I started habitually smoking weed when my spouse abandoned me and my daughter to be with someone else. At first, it managed the pain. Later it was for the anger and the loneliness. And when I finally healed enough and moved on, the pandemic hit, and it was for the boredom. And when it lifted, it was because I just plain liked it.
Eventually though I took a break. And when I did I noticed how many moments of my own life I was oblivious to, I decided to extend my break. Suddenly things I’d given up on seemed much more possible. Things that seemed impossible seemed much more worth the effort anyway. Then I tried another joint because I missed smoking with my partner — I didn’t especially enjoy it, but I found a reason for another, and another, and soon enough I was high again all day and it took months for me to notice what had happened: I was no longer doing all these things that I was proud of, and was not even feeling more satisfied with my life. I was just highly motivated to seek out that specific kind of satisfaction, which came to the exclusion of so many others.
I’m glad weed was an option, but it is addictive, and that addiction leads to rationalization designed to dismiss the steep opportunity cost of being lethargic through an induced contentment.
> the steep opportunity cost of being lethargic through an induced contentment.
Weirdly, I think this is also a risk of actual contentment. I'm not a weed user, and I no longer consume alcohol (more or less). Nevertheless, through a number of strokes of good luck, I lead a very contented life, and I think this also causes a similar kind of lethargy-induced opportunity cost. Discontentment is a powerful motivator.
"Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorism, but, well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored, and it's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative."
Randy Marsh, South Park
This was unironically me in my early 20s. It wasn't so bad. Obviously eventually you get bored of this lifestyle and it's not really compatible with more "serious" responsibilities like having a family or more demanding jobs. But at the time I made good career progress, never got in any legal trouble, didn't pick up any worse habits, no adverse health outcomes, etc. And I think smoking weed for a few years made me permanently more mindful and less anxious (YMMV, apparently for some people the opposite happens).
For me, I eventually "grew up" and just found myself organically phasing it out of my life. Part of that was it was annoying to constantly be "picking up" in a state where it was illegal. And I didn't have access to giga-potent strains and non-flower administration routes. I don't think we should encourage people to be frying themselves 24/7 on dabs, extracts, 95% pure THC vape pens, etc. I'm not sure I would fully endorse 100% legality/open access like many states have. I still occasionally have a puff of a 10:1 CBD:THC vape pen and it hits the spot. But that is like 2% of what my local dispensary offers. Most of it is specifically sold as frying your brain.
> it's not really compatible with more "serious" responsibilities like having a family or more demanding jobs.
Can you explain why? I feel like weed makes me kinder to people (as well as letting go of small petty things, as the article suggested), which unironically seems like a major relationship booster, which is helpful in both family/career building.
A simple reason I don't smoke more often is because I might be asked to drive someone somewhere. Its a pretty common responsibility in a family, I would think.
If you have kids you are not at liberty to be randomly inebriated throughout the day. That's what I mean by "responsibility". Even outside of hypothetical emergency situations where I might need to drive on a moment's notice, being high (or drunk, or anything) while looking after a small child just isn't right IMO.
Not in my experience. Drugs of any kind usually cause your partner to feel too distant from the "real you". Drug use may also indicate a lack of confidence and inability to handle mundane situations.
Being an unreliable partner has to be one of the top relationship killers regardless of drug use.
> kinder to people as well as letting go of small petty things
I may be misunderstanding what you're saying here, but relationships should be way deeper than just being kind to each other. Disagreements are only as bad as the way they're handled. They need to be worked out early or the disappointment and irritation will only get worse. Burying your head in the sand doesn't sound like a good strategy.
> But that is like 2% of what my local dispensary offers. Most of it is specifically sold as frying your brain
This is actually a problem for a friend of mine who wants to try small amounts to help with her appetite and other things. Her doctors are all on board.
Thankfully I knew of a decent place to take her, but her local shops were all about melting into a couch.
Just like you don’t need to drink the whole bottle of whiskey in one evening- why not take just one or two puffs off the pen or a small piece of an edible?
This is a really nihilistic article, coming from someone who seems to have pretty much given up on doing anything but existing as effortlessly as possible. I hope that's a decision they came to rationally, and not just a symptom of profound depression. Assuming the former, it's a fine way to live for them, I guess. But imagine all the complex systems of the world—physical, economic, philosophical, technological—that are required for to support that life; it's much easier to check out when there's a functioning society around you. For all its many failures and shortcomings, the world is worth maintaining a relationship with.
I mean, they say they have a shitty job that doesn't pay well, and that they smoke in the parking lot, but that's about it. It sounded to me like they're only motivated to work because it allows them to survive, but that there wasn't much in their life beyond that. They say they have goals, but no motivation to achieve them, and no desire to be motivated. I did not get any sense that they were engaging with the world in a healthy way.
What a weird article. As I understand it, the writer wanted to combine satire with some creativity with an emphasis on how the hip youth perceive themselves.
But I can also see how this was meant as a serious piece.
The best that this article can offer as a HN submission is a discussion on “so is weed good or bad” …
My answer to this is "yes". Like most things, it's both.
Also: "A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole." -- Frank Zappa
As a daily cannabis user for the past ~30 years, it’s nice to see this (semi-satirical) support piece. Cannabis has helped me overcome OCD and other mental/emotional issues, enjoy life, and accomplish my goals. Wonderful plant.
A small amount of cannabis in the morning turns me into an absolute machine. The right sativa strain with certain terpenes (ocimene <3, plus good balance of CBD and CBG) is just as powerful as adderall for me. Moderation is key. I still get zooted to the moon on certain nights and weekends but for productivity a very small amount is truly transformative for me.
>Normies will always be normies, and they don’t necessarily like it when you’re smoking weed all the time
I am constantly impressed by the ability of 4chan insults to find their way into the common lexicon. The ironic part is that smoking weed every day would be "normie" behavior on 4chan.
Its very interesting which ones make the cut as well. I doubt sincerely that foid or moid will make it to common use, but based and normie seem to have slotted right into young people's speech patterns perfectly.
Based comes from the BasedGod himself, Lil B. It wouldn't surprise me if he were also on 4chan but afaik that's also where 4chan found the term. Before Lil B flipped the term it was derogatory and referred to users of crack cocaine.
Surely you understand that slang (and words in general) evolve in meaning and change over time - this is definitely the case with this word, and the more modern usage correlating very heavily with the start of the 4chan era (approximately early 2000's).
Were you also the kid that called people "gay" as an insult and said "no I meant 'happy'?"
Comments here are useful and on point for 20-30-year-olds. Pot makes boredom less boring, and that's probably not an ideal outcome for a young person.
With any luck, y'all are going to be 60 someday, or 80, and pot making boredom less boring is going to become your every waking thought, and staying awake all night is going to become a curse and no longer a superpower.
And cannabis is going to be there for you as an alternative to benzos and opiates, and it will be a good thing. Count on it.
Compared to how overmedicated an average American is with a lot of drugs they probably don't even need (thanks to complacent doctors in bed with Pharma), weed is absolutely the lesser evil when used in moderation (e.g. appetite enhancer, muscle relaxant, light painkiller).
> and I finish the joint I was smoking last night before bed, which is sitting on my bedside table.
How should such a person set up their smoke detectors?
I'm thinking: False alarms triggered by the marijuana smoke might disrupt their calm, and removing batteries and being in a perpetual cloudy-headed state could lead to batteries not getting back in. And if they're smoking from bed, they'll probably need more protection than most people, for detecting smoldering bed sheets.
My mom told me she quit smoking in her 20's because of the health risk.
Oh, I said, like cancer, heart disease or hypertension?
No, she was in her 20's. None of that mattered. However a friend of her's set fire to the bed she was sleeping in. That made a very big impression on my Mom. She apparently liked a cigarette before bed and had no faith in her ability to just stop smoking then - so she quite entirely.
It really depends on the kind of smoke alarm. I'm sure most home style smoke alarms aren't set off by that, since they're usually an ionization style detector. Photoelectric detectors can be far more sensitive though. Moreso, I imagine the detection has less to do with the type of smoke, and the density of it. Directly exhaling into a smoke alarm can set off the detector, when the smoke is at its most dense.
Smoke alarms don’t react with marijuana/cigarette smoke unless you deliberately blow the smoke into it. I don’t know why but I’ve smoked in my room countless times and it never went off. It’s not a faulty detector either because it has went off before!
What a condescending comment. There is always such snarky comments on HN whenever smoking Cannabis is mentioned. I was under the impression that the average HN reader had above average intelligence and open mindedness, but posts like this remind me often that isnt true.
EDIT: I have apologised for the tone of this post below, and come to a very amicable conclusion with OP.
All he said was that the smoke alarm going off while you’re high might be disturbing to that person; so, they take out the battery and forget to put it back in because weed messes with your short term memory. What’s condescending about that? All he did is speculate and he’s not that far off from reality!
For the record many people have died because they fell asleep with a lit cigarette (probably because they’re likely drunk or just very tired) in their hand which then causes a fire. Stupid ass comment!
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Eventually though I took a break. And when I did I noticed how many moments of my own life I was oblivious to, I decided to extend my break. Suddenly things I’d given up on seemed much more possible. Things that seemed impossible seemed much more worth the effort anyway. Then I tried another joint because I missed smoking with my partner — I didn’t especially enjoy it, but I found a reason for another, and another, and soon enough I was high again all day and it took months for me to notice what had happened: I was no longer doing all these things that I was proud of, and was not even feeling more satisfied with my life. I was just highly motivated to seek out that specific kind of satisfaction, which came to the exclusion of so many others.
I’m glad weed was an option, but it is addictive, and that addiction leads to rationalization designed to dismiss the steep opportunity cost of being lethargic through an induced contentment.
> the steep opportunity cost of being lethargic through an induced contentment.
Weirdly, I think this is also a risk of actual contentment. I'm not a weed user, and I no longer consume alcohol (more or less). Nevertheless, through a number of strokes of good luck, I lead a very contented life, and I think this also causes a similar kind of lethargy-induced opportunity cost. Discontentment is a powerful motivator.
Thanks for writing this.
For me, I eventually "grew up" and just found myself organically phasing it out of my life. Part of that was it was annoying to constantly be "picking up" in a state where it was illegal. And I didn't have access to giga-potent strains and non-flower administration routes. I don't think we should encourage people to be frying themselves 24/7 on dabs, extracts, 95% pure THC vape pens, etc. I'm not sure I would fully endorse 100% legality/open access like many states have. I still occasionally have a puff of a 10:1 CBD:THC vape pen and it hits the spot. But that is like 2% of what my local dispensary offers. Most of it is specifically sold as frying your brain.
Can you explain why? I feel like weed makes me kinder to people (as well as letting go of small petty things, as the article suggested), which unironically seems like a major relationship booster, which is helpful in both family/career building.
It is possible to be this way without weed too. It takes practice but is very doable.
Not in my experience. Drugs of any kind usually cause your partner to feel too distant from the "real you". Drug use may also indicate a lack of confidence and inability to handle mundane situations.
Being an unreliable partner has to be one of the top relationship killers regardless of drug use.
> kinder to people as well as letting go of small petty things
I may be misunderstanding what you're saying here, but relationships should be way deeper than just being kind to each other. Disagreements are only as bad as the way they're handled. They need to be worked out early or the disappointment and irritation will only get worse. Burying your head in the sand doesn't sound like a good strategy.
Dead Comment
This is actually a problem for a friend of mine who wants to try small amounts to help with her appetite and other things. Her doctors are all on board.
Thankfully I knew of a decent place to take her, but her local shops were all about melting into a couch.
> imagine all the complex systems of the world—physical, economic, philosophical, technological—that are required for to support that life
As opposed to what?
The author mentions functioning well and having a job; this to me sounds like having a relationship with the world.
But I can also see how this was meant as a serious piece.
The best that this article can offer as a HN submission is a discussion on “so is weed good or bad” …
My answer to this is "yes". Like most things, it's both.
Also: "A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole." -- Frank Zappa
I am constantly impressed by the ability of 4chan insults to find their way into the common lexicon. The ironic part is that smoking weed every day would be "normie" behavior on 4chan.
It’s slowly become more popular over time, but you can find much older references.
Based off of Ngram usage, it'd probably be fair to say that they popularized it at the very least. Nothing new under the sun and all that.
Were you also the kid that called people "gay" as an insult and said "no I meant 'happy'?"
Here you go: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/normie/
With any luck, y'all are going to be 60 someday, or 80, and pot making boredom less boring is going to become your every waking thought, and staying awake all night is going to become a curse and no longer a superpower.
And cannabis is going to be there for you as an alternative to benzos and opiates, and it will be a good thing. Count on it.
How should such a person set up their smoke detectors?
I'm thinking: False alarms triggered by the marijuana smoke might disrupt their calm, and removing batteries and being in a perpetual cloudy-headed state could lead to batteries not getting back in. And if they're smoking from bed, they'll probably need more protection than most people, for detecting smoldering bed sheets.
Oh, I said, like cancer, heart disease or hypertension?
No, she was in her 20's. None of that mattered. However a friend of her's set fire to the bed she was sleeping in. That made a very big impression on my Mom. She apparently liked a cigarette before bed and had no faith in her ability to just stop smoking then - so she quite entirely.
For some reason it makes me laugh.
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It takes a lot, and I assume that's intentional. Smoldering sheets and drywall are going to produce a lot more smoke than a joint.
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EDIT: I have apologised for the tone of this post below, and come to a very amicable conclusion with OP.
For the record many people have died because they fell asleep with a lit cigarette (probably because they’re likely drunk or just very tired) in their hand which then causes a fire. Stupid ass comment!