I’ve never been a smoker, but I’ve known a lot of friends who went through periods of smoking multiple times per week or even daily for periods of time.

Every single one of them denied impairment during those periods. Often vehemently so, belittling anyone who suggested they might be impaired as having succumbed to propaganda.

Every single one of them remarked that they were sharper, more alert, and had better memory after stopping.

It’s an interesting phenomenon to watch. I think it’s becoming more socially acceptable to acknowledge that marijuana causes impairment even after the obvious effects have subsided, which was a taboo topic in the years when saying anything negative about marijuana would get you attacked as being pro-prohibition or pro-imprisonment of drug users. I even remember one of the big technical forums in the 2010s had a long debate thread where people were claiming that THC made them better drivers and citing YouTube videos and “studies” to back it up. It would be rare to see anyone try to make that claim in today’s environment.

> Every single one of them denied impairment during those periods. Often vehemently so, belittling anyone who suggested they might be impaired as having succumbed to propaganda.

isn't that just common addiction response?

"no, nothing's wrong with me. my drugs aren't the problem - you are the problem"

Anecdata: There are neurochemical upregulation effects to daily THC use over time, and upon discontinuance that upregulation (which can take months or even years to wear off and perhaps not) is in itself quite apparent.

Isn’t it suspicious that no matter what the circumstances, their current decision-making is correct and their past one wasn’t? It seems somewhat self-unaware.

You have to tune down your self-estimate’s value if your self-estimate shows historical poor performance.

Every pot smoker is convinced it enhances their life while it ultimately just devolves them all into the exact same personality.