lolife » marijuana

Pot vs. Alcohol

lolife — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:15:52 +0000

This is a phenomenally convincing article by a former police chief about the major policy inconsistencies regarding alcohol and marijuana. Alcohol is legal and highly costly to society. Yet no one wants to prohibit it. Why? Because we tried it and it didn’t work. How dense do you have to be to not apply the same logic to marijuana? Prohibition is hurting, not helping and we need to fix the major policy inconsistencies regarding alcohol and marijuana. It will save money and lives.

Hundreds of alcohol overdose deaths occur annually. There has never been a single recorded marijuana OD fatality.

According to the American Public Health Association, excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of death in this country. APHA pegs the negative economic impact of extreme drinking at $150 billion a year.

There have been no documented cases of lung cancer in a marijuana-only smoker, nor has pot been scientifically linked to any type of cancer. (Don’t trust an advocate’s take on this? Try the fair and balanced coverage over at Fox.) Alcohol abuse contributes to a multitude of long-term negative health consequences, notably cirrhosis of the liver and a variety of cancers.

It’s not even close. If you were going to pick one of these to prohibit, it would be alcohol. Yet we prohibit the safer one! Drug wars are running wild in Mexico, there are non-violent hippies taking up jail space in the US and we are turning our backs on taxing a multi-billion dollar industry.

WTF.

(belated thx to dez for the tip!)

Sanjay Gupta confusing medicine and politics

lolife — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:02:25 +0000

There are rumors that Sanjay Gupta may be nominated as Surgeon General. I don’t have a strong opinion on it (yet) but I do have to take exception to this article he wrote: Why I Would Vote No On Pot.

It’s not a bad article — he lists the health benefits of marijuana as well as the ricks associated with it. This is good stuff for people to know. My objection is that he encourages people to vote against more liberal marijuana laws based on the fact that marijuana has risks associated with it.

That’s not the criterion we use for making policy! There are all sorts of legal things with risks associated with them. Millions of ‘em. Gupta, if you want to give medical advice, fine. But it is insane to base your opinion on matters of policy, liberty and law solely on a medical opinion.

Booze is legal and prohibiting it was a disaster. It is completely wrong to prohibit marijuana for the exact same reasons and the minor medical risks of marijuana certainly do not trump these other more important arguments.

Hedge funds and hemp

lolife — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:45:59 +0000

Andrew Lahde, whom I have never heard of, apparently made a bunch of money betting against the sub-prime market. He recently closed his fund and wrote a “Jerry McGuire” letter saying so long and fuck you, basically.

He concludes the letter by talking about how the this nation has its head up its ass in regards to hemp and marijuana. He is, of course, completely correct. But I mention it because the media, in all of their stupidity, take his arguments and, by trying to be funny, expose the very ridiculous thinking he is arguing against. For example, one headline is “Quitting, and rolling a fattie…” and another “Millionaire puffs up hemp uses”. You can’t advocate for hemp or decriminalization of marijuana without some idiot calling you a stoner.

The US approach to the hemp issue is completely, 100% retarded. Yet regardless of who brings it up the pot smoking jokes come out, undermining the utter validity of the arguments. You can be a complete drunk, that’s A-OK, but mention marijuana and you are obviously some drug pusher.

So, fuck you, Andrew Willis, and your oh-so-funny headline. Thank you for taking us off the point once again.