Re: Marijuana - a caution

In article <7u1ld218un5iudldlibgpqu92nqmtokj85@xxxxxxx>, Greger Hoel
<gregerh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

but here we have a "library of drug
policy", you figure their whole raison d'etre is disseminating
information on drugs, their effects, the laws that govern them etc. I'm
just generally more inclined to consider them more credible that "I
know a guy".

Who "knows a guy"?

Some know psychologists and social workers and cite what they have
seen. You "read a newspaper", thom remembers a train wreck. It's
anecdotal stuff.

<http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/>

Exactly what kind of authority is this site then? I'm sorry, but I
can't be arsed to plow through all of it at this time.

You needn't if you don't like. I told you were I got the information;
you can disregard if it's too much work to read it.

I don't disregard it, as the quote you used only addressed death
reports from cannabis in the USA.

I'm not sure where the Shaffer organizations information begins and
ends, their stats may well include other countries. I cited only one
quote from one place.

This Schaffer bloke claims that "not
a single death due to marijuana usage has been reported in USA
history," and from that you deduct that "There has never been a single
death related to the use of marijuana. Let me sum that again: zero."
Guess what, Gerry, people in other countries smoke pot too.

Point taken. They say no American death has been recorded. For pot
usage I think that's a pretty significant sample. If it approximates
even a tiny percentage of world-wide users, the sample base is
certainly too large to imply any significant difference elsewhere
unless the demographics and/or drug changed significantly. If they do,
they don't mirror what I'm discussion anyway. Maybe Kenyan infants die
from exposure to a cousin drug.

But I already threw you the bone: let's say the Norwegian died of a
heart attack SOLELY because he smoked pot. Okay. Now we have one
death. What's that; .000001 percent of users? Pizza probably causes
more DIRECT deaths.

Except where I state that it's the professional opinon of MDs,
psychiatrists and psychologists I've talked to.

That's "I know a guy". I don't expect you not to fashion your ideas
out of your personal experiences, but I don't use yours to fashion
mine. My stats are particularly noteworthy and they don't speak
directly to the health concerns of Scandanavia, but there something.

Norway must be a easy-access country then:I haven't gotten any pot
grown this-a-way in a generation. Most of the stuff I encounter is
grown in a field in Mexico I figure, and not by a bunch of lab-jacketed
scientists.

Do you know this, or are you just guessing?

I don't have a lab breakdown of composition, but I'm not guessing
either. Having smoked some fearsome chronic on a few occasions I know
the stuff that I run into? That ain't it.

Even so the one Norwegian heart attack due to pot is not exactly
convincing data, wouldn't you agree? That doesn't even creep into the
nether regions of the nether regions of the bell curve.

It's indeed convincing data that you can die from a cannabis overdose.

One newspaper story would not convince me of any health-related
conclusion on any drug. Even less when a drug that has been around for
almost a century and in common usage.

I read an article that said the article you read was wrong. Honestly
when you proffer that kind of wild statement you really have to give a
few more details. Or point me to a page: I'll actually read it.

What if I didn't read it on a page? It's hearsay, as I explicitly
stated. If I purchased access to some large medical publication
databases, I could probably find the study, but I don't need to know
it* that* bad.

Nor would I be convinced by the ONE lousy death. Bump it to 20, as I
said before. It's insignificant enough to consider a "ghost read", and
still it's a series of maybe's and possiblies. I know of no studies
indicating significant health risks, psychosis, addiction etc. I'd
like to hear about those that exist, frankly. But as with you--not
enough to make it a new hobby.

See, the whole difficulty in the "I know a guy" approach is that you'd
figure that stuff would be front page news, or that we would at least
hear ONE lousy article that says: "Flash! Man dies of marijuana
overdose." That would be damned noteworthy news. There are policy
wonks that would plaster that on every billboard from now until
doomsday if they had even a scrap of such news.

Are you saying that use an "I know a guy" approach here? Just because
I don't get every piece of information from a webpage I can point you
to, everything I've picked up on the matter at hand is frivolous?

Certainly not frivolous to you. But it's still your anecdote.
Anecdotal infomation is what it is.

--
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that
one's work is terribly important. -- Bertrand Russell
.

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