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Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

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Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#321

Post by tptacek »

mistercow wrote: post #314
tptacek wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DOs are fully trained doctors that happen to have gone to medical schools affiliated with osteopathy. A previous commenter related osteopathy to Catholicism via Georgetown; that sounds about right. People choose medical schools for a variety of reasons (cost, admissions, locations). One of the practitioners at my primary care doctor's office is a DO, and does not believe in pseudoscience. I think what happened here i…

>I think what happened here is that you overreached; you claimed that chiropractors could prescribe drugs, were corrected, and then scrambled to recover your argument instead of just admitting you were wrong. It's a good hypothesis, but for the purposes of updating your model, I should inform you that your guess is wrong. This is a position I've given a lot of thought to. I know that a lot of people disagree with it,…

You should submit a story to HN about the problems of osteopathy; that would make this an interesting discussion.

But here, it's just a sideshow. Your point was that being able to prescribe medicine is not a big deal. Whatever you may think of the philosophy of osteopathy, being a DO is a big deal; DO's are doctors, licensed by the state to practice medicine. It is approximately as hard to become a licensed DO as it is to be an MD. DO's are not like chiropractors. Chiropractors don't go to med school.

You were wrong, obviously wrong, and it is clear that no matter what your underlying feelings about osteopathy are, this subthread is irrelevant. In fact, you're doing your opinions about osteopathy a disservice by hitching them to to this particular argument!

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#322

Post by etler »

kyro wrote: post #191

I'm glad that Gupta has made this public apology. It takes a lot of courage to make that statement especially for someone with great public influence. I'm just curious as to why it took him this long. Medical marijuana has been prescribed in hospitals for some time with great benefit. I mean, just from a clinical standpoint, he should've seen the great upsides and limited downsides to using the drug. Patients, typica…

What do you mean by when the conversation was happening? I think it's still happening, and on the verge of a breakthrough point for legalization. Or do you mean when opinion was more against legalization, he could have helped speed it up?

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#323

Post by chc »

kyro wrote: post #262
kevincrane wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, there is relatively recent research showing that marijuana can be harmful to brains as they're still developing ([1] is the first one I remember reading), so his recommendation that his kids avoid it until they're older is probably sound. That being said, yes, I'm glad there's a higher profile scientist speaking out in favor of marijuana legalization, or at least more even-handed research of it.…

But legalizing it for recreational and medicinal use are two completely different issues. This piece is about how he didn't believe in the therapeutic efficacy of marijuana as medical treatment and weighed too heavily the research outlining its side-effects. This is not about letting kids and adults smoke bowls and bowls of weed on their leisure time.

I'm not sure it isn't. His argument in favor of legalization is centered around the medical benefits, but that doesn't mean he believes it should be blocked for other uses.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#324

Post by foobarbazqux »

rhizome wrote: post #320
foobarbazqux wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that this study shows is that the amount of psychosis and schizophrenia in the population stayed constant. This doesn't in and of itself disprove a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, it just disproves the prior hypothesis that a greater percentage of people would develop it.

Right, during a period in which pot use increased.

Sure, but it's entirely possible the schizophrenia-prone population did not alter their pot usage. Also, if there's a link to the amount consumed, the number of individuals smoking pot at all could have increased while the number of individuals smoking enough pot to trigger psychosis and schizophrenia stayed constant. Wider consumption of alcohol doesn't necessarily correlate with more alcoholism.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#325

Post by gavinlynch »

kyro wrote: post #262
kevincrane wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, there is relatively recent research showing that marijuana can be harmful to brains as they're still developing ([1] is the first one I remember reading), so his recommendation that his kids avoid it until they're older is probably sound. That being said, yes, I'm glad there's a higher profile scientist speaking out in favor of marijuana legalization, or at least more even-handed research of it.…

But legalizing it for recreational and medicinal use are two completely different issues. This piece is about how he didn't believe in the therapeutic efficacy of marijuana as medical treatment and weighed too heavily the research outlining its side-effects. This is not about letting kids and adults smoke bowls and bowls of weed on their leisure time.

But let's also be honest: The only reason most average people care about the issue of medical marijuana is because of their feelings attached to the recreational use of marijuana.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#326

Post by mscarborough »

kyro wrote: post #191

I'm glad that Gupta has made this public apology. It takes a lot of courage to make that statement especially for someone with great public influence. I'm just curious as to why it took him this long. Medical marijuana has been prescribed in hospitals for some time with great benefit. I mean, just from a clinical standpoint, he should've seen the great upsides and limited downsides to using the drug. Patients, typica…

With my friends, neuroscience doctors are still "on the fence" with marijuana. It hasn't been tested enough, blah blah.

I stopped using a long while back, it did not agree with me.

Should it be illegal? No, plenty of people are OK with it.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#328

Post by pygy_ »

tptacek wrote: post #267
JPKab wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who had a roommate whose schizophrenia was likely induced by heavy marijuana use (along with his tripping on multiple bottles of Robitussin), the fact of the matter is that the harm done to this small percentage of people is vastly outweighed by the damage done to people who can't get access to it for their medical needs. And that's ignoring the huge harm caused by prosecuting recreational users due to an…

The problem is that there are two simultaneous arguments happening. The first is whether cannabis should be legalized and available as a business opportunity. You'll find very few people here to disagree with about this; there's a practically universal belief that cannabis should be legalized. The second is whether cannabis is benign. There is a valid discussion to be had about how safe cannabis is. Having it does no…

You could add the practice of american football and boxing to your list...

BTW,

Schedule I substances are those that have the following findings:

1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Tobacco fits this definition.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#329

Post by j2d3 »

Shivetya wrote: post #19

I found it interesting they did not comment on the means of using weed. Smoking it cannot be much better for you than smoking cigarettes. Even after the Feds remove it from the list there will be regulation governing its sale. You can grow tobacco all you want; most people don't because prep is much harder than marijuana; but run afoul of a few laws should you try to sell it. It would certainly reduce the jailed popu…

"Smoking it cannot be much better for you than smoking cigarettes." --- well, it's complicated, but read this as a starting point:

http://norml.org/component/zoo/category/cannabis-smoke-and-c...

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#330

Post by nilkn »

mistercow wrote: post #285
tptacek wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Osteopaths are doctors. They aren't chiropractors.

See my other responses. In summary, DOs are fully trained doctors who also believe that a completely pseudoscientific methodology (OMM) is valid medicine. I have very little confidence in such a person's ability to critically weigh evidence, and it seems crazy to me to let them give people drugs.

To be fair, the one DO I know is a DO rather than an MD because he couldn't get into a normal medical school (schools of osteopathy are not as selective in general).

Though I suppose that also may not be something you'd want to know about your doctor. But as far as I know the academic rigor of his medical program was no less than that of any MD school, minus the inclusion of osteopathy itself. I wouldn't have any issues going to him as a primary care doctor.

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