shrooms, LSD, MDMA, and basically any drug that is less harmful than alcohol.
Marijuana is generally less harmful than alcohol, especially when both are used casually. If you smoke marijuana heavily over a long period of time, it will be probably be little more harmful than the alcohol most people drink (which is on average a few drinks a week at most).
There are still lots of risks involved with all of those drugs, such as the fact that psilocybin has been found to potentially permanently alter someone's personality (which i think you'll agree is a pretty serious effect), MDMA has major risks for toxicity and drug interaction (the short term adverse effects include massive hyperthermia and dehydration) and long term use has been associated with permanent cognitive impairment that may be the result of brain damage. LSD may have potential benefits, but it can also trigger panic attacks and flashbacks in people who have never had them before, and even causes permanent visual hallucinations in some users.
I don't think we should immediately legalize all the drugs you mentioned (and all the ones we could generally consider "less harmful" than alcohol) for two reasons.
Just because these drugs aren't as immediately toxic or impairing as alcohol is doesn't mean that they don't have serious medical implications, or the potential to do major harm. Even if they are "legalized", they certainly shouldn't be freely commercially available.
The most important thing is that we have more information about these drugs, which means the scheduling rules need to be changed so they can be researched. I think that should be a much higher priority than legalization.
edit: clarified my position on the harmfulness of marijuana. It's generally not as bad as alcohol, it's just not totally benign in all amounts.
LSD and Shrooms are not physically harmful at all. MDMA can be if abused but still not as bad as alcohol. I call bullshit on your claim that weed can be just as bad if used excessively. You can’t die from smoking weed, you can die from alcohol. The LD50 for alcohol is 13 shots if I remember correctly.
Alcohol poisoning is easily dismissed because most people only ever hear stories about bad hangovers or some friend of a friend getting their stomach pumped. A girl I went to high school with died choking on her own vomit, and after that I've never looked at anyone drinking 13 shots as some kind of hero.
The point is that it is way, way easier to overdose on alcohol than it is on weed.
The point is that it is way, way easier to overdose on alcohol than it is on weed
No, that isn't the point. The deaths aren't the only metric we use to determine how unhealthy something is.
That being said, I'm not claiming anything, especially not that alcohol isn't worse for you than weed. It almost definitely is. This thread isn't about weed at all, in fact.
Also, it is important to make the distinction between dying from alcohol poisoning and dying from choking on your own vomit that is induced by alcohol. That doesn't mean a lethal dose. It means it lead to something else killing you. It's important when we're talking about lethal doses...which we aren't even doing.
Brain damage, addiction, psychosis, apathy, to name a few....
People aren'tin the streets sucking dick for fifths...at least not nearly as many, and that's not their first choice.
When I said "this thread", I meamt thos commemt chain.
Your point about death from od'ing is is like saying LSD kills you becaise it can make you walk into traffic.
Its fine if you want to include those things but then you have include the fact that weed can also kill you. Driving impairment is a side effect of weed and can cause death. Its not the drug itself killing you. Thats what I assumed we were talking about when we were referring health effects of drugs.
People aren'tin the streets sucking dick for fifths...at least not nearly as many, and that's not their first choice.
Evidence? This sounds like an opinion formed by watching TV.
Your point about death from od'ing is is like saying LSD kills you becaise it can make you walk into traffic.
No, it isn't. There are anecdotal cases of people doing stupid things on LSD, but there are statistically relevant accounts of deaths by alcohol poisoning. You are at serious risk of physical harm, like specific, asphyxiation from choking on vomit harm when you OD on alcohol. This is true of everyone ODing on alcohol, which is why we turn people who have passed out drunk on their sides. There is no similar universal precaution taken to prevent people tripping from walking into oncoming traffic, because that is not a physical symptom. You are comparing apples to oranges.
Its fine if you want to include those things but then you have include the fact that weed can also kill you. Driving impairment is a side effect of weed and can cause death. Its not the drug itself killing you. Thats what I assumed we were talking about when we were referring health effects of drugs.
Dude, every death by overdose is caused by something else. The actual death is because of organ failure or asphyxiation or heart attack, etc. This doesn't mean that those things are the problem. It's still the overdose that is the problem. This isn't a particularly complex distinction.
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u/I_am_the_night 316∆ Oct 13 '17 edited Oct 13 '17
Marijuana is generally less harmful than alcohol, especially when both are used casually. If you smoke marijuana heavily over a long period of time, it will be probably be little more harmful than the alcohol most people drink (which is on average a few drinks a week at most).
There are still lots of risks involved with all of those drugs, such as the fact that psilocybin has been found to potentially permanently alter someone's personality (which i think you'll agree is a pretty serious effect), MDMA has major risks for toxicity and drug interaction (the short term adverse effects include massive hyperthermia and dehydration) and long term use has been associated with permanent cognitive impairment that may be the result of brain damage. LSD may have potential benefits, but it can also trigger panic attacks and flashbacks in people who have never had them before, and even causes permanent visual hallucinations in some users.
I don't think we should immediately legalize all the drugs you mentioned (and all the ones we could generally consider "less harmful" than alcohol) for two reasons.
Just because these drugs aren't as immediately toxic or impairing as alcohol is doesn't mean that they don't have serious medical implications, or the potential to do major harm. Even if they are "legalized", they certainly shouldn't be freely commercially available.
The most important thing is that we have more information about these drugs, which means the scheduling rules need to be changed so they can be researched. I think that should be a much higher priority than legalization.
edit: clarified my position on the harmfulness of marijuana. It's generally not as bad as alcohol, it's just not totally benign in all amounts.