Scientific Inquiry

So this is how science is conducted?

Cannabis causing strokes in young people, Irish medic says

When the blood vessel was examined by a neuropathologist, they found that the lining had “grossly thickened” and blocked off the artery resulting in the stroke. Prof Harbison said that this echoed findings in another of his patients, a heavy cannabis user who had had a blood vessel outside the brain biopsied after surviving a stroke. […]

“There is a level of concern that there is an association with particularly heavy users. We are seeing people coming in with strokes where we cannot find any cause but their cannabis use. This case and the other case leads you to think that there is a direct organic effect to it,” he said.

Well that explains it then, doesn’t it? If you can’t find another cause, and two of them are heavy cannabis users, you got yourself some cannabis deaths.

As science, it certainly seemed to impress Kevin.

Harmless? Cannabis linked to strokes and deaths in Ireland, Irish medic tells inquest: http://t.co/mnNmVu1qLg

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13 Responses to Scientific Inquiry

  1. darkcycle says:

    It’s the opinion of a doctor. Isn’t a doctor supposed to be a “science guy”? Doesn’t that automatically make a doctor’s opinion science? I guess it COULD work that way, but only if you’re Kevin Sabet.
    BTW, I notice the article he chose to link allows no comments. And from a google search (which turned up multiple versions of this story,) it looks like the doctor has been reading “studies” out of New Zealand.

  2. claygooding says:

    If it excites Kevin it must be constructed of bovine excrement,it is the only science Kev speaks or understands..

    Without any history of any persons death on all the substances they were exposed too it would be too much of a jump blaming any drug on both deaths unless there was a recent history of bad drugs that were causing that health problem,,for this too surface after 5000 years of nobody noticing high stroke levels in young marijuana users I have doubts to the veracity of the drs findings.

  3. strayan says:

    Ease up, his sample size is 5 or 6.

  4. Servetus says:

    This latest scare tactic is exactly how the man-boob and marijuana hoax got started.

  5. Francis says:

    Harmless?

    Well, when this is the kind of crap that professional prohibitionists are trumpeting as evidence of cannabis’ supposed dangers, yeah, you sorta figure it MUST be pretty damn close to harmless. Some random Irish doctor’s completely unsupported suspicions regarding “five or six cases” he’s seen over the last three years? Really? Just for a little context, let’s imagine what a similar tobacco tweet might look like. “Tobacco: 5 million known deaths every year. Harmless?” I mean, do you honestly not recognize how completely absurd and desperate you sound? This post from last month suddenly reads less like a parody.

  6. Servetus says:

    Regarding thickening of arterial walls (atherosclerosis), causes and effects, relatively recent studies have indicated that:

    Antagonistic people may increase atherosclerosis, leading to heart attack, stroke risk:

    http://tinyurl.com/lhbg7xs

    “Hopelessness linked to thickening of neck arteries, stroke in healthy women”:

    http://tinyurl.com/kk8njll

    and saving the more interesting for last:

    Police work increases atherosclerosis, undermines cardiovascular health, comparison to general population shows:

    http://tinyurl.com/n6d8xs

    Stress seems the obvious common link in the studies above. Which raises the question: why should marijuana lead to atherosclerosis, since it’s a great stress reducer?

    Kevin appears to be stressed, grasping any straw that floats toward him that might keep the ONDCP directorship alive. He’s a real candidate for a heart attack. There is one thing that might save him.

  7. DdC says:

    The Drug Worriers may have more problems than just the Reformers.
    Ass Press by U.P. Incupp. 10.10.13

    Prohibitionists are showing up with symptoms that can include scaly skin, abscesses, lesions and gangrenous limbs and appendages. Probable causes of the flesh-eating virus is due to a deficient endocannabinoid system. Most likely from prolonged abstinence by choice or due to prohibition and a zombie like addiction for obedience and unquestioning ranks willing to follow blindly. Producing larger fear centers in their brains.** Creating even more of a herd mentality. Generations abstaining are the first to show up in emergency rooms. Those who stopped after college were the next highest group to show symptoms. Occasional toking has kept the disease in check with small skin rash symptoms in the groups of overly concerned about policy details and smell status. More possible cases of the flesh-eating phenomenon out of some Irish, New Zealand, GOP, Russia and Eastern Europe long known for obedient loyalty to the party.

    Cases have surfaced in the U.S., this time in a Chicago suburb, health officials said. D®. Abhin Singlalalalala, an internist at Joe’s Medical Center in Joliet, Ill.*, reported that at least three patients had symptoms consistent with cannabinoidal abuse, which can include scaly skin, abscesses, lesions and gangrenous limbs, according to a hospital statement this week. Synthetic merdol is essentially a back-alley version of cannabis, derived from genetic manipulation processed with the single delta 9 cannabinoid. It has little to no preventive measures to stop this flesh eating ailment. The drug does nothing as the deficient cannabinoids are unable to spur out bursts over wrong doings or abusive situations of oppression. The patient remains with the rotten flesh, and often amputation is the only viable medical treatment. “It is a horrific way to get sick,” said D®. Singlalalalala. “The smell of rotten flesh permeates the room.”

    Singlalalalala said that one of the hospital’s patients is a 25-year-old woman with a lengthy history of abstinence leading to cannabinoid system abuse who reported switching over to whole plant Ganja about one month ago and is now symptom free. “When she came in, she had the destruction that occurred because of this prohibition fear, the cornerstone of the prohibitionist. Over about 70% of her amygdalas were larger, which is responsible for primitive emotions. Singlalalalala said in an interview with BS2C in Chicago. The disease first became popular internationally as a result of cheap alternatives to Ganja, Accomplishing a similar “fear” for about 10% of the abstainers, Singlalalalala said. In Russia, up to 1 million people are estimated to worry about others habits, according to New York’s Office of Abstinence and Abuse Services. Singlalalalala worried that the area’s in the south especially oil states like Texas “burgeoning just say no epidemic may have created an intolerance level to the point where un-users are now looking for anything to ban.”

    The emergence of possible endocannabinoid abuse in Illinois follows reports last month of Arizona physicians treating Joe Arpaio and patients who claimed to have abstained for long periods, even entire lifetimes. For now, the cases in Arizona, Illinois and Elsewhere, remain unconfirmed. Frankly, Vecc Lohiohio, co-medical director of Phoenix-based Drug Worrier Control and Censoring Information Center, which first received reports of the smell of rotten flesh in Arizona at a Calvina Fay rally, said confirming the smell of rotten flesh. Not merely negative identifications of cannabis metabolites in a suspected non-user’s urine. “The Drug’s Enforcement Agency and NIDA are searching for victims, unrelated to what they produce. Along with our legal department have said that to confirm the cases, they would like the original reefer madness victims which they have been unable to provide. “It’s difficult,” Vecc Lohiohio said. “You’re asking someone who is a drug worrier if they still believe what they are now told are lies and is willing to give it up and question authorities.” His “gut feeling” was that some of the reported cases were credible, said Lohiohio. Singlalalalala’s gut had no comment.

    *Joliet is best known for it’s dungeons.
    and Jake and Elwood…

    ** Prohibitionist’s brains have larger amygdalas than the brains of liberals. Amygdalas are responsible for fear and other “primitive” emotions. At the same time, drug worrier’s brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate — the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism.

  8. Duncan20903 says:

    Let’s try something different. Let’s tell him that we’ve seen the light and thank him for showing us the truth. Then his work is done and maybe he’ll just go away.

  9. Dante says:

    The typical Irish diet is loaded with potatoes, eggs and pork. And Guiness Stout. And tobacco.

    I’m sure that has nothing to do with artery blockage, and such………

    Suddenly, I’m hungry.

    • DdC says:

      In Ireland there were NO other factors? I’d start with his diet, then move to the whiskey. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence many of the cop-shops are filled with second and third generation Irish cops. As far as the laddybuck sabetage. He’s grasping at anything now a days. His stinking ship is sinking and he has been left as king rat through default. While the followers are jumping ship he is hanging on to the last shred of hemp oakum. Doctors in Ireland discovered both victims suffered from an Irish brogue so thick it could have contributed to the clogged arteries. I’m pretty sure if you don’t have clogged arteries they look at you suspiciously.

      Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia

      There once was a lad named Oh’Kevin.
      Who could only understood everything backwards.
      His one chance to get into heaven.
      Was to simply tell the truth and stop harming the peasants.
      But Oh’Kevin was too addicted.
      And the fame that his fibs brought, was pleasant.
      He had no other skills to aid his affliction.
      So Oh’Kevin kept up the delusions.
      The public displays of a frothing mad loser.
      So now and for the rest of his life.
      People will point fingers at the man who lied,
      and kept a 5 year old girl having seizures.
      Put old men in cages with young fathers supplementing wages.
      To provide for their family a crop people wanted.
      Moms tossed in jail and their children stolen
      and sold to Foster Care Inc. They’re just chores, not kid sweatshops…
      Oh’ Kevin soon it will be you that is facing the judge.
      Gag orders to not mention for the good of the kids.
      Or following orders or because it was what you were taught.
      Oh laddybuck when the tribunal is over,
      and you feel the Hemp on your neck.
      Me thinks it will take a hell of a lot more than a 4 leaf clover.
      To keep the victims of prohibition from wanting an old fashioned lynchin’.
      Then we’ll finally hear Oh’Kevin begging for Ganja to give to the masses.
      To mellow them out and calm down the mobs.
      That day can’t come too soon for me.

  10. Goblet says:

    Sabet invokes the “harmless” straw man fallacy yet again. Our mantra is “Less Harmful.” Intellectually dishonest bastard.

  11. Chris says:

    This news article is one article but follows upon several recent studies which indicate that heavy cannabis use may be linked to strokes in younger people (90% of strokes occur in older people). The most credible is from Valerie Wolff in Stroke who cites 59 cases.

    neurores.wdfiles.com/…/stroke-feb-13…/wolff-cannabis.pdf

    Another study comes from New Zealand which tested younger stroke victims for cannabis use and controls and found statistical higher risk. Other individual cases may be found which have independently found people who developed stroke during or shortly after smoking cannabis. It is easy to find them on the web. I found one study of two patients, one case from Spain, etc.

    The mechanism is not quite known, but Wolff suggests some possibilities in her paper. This Irish coroner is thus but the latest example, not one isolated example.

    All of these were from respected doctors or researchers who have great credibility for the objective reader and can in no way be considered propaganda. The reaction of pro cannabis activists to these reports is universal science denialism. More research needs to be done in this area, but this evidence that stroke is related to cannabis consumption, if verified, would certainly be proof that cannabis has led to death or life threatening risks.

    Now one contention of the pro cannabis lobby is that cannabis consumption has not led to “a single death,” which I have seen repeated hundreds of time. Certainly one cannot rule out deaths due to a number of factors such as automobile and other accidents, suicides, heart attacks, and so forth, but these strokes would be a clear case of cannabis directly leading to a death or near death event and would therefore put to rest the often repeated party line that cannabis has never caused a death. Wolff reports that her findings may be just the tip of the iceberg as young stroke victims are rarely tested for cannabis use.

    I would suggest that the pro cannabis lobby have an open mind and investigate these scientific reports and consult with stroke experts as to why these reports are surfacing and whether there could be such a link. Just a thought.

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