Philosophy Now Forum

There has been a spate recently of anti-marijuana propoganda.

[Often we hear it claimed that modern skunk is 30 times more powerful than the weed that parents smoked in the 70s. Since the weed in the 70s was 4-8% Tetrahydracannibinol, THC, the active ingredient, then modern weed is at least an astounding 120% THC. Pass the Universe-breaking doobie on the left hand side...]

Part of this has been injecting people with pure THC (How do I volunteer?). The subjects then displayed behaviour and later recounted thought patterns in character with clinical psychosis.

According to "scientists" this means that THC causes psychosis.

Need it be pointed out that any drug in extreme doses resembles mental illness?
What, exactly, is drunken behaviour if not unhealthy?
Do sleeping pills cause catatonia?

Ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous.

And yet, many people seem to swallow this bs wholesale.
This is exactly why Science needs to be censored by Philosophy, and that, to paraphrase Plato, Scientists either need to become Philosophers or Philosophers need to become Scientists.

Psychonaut wrote:Often we hear it claimed that modern skunk is 30 times more powerful than the weed that parents smoked in the 70s. Since the weed in the 70s was 4-8% Tetrahydracannibinol, THC, the active ingredient, then modern weed is at least an astounding 120% THC. Pass the Universe-breaking doobie on the left hand side...

Well, they are not claiming that it has 30 times more THC, but that it is 30 times more powerful. That is not the same thing.

On the other hand, I have no idea what they mean by this. Do you stay high 30 times longer? Is the high 30 times better?

BTW, according to Health Canada's website, marijuanna as "some" medical benefits. According to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) website, it has no medical benefits whatsoever. Perhaps someone should call the prime minister's office and ask for a clarification - which one represents the actual government position.

(BTW, marijuanna is an excellent cure for non-stop hiccups - the sort that go on for weeks and weeks and can cause major health problems, especially if they were triggered by major abdominal surgery. Most doctors will prescribe anti-epileptics or anti-psychotics - and maybe some codeine - for this. There is a problem with this. Anti-epileptics and anti-psychotics do fuck all for the hickups, but also fuck up your brain. Together with codeine they might let you get a bit of sleep, if you are lucky, but that is about it. I have seen this work myself - the hiccups stopped instantly. They restarted a couple of hours later - and again stopped with a few puffs. A few iteration of that, and they were all gone.)

According to "scientists" this means that THC causes psychosis.

I wonder who the hell those scientists are. When I took my physiology of the brain course it had a textbook written by actual scientists. According to this textbook, marijuanna is about the most harmless of the psychoactive substances there is.

And yet, many people seem to swallow this bs wholesale.
This is exactly why Science needs to be censored by Philosophy, and that, to paraphrase Plato, Scientists either need to become Philosophers or Philosophers need to become Scientists.

The governments' pet "scientists" are not doing science - I think what they are doing amounts to fraud dressed up as science. Philosophers (among other people who have one or more functional braincell) have a role in pointing such frauds out - but that can hardly be described as censoring science.

I forgot what I was going to say.