[HN Gopher] Cocaine Paraphernalia Ads in the 70s
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Cocaine Paraphernalia Ads in the 70s
        
       Author : mrzool
       Score  : 477 points
       Date   : 2021-11-23 09:58 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
        
       | elliekelly wrote:
       | > In 1986, under Ronald Reagan, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was
       | passed. [...] The act also created the first laws against money
       | laundering or moving illegally obtained money (such as drug sale
       | proceeds) into or out of bank accounts.
       | 
       | The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted in 1970. Money laundering had
       | already been on the books. Reagan's drug law widened the scope
       | and increased the record-keeping and reporting requirements. I
       | think Nixon is the one who has the distinction of enacting the
       | "first" AML law.
        
       | cmaggiulli wrote:
       | I've seen ads on Facebook for Etizolam ( and other
       | thienodiazepines which are nearly identical in effect to Xanax )
       | as well as ads for products that contain 4-fluoromethamphetamine
       | and other amphetamines analogs. I took screenshots if anyone is
       | interested. So honestly this doesn't really shock me at all. Back
       | then it was at least paraphernalia. Now you can find drug
       | suppliers through mainstream ads. Not to mention the plethora of
       | ads for SARMs and other performance enhancing drugs ( to which
       | some of them are actually non regulated anabolic steroids, not
       | SARMs )
        
         | R0b0t1 wrote:
         | You might want to leave contact info in your bio so people
         | don't have to post in public for the images. If you have a
         | place to put them up you probably should.
        
         | shoulderfake wrote:
         | why do you have a fb account?
        
         | standardUser wrote:
         | There's plenty of "weight loss clinics" these days that are
         | just thinly veiled prescription speed dealers, to give another
         | example.
        
       | throwaway5752 wrote:
       | https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MgX_VMXj3Sc/YZvryBNXhUI/AAAAAAAAg...
       | "finest center cuts of imported African ivory"
       | 
       | Wow. That and
       | https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3Xc47mDO8E/YZvrzIxkirI/AAAAAAAAg...
       | ("solid Honduras mahogany") really hit me.
       | 
       | I wonder what they see 50 years from now and shake their heads
       | about what we squandered. My guess is "wild caught salmon" and
       | atoll beach resorts.
        
         | dotancohen wrote:
         | Film and games glorifying defiance of authority.
        
           | pjbeam wrote:
           | Defying authority is glorious much of the time.
        
           | frostburg wrote:
           | Everyone listens to the gods in ancient myth, as we know.
        
             | germinalphrase wrote:
             | Typically, they paid for it. Hubris was sin, you know, and
             | the myths were didactic.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | notreallyserio wrote:
         | It's funny that these are marketed as luxury products that sell
         | for under $40. I mean, I know inflation is a thing, but $40 was
         | not a lot of money back then.
        
           | andruby wrote:
           | $40 in 1970 would be $269.50 today. That seems like a luxury
           | straw..
           | 
           | https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40usd+1970+in+2021
        
             | notreallyserio wrote:
             | That's about the price of a previous-gen video game console
             | with a game or two, not really a luxury good IMO.
        
               | InitialLastName wrote:
               | If you're getting as much entertainment out of a straw as
               | a video game console and 2 games, you might be in the
               | target audience for these ads.
        
               | Forbo wrote:
               | When a literal post-it note will achieve the same
               | function, it most definitely is a luxury. It's just
               | another form of peacocking.
        
             | mahogany wrote:
             | As a side note: the 70s saw a particularly high level of
             | inflation. Note that the equivalent price in 1980 was ~$85,
             | so it doubled in one decade. If that level of inflation
             | stayed constant (doubling every decade), then it would be
             | equivalent to about $1,280 today.
             | 
             | https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40usd+1970+in+1980
        
           | beaconstudios wrote:
           | many products promoted as "luxury" are about telling middle
           | class people that their products imitate upper class signals,
           | without that actually being true. Thus they're usually
           | expensive for a salaried worker but not beyond affordable -
           | whereas products that the upper class genuinely use to signal
           | are well beyond the balance of wage labourers.
        
         | dsizzle wrote:
         | Might take longer than 50 years, but I would bet things go even
         | further to simply "salmon" -- the not-lab-grown variety, that
         | is, and same for other meat.
        
           | galangalalgol wrote:
           | Nah, all they will eat is salmon, it will be excess from the
           | iron fertilization they use to counteract global warming.
           | They will have to harvest the salmon boom to protect the
           | algae bloom or the albedo will drop and cook everyone.
        
       | ubermonkey wrote:
       | I feel like this is a place where I should share this bit of
       | weirdness:
       | 
       | https://www.retrojunk.com/commercial/show/2788/synth-coke
        
       | mackwell wrote:
       | My Dad invented one of the products advertised in these. Imagine
       | my surprise the first time I saw a collection like this pop up.
        
       | ajsnigrutin wrote:
       | "For tobacco use only"
        
       | yummypaint wrote:
       | Doug Demuro famously pointed out that the Lamborghini Jalpa had
       | fully removable vanity mirrors in the 1980s
        
       | kpmcc wrote:
       | Related: https://twitter.com/CocaineDecor/
        
       | durnygbur wrote:
       | Social media, likes, followers, and notifications are today's
       | cocaine... and soft drinks.
        
         | radicalcentrist wrote:
         | Don't forget video games and rock & roll.
        
         | froidpink wrote:
         | honestly i'd say cocaine is today's cocaine
        
           | Bud wrote:
           | We were a lot better off as a society with cocaine than we
           | are now with meth and fentanyl.
        
       | znpy wrote:
       | Jesus christ that is immensely disturbing.
        
       | dmd wrote:
       | My dad [0] was a technology columnist in from the 80s to mid 00s,
       | and related this story:
       | 
       | Ken worked for what was then a first-tier Japanese hifi company.
       | At the time -- it was the eighties -- companies exhibiting at CES
       | gave shit away. Shirts, pens, calculators... you know: trade show
       | crap. Rather than have his giveaway get lost in that sea of crap,
       | my friend decided to give out pocket-sized mirrors, each encased
       | in a blue silicon sleeve emblazoned with the company logo. His
       | Japanese masters said "Ken-san, why you give away small mirror.
       | We don't understand." And Ken-san said "trust me, they'll love
       | it." And they did, because a) it was the eighties, and 2) while
       | some preparatory activities are best done on a cardboard record
       | jacket, others require an unyielding surface. I should add that
       | the notion of including a single-edge razor blade in the package
       | crossed his mind, but was rejected as being too on-the-nose.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/how-m...
        
         | jgrimm wrote:
         | Too "on the nose" indeed ;)
        
       | canbus wrote:
       | I like the poster that says "this is a natural product" as if
       | it's good for you or something
        
         | platz wrote:
         | it's natural
        
           | canbus wrote:
           | so is cyanide!
        
       | 0des wrote:
       | It's so curious that cocaine is still illegal, one could assume
       | purely as a side effect of the nations that produce it and the
       | complications that are involved with those in charge of
       | distributing it, which some might argue is a byproduct of it
       | being illegal in the first place.
       | 
       | When taken on its own, it's a surprisingly mild stimulant as a
       | nasal snuff, not at all like in the movies. When taken nasally,
       | it has a short half life, low potential for adverse side effects
       | in normal adults, and only causes alcohol like euphoria in the
       | highest doses. I can see why it is still used in medicine, it is
       | highly efficacious, and some day I can see it being tolerated, if
       | not legalized.
       | 
       | It might just be me being old, as we tend to remember the
       | positives more than the negatives, but this was a nice trip down
       | memory lane. It is unfortunate that the hobby has
       | settled/devolved into its lowest element, these days.
        
         | malfist wrote:
         | Doesn't a coke habit permanently mess with your dopamine
         | receptors? Literally makes it harder for you to function as a
         | human, even after you stop.
         | 
         | Please correct me if I'm wrong.
        
           | billjings wrote:
           | Yep. Same as a regular Ritalin or Adderall habit: when you
           | stop taking them, you have a withdrawal effect. That
           | convinces many that the drugs work. ("Look at what a mess I
           | am without it!")
           | 
           | The withdrawal from a serious coke addiction has got to be
           | much more severe, though.
        
           | whalesalad wrote:
           | Same is true for any stimulant, like legally prescribed ADHD
           | medication.
        
           | rkk3 wrote:
           | > Doesn't a coke habit permanently mess with your dopamine
           | receptors? Literally makes it harder for you to function as a
           | human, even after you stop.
           | 
           | Not really... Your body is really good at adapting and your
           | body will compensate when drugs put it out of homeostasis,
           | when your you stop taking those drugs your body will stop
           | compensating for it. You won't be "permanently" depressed
           | after quitting a coke habit and you won't have "permanently"
           | shrunk balls after quitting steroids etc. etc.
        
             | dr_kiszonka wrote:
             | I don't know about permanence, but some former steroid
             | users suffer from prolonged hypogonadism, which causes
             | testicular atrophy.
             | 
             | 0. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23764075/
             | 
             | 1. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/jou
             | rnal...
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | This is actually downplaying it. This would happen to
               | 100% of steroid users, but thank god for the internet: it
               | allowed people 1) to share the science about _how_ to do
               | steroids (and auxiliary drugs) in a way that avoids this,
               | and 2) to order the necessary products from overseas with
               | confidence in their authenticity.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | _post hoc ergo proctor hoc_
        
               | JasonFruit wrote:
               | Don't Latin if you can't Latin. English would have been
               | just as good.
        
           | standardUser wrote:
           | Cocaine is a far more mild stimulant than most prescription
           | speed.
        
           | standardUser wrote:
           | Cocaine is a far more mild stimulant than most prescription
           | speed. Though it is sometimes cut with more potent
           | stimulants.
        
         | d0gsg0w00f wrote:
         | I respectfully disagree that it should be legal. In my younger
         | years I went through a month of hard use. It was awful. It
         | makes you act completely out of character-more aggressive, less
         | inhibitions when performing risky activities (e.g., speeding,
         | theft, approaching members of the opposite sex), and you can
         | actually do a lot of damage because, unlike alcohol, you are
         | high functioning the whole time. I don't want to think about
         | living in a society where that's legal.
        
           | sojournerc wrote:
           | Respectfully, you learned that it's not for you, but do you
           | think you deserved to go to jail for trying it?
           | 
           | For me, everyone is entitled to make that decision, and if
           | legal, a lot of the problems the black market creates go
           | away, the largest of which is not imprisoning people for a
           | victimless crime.
        
         | dzhiurgis wrote:
         | > low potential for adverse side effects
         | 
         | Something like 5% get heart attacks from it.
         | 
         | Imagine going to a bar and 2-3 people just dying that night,
         | every night.
        
           | abvdj wrote:
           | citattion needed
        
           | standardUser wrote:
           | Are you suggesting that out of every 100 people who consume
           | cocaine on a given night, 5 of them have a heart attack? Even
           | DARE didn't lie that outrageously.
        
             | pessimizer wrote:
             | Or the the LD50 for doing coke is 20 times?
        
               | mhh__ wrote:
               | Source?
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | Deeply unpopular opinion here but I can attest to a few friends
         | that sought help for Marijuana addiction. There is a whole
         | community that's helping people get off of Marijuana:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/leaves/
         | 
         | I am fine with legalization of many drugs but one has to watch
         | out for excess and lack of moderation. And the stench, I smell
         | Marijuana in my apartment complex and it has sort of ruined a
         | beautiful courtyard. I wish it was not so potent and people
         | really need to be courteous (same with Tobacco).
        
           | exolymph wrote:
           | There is also /r/Petioles for people who want to moderate
           | their usage :) https://www.reddit.com/r/Petioles/
        
         | unethical_ban wrote:
         | I haven't used it, but I am in principle tolerant of drug use.
         | The three metrics of legalization/safety I have heard are:
         | Level of addiction, Ease of overdose, and long term health
         | impact.
         | 
         | You say cocaine in small amounts is a dandy stimulant. I take
         | Adderall for ADHD occasionally, and I've been told by those who
         | have used both that the differences in effect are smaller than
         | one might guess. And while I suppose I could OD by taking a
         | bunch of Adderall pills, I don't have a "drive" to keep on
         | taking more for a short term hit.
         | 
         | My rambling is to say: My impression of cocaine use is that it
         | does long term damage to the body and the nasal cavity, and
         | that its short-term high makes people chase it more and thus is
         | ripe for OD.
         | 
         | So I'm not too shocked that it's a controlled substance vs.
         | something like cannabis.
        
           | kortex wrote:
           | Cocaine also induces microischemia - basically constricts
           | your capillaries and starves the neurons/glia of oxygen. This
           | happens slowly over time and is cumulative.
           | 
           | As mentioned, coke is high on the abuse potential scale due
           | to its rapid onset and withdrawal, short loop between
           | behavior and reward.
           | 
           | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/brains-blood-cocaine
        
             | ycombinete wrote:
             | Not to mention that people are highly functional while high
             | on it. So there's no downtime on when you can be high.
        
             | runnerup wrote:
             | Alcohol also causes ischemia. Prescription amphetamines
             | also cause ischemia but are legal.
             | 
             | > As mentioned, coke is high on the abuse potential scale
             | due to its rapid onset and withdrawal, short loop between
             | behavior and reward.
             | 
             | I wonder if attaching an amino acid (a la Vyvanse) would
             | improve its pharmacokinetic profile to reduce this
             | addiction potential. We'll never know, because its not
             | legal to do research on medical potential for Schedule I
             | drugs.
        
           | TylerE wrote:
           | You, adderall is litwrallymphramacuetical grade amphetamine.
        
         | Jonovono wrote:
         | Of course it should be legal. But the way you talk about it is
         | so bizarre. Cocaine has ruined so many lives. It's incredibly
         | addicting to some. It can destroy your nose, literally putting
         | holes inside of it.
        
           | R0b0t1 wrote:
           | It's a lot safer if you just eat it, similar effects and
           | method of action to Ritalin.
        
             | spurgu wrote:
             | Yup, that's my preferred method of intake. Quick, easy,
             | clean. I don't understand why people bother making lines,
             | or using spoons or whatnot. Sure, the onset is a bit
             | slower, but I'm rarely in _that_ kind of a hurry.
        
           | 0des wrote:
           | Misuse of anything is going to have ill effects. People with
           | improper hygiene and care will develop all kinds of
           | adversities from its use. Assuming you checked out the link,
           | there are several devices dedicated to nasal hygiene as
           | evidence that these people exist. Liquid cocaine is popular
           | for a reason, allow me to explain:
           | 
           | Cocaine by itself is a desiccant, it seeks moisture, which is
           | why it gets clumpy in humid areas. When it is used nasally,
           | it dries the nasal mucosa, and triggers a mucous secretion
           | response, which then dissolves it and allows it to pass into
           | the capillaries in the sinuses, throat, and lungs. This cycle
           | of drying repeatedly can cause a sclerosis of the nasal
           | membrane, which can eventually erode the tissues affected by
           | it.
           | 
           | Conversely, when proper hygiene is observed, like with nasal
           | washes, or using liquid cocaine directly, the desiccant
           | properties are eliminated and damage is avoided: this is how
           | ocular cocaine is prepared and used with no adverse effects
           | in medicine - eye surgery, etc.
           | 
           | I take exception to your comment about it being 'bizarre', it
           | doesn't help the conversation to begin with an adversarial
           | tone.
        
             | Jonovono wrote:
             | All fair, and I didn't mean that to be 'adversarial'. It
             | was just bizarre in that, I have never seen someone speak
             | so positively about cocaine lol. I was pointing out is I
             | think, when talking about the pros, it might be worth
             | mentioning the cons for some stuff
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | Other than being illegal, there is not a whole lot wrong
               | with it, relatively speaking. Let's disregard cigarettes
               | and alcohol, those are too easy. Look at food, the
               | majority of my country is eating themselves to their
               | early deaths, and experience all manner of outcomes worse
               | - diabetes, cancers, immobility, sudden heart attacks.
               | 
               | I'm not saying it doesn't have some risks, but I am
               | saying with all other things considered, these are the
               | same risks associated with running, sex, and spirited
               | debates.
               | 
               | Consider this: It's normal for people to do this thing
               | where they feign not being able to function without
               | coffee in the AM but it is somehow not socially
               | acceptable to have a bit of cocaine on some weekends. Let
               | us consider that it's a dual standard for what is
               | essentially the same thing, enhanced attentiveness, a
               | brief euphoria, better focus, and an urge to poop.
               | 
               | If all addictions are equal, isn't the person who can't
               | function without coffee or cigarette the same as people
               | who can't go without a line? So you might ask "I've never
               | seen someone steal to buy coffee, but I've seen people
               | steal to buy coke, why is that?"
               | 
               | My estimate is that it is because one is normalized and
               | one isn't, you simply have a subset of people who are
               | self admittedly okay with breaking 'the law' by doing
               | coke, so naturally they might normalize theft as well
               | since it is a hobby that is so highly penalized only
               | those with the shakiest hold on reality/morality is
               | likely to do it. That distorts the image of it, and we
               | then begin to develop this social stigma.
               | 
               | Ergo, legalize it, you won't have more of this any more
               | than you have coffee-heads who happen to also be thieves.
        
               | novok wrote:
               | You don't go psychotic and destroy your brain from
               | neurotoxic doses from chronic caffiene abuse. In the past
               | you could take cocaine like you took coffee, but only
               | stimulants were the ones to be pretty much universally
               | controlled. Many countries do not even allow the entire
               | category of stimulants to be prescribed as a medication
               | for ADHD, such as Japan or Germany.
        
           | edm0nd wrote:
           | Tobacco and Alcohol have ruined an infinite number more of
           | lives VS cocaine yet are legal.
        
             | throw_m239339 wrote:
             | Should we make MDMA, opium, heroin and crack legal to
             | purchase and broadly available for all adults without any
             | form of prescription? After all, Tobacco and Alcohol is
             | legal...
             | 
             | Here is the thing, some highs are much more potent and
             | addictive than others. Growing up in the 90's and having
             | seen the damages of heroin, I'd say no, it doesn't matter
             | whether Tobacco or Alcohol are also legal.
        
               | spurgu wrote:
               | My decision to not use heroin has zero to do with its
               | legality status.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | Yes, definitely. If you're talking about instantly
               | killing the fentanyl problem dead, bringing a bunch of
               | people who have marginalized back into the community,
               | reducing property crime, and saving a lot of lives, you
               | couldn't make a better choice.
               | 
               | Legalizing drugs would make drug addicts far more
               | accessible to drug treatment schemes. Regulating the
               | supply would additionally make being a drug addict a lot
               | safer and less dominating for one's life. Heroin is safe.
               | It's the universe of things around heroin that kill. Lots
               | of being murdered, and going to prison; fent ods, MRSA
               | infections, liver failure from Hep C, AIDS; doing crime
               | and betraying everyone you know to get a substance that
               | costs a nickel a dose to manufacture. All of these are
               | symptoms of drug enforcement, not heroin.
        
               | standardUser wrote:
               | I'd hope its clear to most people by now that opioids are
               | viciously addictive in a way virtually no other
               | substances are. Lumping them together with other drugs is
               | disingenuous.
        
             | Jonovono wrote:
             | I never said they haven't? They have indeed!
        
         | antiterra wrote:
         | I have a friend who dabbled in coke for a few weeks. I hung out
         | with her once while she was high, and she was
         | uncharacteristically mean. At some point she decided her life
         | was becoming too focused on doing coke and told me she was
         | selling what she had left. It took a while for her to finally
         | commit to her last dose, but she managed to get rid of the
         | cocaine, largely motivated by the money she would recover.
         | 
         | For weeks after, she would crave and daydream about cocaine.
         | The fact that, despite being able to quit, she missed it that
         | much made me decide to never ever try it. I know people get
         | addicted to games or gambling or whatever else, but it seemed
         | pretty bad.
        
           | stef25 wrote:
           | Coke's reputation is WAY worse than what it deserves.
           | 
           | I guarantee you these "I tried it a few times and can't stop
           | thinking about it" stories are complete BS.
           | 
           | The effects are very short lived and the more you take the
           | more edgy, nervous and wired you get. It becomes really hard
           | to enjoy.
           | 
           | I guesstimate that 80% of all coke is consumed by completely
           | "normal" people after a few drinks in a bar on the weekends,
           | and that's that. No craving, character changes and all that
           | stuff.
        
             | standardUser wrote:
             | There have been studies that show certain people are far
             | more susceptible to cocaine addiction than others. Same as
             | with alcohol. But for most people, developing a problematic
             | addiction seems very rare.
        
           | 01100011 wrote:
           | Generally yes. The people I've hung out with while they were
           | doing coke were pushy, mildly aggressive, and would just.
           | not. shut. the. fuck. up. Being sober around cokeheads is not
           | a pleasant experience.
           | 
           | That said, I did coke once(well, twice, but I'm pretty sure
           | the second time was foot powder). It was absolutely serene. I
           | felt crystal clear, dialed in, and perfectly zen. I didn't
           | have a desire to talk, but to just observe. I felt like I had
           | the hearing of a cat. Then again, I probably have unmedicated
           | ADHD. No commercial stimulants have ever made me feel like
           | that though.
        
           | __alexs wrote:
           | Everyone I have ever met who is on cocaine has been a
           | complete ass for the duration. Even people that I normally
           | get on with just become utterly intolerable and blind to the
           | damage it's doing to their relationships with people aren't
           | taking.
        
             | kbenson wrote:
             | From my limited experience, it removes filters sort of like
             | being drunk, except without as much debilitation. The mean
             | things being said could have been someone that enjoys being
             | a bit mean (snarky/biting) but refrains from friends, or
             | someone that is sometimes unintentionally insensitive but
             | is more cautious in their speech normally to prevent it,
             | and that caution is lost.
             | 
             | For me, it was a chance for me to ask a bunch of questions
             | of people about things I was curious about but were
             | probably none of my business or impolite to talk about, so
             | I suspect to some degree I was guilty of the latter one.
             | 
             | I will say that it was incredibly enjoyable when I took it
             | with the people I was with, which were in mostly safe and
             | contained environments. If the draw to both _immediately_
             | do more and to seek it out weeks and months later to repeat
             | the experience wasn 't so strong, I would recommend it to
             | everyone to try at least once. As it is, I would be
             | cautious if trying for the first time and space out usage
             | if you tend to overindulge and/or aren't one to naturally
             | self-regulate.
        
             | staticautomatic wrote:
             | It's not exactly free of side effects, but a lot of the
             | adverse affects on mood come from doing it when you already
             | feel bad and from sleep deprivation.
        
             | thrashh wrote:
             | I don't condone cocaine but I can bet you a lot more people
             | aren't telling you that they're on cocaine.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | __alexs wrote:
               | Buddy we know when you're on cocaine were just polite
               | about it.
        
               | standardUser wrote:
               | You're clearly projecting in a massive way. I know plenty
               | of people who do coke, some regularly some rarely, and
               | they are among the nicest people I know, primarily
               | because I don't associate with people who aren't
               | generally nice.
               | 
               | Sounds like you were just associating with pricks and
               | those pricks happened to use a popular drug.
        
       | cblconfederate wrote:
       | It's like selling selfie sticks in the '10s
        
       | jdthedisciple wrote:
       | Hopefully we will consider today's gay hookup ads just as
       | disturbing in a few years ...
       | 
       | Edit in response to flag: Who would've thought even the damn ADS
       | have become sacred and immune to criticism ... ow well,
       | interesting times we live in
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | The opposite seems true, we'll just get more and more liberal
         | around sexuality as time goes on, so saddle up cowboy!
        
           | rfrey wrote:
           | I kinda disagree, feels like we're on a neo-Victorian swing
           | at the minute.
        
             | watwut wrote:
             | We are not. You can sleep around and no one cares. "Slut
             | shaming" is considered that bad thing. You can be a single
             | mom without that massive stigma or punishment to child. Sex
             | within marriage is considered good thing, unlike Victorian
             | "sex for procreation only" philosophy.
             | 
             | Literally the only thing where it is getting more tight are
             | boss/underling teacher/student relationships. Plus there is
             | more focus on whether both participants agree with whatever
             | is going on. And then again, it is not like that era would
             | be particularly good for victims of harassement or rape.
        
           | jdthedisciple wrote:
           | No worries I'm up for the ride, but biologically speaking it
           | will be lost for those who advocate homosexuality, abortion,
           | are anti-children and anti natural-families - all at the same
           | time.
           | 
           | So I'm truly not worried, nature will take care, I'm sure I
           | don't have to explain why ;)
        
             | kaskakokos wrote:
             | Nature will take care of all of us for sure ;) A bit off
             | topic but... I am struck by your point of view on various
             | subjects, as if you feel very sure about what Nature is or
             | is not:
             | 
             | - Natural families are natural? where? when? in which
             | species?
             | 
             | - Abortion is not natural, Ok, I got it, but converting
             | planetary biomass into human biomass is less natural and
             | dangerous... lot of human cultures have known this since
             | ever
             | 
             | - Drugs are not natural... Where? When? In what species?
             | 
             | - Anti-children... idem
             | 
             | - Homosexuality... idem
             | 
             | Any of these points is deep as the ocean, but if you are
             | interested in these topics.... Anthropology or Ethology can
             | be your friends ;)
        
               | jdthedisciple wrote:
               | Maybe cancer is just natural too then? I'm not sure why
               | you are playing words, you know exactly what I mean -
               | male + female and together they make children, everybody
               | understands that as the natural way. You know where, when
               | and in which species - What's the point of your
               | meaningless, pseudo-sophisticated questions?
               | 
               | Ofc nature produces aberrations sometimes, and those
               | individuals are not blameworthy for that, but we should
               | help the affected instead of spreading these anomalies by
               | selling them as mere "choice".
               | 
               | I never said drugs aren't natural.
        
               | refurb wrote:
               | Converting biomass into human biomass isn't natural?
               | 
               | Humans are just as natural as any other species. Beavers
               | build damns that flood rivers and alter the ecosystem and
               | human build nuclear reactors that alter the ecosystem.
               | 
               | It's only human judgement that makes that different.
               | 
               | You think beavers weep over all the ecosystem they kill
               | when they flood a river?
        
             | 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
             | You really think those are inherited traits? Not a single
             | homosexual in conservative families?
        
               | jdthedisciple wrote:
               | Ofc there are, but conservative families have more
               | children in general, hows that for starters?
        
             | trasz wrote:
             | How did you conflate cocaine use with getting rid of
             | harmful superstitions?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | jdthedisciple wrote:
               | No superstitions friend, I don't need to explain the
               | biology behind my post to you, do I? ;)
        
               | trasz wrote:
               | Your post has nothing to do with biology; it's just a set
               | of superstitions, possibly religiously motivated, as it's
               | suspiciously aligned with Catholic hate speech.
        
               | jdthedisciple wrote:
               | I'm not hating on anybody, just on gay hookup ADS for
               | goodness' sake, it's the ADS. Are even they too sacred
               | for you to allow me to despise them, the friggin ADS?!
        
               | trasz wrote:
               | How are they any different from any other hookup ads?
        
               | kreeben wrote:
               | Non-practicing bisexual here, looking for a way into the
               | whole gay sex thing. "Gay hookup ads", I've never heard
               | of such a thing. What are they and where can I find them?
               | What ad network should I de-block to see them?
        
               | jdthedisciple wrote:
               | I like your humurous tone.
               | 
               | Sometimes they are plastered all over public billboards.
        
               | the_only_law wrote:
               | One may begin to wonder why GP is seeing so many...
        
           | refurb wrote:
           | Not sure that's guaranteed at all. It's not like sexual mores
           | were always conservative up until now.
           | 
           | No reason why they won't go back.
           | 
           | That won't stop people, but it will make it more socially
           | unacceptable.
        
       | MisterTea wrote:
       | I remember all the little "coffee stirrers" with the comically
       | tiny spoon like ends. Of course the explanation was it's for
       | stirring your coffee or adding a little sugar. Though who adds a
       | tiny bump of sugar to their coffee? Turns out it was for coke and
       | they were commonly available everywhere. The McDonalds ones were
       | semi famous for that.
       | 
       | Its similar to those little fake flowers in a glass tube on
       | counters in corner stores which make great crack pipes (same with
       | those short cheap tire pressure gauges). Or the cheap looking
       | socks they oddly sell which are useful for tie off before
       | shooting heroin.
        
         | jowsie wrote:
         | The socks are for huffing paint/other solvents. Most junkies
         | won't even need to tie off, and if they do they'll buy the
         | shoelaces that are sold right next to the socks!
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | > little "coffee stirrers" with the comically tiny spoon like
         | ends
         | 
         | The real industrial product, that these are the "recreational
         | version" of, is the _lab scoop_ or _lab spatula_. See e.g.
         | https://www.amazon.com/Aozita-Pack-Lab-Spatula-Nickel-Stainl...
         | 
         | If you do your own compounding of supplement powders,
         | nootropics, etc. into gelcaps, you probably own one of these.
         | 
         | Bonus fact: there's a brand of lab scoops with a very fun name
         | -- the _scoopula_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoopula).
         | It's so fun to say that that's just what many people call lab
         | scoops, not realizing it's a brand.
        
           | feintruled wrote:
           | Love the product description!
           | 
           | "Works great for scientists or people working with small
           | amounts of the powder "
        
         | wonderwonder wrote:
         | There is a whole other world going on right in front of me that
         | I had no idea existed.
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | yeah a lot of people are dying right now from fentanyl
           | polluted cocaine, and it is fairly obvious from the reports
           | but every thread goes the same way:
           | 
           | "its so insensitive to suggest this person I respected did
           | _drugs_ , how dare you!"
           | 
           | ++20 comments of arguing
           | 
           | <toxicology article comes out>: It was fentanyl in their
           | cocaine.
           | 
           | until this aspect of supply chain control gets taken
           | seriously by the government without worrying about
           | acknowledgment equalling condoning, the ignorance is going to
           | keep perpetuating because the education was done so poorly.
           | abstinence-only education doesn't work.
        
             | wonderwonder wrote:
             | Saw that there is fentanyl laced pot in US states now,
             | especially in Connecticut which is very surprising as
             | Connecticut is a legal state. Articles were all light on
             | details so I wonder where the marijuana is purchased from.
             | I would be surprised if it was a dispensary. If not a
             | dispensary though, why are people buying pot from street
             | level dealers when anyone can just walk into a dispensary
             | and buy lab tested legal marijuana?
        
               | Forbo wrote:
               | DanceSafe, a harm reduction focused non-profit, had this
               | to say regarding the recent news about it:
               | 
               | "We've gotten a lot of inquiries about the recent
               | Connecticut statement confirming the presence of
               | #fentanyl in a lab-tested cannabis sample. This article
               | breaks this down in a way that we align with, but we have
               | some additional comments.
               | 
               | Regarding the issue of this lab report as a whole: 1. It
               | is unclear why the lab report designates that the sample
               | contained delta-9 THC, marijuana, and fentanyl. We are
               | confused by the separate designation of delta-9 THC and
               | marijuana, since THC is a component of marijuana (along
               | with over 100 other cannabinoids). We will be contacting
               | the lab to inquire further. 2. As elucidated in this
               | article, the circumstances around this test are unclear
               | and we are missing additional information. We are
               | tentatively agreeing that this appears to be a confirmed
               | report of fentanyl in cannabis, but we do not believe
               | that this represents any sort of market trend at this
               | time, and more information is required to determine how
               | and why this might have happened.
               | 
               | Regarding this article, we have some disclaimers about
               | language/content that we disagree with: 1. It is
               | technically possible to "smoke" fentanyl. Fentanyl can be
               | burned and destroyed in direct contact with flame, but it
               | is feasible for fentanyl to be close enough to a flame to
               | vaporize. 2. We're not happy about the choice to say "All
               | it takes is one idiot who thinks it's a good idea to mix
               | fentanyl in marijuana and we can have a cluster of
               | overdoses." People have been speedballing all kinds of
               | drugs for ages. This can be a risky behavior, but we
               | still do not condone calling people idiots - especially
               | when drug education has been made intentionally
               | inaccessible and healthcare is prohibitively expensive
               | and difficult to acquire.
               | 
               | Additional general notes: 1. If someone wanted to
               | intentionally mix fentanyl into their weed, they'd most
               | likely dissolve it in alcohol and spray it on, not just
               | crumble a tiny and possibly lethal dose of it on top of a
               | random part of a nug. 2. You cannot use fentanyl test
               | strips on cannabis (or any other organic material). We
               | are not concerned about fentanyl in cannabis at this
               | time. 3. The risk of cannabis being contaminated with
               | fentanyl remains astronomically low, if it exists at all.
               | Until additional information arises, we can assume that
               | there was indeed fentanyl present in this cannabis. For
               | now, we don't know anything about the how or why. 4.
               | Strong, harsh taste when smoking illicit market cannabis
               | is most likely an indicator that you have picked up
               | synthetic cannabis of some sort. Synthetic cannabinoids
               | are sprayed onto potpourri and other plant matter. It is
               | very unlikely that you would have smoked anything sprayed
               | with PCP (which is virtually nonexistent in the U.S.),
               | and nearly statistically impossible that you would be
               | smoking something containing fentanyl."
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | Because people actually want to buy fentanyl laced
               | products. I've known people addicted to stimulants that
               | they buy knowing that they are cut with fentanyl just to
               | get that combination with the opioid high.
        
               | vmception wrote:
               | > If not a dispensary though, why are people buying pot
               | from street level dealers when anyone can just walk into
               | a dispensary and buy lab tested legal marijuana?
               | 
               | Many frameworks are doing heavy ID data collection in the
               | stores, instead of just glancing at your ID. This makes a
               | lot of people uncomfortable, whether it is an anti-
               | establishment user avoiding the government their whole
               | life, to school teachers or religious leaders, or one of
               | the 20 million Americans working for the federal
               | government let alone someone with a clearance or a
               | federal contract.
               | 
               | Secondly, the cost and punitive taxes are high to many
               | people.
        
               | Spooky23 wrote:
               | Exactly. Many people are one regulatory change away from
               | alot of problems. Another potential issue is insurance -
               | if your life insurer obtains records that you're buying
               | marijuana, your family may see their insurance claim
               | challenged if you carry a non-smoker policy.
               | 
               | "Background Checks" are the magical non-solution for many
               | problems. Between work, church activities and youth
               | sports, I probably have 6-8 entities running background
               | checks of varying levels of intrusiveness on me annually.
               | I'm sure that information is shared with all sorts of
               | third parties.
        
               | wonderwonder wrote:
               | Seems like the cure for all of this is for politicians to
               | get around to making it federally legal. That would
               | involve going against their lobbyists / donors so not
               | sure its going to happen any time soon. Would be
               | pleasantly surprised if it did though.
        
         | jmacd wrote:
         | I live a life of ignorance.
        
           | brutusborn wrote:
           | Ignorance is bliss.
        
             | frankfrankfrank wrote:
             | Except that it heavily contributes to supporting foolish
             | policies and the bliss quickly wears off and requires ever
             | increasing amount of ignorance to achieve the same bliss
             | ... see today's policies for reference.
        
               | brutusborn wrote:
               | We are talking about different "ignorance".
               | 
               | I.e. ignorance of the drug underworld vs social ignorance
               | of policy makers
               | 
               | To get "true" knowledge (lack of ignorance) on the
               | suffering of drug abuse, one must experience it in some
               | way, so avoiding this experience is the "ignorance" that
               | leads to the "bliss"
               | 
               | Or at least that is my interpretation of the saying :)
        
         | prepend wrote:
         | > those short cheap tire pressure gauges
         | 
         | Oh funny, I wondered why they had so many of these at the gas
         | station by the checkout. I bought one and it was terrible for
         | telling my tire pressure. I could not understand why so many
         | people wanted to measure their tire pressure.
        
           | JasonFruit wrote:
           | Same. Mine flew apart on first use, and now I feel naive.
        
           | qq4 wrote:
           | Plenty of people, including me, fill tires with free air at
           | gas stations which gets them in the door. It's not surprising
           | that cheap tire pressure gauges would be sold near the
           | checkout, unrelated to drug use.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | You're on a list somewhere.
        
           | kccqzy wrote:
           | Same. I promptly threw it away and bought an actual tire
           | pressure gauge from a car dealer.
        
           | 13of40 wrote:
           | Many, many years ago, naive me bought my girlfriend one of
           | those roses at a 7-Eleven, and I still remember her response:
           | "Oh, Honey, you bought me a craaack pipe!" We're not together
           | anymore.
        
         | tomerv wrote:
         | Those all sound like urban legends.
         | 
         | The coffee stirrers are for ... stirring your coffee. They look
         | like a small spoon just because that shape works well for
         | stirring the beverage.
        
           | MisterTea wrote:
           | https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/642413/mcdonalds-
           | cocaine...
           | 
           | The others were listed in a similar article. The small tire
           | pressure gauge was told to me by a friend who at one point
           | had a crack habit and used said items to smoke crack and said
           | it was a well known item to use for such a purpose.
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | I think I was 15 when I called bullshit on that coffee
             | spoon. I didn't understand what was going on exactly, but
             | part of me knew that was a stupid size for coffee. I may
             | have even joked about it being for cocaine, but I don't
             | think I was serious about that. Nobody where I lived used
             | cocaine, right?
             | 
             | Right?
        
             | tomerv wrote:
             | Your original comment makes it sound like the main purpose
             | of the small spoon is for cocaine - "Turns out it was for
             | coke". But it's not "for coke", it's for stirring your
             | coffee, and it's just that cocaine users found an
             | alternative use for it. The article makes this pretty
             | clear.
        
               | marzell wrote:
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_rose
        
               | tomerv wrote:
               | Okay, you convinced me about that one (I haven't heard
               | about this love rose thing before, and I don't live in
               | the US). But my point about the stirrers still stands.
               | 
               | I also think that the cheap socks are just that. But
               | maybe they're popular due to their additional unintended
               | use.
        
               | simtel20 wrote:
               | The size of the clientele for many of these things
               | probably would have been much smaller without the illicit
               | uses, and they probably were created without illicit
               | motives. Once there is demand, however, the further use
               | was probably quantifiable as legit vs. off-brand use and
               | even if one maker of glass tubes (for e.g.) stops because
               | they're useful as rock pipes of some kind, someone else
               | would be happy to pick up the slack.
        
               | jccalhoun wrote:
               | thanks for the link. I have seen full sized roses in
               | plastic tubes at gas stations and I was trying to figure
               | out how those could be used for drugs. These little ones
               | make more sense.
        
           | ThinkingGuy wrote:
           | Every once in a while, even urban legends can turn out to be
           | true:
           | 
           | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stirring-response/
        
             | astura wrote:
             | That link actually throughly refutes what the OP claimed.
             | 
             | They claimed that drug paraphernalia was being sold as
             | "coffee stirrers" (wink, wink) that nobody would actually
             | use for coffee.
             | 
             | That link says people were using actual coffee stirrers to
             | also snort cocaine. Their original intended use was as
             | coffee stirrers, not drug paraphernalia.
             | 
             | There's a gigantic difference.
        
               | SamBam wrote:
               | Indeed, and for all the people scoffing at how they can't
               | possibly be coffee stirrers, most coffee shops nowadays
               | give you tiny plastic or wooden twigs, which are _far_
               | less effective at actually stirring, and yet still get
               | the job done ok.
               | 
               | A small spoon at the end of a modern stirrer would be
               | much more effective, yet I guess people would accuse them
               | of selling drug paraphernalia.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | No, there's an absurdly minor difference. Plenty of
               | "coffee stirrers" were intentionally manufactured as coke
               | spoons, and plenty of earnest coffee stirrers were used
               | instead as coke spoons.
               | 
               | McDonald's was obviously not intentionally trying to
               | manufacture coke spooks for absolutely no conceivable
               | gain, but I bet their packaging designers looked at a lot
               | of random coffee stirrers and tried to make one that
               | looked like the fanciest of those.
        
           | tenebrisalietum wrote:
           | Worked 3rd shift for a gas station for a year and a half.
           | Seedy elements would come in and ask for the glass roses
           | regularly, but we didn't sell them because they were known
           | paraphernalia.
        
           | howLongHowLong wrote:
           | The glass rose is definitely for smoking crack. Else why is
           | it ofen sold as a combo with a peice of (also-required)
           | chore-boy. 5 bucks for both. Usually on the same shelf with
           | the round-ended meth pipes which dont seem to require any
           | cover but being called "oil burner"
        
             | derefr wrote:
             | Don't forget the modern incarnation, borosilicate-glass
             | "reusable drinking straws." Now up-market grocery stores
             | can get in on the action!
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | Not that they can't be repurposed, but imo the main
               | reason for those is that it's hard to tell when your
               | steel straw is dirty.
        
         | hinkley wrote:
         | I feel like this is a parable for A/B testing without
         | considering the consequences.
         | 
         | For McDonald's, straws and stirrers are provided gratis, so you
         | aren't succeeding if you raise demand for the stirrer. If a
         | stirrer sold you more coffee, then it was a success. Just like
         | the thicker straw sold more shakes (some of their competitors
         | never figured that out, and one wonders if they ever actually
         | talked to a customer or just sat in smoky meeting rooms
         | bullshitting all day).
         | 
         | However coffee being a stimulant, there is probably some
         | overlap between the two demographics. It'd be hard to track if
         | a lot of stirrers left with a coffee drinker but were unused
         | for coffee. So perhaps in fact they did sell extra coffee to
         | cocaine users and just patted themselves on the back for the
         | increased revenue.
        
       | steviedotboston wrote:
       | This is really depressing for some reason. Just very bleak
        
         | 4wsn wrote:
         | My sentiments as well. It gives the impression of a society
         | where the only sentiment not scoffed at is satisfying one's
         | urges and impulses. It's so hollow and empty.
        
           | stickfigure wrote:
           | It feels like common advertising at the time. See also "Rich
           | Corinthian Leather":
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/tfKHBB4vt4c?t=9
        
       | TeaDude wrote:
       | The ivory ads are probably the best.
       | 
       | "The drugs you consume fund an international racket of abuse. Why
       | not display it with the abuse of animals?"
        
       | grouphugs wrote:
       | i should be selling cocaine and cocaine accessories, i could also
       | use some myself
        
       | jack_riminton wrote:
       | Reminds me of the 'valentine love roses'
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/8pq62j/the_fact_tha...
        
       | vadfa wrote:
       | San Andreas throwback:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabNcVpyvAc
        
       | sergioisidoro wrote:
       | Many times I think "what today will sound absurd in the future?".
       | 
       | Our widespread and normalised alcohol abuse is one of the things
       | crossing my mind, and I wonder if many ads related to vaping,
       | smoking and alcohol will look like this for us in a few years.
       | 
       | Edit: To clarify, what I mean with normalising alcohol abuse is
       | not getting a bit of a buzz with a few glasses of wine or beer in
       | a social setting. It's how we've normalised getting completely
       | hammered every weekend, and even celebrate people who can drink a
       | lot.
        
         | zikduruqe wrote:
         | > what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | Lawns. We spend an unnecessary amount of money, time, energy,
         | chemicals and water on a plant that does not produce food nor
         | any benefit other than it is visually pleasing. It is totally
         | dumb.
        
           | macinjosh wrote:
           | Me, my dog and my two year old beg to differ that lawns are
           | only about visuals.
        
           | kown7 wrote:
           | It has always been a sign of wealth, i.e. no need to grow
           | crops in front of your castle because you can afford it.
        
           | fullstop wrote:
           | Eh, I'm halfway there. I spend about 45 minutes a week, in
           | the summer, cutting my grass. I don't use fertilizer or weed
           | killer, so a lot of my lawn is actually clover. The benefits
           | of this, for me are:                   * A place for my kids
           | to play         * Friends and family gather there         *
           | There are a few raised garden beds, so I get tomatoes, peas,
           | peppers, and lettuce         * It isolates me from the wooded
           | area near me.  Mice and other pests generally stay over there
           | and not in my house.
        
             | mywittyname wrote:
             | * It isolates me from the wooded area near me.  Mice and
             | other pests generally stay over there and not in my house.
             | 
             | Yes, it turns out that lawns serve an enormously practical
             | purposes. Beyond this, they are required by code in certain
             | places, as grasses serve to inhibit soil erosion.
             | 
             | The original complaint should be amended to state something
             | like, lawns in places where lawns can't be sustained by
             | natural means. Lawns in places like arid regions are
             | terrible. But a good portion of the USA has a climate
             | capable of maintaining large lawns with little more than
             | mowing.
             | 
             | In these places, you can't have large gravel expanses like
             | you can in the south west, because grasses will naturally
             | overtake it, leaving a nasty looking, patchy mess that
             | can't be mowed without the risk of high-speed projectiles
             | being shot from the mower deck.
             | 
             | So yeah, lawns aren't going anywhere, except in places
             | where they are wholly artificial.
        
           | OliverM wrote:
           | Lawns do have a flood control benefit in areas with lots of
           | rainfall or that are prone to intense rainstorms. But so
           | would the same land left to grow wild.
        
           | apozem wrote:
           | If anyone reading this is interested in more environmentally
           | friendly ways to maintain a lawn, look into xeriscaping. If
           | you pick good plants it can turn out really well.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping
        
           | mracette wrote:
           | That's far from the only benefit. Lawns have immense
           | recreational value especially for families with children.
        
           | mmcgaha wrote:
           | If you don't have trees blocking the sun, something will grow
           | in your yard and it will look a lot like a lawn.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | millzlane wrote:
         | Hunger or worldwide famine comes to mind for me.
        
         | gherkinnn wrote:
         | Humans have been boozing forever. It will stay, to one degree
         | or another.
         | 
         | Us painting all sorts of phantasies using crypto and meta-
         | things will be very funny to look back upon. Give it 5 years.
         | Oh the naivete.
         | 
         | Adtech and addiction machines will be another two (partially
         | related) areas that we'll be shaking our heads at.
        
           | telesilla wrote:
           | As do many birds and other mammals! Giraffes and that fat New
           | Zealand pigeon come to mind.
        
             | throwanem wrote:
             | Not just mammals, either! Wasps aren't averse to getting
             | lit up when it's late enough in the season for fruit to
             | have fermented. Sometimes they get too wasted to fly home,
             | like the bald-faced yellowjacket I found sleeping it off on
             | one of my porch windows a few months back - there's a fig
             | tree in my side yard with some branches too high to reach,
             | and it was very popular with her and her sisters for a
             | while this year.
        
         | XCSme wrote:
         | Eating animals.
        
         | misja111 wrote:
         | The amount of opioids prescribed by dentists and family
         | practitioners.
        
         | bennysomething wrote:
         | Though alcohol has been normal in western society for 1000s of
         | years, cocaine not really. But yeah booze is awful for people.
         | But I like beer and wine :(
        
         | odiroot wrote:
         | I really hope we're going to treat sugar consumption like that.
        
         | donkeyd wrote:
         | 50 years from now, I'll go with factory farming. I'm guessing
         | that lab grown meat will be our main source of meat for daily
         | cooking and things like burgers, hot dogs, etc. Maybe we'll all
         | get some meat from free roaming animals for special occasions.
        
         | RalfWausE wrote:
         | What could be more absurd than using a vehicle that weights
         | more than a ton for moving (mostly) a single person?
        
         | Hoasi wrote:
         | > Many times I think "what today will sound absurd in the
         | future?".
         | 
         | NFTs? The just is still out.
        
         | boredumb wrote:
         | There is a reasonable possibility that in 50 years the
         | absurdity will be how taken back by cocaine and it's
         | paraphernalia is if we do go the way of more and more drug
         | legalization. We will look like pearl clutchers or a smug
         | living version of Reefer Madness.
        
         | patrickk wrote:
         | Gambling ads across much of Europe. It's pervasive especially
         | around football ad breaks.
         | 
         | I have a theory that at some stage VOCs (in furniture, carpets,
         | laminated wood products, paints etc) that lead to sick building
         | syndrome will be heavily clamped down on, but nowadays nobody
         | bats an eyelid at new couches laden with formaldehyde or other
         | substances.
        
           | mattowen_uk wrote:
           | > _Gambling ads across much of Europe. It's pervasive
           | especially around football ad breaks_
           | 
           | This. It's awful in the UK. Non-stop gambling adverts
           | everywhere. They have to have a disclaimer on them and link
           | to https://www.begambleaware.org/ but there's no rules it
           | seems on how short or small the link needs to be. On some ads
           | it literally flashes up for only 1 second at the end.
        
           | telotortium wrote:
           | > sick building syndrome
           | 
           | A lot of that, at least in the US, is due to having houses
           | built more tightly for insulation, which stopped the natural
           | air exchange from drafts that would normally occur. Now the
           | building codes have been revised to mandate that a certain
           | rate of air changes occurs even in houses, usually done using
           | a heat exchanger: https://bcapcodes.org/tools/code-
           | builder/residential/ventila...
        
         | platz wrote:
         | Just pick anything anything only invented in the last 5 years.
         | It has a high probability of dying out.
        
         | spodek wrote:
         | 1. Flying at a whim, large vehicles, a/c 24/7, and related
         | profligate fossil fuel burning. Today we think we're living at
         | the peak of progress so far and that people in any other time
         | would wish they were us.
         | 
         | Future generations will look back at horror at how we chose
         | temporary indulgence over what makes us most human: caring for
         | each other, especially the helpless and vulnerable, and
         | stewarding nature.
         | 
         | 2. Plastic, at least single-use, forever chemicals, and similar
         | chemicals. Soon we will see them like asbestos or marketing
         | cigarettes to kids. Yes, they increase the GDP, but they kill.
        
         | cblconfederate wrote:
         | Social media vanity and self-promotion is insane compared to
         | any other era in history. It will look absurd in a decade.
        
         | fsloth wrote:
         | What social circles in which country celebrates binge drinking
         | of alcohol? I would claim there is a huge variance in age
         | groups and global populations of that.
        
         | intrasight wrote:
         | >normalised alcohol abuse
         | 
         | Which the alcohol lobby is obviously fine with. I watched The
         | Expanse this year, and it's something that stands out - the
         | consumption of alcohol.
        
         | wallaBBB wrote:
         | >what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | incarcerating people for little weed
        
           | demosito666 wrote:
           | Or any other substance for that matter.
        
         | it_does_follow wrote:
         | > what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | I quite seriously suspect that answer will be "24 hour
         | electricity and grocery stores where you can buy food from
         | anywhere in the world"
         | 
         | > Our widespread and normalised alcohol abuse
         | 
         | Until pandemic we've lived in a fairly teetotaling era. I
         | suspect for the next decade we'll see an _increase_ in casual
         | drinking, becoming more similar to the 1950s. If you watch any
         | films from that era very strong cocktails are basically a
         | standard for just about any social occasion, any time of the
         | day. The pandemic has instantly changed peoples views on
         | alcohol and other drugs, what 's coming the immediate future
         | will likely continue this trend.
         | 
         | The immediate future generations will likely look back on ours
         | as a bizarre blend of incredibly wasteful prudes. A generation
         | of people who gluttonously destroyed the planet while at the
         | same time being too timid to let themselves enjoy it. I think
         | the reaction will be a large one of revulsion "you destroyed
         | the planet and you didn't even let yourself have fun doing it?
         | you lived at work for what?"
        
           | JohnWhigham wrote:
           | _I quite seriously suspect that answer will be "24 hour
           | electricity and grocery stores were you can buy food from
           | anywhere in the world"_
           | 
           | Uh, I think that's going to be the norm in the future if
           | anything...
        
           | dougmwne wrote:
           | I'm curious what you've been seeing that's given you the view
           | that drug and alcohol use has increased a lot post-pandemic.
           | I assume you mean in the US context?
           | 
           | I truly hope the answer isn't 24 hour electricity, given how
           | cheap it is to produce. That would represent a major
           | backslide in human capability. I'm not fully against other
           | drawdown strategies, but surely we can leave the lights on.
           | 
           | And yes, we are simultaneously so destructive and so unhappy.
           | What a terrible waste.
        
             | it_does_follow wrote:
             | > that's given you the view that drug and alcohol use has
             | increased a lot post-pandemic.
             | 
             | It's fairly well studied in the medical literature [0, 1]
             | and reported on pretty regularly in popular media as well
             | [2]
             | 
             | 0. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763183/
             | 
             | 1. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullart
             | icle...
             | 
             | 2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/09/22/co
             | vid-...
        
               | dougmwne wrote:
               | Interesting. I wonder how this will have changed after
               | vaccines became widely available. If it was a temporary
               | increase vs long term.
               | 
               | Personally, I bought a nice 1.5 l bottle of scotch a week
               | before lockdowns began, but never bought any hard liquor
               | since I got my vaccine.
        
         | AussieWog93 wrote:
         | >Our widespread and normalised alcohol abuse is one of the
         | things crossing my mind
         | 
         | At least in Australia (not known for drinking responsibly!),
         | this was already starting to die off in my generation and the
         | death is just accelerating amongst the next.
         | 
         | I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of Aussies born in 2050
         | didn't regularly drink at all.
        
         | ramblerman wrote:
         | The lindy effect would argue it's far more unlikely for
         | opinions to change on alcohol than vaping/cocaine in the
         | western world.
         | 
         | Lightly abusing some red wine goes back some ways.
        
           | Aidevah wrote:
           | That's an interesting point, although the ancient Greeks only
           | ever drank diluted wine, and they did believe that you could
           | die from drinking wine at full strength. Undiluted wine was
           | given to the helots so that their drunkenness served as a
           | warning to the spartiates, and the death of one of the
           | Spartan kings was partially attributed to madness caused by
           | drinking undiluted wine, a habit which he picked up from the
           | barbarians (although I admit that particular episode lends
           | itself to many different interpretations).
        
         | adrianN wrote:
         | Burning fossil fuels. ICEs producing noxious gases right where
         | people live.
        
         | dkdk8283 wrote:
         | What's the beef with alcohol?
         | 
         | Some people like to get fucked up, it's irritating when I
         | encounter opinions that shame it or otherwise imply that it
         | needs to be stopped. Let those who want it have it.
        
           | boomboomsubban wrote:
           | >Let those who want it have it.
           | 
           | And then heavily advertise it to those who don't. I'm not in
           | favor of a return to prohibition, but it's strange how
           | massive alcohol advertising is.
        
             | dkdk8283 wrote:
             | I ignore advertising I don't agree with, just like I ignore
             | opinionated news I disagree with.
             | 
             | I'd still fight for both to exist regardless of my beliefs.
        
               | selfhoster11 wrote:
               | I wouldn't fight for any advertising to exist - I want it
               | all gone.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | There is ultra puritanic abstitential strain on HN.
           | 
           | Not a sarcasm, last week there was a person fully seriously
           | that alcohol is as addictive as heroin. I am not exaggerating
           | and it did not seemed as wink wink trolling either.
        
             | michaelt wrote:
             | From a European perspective, America has a strange attitude
             | to drinking, not just HN.
             | 
             | On one hand, America has counties where you can't buy
             | alcohol at all, laws banning 20-year-old adults from buying
             | alcohol, planning laws keeping pubs away from where people
             | live, and even had a national alcohol ban at one time.
             | 
             | On the other hand, apparently the age laws are widely
             | flouted? And everyone knows it but turns a blind eye? And
             | drink-driving is so common that even if you kill someone,
             | it's barely punished?
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | > On the other hand, apparently the age laws are widely
               | flouted? And everyone knows it but turns a blind eye? And
               | drink-driving is so common that even if you kill someone,
               | it's barely punished?
               | 
               | In my experience, it perfectly describes Europe too.
               | Maybe not drink-driving being common in all countries,
               | but age laws being ignored is something I find normal.
               | 
               | If anything, in USA they make much much bigger deal over
               | age laws then in Europe.
        
             | hprotagonist wrote:
             | teatotalism is one of those horseshoe topics. Always has
             | been.
        
             | wayoutthere wrote:
             | I would say given the age range on here (informally feels
             | like majority ~35-45) there are also probably a lot of
             | reformed alcoholics on HN. I wouldn't say it's as addictive
             | as heroin, but is more dangerous in some ways (heroin
             | withdrawal sucks but won't kill you; alcohol withdrawal
             | will.)
             | 
             | Personally, alcohol is related to some traumatic
             | experiences so I don't like feeling remotely drunk. I
             | definitely had a problem when I quit.
        
           | 29athrowaway wrote:
           | During prohibition, there were companies that sold "wine
           | bricks", or concentrated grape juice bricks.
           | 
           | They came with a warning that read: "Do NOT dissolve and
           | leave on a cool cupboard for 21 days or it would turn it into
           | wine".
           | 
           | It would be impossible to outlaw alcohol today. You can make
           | alcohol out of anything.
        
           | 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
           | I like alcohol despite all its flaws, but it's hard to argue
           | that it's doing an immense amount of damage even to those who
           | don't drink it at all.
        
             | dkdk8283 wrote:
             | Behavior shouldn't be projected on others.
             | 
             | If someone in your life is negatively affecting you
             | consider changing who's in your life.
             | 
             | We are only responsible for ourselves.
        
               | boomboomsubban wrote:
               | Except children are a thing, and they both can't easily
               | change who's in their lives and their parents are also
               | responsible for them.
        
               | dkdk8283 wrote:
               | I can't take that argument seriously. "Think of the
               | children" is a dead horse.
               | 
               | Parents can also abuse emotions, marijuana, etc. Haven't
               | seen anyone advocating to curb marijuana here yet.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | jeromegv wrote:
               | The fact that you can't understand the argument that
               | alcohol and drug abuse can have serious impact on
               | children means that you have serious blind spots in your
               | life.
        
               | Sebb767 wrote:
               | > Haven't seen anyone advocating to curb marijuana here
               | yet.
               | 
               | You don't think a drug that's illegal in large parts of
               | the world and for which legalization is a highly
               | controversial topic is curbed?
               | 
               | Also, the parent comment clearly took children as an
               | example of people who's live can be drastically worsened
               | by someone else consuming alcohol. Drivers and and
               | passerbys endangered by drunk drivers would be another
               | good example.
        
               | selfhoster11 wrote:
               | > We are only responsible for ourselves.
               | 
               | Not when your actions have consequences, which they do.
               | Violence following alcohol abuse, or loss of family
               | members due to alcohol abuse, is a thing.
        
               | OneTimePetes wrote:
               | Atomized Individuals Propaganda without any love or
               | attachment to others.
               | 
               | I know its the state/corpos wish that we are all
               | interchangeable people-toner easy to pack into
               | cartridges, easy to produce, easy to consume, but some of
               | us cling to the old ways and others.
               | 
               | Sorry. Clingy, sticky, nasty, humans. The new man, you
               | want to go towards will surely not have this flaws. What
               | a marvellous ideal sociopath that will be.
        
               | xnx wrote:
               | Drunk driving kills 10k/year in the US.
        
               | fullstop wrote:
               | > If someone in your life is negatively affecting you
               | consider changing who's in your life.
               | 
               | Great idea! Now how do I get drunk people off of the
               | roads?
        
           | darkwater wrote:
           | But it's the same with cocaine and almost any other drug.
           | Alcohol IS a drug by all means. I agree with you that if
           | someone wants to be fucked up and enjoy themselves, obviously
           | not harming any other individual in the process (driving,
           | getting into a fight etc), they should be free to do it.
           | There should be a full disclosure of what long-term effects
           | can be and regulated enough to avoid scams and shady
           | marketing strategies but beside that...
        
           | losvedir wrote:
           | It's about the same magnitude of an issue as with guns, I
           | think. In both cases you have the vast majority of people
           | responsibly partaking, but you can't deny that their presence
           | makes some things much worse.
           | 
           | I think the dynamics and beliefs are similar between the two:
           | your primary exposure to alcohol could be having fun with it
           | and friends, or it could be from growing up in an alcoholic
           | family. You could grow up thinking guns are just a normal, if
           | somewhat dangerous, tool (like a lawnmower), or most exposure
           | could come from salacious gun news stories. It will all color
           | how you feel about the topics.
           | 
           | (stats from memory, but I think order of magnitude correct).
           | 30k gun deaths a year, of which 20k are suicide. Self-
           | inflicted death from alcohol dwarfs 20k, and deaths to others
           | from, e.g., drunk driving are comparable to gun homicides.
           | Then you have the splashy things like school shootings, which
           | I think are roughly comparable to driving a car through a
           | Christmas parade while intoxicated.
        
           | thrwyoilarticle wrote:
           | It's not a new beef, Islam is over 1000 years old.
        
         | anodari wrote:
         | Car accidents.
        
         | si1entstill wrote:
         | > what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | The social acceptability of reliance on caffeine has always
         | struck me as a bit odd. The effects aren't as stark, but I
         | regularly have conversations with friends and coworkers who
         | talk about how miserable they are if they don't get their three
         | cups of coffee in the morning. I also feel that I see a
         | correlation between those who feel they have low energy after
         | the work-day and heavy caffeine users.
        
         | tomhunters wrote:
         | That's a nice way of thinking. My mind eventually think of
         | different things that will create different impact in our
         | world.
        
         | jl6 wrote:
         | > what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | Mark my words:
         | 
         | 1. Eating meat
         | 
         | 2. Valorizing excess
         | 
         | 3. Bonfires and fireworks
         | 
         | 4. Anonymity
         | 
         | 5. Air, noise, and light pollution
         | 
         | 6. Having more than 2 kids
         | 
         | 7. Proof of work
         | 
         | 8. Buying new stuff all the time
         | 
         | 9. Suits, ties and other western formalwear
         | 
         | 10. Non-synthetic pornography
         | 
         | 11. Academic papers
         | 
         | 12. Golf
         | 
         | 13. Body modification and tattoos
         | 
         | 14. Lawns
         | 
         | 15. Running unaudited code
         | 
         | 16. Non-tailored medicine
         | 
         | 17. Tribal politics
         | 
         | 18. Daylight savings time
         | 
         | 19. Circumcision
         | 
         | 20. Burial
         | 
         | 21. Men standing to pee
         | 
         | 22. Treating 18-year-olds as full adults
         | 
         | 23. Tipping
         | 
         | 24. Advertizing
         | 
         | 25. Imperial units
         | 
         | 26. Coffee fetishization
         | 
         | 27. Changing your name when marrying
         | 
         | 28. Work-or-starve as the two primary options
         | 
         | 29. Cosmetic products
         | 
         | 30. Gender
         | 
         | 31. Automotive fatalities
         | 
         | 32. Demarcation between Movies and TV
        
           | newbamboo wrote:
           | 21 is highly dubious and therefore 30 is too.
        
           | cataphract wrote:
           | If having more than 2 kids is absurd, there won't be much of
           | a future, since the population will eventually decline to 0.
        
             | it_does_follow wrote:
             | I'm not sure you're aware of the future we're facing right
             | now.
             | 
             | Continued unchecked growth coupled with increasing
             | consumption is heading us towards an ecological catastrophe
             | that quite seriously threatens the possibility of
             | extinction, and at the very least looks like complete
             | collapse of industrial civilization.
             | 
             | There is nothing worse you can do for the environment than
             | bring another life into the world, especially if you live
             | in the developed world.
        
           | mmmpop wrote:
           | This list is complete nonsense because you didn't stick a
           | year on it.
           | 
           | Love love love the golf haters though. Sorry it's too hard
           | for you.
        
             | nickkell wrote:
             | Thousands of years of evolution and we're still swinging
             | clubs
        
           | astrojams wrote:
           | I would love to live in this world.
        
           | reedf1 wrote:
           | I agree with some (especially meat) but many of these seem
           | like personal moralization.
        
           | intrasight wrote:
           | OMG - what a coincidence is the timing of this thread as I
           | happen to re-watch Demolition Man last night. Fun movie from
           | 1993 that touches on the absurdity of both things we allow
           | and things we don't allow.
        
           | donkeyd wrote:
           | With this list, you're guaranteed to be right about at least
           | one thing. I'm pretty sure you'll be wrong about more than
           | that though.
           | 
           | Unless of course, you're hinting that humanity will go
           | extinct.
        
             | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
             | Given long enough, he'll be right on all accounts.
        
               | LocalH wrote:
               | Given long enough, it won't matter, because there won't
               | be anyone around to consider those things "absurd"
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | And at that point, all 0 people will agree on the
               | absurdity of the list
        
           | nickkell wrote:
           | > 13. Body modification and tattoos
           | 
           | Why do you say that? People have been doing it for hundreds
           | of years and in the west it has become completely acceptable.
           | 
           | > 22. Treating 18-year-olds as full adults
           | 
           | In the US this isn't absurd even now!
        
             | jl6 wrote:
             | Re body modification, I'm sure you'll appreciate that
             | people have been doing all manner of terrible things for
             | centuries and many of those remain acceptable, even
             | increasingly so. The pendulum may yet swing the other way.
             | I'm betting on this one becoming viewed the same way we
             | view testing in production.
        
               | Bjartr wrote:
               | "centuries" undershoots the persistence of tattooing by
               | several millennia. Direct evidence of humans having
               | tattoos dates back to ~3200 BC with the remains of Otzi
               | "the Iceman".
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi#Skeletal_details_
               | and...
        
           | snarf21 wrote:
           | Go over to The Long Now and place some bets on those. I think
           | you will be wrong on almost all of these.
        
           | mda wrote:
           | Mark my words, at least 60% of your list is BS.
        
             | jl6 wrote:
             | Which 20 items do you think will never sound absurd?
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | AussieWog93 wrote:
           | A decent chunk of those appeal to fundamental desires that
           | (for better or worse) are a part of the human condition and I
           | can't imagine them disappearing any time soon.
           | 
           | I really do hope we move away from an economy that relies on
           | advertising to produce consumer demand at an unhealthy scale,
           | though.
        
             | linspace wrote:
             | You are obviously talking about point 15, running unaudited
             | code. Who knows, the future can be surprising.
        
           | sergioisidoro wrote:
           | The only thing I disagree is "Body modification and tattoos".
           | If any they will pick up a lot from here, with implantable
           | technology. We will want to break free from our meat
           | hardware, and body modifications is a step towards that.
        
             | LocalH wrote:
             | Not to mention body modification has a rich, long history
             | in humanity that's not going away anytime soon.
        
               | celeritascelery wrote:
               | As do most other things on that list
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | Most of those do not apply in lots of Europe:
           | 
           | At least 2, 14, 19, 23 and 25.
        
           | tomerv wrote:
           | I seriously doubt many of your predictions.
           | 
           | 2. Valorizing excess
           | 
           | Not sure what exactly you mean by this, but having more than
           | you need and showing off is basic human behavior, and I don't
           | see a reason that will change.
           | 
           | 3. Bonfires and fireworks
           | 
           | Bonfires are fun and so are fireworks. They have some
           | downsides, but not more than many other fun things we allow.
           | 
           | 4. Anonymity
           | 
           | There will always be places where you can act anonymously or
           | pseudo anonymously. See 4chan and bitcoin for example.
           | 
           | 5. Air, noise, and light pollution
           | 
           | There will always be the next kind of not-yet-illegal
           | pollution, and the person to profit from inflicting it upon
           | the rest of us.
           | 
           | 6. Having more than 2 kids
           | 
           | Most people will have 1-3 kids, some will have more. Nothing
           | absurd about reproducing.
           | 
           | 8. Buying new stuff all the time
           | 
           | See 1
           | 
           | 12. Golf
           | 
           | Might be less popular, but why absurd?
           | 
           | 13. Body modification and tattoos
           | 
           | Basic human desire to control your body and what you look
           | like. If anything it will be more popular as technology
           | improves.
           | 
           | 15. Running unaudited code
           | 
           | With the halting problem on one hand (making automatic
           | auditing impossible) and the high value of software on the
           | other, I don't see any way around this anytime soon. Maybe
           | some AI based solution.
           | 
           | 16. Non-tailored medicine
           | 
           | One prediction I fully agree with! Especially many invasive
           | examinations we consider standard today.
           | 
           | 17. Tribal politics
           | 
           | Human nature...
           | 
           | 20. Burial
           | 
           | Also human nature. Not the American style burial with the
           | huge casket and embalming and whatnot. But some kind of
           | burial will always be the norm.
           | 
           | 21. Men standing to pee
           | 
           | ???
           | 
           | 23. Tipping 24. Advertizing
           | 
           | Human nature...
           | 
           | 31. Automotive fatalities
           | 
           | Maybe on the road. But what about space fatalities?
        
           | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
           | I think we'll break the association between sex and gender,
           | and we'll create contexts of more-than-two human genders, but
           | types are too popular a feature in programming languages for
           | me to believe that genders will ever find their way out of
           | human languages--they both provide useful ways to reduce
           | uncertainty while making concise references.
           | 
           | If everybody is a "they" then pronouns become less useful.
           | Maybe we'll go through a stage like that while we rebel
           | against binary-only gendered thinking, but eventually we'll
           | want useful pronouns again and we'll reinvent gender.
        
         | the_gipsy wrote:
         | Maybe Social Network addiction?
        
         | __void wrote:
         | > normalised alcohol abuse
         | 
         | I don't think alcohol will ever be banned, man has been using
         | alcohol for more than 10k years[0] and according to some
         | theories[1] it was the consumption of alcohol and protein that
         | favored brain development
         | 
         | (disclosure: I come from an Italian region that has the use and
         | abuse of alcohol as one of cornerstones of society, so maybe
         | I'm biased)
         | 
         | [0]https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbeverages.html#winebeer
         | 
         | [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunken_monkey_hypothesis
        
         | JohnJamesRambo wrote:
         | I think thinking "stonks only go up" will feel very absurd in
         | the next decade.
         | 
         | https://www.currentmarketvaluation.com/models/s&p500-mean-re...
        
         | throwaway47292 wrote:
         | Alcohol is like the oil of the giant social machine, I believe
         | everything will crumble without it. How many of the jobs that
         | keep the world running can be done if people don't drink to
         | forget?
         | 
         | Just imagine the people that have to pee in bottles, being
         | abused on daily basis by their boss, by their customers, and
         | then they cant take drugs? for how long?
         | 
         | The facebook moderators, or the call center oberators..
         | 
         | As bad as it is, without some real changes, alcohol is almost
         | mandatory.
         | 
         | ps: I don't drink, but most of my friends drink.
         | 
         | pps: what i think will sound absurd is the horrific ways of
         | industrial animal farming.
        
           | platz wrote:
           | I get it, you're special because you don't drink.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | selfhoster11 wrote:
             | There are many reasons to not drink, including personal
             | convictions, family history of alcohol abuse, health
             | reasons, religious/belief reasons, not enjoying the feeling
             | of being drunk, or simple lack of interest in drinking in
             | the first place. Do not assume that parent is somehow
             | trying to elevate themselves over anyone, you or drinkers
             | in general.
        
             | throwaway47292 wrote:
             | i used to be borderline alcoholic, and managed to quit.
             | mainly because my job allowed me to do so.
        
             | rfrey wrote:
             | I re-read your parent four or five times, searching for the
             | smugness or self-righteousness that seemed to offend you. I
             | could not find it.
        
           | adriand wrote:
           | It's not just the jobs, it's also the awareness of what we're
           | doing to the planet and our future. When you get seized by
           | the panicky feeling that we're on track to end it all, one
           | solution is to say "fuck it" and get drunk. I do it. I'm sure
           | I'm not the only one.
        
           | LinuxBender wrote:
           | Facebook just hires the wrong people for moderators. There is
           | a massive untapped talent pool on 4chan and they wouldn't
           | even see it as work.
        
           | oceanplexian wrote:
           | Come to Utah if you want to observe that reality because most
           | of the locals don't drink alcohol. You'll find safe,
           | perfectly manicured suburban neighborhoods where young kids
           | ride bikes in the street, a fast growing economy, and the
           | highest birth rate of any US state.
           | 
           | I'm personally not religious, I drink and so on, but it has
           | me thinking that maybe some of the things society tells us to
           | value are greatly misguided.
        
         | enriquto wrote:
         | > what today will sound absurd in the future?
         | 
         | The incredible amount of sugar that we eat and give to our
         | kids. There is already a clear trend of "hiding" sugar from the
         | ingredients. The label "No sugars added" gives a really
         | positive meaning. But most processed foods are still chock-full
         | of sugar. I guess in 20 or 30 years sugar products will be
         | labeled with scary labels like tobacco is today.
         | 
         | As for alcohol, I don't think so. People will still want to get
         | wasted, even knowing that it is bad for the health.
        
           | papito wrote:
           | The book "The Dorito Effect" goes into this a lot. Basically,
           | the sugar substitutes are often discovered in food labs by
           | accident (someone didn't wash their hands and licked their
           | fingers, ew). These substances are tens of thousands of times
           | more sweet than sugar, allowing for "zero" amount in the
           | final product.
        
           | ponyous wrote:
           | Especially in US, I don't think people realise how bad they
           | have it there in terms of sugar. Even pizzas tasted sweet
           | when I was in a random fast food place...
        
           | TheJoeMan wrote:
           | There are large black hexagonal warnings on Coca-Cola cans
           | for sale in Mexico. It doesn't seem to change much except
           | look ugly.
        
           | collaborative wrote:
           | I hope you are right about sugar. People are doling out candy
           | to kids like it's their duty these days
        
             | drewg123 wrote:
             | The sad thing is that sugar is _everywhere_ , not just in
             | candy. I was in the local hospital for surgery, and the
             | "juice" they gave me to drink when I was recovering was so
             | sweet that it could have doubled for syrup. The first 2
             | ingredients were 2 different kinds of sugar.
             | 
             | I think its because they were purchasing the cheapest
             | "juice" they could find, but my friends joked that they
             | were trying to give people diabetes to increase business.
        
           | chimprich wrote:
           | > As for alcohol, I don't think so. People will still want to
           | get wasted, even knowing that it is bad for the health.
           | 
           | In a better world we'd have a good substitute for alcohol
           | that had similar effects but much less serious health
           | concerns. This should be a major research target, but for
           | stupid political reasons it isn't.
        
             | brutusborn wrote:
             | It _is_ a research target, and progress is going well!
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nutt
             | 
             | I'm interested as to where you got the idea of "stupid
             | political reasons" blocking research, he literally released
             | a good substitute this year.
        
               | chimprich wrote:
               | Nutt's work was indeed one of the things I was thinking
               | about. However, I think they're going to have a huge
               | challenge to get their compound licensed.
               | 
               | From the article you link to: "Nutt is also campaigning
               | for a change in UK drug laws to allow for more research
               | opportunities".
        
             | GDC7 wrote:
             | > In a better world we'd have a good substitute for alcohol
             | that had similar effects but much less serious health
             | concerns
             | 
             | You are thinking about self administration of GHB, but
             | people need to be really careful because 2 mL is a recipe
             | for a fun night, whereas 7 mL will get you in ICU.
             | 
             | Bur vis-a-vis alcohol it has big advantages. No liver
             | problems, no kidney problems, no clogging of arteries, no
             | cardiomiopathy or inflammation...
             | 
             | But again people need to be paranoid before its use, in
             | order to diligently respect the quantities.
             | 
             | The administration at a party would be a gig for companies,
             | because you'd need the same level of professionality as say
             | the security services for a VIP party.
        
               | enriquto wrote:
               | > need to be really careful because 2 mL is a recipe for
               | a fun night, whereas 7 mL will get you in ICU.
               | 
               | But it's the same thing with regular alcohol, isn't it?
               | Half a bottle of liquor is a fun night, whereas three
               | bottles surely will kill you. As long as it is diluted in
               | practical quantities it doesn't seem like a big deal.
               | 
               | That said, they'll pry my saturday evening glass of
               | scotch from my cold, dead hands.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | The problem is that it's really really hard to gulp down
               | 3 bottles of liquor.
               | 
               | Plus unlike G you are not involved in the preparation, a
               | better comparison would be having a substance called
               | super-duper-liquor that you'd have to dilute yourself
               | with water in order to make sure that it's indeed 3
               | bottles of liquor needed to send you in ICU.
               | 
               | If you screw up the dilution of the super-duper-liquor
               | you can end up in ICU after just a sip, and you'd not
               | notice because it doesn't have a taste or a smell.
               | 
               | Plus let's face it, humans were never made to deal with
               | liquid quantities in mL , we were made to deal in liters
               | or even deca-liters, because that's the measuring unit of
               | the most important liquid for humans: H2O
               | 
               | Few mL of water aren't good for anything.
        
               | erikbye wrote:
               | > super-duper-liquor that you'd have to dilute yourself
               | 
               | We have that in Norway, hjemmebrent, we just call it 9 6
               | (96%), aka moonshine.
        
               | codetrotter wrote:
               | Also illegal and not sold in stores.
        
               | kaslai wrote:
               | In the US, 95% ABV Everclear is readily available in most
               | states. 75.5% ABV Everclear is available in even more.
               | It's the easiest way to get near azeotropic food safe
               | ethanol for making extracts.
        
               | mjbeswick wrote:
               | You mention GHB, but as you mention to dosing in ml I
               | expect you actually mean GBL.
               | 
               | It's really not as safe as you make out, as the dose
               | needed to OD isn't much more than a recreational dose.
               | When you overdose on GHB you can become aggressive, lose
               | consciousness, lose all short term memories; and worse
               | case fall into a coma and even die. The margin of error
               | is just too small!
               | 
               | If you take GHB for a long time you can build up a
               | tolerance and become dependant one it. The withdrawal is
               | terrible and depending on how dependant some os can
               | result in post acute withdrawal syndrome, in which case
               | you can't just stop taking it as the result could be
               | fatal.
        
               | kevinmchugh wrote:
               | We often choose to consume alcohol in a setting with
               | trained, paid drug administrators. There's some safety
               | features to that.
               | 
               | But we also can self-administer, in large part because
               | you can see how strong a drink is, right on the package.
               | 
               | I think GP is suggesting that, absent the lobbying power
               | of the alcohol industry, you might see commercial
               | development of safer ways of dosing alternatives.
               | 
               | If you could go to the store and buy a sealed bottle with
               | 0.5mg ghb that might be compelling for some folks?
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Are you calling bar tenders trained paid drug
               | administrators making it sound like they have medical
               | training? I want to go to the bars you visit. Of all the
               | bar tenders or waitstaff that I have ever met, the
               | closest to medical training were from the ones attending
               | med school and working at the bar to pay for it. I don't
               | think that qualifies.
        
               | kevinmchugh wrote:
               | It's more that I've known friends who think it's
               | appropriate to put 3oz vodka in lemonade and call that a
               | single drink, or they don't measure at all and one drink
               | has 1oz of vodka and the next has 2.5.
               | 
               | At bars you get pretty consistent pours, bartenders are
               | watching for overconsumption and often for potential
               | DUIs. And you don't, typically, have to worry about a
               | bartender spiking a drink with something else.
               | 
               | All of that helps make alcohol consumption with strangers
               | safer.
               | 
               | A lot of the drug safety education for alcohol boils down
               | to knowing how much alcohol is in each drink, and that
               | there's nothing else intoxicating in it.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | >A lot of the drug safety education for alcohol boils
               | down to knowing how much alcohol is in each drink, and
               | that there's nothing else intoxicating in it.
               | 
               | A lot of drug saftey education for anything boils down to
               | knowing how much of it is in each serving, and that
               | there's nothing else surprising in it. Knowing your drugs
               | are important whether that's ibuprofen, alcohol, MDMA,
               | etc. Obviously, much more risky with recreational drugs
               | with people looking to spike with other things for the
               | pizzazz or cutting costs, or buying pharma drugs from
               | less than reputible sources.
               | 
               | However, there were a rash of people getting sick/hurt
               | from receiving alcohol from bars at resorts in Mexico. So
               | edge cases are always going to be there.
        
               | mjbeswick wrote:
               | It's a nice idea, but GHB really isn't safe.
               | 
               | While it's pretty hard to kill yourself with alcohol, but
               | very easy using GHB. Even experienced users mess up with
               | GHB, as it matters how much you are taking over time, and
               | how much is being absorbed.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | > I think GP is suggesting that, absent the lobbying
               | power of the alcohol industry, you might see commercial
               | development of safer ways of dosing alternatives.
               | 
               | Well yes, substances are like religions, and alcohol is
               | like Christianity.
               | 
               | Nobody knows how or why it emerged, maybe one of the
               | reason is that you could ballpark doses and unless you
               | really screw up or have a deathwish you'd be able to
               | survive and reproduce.
               | 
               | Same thing for Christianity, there is not a whole lot of
               | stuff in there that prompts people to get in harms way.
               | 
               | Whatever the reason, it's now grandfathered in and it
               | will be really hard to change this.
               | 
               | The fact that the alcohol lobby tries to fight
               | alternatives, and also the fact that there is an alcohol
               | lobby at all...is somehow embedded in society.
               | 
               | I honestly don't know why we are managing to get rid of
               | cigarettes which were similarly grandfathered in and are
               | much lower risk than alcohol
        
               | hoffspot wrote:
               | I think a helpful contributing factor is that cigarettes
               | are immediately annoying and unhealthy to the people
               | around the user so you had the non users motivated to
               | stop the users.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | A drunk person is also annoying , no?
               | 
               | Being around a drunk person maybe also statistically
               | unhealthy given the increased risk of falls, accidents,
               | psychological damage?
               | 
               | I don't know, it's one of those things where I can't
               | point which was the reason.
               | 
               | If I had to guess, maybe it was babies, kids and pregnant
               | women. People don't get shitfaced around those categories
               | but they had to endure passive smoke.
               | 
               | And the reduction in cigarette consumption is to be
               | ascribed to that, plus society being less and less fond
               | of stimulants due to risk averseness (this includes
               | nictoine and also cocaine consumption which are both way
               | down compared to the 70s-80s-90s)
        
               | kevinmchugh wrote:
               | Intoxication can be annoying and dangerous. Changing the
               | intoxicant doesn't help much.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > A drunk person is also annoying , no?
               | 
               | The vast majority of people who drink aren't drunk, and
               | not everyone who is drunk is unpleasant; everyone who
               | smokes is putting out irritating smoke.
        
               | QuercusMax wrote:
               | Alcohol is naturally occurring and ridiculously easy to
               | make. Squeeze some fruit juice and let it sit, and it
               | will ferment just from the wild yeasts on the fruit
               | skins. All kinds of animals like alcohol, and will get
               | drunk from fermenting fruit fallen from trees. There's no
               | mystery here.
        
               | donkeyd wrote:
               | GHB is a horrible alternative to alcohol. I really don't
               | understand why you think that is not the case. GHB is
               | highly addictive, dosing is hard, it's really unhealthy
               | with long term use and is nearly impossible to stop doing
               | once you're addicted.
               | 
               | In the Netherlands, the percentage of people that relapse
               | after rehabilitating from GHB is the highest of all
               | drugs, including alcohol.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | > In the Netherlands, the percentage of people that
               | relapse after rehabilitating from GHB is the highest of
               | all drugs, including alcohol.
               | 
               | Humans love alcohol-like feelings, so the comparison is
               | vis-a-vis against alcohol.
               | 
               | Alcohol relapse statistics are on a much higer sample
               | given how widespread it is, whereas for G the sample is
               | much smaller.
               | 
               | Also among the people who don't relapse are also included
               | in those who die or have their bodies so screwed up that
               | have no alternative but quitting if they want to keep
               | living. Alcohol does that to a whole lot of people who
               | technically don't relapse....but don't breath anymore
               | either.
               | 
               | G doesn't cause any liver, heart, kidney, cardiac,
               | valvular, stomach, arterial, testicular damage, so of
               | course people will come back for more.
               | 
               | If the only negative effects are psychological then it's
               | a testimony to the amazing proprieties of the substance.
               | 
               | Also in science the standard practice is that if you
               | can't measure it then there is no point talking about it
               | or even discussing it.
               | 
               | We don't know what happens inside our brains, the
               | mechanisms of addiction and so forth.. we can only
               | evaluate the effects.
        
               | donkeyd wrote:
               | > Alcohol relapse statistics are on a much higer sample
               | given how widespread it is, whereas for G the sample is
               | much smaller.
               | 
               | Does that imply we can never compare smaller data sets
               | with larger ones? GHB is becoming a huge issue in the
               | Netherlands to the point that there aren't enough rehab
               | spots. So I would assume the amount of data is not
               | insignificant and can therefore be compared.
               | 
               | > Alcohol does that to a whole lot of people who
               | technically don't relapse....but don't breath anymore
               | either.
               | 
               | So does GHB.
               | 
               | > G doesn't cause any liver, heart, kidney, cardiac,
               | valvular, stomach, arterial, testicular damage, so of
               | course people will come back for more.
               | 
               | You retort to my argument was that the data set for GHB
               | was much smaller. How does that not matter with your
               | argument?
               | 
               | Also, GHB is associated with cognitive changes and
               | potential brain damage. So you might come back for more,
               | but you won't be the same person:
               | 
               | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/18100810462
               | 8.h...
               | 
               | > Also in science the standard practice is that if you
               | can't measure it then there is no point talking about it
               | or even discussing it.
               | 
               | Which part can't you measure? You can measure relapse
               | percentages. You can measure addiction rates. You can
               | measure the length of an addiction. You can measure the
               | physiological and metal impact of an addiction.
               | 
               | And it's not like nobody is doing that either.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | > So does GHB.
               | 
               | No, the only way to die via GHB is to overdose on it.
               | Alcohol instead sets you body on fire with inflammation
               | and such inflammation attacks all tissues including vital
               | ones which I mentioned and will repeat: heart, liver,
               | kidneys, arteries, pancreas...
               | 
               | > You retort to my argument was that the data set for GHB
               | was much smaller. How does that not matter with your
               | argument?
               | 
               | Because we know that the cause for all that damage is
               | inflammation, between alcohol and G only the former
               | causes inflammation.
               | 
               | > Also, GHB is associated with cognitive changes and
               | potential brain damage. So you might come back for more,
               | but you won't be the same person:
               | 
               | Leave aside the brain, except for physical phenomenons
               | such as blood, plaques, cancer....we really don't know
               | what happens in there or why. We can't even predict our
               | own thoughts 10 seconds from now..leave alone complex
               | things such as cognition on a general scale and most
               | importantly the ability to measure it.
               | 
               | Also let's assume we did know, say all that we know today
               | is effectively what happens in the brain. Given that
               | premise we also have to take for good the data that we
               | have about the depression/anxiety epidemic, which is very
               | widespread according to today's research.
               | 
               | Today research also tells us that prolonged
               | anxiety/depression causes damage to the body, reduces
               | cognition and IQ and trims years off a person's life.
               | 
               | Well, considering all the above...both alcohol and G seem
               | a better alternative than becoming subject to the
               | depression epidemic which causes both a reduction in
               | quality of life, as well as a reduction in quantity of
               | life. Alcohol is superior in terms of quality of life,
               | unfortunately it also shortens quantity of life, but G
               | has them both beaten because it prevents depression AND
               | doesn't cause inflammation to tissues, so G is better for
               | both quality and quantity of life.
               | 
               | Of course if you are a person who is naturally on cloud 9
               | all the time and essentially immune to the depression
               | epidemic (meaning that you are essentially clueless about
               | the world), then you are better off not taking anything.
               | 
               | But at that point you are also better off not leaving the
               | house because leaving the house also has risks, and why
               | would you take risks if you are essentially a buddha who
               | is always on cloud 9 and perfectly happy and content the
               | way things are and everything else is pushing on a
               | string?
               | 
               | So even if we allowed for a perfect knowledge of our
               | brains, if we take into consideration the median urban
               | Western citizen who is always on the brink of depression
               | then G is better than alcohol and all the other drugs
               | used to solve depression, both prescribed (benzo,
               | SSRIs...) and those used for self-medication purposes
               | (alcohol, cocaine, MDMA, crack, weed..)
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | >Humans love alcohol-like feelings, so the comparison is
               | vis-a-vis against alcohol.
               | 
               | Some humans love the feeling of being in an inebriated
               | state commonly brought on by the use of alcohol. The
               | amount of people addicted to other drugs shows it is not
               | just the drunkeness of alcohol people are after. However,
               | the simple fact that alcohol is legal and readily
               | available means that's the thing people use to achieve
               | this inebriated state. Allow other substances to be legal
               | and destigmatized the way alcohol has been, and you will
               | see numbers change.
        
               | GDC7 wrote:
               | You have it the other way around.
               | 
               | Alcohol is legal because people love to be inebiated more
               | than they like being stoned or on a paranoid coke binge,
               | or nodding off due to heroin
               | 
               | Majority rules , and so the preference with regards to
               | the feeling of being inebriated + collective risk
               | tolerance of society + the variability of alcoholic
               | beverages + the low cost of the substance made it so that
               | alcohol emerged .
        
               | engineeringwoke wrote:
               | No, it's because primates have been eating rotten fruit
               | for tens of thousands of years to get high, and primates
               | can't run a chemistry lab.
        
               | gavinray wrote:
               | Came here to say this, GHB is what the commenter is
               | asking for.
               | 
               | My partner is legally prescribed it for narcolepsy
               | (Xyrem), and takes 4.5mL twice a night.
        
               | engineeringwoke wrote:
               | I can think of few stranger things that I have
               | experienced in my life than being around a group of G
               | hounds. It's like the Twilight Zone, and no, G is not
               | safe and the effects are quite different than alcohol. It
               | would never be widely popular to do a drug that so easily
               | creates lapses in short-term memory... I think it is
               | well-known why that is.
        
               | gavinray wrote:
               | You can make the same argument about alcohol.
               | 
               | Plenty of homeless drunkards in the streets, alcoholism
               | is rampant.                 > G is not safe
               | 
               | Sure. Side effects of alcohol overdose include death by
               | alcohol poisoning.
               | 
               | Side effects of GHB overdose include death by central
               | nervous system depression + consequent respiratory
               | arrest.
               | 
               | Side effects of Tylenol overdose include an
               | excruciatingly painful, multi-day death from multiple
               | organ failure.
               | 
               | See the pattern?
               | 
               | Both drinking and GHB are capable of causing memory loss.
               | > The effects are quite different than alcohol
               | 
               | This is subjective. To me, it feels exactly like _" More
               | euphoric alcohol, without the stupidity/reduced cognitive
               | facilities drinking brings, and not toxic-feeling on my
               | body."_
               | 
               | YMMV.
        
               | engineeringwoke wrote:
               | It takes a whole lot of alcohol to get the equivalent of
               | that G zombie look. And the latter can easily kill you.
               | GHB is not a panacea. It can turn people into animals.
        
             | somehnacct3757 wrote:
             | I think cannabis will eclipse alcohol once enough states
             | legalize, and the federal winds shift in response.
             | 
             | It has no hangover. Its long term effects are not
             | understood (a boon vs alcohol where they're known and bad.)
             | It's edible and drinkable. And it makes your patrons buy
             | food. The bar of tomorrow will serve cannabis infused
             | cocktails alongside alcohol. From the moment of federal
             | deregulation it will only take a few years, like the
             | arrival and commoditization of boozy seltzers. Today's
             | cannabis manufacturers in legalized states are already
             | building the infrastructure to hit the ground running.
        
               | fossuser wrote:
               | I'm not so sure, it seems to make people more delusional
               | over time and more paranoid and anxious even from low
               | dose usage.
        
               | antihero wrote:
               | Yeah no, being high is a totally different and
               | unpredictable thing to being buzzed on alcohol.
        
               | tlb wrote:
               | What has been preventing this happening in legal states
               | already? Green bars and restaurants exist, but are a tiny
               | segment of the market.
               | 
               | I suspect it's that alcohol and socialization go well
               | together, while cannabis doesn't so it's better to enjoy
               | it at home than at a bar.
        
               | EvRev wrote:
               | The current breeding techniques have produced varieties
               | that are not conducive to the socialization (i.e. sativa
               | vs indica). After legalization the market will need to
               | have the marketing for sativas/socialization strains that
               | will drive the development of happy/euphoric/uplifiting
               | strains that do not promote sleep.
        
               | guythedudebro wrote:
               | Lol. Society just hasn't tried the right strain yet
        
               | hoffspot wrote:
               | One contributing factor could be social stigma. The
               | soccer moms of the world were brought up to "say No to
               | drugs" where cannabis was one of those drugs. You can pry
               | their glass of wine out of their cold, dead hands but
               | I've personally seen them very nervous about a low dose
               | edible. Perhaps some time and federal legalization will
               | change that.
        
               | mracette wrote:
               | Yea I think you're underestimating the euphoric effects
               | of alcohol.
        
               | mywittyname wrote:
               | With pot, there are various types of highs that can be
               | produced. With alcohol, there's just one.
               | 
               | Plus, there are people out there who don't experience
               | euphoria from alcohol, it instead throws them into a
               | depressive spiral.
        
               | zwirbl wrote:
               | You can definitely produce different highs with alcohol,
               | getting drunk from vodka is different to wine is
               | different to beer. In the end one is drunk, yes, but
               | feeling is still quite distinct. So pretty much the same
               | as with pot, where you can have vastly different highs
               | but in the end are just that: high
        
               | JohnWhigham wrote:
               | Not my experience at all. Give weed to 10 different
               | people, and they'll experience 12 different reactions to
               | it. With alcohol, it's more or less roughly the same for
               | everyone.
        
               | bikingbismuth wrote:
               | I wonder if the economics will align to make this
               | attractive to bar owners. When I go to the bar I will
               | usually spend around $50-100 on drinks depending if I am
               | drinking cocktails or wine.
               | 
               | Given that THC seems to be hard to precisely dose, I am
               | not sure that a bar could figure out how to make
               | cocktails or edibles that give a sufficiently small
               | amount to encourage patrons to buy multiple items.
               | 
               | Also, alcohol works in a few minutes, but THC takes a lot
               | longer. I wonder if we would see an increase of over
               | consumption because people are impatient to get their
               | buzz.
               | 
               | Fwiw, I like THC is small quantities from time to time,
               | but I consume at home and watch a movie. Being in a loud
               | public space which high seems like a nightmare to me.
               | 
               | Either way, it will be interesting to see what the future
               | holds.
        
               | QuercusMax wrote:
               | Some of the newer THC drinks take effect pretty quickly
               | in my experience - maybe as fast as drinking alcohol.
               | 
               | It's certainly more processed than homemade weed
               | brownies, but much more reliable and much quicker
               | (minutes for effect vs hours).
        
               | bikingbismuth wrote:
               | Interesting, I was not aware of that. I have noticed that
               | drinking mushroom tea as opposed to eating dried
               | mushrooms does have a quicker onset, so that makes sense
               | to me. (Sadly, it is also consistent in making me vomit.)
        
             | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
             | There's a whole zoo of recreational drugs that are safer to
             | do in moderation than alcohol is to do consistently. Rather
             | than replace alcohol, I think we should just get better at
             | educating:
             | 
             | - when is it safe to use a given drug?
             | 
             | so we can get to the business of exploring:
             | 
             | - which drugs are best paired with which intentions, moods,
             | environments, etc?
        
               | chimprich wrote:
               | > There's a whole zoo of recreational drugs that are
               | safer to do in moderation than alcohol is to do
               | consistently
               | 
               | Which ones are you thinking of? Are any of them similar
               | to alcohol in effects? (Light euphoria, increased
               | socialisation, mild confidence boost, pleasant method of
               | application?)
        
           | kilroy123 wrote:
           | I sure hope so. I went sugar free a few years ago and I have
           | zero regrets.
        
             | hattar wrote:
             | I have tried doing this a few times but always ended up
             | stumped and eventually gave up. It's difficult to find
             | processed foods (e.g. yogurt, cereal, peanut butter)
             | without sugar and so easy to mistakenly get foods with
             | sugar on accident. Baked goods of almost all kinds have
             | sugar by necessity, so they're generally out. This doesn't
             | even account for the natural sugars in fruits and the like.
             | 
             | How committed are you to no sugar and how have you
             | addressed all that? I'd love to try again with some better
             | strategies.
        
               | crdrost wrote:
               | I see this comment and feel so bad for past you!
               | 
               | Why are we treating all sugars as the same? They are not
               | the same.
               | 
               | Some baked goods have sugar in order to feed yeast,
               | rather than humans... Pizza dough, bagels, croissants.
               | Yes these all come in dessert varieties, but it's not the
               | default option.
               | 
               | Especially when you start getting to dumping on fresh
               | fruit, it's like, no, please don't commit yourself to a
               | bland beige life like that! Plants are masters of poisons
               | and trickery, e.g. capsaicin (what makes peppers spicy)
               | makes our mouths burn, but not the mouths of birds--who
               | spread their seeds. Plants use fructose specifically
               | because it's not dextrose and therefore it's hard for
               | bacteria to digest: because they _want_ us to eat this
               | fruit and scatter the pit. Indeed they make the fruit
               | sweet rather rapidly, "now now, it 's ready now!", to
               | signal an optimal "it's not poisonous! now you-scratch-
               | my-back-I'll-scratch-yours" moment to us.
               | 
               | Plants even look out for our longer-term health, those
               | bright colors that we find so attractive are usually
               | signaling to us these really important antioxidants that
               | we need. As long as we don't freeze or puree the cell
               | walls into oblivion, the resulting fiber traps some
               | sugars and feeds it not to us but to our gut bacteria,
               | who then don't starve and eat our GI linings...
               | 
               | "let's not eat foods that I know are healthy, to satisfy
               | arbitrary rules I made up to keep myself healthy"...
               | really?
               | 
               | So if zero tolerance is out, what remains?
               | 
               | * Set a low sugar target, "no more than 10% of my
               | calories from sugars."
               | 
               | * Prefer stuff with a shelf life. If it has an expiration
               | date rather than a nutrition label, great!
               | 
               | * Don't worry about the natural sugar in yogurt, the
               | lactose, unless you're lactose-intolerant. But don't buy
               | the flavored versions as they are sugary enough to
               | classify as desserts for breakfast. Instead do what the
               | Dutch do--buy the plain stuff and cut the sour yourself
               | with added whole grains and fresh fruit.
               | 
               | * "Don't even let it in your house" the other stuff.
               | Guilty pleasures for me include chocolate and jam, I try
               | to make sure that I don't have these in-stock...
               | 
               | * The grocer is a pilgrimage. What I mean is, it's
               | tempting to zigzag your way through and see everything,
               | and this is also why shopping takes forever! But pilgrims
               | usually make a big walk around a structure before diving
               | into the middle for a brief flirtation/unveiling of
               | divinity. A good grocery run too walks around the aisles
               | at the edges, fresh fruit and veg, fresh baked goods,
               | meat and poultry, dairy... And it makes targeted trips
               | into the middle only for things that it needs. You've got
               | a list of the things you'll dip into the middle for,
               | after all, and if your grocery trips are short then if
               | you miss something, you can take another short grocery
               | trip later in the week and still save time and money.
               | Small batch sizes, lean manufacturing!
        
               | enriquto wrote:
               | > I'd love to try again with some better strategies.
               | 
               | In my case I have found it helpful to not quit sugar cold
               | turkey, but gradually. First I stopped buying and using
               | refined sugar at all (putting it in coffee, yogurt, etc.)
               | This is quite easy. Then, avoid buying products whose
               | ingredient list starts with sugar, like marmalade, "milk"
               | chocolate, cereals and the like. This is a bit harder
               | since it requires to pay attention to most products you
               | buy, but still quite feasible. Then, once I was used to
               | spot sugar at the beginning of the ingredient list, I
               | began to read the whole list of ingredients, and avoid
               | products that contained any sugar at all. For example:
               | pre-cut carrots with lemon and ciboulette? whole wheat
               | bread loafs? what on earth can be healthier than those
               | things? Yet both of them contain sugar, in all the brands
               | that I checked!
               | 
               | I started this "program" about three years ago and now I
               | feel slightly healthier, nothing spectacular, but still.
               | The thing is that now I notice immediately when something
               | is too sugary. To the point of it being disgusting. For
               | example, I have real trouble finishing a piece of cake in
               | a birthday party (after fighting my urge to be a jerk
               | about it and refuse it altogether).
        
           | account42 wrote:
           | One negative consequences of the "no sugars added" is that it
           | makes it harder to see how sweet something is because now
           | instead of sugar its all artificial sweeteners in many things
           | that don't need them at all.
        
             | Robotbeat wrote:
             | Or, like, filtered apple juice instead of sugar. Which is
             | the same thing as sugar (well actually fructose) but with a
             | little apple essence thrown in.
        
             | Ma8ee wrote:
             | It's not that hard to read the nutrition facts label on
             | your food packaging.
             | 
             | https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/how-
             | under...
        
               | millzlane wrote:
               | What about the labels that doesn't list the sugar in the
               | facts but lists Aspartame in the ingredients? It says it
               | has a sweetener but doesn't say how much. Funny enough
               | Aspartame doesn't appear anywhere on the page you linked
               | to.
        
               | Ma8ee wrote:
               | What about them? What is it you would like to know and
               | how would the information help?
        
               | millzlane wrote:
               | Artificial sweeteners effect your health. It would be
               | nice to know how much is in there. The information would
               | help a person to avoid the food combinations with
               | Aspartame that decrease the rate of metabolism. But yea I
               | guess a person could just read the label and just believe
               | whatever it tells them.
        
               | Ma8ee wrote:
               | Are you suggesting that there is common and widespread
               | fraud with how food is labelled, to the extent that
               | labels no longer can be trusted?
        
               | barrkel wrote:
               | From the comment you first replied to: _harder to see how
               | sweet something is_
               | 
               | It was never about sugar content, but how sweet something
               | is.
               | 
               | Overly sweet things can be unpleasant to an adult palate,
               | or one accustomed to a culture of less sweet things. In
               | simpler times, sugar content was a somewhat reliable
               | metric of sweetness (of course it can be balanced by
               | acid, tannins, salt etc.), so you could select a product
               | without needing to taste it first.
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | > In simpler times, sugar content was a somewhat reliable
               | metric of sweetness (of course it can be balanced by
               | acid, tannins, salt etc.),
               | 
               | In simpler times, there were no labels to judge sugary
               | content. The regulation in USA came in 2011. In simpler
               | times, you bought the thing and did not cared about sugar
               | at all. Later on, you engaged in culture war whether
               | calories should be on labeling or whether such regulation
               | is nanny statism.
               | 
               | Plus, I will go out and say that amount of people who
               | would regularly check packages to learn how _sweet_ it is
               | and thus estimate taste before buying was super low. It
               | is not a great proxy in the first place.
        
               | barrkel wrote:
               | Carbohydrates have been shown in Ireland ever since I can
               | remember, at least 30 years. For many things - drinks
               | especially - carbohydrates is a straight proxy for
               | sugars.
               | 
               | I still rely on it. Fruit juices touting how natural they
               | are, but bulking out on sugar via apple or orange juice,
               | is really common. You learn to watch out for it in
               | various snacks for toddlers too.
        
               | Ma8ee wrote:
               | You can quite confidently conclude that if it contains
               | artificial sweeteners, it is quite sweet, and way too
               | sweet for my taste.
        
               | FourthProtocol wrote:
               | What about just buying fresh fruit, vegetables and if
               | meat it your thing, fresh, unprocessed meat?
        
               | millzlane wrote:
               | I buy and eat all of those things. We're talking about
               | Nutrition fact labels and sweeteners friend.
        
               | platz wrote:
               | if artificial sweetner is calorically inert why do you
               | care
        
               | DougWebb wrote:
               | Because calorically inert and metabolically inert are not
               | the same thing.
        
               | Robotbeat wrote:
               | I don't think it's a direct metabolic effect but an
               | effect on how hunger it makes you and how it effects the
               | sensation of other things you consume.
        
               | dagw wrote:
               | Because it has a very strong, unpleasant and overpowering
               | taste in too large quantities.
        
               | Timpy wrote:
               | Calorie is not the only metric for health
        
               | wonderwonder wrote:
               | Some people like to know what they are putting in their
               | bodies.
        
           | Sharlin wrote:
           | > As for alcohol, I don't think so. People will still want to
           | get wasted, even knowing that it is bad for the health.
           | 
           | Alcohol advertising is already highly regulated compared to
           | past decades. Smoking even more. Even professional magazines
           | in the 60s and 70s used to have alcohol and cigarette ads
           | every few pages. Not to mention that alcohol use was much
           | less frowned upon at the workplace, especially in certain
           | fields.
        
       | pbhjpbhj wrote:
       | I feel like the thing missing here is which magazines. Just like
       | you can find unlawful/illegal websites before the web were
       | magazines and books. So, were these in mainstream publications or
       | were they in already outlawed publications?
       | 
       | Curiously the website is called "Rare Historical Photos" but the
       | premise under which this is [so] shocking is that these are not
       | rare adverts.
        
         | hellbannedguy wrote:
         | I belive Husler. I seem to have 70's Hustler graphics stuck in
         | my brain stem? It seemed like all the nudie magazines, except
         | Playboy, and Penthouse, had a lot of drug paraphernalia. (My
         | dad had a stash of Playboys, and the kid down the street's
         | father favored Hustler.)
         | 
         | As a kid, I remember seeing 5000 Sudafed (actually the main
         | chemical ingredient) for $20. I was always confused. Why would
         | anyone want so much cold medicine, and later on--they must be
         | for confusing the drug buyers.
         | 
         | Even with all the advertising, and copious amounts of Sudafed,
         | making meth was an unknown to many drug dealers.
         | 
         | I had a chem teacher in college who liked to tell about the
         | student he had who made meth, and sold it. Forget his name?
         | Anyway, the word was he ruined his eyesight because early on he
         | worked with too much mercury. There was one student who kept
         | her book open during the test. He would walk up/down the isles
         | and couldn't spot her cheating.
         | 
         | Low grade coke was everywhere. I tried it three times in my
         | twenties. I was offered it at parties. All three times off duty
         | cops offered it to me. Yea--probally evidence. I never felt
         | anything though? It was weak, or my constitution was different?
         | 
         | A lot of people smoked cigarettes. Coke was around. Drinking
         | was like today, but one for the road was real. Opiates were
         | only for the down, and out.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Half the ads say "Find it at your nearest headshop" or
         | something to that effect. These were in stoner magazines and
         | these adverts and products never really went away from that
         | space to be fair.
        
       | tomc1985 wrote:
       | I miss advertising like this... where it actually talks about the
       | product and why you need it instead of blowing emotional smoke up
       | your ass
        
       | antihero wrote:
       | You can still buy these kits as "snuff kits".
       | 
       | https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=snuff+snorting+kit&_s...
        
       | ankraft wrote:
       | You can buy most of these gadgets (cheap replicas) at smartshops
       | in The Netherlands.
        
         | PopAlongKid wrote:
         | In the late 1970s, I worked in a record store (selling new
         | vinyl records), we had a display case at the register with many
         | of these same products available (as well as pipes and bongs),
         | it wasn't that unusual in the U.S. Even today, I suspect most
         | smoke/vape shops have similar items, although powder cocaine
         | does not seem as common today as it was back then.
         | 
         | I remember one device in particular, it was a small metal
         | cylinder, shaped like an overgrown bullet, designed so that you
         | could fill the main chamber with powder, screw the top on, then
         | by rotating a smaller cylinder inside, deliver one snort into
         | the upper chamber with an opening at the top for pressing
         | against your nostril. It allowed you to snort almost using just
         | one hand, with no chance of spillage. I'd still have one, but I
         | gave it to a friend a long time ago.
        
           | pak9rabid wrote:
           | lol, a buddy of mine was just showing off his he bought a few
           | weeks ago.
        
       | derefr wrote:
       | > While traditionally cocaine was a rich man's drug (due to the
       | large expense of a cocaine habit), by the late 1980s, cocaine was
       | no longer thought of as the drug of choice for the wealthy.
       | 
       | This phrasing seems to suggest that something else _displaced_
       | cocaine as  "the drug of choice for the wealthy."
       | 
       | If something did, what was it?
       | 
       | And if nothing did -- i.e. if young-rich-people parties just
       | shifted away from being drug-fueled -- then what caused that?
       | Because that feels like a very surprising shift; drug-fueled
       | parties were a staple of decadent wealth for hundreds of years as
       | of that point. I wouldn't expect that a single drug losing its
       | perception of "classiness" would lead to a wholesale abandonment
       | of drug use by an entire class of people.
        
         | mhh__ wrote:
         | I also share this doubt, however I can believe that people who
         | are wealthy but not wall street types, have moved on to pills
         | like MDMA etc.
         | 
         | There's a difference between wealthy-wealthy and wealthy-enough
         | to retire early and live like a 19-year-old until they "retire"
         | properly: The latter category I would imagine is not the kind
         | to do Coke on holiday versus some pills.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Cocaine never really went away.
        
         | cik2e wrote:
         | I remember learning this fun fact from a Netflix documentary.
         | Nominal prices for coke have remained stable since the 70s. So
         | adjusted for inflation, it's gotten progressively less
         | expensive. I've witnessed 5his personally. A gram in the 2000s
         | would run about 70 bucks in my area, and that's still the case
         | today.
         | 
         | So it's likely that over time more and more not so rich people
         | entered the market and coke lost its cachet. But I'm sure the
         | rich remained quite fond of it.
        
         | stef25 wrote:
         | Coke never went away but the quality went down substantially,
         | not aided by the fact that it's all produced in the jungle
         | under some guys plastic boots who just eyeballs the reagents
         | used to make the end product. So you'll never get "pure" stuff
         | like you would meth or mdma.
         | 
         | In his bio Keith Richards says he quit all that stuff when the
         | quality when down. All those 80s bands that were fueled by coke
         | ... you don't get that anymore. Basically because it's not that
         | "nice" of a drug anymore.
         | 
         | In S-America from what I've heard is that all the posh party
         | people take mdma to go out and coke is more for the low to
         | middle class. So it's definitely less classy there, probably
         | not in the least because of all the horrible crime associated
         | with it (something that's out of sight for Westerners).
        
         | kbenson wrote:
         | If something replaced cocaine, my guess would be pills, both
         | repurposed medical grade ones and things like ecstasy. Being
         | completely manufactured allows for an arbitrary distinction in
         | quality based on packaging, and that's obviously something
         | people like to buy into.
         | 
         | That said, I'm not sure I believe cocaine ever lost favor with
         | the wealthy. Maybe they just shifted from open semi-public use
         | to more private and small groups doing it within the whole?
         | Instead of open use in the big common room, maybe people just
         | split off into side rooms in small groups that are interested
         | to do it and rejoin the main group later.
        
         | eof wrote:
         | I take it to mean that the primary cultural association with
         | cocaine was no longer "rich person drug," while not saying
         | anything at all about the drug of choice for the wealthy.
        
       | JoeyBananas wrote:
       | Of course, you can still buy drug paraphernalia. For example
       | there are plastic Roses in a glass vase sold at gas stations that
       | are really crack pipes. And there are lots of shady "tobacco
       | shops" out there.
       | 
       | Some of these products seem pretty nice, I'd buy a couple of them
       | if I did cocaine.
        
       | BasilPH wrote:
       | Interesting to see that delivery times of 4-6 weeks were
       | something that was advertised.
        
         | nemo44x wrote:
         | When I was a kid I'd order things from magazine ad's whenever I
         | could, usually gags and gimmicks, etc. It would take forever
         | from the time you sent in the order form and money. It was
         | always so exciting the day the package arrived and your goods
         | were finally in your possession.
        
           | PebblesRox wrote:
           | https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/03/03
        
       | Max_Ehrlich wrote:
       | I thought widespread cocaine usage in the 70s was just a joke.
       | 
       | Turns out it was actually a thing.
        
         | emmelaich wrote:
         | It was a thing.
         | 
         | It still is, too.
        
         | barry-cotter wrote:
         | The 70s were crazy in more ways than one.
         | 
         |  _"People have completely forgotten that in 1972 we had over
         | nineteen hundred domestic bombings in the United States." --
         | Max Noel, FBI (ret.)_
         | 
         | https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/
        
           | vegetablepotpie wrote:
           | I read your article, and it seems like the primary thesis is
           | that large institutions (primarily universities) act as a
           | sheltering mechanism for leftist radicals who promote violent
           | social change.
           | 
           | I'm not assuming you wrote the article, but I want to ask to
           | try to gain insight. If this is true, why is it that business
           | institutions, that have a lot to lose from social upheavals,
           | require 4-year degrees for professional positions, from these
           | leftist institutions?
        
             | asdff wrote:
             | Business institutions are hiring kids who majored in
             | business and don't look like hippies.
        
             | imwillofficial wrote:
             | Possibly as a hold over from a time when a degree carried
             | more weight.
        
           | motohagiography wrote:
           | Hadn't read this before, thank you. Mind blown. It's the
           | missing articulation of why some of this stuff today is so
           | serious.
        
           | dymax78 wrote:
           | I've always been fascinated by the depiction of the 70's in
           | media: an era of excess and debauchery. the linked article
           | (thanks!) reinforces the notion "truth is stranger than
           | fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to
           | possibilities; truth isn't." Each rabbit hole feels more
           | bewildering than the former.
        
           | selfhoster11 wrote:
           | That was a wild read. I want more articles in this style.
        
           | kilroy123 wrote:
           | Which perfectly coincides with this:
           | 
           | https://wtfhappenedin1971.com
        
             | wikidani wrote:
             | Wow, what exactly happened then? Is there anymore I could
             | read about it?
        
               | colanderman wrote:
               | Arbitrary knees in exponentially-growing metrics lined up
               | with the introduction of fiat currency due to carefully
               | chosen Y-axis scales by someone who makes money when you
               | invest in Bitcoin.
               | 
               | (Some of those graphs -- especially the first one --
               | probably have interesting stories behind them, which may
               | or may not relate to fiat currency. But all we get from
               | that page is a Hayek quote structured to suggest he too
               | would love Bitcoin so...)
        
               | captainredbeard wrote:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock
        
               | captainredbeard wrote:
               | US moved to fiat money and they started inflating us all
               | to hell
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | In more industries than not, it's still a thing. There is a lot
         | of companies (that I've worked with at least) where coke usage
         | is still happening at relaxed events, especially when it's a
         | "management-only" event.
        
         | teddyh wrote:
         | I get that same feeling now when people casually mention
         | cannabis use.
        
           | bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
           | The history of cannabis use is orders of magnitudes longer
           | than the history of cocaine use.
        
             | capableweb wrote:
             | Not sure about magnitude. Well, maybe Cocaine yeah
             | magnitude, but when it comes to Coca, I'm pretty sure
             | tribes in South America have been using them for as long as
             | people been using Cannabis. At the very least, the Incas
             | were using Coca back in the day.
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | > The history of cannabis use is orders of magnitudes
             | longer than the history of cocaine use.
             | 
             | Not unless you narrowly restrict the latter to _refined_
             | cocaine, while not restricting the former to (say) refined
             | THC.
             | 
             | The history of cannabis use is not orders of magnitude
             | longer than the history of coca leaf use.
        
               | bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
               | Definitely not comparing to coca leaf use. To your point
               | though, refined THC in the form of hashish has a much
               | longer history than refined coca leaves. As has breeding
               | for more THC.
        
               | Bud wrote:
               | Hashish does not actually have to be "refined" at all.
               | There's zero chemical process involved. You're just
               | taking the resin glands off the surface of the plant.
               | Refining cocaine is starkly different from this, of
               | course.
        
         | jmcgough wrote:
         | I don't think I understood the extent until I watched a Studio
         | 54 documentary - iconic, super popular NYC nightclub where
         | everyone did loads of cocaine out in the open all night.
        
           | PopAlongKid wrote:
           | The cocaine culture and the disco culture were very much
           | intertwined. Maybe it was not as much in the open as at
           | Studio 54, but it wasn't limited to just NYC.
        
         | antihero wrote:
         | Heh, you should check out London in 2021.
        
         | soco wrote:
         | Was? It's almost on the job description of a banking manager...
        
         | dkdk8283 wrote:
         | It's very much alive, the war on drugs is a racket.
         | 
         | A friend sold car stereos in the 80s, he would get tips in
         | coke. He was paid a lot to cut a early projection tv in half so
         | it could fit in his airplane and be taken back to South
         | America.
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | I yearn for the day where all drugs are legal.
       | 
       | No difference between cocaine and caffeine or alcohol. They're
       | all drugs if you remove your bias and conditioning.
        
         | seiferteric wrote:
         | I want to agree but my area is rather "methy" and contributes
         | so much to crime and bad behavior. In an ideal world people
         | would be able to do whatever they want as long as they don't
         | bother anyone else. Unfortunately it is a daily occurrence
         | around here of meth addicts breaking into peoples yards and
         | houses trying to steal stuff, aggressive behavior etc.
        
           | pille wrote:
           | But meth is already illegal, and your neighborhood is still
           | in that situation. That sounds awful, but not really like a
           | reason for sticking with the current policy.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | throwaway5752 wrote:
         | Bias and conditioning? There is large and measurable
         | variability in potency, effect, and dependency formation.
         | Anyone with any sense sees the difference between coffee,
         | marijuana, pcp, and heroin.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | Jerrrry wrote:
           | I'm on three of those right now, two more to boot.
           | 
           | It's the dose that makes the potency and effect.
           | 
           | The dose available to the end-user is determined from the
           | drug itself and the supply chain, since it is unregulated. If
           | it were regulated, the individual doses would be more
           | controlled, allowing for less habitual redosing, and less
           | acute mental and physical dependency.
           | 
           | Imagine you want a beer but hafta volumetrically dose it from
           | 100% grain alcohol and cider. It'd be easier to become an
           | alcoholic. Similarly, it is harder to "responsibility" enjoy
           | heroin/fent or coke/meth because every time I want a small
           | amount, I have to stare at a weeks worth for a brief moment.
           | 
           | The illegality of drugs itself becomes tautologically
           | entwined with the reasons they are illegal. It is becoming
           | more difficult to diffuse as our culture leans to polarity on
           | drug issues.
        
           | dumpHero2 wrote:
           | Ever heard of coffee destroying families or someone's career?
           | Yeah, me neither.
        
             | batushka3 wrote:
             | It does if you keep banging your barista
        
             | whalesalad wrote:
             | One man's trash is another man's treasure. Shouldn't punish
             | the entire world for a subset of people who are incapable
             | of being responsible.
        
             | ihumanable wrote:
             | How about sugar? Sure it seems innocuous enough, but some
             | people get effectively addicted to it, developing diseases
             | and conditions that can prevent them from working their
             | chosen profession or die and "destroy" their family unit.
             | 
             | Have I heard about diabetics refusing to change their diets
             | and dying, yes.
             | 
             | Does that mean we should outlaw sugar? Probably not, plenty
             | of people struggle with obesity and sugar is a major
             | contributing factor, but there's plenty of responsible
             | adults that can consume sugar in moderation.
             | 
             | I also imagine there are a non-zero number of people that
             | begin using more pure forms of caffeine in ways that are
             | damaging to their relationships, health, and careers.
        
             | dom96 wrote:
             | If that's the criteria then we still have an inconsistency:
             | tobacco and alcohol should be banned. The alternative is to
             | be consistent in the other direction (which to some that
             | are after "freedom" sounds more appropriate).
        
               | whalesalad wrote:
               | Precisely. Anyone who stands up for alcohol while putting
               | down cocaine or cannabis is fooling themselves and
               | refusing to see truth.
        
               | ambrozk wrote:
               | Yeah, there's a logical inconsistency. So what? Just
               | because our society has so far failed to ban two
               | addictive, harmful drugs, does not mean we must legalize
               | every other addictive, harmful drug.
        
               | shmel wrote:
               | I see it differently: despite alcohol having absolutely
               | horrible safety profile the vast majority of people
               | manage to use it responsibly and don't let it ruin their
               | lives. We all know that some people become alcoholics and
               | yet it stops virtually nobody from enjoying Friday beer.
               | 
               | The drug prohibition made it difficult to know how many
               | people use drugs responsibly. It is linked to legal weed
               | actually: it is being legalized not because research
               | showed it is not too dangerous (we knew it for a while),
               | but because more and more people become aware that you
               | can totally use weed and remain a respectable member of
               | society.
               | 
               | For me it is a question of personal freedom. Everything
               | has risks. Going hiking in mountains can kill you, for
               | example, or almost any outdoor activity really. And some
               | people die there pretty much every day. But I really
               | don't want the state banning it just because some people
               | fuck up.
        
         | WillyF wrote:
         | What about antibiotics?
        
         | dekerta wrote:
         | No difference? Seriously? I have never heard of someone
         | destroying their life over a coffee addiction
        
           | nick__m wrote:
           | It is quite uncommon and usually doesn't devolves into a life
           | destroying situation but it exist :                  The
           | first published report of caffeinism -- essentially an
           | anxiety disorder based on chronic high caffeine consumption
           | -- appeared in 1967 and described the case of a woman thought
           | to have an anxiety disorder until it was determined that she
           | was consuming 15 to 18 cups of brewed coffee per day. She
           | showed rapid improvement when her caffeine intake was
           | drastically reduced.
           | 
           | https://www.pharmacologicalsciences.us/caffeine/ccaffeinism..
           | ..
        
             | tehjoker wrote:
             | I will say that I didn't read the directions on some new
             | freeze dried instant coffee I got and was accidentally
             | brewing 2x the recommended concentration and felt like I
             | was losing my mind for months until I figured it out.
        
               | ihumanable wrote:
               | I didn't start drinking coffee until well into my 20s,
               | just never developed a taste for it.
               | 
               | One day after I had started drinking coffee a friend
               | wanted to go to Starbucks. They were excited that I
               | finally started drinking coffee and we could go for a
               | walk and grab a cup. I had heard Starbucks was pretty
               | awful coffee but the coffee was a side point, so I went
               | and got a cup of coffee.
               | 
               | I was wildly caffeinated the rest of the day. My brain
               | had made an incorrect association that "awful coffee" ==
               | "weak coffee" so I got the largest one because I was a
               | bit tired. That was WAY TOO MUCH caffeine, a Venti coffee
               | at Starbucks has 225mg of caffeine and the standard cup I
               | was brewing at home / in the office was closer to 90mg.
               | 
               | That was a difficult afternoon at work, unable to sit
               | still, agitated, but I learned a good lesson. Starbucks
               | didn't get rich from flavor, they did it the old
               | fashioned way, massive quantities of addictive
               | substances, caffeine and sugar.
        
         | kache_ wrote:
         | Peak hackernews hot takes right here folks
        
         | unethical_ban wrote:
         | - Long term health risks (normal use as well as abuse)
         | 
         | - Short term health risks (ease of overdose)
         | 
         | - Level of addiction
         | 
         | using those three metrics, there are some very large
         | differences between cocaine, THC, tobacco, caffeine, alcohol,
         | and say, heroin.
        
       | helsinkiandrew wrote:
       | A little digging and it appears these ads were in magazines like
       | Hustler, Penthouse and High Times - not the The New York Review
       | of Books or more mainstream titles, which makes much more sense.
       | 
       | https://flashbak.com/cocaine-advertising-of-the-1970s-1980s-...
       | https://dangerousminds.net/comments/magazine_ads_from_the_he...
        
         | kevinmchugh wrote:
         | Thank you, there's a bit of sensationalism in the article and
         | that it wouldn't say where the ads ran was part of that. I was
         | sure it wasn't in Time, and probably not Playboy.
        
           | IncRnd wrote:
           | I was curious whether the little spoons are still sold, since
           | until now I had been unaware of the true purpose of those
           | little things. Apparently, as of today they are the first
           | item on Amazon when searching for miniature coke spoons.
           | 
           | "Tiny Snuff Spoon, Metal Micro Scoops Medicine Powder Spoon
           | for Filling Vials, Spoon Pendants Necklace Loop, Set of 6"
           | 
           | The things people do.
        
             | Zak wrote:
             | This company specializing in flashlights and pocket gadgets
             | would like to sell you a fancy titanium "ear pick".
             | 
             | https://shopmecarmy.com/products/ei2-titanium-edc-
             | keychain-e...
        
               | InitialLastName wrote:
               | Maybe I'm confused, but on [1], is the "fun" the bearing
               | on top is meant to be used for a euphemism for some
               | obscure act of violence, or do they actually just mean
               | it's part pen part fidget toy?
               | 
               | [1] https://shopmecarmy.com/collections/featured-
               | product/product...
        
               | akiselev wrote:
               | Anyone who wants a weapon would likely just use the
               | nearest available plastic pen, a humble but likely more
               | effective instrument in all cases. However, can you
               | imagine buying a $130 titanium jumbopen only to find out
               | that it doesn't even spin? I would be absolutely livid.
               | Wars have been started over less!
        
               | IncRnd wrote:
               | I think they were absolutely not saying it is for an act
               | of violence.
        
         | h2odragon wrote:
         | The mainstream ads never mentioned what the product was for.
         | 
         | My mom had almost collected someones "US States" mini spoons
         | set, when someone told her they were coke spoons she lost her
         | enthusiasm for getting the full set. Some truck stop or
         | something had sold them as a promotional thing, coulda been
         | anything but "mini spoons" were a popular utensil right then.
         | 
         | It was also amusing, as a kid in the 80s, when these things
         | would come out at yard sales and such. Pop up with "how much
         | for this?" and watch someone turn deep pink; or alternately get
         | the last bit of someones antique stash that the rest of their
         | family was unaware of.
        
           | Tagbert wrote:
           | McDonald's briefly had these small plastic spoons as coffee
           | stirrers in the 70's. They really looked almost designed for
           | coke. We made a lot of fun about it. By the next year they
           | had switched to a flat plastic stirrer that could not hold
           | anything. I think they heard all the jokes about getting a
           | Big Mac and a Coke.
           | 
           | https://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/made/conte.
           | ..
        
             | Stratoscope wrote:
             | Harry Turtledove wrote a great SF short story in 1988 that
             | relates to this:
             | 
             | https://archive.org/stream/New_Destinies_06_1988-Winter_Gor
             | g...
        
           | ZanyProgrammer wrote:
           | I'm not even sure many/any of those ads in the link were in
           | anything resembling a mainstream publication in the first
           | place.
        
             | Multiplayer wrote:
             | These ads showed up in rock magazines like Creem and
             | rolling stone, playboy, oui, counter culture newspapers,
             | etc.
        
               | frankfrankfrank wrote:
               | I am not sure if there is a name for this phenomenon, but
               | it seems to be a frequent issue where, e.g., in this case
               | some probably very limited run ads in obscure magazines
               | only the fringe of society every even possibly saw are
               | now in the future interpreted and assumed to have been
               | seen by everyone, all the time, and were of far greater
               | importance or impact than they really were in reality.
               | 
               | Does anyone know if there is a term for that kind of
               | "bias" or self-deception?
               | 
               | The odd reflexive impact of that seems to be that today's
               | historians and social sciences people are prone to
               | falling prey to the "bias" and then weaving it into
               | preconceived notions and narratives due to other biases
               | like confirmation bias.
        
               | h2odragon wrote:
               | In this case, the ads were seen by far more people than
               | understood them. Even those that asked and found out,
               | many of them weren't interested and tuned it out mostly;
               | so its not surprising if they do not remember it decades
               | later.
               | 
               | History never has much to do with what actually happened,
               | anyhow.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | It's just shoddy analysis of sources.
               | 
               | You see it all the time on Facebook, or reddit, or
               | wherever people post things like 'Did you know <group of
               | ancient people believed> <something utterly ridiculous>
               | without quantifying whether or not this was a common
               | belief, or just a drinking story that they told.
               | 
               | An outsider who isn't careful about this might make a
               | similar claim that modern Americans believe in a heroic
               | lumberjack giant called Paul Bunyan, who has a giant pet
               | blue ox. This is technically correct, but is also utterly
               | useless as a description of modern Americans.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | All of the magazines mentioned had massive circulations
               | and were available at every 7-11 in the country.
               | 
               | A more interesting phenomenon is where media consumed by
               | a tiny group of well-educated wealthy elites is
               | considered universal or common. There's no way the New
               | Yorker had a bigger circulation than Hustler in the 80s.
               | 
               | edit: according to wikipedia, Hustler's peak circulation
               | in the 80s was 3 million copies a month.
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | I remember buying one of those little "paper rose in a glass
           | tube" things, at a 7-11, once. Someone told me what it's
           | actually for (crack stem).
           | 
           | In the 1970s (and eighties), people would grow their right
           | pinky nail long.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Nuac_rwgc&t=380s
        
             | david_allison wrote:
             | > I remember buying one of those little "paper rose in a
             | glass tube" things, at a 7-11, once.
             | 
             | Even has a Wikipedia article:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_rose
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | pessimizer wrote:
             | My regular ice cream truck driver, in the very early 80s
             | when I was maybe 7 years old, also dealt drugs out of the
             | truck and had this long coke nail I was fascinated with.
             | Everybody liked him, and he would front kids ice cream when
             | they were broke.
        
               | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
               | Like so?
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIzRGHuJt_I
        
           | kevinmchugh wrote:
           | I can't picture which spoons you mean, but decorative or
           | souvenir spoons are definitely a thing.
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvenir_spoon
        
             | cj wrote:
             | He's referring to the coke spoons pictured in the article.
             | 
             | They're miniature size (e.g. only big enough for doing a
             | bump of coke). Not full teaspoon size.
        
         | matthewmcg wrote:
         | I guess there's a fine line between drug innuendo and explicit
         | promotion of drug use. A fine, powdered line...
        
           | Tagbert wrote:
           | I would follow Occam's Razor to choose one or the other.
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Nuac_rwgc
        
           | krylon wrote:
           | Most of those ads are bit ... on the nose.
        
           | Lucasoato wrote:
           | They snorted even that one.
        
       | 29athrowaway wrote:
       | Curious fact: in the late 1880s there were about 300 opium dens
       | in San Francisco.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | There's probably more than 300 today in the tenderloin alone if
         | you call a tent a den
        
       | kabes wrote:
       | Is it actually illegal to sell these kind of gadgets today in the
       | US? Could you still advertise them?
        
         | 7402 wrote:
         | 21 U.S. Code SS 863 - Drug paraphernalia
         | 
         | (a) In general It is unlawful for any person--
         | 
         | (1) to sell or offer for sale drug paraphernalia; (2) to use
         | the mails or any other facility of interstate commerce to
         | transport drug paraphernalia; or (3) to import or export drug
         | paraphernalia.
         | 
         | (b) Penalties
         | 
         | Anyone convicted of an offense under subsection (a) of this
         | section shall be imprisoned for not more than three years and
         | fined under title 18.
         | 
         | (c) Seizure and forfeiture
         | 
         | Any drug paraphernalia involved in any violation of subsection
         | (a) of this section shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture
         | upon the conviction of a person for such violation. Any such
         | paraphernalia shall be delivered to the Administrator of
         | General Services, General Services Administration, who may
         | order such paraphernalia destroyed or may authorize its use for
         | law enforcement or educational purposes by Federal, State, or
         | local authorities.
         | 
         | (d) "Drug paraphernalia" defined
         | 
         | The term "drug paraphernalia" means any equipment, product, or
         | material of any kind which is primarily intended or designed
         | for use in manufacturing, compounding, converting, concealing,
         | producing, processing, preparing, injecting, ingesting,
         | inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a
         | controlled substance, possession of which is unlawful under
         | this subchapter. It includes items primarily intended or
         | designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise
         | introducing marijuana,[1] cocaine, hashish, hashish oil, PCP,
         | methamphetamine, or amphetamines into the human body, such as--
         | (1) metal, wooden, acrylic, glass, stone, plastic, or ceramic
         | pipes with or without screens, permanent screens, hashish
         | heads, or punctured metal bowls; (2) water pipes; (3)
         | carburetion tubes and devices; (4) smoking and carburetion
         | masks; (5) roach clips: meaning objects used to hold burning
         | material, such as a marihuana cigarette, that has become too
         | small or too short to be held in the hand; (6) miniature spoons
         | with level capacities of one-tenth cubic centimeter or less;
         | (7) chamber pipes; (8) carburetor pipes; (9) electric pipes;
         | (10) air-driven pipes; (11) chillums; (12) bongs; (13) ice
         | pipes or chillers; (14) wired cigarette papers; or (15) cocaine
         | freebase kits.
         | 
         | (e) Matters considered in determination of what constitutes
         | drug paraphernalia In determining whether an item constitutes
         | drug paraphernalia, in addition to all other logically relevant
         | factors, the following may be considered:
         | 
         | (1) instructions, oral or written, provided with the item
         | concerning its use; (2) descriptive materials accompanying the
         | item which explain or depict its use; (3) national and local
         | advertising concerning its use; (4) the manner in which the
         | item is displayed for sale; (5) whether the owner, or anyone in
         | control of the item, is a legitimate supplier of like or
         | related items to the community, such as a licensed distributor
         | or dealer of tobacco products; (6) direct or circumstantial
         | evidence of the ratio of sales of the item(s) to the total
         | sales of the business enterprise; (7) the existence and scope
         | of legitimate uses of the item in the community; and (8) expert
         | testimony concerning its use.
         | 
         | (f) Exemptions
         | 
         | This section shall not apply to-- (1) any person authorized by
         | local, State, or Federal law to manufacture, possess, or
         | distribute such items; or (2) any item that, in the normal
         | lawful course of business, is imported, exported, transported,
         | or sold through the mail or by any other means, and
         | traditionally intended for use with tobacco products, including
         | any pipe, paper, or accessory.
         | 
         | https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/863
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | Yet you can buy a huge bong in any headshop in the country.
           | They still sell this stuff. It's not going to say "For
           | Cocaine use only" or anything like that obviously.
        
         | the_only_law wrote:
         | I don't know about selling them, but you could maybe get
         | charged for having them in many places, even without the
         | respective drugs.
        
         | antihero wrote:
         | They are sold in the UK on eBay
        
       | ulzeraj wrote:
       | > These vintage ads for cocaine and cocaine paraphernalia show
       | how crazy and disturbing the 1970s were.
       | 
       | Things are more disturbing nowadays because people go through
       | violent routes to get their drugs. Its still there and its worse
       | but at least the sensible eyes of the millennial browsing the
       | internet from his brand new M1 is protected. Hooray for the war
       | on drugs.
        
         | standardUser wrote:
         | "Things are more disturbing nowadays because people go through
         | violent routes to get their drugs. "
         | 
         | As an avid drug user and part of a sprawling social group of
         | avid drug users, we have no f*cking idea what you are talking
         | about.
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | > Things are more disturbing nowadays because people go through
         | violent routes to get their drugs.
         | 
         | What?
         | 
         | People seem to buy drugs online with cryptocurrency and receive
         | it in the mail, an option which obviously didn't exist in the
         | 70s.
         | 
         | I have some friends involved in the treatment/recovery space.
         | It's actually very challenging because the old technique of
         | cutting ties with the user/dealer social circles is much less
         | effective when reordering drugs online for delivery is just a
         | few clicks away.
        
         | j-pb wrote:
         | The current iteration of the war on drugs is a "Greatest
         | Generation" (Nixon et al.) invention and every generation since
         | has suffered for it, but it goes back way further to
         | prohibition times.
        
         | [deleted]
        
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