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Teenagers Are Still Eating Tide Pods, But Don't Expect A Product Redesign
If you've never seen it, a Tide Pod looks like a little rounded packet, white with two separate swirls of blue and orange liquid. To be clear, a Tide Pod is laundry detergent heavily concentrated into a single packet, meant to dissolve in water and clean a single load of laundry. But these days, it's a dare — an Internet meme, in which teenagers try to eat Tide Pods as a "challenge." The trend picked up in December, but the pace of poisonings is still getting worse. So far in January alone, poison control centers have received 134 reports of "intentional exposures" to laundry packets, Tide or others. That's compared with 53 cases the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported for all of 2017, mostly involving teenagers.
[...] Designs like this are never willy-nilly, says Chris Livaudais, executive director of the Industrial Designers Society of America. The process starts by studying the habits of a potential user to find ways to make their life better in some way. In this case, the condensed formula does away with a heavy jug and the need for measurement.
[...] The colors are already associated with liquid detergent, Livaudais says. And the swirls "might imply how active the ingredients are and how well it would do the washing job."
Jones says the swirls were indeed a design choice — indicating that the pod brings together three ingredients (cleaning, stain-fighting and brightening, he says). The pod is transparent because customers have told Tide they like to know what they're putting into the wash with their clothes.
Livaudais says industrial designers spend a lot of time mulling best and worst case scenarios for the use of products. But if someone knowingly chooses to misuse them? "That's completely out of our hands," he says.
National Poison Help hotline: 1-800-222-1222.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 31 2018, @03:48PM (56 children)
The teenage years are full of kids doing dumb stuff, because their brains are all whacko. Not much else to say here, other than don't eat non-edible things. Hand soap isn't very good for you to ingest, highly concentrated laundry soap with extra chemicals, would be much much worse.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:14PM (29 children)
TIDE has been poisoning babies for years with this HARD CANDY design. It why in their latest chimerical they are showing a redesigned pouch with a zip lock that takes to ahnds to push and pull to open. And how it saves a baby at mom's foot. Just like child proof tops on drugs that are hard for many to ise, the pouch will be opened once and left open or dumped into bowl for easier use. The HARD CANDY is out where it is available to all, and yes even stupid teens.
Few articles:
https://www.poison.org/articles/2012-feb/laundry-products [poison.org]
https://www.womensvoices.org/2013/12/17/tide-pods-poisoned-my-grandson/ [womensvoices.org]
http://www.wlwt.com/article/study-laundry-detergent-pods-poisoning-children-at-alarming-rate/3548637 [wlwt.com]
https://www.today.com/health/never-seen-anything-more-children-harmed-ingesting-laundry-pods-t88036 [today.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:50PM (9 children)
Apparently my 2 yr old knows how to open those "child proof" medicine bottles. Child proof, indeed. Best place for chemicals / medicines is out of reach. Next thing is to make sure your child knows they shouldn't get into it without mommy or daddy. Sure, accidents happen, but a 2 year old hasn't even had a chance to fully develop those reasoning powers the Teenagers are ignoring due to hormones. I'm still worried when Grandma gives kiddo the Dishwasher Soap cube, but at least she's learning it's not edible.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:42PM (4 children)
Remember child-proof drug bottles are tested by placing 100 kids in a room. If about 80% cannot open it in 5mins, it passes. So in the end, we are OK poisoning 20% of smartest or strongest kids.
https://www.astm.org/COMMIT/D10Presentations/D10_-_5.pdf [astm.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday February 01 2018, @02:56AM (2 children)
The smartest kids come from the smartest parents, who can reach higher than their kid, and put the tide on a high shelf.
If you can't figure out that much, we have some clues about your parents.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:38AM (1 child)
Kids can climb.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 01 2018, @04:55PM
That is very much true. My wife showed me a video of a kid using the handles on the refrigerator to climb on top of the refrigerator. Kids, natural free climbers.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:28AM
If you can figure out how to keep 80% of kids from getting into something, you are doing pretty well.
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:00AM (2 children)
How stupid would you have to be to know that?
I suggest tide needs to add a huge dose of ipecac to their pods, for parents like you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday February 01 2018, @10:14AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 01 2018, @05:00PM
#1 I work for a living. #2 Wife watches baby at home (Most of the time.) #3 Grandma's house isn't as baby proof as one would hope. #4 It likely was an empty medicine bottle. #5 I kinda glazed over when the Wife was telling me the details. Sometimes one is just tired at the end of the day.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:26PM
Now that adolescence has been redefined to end at age 24, we can't use hormones as an excuse any more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:02PM (17 children)
With teens, they'll probably do something else stupid if they don't have the pods. Some lessons have to be learned directly. But it would be nice if they also sold "ugly" pods. There's no need to entice kids, especially babies and toddlers who really don't know better.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by insanumingenium on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:34PM (16 children)
If you want the ugly ones, buy generic, they are much less visually appealing. Or don't use pods at all, liquid and powdered soap are still easily available.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:02PM (14 children)
The pods are a marketing gimmick which allows prices and profits to keep rising (you can't use less than a pod if you have a small load).
The problem with laudry detergent is that it's widely agreed to be "good enough", and has been for a couple decades at least (long before that, it was already washing clean, but a lot worse chemically for the sewers/rivers). But the shareholders want growth ...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by insanumingenium on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:10PM (13 children)
I don't disagree, but my point was that if you wanted to not have the "attractive" product, there is no shortage of options on the market. It is almost like our entire system is run on an expectation of unlimited exponential growth. The day someone finds a way of breaking that expectation, they will have earned the title "savior of mankind" in my book.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:17PM (12 children)
Is that where this buzz word trend of claiming your policies are "sustainable" [xkcd.com] comes from? Of course they stretch the meaning of the word to just mean whatever makes a profit or suits their political goals. Modern economics would have to be completely redesigned to not depend on infinite assumed future growth. Maybe it would have to reset completely. Although I suppose the gradual shift from physical manufacturing and mining of natural resources to businesses based on financial transactions, computer software and communications can mean that some of this growth can come from them instead. When they're imaginary, mental things making the money, they can grow as much as anyone wants so long as people don't lose confidence in them.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:18PM (2 children)
Actually it's caused by the exponential growth in people.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
Ah but is that the cause or the symptom? The bigger the debt and the profit projections, the more hard working tax payers need to be spawned to make up for it.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:41PM
last time there were too many people, they killed a lot off in a war.
the baby boomers were a result of the people that came home, and the golden age of things because a lot of people were culled and did not consume resources.
true, good and bad died, but the takeaway is that you dont have growth limits if you aren't facing resource restrictions from too much growth.
most wars are related to people and growth. emotions cause problems. the stock market works similarly... there are plenty of good stocks that are not endlessly growing, but you have to dig to find them because its the easy gains from continued growth that people look for.
anyway before the tide pods, they added blue crystals to unlock enzyme power or something. cleaned mostly the same.
buying loose power in a box is the most economical way to do it, but even my dishwasher manual says it cleans best with cascade platinum pods. and that the loose powder is for poor losers and when your friends show up and see you are violating the social contract by not using the most expensive product, no woman will sleep with me and my children will refuse to pay for my retirement.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:19PM (8 children)
No, I think it comes from the same people who think that because growth can't go on forever, it has to stop right now.
When would it have to be completely redesigned? After all, we're currently elevating a ton of people out of poverty currently and there's a lot of big goals that haven't been achieved (such as my favorites: end to aging, space travel, and shiny AI). There's a lot of room for growth. So what's the difference to us today between growth that lasts millennia versus growth that lasts forever? Not much.
Unless, for some reason, you don't think that much growth is... sustainable.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:40PM (7 children)
Ahh but those are the good kinds of growth. Unfortunately politics and big business aren't run by techie geeks. Bill Gates, Elon Musk... Oh wait! Not only run by techie geeks then and not necessarily benevolent ones.
Make sure you figure out what to do about running out of space and resources for unlimited population growth before you solve the aging problem though!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:50PM (2 children)
Aging should NOT be solved. The moment we make people functionally immortal is the day humanity dies. It would turn into the worst dystopia and we have plenty of fictional stories about how that would turn out. I can't see any good outcome and can only predict a small group of immortals slowly gaining power of the entire planet, and their basic humanity gets worn out by seeing all the "little people" live and die.
I could be wrong, maybe the immortals would become very wise and compassionate after their first 100 years. Maybe they would work for the benefit of humanity once they realize short lived humans are more like children and most don't mature until they're almost on the death bed. At best we should have therapies that extend life a few decades.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:19PM
[...]
Let me guess. You're probably complaining right now about short sighted, "got mine" people who don't give a damn about anything that happens after they die? They may never grow wise and compassionate, but they would at least live long enough to experience these problems. That gives them an interest in solving the problem that doesn't exist now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:34PM
Credit given.
So we should settle for ineffective anti-aging therapies that don't fully address the problems of aging damage? Interesting.
All diseases should be treated, preferably with the underlying problems addressed rather than symptom management, ie. cures should be found. If we've cured aging diseases effectively, then death should be postponed indefinitely. Any social implications of that should be addressed after it happens. If defeating death is actually possible with upcoming medical knowledge/technologies, it could be less expensive than you think (the ultimate preventative health care would prevent the need for lots of expensive hospital stays). If it does get done, good luck banning it (the War on Drugs is pretty futile, but the War on Anti-Aging would be laughable).
We don't see billionaires being taken out by an angry public today (for the most part? [theguardian.com]), even though their wealth already perpetuates itself through their descendants and income inequality is rising. Immortal billionaire vampires barely make a difference when it comes to the people at the bottom. Immortal billionaires could even have a positive impact if they inspire people to finally rise up and overthrow/kill the billionaires, or tax them appropriately (the compromise option). We may be living in the "worst dystopia" right now (endless bread and circuses, rising income inequality, with various threats to humanity looming) and immortality could be the cure.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:02PM (3 children)
Perhaps, we didn't structure our regulation of business in such a way as to encourage the growth of big businesses?
To the contrary, I think the running out problem will get solved only when we've solved the aging problem. When people will actually live through a future problem, then they start caring more about that future problem.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:14PM (2 children)
I don't understand what you mean. It seems to me western economies now favor big businesses over smaller ones. Are you saying to end aging, explore more of space and get strong AI the businesses need to get even bigger?
Good point, although average human lifespan is already much longer than it was a few hundred years ago. Are we more forward thinking? We have vastly more technical knowledge, so it's hard to compare.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:35PM
Regulation creates strong economies of scale. Figuring out how to run a business to be compatible with a particular rule set is roughly constant cost, meaning it's a lot cheaper per unit of economic activity to cover the regulatory needs of a large business than it is a small business. Similarly, it's a lot easier for the big company to figure out how to bend the rules more effectively to stay in compliance while eking out larger profits.
Do you have to ask? How we handle risk is a great example. When people are almost all very poor and relatively short-lived, then people aren't very interested in safer working conditions or better environments. It's accepted that people will die in accidents and that pollution happens. But give people a long life and they care when that life is greatly shortened by a sloppy workplace or nasty pollution that could have easily been cleaned up.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 01 2018, @04:28AM
In addition to my previous statements on regulation, consider this example. You want to build a new laser printer that's really good. Right away, you will run afoul of a variety of regulations in the US and elsewhere about building laser printers that a) leave identifying marks on the page, and b) detect when someone is trying to print any of a number of protected currencies (including the US dollar). So it's not enough to just build a better printer. Your printer also needs to pass various frivolous regulatory tests as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:04PM
I'm not sure how this is relevant to the ide pod challenge, since the idiots who want to partake will presumably just buy tide pods from the nearest store.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:27PM
So you are saying that the Tide pods are the civilian version of cluster bombs that disperse brightly colored bomblets that do not necessarily all explode and look just like a very fun toy to any children in the area?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:47PM (3 children)
The problem with common sense, is it's not technically "informative", "insightful" nor "interesting". It's just common sense, so how to mod it?
Can we get a "sadly we once again get to a point where it gets stated despite being blatantly obvious" mod ? It's not fundamentally "Redundant: -1".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by captain_nifty on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:53PM (2 children)
Where I work we write procedures for performing industrial processes, one of my co workers has a sign on their wall saying, "common sense is neither quantifiable or reproducible and thus will not be used around here"
Trying to write idiot proof instructions, we always manage to find a bigger idiot. Common sense is all too often not very common.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:12PM
Time to get a sign made...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:07AM
There are also many occasions when "common sense" is just flat-out wrong.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:52PM (2 children)
This is surprising.
The teenagers are the very ones I would expect to have common sense to NOT eat tide pods. I would have expected this to be a "fraternity bro" problem either because common sense disappears, or the fraternity is a filter for those who didn't have it to begin with. Teenagers are not the ones who drink fatal amounts of alcohol, or force fatal amounts on others.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:24PM
I think that's because teenagers have a harder time getting alcohol than fraternity bros. Mostly since most teenagers are under 21.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Thursday February 01 2018, @02:32PM
And now I am reminded of one of my buddies in college who while very drunk drank a cup of regular tide laundry detergent on a dare.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:08PM (18 children)
The teenage years are full of kids doing dumb stuff, because their brains are all whacko.
That's not a good excuse. I was a teenager once, and I never did anything this stupid (eating obviously poisonous things), and none of my friends did either. Of course, none of us were dumb enough to get into drugs or drinking either (though at least one of them, though I'm not in contact with him now, I would not be surprised if he were a MJ user).
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:20PM (2 children)
There are levels of stupid, the fact that you ran in a crowd that were less stupid than average doesn't change that teenagers literally lack "adult" reasoning about risks and dangers. There is a reason that teens are disproportionately at risk for just about everything under the sun. Does that excuse stupid behavior as a whole, no, but you also can't disregard that risk vs reward isn't a concept that they can apply accurately either.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:21PM (1 child)
I really wonder, though: would society be better off if teenagers stupid enough to eat Tide pods just died out? Of course, we'd have to figure out how to make the transition with a large fraction of our youth offing themselves, but with only kids smart enough to not eat Tide pods surviving to adulthood and reproducing, perhaps we'd have a better society.
I'm sorry, I just don't have that much sympathy for someone dumb enough to succumb to peer pressure to the extent that they willingly ingest toxic substances. I'm also highly curious: how many of these Tide pod eaters are female vs. male? I'd bet money the vast majority are male. Again, perhaps our society would be better off without people this idiotic and impulsive.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:49PM
IMHO the best solution would be for Tide to have a scathingly snarky ad campaign showing teens of all kinds ridiculing (fictional) dumbasses who have eaten them and college-age adults encouraging idiots to "help Tide clean the gene pool" by imitating the victims. Most teens shrug off warnings that they'll get hurt, but most are leery of anything that might make them look bad to their peers...
(Score: 3, Touché) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:04PM
Which raises the question: how many friends did you have? ;)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:56PM (11 children)
Don't conflate eating Tide Pods with trying MJ. MJ has *never* killed anyone, you don't jump off buildings, and you don't suck dick in a bathroom stall to get it.
The implied character deficiencies you put on drug users also has nothing to do with the complete lack of any common sense or self preservation that goes along with stupid stunts like this. Tide Pods are up there with the Russians filming themselves hanging from skyscrapers. There is only the barest chance you'll survive either activities. These kids are not already addicted to mind altering drugs before doing so, and Tide Pods are certainly not an addictive product, so you can't conflate those urges either.
You are correct though, I don't think kids in my day would do anything remotely that stupid. Not eat chemicals like they're food. Maybe jumping off a bridge into the water, or some other alpha male stunt to get girls attention, but nothing so dramatically stupid.
I don't know how to explain this latest extreme stupidity. Almost need SpongeBob Squarepants here warning us that this isn't stupidity, but *advanced* stupidity.
Nobody was stupid enough to eat Tide Pods in my generation that hasn't been dead for a few decades already.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:38PM (6 children)
It has - are lots of documented cases. I mean, bailing accidents has been known to crush people, and not to mention all those years it was used for hanging and all the poor sailors that got tangled in ropes when ships was sinking.
Also are a few cases of suspected allergical reactions with fatal outcomes. (Allergies exists to pretty much everything)
(A quick search seems to place cannabis as about as dangerous as some nuts)
(Yes, I know what you intended with your post, but the "there is a magical plant that never has killed anyone despite this being a statistical unlikely even even if the plant wasn't psychoactive nor the main source of ropes for centuries" sets me off)
Evidently you have less fun friends than I have. :)
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:22PM (5 children)
Uhhhh, there is a big difference between dying from a a 100lb bag of salt being dropped on you, and eating 100lbs of salt within a few years. Not sure why you are set off because I claimed that the recreational use of weed has not killed anyone, but a bail of hemp has.
You admit as the end it may be as dangerous as nuts to some people. That's true. I've never heard of a recreational MJ user die from it. Maybe some have died from industrial accidents while on MJ, but still, that is a different situation in of itself too. People drink on the job and have accidents to, but we don't equate alcohol usage with imminent death either.
Where is the documented case that somebody died from MJ use? I would like to see it and evaluate it for myself. If it's a dumbass that jumped off the roof into the pool and died, I've seen people do things that stupid while sober. I need something where the MJ itself was the cause of death.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:51PM (2 children)
i am getting emphysema from my habbit
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:19PM (1 child)
Dude - stop inhaling paper, use a hookah instead (while still harmful it is (rumoured to be) a lot less so, in any case it is less annoying).
And if possible - stop using tobacco as well.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:41PM
Hookah is nice, but if you have a few hundred to drop, a quality vaporizer will do you good. Taking a break once in a while is good too - tolerance isn't a race to the highest, it's something to be managed. I've always preferred smoking blunts myself though. A grenadier will burn for nearly an hour with a gram in it.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:12PM (1 child)
(:aside: Hmm.. *ponders* 100lbs is ~45kg. 45 / 365 ~ .13, or about 130g. Let's assume "a few" means "five" 26g... Yeah, I'd say the difference is that having the salt dropped on you is a more pleasant way to die (if "a few" means "ten" you'd probably survive unless your death was caused by lousy genetic facitilated by salt and lifestyle) (would be better to take 200lbs or 100kg if using that rhetoric again) :end aside:)
It sets me off since "MJ" or "Marijuana" refers to the plant itself (Marijuana originally only referred to the plant, or possibly the seeds if we want to go back to pre-mexican), and many people has died from the plant (only a small fraction of that being from the smoke of the plant)
(None-rope or bailing below)
All cases of death or hospitalization I've read about has been due to eating food with hemp in them (well, excepting for having arteries clogged due to bad injections - but I tend to categorize that as improper preparation of injection rather than substance) (usually hempseed, but cannabis oil [ie "cannabis butter"] has occured as well)
I would need a pubmed account to dig up documentation of actual deaths but to take a close call (as in - would have been dead without treatment) that was fairly easy to google up http://medind.nic.in/daa/t14/i1/daat14i1p192.pdf [medind.nic.in]
I'd equate alchol usage with imminent death - with the notable exception of ethanol in non-insane doses (also - not that uncommon for people being drunk choking on their own vomit or falling asleep in positions that causes asphyxia or decide to sleep naked in the snow). (And yes, usage. One friend killed himself intentionally by drinking a non-ethanol, another friend tried but ended up in intensive care and then a psychiatric ward)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:04AM
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/29/marijuana-name-cannabis-racism [theguardian.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:08PM
Don't conflate eating Tide Pods with trying MJ.
I'm sorry that wasn't more obvious, but I wasn't conflating these at all, I was just commenting that none of my friends (AFAICT) were drug users, and years later, I'd guess that one of them is probably a MJ user, which is (as you said) relatively harmless, and not at all like other street drugs that are very destructive.
You are correct though, I don't think kids in my day would do anything remotely that stupid. Not eat chemicals like they're food. Maybe jumping off a bridge into the water, or some other alpha male stunt to get girls attention, but nothing so dramatically stupid.
Yep, me too. The stupidest thing kids in my generation and social class did that I remember was mainly driving poorly.
I don't know how to explain this latest extreme stupidity.
I don't either, but it's pretty apparent to me that kids these days just aren't like kids when I was that age. There's huge differences, such as how I was able to wander around outside for miles with no supervision at under 10 years of age, whereas now that would result in police action, child neglect charges, etc. I have a friend with an 8yo boy and I wouldn't trust that kid to get in out of the rain, much less bike for miles around the neighborhood alone, or go to school by himself, but I was doing just that at his age when my single mother was away at work.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:23PM (2 children)
Where I live, drug-driving now kills more people per year than drink-driving (3rd year in a row). The drug mix has been shifting from cannabis to amphetamines, however a significant proportion of road fatalities involved people with MJ in their system.
Drivers with THC in their system show a strong over-representation in fatalities against the percentage of use in the community:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14642878 [nih.gov]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday February 01 2018, @02:10AM
Although regrettable, that doesn't mean MJ kills anymore that alcohol kills drunk drivers. What killed them both was the sudden stop. MJ intrinsically is not fatal, nor does it cause fatalities on its own. Stupid behavior always kills though, and altered states and driving have never mixed. I'm not condoning operating heavy machinery or vehicles while under the influence.
For that matter, I'm all for restricting driving to AI machines (after a few more generations and failures) since humans have demonstrated that they cannot BOTH be addicted to a smart phone and actually concentrate on driving a car. The smart phone wins, and kills more than any MJ users do. Smart phone users under the influence are even worse.
So while I don't see a huge increase in fatalities from MJ use where I live (most people figured out what they can handle apparently), I do see a huge upsurge in bullshit related to people looking at their damn phones while driving.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday February 02 2018, @04:03AM
Where I am, the leading cause of motor vehicle accidents is distracted driving, aka cell phone usage. Drunk driving deaths are at a historical low and don't hear too much about drug caused accidents besides a campaign from the government discouraging teens from driving while high and reminders that the cops will come down on you hard if they suspect any kind of impairment while driving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:21PM
>That's not a good excuse. I was a teenager once, and I never did anything this stupid (eating obviously poisonous things), and none of my friends did either.
This is why you're here. Survivorship bias.
The dumb things we did as kids were not so dumb, I agree with you. They were risky only if the reward was high enough. Eating soap was not.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheRaven on Thursday February 01 2018, @10:58AM
sudo mod me up