50116593   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc, uk.legal, alt.psychology   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
   From: jgolczewski@yahoo.com   
      
   Mel Rowing wrote:   
   > On 8 Apr, 13:20, Andy Wainwright   
   >  wrote:   
   >> On 08/04/2013 12:27, Mel Rowing wrote:   
   >>   
   >> He is a physicist. I am a philosopher. Our contributions to our   
   >> respective sciences over the same period of time are roughly equal.   
   >   
   > Oh my God spare me! Something else he is not!   
   >   
   > You have no academic endorsement or recognition in this field   
   > whatsoever. It's more fantasy. What have you published?   
   >   
   >> See, it takes hard graft of letter writing and so forth to get the   
   >> message across. And the message is that many people are seriously   
   >> discriminated against in the typical work environment, which leads to   
   >> more sickies and more tax for those still with jobs.   
   >   
   > Most people have jobs there are ~2.6m out of a potential workforce of   
   > ~30m  who claim to be involuntarily unemployed. Still there are jobs   
   > advertised all over the place. More myth! More fantasy!   
   >   
   >>> If you get drunk you are a nuisance and danger to others. If you get   
   >>> stoned the same applies. If through your weaknesses you become   
   >>> incapacitated and or non functional you will expect others to help you   
   >>> through it and yet more others to pick up the bill.   
   >>> It's because these others are functional that they are in a position   
   >>> to pick up that bill.   
   >>   
   >> Drunks and druggies can at least sober up. The jealous and naturally   
   >> paranoid can't so easily.   
   >   
   > Yes but only until the next time when the cycle will recommence. For   
   > abstainers there is no next time.   
      
   You made assumptions about the poster and marijuana users that are   
   unwarranted and/or untrue. First, several studies have found that   
   marijuana users have the same employment characteristics as nonusers.   
   "A number of researchers have examined labor force participation and   
   wages among marijuana users and nonusers...The first is a survey of   
   over four hundred men in New York state.  The second...a sample of   
   12,000 young adults from across the country...Marijuana users earn   
   wages similar to or higher than nonusers."   
   --John Morgan, MD, Lynn Zimmer, PhD. _Marijuana Myths, Marijuana   
   Facts_, New York: Lindesmith Center, 1997.   
   (In writing this book, Zimmer and Morgan found and reviewed literally   
   every academic and medical research paper available on the medical or   
   therapeutic properties of cannabis, making this book the single best   
   secondary source on the planet with respect to that substance.  It has   
   been endorsed by writers from the Journal of the American Medical   
   Association, the National Review, the British Medical Journal, Science   
   Magazine, and many other publications.)   
      
   The U.S. government's own commission (the Shafer Commission) found no   
   evidence that marijuana caused crime, psychiatric problems, sexual   
   promiscuity, or loss of motivation, or that it was a stepping stone to   
   other drugs.  The Shafer Commission, which included 4 physicians, 2   
   lawyers, and 4 members of Congress, extensively reviewed the existing   
   evidence on marijuana and funded original studies in areas where   
   evidence was lacking.  Nixon had appointed a Republican, former   
   Pennsylvania governor Ray Shafer, to head the commission, thinking it   
   would take a hard line.  But after months of investigation, the facts   
   convinced even this commission, which reported: "Marijuana use, in and   
   of itself, is neither causative of, nor directly associated with   
   crime."  They found no evidence for the gateway theory, and they   
   concluded that personal use of marijuana should no longer be a crime.   
   (National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Marihuana: A Signal   
   of Misunderstanding, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.)   
      
   Lester Grinspoon, MD. _Marihuana Reconsidered_. 2nd edition. Cambridge,   
   MA: Harvard University Press.   
   "There is no longer any doubt that marihuana is not a drug of   
   addiction." (p233)   
   "Not only are there no withdrawal symptoms, but there is no necessity   
   to increase dosage over time." (p233)   
   "There is no physical disturbance on withdrawal of the drug: no real   
   tolerance is developed." (p233)   
   "Nor has anyone found evidence of pharmacologic tolerance in human   
   beings at recreational doses, even in Jamaicans who use up to 420 mg   
   THC a day."   
   "It is reasonably well established that cannabis causes no tissue   
   damage.  There is no evidence that it leads to any cellular damage to   
   any organ."   
   "[There was] no deterioration even with frequent cannabis use in scores   
   on a set of psychological tests including the Wechsler Adult   
   Intelligence Scale and tests of spatial perception."  A number of other   
   studies referenced in this book also reported that marijuana had no   
   effect on intelligence.   
      
   Furthermore, even being unemployed while using marijuana is not   
   evidence of a causal relation. Drug abuse is a symptom, not a cause, of   
   other social problems.   
   Shendler and Block concluded that "problem drug use is a symptom, not a   
   cause, of personal and social maladjustment."   
   --Shendler J, Block J. Adolescent drug use and psychological health.   
   American Psychologist. 45:612-630, (May) 1990.   
   Shendler and Block's finding that "maladjustment" leads to drug use   
   rather than the reverse was confirmed a few years later by a study   
   funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which stated, "Conduct   
   disorder is in large part the common forerunner of both drug abuse and   
   criminality...challenging the assumption that drug use causes crime."   
   --Swan N. Researchers probe which comes first: drug abuse or antisocial   
   behavior? NIDA Notes. May/June 1993, pp1-6.   
      
   Using the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the   
   government has made it a crime to use in your own home something that   
   you've grown on your own property. If that isn't an infringement on   
   individual rights and a gross distortion of the Constitution, I don't   
   know what is.   
      
   Marijuana users do not want anyone else to pay for their actions in any   
   way; they just want to be left alone to live their lives as they   
   choose. Although in fact the state would *make money* from taxes paid   
   on legal marijuana and from stopping the pursuit of users.   
      
   Since you brought it up, I'm not an expert in marijuana, but I am a   
   scientist (PhD in biophysics) who worked in scientific research,   
   teaching, and writing for 30 years.   
      
   JA Golczewski, Ph.D.   
   https://sites.google.com/site/jgolczewski/jgolczewskihome   
   News on life-extension and health   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)