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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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I think it makes perfect sense.
The “war on drugs” is class war in the US waged on the working class. People are immiserated from capitalism, and even ostracized from social production entirely -with a health care system that also exploits them and alienates providers from the work of helping others. Then, after allowing these condition, and even importing drugs directly into the streets, the US government uses the pretext of drugs to abrogate their rights and create a permanent underclass. The US govt can even get to conduct military operations nearly anywhere in the world, including in their own borders, under the guise of fighting drugs.
But this also causes another issue, where working class people in the US live with the hypocrisy and then it creates its own sort of inertia. People often have totally unrealistic ideas about cannabis and drugs in the US because their first lesson was that anyone with any sort of authority is lying about them (absolutely true) so they say things like, “weed is harmless, actually” or “weed is good for you, actually” (not true). Weed is just relatively harmless, but it does have its own deleterious health and social effects. But its hard to even study them because of the climate. For instance, for years as a health care worker I would see a few patients every day who had “cyclic vomiting” or “abdominal migraines ” and they would ask for opioids, antiemetics, IV fluids etc. They would get subjected to tests and scans that would cost tens of thousands and then labeled drug-seeking. Some would even get exploratory surgery which would cause adhesions and other post-surgical complications that caused even more problems … but imo, often these issues were more likely caused by cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, but they couldn’t be honest about their cannabis use without reinforcing the “drug seeking” label and also they often dont even believe the things health care providers tell them about cannabis.
While I'm sure canabinoid hyperemesis is quite a real problem, my anecdotal experience is of an ER doc ignoring a first dose of a medicine taken just before the vomiting began and focusing on marijuana use and diagnosing someone with canabinoid hyperemesis. They just stopped taking the pill and told their doc they need to go back to the old one. Never had an issue since and weed use has dramatically increased around these parts
Yeah, I think this really just feeds into my point. People aren’t even always wrong to withhold drug use from doctors/health care workers because so many of them are judgmental freaks- that is another layer of the problem in itself. That is why the attitude towards drugs are so irrational here
On top of that, cannabis hyperemsis is something that is poorly understood and poorly researched. It was sort of fringe even less than years ago, with only one or two good papers coming from outside the US… And no research at all in the US is generally conducted because of federal issues with legality- historically, the vast majority of research in the UA is usually stuff that is incredibly biased
It's a drug. It can be harmless if done correctly. All drugs carry this sort of problem with it. Tylenol isn't completely harmless either when abused etc. Weed suffers from worse issues of course but that is where the problem is. We treat drugs as if it's "good" drug or "bad" drug. Which honestly, now that I type this probably goes back to Western Christian societal issues but that's a whole ass other conversation.
In reality, it is a drug. I can take my vyvanse and go to sleep. My wife takes my vyvanse and she would probably be crawling up the wall with her heart almost pounding out of her chest. What's good for the daisy is poison for the cactus and all that.
Almost every drug has a duality to it. However, we can't have a normal conversation in this country without everything turning into "good" or "bad" when the truth of it is "well it depends with like five **** and 20 references"
Hell, weed can be harmless and then suddenly not if something happens to the person to change the situation. Human bodies are not static, which is something that is a radical thought to most people, which is wild to me. Something about at least Western medicine has us treating our bodies like they are literal machines, like an engine or something, when they are biological processes with a complexity that we can't even wrap our minds around.
Now, speaking as someone who is suffering from a auto immune disorder that has taken over 5 years to figure out (still not there), when you have shit insurance and have never had a good doctor in your life, you probably are going to cling to weed like a life raft if it has given you any amount of comfort. I had some of the best sleep I have had in ages on whatever they gave me for my surgery. Even before that, I had a bottle of oxy in my cabinets that I had a hard time getting rid of that I got for a different surgery that never happened. There is a little creature in the back of my mind that wants me to go find that shit and take it, cause it literally hurts me to sleep in a bed all night long. I will wake up the next morning in pain, and as of right now there really isn't anything I can do about it. The thing that has probably saved me from this is support and medical knowledge. The lizard brain, though, that desperately wants a good, nice, normal sleep, doesn't really give a shit. Now what happens if you don't have support, medical knowledge, or knowledge that good medical people exist? You take the drug and then are a dog with a bone if someone tries to take it away. That's not even getting into addictive issues.
The west is fucked. We are all clinging to whatever floats our way as the ship sinks, and sometimes those things drag us under faster.
Yeah, my least favorite is the "weed isn't addictive" trope.
It's not physically addictive like cigarettes, but man every time I pick up weed it becomes a nightly habit that is hard to resist.
The idea that any substance that messes with dopamine regulation could possibly be described as "not physically addictive" baffles me.
It really isn't though. Everything can become a habit but there's no withdrawal associated with weed except insomnia in heavy users which is easily alleviated and not a symptom specific to weed (like you're just used to sleeping more sedated, anything sedating causing this).
It doesn't have the dopamine reenforcement or opiate reenforcement that makes you fiend for it. Like ciggies will have you snapping at everyone and crawling up the walls unable to think about anything else, weed just has you feeling a bit bored cause you're so used it it.
Shit running is more addictive lol.
Bullshit. I've gone through withdrawal every time I've quit heavy THC concentrate use cold turkey, which is nearly a dozen times at this point. It's hell. Constant vomiting, migraines, temperature control gets fucked so you're always feeling both hot and cold at the same time and sweating out all the fluid in your body which you can't replace because you can't even think about sipping water without scromiting.
No investigation, no right to speak
That's not a symptom spread associated with anything I've seen in the literature, although as concentrates are quite newly popular research into them is sparse. They do seem to be behind the rise in cannabis hyperemisis syndrome, so it's not out of the question that at doses nobody using the flower or standard hash would ever be exposed to something else happens.
Or that there is adultration of products sold as concentrates with something harmful.
When you say migrane do you mean a bad headache? or the seizure headache thing associated with hallucinations, slurring/difficulty speaking, and multiple days of distorted experience. Those symptoms are in line with migraines and it's possible you're triggering them. Do you have a prescription for triptans? Have you tried them as a treatment?
You probably shouldn't take something that results in days of constant vomiting though, you need to be in hospital if that's happening as aspiration and severe dehydration become significant risks during uncontrollable vomitting.
You are quite insufferable aren't you
Well, that's kind of you.
you have obviously never experienced severe weed withdrawals lol. or, respectfully, done any actual investigation on the issue. it's simply not up for debate whether weed is physically addictive, it is. the idea that it wasn't was just kept afloat for years by stoner cope (speaking as a 10yr stoner myself). weed does have dopamine reinforcement. you can fiend for it. the withdrawals aren't dangerous in any direct sense like with alcohol or heroin, but they are real physical effects.
I mean I used it constantly from like 18-22 and quit easily after a week of insomnia that I just took first gen antihistamine sedatives to overcome.
It was easier to drop than world of Warcraft, it has no physical component at all. Even caffeine causes splitting headaches and brainfog.
I think most people who feel that weed is addictive haven't actually messed with addictive drugs like nicotine, opiates, benzos, meth etc. The only difficult thing about weed is how you structure your life about it, aka the habit. That's true of any avoidant behaviour though.
If you spin it (mix with tobacco) you'll fuck yourself but that's because if the nicotine.
it doesn't matter whether you "feel" it's addictive or not, it's a matter of scientific consensus. you are arguing in favour of ignorance and common misconception, universalising your singular personal experience with the drug. again respectfully urge you to perform more investigation before speaking
I can see papers basically exploring habit forming conditioning and some theoretical speculation about cannabinoids possibly enhancing addiction to other drugs. What specifically are you talking about?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3606907/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9110555/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/cannabis-use-disorder
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/marijuana-weed-withdrawal
Have you read these? I just read through about half of the first one and it's not very convincing. The severity of symptoms is extremely mild and they don't have comparisons to cessation of other drugs or habit forming activities.
It's sedating, and withdrawal of a sedative is associated with increased excitation sure. But we need to meaningfully differentiate the difficulty you have sleeping after abruptly stopping exercise or trying to sleep in the middle of the day from persistent and disabling neurochemical changes. Like the it's not clear that the irritability or whatever is separate from the withdrawal of any other pleasurable activity.
The number of people they describe having severe enough symptoms to continue use across the studies reviewed is around 3%. I suspect you'd see more impressive numbers for coffee lmao.
disengage
Yeah, that's persuasive.
Just leave her alone, she doesn't want to carry on the convo and that's worth respecting.
didn't ask
I don't get that itch like other substances but yeah you're right
it actually is physically addictive
yeah the withdrawals are just relatively minor compared to other drugs, but there are withdrawal symptoms (anxiousness, lucid dreams)