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Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

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Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#181

Post by hanley »

artagnon wrote: post #83

[I'm not talking about most parts of the US, where weed is harder to obtain; I'm talking about most poor countries, where it is readily available] I've seen many of my friends waste years of their college lives running around like stoned hippies, overeating junk food, and watching absolute trash with loud sounds and bright colors. To make things worse, it's considered a great "social activity", much like going to a b…

"Only weed is _much_ easier to get hooked onto, because it's much cheaper than alcohol, and you don't need much more than rolling paper (as opposed to refrigerator, soft drinks etc)."

Stop spewing bullshit. You clearly don't know what you're talking about. A gram of marijuana costs $10-20 and that will get 4 people properly stoned with some even left over. Meanwhile, I could go to a liquor store and buy a handle of shitty vodka for under $20. A handle will get you 40+ shots, which will definitely get more than 4 people drunk.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#182

Post by antitrust »

jgrahamc wrote: post #12

After I saw Gupta in Japan talking about protection against gamma radiation ( http://blog.jgc.org/2011/03/cnn-sounding-authorative-while-t... ) I stopped listening to him at all.

I think it's a problem if we think of him as a scientist.

At his previous job, he might have been.

Now? Now he's an entertainer. That's what media figures are.

Like Ann Coulter or Rachel Maddow, or even John Stewart or Matt Drudge, his job is to entertain you with the news.

He's going to write about whatever topic that a lot of people enjoy, and make it seem exciting and new.

It's no different from what Oprah or Katie Couric do. This is the great secret of the news media and the voices for public science.

Their job is to sell ads by entertaining a majority of us. Truth and science are secondary considerations.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#183

Post by smutticus »

tptacek wrote: post #15
jgrahamc wrote: post #12

After I saw Gupta in Japan talking about protection against gamma radiation ( http://blog.jgc.org/2011/03/cnn-sounding-authorative-while-t... ) I stopped listening to him at all.

He's a practicing neurosurgeon with published research, but, like half of HN, doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to radiological safety; therefore, his opinions on pharmacology are irrelevant to you? That seems like a surprisingly dumb argument for you, John, but maybe I just misunderstood it. At any rate, the importance of the piece isn't Gupta's authority on the subject. After all, vis a vis cannabi…

People who don't know when to say "I don't know" get their 'ignore' flag set by me as well. If he's a genius in field X then makes ludicrous comments about field Y I might set his ignore flag as well. Maybe it's just one of my pet peeves as an engineer, but I really can't stand it when people aren't comfortable saying 'I don't know'. I consider it a character flaw.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#184

Post by wozniacki »

lotsofcows wrote: post #122
wozniacki wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you are venting your outrage about U.S. based armchair experts in lieu of tackling your own homegrown quacks and associations promoting quackery in your country, because moronic English scofflaws forbid you from so much as expressing your frustration, much less dishing out a sound shellacking. The British Chiropractic Association has sued science writer Simon Singh for a piece written in the Guardian's commen…

Did I misunderstand something here? Are you really saying that because the country he happens to be from has some problems in a certain area, he can't criticise similar problems in countries he happens not to be from? The Singh case flagged up a problem which drew massive support (which is still ongoing and should improve the situation some epoch). Also, he won.

  Also, he won.
The case has cost Singh more than £200,000 that he will never fully recover. "It still staggers me that the British Chiropractic Association and half the chiropractors in the UK were making unsubstantiated claims," he said. "It still baffles me that the BCA then dared to sue me for libel and put me through two years of hell before I was vindicated. And it still makes me angry that our libel laws not only tolerate but also encourage such ludicrous libel suits.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#185

Post by dylangs1030 »

jup wrote: post #145
tptacek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an article of faith that cannabis is a major contributor to US incarceration, but I think that's a belief worth questioning. I looked into this briefly for a thread a year ago and in the states I researched, domestic violence was far and away the leading cause of incarceration. In many major metro areas, you're more likely to be ticketed for cannabis than arrested. I haven't taken the time to come up with a conc…

Actually it has been demonstrated that cannabis can cause brain damage in teenagers. How's that for "less harmful than tobacco"?

[Citation needed.]

How many instances in a sampling size? How large was the sampling size? How rigorous was the study? Peer reviewed? Publisher?

Offhand, I can immediately tell you the overwhelming evidence is that tobacco (cigarettes) is far more harmful than cannabis. I direct your attention to the myth of cannabis being as harmful as x number of cigarettes[1] and the myth that cannabis harms brain cells[2]. While it does alter the brain, it is up for heavy debate whether it's harmful, especially on long-term use.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misconceptions_about_il...

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misconceptions_about_il...

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#186

Post by jmharvey »

Does anyone have statistics on what percentage of "medical marijuana" is actually used for the treatment of medical conditions? The de facto medical marijuana regime in California seems to be that anyone who wants marijuana goes to a doctor, says they're anxious or have trouble sleeping, and gets a card. I'm sure some people with legitimate medical problems get relief from using marijuana, but it seems to be a distinct minority.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Recreational users having a steady supply has no real social cost, and sick people getting the care they need has real benefit. But as long as we're going to be talking about medical marijuana in the context of science, it seems like we should compile some kind of statistics on this.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#187

Post by Zigurd »

gadders wrote: post #60
gregpilling wrote: post #51

I am a medical marijuana user. I have fibromyalgia (a catch all label for constant pain), and it helps some with neuropathic pain. My doctor is kept informed about how much I am using, and I have to get my card renewed each year. MJ works, but at best it dulls the pain, and also helps to make the pain less 'front and center' and instead kind of makes it more something that is in the background. I was never a stoner,…

Interesting that you don't get high any more. I wondered whether MMJ would fall into the category of "do not drive or operate machinery" whilst using.

A 1998 Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding was stripped of his medal for testing positive for marijuana. Then someone at the IOC thought better of trying to call marijuana a performance enhancing drug.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#188

Post by malingo »

subpixel wrote: post #151
evo_9 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to look at getting one of these: http://openvape.com/ It's very discreet and pretty effective, esp. if you are looking for a more CBD non-thc delivery method. Unfortunately these are a local Denver product right now from what I can tell (my friend in SF can't find them their yet outside of driving to Berkley); so it might be difficult to find outside of colorado. They also make a variety of cartridges…

I wonder: what's the relationship between marijuana 'strength' (measured in THC, I guess) and medical effectiveness? It seems to me the studies in the posted article are from a time when marijuana was dramatically 'weaker' than what you get today.

Look at THC / CBD proportions. There's research [0] into CBD mitigating THC's interference with memory formation.

Also, intentionally-high-CBD strains are under development [1]:

"A high-CBD cannabis strain was developed in the 1980s by David Watson and Robert Clarke, American naturalists who founded a company called Hortapharm in Amsterdam to pursue their goal of developing plant strains for different purposes. (The day Watson and Clarke became expatriates is the day the U.S. lost its lead in the field of cannabis therapeutics.) In 1998 Hortapharm sold its seed stock to a British start-up, GW Pharmaceuticals, which has since developed a strain that expresses 97% of its cannabinoid content as CBD.

GW plans to test its high-CBD strain as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, psychotic disorders, and epilepsy. It is now in Phase 2 trials to determine the dose levels to use in clinical trials involving people. GW mixes its high-CBD and high-THC strains in a 1:1 ratio to make Sativex, a plant extract formulated for spraying under the tongue that has been approved in Canada and elsewhere to treat neuropathic pain associated with multiple sclerosis. CBD evidently bolsters the pain-killing effects of THC while moderating its psychoactivity."

[0] http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101001/full/news.2010.508.ht...

[1] http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/07/14/who-s-afraid-of-canna...

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#189

Post by mistercow »

300bps wrote: post #166
mistercow wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, it seems I was mistaken. We do let osteopaths prescribe medicine though, and that's almost as dumb. The rest of my point still stands.

Hmm, it seems I was mistaken. We do let osteopaths prescribe medicine though, and that's almost as dumb. The rest of my point still stands. I have to take issue again with what you have said. You seem to be equating osteopathy (a completely accepted medical science) to homeopathy (a complete quackery). To quote Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MD_and_DO_in_the_... Other than teaching manual medic…

>You seem to be equating osteopathy (a completely accepted medical science)

No, osteopathy is not completely accepted by medical science. Osteopathy is absolute pseudoscience. Please do your research.

Yes, I realize that DOs undergo actual medical training in addition to the quackery that gives their field its name, but they are still taught the pseudoscience on which the practice was originally based. That they believe these techniques are legitimate medicine is indicative that their entire understanding of science and medicine is compromised. This hypothesis has been borne out by literally every experience I have had with a DO.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#190

Post by tsmarsh »

tptacek wrote: post #15
jgrahamc wrote: post #12

After I saw Gupta in Japan talking about protection against gamma radiation ( http://blog.jgc.org/2011/03/cnn-sounding-authorative-while-t... ) I stopped listening to him at all.

He's a practicing neurosurgeon with published research, but, like half of HN, doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to radiological safety; therefore, his opinions on pharmacology are irrelevant to you? That seems like a surprisingly dumb argument for you, John, but maybe I just misunderstood it. At any rate, the importance of the piece isn't Gupta's authority on the subject. After all, vis a vis cannabi…

Wouldn't it be great if you were only allowed to use your honorifics when talking about things you actually had a doctorate in.
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