Young people and anxiety

[dyqik]

I'm just on my way back from a festival that was full of young folk, and let me tell you they are *obsessed* with ketamine, well known for causing anxiety symptoms. I knew it was trendy but half the conversations I overheard mentioned it, bands referred to it between songs and all sorts.

So there's your answer. Too much ket.

A couple of months ago I had a chat with an American academic psychologist who semi-seriously linked the current state of the US with the legalisation of cannabis. He thought that the last thing his fellow citizens needed was mass consumption of a drug notorious for creating feelings of paranoia.

Strange how the biggest signs of paranoia are in states that haven't legalized cannabis and they have historically pushed hard on suppressing it.

[Bird on a Fire]

I'm just on my way back from a festival that was full of young folk, and let me tell you they are *obsessed* with ketamine, well known for causing anxiety symptoms. I knew it was trendy but half the conversations I overheard mentioned it, bands referred to it between songs and all sorts.

So there's your answer. Too much ket.

A couple of months ago I had a chat with an American academic psychologist who semi-seriously linked the current state of the US with the legalisation of cannabis. He thought that the last thing his fellow citizens needed was mass consumption of a drug notorious for creating feelings of paranoia.

Strange how the biggest signs of paranoia are in states that haven't legalized cannabis and they have historically pushed hard on suppressing it.

I mean they only illegalised it in the first place because they were paranoid about black people and latinos, and then later hippies.

[JQH]

Also the Feds needed something to keep them occupied when alcohol was relegalised.

[dyqik]

Also the Feds needed something to keep them occupied when alcohol was relegalised.

The Feds don't give a sh.t about pot - that's much more of a local police thing.

[monkey]

Also the Feds needed something to keep them occupied when alcohol was relegalised.

The Feds don't give a sh.t about pot - that's much more of a local police thing.

The DEA will get annoyed if they catch you with a whole lot of it going across a state or national border, and the USPS will get annoyed at you posting it*. And they've been pretty effective at preventing banks from providing services to State legal growers and sellers. Oh, and I bet the TSA will arrest you if they find some in your bag at the airport too.

Sure, they don't give a f.ck about you buying an eighth for the weekend, and probably not even the guy you bought it off of, but it's not exactly not giving a sh.t.


*I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that the USPS is the biggest weed trafficking operation in the country, even if they don't do it on purpose. Also, the USPS have their own police (The USPIS), they're the ones who arrested Steve Bannon that time.

[Bird on a Fire]

The DEA also raids weed shops in legal states so they can steal the money.

[monkey]

The DEA also raids weed shops in legal states so they can steal the money.

I actually thought they stopped doing that one a few years back. I might well be wrong.

[Bird on a Fire]

The DEA also raids weed shops in legal states so they can steal the money.

I actually thought they stopped doing that one a few years back. I might well be wrong.

I could well be out of date, tbf. But while I can find that they were told to stop doing it to medical marijuana places I can't find anything about legal recreational weed.

Nevertheless the DEA made 5k arrests last year and seized $100m in untraceable slush money. Most arrests were in CA, a legal state, as well. https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbia ... -say-feds/

[Woodchopper]

The DEA also raids weed shops in legal states so they can steal the money.

I actually thought they stopped doing that one a few years back. I might well be wrong.

I could well be out of date, tbf. But while I can find that they were told to stop doing it to medical marijuana places I can't find anything about legal recreational weed.

Nevertheless the DEA made 5k arrests last year and seized $100m in untraceable slush money. Most arrests were in CA, a legal state, as well. https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbia ... -say-feds/

On your last point, legalisation doesn’t mean that all production or distribution is legal. As far as I remember CA has lots of laws regulating cannabis production (just as there are with other forms of agriculture). The seizures could still be of illegal production or distribution.

[dyqik]

The DEA also raids weed shops in legal states so they can steal the money.

I actually thought they stopped doing that one a few years back. I might well be wrong.

I'm not aware of any cases in Massachusetts since it legalized pot in 2016. And one of our neighbors runs a recreational pot shop, so I probably would have heard.

[Bird on a Fire]

Fair enough, it's probably just illegal pot that the feds give a sh.t about these days then.

[dyqik]

Fair enough, it's probably just illegal pot that the feds give a sh.t about these days then.

Cross state and national border activity is still illegal (not just pot sales, but related activity like buying growing supplies) and under Federal jurisdiction.

California likely has a lot of pot being brought in from Mexico to take advantage of the legal sales.

[bob sterman]

To go back to the focus of the start of this thread.

Working at a university - I'm not sure whether young people really are less resilient. However, what has definitely changed in recent years is that they are much more inclined to describe/report things as clinical / mental health issues.

For example, students have of course always worried about, and experienced anxiety in relation to, exams. However, they are now much more likely to refer to exams causing them "mental health issues" - or describe them as exacerbating a condition (e.g. anxiety) that they have,

Is this expansion in the use of clinical terminology to cover experiences that used to be considered normal parts of everyday life a bad thing? I'm not sure.

If you take an analogy from the physical side of things - in the past someone might have complained that a sedentary job left them "out-of-shape" or "unfit" whereas now we recognise that sedentary work can cause health problems - and describe it in such terms.

[warumich]

To go back to the focus of the start of this thread.

Working at a university - I'm not sure whether young people really are less resilient. However, what has definitely changed in recent years is that they are much more inclined to describe/report things as clinical / mental health issues.

For example, students have of course always worried about, and experienced anxiety in relation to, exams. However, they are now much more likely to refer to exams causing them "mental health issues" - or describe them as exacerbating a condition (e.g. anxiety) that they have,

Is this expansion in the use of clinical terminology to cover experiences that used to be considered normal parts of everyday life a bad thing? I'm not sure.

If you take an analogy from the physical side of things - in the past someone might have complained that a sedentary job left them "out-of-shape" or "unfit" whereas now we recognise that sedentary work can cause health problems - and describe it in such terms.

Hmm three years ago I would have agreed with this, but I do think Covid had a large effect on our students' mental well being, not just on their propensity to flag this up. Completely unevidenced of course, it's a mere wot I reckon post. But there is a hell of a lot of extra work at the moment getting our students through.

[shpalman]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... lp-anxiety

Young people will take part in surfing, rollerskating and gardening to see whether sport, the arts and outdoor activities can make them less anxious and depressed.

NHS mental health trusts will use the activities to help 600 young people on their waiting lists for care as part of a study into whether “social prescribing” helps improve mental wellbeing.

People aged 11 to 18 in 10 parts of England will also be able to take part in dance, music, sport and exercise and attend youth clubs during the trial, which is being run by academics from University College London.

The headline picks out surfing and dancing for some reason.

[discovolante]

Stating the obvious here but a lot of those activities sound like the kind of things that would have been lost in the last decade or so as a result of austerity.