Nerd Pride Radio

So recreational weed is legal in a lot of places, and now readily accessible to many people. Even though it's not legal in Texas, we have gotten edibles from Colorado for my oldest (with the brittle bone/chronic pain disease) to use when his pain is bad- which ends up being like once a month.

But when we were last in Colorado, I went to my first dispensary and bought legal pot and the experience was glorious. There's so much to buy and so many different forms. We got edibles, a pen and powdered THC that you can put in your drinks (all for like $90). I thought, "This is fantastic!" And it was. Then I went back to camp an hit the pen and realized... oh right, I hate being high. Like- I really hate it. I hate the loss of control. I hate the effect on your thought patterns. I hate everything about the experience. So that's the last time I used pot.

That said, I recognize that I'm in the minority here- right? Hell, my 18 year old daughter moved to Colorado so that she can work as a barista, smoke weed and snowboard all day. She's in heaven up there.

So my question is- how much weed do you smoke/eat/consume? And I understand that might be a delicate question that some people don't want to put out there, so let me ask a different question instead- if it were totally legal to use recreationally where you are, how much pot would you like to smoke/eat/consume?

I'll be the nerd here and say

In my past: none, no drugs no nicotine
Currently: none, I even have cut most caffeine from my diet and haven't had anything alcoholic in probably over two years.
The future: I do have an interest in relaxing, especially during peaks of high anxiety -- but I could see the loss of control and paranoia being an issue. And I don't want it to be a crutch, especially if I don't really need it. But a once in a blue moon legal thing -- like I do for alcohol --- maybe.

I'm in the same camp that I hate loss of control. When I drink, it's rarely more than one drink; I can't remember the last time it was more than 2. I also would never smoke anything because of asthma. So, maybe a semi-annual or quarterly nibble of edibles would be my limit.

Same boat, don't like not being in control. As of right now, I wouldn't try it at all. Don't know if that will be the same 5, 10 years down the road.

If it becomes legal, maybe I'd try an edible to see what happens, but if my experience with alcohol is any indicator, then it would be a incredibly rare occurrence if it happened at all.

None. There is no reason I should ever want to and a million reasons not to.

Besides The doctor said my lungs have so much scar tissue from COVID I am lucky to be able to breathe...Don't want to be put on oxygen.

I could see it if I had a serious medical need, like if you develop a cancer or MS or something for which pot is a helpful treatment. No reason not to try it in that situation. Otherwise, no. Absolutely no interest and especially if it's illegal. Don't believe it is ok to break the law unless you are doing it Martin Luther King, Jr. civil disobedience style or maybe jaywalking and such. Maybe singing in public for me should be a crime. Things like that. But no, definitely no lawbreaking and definitely no putting money into the hands of cartels, because precious little of the pot industry is owned by someone who should be getting your money. Like I would boycott pot before Chick-fil-A and I don't want that either. I think we have to completely change our approach to marijuana, politically speaking, so that it becomes as regulated and non-cartel-controlled as, well... I struggle here because even some of the foods are controlled by bad industries, but never as bad as drugs! How about Onions? I want it as subdued and limited and harmless in cultivation and distribution and use and access as Raw White Onions, rarely enjoyed by the young or anyone, really.

However, I probably differ from some of you when it comes to actively hostile views on the whole drug-use subject vs. positive views about alcohol. Although I realize this point is disputed by many, given all the evidence and research I've seen, I think it's empirically true that pot is a gateway drug to worse drugs, mostly where younger people are concerned. I am not worried about the MS patient or the elderly in this regard but I do think it's a serious concern for the young; it's one of my biggest fears for my kids along with things like car accidents and abusive partners and whatnot. Please avoid these things at all costs. I have seen so many ugly things produced by drug addiction and I haven't even seen it as close up as other people have to. This is close enough. It's terrible. I hate everything about it. I also know I could become addicted to drugs easily, even though I don't do them - limited experiences during pregnancy/post-surgery and such have made it clear - and I think my kids easily could become addicted if they did drugs. I do want consequence-free, side-effect-free recreational anti-anxiety relaxational soma, but we don't have that in this world. Instead, we have things that provide a micron of pleasure per shit-acre of wretched pain. I don't make an exception for pot on this score, after having seen it wreck so many young people. That said, I also know a lot of people who smoke weed and don't seem to suffer ill effects. But do they? I'm not 100% sure. Usually it's older people who seem to do it without harm, people whose lives are settled and calm and who know themselves well enough to be at little risk of worse damages.

I don't like legal drugs either, to be honest. I don't want to depend on them; I don't want their side-effects. I should have been on some type of anti-depressant drug since June 2013 or maybe some kind of anti-anxiety medicine since forever, but I resisted simply because I don't want to have to take anything at all. I definitely don't want metformin, ever, and it's making me miserable because then I have to WORK on exercising and not eating the delightful foods I want to eat while I'm here on earth. I like cookies. I like ice cream. All of it. I like Plain White Rice. Anymore it seems like the only safe and reasonable thing one can enjoy is Coffee or Tea. I did eventually take the anti-depressant and it worked, but mainly to remove fear of heights and some degree of not face-planting on the cold bathroom floor in the middle of the night crying because triggered by a lightly humorous poem or advertisement. (This isn't as bad as it sounds because the cold tiles are really nice for your face in that situation, preventing redness.) Now that it worked, I want back off and am trying to wean myself down to none while retaining the lack of fear of heights. It takes some training.

Alcohol? That by contrast is my drug of choice. Even though it ruins lives too, and even though I know lurking in the genes are natural tendencies towards excessive drinking, and I don't want my kids to drink. Still, alcohol would be my choice of thing. Alas, I am rarely able to drink. Every day I have to be "on" with full faculties functioning for most of the 24 hours including sometimes the middle of the night. When I have a window of opportunity, I like drinking and I like every type of alcohol. I am an extremely cheerful drunk. I like drinks the way I enjoy foods of all kinds; the two go together hand in hand. I would like to drink WAY MORE than I do, except I cannot. That's good, it would be bad to drink too much. Retirement presents a future challenge in this regard insofar as more opportunity to drink might be on the horizon. Many retired folks I know drink a LOT. I like my liver, I want it to remain healthy, I don't want alcohol-risk for cancer and such. But drinking? It makes me jolly like Santa. I love scotch, wine, beer, margaritas, whatever. It's all good and it's a mark of the misery of life that all the fun things hurt you.

So… none for you.

Kyle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 6:39 amSo… none for you.

Unless I have cancer or MS or Parkinson's or something.
Sorry, it's a bit of a raw issue because multiple family members and friends who started off "just smoking weed" are now dead.

Phoebe wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:00 am Unless I have cancer or MS or Parkinson's or something.
Sorry, it's a bit of a raw issue because multiple family members and friends who started off "just smoking weed" are now dead.

I don't want to poke if you don't want to talk about it so ignore me if you're not comfortable with this, but do you blame the availability of weed for their deaths... that it was a large contributing factor?

Phoebe wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:00 am

Kyle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 6:39 amSo… none for you.

Unless I have cancer or MS or Parkinson's or something.
Sorry, it's a bit of a raw issue because multiple family members and friends who started off "just smoking weed" are now dead.

Well, what I thought was interesting was that it seemed- at least to me- that the biggest factor was what you lead with- that you wouldn’t ever do anything to break the law.

Yes, that is true - I would only do it legally and only for medical reasons.

Mike asks about availability - it's not so much the availability, since I think it's always going to be available and that hasn't changed much. It's more like that people think it's harmless relative to other drugs - cue the "it's just a plant, it's natural, it's gentler than alcohol" - yes, poppies are plants too, and pot can completely incapacitate you just like being drunk. So people aren't prepared for how harmful it really can be, and trying it a few times seems like no big deal, This works out fine for many kids, and that's great luck, but a significant group of them are going to suffer.

One sub-group ends up changing their lives for the worse in subtler ways, like no longer giving a crap about school or other interests and goals, which is a real problem people don't discuss much. I've seen this happen to many people, though, and it's sad.
Another group will have an unfortunate experience, like the joy of accidentally taking PCP or being too stoned to escape sexual assault (similar with being drunk - please note this is not the fault of the person who smokes or drinks, but the point is, they are the ones who suffer a bad thing).
And then some, like all those I knew who are dead today, will develop a nastier form of addiction - anything from smoking (very common among people who also smoke weed) to meth or heroin. Even if people survive their meth or heroin addiction, their lives and the lives of everyone who loves them are turned to absolute wretched shit, and then of course some of them will die.
The availability comes into play here because you get your worse drugs from the people who are selling you pot, and perhaps even more importantly, you form friendships with the people who themselves are going to have those worse drugs and a willingness to share - perhaps even a personal interest in getting a buddy to join them because it's a lonely journey.

Even if you don't purchase drugs illegally, your money for the pot in most cases still goes back into the hands of people who profit from selling meth and heroin and cocaine and so on. People don't want to buy a chicken sandwich from a company that gives relatively very small donations to anti-gay groups (I would say this type of boycotting is ethical!) but then forget these principles when paying much larger amounts to businesses that rely on regularly killing people, either through the drugs or otherwise. That's fucked up - it's not something I can do. [Edited to add: the medical market is different depending on the product, but I'm talking mostly about the smoked plant here and who produces those plants.]

I think my husband used to have a more tolerant attitude about all of this given his general "pro-liberty" stand on things, but having seen what really happens to people and how the criminal side of that industry works, I think his view has profoundly changed. He doesn't break any laws either - this isn't why I don't but it helps that both of us are committed to that principle. I can't speak for him though. We have seen some truly awful things and we haven't even seen it up close, you know? Just secondhand.

I guess I just disagree on the viewpoint of the gateway drug aspect. Addictive personalities will find ways to destroy their lives through addictive behavior. I don’t think the statistics or science support the proposition that weed is a gateway to those paths. I also just don’t understand your argument that legal weed is just a front for murderous gangs. The articles I’ve read just don’t support that. But I suppose we’re reading different stuff. That said, I’m sorry that you’ve had to experience what you’ve had to experience. Seeing people destroy themselves due to addiction is terrible (I’ve witnessed it also).

My point that I found interesting was your bright line- “I won’t do illegal things” stance. I suppose if I thought about it, I’d realize that most folks conform to this. But it’s just alien to me. I have no inclination to follow laws simply because they are laws. I evaluate those laws and make a determination as to whether I think they are worthy of being followed. If not, and I am willing to accept the consequences of breaking them- then I’ll break them. One example is pot- I’ll buy pot in a legal state and bring it back to Texas where it is illegal so my son can have it. I don’t have any shame in that, nor do I hide it. And I’m not practicing MLK-style civil disobedience. I think it’s a dumb law and I choose to break it.

Yes, I think we are probably reading different slices of the evidence on these issues. What I've read and heard from those who know (cognitive science, neuroscience) indicates cognitive and emotional changes may result from marijuana use in some people, and that's very concerning to me both for the cases where use continues without other drugs, and where it might make worse drugs have a worse impact. Some of it is also social, in terms of the drugs to which a person then has access, but the physiological effects are concerning in themselves.

One aspect of the umbrella label of addictive personality might be a greater likelihood to try things or persist in doing those things in a way that makes physiological dependence more likely to develop independently. But another aspect is physical change that make addiction more likely, as well as the likelihood some people are predisposed to suffer such physical changes. In other words, "addictive personality" isn't a thing, as opposed to a catch-all label for many discrete factors, for some of which "personality" is a real misnomer. The concern is not only that people with certain brain differences will find their way to addiction, one way or another (in which case, yes, please do avoid pot et al.), but that actually using certain drugs makes those responses occur or become more likely to occur with other substances.

Some people will skate by all this harmlessly but many will not. They'll suffer from cognitive or emotional changes and might even alter their brains in a way that makes other addictions (even to nicotine) more likely. Or they have the bad luck of something like PCP-laced pot. But for medical use? I don't think any of that is an issue if you've already got worse physiological problems. If cancer is making you nauseous, go ahead and use the marijuana if it helps, as the benefit far outweighs the negative risks.

My understanding is that the more states legalize and regulate growers, and control both product and access to it through medical rules, the better for the outcome of hampering cartels and criminal drug trafficking. But the current half and half situation and financial pressure on local growers even in states with legalization means that criminal producers and distributors still exploit and profit. Hopefully that aspect will change, especially with widespread medical legalization.

The other issue above is not breaking the law - I don't think it's blameworthy to consider marijuana laws stupid and decide not to follow them for that reason. It might be good if judged in terms of outcomes, both for a patient and for the general effect of weakening the grip of a dumb law. It's just not something I can do because i think we have a duty to follow the law unless some other duty outweighs, solely for reasons of duty and not preferred outcome. Like if I were going to break that law, it would be because of a more stringent duty to supply medicine (whether legal or not).

Yeah.

Today being reminded of why I want completely side effect free Soma for relaxation, and hate taking things that can create any form of dependency:
I somehow lost my pill bottle and have had to wait all weekend until today to get a refill of ssri. Don't think going cold turkey off it is recommended, but one side effect is a massive headache.
What really worries me is one of my kids taking something like this, or another drug that is supposed to be "harmless" and then experiencing neurological changes that increase the likelihood of addiction If they happen to take some other drug. The whole thing is generally scary.

zero.
Childhood asthma, general phobia about asphyxiation. other ptsd.
Accidentally ingested an edible from a film crew table...totally fucked up my afternoon. Nauseous and anxious for hours, weird time shift thinking, functionally less useful than if I had been buzzed on whiskey. Entirely unpleasant.
So ...none for me, thanks, means more for everyone.

Not that I don't feel that it robs people of potential and everything else dubious chemistry can do, but it beats suffering and suicide.
Am I against self medication? Not really.
I think Mohammed had control issues rather than altruism at heart, Joseph Smith and Brigham young too.
Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.

So, illegality was a bad idea that built the cartels. A corporation is just a cartel with lawyers instead of guns (some have both).
For me, the regulatory problem is isolating it. You want to use, fine, but don't drive. Don't expose anyone who doesn't consent.
This is my thinking about drugs, booze, guns. Involving non-users in your experience is either malicious or cowardly...in any case deeply selfish.

In sum...none for me thanks.
You can grow/mix your own. ingest/inhale whatever you want, just please don't share the consequences.