Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mac Rex on March 22, 2009 at 3:36pm

It's always nice to see a highly educated person misspell a word (Your what is in grass? You're maybe? That's why I love spell checkers, ha ha :D).
Seriously though, have there ever been any actual scientific studies into cannabis addiction? I remember listening to a radio talk show (CBC's "As It Happens") several years ago, when they interviewed a scientist, from some European country, who had just published a study on cannabis addiction, that concluded that it was very addictive, like tobacco. As the interview went on, it was revealed that the study was really a study of older studies into the addictiveness of cannabis and was not really new. More importantly, all of the other studies had been done with tobacco/pot mixed! The interviewer questioned the scientist about that, pointing out that tobacco was already established as addictive, so how could she (the scientist) say that pot was addictive if all samples were mixed with tobacco?! The scientist's reply was that everyone how smokes cannabis mixes it with tobacco! How any self-respecting scientist could think such an absurdity was valid is beyond me.
My personal experience has been that pot is psychological addictive to people with addictive personalities. While I do smoke the occasional blunt (pot rolled in a cigar paper), very few people I know smoke it regularly with tobacco (Gag; ruins a good tasting herb). And then there are people who are border-line schizo/bi-polar. My observations of schizo/bi-polar people smoking pot is that it makes them feel good, so they stop their meds, and the delusions, etc., return. My best friend spent years with a schizo women, and she was fine smoking pot, but only if she kept taking her meds. When she stopped her meds, her delusions returned, pot or no pot.
So, once again I ask, has there ever been any real study into cannabis addiction?

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 22, 2009 at 3:54pm

Mac, the studies with mixed tobacco/mj make no sense at all. Bad science.

My friend, Lester Grinspoon, has made legalized mj the cause celebre of his career. You can listen to an astonishing radio interview that I was part of, or pick up any of his books on Amazon, three screens full. His best and most influential is Marijuana Reconsidered in 1971. You'll find some valid and reliable studies in there. That's about the time he and his friend, Carl Sagan, got into grass. Carl was smoking profusely his final days.

I'm a writer, so I shouldn't make spelling mistakes. No excuses. Thanks for catching it.

Permalink Reply by Mac Rex on March 22, 2009 at 10:21pm

The point of the spelling mistake was only because I'm a really crappy speller. Just a joke. And I've read Dr Grinspoon's book, and some articles by/about him in "High Times". I am also a fan of Sagan, and have great respect for both of them.
I feel that the study I mentioned is more than bad science; It's a con. Yet another lie of the prohibitionist's.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 23, 2009 at 6:46am

Mac, as an ex-bio teacher I consider Carl Sagan to be the greatest educator of the century and will go down in history with the ranking of Abelard or Erasmus. Will Durant, the great historian, asserts that the birth of Erasmus started the emergence of mankind from the Dark Ages.

Lester gave me permission to tell the story, without any fear of besmirching Carl’s reputation. Carl wanted it that way: that the truth should be known.

If you click here for Lester’s website and hit READ, under Mr. X you can see his essay from the ‘70s. My essay is five under that “My Religious Experience.” These essays are very educational from the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Louis Armstrong and eminent professors and writers.

I have the honor to be the first contributor to the BLOG. It contains a lot of the work I placed here on A/N.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on March 22, 2009 at 4:45pm

Hi Richard.
My opinion is that certified addictions counselors are part of the standard bearer apparatus of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

EVERY reputable organization that has lived through a resistance to this bad policy has fought it on legal grounds. EVERY organization and individual that has fought it by flaunting the existing policy of prohibition and laws has ended up on the wrong side of the drug war.

Choose who you argue points of law with more carefully. Avoid enforcers of the current DOGMA, they understand nothing.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 22, 2009 at 5:08pm

Thanks for the tip, Clarence. It's not against the law to expose hypocracy and bad science. Plus, I live a model life: retired, never committed a crime, not even a traffic violation in 20 years. What's right is right and wrong wrong. It's still America.

There's a great line from Apocalypse Now: "Hell is where there is no reason." We're not there yet.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 22, 2009 at 5:25pm

One more thing, speaking of hypocracy. Did you know that DARE and the Partnership for a Drug-free America are heavily funded by Big Pharma?

That sucks! Plus, drug companies heavily lobby pols to maintan strict anti-marijuana laws. Pot is illegal because it's bad for the business of powerful people.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on March 22, 2009 at 5:57pm

Is the internet your property?
How about my phone internet or this site? Stop confronting active law enforcement with other peoples property.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 22, 2009 at 6:12pm

Stop confronting active law enforcement with other peoples property."

Would you explain this. We're getting off the topic. I refuted the UW-Madison which I found inaccurate. How am I confronting law enforcement? Plus, how did I claim to own the internet?

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 22, 2009 at 9:10pm

Clarence, I think I see what the problem is? My remark about my nephew. I can see how this could be misunderstood and I deleted the entire comment. The point was that the criminalization of mj has caused a drastic rift between law enforcers and kids growing up.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on March 22, 2009 at 9:27pm

The mj policy is awful. The law must be changed.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on March 22, 2009 at 9:24pm

Sorry Richard. Thanks for the information. I was being protective.
Cla

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