"Dependence on pot isn’t a minor thing—imagine stalling the careers of a tenth of the U.S. workforce for a year—and we should certainly consider it in the negative side of the ledger when contemplating reform in drug policy."
Talk about an addiction, an unhealthy dependence, obsession with a metric that has nothing to do with either happyness or fullfilment.
Almost as if we're actually craving enslavement. As if chasing promotions, or wealth as if we're gaining XP or coins in a videogame, is a better way to spend our time, health and energy on.
Im not saying there is no pot abuse, or working is evil, or other hippy logic, i just wanted to point out that this particular argument is flawed.
Some people thoroughly enjoy their drugs, bringing them great satisfaction. And it is certainly true they had to give up on those drugs because of the usage of illicit invasive labour practises.
There is this assumption, mostly in the states, that one should sacrifice almost anything to be as productive as possible. I disagree strongly.
Im proud to say im about 60% as productive as i could be. The other 40% of my energy is poured into other things that matter to me. Like family, friends, free time, being allowed to be myself, and just enjoying life in general. I could sacrifice many of these things to be more produtive. But i am not a slave. And the notion of limiting the freedom of people, because as a society we decided their output volume should be higher, is at the very least unhealty, and perhaps even a tad fascist.
However, we live in an imperfect world and the career disruptions that can ensue from a devotion to TCH reduce people's quality of life in no uncertain terms.
THC does not, in the majority of cases, reduce somebody's quality of life. Mandatory drug tests on the other hand...
There are many more people suffering from pressure to "achieve" than that society is pressuring people to relax and take care of their loved ones. Some people do amibition way more unhealthy than others do pot.
When it comes to lifestyle, choice trumps IMO, and no, I don't smoke.
Smoking pot does effect the drive of many people, whether you would like to believe it or not. Some people are better at functioning under the influence than others.
Two examples of people that dabbled in drugs does not make your case.
I could give you two examples of couples that have sex without protection every day and have never gotten pregnant. Does this mean everyone can do it with the same outcome?
As entertainment, it's no worse or distracting than television; and miles away from alcohol.
Look, not everybody gets addicted to pot, in fact most folks don't. But it's psychologically addictive like everything chemically active you put in your body, and being constantly stoned because you're addicted is a miserable way to live.
I know, because I've been trying to quit all year. I've failed twice since February and I'm on my third go of it right now. And I only smoked a half-ounce a week for a year or so. That's probably a lot to the people reading this, but it's really not much as far as potheads go.
I'm sick of thinking so much slower than I know I can, being so much dumber than I used to be. I can't do my job nearly as well and I take pride in my work, so being too dumb to do my job has been really upsetting. I almost wish I were still addicted to cocaine, because at least then I kicked ass and took names when it came to thinking/analyzing/working in general.
I'm tired of being too lazy to leave my apartment all weekend, of the food I eat when I'm stoned, of not being present around my friends, family and co-workers, of needing to smoke when I wake up because it's so uncomfortable to be lucid. My motivation to pursue new ideas, to eat healthy and go to the gym, to meet new friends and pursue new women is all through the floor. My body desperately wants pot right now and I'm anxious and depressed as hell and my body is tugging at me to reach for any alternative, like alcohol or cigarettes.
Every drug taken to extreme can seriously hurt your life. Even weed. Stop trivializing it because you smoked a few joints in college.
Edit: and now I'm slowbanned, for sticking up for myself when someone kicked me while I was down. Time to roll a new account, I guess.
A half-ounce a week is a pretty hefty habit. I can barely imagine the constant cognitive impairment, paranoia, and anxiety that are likely to come with that on a daily schedule. You aren't using the drug, you're abusing it.
> My body desperately wants pot right now
No, it doesn't. Your mind does. Your situation is not even remotely comparable to an opiate addict going cold turkey.
> Every drug taken to extreme can seriously hurt your life.
The drug isn't seriously hurting your life. You are. The psychological addiction you are experiencing is yours to walk away from - or get medication for, since there are probably serious compulsive or depressive problems in the mix if the hold is that strong. I wish you the best in conquering it and feeling 1000% better - and you surely will - but I really don't see what you're trying to say here, or what everybody else in the thread supposedly has got wrong. Weed is a remarkably benign drug by any measure, and the author of this piece is far too naive of his subject matter for anyone to be thinking too hard on anything he has to say.
That's basically nonsense. A heavy weed smoker can stop smoking immediately, and while he will certainly be in anguish, bored and anxious and miserable without it, there remains no true physical component to his 'withdrawal', if that term could even be credibly used in the context of marijuana.
The heavy opiate user has developed a full-blown physical dependence on the drug, and their body will go into excruciating revolt upon it's sudden absence. Most ex-addicts spend years tapering off on suboxone, methadone, etc for a reason.
The point is, hard drug dependence vs soft drug 'addiction' is utterly apples and oranges, comparing them is meaningless. I am not sure why people insist on blurring the lines between these two very different conditions. Like it or not, Bagdar has far more in common with the guy upthread who was talking about cold sweats from ceasing his overeating, than he does a Subutex fiend in Georgia.
Yes. Sudden withdrawal from some substances (alcohol, barbiturates) can cause death because physical addiction is so destructive.
I understand that cannabis can cause a _real_ addiction, although many people deny this. I've been there. It's not fun, when all you can think of is getting high.
Yoga, swimming and sauna were the savers for me. Without kundalini yoga I would not have realized that I have the power to empower myself, to make myself feel good, without the pot. I would totally recommend to anyone doing some kind of spiritual exercise, where you get your Chi flowing.
Because this is what cannabis does, at least according to my experiences, it makes your life energy or chi flow down to your physical body, it drains it so to speak on the long run. And you start to crave food to replace it, and this drainage also leads to the bad moods and thought patterns of "I need this in order to do this", when truthfully you can do it without the pot also.
Hang in there, you can do it. I've done it a couple of times, from my experience it takes around 3 weeks to get rid of the habit, after this if you continue and just persist on choosing the alternative way, you can make it back to normal life.
Although probably you are going to be bored a lot, so it's important to find some new activities to fill in those blanks.
Anyway, here is also a good text on what cannabis does to us, how it drains our chi: http://pastebin.com/1zKRXDZR.
Uh yeah, food is a very common form of entertainment; restaurants, cook-offs, eating contests... it's only when people go overboard that they begin to have a problem.
I'm tired of being too lazy to leave my apartment all weekend, of the food I eat when I'm stoned, of not being present around my friends, family and co-workers
These are all personal choices you made. If you really wanted to spend time with your friends and family you'd just do it. It sounds like you just can't be bothered but smoking pot gives you a convenient excuse to blow off social obligations. I mean jeeze, you're just so addicted to pot, how could you ever find the time to hang out with your friends?
I know, because I've been trying to quit all year. I've failed twice since February and I'm on my third go of it right now. And I only smoked a half-ounce a week for a year or so
Give me a break. Failing to quit pot is in the same category as failing to quit World of Warcraft, it ultimately comes down to the fact that you really just prefer to smoke.
needing to smoke when I wake up because it's so uncomfortable to be lucid.
I don't think pot is the problem.
Some people have an easy time quitting tobacco. Others don't. There are real differences in how the drug works on a person and fits into their life which aren't captured by phrases like 'you just can't be bothered'.
Caffeine is also a psychoactive drug, but overworked engineers don't blame coffee for 20 hour work days, instead, their coffee habit is understood as a supplement to their chosen lifestyle. Pot functions the same way for someone who decided to sit on the couch and play xbox all day; the pot didn't intoxicate him into playing video-games instead of going to class, if class was important to him he'd just go, stoned or otherwise.
edit: s/weeks/days
That sounds very serious, and I hope you get help, but there's no way that's addiction.
edit: look, I'm entirely sorry about the appeal to ridicule. It's a shitty way to get a point across and I just look like an asshole by doing it.
I get that addiction is no joke, however your problem is not the same problem caused by the drugs in the article, and your failure to quit the pot is entirely of your own pattern of behavior. Find another peer group to associate with.
I guess what I'm frustrated with is the on-going prohibition, which was brought about by the same exact type of alarmist bullshit. So you have problems with your choices in life, that does not mean that everyone else has that issue, or even a significant sample.
Let others have the freedom to make their own decisions, the same sort of freedom that was decided during the first great experiment with Prohibition. We all know what happened there. I think people are starting to realize what's happening now.
If not, then I truly sympathize, but it is entirely incorrect to link a behavioral addiction with a physical addiction such as the one caused by opiates. They are in no way equivalent.
Excuse me? First of all, nothing I described was "descent into ruin." I said I'm having a hard time not smoking pot and it's affecting many aspects of my life. You have no idea what you're talking about, how dare you say I'm not struggling? Have you ever considered that people have a hard time quitting drugs? That pot might actually harm someone? No, your mind's made up: it's all a conspiracy by the drug companies!
> I have to doubt its legitimacy because the post reads like a plant by one invested in treatment facilities and private prisons.
Fuck you, you conspiracy-minded, condescending prick. I'm having a hard time over here but you think you're so important that treatment facilities and prisons are planting stories on a tiny technology startup forum.
> If not, then I truly sympathize, but it is entirely incorrect to link a behavioral addiction with a physical addiction such as one caused by opiates. They are in no way equivalent.
You don't sympathize, you're busy paranoid that prisons are astroturfing HN. And I thought paranoia was bad when you smoke on the streets. By the way, this entire subthread is talking about marijuana use and affecting career growth. So this entire point is irrelevant.
I fucking hate this site sometimes.