Pete Gets Off the Couch and Joins a Gang
The closest thing to schizophrenia ever caused by marijuana is occurring at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which can't decide whether pot leads to laziness or gang violence.
First, ONDCP announced that marijuana causes extreme lethargy, via the ironic "Pete's Couch" ad in which marijuana is called the "safest thing in the world" because it keeps you from ever leaving home.
Now, ONDCP wants everyone to know that marijuana is linked to violence and gang membership, via a self-produced study, which cherry-picks and manipulates various statistics in an effort to portray marijuana users as violent criminals.
So which is it? Are some marijuana users driven to violence while others are incapacitated by laziness? In reality, gang members and lazy people both enjoy marijuana, as do a great number of people who are neither lethargic nor dangerous. People like pot, and there are countless subgroups of users whose lifestyle can be falsely attributed to marijuana if one is willing to ignore the scientific method.
The blatant contradiction inherent in ONDCP's anti-pot messages is best illustrated in their blog, where they brag about Slate Magazine's praise for their new line of softer ads, then announce in the very next post that marijuana is linked to youth violence.
Maybe it just depends on your definition of the word "gang." What do you call a group of teenagers who get together and commit crimes on Pete's couch?
Peer-reviewed???
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 9:10amThese so-called 'studies' conducted by the ONDCP are the biggest disgrace I have ever seen. I currently work in academia conducting research. Every experiment we conduct is published and later verified in a PEER-REVIEWED journal. The purpose of a peer-reviewed journal is to certify the experiments credibility to prevent false claims.
I do not see the any reference to any journal in which this data was published nor can I find a credible doctor responsible for conducting this research.
All I see is; 'Director', 'National' and 'White House'. Just because you hold a respected position does not mean there is no need to publish results with a detailed procedure. If this research was reliabe, a respected, peer-reviewed journal would be confirming it.
Until this government decides to play by the rules, I will forever be skeptical of any 'facts' they choose to disclose.
-The Volunteer
democracy
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/23/2007 - 1:28pmThe system of espionage being thus established, the country wil swarm with informers, spies, delators, and all the odious reptile tribe that breed in the sunshine of despotic power. The hours of the most unsuspected confidence, the intimacies of friendship, or the recesses of domestic retirement will afford no security. The companion whom you trust, the friend in whom you must confide, are tempted to betray your imprudence, to misrepresent your words, to convey them distorted by calumny, to the secret tribunal where suspicion is the only evidence heard.
U.S Representative Edward Livingston
From the annals of the 5th U.S. congress 1798