Was Noura Ibrahim’s brain damaged by exposure to cadavers?

“Science” blogger Noura Ibrahim (who is participating in cadaver dissection at Victor Valley College) brings us some first-class stupidity with Was Miami Face-Chewing Attack Caused by Cannabis-Induced Psychosis? at Huffington Post.

Of course, the question in the title of her piece is a likely giveaway that it’s completely unsupported sensationalism aimed at getting attention rather than actually sharing any real, you know, information. And, in fact, that’s all that’s there.

You can put just about anything in an article when you make it a question.

“Is Noura Ibrahim a flesh-eating zombie who is trying to divert attention from her species?” More research is needed for us to know for sure, but she is spending an awful lot of time with dead people…

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21 Responses to Was Noura Ibrahim’s brain damaged by exposure to cadavers?

  1. Byddaf yn egluro: says:

    How come they can’t identify the three pills found in Eugen’s stomach?

    http://tinyurl.com/7vwek5h

  2. Common Science says:

    I submitted the following an hour ago, which has yet to show up on Huff-Po:

    This is a most unsettling article. I think worriers and sceptics to the cannabis cannibal theory presented here, by this otherwise esteemed science blogger, are owed some useful historical evidence.

    Concrete signs of a correlation of psychotic behaviour to cannabis usage would have been most evident during the unparalleled increase in cannabis usage in the relatively short timeline that fell between 1967 and 1972. Pot smoking consumption increased in the U.S. from one million to twenty million users. It would be expedient have that public mental health evidence posted here as a follow up.

    • Emma says:

      Even if we assume a causal connection between cannabis and schizophrenia, the association is small, similar to the increased rate of schizophrenia among people living in cities.

  3. Francis says:

    The real “zombie” here is the myth of Reefer Madness. No matter how many times it’s debunked, it refuses to stay dead, reviving itself periodically to feast on the brains of the ignorant and the gullible.

  4. “The three pills that were originally reported to have been found in Eugene’s stomach were not identified in the report released by the Medical Examiner.”

    Minor discrepancy from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner?

  5. Cold Blooded says:

    Wait, I thought they wanted to blame this on bath salts.

    • Francis says:

      They did. Unfortunately, as is often the case with drug warrior claims, the facts wouldn’t cooperate.

  6. allan says:

    now folks… how about a little slack. How many here (speaking to the cannabists) – when high – have NOT nibbled some human flesh on occasion? Hmmm…?

    See, there ya have it… irrefutable proof!

    Of what? Who cares! just soz we can blame most anything on that evil weed.

    • allan says:

      but seriously… I’d rather listen to Abdullah Ibrahim:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vurmz6pC2WQ (playing Duke Ellington)

      Noura Ibrahim sounds not nearly so sweet

      • Common Science says:

        Beautiful Allan! Duke Ellington was instrumental in launching the South African composer’s career. Abdullah’s aforementioned mentor created a composition titled ‘Sweet and Pungent’.

        Let’s do as little research as Noura would apply, and just smile at the hypothesized connotation.

        • allan says:

          next to my daughter, Abdullah is my favorite jazz pianist. Part of South Africa’s two-headed legacy…

          And So. Africa can always be used as a segue into the WO(s)D…

          the US incarcerates more young black males per capita than did South Africa at the peak (depths) of Apartheid

  7. C.E. says:

    You know, according to the Miami face-eater’s girlfriend, he left the house that morning with his Bible.

    Not that I think the Bible had anything to do with it, but I also don’t think the marijuana did, either. Or the oxygen he was breathing. Or the salt in his food.

    Being in Florida, now that’s a different matter.

  8. Servetus says:

    There’s been a bombardment of papers published recently promoting the idea of cannabis induced psychosis in schizophrenics:

    http://tinyurl.com/c3guha9

    Looks as if a new propaganda assault has been launched by the latest wave of doomed drug warriors storming over the top of their comfy trenches (faint battle cry in background).

    In each paper, the underlying links between schizophrenia and cannabis consumption are based on subjective evaluations of certain marijuana effects resembling those of schizophrenia. In other papers, a possible biochemical mechanism is proposed in the form of a gene abnormality. These are the same types of arguments once used to vilify psychedelics like LSD. Anything different in the brain is deemed schizophrenic. The specter of amotivational syndrome looms in many of the papers.

    It takes a quantum leap, and a shill like Dr. Laura Ibrahim with apparently no forensic expertise in this area, to assume a temporary synapse surprise here and there in the brain initiated by marijuana can induce a human behavior as rare, complex and screwed-up as cannibalism. Perhaps she would like to explain to all of us, in detail, each of the critical steps involved.

  9. big rig butters says:

    I’m done here I’m offing myself

  10. Francis says:

    I haven’t followed the cannabis / schizophrenia stuff that closely, but let me see if I can summarize the key facts.

    1) Some studies have shown a positive correlation between cannabis use and schizophrenia.
    2) The number of Americans using cannabis grew enormously in the last 50 years.
    3) During that time, there was no significant increase in the percentage of Americans who were diagnosed with schizophrenia. (That number has consistently hovered around 1 percent of the population.)
    4) There are numerous anecdotal reports that cannabis use provides symptom relief for some people with schizophrenia. Recent studies have also shown that one of the primary cannabinoids found in cannabis, cannabidiol, is as effective as atypical antipsychotics in treating schizophrenia.

    Is that about right? And if so, isn’t that extremely compelling evidence that cannabis use does not increase the risk of schizophrenia and that, per Francis’ Law, the drug warriors have once again got things completely backwards? How do the drug warriors attempt to counter it?

    • Liam says:

      Yes, that’s right. So, it’s not that he had THC in his system, it’s that he didn’t have enough THC in his system.

  11. Byddaf yn egluro: says:

    “Associated with” is not the same as “causation.”

    Kindly Google any of the following combinations:

    Nicotine and Schizophrenia
    Alcohol and Schizophrenia
    Chocolate and Schizophrenia
    Sugar and Schizophrenia
    Gluten and Schizophrenia

    Persons with chronic mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population does, and smoking is the major contributor to that premature mortality. This population consumes 44% of all cigarettes.
    Source: Confronting a Neglected Epidemic: Tobacco Cessation for Persons with Mental Illnesses and Substance Abuse Problems –Steven A. Schroeder1 and Chad D. Morris.

    Cigarette smoking rates in the American population are approximately 23%, whereas rates of smoking in clinical and population studies of individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders are typically two- to four-fold higher.
    Source: Nicotinic receptor mechanisms and cognition in normal states and neuropsychiatric disorders. –Kristi A. Sacco, Katie L. Bannon, and Tony P. George.

    Caffeine is most certainly linked with mental illness; psychosis even. Here’s some reading:

    Broderick, P. & Benjamin, A.B. (2004). Caffeine and psychiatric symptoms: a review. Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 97(12), 538-542.

    Hedges, D.W., Woon, F.L. & Hoopes S.P. (2009). Caffeine-induced psychosis. CNS Spectrums, 14(3),127-129.

  12. Sorry but I had to do something. Nobody else was grabbing that one by the horns.

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