"Potheads", "get-out-of-jail-free", "degenerate", etc.
"Ever since it became legal I have friends who spend majority of their day high. Of course, when confronted"
Maybe you should quit interrogating your friends to prop up your own puritanical moralities. All I see when I read your post is how much you hate people who use weed.
"Hey man have you tried going a couple days without smoking weed?" is not interrogation. It's concern.
I don't understand this attitude. Do you not care about the people around you? I'm not smashing my friend's joints or tossing their bongs. I'm asking because I am concerned about their health.
What I enjoy about the comments to my comment is it demonstrates how deeply ingrained this righteous indignation is in the "cannabis community". I don't understand your insults. "Puritan", etc. For some reason having concern for friends is now puritanical...what a world. Your focus on dissecting my use of idiom as some sort of in-built hatred for weed smokers is honestly so on point for the HN commenter community its actually almost funny.
"For some reason having concern for friends is now puritanical" -- it's difficult for me to reconcile your claim to have concern for your friends while also vilifying them for being "potheads" or "degenerates"?
Not really trying to insult you, that wasn't my intent, but in an era in society where personal autonomy and agency is becoming paramount to societal influence it makes damn near no sense that you're so worked up over someone else's personal choices.
Notice I don't disagree with the presented findings, how cannabis addiction isn't a boogeyman or false flag, it's can become a chemical dependency, but I do disagree with your stance of wanting to police the behavior of others to fit your own perspective, despite calling it 'concern' or 'caring about the people around me'.
If you were my friend, I'd tell you to mind your own business then eventually lose your number. I'm an adult, I take my own calculated risks and understand the consequences of my actions.
Apologies in advance if I'm taking your comment wrong. Anecdotal here, but I've had two friends in particular who at one point completely blew their lives up because of their inability to stop using THC. At the right time I would bring it up to both of them, and made it clear I would support them and be there for them no matter what. At this time one has been THC free for over two years, while the other is still in over their head. Both have always been appreciative of what I had to say, and I'm still great friends with them.
If a friend is becoming unhealthier and squandering opportunities because of a plant, substance, or whatever, it is completely okay to bring it up to them in a tactful way. The kind of friend who is unwilling to tell you the truth when you may need it most is the kind who's number you need to be throwing in the dumpster.
Visibly worse versions of themselves, according to whose standards? Apparently the standards of someone who doesn’t use cannabis on any level, so thereby doesn’t really have the authority to determine whether his friends who are high are better off or worse off. I just can’t see anything other than someone making value judgements of their “friends”.
This is a reasonable position, which is not something that can be said about the "war on drugs" type of person that I've encountered. That person is much less likely to be critical about why they question the use and, in my experience, will often assume that "use" is "abuse" regardless of the actual effect it has on the user.
The comment rightly calls out that it is a personal take about your friends but that is also something which might be done by someone with more pointed and less honest intentions. Certainly assumptions can be more charitable, however. I don't mean to justify these complaints of your comment but hopefully they're more understandable.
"Hey man have you tried going a couple days without smoking weed?" is not interrogation. It's concern."
Or maybe it is both?
Your friends are probably old enough to no want to be controlled by you. Tell them your opinion, it might do them good, but maybe don't tell them what to do. They should figure that out on their own.
A question of "Have you tried..." might be the precursor to an offered opinion. Maybe their friends have been successful at that exact thing and the opinion is moot. But if the answer is no, perhaps that's the point at which it might be suggested to try.
There's no controlling that is necessarily suggested by their comments. Certainly such questions can be asked in bad faith but it might be assumed that OP isn't doing that.
Well, it is also about intention yes, but my point was just that people do not like to be treated as children (especially when they are acting as such). To reach them, I first have to respect their choices.
> "Hey man have you tried going a couple days without smoking weed?" is not interrogation. It's concern.
It's still telling them what YOU think they should do, no matter how nicely and concerned you phrase it. At some point you have to walk away; they're full adults, they're not your responsibility, they're able to make their own choices, and unless they affect you directly it's ultimately not your job to fix them.
> Your focus on dissecting my use of idiom as some sort of in-built hatred for weed smokers is honestly so on point for the HN commenter community its actually almost funny.
I don’t know about that, I swear that ever since the Reddit drama the temperature has been dialed way up in the comment section if HN. More downvotes, more pithy comments, more line by line comment dissections.
Friends are people you can show concern for. If you only ever have softball easy conversations with then they're probably not a friend, they're an acquaintance. Sometimes hard conversations are necessary.
"Ever since it became legal I have friends who spend majority of their day high. Of course, when confronted"
Maybe you should quit interrogating your friends to prop up your own puritanical moralities. All I see when I read your post is how much you hate people who use weed.