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Mediahohoho
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
Addictive, schmaddictive! All I need to stop smoking weed is to move to another totalitarian country where my dealer could get hung for hooking me up and I could fuck up my wife's career, but there's unlimited booze.
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metoometoo
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
I guess I'd be considered a "high-functioning stoner," since I have written a novella and a screenplay while high. If I am addicted to weed, I am equally addicted to candy, The Hills, Lost, ordering cashmere sweaters from J.Crew, and commenting on Gawker when I should be doing work.
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Foster Kamer
07/19/09

@metoometoo: Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.
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SpyMagician
07/19/09

@metoometoo: Did you get paid to write your novella or screenplay or have they entered the public realm?

Not to knock creativity for the sake of creativity, but I'm met too many "writers" in this city who don't understand the difference between writing for themselves and writing professionally. Hint: If you don't get paid to do the thing you say you did that's not a fair comparison.
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metoometoo
07/19/09

@SpyMagician: I have not been paid - yet - for either one, but the novella was my senior thesis, and it received high honors, appropriately enough. And I'm still working on selling the screenplay. In fairness, I only just turned 24, so give me a few years to get published!

Anyway, I wasn't trying to boast about my writing abilities, just my functioning-while-stoned abilities. And I do have plenty of concrete evidence that I'm a better writer stoned than sober. I made this discovery sophomore year, when I wrote one set of poems for a creative writing class and received mediocre feedback, then got stoned to write the second batch of poems, which received rave reviews.
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SpyMagician
07/20/09

@metoometoo: Fair enough. In my case, avoiding alcohol when being creative improved things. Pot hasn't helped me do anything but be high. And I'm tired of that kind of high. So hey. All fair and all good.
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Mediahohoho
07/20/09

@SpyMagician: Thanks for straightening us all out on that.
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PageCalypso
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
As someone who grew up in a house with "high functioning" pot smoker parents, let me tell you the addiction does exist, and it is horrible. Maybe people aren't out on the streets looking for a bong hit at 3 am in the sketchy part of town, but bad things are still happening. I have seen so many things fall by the wayside with people waiting for their hookup to call or the omnipresent "lets just smoke one more bowl before we leave". Whether people know it or not they are throwing their lives away for a high just like anything else. And before everyone jumps up my ass, yes I have and will occasionally smoke pot, but if you smoke it everyday or have excuses like "I can't relax/ socialize / enjoy ____ without smoking" your a addict.
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LeeroySpitzer
07/20/09

@PageCalypso: My parents are stoners as well, and I am a stoner now. I don't blame them, I love it, but we are all addicted. As this article says, a lot of potheads used to do other things, and have settled down to just nugs. I used to do H and OCs myself, and the weed keeps me clean as a (smoking) whistle.
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clipper
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
Marijuana addiction? Please. Sorry to trot out this old quote, but it's true:

"Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?"
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phlox✔
07/19/09

@clipper: I've always been a very casual smoker, but my ex used to get really cranky if he ran out of weed and missed his daily 'bake'.
FWIW, he needed no motivation to suck dick.
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Moff
07/19/09

@clipper: When you find yourself awake at 3 a.m. scraping out a bowl for some resin for the second time in a week, because you already smoked the bud you stole from your friend's stash, even though you promised yourself you'd make it last till the end of the week, and you have to get up and work the next day, and you know how sad it is but you still can't stop, I have to say, it sure feels like addiction.
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BBooms
07/19/09

@Moff: Stock up more so you don't have to scrape for resin. No more sad feelings. Problem solved!
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momo
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
It's wonderful how they take cases of people with actual mental ailments (like depression in Joyce's case) and find a demon that is actually at fault. People need to pony up to their problems and stop looking for scapegoats.

"It's not you, Joyce; it's that horrible horrible marijuana."

Pardon me, time to smoke up and go biking eight miles.
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gawkimo
07/19/09

@momo: See, now, if you didn't smoke you would bike 12 miles.
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mina324
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
The "if it wasn't marijuana, it would be something else" is a really weak argument. Addictions work in different ways for different people. Personally, I can't say whether specifically marijuana is truly physically addictive because I never had that experience and never knew anyone who did. That doesn't mean it can't exist.
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Moff promoted this comment Edited by mina324 at 07/19/09 2:40 PM mina324 was starred mina324 was unstarred

Moff
07/19/09

@mina324: It exists, and yeah, "it would be something else" is a weak argument. I fucking adore weed, to the point where it became deeply detrimental awhile back. But as much as I enjoy a good drink, alcohol isn't at all the same and would never have simply replaced pot.
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clipper
07/19/09

@mina324: Whether or not you've smoked pot is irrelevant. Marijuana has no physically addictive features. Take pot away from a pothead for a week and their body will not react at all. Do the same for an alcoholic or heroin user and there's a risk of death from withdrawal symptoms from those respective drugs.

I'm not just a pothead trying to advocate for weed, either. This is from pharmacology text books, not some crackpot.
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Moff promoted this comment Edited by clipper at 07/19/09 3:38 PM clipper was starred clipper was unstarred

mina324
07/19/09

@clipper: Yeah, taking pot away from a pothead would probably just piss them off. A lot. I'm just saying I never knew anyone that I'd consider clinically addicted to marijuana, so I can't say for sure whether or not it's physically addictive. Psychologically, though, I could see that.
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Moff
07/19/09

@clipper: It's not physically addictive, no. Psychologically, though, it's not a lot of fun to go cold turkey if you're hooked on pot. The fact that the withdrawal isn't nearly as bad as with some other substances doesn't mean it's not bad at all.

But more than that, withdrawal isn't really the issue, or at least it wasn't for me. It's the perpetual use. It's the way your whole schedule revolves around pot. It's how it goes from fun to a compulsion. And the patheticness adds to it: You know there are plenty of people who've smoked who don't get what the big deal is, and people who'd be horrified by but sympathetic to the pain of a heroin addiction but who don't understand why you don't just quit smoking. You really do feel like, "Jesus Christ, what's wrong with me?" And because what Momo says above is true -- it's usually that you're depressed -- that just compounds the problem.

I don't think anyone with a pot addiction is under any illusion that it's as bad as a heroin, meth, or drinking problem. It still sucks.
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Baroness
07/19/09

@Moff: @Moff: I hear you, and it's true, there is such a thing as psychological dependence. When you run out, it's a bummer. I took to cannabis in art school like a duck to water, loved it, a persistent habit in my 20's. I freely admit it was grand, and also that I became dependent on it. And it does have some negative effects. Marijuana can inspire great ideas, yet impede the motivation and physical technical skill to carry them through, as in making a painting of high quality. Again, only speaking for myself. I am still fond of pot-smokers and believe in legalization, but for every pleasure, there's always a cost. It's just a law of the universe.

Also? I'm fond of them, but deeply stoned people are utterly boring at cocktail parties or social gatherings. Not great raconteurs compared to social drinkers. Very high people are boring.
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Moff
07/19/09

@Baroness: Agreed on every single count, especially the last one. Except for a handful of rare occasions when I'd had enough to drink beforehand and only smoked a little, I'm lame at parties when I'm high. Which is too bad, because OTHERWISE I AM AWESOME.
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power_stroke
07/20/09

@clipper: Cocaine doesn't have physically addictive features, either. This is from a pharmacologist, not some crackpot.
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Motoko Kusanagi
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
"High-Functioning Stoners"

This is a very real thing. I surround myself with these people, because they are great people.

I look at it this way: you're either Ice Cube or Chris Tucker. If you're Ice Cube, you vegetate and trip over your own feet. If you're Chris Tucker, you get fired up and get shit done. Remember to channel Chris Tucker before you get high.

And yes, I am high. It's Sunday afternoon!
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RandomLunatic
07/19/09

@Motoko Kusanagi: I stopped partaking after I became a father, but I have to vouch for the existence of high-functioning stoners as well. I was not among their number, but I had a number of friends who were traveling, consulting with people like Sting over new synthesizer technology and stoned the entire time.

Personally I just liked breakfast bar at the Big Boy and sleepytime a bit too much for my own good.
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SpyMagician
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
The catch-22 with criticizing potheads is that you will always be considered some narc, square, lamer or something.

Alls I knows is this: Every "high functioning" pothead I have ever known has come from suburban rich kid home at least and has a support network that helps them deal with the BS their addiction causes. And every pothead I know that's come from anything below a suburban life... Well... They are just screwed up.

How about the Times doing a story on this: Kids in "urban" areas of a city getting arrested more often for smoking a joint than some white kids doing the same thing out in Central Park near the Met (aka: Upper East Side kiddies).

Blah.
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Asmo
07/19/09

@SpyMagician: I totally agree with you on the whole racial inequality thing when it comes to who the police are actually arresting for pot. But what I really want to say is that there are potheads that come from poor backgrounds who are not screwed up. Hi, nice to meet you. Please don't judge a group by it's loudest members.
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onehotmess
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
Im still suspicious of people that dont smoke pot. Jus sayin.
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the hyphenator
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
"But I knew plenty of people like Joyce in my years of rigorousness academia, wherein a hot shower ran in a dorm bathroom all day to steam out the smell of marijuana, smoked traditionally before and after long lecture hall classes, and these were the exploits of other people far more successful than me (who ended up here, and can't handle his shit when too stoned. I freak out and get paranoid of COPS, MAN, FUCKING COPS)."

Foster--did you smoke up before posting this sentence? Proofread yourself, man...
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Foster Kamer
07/19/09

@the hyphenator: Heh. Shhhh. Don't harsh on my mellow, brah.
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musicmope
07/19/09

In reply to Sissies At NYT Sunday Styles Addicted To Weed Addictions, Man
What I learned from this article: If you interview people at addiction meetings, many of them will have addictions!
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Foster Kamer
07/19/09

@musicmope: And possibly, a good hook-up!
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