Re: I Am A Better Person Than Labs

1

Oh my god. Sarah Jeong deserves a medal for that column.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:08 AM
horizontal rule
2

OK, that is funny. It's her first piece for the old Groaner, perhaps there's hope yet.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:31 AM
horizontal rule
3

the old Groaner

How many goddamn nicknames does the Guardian have? I'm gonna start calling it "the G Zine" and "the old G Spot."


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:35 AM
horizontal rule
4

I read that because Krugman linked to it...


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:36 AM
horizontal rule
5

I feel like a FUCKING CHAMPION RIGHT NOW. Honestly it was pretty hard to comprehend that the Dowd piece wasn't inartful Dowd satire.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:50 AM
horizontal rule
6

3 made me laugh.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:53 AM
horizontal rule
7

I've never smoked pot much (as I've mentioned before, embarrassingly, I've never really gotten past the "Am I high? I might be. But I'm not sure." stage. Possibly lack of skill inhaling, or who knows), but since pot went legal in Colorado, I've seen a couple of things like Dowd's reporting what I would have thought were implausibly intense bad reactions to doing too much. More sophisticated drug users -- is Dowd's column within the realm of reasonably expected results from eating way too much of a marijuana candybar, or does it look like exaggerated hysteria-feeding?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:32 AM
horizontal rule
8

It doesn't seem that far out to me. Edibles are intense and she had no sense of portion.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:36 AM
horizontal rule
9

It seems pretty clear that labeling needs to be improved. Still, I don't think that takes away from the broader point. Dowd accidentally rendering herself near catatonic in a hotel room is hilarious.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:38 AM
horizontal rule
10

Yes, eating pot takes a long time to kick in, produces stronger and longer-lasting effects than smoking. No idea about dosage of what's getting sold in CO now.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:40 AM
horizontal rule
11

As someone else pointed out, you know she expensed that.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:42 AM
horizontal rule
12

"Warning: Inexperienced users should not ingest more than one serving (1/16th of a the bar). Do not use while wearing corduroy pants."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:43 AM
horizontal rule
13

7: I think a bit of both, she apparently ignored advice given to her from a "tour guide." But sure, it is probably the easiest way to "take to much," and I do think there is potential to make edibles something like Cisco wine, although with far less likelihood of death or severe health consequences.

Actually, I blame Mitt Romney:

"She got some bud, some edibles and when we got back to the hotel she had to run off to a Mitt Romney documentary screening. She asked me, 'Will you roll a joint for me? I don't know how to do it.' But she had to run really quickly to the screening, and I was going to catch a flight the next day, and we were going to connect a few nights later but it never worked out."


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:47 AM
horizontal rule
14

I can easily see how this could happen (assuming an idiot like Dowd). It's very easy to underestimate exactly how potent edible pot products can be, given how easily the active ingredients can wander out into other things. I am told that if one happened to come across some in accidental and completely legal ways one could easily make a tincture strong enough to use as cocktail bitters, instead of immediately turning it in to the local police as one obviously would.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:51 AM
horizontal rule
15

I have seen a number of noted potheads complain that the dosage in edibles is impossible to judge - you really need decent quality control and labeling, or you're going to have exactly this problem.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:51 AM
horizontal rule
16

http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/06/04/20-reactions-dowd-pens-column-edibles-overdose-internet-loses-mind/13062/


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:54 AM
horizontal rule
17

I didn't actually read the MD column, but the first and only time I ate pot (a single lollipop), I had a very unpleasant six-hour hallucinogenic* trip, and only after that did I revert to what felt like normal smoking high for several hours. During the first part, I felt like shit -- not just like "this is scary," but like "I'm empty; I'm alone; I'm a bad person".

*Maybe it's not technically hallucinogenic if you see very vivid visual images but you can still have perceptual discrimination between the images and what's real. I don't know.


Posted by: Tia | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:55 AM
horizontal rule
18

Agreed that the legalization of edibles as well as smokables is an underrated problem. In my experience, despite all the jokes in pop culture, only the most enthusiastic of potheads get involved with the world of extracts that you can put into brownies and lollipops and whatnot. But if you can mass-produce those things, people will be unprepared for the effects.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:58 AM
horizontal rule
19

Friends and I went to Eeyore's Birthday a million years ago and had brownies and I ended up not noticeably stoned while she spent hours having tea with Jesus, so our lesson was sometimes baked goods are inconsistent though I guess commercially produced stuff they probably are better at that.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:00 AM
horizontal rule
20

19. ?? Hash and hash oil are extracts, widely sold, easy for amateurs to bake into food.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:01 AM
horizontal rule
21

I have an oddball question about meditation. I get that the point of meditation is to clear your mind of thoughts, and if you have a thought, you just observe it without judgement and go back to the spaces in between the thoughts.

Now, it's generally implied that the thoughts are verbal, and that you're more-or-less ruminating and trying to clear out your internal monologue. But usually if I (humblebrag? maybe) close my eyes, I'll just sort of watch loopy visuals with varying degrees of realism.

If you google any meditative advice stuff, they love visuals because hocus-pocus-loopy. But if you think of visuals as a form of mental chatter, then you should observe but try to quiet the chatter.

I know we have some meditation aficionados here, but anyone have a good answer about the RIGHT way? I want to win.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:01 AM
horizontal rule
22

As a complete non-user, I'm starting to wonder if the problem is packaging orally consumable pot as 'edibles' rather than 'pills'. I mean, eating 1/16 of a candy bar is not a natural way to interact with a candy bar -- at that point there's no particular value to the candy as candy, it's solely a drug delivery mechanism. I know pot brownies are a traditional thing, but wouldn't it make much more sense to be selling this stuff in small, individually wrapped doses? (And of course there also seems to be a real standardization problem as well, but the way edibles sound like they're being sold seems like an invitation to overdose.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:02 AM
horizontal rule
23

the most enthusiastic of potheads

GIMME A P!
P!!!
GIMME AN O!
O!!!


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:02 AM
horizontal rule
24

Hash and hash oil are extracts, widely sold, easy for amateurs to bake into food.

It's easy, but you have to really care about your pot experiences to bother. A once-a-month-social smoker isn't going to make the extra trip and take the time to make squat.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:03 AM
horizontal rule
25

23: Yeaaah, but. I don't need my liquor packaged in airplane bottles to keep me from downing a 7-11 Big Gulp of gin. There's only so much dumbassery you can prevent, and for however unpleasant her fetal-curl freakout may have been, Dowd is not really any worse for the experience.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:07 AM
horizontal rule
26

I'd assume that part of the reason Colorado shops are focusing on edibles and making them relatively strong is to serve the "export market." If you are bring something home to Omaha, you may not want your neighbors to smell the smoke and you'd want to make it harder for the police to see/smell if you get stopped on I-80.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:07 AM
horizontal rule
27

26: But it's not socially normal to buy Everclear either, even if drinking it by the tablespoonful would be a perfectly responsible way to consume alcohol.

I mean, you're right, kind of. But I'm also right that there's something screwy about selling a candy bar of the same size and appearance as a candy bar that you'd eat because you wanted the chocolate, and expecting people to treat it as something to be consumed by the 1cm squared morsel.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:19 AM
horizontal rule
28

I'm with LB. Candy is a category of things you gobble down lots of. Liquor doesn't taste very good if you gobble it down. Categorically, unpleasant amounts of pot shouldn't be packaged in gobble-able quantities. If a portion is 1/16, then wrap up each 1/16 like a starburst candy.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:22 AM
horizontal rule
29

for however unpleasant her fetal-curl freakout may have been, Dowd is not really any worse for the experience.

That, of course, is an important point. Dowd sounds like she did the equivalent of downing a BigGulp of gin, and it scared her but she wasn't in any medical danger, whereas the gin could have killed her.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:22 AM
horizontal rule
30

If a portion is 1/16, then wrap up each 1/16 like a starburst candy.

What's the largest number of Starburst candies you've eaten in a single session?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:25 AM
horizontal rule
31

Liquor doesn't taste very good if you gobble it down.

At least it doesn't for those inexperienced at drinking liquor. Mostly.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:26 AM
horizontal rule
32

31: How many come in the bags like you get to pass out at Halloween?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:26 AM
horizontal rule
33

31: I'm not saying it'd make taking too much impossible, but it does seem as if it'd make it less likely, if there were a wrapping-defined serving size.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:28 AM
horizontal rule
34

How many come in the bags like you get to pass out

If you're eating enough Starburst to pass out, you're eating too many.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:29 AM
horizontal rule
35

I've definitely eaten too many Starburst on more than one occasion. Then I discovered the Starburst-flavored jelly beans. Those are even better.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:30 AM
horizontal rule
36

Liquor doesn't taste very good if you gobble it down.

College-aged apostropher sez if you mix tequila with cherry Kool-Aid, you can gobble it down much faster than is advisable without even wincing. And you'll never wear those clothes again.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:32 AM
horizontal rule
37

At Christmas, you can get a candycane filled with them.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:32 AM
horizontal rule
38

Dowds' column was hilarious, sure, but actually seemed completely reasonable. (As I now see has already been pointed out in this thread multiple times. Oh well.)


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:38 AM
horizontal rule
39

In northern knifecrimea, when First Minister Salmond was a lad, it wasn't common to get grass. Hash was standard. So edibles of various kinds weren't uncommon.*

It's true that it's very easy to get out of your depth if you are a casual occasional smoker.

* although all kinds of home-made fancy pipes and water affairs were more common for those who didn't smoke tobacco.


Posted by: Alex Salmond | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:38 AM
horizontal rule
40

37: And that's a bad idea (as is Everclear in grape Kool-Aid), and grownups don't do it. Reading about edibles, it kind of sounds as if standard packaging (to the extent that there is a standard) is the equivalent of selling Everclear with grape Kool-Aid in BigGulp cups with straws, and then saying that a sensible person would have known to put it in the fridge and drink it over a two-week period, a couple of big sips a day.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:38 AM
horizontal rule
41

I think "getting high" has a huge psychological component, and that edibles, by obscuring exactly how much weed is being consumed, let people's imaginations run away with them (which is all "getting high" really is). My semi-testable prediction is that LB could have eaten the same brownie as Dowd and felt nothing. (Obviously it's not testable in that we can't feed LB that specific brownie but we could get 100 LBs and 100 Dowds in a room, randomize 200 brownies, etc.)


Posted by: dz | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:38 AM
horizontal rule
42

OMG STARBURST JELLY BEANS ARE AMAZING.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:39 AM
horizontal rule
43

I actually am kind of curious about legal edibles, just because it seems like a way to get past the "Am I high? Maybe I'm high?" stage without having to get skilled at inhaling smoke.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:39 AM
horizontal rule
44

43: I know. But diabetes.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:41 AM
horizontal rule
45

Everclear with grape Kool-Aid in BigGulp cups with straws, and then saying that a sensible person would have known to put it in the fridge and drink it over a two-week period, a couple of big sips a day

That doesn't sound like something a sensible person would do.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:41 AM
horizontal rule
46

46 was me.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:42 AM
horizontal rule
47

40 wasn't me, but it's true (though smoking with tobacco was far more common than eating IME) and I don't know why the First Minister felt the need to go pseudonymous on this since it's hardly incriminating.

I was always surprised by this since it's much easier to eat stuff than smoke it - less hassle, no problems with smoking restrictions, no smell etc.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:43 AM
horizontal rule
48

44: Me too. I'm a horrible smoker.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:44 AM
horizontal rule
49

41: Agree with you on this point; that is why I mentioned Cisco wine upthread. (Discussed here several times before, they at one time used the slogan "Takes You by Surprise.")


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:45 AM
horizontal rule
50

I think the underlying point here is that LB, as a lawyer in New York, is used to being in a terrifyingly inexplicable and illogical environment full of vaguely threatening but yet undefinable presences, and so getting her high has about as much objective effect as giving a Bedouin a drug that causes him to imagine he's surrounded by sand.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:46 AM
horizontal rule
51

So edibles are actually really easy to make. You don't need hash oil or whatever. You just need shitty pot, butter, and a way to double-boil things.

People make pot brownies because brownies are yummy. People make edibles, generally, because (1) edibles are yummy but more importantly (2) smoking isn't exactly the easiest way of getting medicine into you and (3) at least in the medicinal world it really helps people to have pot in a form that's relatively pleasant to ingest even if you're really sick.

Also, in areas that are not wherever Ned lives and also are California, they are super common and have been super common for a really long time. It's not like some hardcore weirdo thing, not at all.

AISIMHB when I lived on Treasure Island I had a neighbor who was a trained baker who made his living baking for the pot clubs. He lived in TI because electricity wasn't seperately metered, so he could efficiently have a full-sized industrial kitchen in his apartment (lots of people grew/grow pot there for the same reason). It was a somewhat shadier era for this sort of thing so he wanted to make sure his neighbors weren't pissed at him, which he accomplished by being super generous with gift-bags and holiday sampler packs and so on. That was a good time.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:46 AM
horizontal rule
52

Back when I worked for Big Tobacco, one of the historic Bad Documents was an internal memo from one of the big companies rhapsodizing about what a wonderful drug delivery method smoking was -- that the smoker got the hit instantly, and could control their dosage with perfect sensitivity. I don't know if it works as well for THC as nicotine, but I'd believe on the basis of that memo that smoking is subjectively a superior way of consuming drugs for most people who don't start coughing comically when they try.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
53

43: THEY ARE THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:48 AM
horizontal rule
54

On the other hand, while I'm truckin' down anecdote lane, I had another friend who had brownies for the first time and didn't really get the whole "they take a very long time to kick in" thing, which, combined with the "being a little high gives you the munchies" thing meant that he ate eight of them. I do not think that was a completely untroubled experience for him (he was flying home to see his parents for christmas the next morning), although of course in a larger sense he was perfectly fine.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:49 AM
horizontal rule
55

51: Reminds me of when I was in the Peace Corps, and people talked about what happened when you drank too much and got the DTs: "I feel like there are bugs, crawling all over me. Lizards running up and down the walls! Giant crabs, scuttling out of disturbingly rounded holes in the turf... Yep, everything's normal."


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:50 AM
horizontal rule
56

he was flying home to see his parents for christmas the next morning

Well at least he didn't need a plane.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:52 AM
horizontal rule
57

53: I really missing smoking.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:52 AM
horizontal rule
58

53: well, right, it's the coughing, and in general it's the hot gas in your lungs. Vaporizers are absolutely a dynamite drug delivery method, with all the upside and none of the downsides of smoking, but they are at least as of now a bit of a pain in the ass. Weed-filled e-cigs would sort of be a solution, but as far as I know that hasn't quite happened yet. Maybe it has?

Another thing to consider is that I believe in both Colorado and Washington smoking in public is illegal; in areas with sort of in-between laws like that edibles are a less fraught way to have your weed on-the-go.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:52 AM
horizontal rule
59

I only skimmed the column and refuse to reread it so I could be wrong-- but I don't think Dowd's column was put in any kind of appropriate context. If she had led it with something along the lines of, "I decided on purpose to act like a total, stupid, dumbass because there are in fact people out there who will act that way" it would have been somewhat less weird and stupid.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:53 AM
horizontal rule
60

What surprises me is that Dowd hasn't been high for all her columns to date. There's that certain, er, associative style.


Posted by: lourdes kayak | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:54 AM
horizontal rule
61

Maybe the column was saying that legalization and alternate forms like edibles were ruining it for the long-term smokers like her.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:57 AM
horizontal rule
62

Vaporizers are the future I think.


Posted by: dz | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:57 AM
horizontal rule
63

60: Which part do you think is her being a dumbass? Eating all of a normal-edible-size object that had no labeling to the contrary?


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:58 AM
horizontal rule
64

55:being a little high gives you the munchies

Along those lines, "being high means you're more likely to leave out a key ingredient"one time resulted in some dense slab-like chocolaty material that no one really wanted to eat but no wanted to throw out either. The a friend took a few pieces of it camping where they were half-eaten by a marauding raccoon* that got into the food bag. Not sure if it was wearing green corduroy.

*Is pot something that most/many mammals are susceptible to?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 8:59 AM
horizontal rule
65

64: Read the article in 13 and get back to me.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:01 AM
horizontal rule
66

43, 54 get it utterly, tragically wrong.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:22 AM
horizontal rule
67

I just went to the store and it had neither Starburst jelly beans nor Leibniz cookies. No legal edibles, either. My life feels tragically incomplete.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:34 AM
horizontal rule
68

67: I am with Josh, here. I think they taste like lipstick.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:36 AM
horizontal rule
69

I'm near campus, so I assume that if I didn't look so middle aged, I could find illegal edibles without much effort.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:36 AM
horizontal rule
70

How do you know what urple and dalriata taste like?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:37 AM
horizontal rule
71

Moby missed THAT meetup.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:39 AM
horizontal rule
72

In defence of oudemia's taste, I did prepare by covering myself in lipstick. As is my wont.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 9:45 AM
horizontal rule
73

AISIMHB I was at a concert one time and a guy I knew, but hadn't seen in a couple of years, gave me a cup of ice water (it was a hot day), and turned to talk to someone while I was sipping some, only to turn back after a little bit and tell me I'd ingested about 8 doses of LSD.

I found five dollars, but the giant lizards scampered off with them.


Posted by: AnecDotage | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 10:56 AM
horizontal rule
74

Starburst jelly beans are gross.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:27 PM
horizontal rule
75

Are you on acid?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:28 PM
horizontal rule
76

In the town of topless Calvinism weed was almost impossible to obtain and nobody seemed to use pipes or make edibles. You mixed the hash with Drum and rolled it up.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:32 PM
horizontal rule
77

You used to print out the Washington Monthly for rolling paper?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:33 PM
horizontal rule
78

I assume he means durum wheat flour.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:37 PM
horizontal rule
79

re: 77

Where I'm from, people used to never use rolling tobacco for joints. Too wet, and it gives the wrong speed of smoke. Also, the joints go out a lot, and it's hard to roll them to a proper size.*

* by proper size I mean pretty big. When I was in Amsterdam as a teenager, and hung out with some US college kids, my friend and I were amused/horrified at the teeny-weeny inexpert joints. In north knifecrimea being able to skin up properly, i.e. roll a decent sized joint that smoked smoothly from beginning to end and didn't burn too quick or too slow, was a badge of stoner honour.


Posted by: Alex Salmond | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:48 PM
horizontal rule
80

by proper size I mean pretty big

Laydeez.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 12:54 PM
horizontal rule
81

I don't think the laydeez will be impressed if you set your penis on fire before offering them a hit.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 1:10 PM
horizontal rule
82

It always worked in college...


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 1:19 PM
horizontal rule
83

I recently smoked pot for the first time in ~10 years, to see if my previous usual reaction (sudden inexplicable disdain bordering on hatred for everyone in the room) would be ameliorated and/or outweighed by pain relief. It was! In fact I seem not to have the hatred-of-everyone reaction at all anymore. And the pain relief was outstanding. Unfortunately it also now seems to totally wreck my already-delicate nervous system, such that I was completely unable to walk unassisted for about 4 hours and my blood pressure dropped dangerously and I had a marked uptick in muscle spasms and tremors.

So then I've been trying tea made out of a gelatin tincture, which is easier to control the dosage of but I haven't figured out any sort of happy medium yet. Drugs are weird.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:07 PM
horizontal rule
84

Is it possible you are around less hateful people that you were ten years ago? Anyway, sorry it makes you tremor.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:09 PM
horizontal rule
85

I also just had back surgery this morning, where I re-confirmed the fact that I idiosyncratically do not respond to dilaudid AT ALL. Now I'm trying to decide if it makes me seem more or less like a drug seeker to just say "please skip the dilaudid and go straight to the morphine" for next time.

Or pot? Maryland has medical mj; can I get that in an IV in a hospital? Probably not. Thanks a lot, Obamacare.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:11 PM
horizontal rule
86

Or pot? Maryland has medical mj; can I get that in an IV in a hospital?

If it works for you, is there some way you could get a scrip and have someone go bring it to you?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:19 PM
horizontal rule
87

E. Messily, didn't you go to Re/ed College? I did too, and Moby probably has it right in 85.


Posted by: freight train | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:39 PM
horizontal rule
88

Ouch! I did, but I liked my friends just fine when I wasn't high (still do!), and I actually wasn't at Reed anymore the last couple times I tried it.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 2:53 PM
horizontal rule
89

I am being too harsh - hateful is much too strong a word. But more than anywhere else I've been, everyone's insecurities and anxieties and exposed nerves were right there on the surface, so it was sometimes painful to enhance your consciousness and see all that anxiety and pain so clearly.


Posted by: freight train | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 3:15 PM
horizontal rule
90

The pot definitely makes my blood pressure plummet. That plus munchies plus sleepies means I don't find it particularly fun anymore.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 3:21 PM
horizontal rule
91

87- probably not for surgery recovery? They don't really let anyone in until you're almost ready to be discharged. But maybe! I have not investigated this at all.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 3:29 PM
horizontal rule
92

Hope you recover quickly, Messily.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 3:41 PM
horizontal rule
93

thank you!


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 4:37 PM
horizontal rule
94

I went to a place where you get your medical mj card yesterday, only I got there too late which was fine because I suspect it's not worth doing anyway. I just keep thinking "well it's right there." As I was standing on the steps in front of the place, I looked over to the lake, which was a block or so away, and for my first time in the bay area, saw a naked person walking around. He walked up the block I was on, in fact right under the stairs, and either because he looked like he was way on drugs and I assumed he wouldn't notice or because I'm just not a good person, I was more or less staring because hey, free view of naked person. Who doesn't like that? As he got to where I was, he said "hey you don't have any, like, pants in there or something?" referring I guess to my backpack, and all I could say was "uh, sorry, not really!" Not really any pants, no. He was, I suspect, an unusually attractive drugged-out naked person. He didn't have no money or nothin'. Maybe he'd meet up with a character. I was hoping things would work out for him.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 4:56 PM
horizontal rule
95

Whoever programmed this thing to delete my / linda manz html tag is a shit.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 4:56 PM
horizontal rule
96

It was Alan Thicke.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:00 PM
horizontal rule
97

.... laydeez


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:01 PM
horizontal rule
98

...manneeez


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:05 PM
horizontal rule
99

... nanneeez


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:07 PM
horizontal rule
100

Seriously though, there is a tag you need to use to make your fake tag visible. I can't remember what it is.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:10 PM
horizontal rule
101

Ampersand lt semicolon


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:14 PM
horizontal rule
102

<Linda Lavin>


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:29 PM
horizontal rule
103

It worked.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 5:29 PM
horizontal rule
104

I don't weigh in on this sort of thing online, but if I did I'd say that I'm given to believe it's inadvisable for those of us with low blood pressure.

I do have another addiction-related question. Does anyone know why people say that chewing ice means you're sexually frustrated? (I mean, mostly it's, like, junior high people who say this but obviously I'm still bitter.) I don't think there's any connection between anemia pica and sexual frustration, and I suddenly tonight started wondering if it's because chewing ice is a sort of satisfaction that may be second only to orgasm. But perhaps actual drug aficionados and/or Starburst jellybean tweakers feel the same about their chosen substances.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:07 PM
horizontal rule
105

Chewing on ice hurts my teeth.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:09 PM
horizontal rule
106

I'm just saying it was probably a person who was sexually frustrated AND an ice addict who started that rumor. Moby's denials fool no one.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:17 PM
horizontal rule
107

chewing ice is a sort of satisfaction that may be second only to orgasm.

Aaaaaaaaahhhh no fortunately my orgasms don't consist of stabbing tooth pain plus fingernails on a chalkboard.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:17 PM
horizontal rule
108

The best thing is when you bite a piece of ice just hard enough that it doesn't crack but the pressure starts to melt it and you get this kind of squeeeee sound in your mouth.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:21 PM
horizontal rule
109

64: Which part do you think is her being a dumbass? Eating all of a normal-edible-size object that had no labeling to the contrary?

Agreed with various others that there should be some controls / labeling on something like a candy bar regarding portions -- and bite-sized portions seem like a better idea -- but the fact is that you don't do drugs you're unfamiliar with without informing yourself before the fact about what to expect. That Dowd was apparently tutored by some guide yet ignored what she'd been told makes her kind of a dumbass.

But I didn't actually read the Dowd column!

It is funny, though: for most people familiar with formerly illicit drugs, yeah, there are guidelines: don't take drugs from people you don't know. Always have a friend in your company if/when you take a drug you've never taken before. Always have an out: a way to get home, or someone to call, or somewhere to crash (sleep). These are pretty much the same things you do for alcohol consumption. That Dowd would try pot, in edible form, alone in a strange city, is just not good practice. If she were 15 years old and trying booze for the first time, it would be understandable -- kids are stupid -- but she's not 15 years old.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:22 PM
horizontal rule
110

108: Yet. Give it time.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:28 PM
horizontal rule
111

109: Yes.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:39 PM
horizontal rule
112

Even since this cold started, my teeth have hurt.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 6:40 PM
horizontal rule
113

"If she were 15 years old and trying booze for the first time, it would be understandable -- kids are stupid -- but she's not 15 years old"

Yes. But she *is* stupid.


Posted by: turgid jacobian | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:02 PM
horizontal rule
114

I've loved chewing ice, but don't anymore for fear my teeth will crack. I've lost cusps off two different teeth in recent years, re-crowned but still. Not from ice though. Looked like a miniature Mt. St. Helens. I've been frustrated, but hasn't everybody, ice or no?


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 06- 5-14 7:08 PM
horizontal rule
115

In north knifecrimea being able to skin up properly, i.e. roll a decent sized joint that smoked smoothly from beginning to end and didn't burn too quick or too slow, was a badge of stoner honour.

In the south too. Although I was more likely to use rolling tobacco than cigarette tobacco.

I bought my mother lingerie for Christmas one year when I went shopping the day after eating something the night before. I can only conclude I was still rather incapacitated.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 3:20 AM
horizontal rule
116

but the pressure starts to melt it and

Pressure melts ice? I always thought it was the warmth of your mouth.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 5:37 AM
horizontal rule
117

It probably is, because 98F melts ice very well. But pressure will melt ice because ice takes up more space than water.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 5:43 AM
horizontal rule
118

I'm reasonably pro-legalization and anti-Dowd, but I thought in a policy sense her column was sensible. Edibles are a much more intense experience from smoking and are extremely easy to 'OD' on because of that whole first hour 'I'm not feeling anything' thing, as well as LB's point about it being a natural thing to eat a bunch of brownies. They certainly ought to be more strictly regulated than smokable pot. I mean, we kick up a fuss about Joe Camel advertising cigarettes because some kid might like the mascot, this seems like a no-brainer.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 5:59 AM
horizontal rule
119

Contrarianism is the most potent of all drugs, and PGD is addicted.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:08 AM
horizontal rule
120

I bought my mother lingerie for Christmas one year when I went shopping the day after eating something the night before. I can only conclude I was still rather incapacitated.

This has been making me grin all morning!


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:12 AM
horizontal rule
121

116: Hilarious! I forgot the context of this thread and figured that "eating something the night before" meant you had a killer burrito.

118: Interesting. This is true only for a small range of temperatures, and when you get in that range you're moving close to the weird states.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:28 AM
horizontal rule
122

Wait, at low pressures water jumps straight from solid to vapor, and is never liquid? Am I reading that chart right?


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:36 AM
horizontal rule
123

Sublimation.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:39 AM
horizontal rule
124

122- Small range of temperatures? I see a big horizontal interface between liquid and solid. True, it's not likely my mouth is generating a gigapascal.
123- It's like you've never lived on a planet with all the phases of water.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:42 AM
horizontal rule
125

The Sublime Part of the chart.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:43 AM
horizontal rule
126

On topic, I went to a party this past weekend for the first time in a long while, mostly populated by strangers. A nice man offered me a few tokes of what turned out to be the death weed from hell. I was near-catatonic for most of the party. Sad, since there were nice people I would have liked to get to know better.

Also - Messily, since you're a fellow alum of Re/ed (why are we googleproofing?) you should check out the DC alumni chapter if you haven't already. They (we?) do fun stuff fairly regularly. Ditto Freight Train, if you're in the area.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:47 AM
horizontal rule
127

124: Sure, but I thought that was just a theory.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:47 AM
horizontal rule
128

Not your strongest work, urple.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:48 AM
horizontal rule
129

127- I went to pizza/happy hour things a few times, a few years ago. I'm not really in DC anymore though so attendance at events is contingent on my already being in town for a weekend or other visit. (I'm in Westminster MD which is close enough for lots of visits but not really close enough to come in for just an evening). But if you are doing something especially fun you should let me know, especially if it's during the summer. I'd plan a trip around a Reedie/Unfogged mashup meetup.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 6:59 AM
horizontal rule
130

130.last: Sounds good to me. I'll bear that in mind.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:03 AM
horizontal rule
131

125: Am I reading it wrong? The horizontal line above the solid portion corresponds to turning regular water ice into ice IX or whatever, which I think either summons Joe Satriani or ends the world. Increasing pressure to turn ice into water means moving up the chart, and the only time you go from ice to water doing that is that little lip jagging left out of Liquid; looks to be around 260-280K (well, probably 273K) which corresponds to the temperatures where ice does that weird thing of being less dense than liquid water (as Moby noted).


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:04 AM
horizontal rule
132

If ice weren't less dense than liquid water, all the icebergs wouldn't work for shit.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:07 AM
horizontal rule
133

Icebergs work for no one.

I didn't notice the smaller chart below it where they zoom in near that triple point: the range where you can increase pressure to turn it to water is from -20 to 0 C. Interestingly, if you continue to increase pressure (300-600 MPa) it then turns into ice III or V... which is what's probably on the bottom of Ganymede's ocean. Neat.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:11 AM
horizontal rule
134

Oops, never mind, I'm embarrassed to call myself a scientist.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:13 AM
horizontal rule
135

133: wouldn't work for shit.

Unlike flies.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:13 AM
horizontal rule
136

I do science, but I never call myself a scientist. That's for people with PhDs and grants and ideas.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:15 AM
horizontal rule
137

If I give you a $1 grant in exchange for a clever comment, will that satisfy two out of three?
The only people who call me doctor are vendors trying to sell me stuff or colleges asking for contributions.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:19 AM
horizontal rule
138

The only people who call me doctor want me to submit papers to their on-line, open-sourced, probably fraudulent journal or who want me to buy antibodies. I don't know why somebody got the idea that I might want to buy antibodies.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:22 AM
horizontal rule
139

139: To life hack your immune system, of course.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:25 AM
horizontal rule
140

I used to get spam for knock-out mice. I asked if I could order some of those, but it wasn't allowed.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:28 AM
horizontal rule
141

That's what happens when you feed a whole chocolate bar to the mice instead of the recommended dose.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:37 AM
horizontal rule
142

118: I don't think the pressure that your teeth generates can melt ice -- at least, not to a degree that would be detectable relative to the heat of your mouth melting ice.

For reference, it used to be thought that ice skates melted ice with pressure, but recent research (I don't have a more specific citation than that :( ) has apparently concluded that the pressure of an ice skater's skates is insufficient to melt ice. Maybe the bite force is a lot greater than that of an ice skater's skates. I don't know. The latest theory on ice skating is that even at temperatures much colder than freezing there are quasi liquid molecules on the surface of ice that vibrate faster than normal and provide the slipperiness that ice skating takes advantage of.

My source for this is Zumdahl, Chemical Principles, 7th edition, i.e. my chem textbook.


Posted by: Tia | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:39 AM
horizontal rule
143

I used to get spam for knock-out mice.

Gorgeous Single Mice In Your Area Are Waiting To Meet You!


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:48 AM
horizontal rule
144

143: I think what has to be happening, then, is that there's a reasonable pressure at which the ice deforms smoothly rather than cracking so that it's more malleable than it is brittle. Because as a matter of direct observation, if you do the ice crushing between your teeth thing described above, your teeth do sink into the ice.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:51 AM
horizontal rule
145

Icebergs work for no one the tsar.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 12:36 PM
horizontal rule
146

I was flying back from a weekend in Amsterdam one time in my thirties, when I should have known better, and realised on the train to the airport that there was this huge lump of hash that I hadn't managed to smoke. So naturally I ate it.

Woke up at six the next morning - this was summer, and just lay there for a while watching the curtains in the open window stay entirely still while the rest of the room waved in the breeze. When I went into the office to my wholly respectable job I discovered that all the flesh had vanished from my fingers, so I could hear the bones clicking against the keyboard as I typed. I made my excuses and left. That evening I drank whisky until I felt normal again.

Eating, people, is bad.


Posted by: David Cameron | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 2:06 PM
horizontal rule
147

I do science, but I never call myself a scientist. That's for people with PhDs and grants and ideas. white lab coats and safety goggles.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 2:19 PM
horizontal rule
148

Because of allergies, I took a Benadryl. Now I'm going to do a Mo Do. I don't know how people take two of these things.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-14 7:34 PM
horizontal rule
149

You're doing it wrong.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 06- 7-14 5:46 AM
horizontal rule
150

Why, do you have a good comma recipe I can use?


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06- 7-14 5:46 AM
horizontal rule
151

150: So people give you hallucinations?


Posted by: Nworb Werdna | Link to this comment | 06- 7-14 5:58 AM
horizontal rule