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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04/20/09
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But you should have heard them yelling about how Giz isn't "allowed" to post gadget news related to politics during the Obama v McCain campaign. Actually, a few still bitch when Obama-related posts go up.
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04/20/09
Apparently you didn't see this video of Adam testing the HappyVappy:
[gizmodo.com]
Or any of this?
[gizmodo.com]
[gizmodo.com]
[gizmodo.com]
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04/20/09
When people get high, movies starring Method Man get made.
You could argue that culture is the real victim here, but I'd take a shitty Method Man movie any day if it means some kid doesn't get smacked by his drunk parent.
04/20/09
Think of it, in at least one respect, to reading fiction. We read fiction to be entertained, and we suspend belief to relate to and believe what we're reading to invest a certain temporary relationship with the characters and story. Escapism is often done for fun, not to forget a shitty life.
04/20/09
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04/20/09
Peter Mrozik: So much for the "happy, friendly pothead" theory. Hint: When you're insulting people on the internet because they don't like the drug you use, you might want to cut back.
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Also, this post seems mostly like an excuse to write about a "passion point" rather than about true technology / gadgets.
04/20/09
04/20/09
i don't know if i've ever agreed with a post so much.
04/20/09
In either case, the potential of destroying your liver and causing severe jaundice is not as likely with vaporized weed as it is with alcohol.
04/20/09
Also, marijuana can be exceedingly harmful to your brain with anywhere near regular use. Don't believe me? Modulation of mediotemporal and ventrostriatal function in humans by Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol: a neural basis for the effects of Cannabis sativa on learning and psychosis. This is just one of the many articles you will find on pubmed showing the extensive damage MJ can cause your brain.
However, equally as plausibly, MJ can help with stress modulation and anxiety disorders, pain as an analgesic, and with dietary disorders (due to hormonal increase of appetite hormones).
But to say that it is GOOD for you is silly. Whether it should be illegal is irrelevent, but it is most definitely a drug, plain and simple.
04/20/09
Here in San Luis Obispo county, there has been a RIDICULOUS amount of home-invasion robberies (at gunpoint, mind you) specifically targeting college students and folks with medical marijuana cards that just happen to have a nice big stash of weed in their homes. Just a couple of weeks ago, a dude was murdered by a shotgun at point-blank range over a couple ounces of dope.
My main point is, the weed itself is not the issue here, it's the gnarly stuff people are willing to do because of it.
04/20/09
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AND if weed was legal, like cigarettes or alcohol, you wouldn't see these alleged robberies.
04/20/09
Let me sum it up for everyone.
Context: weed effects learning and makes you high (no shit).
Purpose: To test the effects of THC vs cannabidiol, the 2 major psychoactive drugs in weed.
Test: 15 white dudes who are non-pot smokers were each given doses of THC, cannabidiol, and a placebo (separately, not all at once). Following each dose they were given a verbal learning test.
Results: THC makes you high as shit (wow, didn't know that!) Cannabidiol does not make you high. NEITHER drug effected the patients performance in the verbal learning tests (haha).
Conclusion: (copied from the article): The modulation of mediotemporal and ventrostriatal function by Delta9-THC may underlie the effects of C. sativa on verbal learning and psychotic symptoms, respectively.
Please note the word MAY. No where in the study does it definitively say THC or any other drug in weed can or will cause damage to your brain. Let alone "extensive" damage, as you claim. Soooo, pardon my french, but you are full of shit. This study is inconclusive. The best they can say is weed "might" damage your ability to learn, but if it can, this test did not prove it.
Now if you would like to show us a study that actually proves marijuana can in any way damage your brain, please do so. I implore you.
04/20/09
And these are not "alleged" robberies. There has been an established pattern with several groups in the area (and other areas) specifically targeting people with a medical use card or who are legally allowed to grow for a certified user. This is not coincidence.
04/20/09
Now, your amazing abstract-reading powers aside, the aforementioned experiment was a psychological experiment using pharmacology with little to no emphasis on biochemistry and neurological impairment mostly because killing the subjects and doing a post-experiment analysis might be considered unethical.
As a point of pure practicality, it happened to be the first result I found on a rather generic search for "marijuana" and "brain" on pubmed, which is why I stated "This is just one of the many articles you will find on pubmed showing the extensive damage MJ can cause your brain." Then qualified saying it can also have many positive effects on your system as a medicine, but should no less seriously be considered a drug and any major controlled substance, which was my major grievance with eagels3's original statement.
Also, the tests were scientifically conclusive using biostatistics, but given a small sample size of 15, and given that it was a psychological experiment, not a neurological study, it is prudent to use tempered language rather than sweeping grand statements.
If you wish to know more, by all means, search away and learn what drugs will do to your physiology! Here's a sample search with "marijuana+damage" as the search items.
04/20/09
04/20/09
If it becomes a no risk business venture, you are talking about a cash crop that grows like a, yes, weed.
The result of this cheaper weed has the following effects on your scenario. People are less likely to rob other people of it because a) they will be more likely to afford it themselves. b) the resale value of it will be very low. c) the likelihood that the victim will report the robbery is far greater.
Do people steal cell phones and lap tops? Yes. Those things are expensive. If pot was legal, people wouldn't need to have hundreds of dollars of pot at their house. They'd buy it like they purchased any other store-bought item. As needed.
04/20/09
Plus, we're not talking about schwag here, dude. People are still going to be cultivating the more potent strains which will retain their proportionally higher value.
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04/20/09
I'm sure someone would still grow low-end economy-buds for some reason...
04/20/09
Alcohol on the other hand does irreperable damage to the brain.
Furthermore, it's harder to stop drinking caffeine than it is to stop smoking weed.
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I will be honoring 4/20 in about 15mins...
04/20/09
Adam - I think you should take this and hang out with Tracie and Rich for an episode of Pot Psychology.