Evidently marijuana is less harmful than believed

I have never in my life used marijuana.  There was a time in my life when I would have partaken if offered, but it never was and I never asked.

I was the type of person that people would have suspected of being an undercover narcotics agent.  I also was the type of person who wouldn’t have been able to spot an undercover narcotics agent myself.

During the same period of my life I drank a lot more beer than was wise.  I thought that being able to drink and hold my liquor was a manly thing.  The fallacy was that I didn’t hold my liquor all that well.  My drinking nowadays is confined to a glass of wine a couple of times a month.

I never did smoke cigarettes, so there’s that.

LINK

Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say by Christopher Ingraham for the Washington Post.  (Hat tip to my e-mail pen pal Jack)

The passing scene: Links & comments 7/14/14

Economix Explains Social Security

Economix Explains the Transpacific Partnership

Economix Explains Net Neutrality

Cartoonist Michael Goodwin uses words and pictures to give clear explanations of three important, and often misunderstood, issue.

Crimea Annexation Spurs Some Russians to Emigrate by Yekaterina Kravtsova for the Moscow Times.

Amid heightened nationalist passions over the Ukraine crisis,  President Vladimir Putin is cracking down on independent journalists and opposition politicians.

The United Nations estimates that 40,000 Russians asked for political asylum in other countries last year, the highest number from any country except Syria.  This year Russian requests for asylum are running ahead of last year’s.

Putin’s Russia is not a free country.

Russia wipes out Cuban debt by Aljazeera America.

President Putin agreed to cancel Cuba’s debt to the old Soviet Union, while Cuba plans more offshore oil concessions for Russian companies.  The USA could have had equivalent deals any time during the past 50 years if not for the ongoing U.S. embargo against Cuba.

The Real Reason Pot Is Still Illegal by Lee Fang for The Nation.

Marijuana is a cheap substitute for prescription painkillers, and may be less addictive.   The big pharmaceutical companies would lose a lot of sales if marijuana were legalized.

The Fire This Time:  A look at the religious violence in Burma by Hozan Alan Senauke for Buddhadharma.

The vice-abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center says that violence against Burma’s Muslim minority is contrary to the teachings of Buddha.

 

The passing scene: Links & comments 6/17/14

The coming ‘tsunami of debt’ and financial crisis in America by Dimitri Papadimitriou for The Guardian.

CEO Pay Continues to Rise as Typical Workers Are Paid Less by Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis for the Economic Policy Institute.

The recovery of the U.S. economy is sustained by the fact that about 90 percent of the American public is borrowing money in order to be able to buy the things they need and want.  Meanwhile the average pay of CEOs continues to outpace not only the wages and salaries of blue-collar and white-collar workers, but other high-income earners.  These CEOs will be in a good position to walk away from the crash when it comes.

Big Marijuana – Lessons from Big Tobacco by Kimber P. Richter and Sharon Lee for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Proponents of legalized marijuana point out that it is less harmful and addictive than tobacco.  This is true, but tobacco itself was much less harmful and addictive before the rise of the cigarette manufacturing industry.   If marijuana is marketed commercially by big tobacco companies, there is nothing to stop them from doing to marijuana what they did to tobacco.

Schroedinger’s Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained by Charles Stross.

Great Scot!  The Madness of Late-Stage Nationalism by Tom Gallagher for The American Interest.

On September 18, the people of Scotland will vote on whether they want to become an independent nation.  The two links above are to articles giving the background of the referendum and making cases for “yes” and “no” votes.

US Water Woes Add Power to AP Fracking Report by Tina Casey for CleanTechnica.

Fukushima’s Children Are Dying by Harvey Wasserman for EcoWatch.

If marijuana is legalized, what then?

I’m opposed to drug prohibition for the same reason that I’m opposed to alcohol prohibition, gun prohibition or any other law that can’t be enforced.  The social cost of increased addiction if the law is changed is less than the social cost of mass incarceration of young black men and of the drug wars being fought in Mexico, Colombia and other countries.

Still, I wonder whether the big tobacco companies will start to mass-market marijuana products the way they market cigarettes, and tweak THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, to make it more addictive, the way they did nicotine?  They would not be the only companies to promote an additive drug.

The two-soprano rule

In judging a two-person singing contest,

never award the prize to the second soprano

having heard only the first.

via The Reality-Based Community.

A waste of money

Hat tip to jobsanger.