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Curious Times No. 261
September 10, 2004
THE MYTH OF SUPER-POT GETS SMOKED
Despite years of the news media parroting the “fact” that today’s marijuana is far stronger than the supposedly crappy weed of the 1960s and ‘70s, at least one expert is calling bullshit on this bogus claim. Dr. Mitch Earleywine, a psychology professor and author of the book “Understanding Marijuana,” says that the dire warnings about “super-pot” are based solely on politics and not science. For example, he explains that the average level of potency of today’s marijuana is up only very slightly (to 7 per cent THC), and that this level is still less than half that used by the Dutch government for medical marijuana sold in pharmacies. His book also explains that there is exactly zero evidence that this grade of weed is any more dangerous than that smoked by previous generations. Claims of great danger caused by today’s “super-pot” are based, he says, on “speculation piled on top of conjecture.” Finally, Dr. Earleywine attacks the “fact” that the number of teenagers who are now in treatment programs for marijuana dependency and abuse has risen dramatically in recent years. He explains that the government’s statistics show that the majority of teens in these programs are simply there because they were arrested for having pot, not because of any real evidence of abuse or dependence. “We arrest kids for smoking marijuana, force them into treatment and then use those treatment admissions as “proof” that marijuana is addictive,” concludes the doctor, adding that “somewhere, George Orwell is smiling.” (Hartford Advocate)
FRIENDS
AND ENEMIES AGREE TO HATE BUSH
As the “anyone but Bush” campaign continues to gather steam,
it seems like America’s allies and enemies all hold the same opinion
about the pea-brained president. Responding to Dubya’s assertion
last week that Kim Jong Il is a tyrant, the North Korean government spat
back with its own stream of insults, calling Bush “an idiot, an
ignorant, a tyrant and a man-killer.” The diplomatic spokesman went
on to explain that “Bush’s assumption of office turned a peaceful
world into a pandemonium unprecedented in history as it is plagued with
a vicious circle of terrorism and war.” Meanwhile, America’s
so-called friend Canada doesn’t seem to think much better of the
president. Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish, who last year called
the American’s bastards, last week called them idiots in response
to a question of whether Canada would join the missile defense system.
“We are not joining the coalition of the idiots,” said Parrish.
When asked to explain the remark, she said, “they tortured people
in Iraq, they (the Iraqis) have no weapons of mass destruction. Could
somebody explain to me whether you think they’re idiots or geniuses?”
(Guardian
/ Reuters)
I
WOULD’VE GOT AWAY WITH IT IF IT WASN’T FOR THOSE MEDDLING
COPS
In a scam lifted straight from an episode of Scooby-Doo, an Indian man
confessed to police last week that he had been dressing up as a ghost
in order to scare the people in the Bengali town of Siliguri, then offering
to perform expensive magic rituals in order to scare the ghost away. Oddly
enough, the Indian police managed to catch the man without the help of
a bunch of teenage kids. (Ananova)