having been illegal itself affected the statistics.

But, the gateway drug idea was itself used as an argument against legalization.

Counter example, many people only want to get high on any other drug when they consume alcohol, which isn't sold by drug dealers.

We need to be careful with logic problems like, "Most users of harder drugs indicate past use of marijuana."

All users of all drugs report drinking water in the last 12 weeks.

These kinds of statements don't mean anything, but they sound important to the average reader.

Correlation != Causation

Not sure why you're down-voted.

It's definitely a gateway drug, but only from the perspective that you've forced people to establish black market financial connections. Once you've figured out how to get something illegal it opens a whole new world.

>Most users of harder drugs indicate past use of marijuana.

Most people who are in hospice indicate they drank water in the past. Is water consumption a gateway to dying?

Because they are the original hippies? Does this really have to be a question/article.

This is so obvious to me that I immediately assumed the title must have meant high school seniors

https://archive.ph/9Cq6X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiU96IEr0jU

Uh, the generation that made getting high an art form are now seniors?

I thought they were in senior government by now

The two are not exclusive, apparently.

Really all this happened before: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/17/us/new-presidency-boomers... The moment the dead went from counterculture to the unofficial band of the clinton white house was the real shift IMHO.

The article does, in fact, mention this before going into the other reasons.

> One reason for the cannabis craze is that today’s seniors are yesterday’s hippies. Our analysis suggests that more than half of the seniors who use cannabis today started more than 15 years ago.

The fact is so plain, there does not need to be an article about it.

I found the link to a decrease in suicidality interesting, but I suppose it's personal.

Really poor example for grandchildren etc. Particularly now that plenty of evidence that marijuana can cause psychosis, depression in a subset and a decrease in ambition and drive, and increasingly a cause of traffic accidents.

You sound fun at parties.

This is a narrow minded take. I come from a family of Irish alcoholics. Most of the younger generation uses cannabis instead of drinking and avoids the devastation from alcohol that my generation and older experienced.

If you don't like losing half your IQ points, then I guess this is a narrow minded take.

I guess we're a family of geniuses because with our IQ halved our younger members have gone into successful professional careers.

Extreme exaggerations make for poor arguments.

Counter:

I'm going to guess that it's easier to get addicted to weed than to alcohol due to price, pleasure, and no alcohol hang over.

Kids especially can get addicted to weed much easier than alcohol in my opinion.

I like alcohol but I see alcohol as a social drug. I never drank it alone. I also physically can't drink it too much due to hang over and complete inability to do anything useful after. During covid lockdowns, I was absolutely addicted to weed after I tried it. It had none of the draw backs of alcohol and even more pleasure in the beginning.

I was addicted for a while. It was horrible. I became unmotivated, fat from munchies, didn't talk to family or friends, always asked people I met if they wanted to smoke weed with me, was high during remote work, couldn't remember anything because my memory got very poor, had horrible acid reflux from all the smoke.

Thankfully I was able to remember what life was like before weed.

If you read https://www.reddit.com/r/leaves/ you'll see just how many people have been smoking since they were teenagers and are not 30 or 40 and don't remember what life was like.

Munchies are pretty benign if you have enough sense to stock your home with healthy options like unprocessed foods and no sugary stuff.

There is no benign volume of alcohol consumption. It's hard on your liver[0], causes cardiovascular disease[1], produces carcinogenic metabolites[2], it's a horrible drug... without even considering the high occurrence of abusive/violent drunks compared to weed.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_liver_disease

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_cardiovascular_dis...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_cancer#Acetaldehyd...

I'm not arguing that alcohol abuse is better than weed abuse. I'm arguing that alcohol abuse is bad but weed is much easier to get addicted to.

I do agree with most of what you say (acid reflux is inherent to smoking in general, though; it's not specific to weed), but the point is that it's only problematic if it becomes a habit. It doesn't have to. If you were drinking as much as you were smoking, you would probably fare even worse, and I don't think alcohol has a lower potential for abuse; in fact, it is likely worse because it is not as strongly socially stigmatized.

Personally, I have rarely purchased weed myself, but I have consumed quite a bit because of many stoner friends. When they would share, I would never have the strength to refuse, but I could very much feel the impact the next day.

But I think that if you can manage the consumption just like you would do with alcohol, it's mostly fine. If you smoke a joint once every few weeks, the impact on your life is unlikely to be that bad. Of course the hard part is managing that, but it's true for alcohol as well…

I prefer to get all that from alcohol

Heavy and chronic usage of cannabis is associated with some of these things. I think "plenty of evidence that marijuana can cause {effects}" is somewhat overstating the consensus on the topic.

Like many things in life, cannabis can be enjoyed responsibly or irresponsibly. Irresponsible use is inadvisable and can absolutely ruin your life and the lives of others around you. I see no issue with responsible use, though. All things in moderation. Alcohol, social media, and caffeine all come to mind as examples of other drugs that can be largely safe and enjoyable if used responsibly, but which become dangerous/harmful when moderation is abandoned.

Signed,

a responsible/occasional cannabis user :)

Even responsible use of cannabis does not per se prevent cannabis psychosis.

Even never touching or being in the same room as cannabis does not per se prevent psychosis

Don’t worry, some of those issues can be addressed with MDMA-assisted therapy and clinical psychedelic treatments.

I used weed to quit alcohol, lose 50 pounds, and lower my stress after dealing with nerds like you at BigCorp all day. Hush and let people enjoy things. We all end up as worm shit at the end of the day.

Lots of substances cause depression, loss of motivation, and lead to mental health issues.

A large percentage of the population enjoys and venerates the activity.

Not everyone is a type-A overachiever. Not everyone is a Puritan who treats their body as a temple.

Some artistic folks thrive on it.

I think it's okay to let people do what they want with their limited time here, but I also think it's okay to call out the potential consequences. We shouldn't be nannies, but we also shouldn't embrace irresponsibility.

I'm something of a prude when it comes to myself, but I don't think I'm better than people who drink or do drugs.

Sometimes it's not bad at all, sometimes it's devastating.

But so are some academic and professional careers.

Circumstance, genetics, situation, and volume all play a role.

We really have no place intervening unless it has gotten out of control and damaged their lives.

Worded like that does not sound very convincing. A lot of things "can cause" the things mentioned (overwork, bad weather, etc.). Maybe the risk is high, but clearer numbers would help. There are countries were smoking marijuana is not that special (The Netherlands) and it is full of depressed people and is quite safe from traffic perspective.

Better stop eating all that sugar.

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