Newshawk: The New www.DrugSense.org
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jul 2004
Source: DrugSense Weekly
Section: Feature Article
Website: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
Authors: Mitch Earleywine and Bruce Mirken
Note: Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., is associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California and author of "Understanding Mariijuana" (Oxford University Press, 2002); Bruce Mirken is communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C.

THE "POTENT POT" MYTH

Recently, the media have repeated dire warnings about alleged "super pot." In an attempt to frighten parents who may have dabbled in their day, our government claims that new strains of potent marijuana are far more dangerous than the innocuous grass of the 1960s or '70s.

Many media reports repeat these claims uncritically. For example, a July 19 Reuters story warned, "Pot is no longer the gentle weed of the 1960s and may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin."

Such claims are utter nonsense, and may create more harm than good.

First, high-potency marijuana has always existed. The average potency has increased slightly, but only because higher-potency marijuana has become a little more common. It is not a new phenomenon.

Second, there is precisely zero evidence that marijuana with a higher level of THC -- the component that produces the "high" -- is more dangerous. Indeed, a close look at the news accounts shows that claims of greater danger are based on speculation piled on top of conjecture.

To put this in perspective, the average potency of marijuana that that has fueled this fire is seven percent THC. This is the marijuana that White House Drug Czar John Walters warns is horribly dangerous because of its super-strength. In contrast, Dutch government standards require medical marijuana sold in pharmacies in the Netherlands to be more than twice that strong. So a country where teens are actually less likely to use cocaine and heroin than in the U.S. wouldn't even use our marijuana to heal their sick. A recent report from the European Union noted that "a slight upward trend" in potency means little because the potency of U.S. marijuana "was very low by European standards."

Third, unlike the speculative claims of increased danger, peer-reviewed scientific data show that higher potency marijuana reduces health risks. Just as with alcohol, people who smoke marijuana generally consume until they reach the desired effect, then stop. So people who smoke more potent marijuana smoke less -- the same way most drinkers consume a smaller amount of vodka than they would of beer -- and incur less chance of smoking-related damage to their lungs.

Official warnings about "super pot" often accompany claims that huge numbers of teens are in treatment for marijuana "dependence and abuse," and that those numbers have risen dramatically. Such claims are utterly misleading. According to the U.S. government's own statistics, most teens in marijuana treatment are there because they were arrested, not because of actual evidence of abuse or dependence. Virtually all of the vaunted increase in marijuana treatment admissions stems from these arrests.

So, we arrest kids for smoking marijuana, force them into treatment, and then use those treatment admissions as "proof" that marijuana is addictive. Somewhere, George Orwell is smiling.

This wave of marijuana treatment has nothing to do with actual dependence. According to the latest government report on drug treatment, called the Treatment Episode Data Set, more than a third of these marijuana "abusers" did not use marijuana at all in the month prior to admission. Another 16.1 percent used it three times or less.

So more than half of marijuana "abusers" used marijuana three times or less in the month prior to entering treatment -- and this, we are told, is proof that we must be fearful of highly addictive "super pot"!

There is a real story here, but it's not about the dire effects of potent marijuana. The real story is the misuse of science by government officials seeking to justify current policies and hold onto their jobs. The administration's misuse of science in this area is, if anything, more blatant than in fields that have generated far more controversy, such as reproductive health.

And with the administration now talking openly about shifting prevention and law enforcement resources toward marijuana and away from drugs like heroin and cocaine, which actually kill, this dishonesty is putting America's young people at risk.

Well, I've posted 5050 comments. I forgot to check when I posted my 5000th, and my subscription ran out, so I can't look back past 24 recent ones. :)

It was probably something trollish, or at least stupid. :)

I just got this memo regarding the coming ice/snow.

I'm not making this up.

IF YOU SEE AREAS THAT NEED TO BE TREATED WITH CHEMICALS, PLEASE SEE SOMEONE IN MAINTENANCE OR CONTACT ME AND I WILL FIND SOMEONE TO TREAT THOSE AREAS.

WE ARE SORRY IF THIS CAUSES ANY INCONTINENCES, BUT WE ARE TRYING TO AVOID ANY ACCIDENTS. YOUR SAFETY COMES FIRST SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

Apparently, someone has finally tried to kill a Microsoft employee.

Too bad they failed.

My Hybrid electric bicycle is functional now.

Here are some Pictures.

Earlier pictures show reject design ideas, later ones show the stuff that worked :)

The main problem I had is that because the alternator was producing more voltage than the battery, the alternator would take all the load and stall the gas motor before the battery discharged at all.

To make them balance the current use, I installed two very large 110 watt 0.3 ohm resistors in parallel between the alternator output and the battery. 0.15 ohms seems like just the right amount of current to not stall the motor normally.

It will only stall the gas motor if the battery is very drained and producing a low voltage and sucking lots of charging amps, and I'm going up a steep hill, or I'm going up a steel hill very slowly for some reason (like I had to stop and start again). In that case I have to modulate the electric motor throttle, turning it on and off repeatedly to avoid stalling the gas motor.

I still have to pedal a good amount, especially on hills. Pedalling at the right times keeps the speed up above 10mph, which is where the electric motors operate most efficiently.

I plan to install larger electric motors and/or play with spindle sizes on the friction drive system, to get a more optimal power arrangement.

The main disadvantage of a friction drive system is that it's always one drive ratio. This is not as bad with electric motors, but they suck huge amounts of current when going at very low rpms, and that huge drain is very wasteful, most goes to heat.

Well, it all started as a project to add a chassis on the rear of my electric bicycle to allow the installation of a second battery.

That's completed, with some better range using 6 Hawker cyclon size BC starved electrolyte cells as my secondary, but I still have the need.

My current project is a hybrid gas-electric bicycle, using a 32cc 2cycle engine, and a car alternator.

As far as I can tell from google searches, I think I may be the first to try something like this.

I have no idea whether this is going to work out better in terms of efficiency than just a direct motor bicycle drive system. (I bought the motor from one of that guy's ebay auctions)

I went to a junkyard today, extricated an alternator from a circa 1986 car. Got a small mitsubishi alternator. It works. Next time I'll bring something to cut weeds down with, blackberry bushes have bad thorns and grow everywhere. I'd have liked to get another alternator as a backup, but everything else I saw was either too big, rusted out, or too hard to get to. I'm addicted though, hunting in a junkyard is pretty fun.

Also got a couple ignition coils to play with. Sparks are fun.

I might use this project as a way to get into microcontrollers, likely PICs. It's something I've wanted to at least play with for a while. I figure a PIC might be able to control the throttle on the gas engine based on efficiency points of the motor and the alternator.

If I can ever afford it, I'd really like to get something like this. 3.8 pounds, 3 horsepower. Amazing.

Remember that study linking MDMA (ecstasy) a while back that was used to help pass all that "Rave and Date Rape Drug" legislation?

Well, it was total bullshit, as the lab that did the study recently admitted.

"Scientists at Johns Hopkins University who last year published a frightening and controversial report suggesting that a single evening's use of the illicit drug ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson's disease are retracting their research in its entirety, saying the drug they used in their experiments was not ecstasy after all."

They claim they got their vials mixed up and used methamphetamine instead of MDMA. How convenient.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to use standard computer monitor resolutions and frequencies for HDTV?

You could use the same hardware for a computer or a TV, and it wouldn't matter. The prices would drop to all time lows with the economy of scale.

It seems pretty stupid to make up new standards, when ones already exist that fulfill the purpose.

I'm getting married today. Sort of a low profile thing. I've been pretty indifferent to marriage, viewing it mostly as a religious thing, being agnostic, I didn't think it made much difference to me personally.

But it does make a big difference to her, even though I considered myself married (at least I've been as committed as if we were) as long as I've been with her.

It does mean something to me as well, even though I didn't think it would. There are some psychological consequences to making a legal commitment on top of an existing commitment.

So we're getting married. Today. Don't even have rings yet. Plan to have a ceremony sometime in the future, maybe a year from now. It's going to be one of those things where most people find out after the fact. You guys actually know before our parents even know. :)

Long haired freaky people, need not apply*.

Seriously though, my company may have a temporary opening starting soon and running until next spring.

PHP/Postgresql programming on Red Hat servers.

Must be willing to produce w3 valid HTML, and clean code.

Position is in southwest Virginia, and we're really looking for someone to work onsite.

I'll be honest, the pay we can offer isn't great, but it's infinitely larger than zero, if that's your current pay. :)

If you are interested, please reply. Make sure your email is in the header or the message somewhere. If you know anyone in this area that might be interested, give them a heads up.

*just kidding

Some guy just modbombed me, 5 overrateds on my last 5 messages, all at once.

Probably the GigsVT troll. I guess I'm doing something right if I'm actually important enough to waste that many mod points on.

It does make one wonder why the Slashdot people still haven't fixed the overrated/underrated metamod loophole. I can't imagine it would require changing more than a couple lines of code to fix.

You might have already seen this but I hadn't. It's very interesting, even if only partly true.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Looks like Slashdot finally fixed the terrible user interface on the left sidebar.

Just got one thing to say: About fucking time.

I mean, I know the links formed that nice little mound shaped thing, but the thing was just about the prime example of how not to design a UI.

The whole thing with Sections/Topics, Frontpage/SectionOnly stories was and still sorta is, a mess. At least the links give you a clue that some stories aren't on the front page.

Anyway, good job guys, but why in God's name did it take you 5 years?

A company named Luxuriousity run by Gregg Collins is apparently rebranding well known open source projects and selling them on Ebay. He gives no indications as to the original title of the software, and he even goes as far as to claim, 'Be careful who you buy from, only Luxuriosity offers a complete package including full support and refund services.' and 'We are a licensed Community distributor.'