Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> Once you include prescription medication, the number of people high on something on any given day approaches 100%

100% of people are not on prescription drugs. Most prescription drugs do not have euphoric or “high” producing effects.

Even among drugs with recreational effects, people who take them as directed at therapeutic doses will not be “high” when using them regularly. The person who has taken the same dose of Adderall daily for ADHD for a decade isn’t buzzing and getting things done like someone taking their first 10 doses they borrowed from a friend. The chronic pain patient on a stable dose of a opioid is certainly not feeling a buzz, just temporary relief from their pain. The recreational effects are short lived.

We need to stop this false equivalence between people taking medication and people being “high”.






> We need to stop this false equivalence between people taking medication and people being “high”.

Fair. But we should do the same for the false non-equivalence between alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and "drugs"!

At which point, GP's 100% comment is a reasonable approximation of truth. :)


Caffeine and alcohol are both pretty popular, and I would guess the majority of adults take one or the other or both. I'm willing to be educated if someone has numbers.

Great point, I didn’t mean to make that equivalence and that last line was made in jest.

In my defense, I haven’t had my coffee with Bailey’s yet (cough :).




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: