Why is casual drug use so accepted on the Internet?

Great Debates
21

Pot discussions, on the internet and in real life, are no big deal because pot is no big deal- it’s barely even a ticketable offense in most places for simple possession. Anyone whose ever smoked it knows, whether they liked it or not, that its not any problem to anyone anywhere.

PCP, herion, meth,etc are serious drugs and therefore not as casually talked about. In most common adult situations, if your friend pulls out a joint, it doesn’t raise an eyebrow. If same friend pulled out a syringe and rubber tubing, that’s a different story. Even most people I know who don’t smoke pot aren’t offended by the idea of people they know smoking it.

22

There’s also the chance the OP is engaging in online discussions with Canadians (without even knowing it! Some look just like you or me), who seem to have a slightly more tolerant view of pot than their southern neighbors.

The media as a whole seems to be softening on drug use in general. Affable characters on TV and in film can smoke a joint and not face After School Special-type consequences. Off the top of my head, I can think of Sex and the City, Roseanne, Knocked Up, and Sideways. Heck, movies about stoner characters, even ones driving while high (Harold and Kumar go to White Castle), get positive reviews and meet little outcry. Even with drug laws as they are. How fucked up is that?

Also, add to the skewing of online activity as far as age, ethnicity/class (white, middle- to upper-, at least before the Internet was available in libraries), whatever forums the OP was posting in.

23

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
There’s a larger intersection of drug users + internet users than, say, drug users + middle aged librarians, your other likely observational cohort. There may even be a larger intersection online than in colleges these days, I don’t know.
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I don’t doubt both of these observations. My coworkers are definitely the strait-laced “even caffeine is a drug” kind of people. And even when I was in college I rarely saw or heard about any kind of drug use. Lots of people drinking, but pot was almost non-existant.

[QUOTE=askeptic]
OK what’s a “strawberry surprise”?
[/QUOTE]

It was a long time ago, but I believe it was described as taking LSD and Heroin at the same time. I don’t know where he came up with it and I have my doubts it’s even real.

And these are exactly the kind of offhand remarks concerning drug use that are so common they amaze me:

[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Because it should be. And not there alone.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Pot discussions, on the internet and in real life, are no big deal because pot is no big deal- it’s barely even a ticketable offense in most places for simple possession. Anyone whose ever smoked it knows, whether they liked it or not, that its not any problem to anyone anywhere.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=elucidator]
First off, we gotta get some clarity on the term “drugs”. Is pot a drug? No, pot is milk and cookies, whiskey is a drug.
[/QUOTE]

I can understand the pro-legalization mindset (I think pot should be legal myself even though I’ve never touched it and never will), but the attitude of “there’s no problem with pot, NONE, it’s absolutely SAFE” boggles my mind.

24

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]

I can understand the pro-legalization mindset (I think pot should be legal myself even though I’ve never touched it and never will), but the attitude of “there’s no problem with pot, NONE, it’s absolutely SAFE” boggles my mind.
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What is unsafe about it? I posted a link which I can’t find now in a thread a few days ago where scientists who wanted to find a link between various cancers and marijuana use were surprised to not find one. No offense, but how can you have an opinion on something you have never experienced?

25

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
What is unsafe about it? I posted a link which I can’t find now in a thread a few days ago where scientists who wanted to find a link between various cancers and marijuana use were surprised to not find one. No offense, but how can you have an opinion on something you have never experienced?
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Because I’ve met enough potsmokers to know that the “burnout” stereotype is completely based on reality. I completely agree that pot is safe for those that use it safely. But it can fuck you up greatly and just because I’ve never tried doesn’t mean I’m making that up.

26

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Because I’ve met enough potsmokers to know that the “burnout” stereotype is completely based on reality. I completely agree that pot is safe for those that use it safely. But it can fuck you up greatly and just because I’ve never tried doesn’t mean I’m making that up.
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There are absolutely people who would rather smoke pot than go to work- hell, there are pro football and basketball players who lose out on millions because of pot use. But I was commenting on your comment that it wasn’t safe, not that some people choose pot over a job.

27

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
There are absolutely people who would rather smoke pot than go to work- hell, there are pro football and basketball players who lose out on millions because of pot use. But I was commenting on your comment that it wasn’t safe, not that some people choose pot over a job.
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I think you misunderstood me, I was more referring to the “pot as miracle drug” people who think hemp will save the world and pot is never harmful, to anyone, in any concentration.

28

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Because I’ve met enough potsmokers to know that the “burnout” stereotype is completely based on reality. I completely agree that pot is safe for those that use it safely. But it can fuck you up greatly and just because I’ve never tried doesn’t mean I’m making that up.
[/QUOTE]

Well, so can booze. So can legal painkillers. And with many, many more long lasting effects.

Pot and hemp are two totally different issues, though the very fact that people have trouble separating them is pretty much the reason why non-THC hemp is seen as eeevil rather than an excellent source of essential fatty acids when consumed and an environmentally friendly source of fibre/material/paper.

Perhaps part of the reason ‘burnouts’ skew people’s perspectives on pot is that they are the only pot smokers some people see. Everyone else who does it is smoking before bed or before going to work and doesn’t lie around reading High Times. In real life, they either don’t 'fess up to it (for fear of their reputation or their job), so no one, especially those who don’t smoke themselves, would suspect. Online is another story.

29

[QUOTE=Cat Fight]
Perhaps part of the reason ‘burnouts’ skew people’s perspectives on pot is that they are the only pot smokers some people see. Everyone else who does it is smoking before bed or before going to work and doesn’t lie around reading High Times. In real life, they either don’t 'fess up to it (for fear of their reputation or their job), so no one, especially those who don’t smoke themselves, would suspect. Online is another story.
[/QUOTE]

Which leads to my next question. Why is it that people can admit what is apparently one of their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers online, but decide to hide it from their closest friends and family in real life?

30

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Which leads to my next question. Why is it that people can admit what is apparently one of their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers online, but decide to hide it from their closest friends and family in real life?
[/QUOTE]

Who says they do? Maybe you don’t find out that people you know smoke pot because they know you wouldn’t approve. When I smoked, I didn’t go out of my way to conceal it except from people who were likely to give me crap about it.

31

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Anyone whose ever smoked it knows, whether they liked it or not, that its not any problem to anyone anywhere.
[/QUOTE]

Please put away your broad brush. I smoked it twice and most certainly experienced physical problems.

32

[QUOTE=Antinor01]
Please put away your broad brush. I smoked it twice and most certainly experienced physical problems.
[/QUOTE]

Munchies, huh? :wink:

33

The only person I wouldn’t tell I smoked pot is my nan, and that’s becasue she only knows pot is a drug, and drugs are bad- she has no concept of the difference between pot and angel dust, and would worry about me if she knew. Anyone else either knows, or doesn’t know only because they haven’t seen or haven’t asked. I also wouldn’t openly tell anyone who I know who would be offended, like a nun, only out of respect for their beliefs, not out of shame. But I do agree I know a few people who keep their pot use a “secret”, likes it some evil thing, which I find odd, but to each his own.

I’m pretty sure if I used crack or meth, though, I wouldn’t tell anyone.

Antinor01, by no one, I didn’t mean aboslutely no one- there are people out there who have an averse reaction to fresh air or water. Surely there are people allergic to it, or who can’t handle smoke in their lungs, or who can’t stomach the taste.

34

[QUOTE=whiterabbit]
I’d love to know the methodology of the studies where they come up with those numbers, DSeid.
[/QUOTE]
You can find an abstract of one of the articles here. They are anonmynous surveys. The question asked is if there has been use in the last 30 days. Of course there is always some risk of false answers but the method is generally considered reliable and I believe has been validated by comparison with other methods as well.

WhyNot, no strawman intended. Merely reacting to the tone I read in several of the posts made in response to the op. Especially your “all of the above” If such was a misread then fine.

35

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Which leads to my next question. Why is it that people can admit what is apparently one of their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers online, but decide to hide it from their closest friends and family in real life?
[/QUOTE]

Because your close friends and family can mess up your life - through staging a needless “intervention”, through turning you into the police, through taking away custody of your children, through making you a social outcast…

It’s far less likely that someone will put in the time and detective work needed to mess up the life of some stranger they only know online. It’s not impossible, of course, and there are wacky people out there, but the odds are far greater that your own family, who cares about you personally, will have a much greater interest in interfering with your drug habit - even a “harmless” one like pot.

I put “harmless” in quotes because I think there is the possibility of harm from smoking weed - but that the harm* is all because of the illegality of it - losing a job, jail time, no federal grants for school, etc. So, yeah, if my kid was smoking pot, I’d be very concerned that he might go to jail or not be able to go to college as a result, and so I might “mess up” his life to get him clean at least through college. If I find out you use it, well, I just don’t care too much, frankly.

And it’s hardly my “deepest, darkest secret”. I’d tell my mother I smoked weed long before I’d tell her I used to be a participant in S&M shows. There are just things a woman doesn’t need to know about her daughter, y’know? Pot smoking is way down on the list. But, as Who_me says, if I heard you IRL say the things you’ve said in this thread, I don’t think I’d mention my smoking to you either. I tend to avoid arguments IRL, while I thrive on them on the internet.

People share all sorts of TMI - from drug use to favorite sexual positions to the consistency of their menstrual flow - online, when they wouldn’t in real life. It’s called discretion. Also known as “covering your ass.”

*aside from idiosyncratic personal reactions like Antinor01’s, psychological addiction or outright allergies - things that can be said of every substance on earth save water

36

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Which leads to my next question. Why is it that people can admit what is apparently one of their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers online, but decide to hide it from their closest friends and family in real life?
[/QUOTE]
Because, on the Internet, nobody knows if you’re a dog.

37

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Antinor01, by no one, I didn’t mean aboslutely no one- there are people out there who have an averse reaction to fresh air or water. Surely there are people allergic to it, or who can’t handle smoke in their lungs, or who can’t stomach the taste.
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Gotcha. I only commented because I knew that absolute statement was not true, thank you for clarifying.

38

I think it’s because people define themselves, or at least categorize themselves by their drug use. They take any criticism of it very personally. I once suggested that one’s life must be pretty pathetic and desperate if they have to rely on recreational drugs in order to find enjoyment. Man, did that one ever get ugly, which more-or-less reinforced my point.

I have discovered what others have said, that the reputation of marijuana from After School Specials is that it is evil and only used by extreme druggies, while the reality is that there are people from all class levels who smoke pot. I still think of it as a bad habit (like smoking…anything). I think the overreaction to any criticism is partly due to the exaggerated anti-drug compaigns. I suspect that’s why very few people are willing to say anything bad about drug use. It’s the internet equivalent of insulting someone’s mama.

[QUOTE=glee]
I don’t smoke, drink alcohol or use marijuana. I don’t even use tea or coffee. :cool:

However I am a chocoholic!
[/QUOTE]

I’ve had chocolate. I’ve had alcohol. But I’ve never had chocohol. It sounds addictive.

39

[QUOTE=Charger]
I think it’s because people define themselves, or at least categorize themselves by their drug use. They take any criticism of it very personally. I once suggested that one’s life must be pretty pathetic and desperate if they have to rely on recreational drugs in order to find enjoyment. Man, did that one ever get ugly, which more-or-less reinforced my point.
[/QUOTE]
I would agree that drug use can lead to people categorising themselves as part of the ‘drug fraternity’, partly to avoid having to mix with those who consider their mind-bending recreational activities as ‘pathetic and desperate’. Cannabis is, in all seriousness, a substance I hold quite dear, for its effects. So I would get as annoyed with your criticism as I presume you would if I were to say the same of your hobbies.

40

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Pot discussions, on the internet and in real life, are no big deal because pot is no big deal- it’s barely even a ticketable offense in most places for simple possession. Anyone whose ever smoked it knows, whether they liked it or not, that its not any problem to anyone anywhere.

PCP, herion, meth,etc are serious drugs and therefore not as casually talked about. In most common adult situations, if your friend pulls out a joint, it doesn’t raise an eyebrow. If same friend pulled out a syringe and rubber tubing, that’s a different story. Even most people I know who don’t smoke pot aren’t offended by the idea of people they know smoking it.
[/QUOTE]

I wonder if the internet had been around in the '80s if coke would have been discussed similarly. While people knew it was more dangerous than pot, it still was a ‘social drug’ and ingrained in a section of mainstream society.

And glee’s peer pressure just made me eat a truffle.