Posted on 09/17/2017 8:14:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Do I smoke too much pot? Its a question Ive asked myself over the years, and it raised its uncomfortable head this week as I absorbed the results of the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
The first thing to note about the report is the good news. One of the major and legitimate fears of those who have opposed legalization is that teen use would increase. Weed is genuinely harmful to the developing adolescent brain and those of us who passionately advocated legalization argued that making it legal would actually make it harder for teens to get hold of on the black market, and thereby could actually reduce teen use. And so far, happily, weve been proven right. Teen use of weed is now at its lowest since 1994, and has dropped by a statistically meaningful amount since 2014, when the first states legalized it for recreational use. Adult use has continued to rise so that now, 21 percent of the 1825 age bracket smoke weed monthly or more (up from 13 percent in 1990), and 14.5 percent between 26 and 34 (up from 9.5 percent in 1990). But its only marginally up since some states legalized and at the same time theres been a small but meaningful drop in alcohol consumption. Slam dunk for our side.
But what stood out for me was how much of the use is concentrated among us daily stoners. In 2002, we were only 12 percent of users; now were over 18 percent. Of the total amount of weed consumed, we comprise a much bigger percentage than anyone else. And daily use of weed is around three times as common as daily use of booze. So what? Well, the question is really something called dependence. The DSM IV definition of this is a little vague. Its not a physiological condition like addiction. Rather its defined thus by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: problems with emotions and mental health, difficulties with family and friends, taking time off from work or school, and being unable to cut down. As a percentage, more pot users admit to such problems than boozers.
Am I in denial about these worries when it comes to myself? A little perhaps.
I fit a rare profile for a daily stoner. I didnt touch the stuff until I was 36 years old, largely because I have chronic asthma and the idea of smoke in my lungs repelled me. But I was literally seduced into it. A beautiful, blue-eyed, hairy-chested dude I was completely bowled over by turned out to be a hard-core stoner. The night we met, he invited me to smoke with him. I pretended I was totally cool with that, pulled a Clinton by not really inhaling, and thought Id get away with it. I was, however, busted. You dont know how to smoke pot, do you? he asked. And then he showed me. I have a vague memory of what happened next some incredible nonlinear sex was definitely part of it and woke up in the morning after an amazing nights sleep with a ravenous appetite. This alone was a revelation. Id been a chronic insomniac since childhood as well as finding it very hard to sleep well next to someone else. Boom! That was over. More surprising was hunger. At that point, I was taking well over 30 pills a day to handle HIV (in what subsequently turned out to be massive overdosing), and there hadnt been a single day since I started the meds that I hadnt felt nauseous. Boom! Instantly healed. As I tucked into some scrambled eggs at breakfast, I actually enjoyed my first meal in years.
That was enough for me. Disrupting my work? Impeding my productivity? A couple years later, as a daily stoner, I was writing a blog round-the-clock along wth a weekly column. In many ways, it helped my productivity by finally ending my insomnia. Its always been hard for me to turn my brain off, and linear, analytical thoughts crowd my mind often to the point of mania. But now, with a mere joint, I unwind quickly after every days work and fall asleep within minutes of lying down. My friendships? Yes, I spend less time socializing than I used to, and my friendships have dwindled to a loyal core. But work itself was more of an impediment than the weed for a long time. And cannabis also gave me a whole new set of stoner friends, some of them now my closest buddies. Theres a brotherhood out there that I would never have encountered before.
My mind, moreover, shifted into a much more nonlinear and creative mood when I was high. I never write when stoned. But I do let my mind wander, revisit my writing in my head, see better its flaws, drill down past my defenses, and allow myself to explore alternative ideas. One more thing: My experience of music changed. For the first time, I was able to turn off the ordeal of consciousness and allow myself to listen properly. It hasnt really enhanced my appreciation of food (eating still basically bores me) but it has sharpened and deepened my visual capacities. It can make Cape light even more transcendent and transforming.
But my memory? Much worse. My lungs? Theyve taken a hit, even if vaping has helped. Weed may shorten my life by hurting my lungs but endless insomnia might have shortened it more. Could I go cold turkey? I have from time to time, but its not easy, largely because the insomnia always returns. In that sense, Im busted. By some criteria, I am dependent. Others may find that dependence an impediment to their lives and work, and legalizers dont need to deny that. Were all different, and weed most definitely isnt for everyone. But compared with all the other substances available, and most other avenues to chill and friendship, it remains, it seems to me, a no-brainer to legalize it, and for many sane adults, one of Gods great gifts to humankind.
Im an alum of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. (Fun fact: I was in a class with Bill OReilly for one semester). And I fully appreciate its outreach, especially in its Institute of Politics, to both sides of the political divide. We need more of that kind of thing in universities, even if it does give a sinecure to Robby Mook, the campaign manager whose staggering incompetence gave us President Trump. But this weeks announcement that it will host Chelsea Manning and Sean Spicer as fellows struck me as out of bounds. The morning, mercifully, Harvard disinvited Manning, its dean admitting to a mistake.
Hes right. Manning is a convicted felon who leaked more than 700,000 classified documents as a way to undermine her own country at a time of war. Of the 22 charges against her, she was found guilty of 17. Six of them were violations of the Espionage Act. Her maximum sentence was 90 years. She hasnt been found innocent; she hasnt received a pardon; and she is currently showing no remorse. Her leaks led to the deaths of many Afghans who had risked everything to help us defeat a Taliban that would have executed her in a heartbeat. The documents she leaked enabled the Belarus government and Robert Mugabe to initiate internal purges. She has no record of scholarship (her alleged expertise on AI is laughable); no political experience; and her views remain a puerile parody of the left of the left. Her Twitter feed, when it isnt jammed with lame emoji, contains such deep insights as abolish the presidency. human rights trump the law, no more borders, and abolish ICE. She had already responded to former acting CIA director Michael Morrells resignation from his Harvard position in protest with one word: good. She has also tweeted her hope that Spicer be removed from his fellowship as well. She has no class either.
She is also one of the worst representatives for trans people I can imagine especially for those in the military as they come under renewed, irrational assault. One of the oldest slurs against gay servicemembers was that they were all potential traitors, subject to blackmail and attracted to intrigue. But as Jamie Kirchick noted, Mannings legal defense actually cited her conflicts over gender identity as one of the reasons she betrayed her country! She made Trumps arguments for him. We know, of course, why Harvard did this hiring trans people is the highest form of virtue-signaling possible right now. But of all the trans people with distinguished careers and sharp minds, they chose a felon? And of all the trans servicemembers who have served their country honorably and proudly, they picked the one traitor?
But they shouldnt be left off the hook with Sean Spicer, either. He is, after all, not your ordinary former White House spokesman. He is someone whose soul fell out on the way to the Oval Office. He willingly, famously told blatant lies to the press again and again and again. He put ambition above any sense of integrity or duty to his country. He was a central, shameless part of this presidents assault on a free press, on liberal democracy, and on the very idea of truth. A university whose motto is Veritas should have nothing to do with him, let alone present him as a mentor to students, one of the explicit roles of the IOP fellows. How would he mentor them? By introducing them to the advantages of shameless mendacity? Yes, hes become a celebrity, largely as a laughingstock, thanks to the genius of Melissa McCarthy. But what he aided and abetted has nothing funny whatsoever about it. If the Institute of Politics is supposed to defend a free press and ethical public service, it just proved it doesnt. One mistake corrected. One more to go.
I watched part of Ben Shapiros talk at Berkeley last night. He was a bit of a prick to begin with, and couldnt resist cheap shots at times. But mostly, it was extremely encouraging, especially the question-and-answer session. He was effectively pwned on at least two questions, climate change and abortion. One student asked whether a revenue-neutral carbon tax wouldnt be both conservative in that it doesnt require much of a bureaucracy, and prudent, given the possibility that climate change could be disastrous and why not prepare for the worst? Shapiro said hed never considered such an idea and needed to look at it further. Weak; lame. The idea has been banging around forever. And Shapiro cant say whether hes for it or not?
Then he was trounced by a liberal student on the question of why women who have abortions shouldnt be prosecuted. If Shapiro believes, as he does, they have killed a human being, how could they not be? He dodged at first simply saying hed prosecute abortionists. When pressed, he argued that many women have abortions without knowing that they are terminating a human life (theyve been indoctrinated into believing a fetus is the equivalent of a polyp), and so you couldnt prosecute them for murder or manslaughter because they dont have the specific intent the mens rea to kill. But what, the student responded, about those women who absolutely do know what they are doing and still go through with it? Why not second-degree murder, or accessory to manslaughter, or some other charge. In any other circumstance, someone who plays an essential part in a killing would absolutely have to be charged, right? Shapiro retreated to an incoherent position that even though such women have committed a serious crime, in his view, no one wants to prosecute women for such a thing. But that wasnt the question. The question was whether he should logically support prosecution. And of course he should.
Those kinds of exchanges are exactly why campuses exist. Kudos to Berkeley for making it happen. They certainly challenged Shapiro more than accusations of his being a white supremacist whose speech is violence. But look at the extraordinary measures and staggering cost it entailed. Security cost $600,000. Traffic was stopped, concrete barriers were erected, and a whole swath of the campus was under lockdown, including the student union and the student center. The place was swamped by cops. Only 18 months ago, Shapiro had spoken at Berkeley with just two bodyguards.
I understand why the university and city did that. But if thats what it now takes for a conservative speaker to talk on a college campus, free speech in this country is, quite literally, under siege.
See you next Friday.
Just attended an excellent neuroscience program on how pot kills the short term memory by blocking dendritic formation in the cerebral cortex.
The younger use begins, the greater the damage.
It also explained the link to schizophrenia.
I like to joke about how both the homos and the WeedWankers are our new overlords, given the cultural clout that they wield for now. The label I slap onto them is The Gay Old Pothead establishment, otherwise known as the neo GOPe and all the negative connotations that are infused with such a wretched acronym.
Andrew Sullivan is the pathetic epitome of this cultural sewage: he stinks like anal methane and smelly-assed weed.
I don’t believe Andrew doesn’t write when he’s stoned. He’s gone from advocating for sex the same night one meets another, to advocating for pot, to advocating for abortion, to decrying the expense the Left, stuck the college with, without even stopping for a sip of water.
Is it, or do the mentally ill find it...
A Chicken or the egg question.
That explains oh so much
This guy is a mess.
And soros (who promotes potheadism in America) salivates at the thought of damaged Americans. He needs the country to fail so that he can profit from all his short-sale positions against us.
And he has a sizable set of soros-juana warriors (SJWs) to pimp the pot in the pop culture for him.
Clearly he smoked a doob halfway through and forgot his essay topic, right, dude?
More H.J. Anslinger/U.S. Gummint-generated horsesh*t from the 1930's. Absolutely, unequivocally wrong on both points. There are enough fact-based arguments against this God-created plant that one needn't spread concocted fallacies to weaken the otherwise arguable opposition.
;^)
A mentally ill homosexual, but I repeat myself; is a stoner. Color me surprised.
Good thing he is a “non-linear” thinker.... whatever that means.
I smoked some pot as well as got hooked on cigarettes when I started hanging around the “cool kids” in 7th grade during the 80’s. Not every day or anything but most weekends. Stopped pot by the age of 15 but got into coke for a bit. Also sniffed white out in junior high. I do not know why I was so reckless in my youth because since age 18 and becoming a mom I’ve been a freaking goody two shoes. No doubt that early recklessness is the cause of my anxiety/memory problems today. I wonder how much better off I’d be today if I hadn’t killed off those growing brain cells.
White out? Never heard that one. So you warn your kids with full disclosure, or it’s better for them not to hear that?
Are you seriously claiming that inhaling smoke from burning vegetation isn’t bad for your health?
This article made me ill. I guess I’m old fashioned but when the writer said they met a “beautiful blue eyed” guy, I looked to be sure the writer was a girl. Stopped reading at that point.
“There are enough fact-based arguments against this God-created plant that one needn’t spread concocted fallacies to weaken the otherwise arguable opposition.”
Any and all mood altering drugs are addictive. God created all substances...including some nasty ones.
Is that Doc?
Yeech! I stopped reading...
And this guy is supposedly a conservative?
That is a great line.
I have been reading Will Durant’s “Caesar and Christ” and he very succinctly ends the book with that opinion on the fall of Rome.
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