It's why there was a moral panic in the 1800s over Jane Austen style fiction, in the 1930s over radio, and so on.

Being addicted to cannabis is not really any different to playing computer games 12 hours a day, doing endless marathons, watching sports, investing, or many similar activities.

you can do something else while you listen to the radio or smoke pot (e.g., clean your house, hang out with friends or family, with weed you can even read or program)

phones and books both consume your attention, but a book at least demands a bit of effort to follow and might introduce you to new ideas or vocabulary, even if you're reading pulp fiction

on the other hand you can scroll twitter or insta or watch tiktok absolutely mindlessly, and doing so will tend to become a habit all while it chips away at your attention span and your willpower

weed can make boredom feel ok too, and can certainly affect attention, willpower and memory, but if used in moderation it can also magnify your curiosity and sense of wonder, help you introspect, etc

cannabis is a powerful entheogen and it deserves far more respect and restraint than it currently receives

smartphones give us enormous powers but they can also exert massive power over our minds and actions, they too should be treated with caution and used with far more restraint

cannabis might make you lazy or suggestible, and it can even be dangerous for some people or if used irresponsibly, but it won't spoon feed you mind-melting pablum or ads or propaganda or spy on you

Books, TV, the internet, cell phones all have the potential to benefit you. They often don't, but it's not the medium that's the problem, it's our own choices - except the spying on you bit. That's 100% a problem with TV, the internet, cell phones and now even books.

Yesterday I saw a TV ad for Meta suggesting that with VR you will be able to stand in a small conversational circle with Socrates.

Yea, it will be educational.

But skepticism aside, with a personal instance of AI some benefits could be significant. Just having a personal AI critic to read your writing and give feedback could be a huge benefit -- or if not your writing, your thought process.

Queue the spying on you part.

So yeah, targeted ads and spooky tv sets are annoying at the least but the poing is that the infrastructure could easily support 1984 style monitors.

Regardless of the purpose of current usage, this is infrastructure for a surveillance society. That is the issue. The infrastructure is not going to go away unless we rip it down [down to and including transport layer] and rebuild with privacy and other human rights protections as a primary requirement of ubiquitous networking. DARPA was not concerned about these matters so all these fall under the 'operators discretion'.

I want to start by saying this isn't your Cold War sheen propaganda. This is Harmonious Society, "river crab" propaganda. This method can belie and camouflage the salient points of persuasion, sure. But it's not only intended to stream a deluge of coercive media. The purpose is to dominate the aesthetic discourse around topics, learning as much about you as they can, while ingratiating their clusters of community norms at the same time. There isn't a monolithic identity either. It's about picking the winners of our long form cultural evolution. Country to country data definitely shows varying preferences, but aside from the initial exposure to determine what clusters you associate with, these feeds are tailored heavily by user interaction.

The public description of their process divulges the use of object and character recognition, along with audio/tag keywords, to all items in a video. So even on a virtual machine with no app permissions, this site is making an incredibly detailed profile of your media consumption habits. For example, when you stop watching a video at a certain point, TikTok records what items were in it up to that point making you stay, and what audio/objects occurred at the point of losing interest. This catalog culminates as a set of meticulous preferences that end up correlating to all sorts of useful suggestion information; preferences for video formats(do you like dance videos, rants, or documentary content?), types of speech(language and culture obviously, but also intonation, volume, frequency of use, monologue vs dialogue), length and pacing, even framing of the camera, its all logged and associated with your device and you. Along with this, topics and community clusters are accrued.

This goes way beyond blanket brainwashing or disinformation propaganda in it's effectiveness. It's like if a personal interrogator was assigned to billions of people to know every minute detail of their personal media narratives. And at the same time, became a congenial friend who is coaxing all of them to subtlety shift their identities and preferences. Mass media always takes this trend to some degree, but TikTok isolates the individual's identity. (I didn’t write this lol)

If a store thinks I make more money than you, I might for example be told they've got a return policy that is much more generous than what they'll tell you. There are places where you will wait longer on hold, getting repeatedly bumped back to make room for people who have a better "consumer score" than you do.

The data is handed over to the state and locked away until it's useful to them. It's can get you arrested or questioned by police when you've committed no crime. It can get you sued for things which should not be crimes but are. It's used by politicians who carve out the borders of their districts specifically to limit the ability for your vote to make any difference.

That data is used to target you with lies and misinformation. It allows you to be targeted by extremist groups. It can be used to decide if you get hired or not. You could be turned down for housing because of it. There are millions of things that might prejudice another person against you. Your lifestyle, your politics, your religion, the people you associate with, your sexual history, your medical conditions, etc. You can't know who is accessing your information or for what reason, or know how accurate that data is, or know if/how it is being protected.

It's a gross violation of your rights, which yes, sometimes is used to manipulate you into buying something you might not have bought otherwise, but increasingly is used for much much more and once the intimate details of your life have been taken from you, you can never take them back or prevent them from spreading.

However much you enjoy the products that are spying you, you can't ever say if the benefits outweigh the costs. You aren't even allowed to know what the costs are or when you are paying for them, and there will never come a time when you have paid in full and it can no longer cost you something else.

https://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/hello-barbie-the-cree...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/26/hackers-c...

The book looks good btw! And I'm checking out her TED talk. If you're secretly an AI book ad pushing algorithm you just got me...

Paraphrasing, one of the best quotes in Turkle's book: ~We have evolved voices over millions of years to convey information, feeling and nuance. But [young people, who won't answer the phone] want to text instead.~

I mean tech is a double edged sword but I'm guessing the positive like police having a job beating people up without being filmed by some phone outweigh stuff like your roomba uploading your floor plan.

Of course, human nature and corporate greed don't change. The difference is scale. In the past stores had to know you were rich to treat you better. They weren't checking your bank account balance at the door. Now they can and increasing do exactly that.

Same with real spying. Maybe you in 1980s china you had to watch what you said around your neighbors. Today you have to watch what you say while alone in your own home. It's just even just what you say today either, but everything you've said or written over decades that can be mined. You don't have to go to the other side of the globe to see historical examples of how this would have been abused either, Joseph McCarthy would have loved to have this data.

Again, the tech isn't the problem. It's great that was can film police abuses. It's great that we have GPS. What we don't have are regulations that prevent the abuse of our data which is collected and disseminated at an unprecedented scale and never goes away. there exists a permanent record of what you've said, what you've done, and everywhere you've been. We're going to see it used to hurt people more and more often. There are already plans to use this data to attack people who have gotten abortions. It could very soon be used against those in homosexual or interracial relationships as those too are now at risk of becoming crimes.

If your insurance rates go up next year, you won't be told that it was because people in your area spent more on fast food over the last 6 months than last year. you just get the highe4r bill.

What I fear is that we'll end up with a digital caste system where people are treated very differently based on hidden scores that follow them everywhere.

In general, with a more open system, you might also have more hope to redeem yourself, or at least evaluate effective options.

I want to start by saying this isn't your Cold War sheen propaganda. This is Harmonious Society, "river crab" propaganda. This method can belie and camouflage the salient points of persuasion, sure. But it's not only intended to stream a deluge of coercive media. The purpose is to dominate the aesthetic discourse around topics, learning as much about you as they can, while ingratiating their clusters of community norms at the same time. There isn't a monolithic identity either. It's about picking the winners of our long form cultural evolution. Country to country data definitely shows varying preferences, but aside from the initial exposure to determine what clusters you associate with, these feeds are tailored heavily by user interaction.

The public description of their process divulges the use of object and character recognition, along with audio/tag keywords, to all items in a video. So even on a virtual machine with no app permissions, this site is making an incredibly detailed profile of your media consumption habits. For example, when you stop watching a video at a certain point, TikTok records what items were in it up to that point making you stay, and what audio/objects occurred at the point of losing interest. This catalog culminates as a set of meticulous preferences that end up correlating to all sorts of useful suggestion information; preferences for video formats(do you like dance videos, rants, or documentary content?), types of speech(language and culture obviously, but also intonation, volume, frequency of use, monologue vs dialogue), length and pacing, even framing of the camera, its all logged and associated with your device and you. Along with this, topics and community clusters are accrued.

This goes way beyond blanket brainwashing or disinformation propaganda in it's effectiveness. It's like if a personal interrogator was assigned to billions of people to know every minute detail of their personal media narratives. And at the same time, became a congenial friend who is coaxing all of them to subtlety shift their identities and preferences. Mass media always takes this trend to some degree, but TikTok isolates the individual's identity. (I didn’t write this lol)

But the idea that the media forms and platforms play no causal role and it's all on us and our choices is nearly indefensible imo

Some do make it a lot harder to make beneficial choices than others for sure! Some are specifically designed for it.

People claim these systems dont shut down as you are still digesting body fat, but they for the most part do shut down and somewhere in doing that they heal very quickly. I have done it a few times (for NSAIDs and other pain killers having done damage to gut and stomach and when i get glutened giving me ulcers in my gut).

A benefit is that things like food dont rub against the ulcers which are basically like little cuts and that helps too heal too during the fast. You can go on having pain for months or years trying to deal with them in another way. Remember to dose some losalt for potassium and sodium ( your electrolytes ) while you fast to limit the dizzyness and fatigue. Im not sure magnesium powder would be a good idea due to it being tough on the stomach normally... it would stop the muscle cramps you will get... but it might stop the whole thing working ... i never used it while healing ulcers and lining damage .... but i have more recently when fasting to lose weight and it does make it easier .. magnesium tablets or capsules would be a terrible idea though those are really tough on the stomach and have a lot of added ingredients in the fillers and capsule depending on the company. Smaller fasts would also help. Good luck.

Based on what it's doing to your lungs and circulatory system, I'd put it more in the "it rocks, until it doesn't" category.

It is doing that for decades which messes you up eventually.

But my point is that you can run reasonably fast in races with fairly low running mileage. Do most of the base and tempo workouts cross training on an elliptical machine or something, and save the running for interval workouts.

True enough. I too have read "Born to Run", and would suggest that most modern humans aren't adapted to it (certain populations certainly, but most not). Although I have hit reasonably good times, I don't count myself among that population. In high school and in my 30's, I certainly was in the 90th percentile of runners, just by the numbers. Individual races, definitely higher. I love to look at the form and economy of top tier runners, and frankly, I'm not built like that; I could never perform like that. I'm bound to break down eventually, and I'm pretty good at running.

> on an elliptical machine or something

This is not running. This is training for running by not-running. Dress it up how you like, but it's how people like me save the damaging work for races.

Hard drugs, alcohol, gambling, duels; a lot of this stuff is if not banned then at least restricted and regulated.

Are we not tired of that story? So what if humanity does not go to Mars? Is dad going to be unhappy about our efforts when everyone is dead?

Our culture is a joke of wishful thinking and emotional abuse to achieve someone else’s goals disguised as essential application of agency.

How terrible if humans lived a completely different agency than kowtowing to yesteryears industrial necessity to rebuild the world after humanity destroyed it.

Grigori Perelman has achieved more of note than any of us; I know about his accomplishments and none of yours. He did it all with paper and pencil. IMO our low effort consumerism and industrialist slog is destroying our imaginations and keeping us from better ideas.

I'd argue that the chemical withdrawal effects of marijuana, are nothing compared to habitual smoking, alcohol or other "hard" drug use. But there are still some chemical withdrawal effects.

Personally I've had Minor irritability after not having an edible for a few days if I've been consistently having them nearly daily for few days. But I've also realized this, and moderate use more to only once or twice a week, and only 5-10mg at a time. I've grown to like the feel of 5mg in the evening overall. Accounting for the blah feeling the next morning/day.

I played it twice, and do not regret it.

I've heard professors say something to the effect of "students a decade or two ago used to be more productive". I don't have trouble believing that; so would I (I think) without the potency of modern entertainment. It's harder to do stuff while eating such good electric lotuses. :p

On a psychological level, perhaps. But it is pretty obviously not so when it comes to physical risk (if one smokes in whichever form).

Two of my kids use THC pretty regularly and they seem content with a life that is paying the bills but not really leading anywhere.

The third does not (AFAIK) and is on a much higher trajectory.

All had pretty much the same upbringing, rules, experiences, and discipline.

I've never used it, so don't have personal experience.

It's only a problem if they aren't actually content. I've known tons of people working minimum wage who sneer at "elites", don't seek higher things, and get high all the time, but really resent the fact that they never did anything with their lives. They don't build their hobbies, they don't seek higher levels of employment or skill, and they constantly talk about how they want to do great things that they never do.

There will always be an infinite amount of achievement that you never accomplished. There will always be an infinite number of things you never did. The best thing you can do is prioritize, accomplish the things that you really want to accomplish, and try to do your best to be happy with what you are able to do. Live your life happily, and make the people around you happy.

I mean, you can certainly argue that the meaning of life is entirely arbitrary, and there is indeed nothing wrong with that if that's what someone wants to do. But I feel like the world is generally a better place when people in it strive for more than mere contentment. And for me personally, a couple of the key things that give life positive meaning are building relationships with other people, and striving to better myself—learning things, building skills, etc. I'm glad I do these things, rather than living an alternate life where I was equally (or maybe even if I were somehow more) subjectively happy, but less active.

I'd be happy for them. I wouldn't be proud. An infinite amount of possible achievements is no excuse not to strive for anything.

If they're striving for happiness and they are happy, mission accomplished right? I assume they'd still have their own goals and hobbies outside of work or things which bring in money. Why assume those things don't matter?

I can't even imagine what a life of passive, mindless, consumption without any creative outlet would even be like. It's frankly depressing to think about!

I honestly don't know how anyone (good person or not) can properly take care of themselves on a Taco Bell hourly salary.

Really dumb take.

That said, I think the argument of “stepping stone” job salaries is less crazy in the context of people who are dépendants of other adults. If you’re a teen and you live with parents who provide food and housing and basics like that, you’re needs from the wages are different. Plenty of jobs make sense as “silly shit teens do for spending money” that would also be considered “awful life for full time adult worker”. Some of these jobs only exist because there are short term employees willing to do it for low pay. It’s fine IMO that they exist but it’d be wrong to assume that an adult should have to live of it.

I think we should push for livable wages and ensure everyone can be happy and healthy from their salary. I don’t know if it’s even possible to protect the adults in “low skill” jobs without making it hard to have “stupid summer part time jobs” for teens. If it is possible, then we should allow those teens to have their dumb low pay jobs and not raise too much of a fuss.

35 million Americans are on snap. 53 million Americans used a food pantry in 2021 (thesev groups don't always intersect)

Whether it's urban, rural, or suburban (high percentage shift since 2008), the percent of Americans that have parents that can provide food, shelter - much less plan for education and their own retirement is not a very high number for this phrasing.

Imagine if the expectation was that a part time fast food job could pay even half of college expenses.

Why not just limit some jobs or minimum wages to teens who can demonstrate that they're already financially supported? Most people earning minimum wage are adults, but we could require companies to pay adults or teens supporting themselves higher wages. We could also set age limits on certain types of work, but then you run the risk of not having enough kids looking for work with everything else they've got going on.

Those same jobs definitely only operate outside of school hours, to help promote their employees growth, right?

The harder the achievement, the harder it is to automate that achievement, the prouder I will be.

Working at Taco Bell is not that hard to obtain and may very well not exist in 10 years.

I say this as someone with at least a little experience, not to be judgmental.

There are moments in later life where everyone feels that way.

Statistically, some paths might be show up in studies as more reliable in terms of late life contentment, but on an individual level, we all end up noticing that we left a lot of doors unopened, and can find ourselves stuck wishing we made different choices or had different opportunities.

Innumerable careerists and dedicated parents and globe-trotters find themselves stuck discontent, bitter, or resentful. And innumerable people of all paths look back, wonder what could have been different, and reconcile themselves to contentment again. And heck — some people just die before reaching their goals at all.

There’s no point speculating whether the chill dude at the Taco Bell is doing it right. They know themselves better than any of us do, and may easily end up more durably content than any of us.

old Successful Career guy: should have spent more time with family and friends <starts sobbing>

old Poor Artist guy: should have worked harder and more conservative then I could have afforded a house, now I have to rent <gets all whiney>

--

the question is the mental state developed. are you somebody who regrets everything and is never happy with what you have because you alwaya need more? or are you able to be grateful and enjoy calmly small things and accept how life is?

I agree, but I think there is value in speculating whether the contentment we feel on weed is really just distraction from discontent. This applies to far more than just weed, of course, but my own experience is that weed is particularly tricky in this regard.

I don't have the insight to guess whether George should prefer to be skinnier and hornier but too depressed to meet his career goals, any more than it's my business to guess that Jane should put down the blunts and be more tuned in with all the drama in the news.

I'm busy enough trying to make those choices for myself.

That's a big rabbit hole right there. Ancient wisdom says that there's nothing in the material world which can give you true happiness/contentment/satisfaction. The world is transient and so is the happiness you get from it. Moksha/Nirvana/Samadhi is the only way to become truly happy, forever.

Weed invariably leads you to such questions. No wonder it's the gateway drug to spirituality.

I feel like there's a strong argument to be made that the person working at Taco Bell and is satisfied with their life is better off than a random cube dweller slowly losing their soul in the name of material comforts.

Nowadays software development is so meeting heavy that nothing gets done but you're "working" all the time.

The best part frankly was that there was so little I actually needed to do. I filled out a few forms, I walked the whole site X times of Y period (usually once every 1-2 hours, but depended on the site). Beyond that I was largely just expected to be at my post, reasonably alert and professional looking. My time was my own to do homework, study, read, program, or whatever. I realize that a job without anything to do is a nightmare for some people, but I've never had a problem filling my own time.

Other pros:

* I knew my regular sites almost like my home. Sure during they day there were tons of people, but by the night/weekend when I took over, I was basically the only person in the building and it felt like it was mine.

* Eating lunch on the roof overlooking the city.

* Some of the chillest co-workers I've ever met, from the maintenance crew to the other guards.

* 12-hours shifts meant I was usually only working 3 days a week.

* On holidays me and the maintenance guy would have private movie showings in the building auditorium.

Cons:

* 99% boring, but when things get exciting they get real exciting. Only time I've had guns pointed in my direction, and they were cops.

* I think getting off work and going to bed a 7 a.m. for years has permanently kind of borked my sleep.

I'm reminded every day that my decision to never work with my hands again was a good one. Nobody respects people who provide for you, that's slave's work, mother's work(, teacher's work, nurse's work.) The ultimate CEO-guru would lie on a cushion all day, being washed and shaved by his VPs, periodically emitting syllables in an unknown language that would be interpreted by other VPs as commands to direct the people who actually do the work.

If the answer to all of those questions - especially the first - is yes, then I am happy. Of course I will push them to strive for more than that, but what they do with their lives when they leave the house is up to them, and at a bare minimum, I just want them to be happy with whatever they choose.

Billions across the world would be incredibly happy with their kids getting to do something like this.

If you aren’t happy with a content child, sounds like you had children for all of the wrong reasons & would be a horrible, potentially abusive parent.

I'm not here to psychoanalyze you, but food for thought.

We forget that a job where you get free food and a low wage for simple work is (historically speaking) extremely luxurious.

As we all know (and frequently discussed here on HN), a minimal wage job results in limited housing options, limited healthcare options, limited educational options, etc. As a parent, it is my responsibility to prepare my children to become self sufficient beyond the minimum wage job. For the sake of themselves and their children.

Millions of people will never rise above minmim wage jobs.

Why fix that for one person ,and not for all?

A Taco Bell worker probably has more free energy and intrest for tackling big problems like protesting against the oligarchs.

Just met a guy last month that spent 5 years working at a carwash at minimum wage. He saved up money the entire time. Got himself a van decked for mobile cleaning. He still works hard, but is making some serious money now.

Seen far more that just collect welfare checks, smoke pot and play videos or watch tv for 16 hours a day, while blaming "whomever" for their situation.

And, the comment that millions of people will never rise above minimum wage jobs is laughable. With the amount of free/low-cost education (community college, free on-line classes, military GI Bill), and the huge shortage of skilled trade workers [0], anyone in the US can do better than minimum wage. It just takes effort.

[0] https://resources.skillwork.com/why-is-there-a-shortage-of-s...

That's the whole point of the matter though, isn't it, that if you don't have ambition, then you voluntarily get yourself stuck in a rut of your making. "I'm content in that my life is shitty in X or Y way, but cannot do anything about it".

There was a time when I found comfort in thinking that I would grow up to be "comfortably middle class". My parents disabused me of that notion, and now that I am at that stage, I feel as though there is so much more I can learn and do, instead of clocking in and out day after day.

But hey, if you find happiness in working at a gas station or something, maybe you are more enlightened than I am.

Discounting the counter productive condescension required to be the one putting the other guy down, we should all be honest with a simple fact: any typical software dev (just talking about what I know) can succeed at a gas station job while the reverse is not true. This obviously does not afford the software dev the right to be a jerk to anybody (up or down the ladder).

Intelligence is only one of the many variables needed to succeed in certain occupations.

Although you have zero supporting evidence for this fatuous assertion, you're perfectly fine with passing it off as empirical data. If you actually took the time to speak to your average software dev particularly in America, you would find that it's more likely that they've worked customer facing retail when they were younger. These are pretty much the only types of jobs that are available during high school. I myself have worked at Walmart, Blockbuster video, Chick-fil-A, and as a landscaper during the summers. None of it was particularly taxing - although it was extremely tedious at times and often boring.

And while we're on the subject of anecdotal data I would say on the order of at least 60 to 70% of software devs that I've worked with in the past were actually in relatively good shape physically and usually were very conscientious about their diet and maintaining regular exercise.

We really need to be filtering people back to Reddit.

But I do think the world is a better place with more "CEOs" running independent taco joints, and less Tacobells.

Nothing wrong with working for someone, that wasn't my claim.

What is “shitty” in this context?

It is much easier to accomplish a universal perspective when you have much less 'self' to suppress. That's been the nature of monks of all variety for all of human history. I don't think it's a coincidence or disadvantage that cannabis enthusiasts have a less-selfish mentality.

Who know, maybe I’m not meeting my full potential but I really do enjoy life and cannabis helps.

I’ve struggle with anxiety and insomnia my whole life and medical cannabis allows me to “turn off” in a way that a lot less damaging than other medications I’ve taken.

Depends on one's definition of higher, I guess.

Sometimes "do nothing" is exactly what we need in this crazy, hectic, busy world. Sometimes it's good to be bored. But keep it in check. Also, I have no problem with adults partaking, but kids with their developing brains ~ that's another story in my mind.

A few years ago, I used the word "Schmuck", and someone asked me if I was Jewish (I'm not). I didn't realize that "Schmuck" was also a Yiddish word until then. I looked it up, and I didn't realize that some Yiddish speaking people consider it to be obscene profanity! So now I use a little more sparingly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmuck_(pejorative)

I've come up with some really great stuff while moderately stoned, and while I don't consume it on a daily anymore, I can't understate the importance of having some way of recording those thoughts as soon as you come up with them be it a notepad, notepad.exe or even a voice recorder if logging things on paper or text isn't your thing because it tends to mess with your short term memory enough to forget whatever interesting point of view you've arrived on within a minute or so. I think I learned this from comedians actually, George Carlin used to work like this. I bet there's plenty of writers on South Park and may other comedy shows who do, too.

Obviously taking it on a wake-and-bake basis throughout the day is going to give you problems though. Don't use it like that unless you're trying to manage serious illness like to keep your chemotherapy meds down or arthritis or whatever. Hell I don't even drink caffeine on a daily anymore because I find WAY more utility out of it once every couple of weeks or so. Oh yeah and if I'm going to agree with anything in this article it's that extracts are kinda too turbo, but I've also tried them in small amounts in drinks (Around 5-10mg) and that was pretty amazing compared to smoking in terms of lack of side effects from inhaling crap.

That said since it does have a thought-scattering thing going for it that if you don't bother to try and focus on getting those scattered thoughts on to something which records them, it's kind of a waste of time if we're talking about using it for purely utilitarian reasons.

Unfortunately I smoked my first joint at 13, I'm pretty certain it damaged my short term memory. I think had it been legal I wouldn't have got hold of it until much older plus it would have lost some of its cool factor.

It was mostly hash in my day, I actually never liked weed , it was all super skunk loaded with thc that caused paranoia.

Alcohol, cocaine and mdma are rough drugs too but there's something about weed/hash that makes me think it's overall mental effects might be worse. It's odd that it's written off as harmless quite often. (Btw I think all drugs should be legal, but I also now think they are all horrible and have nothing to do with them , well apart from beer and wine!)

Sure, “surprise, doing drugs at 13 is bad,” but I don’t know a lot of teenage drinkers who stopped at drinking (vs further in) in the same bad spot as the teenage smokers I knew (who stopped at smoking).

The difference of smoking at 13 vs 30 is likely different, but idk if I really buy starting in adulthood and trending towards habitual is meaningfully immune from its bad impacts I’ve seen peers deal who stuck with it.

But yes, Randy Marsh was absolutely right. I've had periods of my life where I've abused it and I regret every one of those days.

I think I am starting to wake up to this. I do find enjoyment in it, and there is such a sunk cost fallacy I keep factoring in too.

I mean do I take occasional breaks, but probably not enough. It had definitely helped me lower my inhibitions enough to introspectively identity some issues that were deeply hidden under the surface of my everyday life. However, it's killed my motivation and in some ways it's starting to negatively affect other areas of my life. Regardless of my dependence, I am thankful to not feel clinically addicted or anything.

I will say, it wasn't my first choice of treatment. I tried the mental/medical health professional route. I'm still on that train, and it's been 8 years. Nothing has really improved, so I am not sure what else to do and where else to go. I adopted cannabis around the age of 29 with very limited experience prior. The kind I use is not like the variety in this article either. I use 1:1 THC:CBD hemp because high thc products are illegal in my area. So maybe the damage isn't "as bad."

If all the medical/mental health treatments I tried work as well as the medical research and doctors claim then I probably wouldn't have ever began to use cannabis in the first place. But like I said, what else am I to do? It's exhausting and stressful trying to force yourself to be a way your body naturally fights against.

It's apparent that I cannot function well without some sort of chemical assistance. I guess the only difference is where I get it from (doctor vs. plant), the side-effects, and the societal views that accompany said chemicals.

I've been trying to do some soul searching to find out what I truly want, but I've chalked it up to, "I'll know it when I see it." And till then, I must keep searching.

After all, there's a passive danger in many things we do or neglect to do.

Exercising a "little discipline" doesn't really work for addictive substances. In my experience, high-functioning people with tons of impulse control often don't appreciate that others around them have more limited capacity for that. Despite drinking a lot in grad school, I just stopped after my daughter was born. Not out of any problem functioning, I was a social drinker and was just too busy with a job and baby. But it would be foolish of me to assume that everyone can just exercise "a little discipline" and go from 5+ drinks a night to nothing just like that.

In this episode Randy didn’t have Substance abuse disorder. He took the kids for a drive after drinking. He was caught and the court ordered him to undergo treatment despite there not being any proof that he was an alcoholic.

This mentality that anyone that does something dumb or illegal while drunk has a problem does no service for either those that actually have substance abuse disorder, nor for criminal justice. You should be responsible for your own actions, and if you are sick you need treatment. But ordering people to undergo treatment after a crime despite no evidence of a disorder is just plain bad. mkay.

I've known people that were fine smoking a cigarette every 3rd day. I'm not one and that would put me on a path of relapse in a hurry.

I'll agree that avoiding addiction takes discipline, but once addicted, it depends to what, and who you are whether you need to focus on recurring abstinence or if more moderation is the ticket.

Hah, that's easily done without smoking pot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwQL9ZzJTX0

He said: "OK, motivation."

completely agree with the op in general though. def not good of for kids who should be working on establishing themselves.

The whitey that people experience, usually first time users or infrequent users, is a release of glutathione, and obviously its messing with the endocannabinoid system.

Its also got a very potent memory wiping effect, which makes it useful for criminals doing stuff to you, like raping you in your sleep if you have been spiked with prescription sleeping pills and/or off the shelf anti histamines sold to aid sleep.

Its a very nasty combination of drugs, when that sort of stuff has been done to you in your sleep, and criminals never tell you what they plan to do to you!

Dont make it easy for them, the legal system wont help you!

Afghanistan?

More than I can say for the food I eat.