Paranoia can be good for you (updated)

We’ve often discussed the fact that, when it comes to driving, marijuana often makes drivers cautious (countering impairment), while alcohol makes them reckless (increasing the impact of impairment).

This takes it a step further.

Studies by Oregon researchers hint that mild pot-induced paranoia may have a public health benefit

College students abandon condom use when binge drinking — but not when they’re stoned — a study by an Oregon State University researcher found. […]

“Unlike alcohol, marijuana may cause users to compensate for impairments in inhibitory control by changing decision-making and risk perception,” the study said.

In other words, the pot smokers may be a little bit paranoid or anxious.

The researchers concluded that “decision-making impairments may be mild following marijuana use and that cognitive compensation may occur.”

Update: It appears that the authors of the study were not consulted in the article, and dispute the support for conclusions made in the article. (see comments)

I oppose junk science and junk journalism of real science wherever I find it.

So, even though this post was intended as a bit of fun, I withdraw any support for this article.

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16 Responses to Paranoia can be good for you (updated)

  1. Mouth says:

    I’ve driven under the influence of a lot of substances, but pot most of all and I blame pot for infusing itself in my driver’s training when it comes to Urban Combat Driving. I drive like Mr. Bobelhead since common sense dictates and proves that keeping one’s eyes on the road is the best way to get killed if not wrecked. I can cruise around stoned, drive the speed limit with either Easy-E or Enigma blaring from my 12’s and still see and honk at a squirrel 15yrds away climbing down a tree, thinking about crossing the street.

    I’ve taught my people back home, that when you carry any dealer amount of drugs on you, it literally and physically takes nothing less than 3 vehicles to carry a quarter pound of pot or more. Why? A Humvee in Iraq is safer on the roads with more than one, than just by itself–thus proving one should not move any amount of dealer quantity with anything under 3 vehicles.

    Without weed, I would never be able to enhance my driver’s safety and my training. Cops find it impossible to pull over the ‘middle’ vehicle . . . throw in a couple of motorcycles with the mix of 3 or more vehicles and you’ve got increased success . . . but try to make sure your vehicles change their appearance since one can start to guess by simply noticing the same vehicles traveling closely for a determinate distance.

  2. kaptinemo says:

    ‘Paranoid’. Hmmm. Nowadays, that word has a negative connotation.

    The original meaning of the word had to do with a heightened state of awareness. In particular, WRT this subject, you are aware that you are impaired and consciously adjust behavior accordingly.

    A hallmark of rationality while ‘under the influence’ that those who imbibe alcohol don’t enjoy and cannot claim.

    • kaptinemo says:

      I see some dissension. Come on, don’t be shy. Unlike prohibs, we enjoy debate.

      However, it’s been my observation that most prohibs couldn’t fight their way out a tent made of tissue-paper when it comes to rationally defending their positions. They just like to, as my Marine Da used to put it, ‘sh*t and run’.

      Failure to return and debate only proves me right. So…ya wanna dance? Or remain silent and concede the field to us? Your move, and the clock is ticking…

      • kaptinemo says:

        Time’s up…and point made.

        Since I began commenting on this issue over 16 years ago, I’ve yet to meet a prohib who wasn’t woefully unprepared to defend their positions.

        To a man (or woman, don’t want to discriminate, here) when confronted with an opportunity to defend their beliefs (or their paychecks, usually they’re tied together), they turn and run.

        The bottom feeders of their hierarchy can only spout the drivel their generals supply. When they can’t even do that much, well, it becomes painfully obvious why they are losing.

  3. NorCalNative says:

    From the linked article’s comment section:

    “I conducted the study of health-risking sexual behavior in college students that is reviewed here. I was not interviewed for the article, and I found the overall conclusions–especially the headline–to be misleading.

    We did not find evidence of public health benefit of recreational marijuana use. Marijuana use was not associated with rates of condom use in our study; but it is not appropriate to suggest that this indicates any health benefit.

    I also want to clarify we did not measure paranoia, and we disagree with the interpretation that marijuana-induced paranoia could explain our findings.

    —-David Kerr, Oregon State University

    • Francis says:

      I was not interviewed for the article, and I found the overall conclusions–especially the headline–to be misleading.

      We did not find evidence of public health benefit of recreational marijuana use. Marijuana use was not associated with rates of condom use in our study; but it is not appropriate to suggest that this indicates any health benefit.

      The “paranoia” angle seems like a bit of a stretch, but the headline’s broader suggestion that “studies” (plural) “hint” that cannabis “may” have a public health benefit strikes me as completely justified based on the reported findings. Here’s the second study discussed in the article:

      Meanwhile, a trio of researchers, including UO economics associate professor Benjamin Hansen, found — through large-scale data analysis — that traffic fatalities decreased by 8 percent to 11 percent in 14 states in the year after the states legalized the use of medical marijuana.

      The finding could be significant because traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among Americans age 5-34, according to the study “Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption” published in May 2013 in the Journal of Law and Economics.

      The study also found “decreases in the probability of having consumed alcohol in the past month, binge drinking and the number of drinks consumed” in the wake of medical marijuana legalization.

      They theorized that marijuana may be a substitute for heavy drinking across a large swath of population they studied.

      Ok, so you’ve got evidence that cannabis use doesn’t lead to decreased condom usage in marked contrast to alcohol use. (“The study also found that binge-drinking students were likely to throw caution to the wind when it came to condom use.”) And you’ve also got evidence of a possible substitution effect between legal cannabis and alcohol leading to less alcohol-related harm in another context (drunk driving). I’d say those two things absolutely “hint” at a possible health benefit in the safe sex context. Is it definitive? Well, no, of course not. But it never is, and the headline didn’t suggest otherwise.

  4. Servetus says:

    David Kerr’s research publication at Oregon State University is titled “Sex is more likely on days college students use marijuana or binge drink”. Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, has provided some research from 2008 that says “Black girls who use marijuana engage in riskier sex, have higher STD rate”. The problem is Emory’s emphasis on black girls introduces socioeconomic variables that skew results. Sadly, the Emory study also appears to attempt to revive the ‘crazed rapist black man on cocaine’ stereotype, but in a new disguise.

    Racists have had time to incorporate Emory’s misleading research jargon into their agenda. Now the religious right will be all over Dr. Kerr’s research title linking marijuana and binge drinking to sex. The research openly admits the college trend is (as always) to combine sex with drugs, making it a double-sin whammy on the libertine scale of unholy achievements. It also reaffirms the right’s fears that drugs are a gateway to sex. Or is sex a gateway to drugs? Maybe it’s the fault of the snake in the Garden of Eden’s grass again. Emory University, in this instance, staked its scientific reputation on playing the race card, an unfortunate choice.

    As we’ve seen with other vague and misleading headlines and misleading research reports written by journalists, the conflation of sex, drugs, and race, is dangerous territory for both researchers and journalists.

  5. Frank W. says:

    From Gravity’s Rainbow (Pynchon)Proverbs for Paranoids:
    1. “You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.”(237)
    2. “The innocence of the creatures is in inverse proportion to the immorality of the Master.” (241)
    3. “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” (251)
    4. “You hide, they seek.” (262)
    5. “Paranoids are not paranoids because they’re paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.”(292)

    Jim Aune’s blog

  6. Mr_Alex says:

    Congrats on Illinois adding PTSD and Autism as qualifying conditions for Medical Cannabis, in New Zealand it is hell trying to get the New Zealand Government to come to the talking table and many Autism Advocacy organizations do not want to touch Cannabis use as in fact there are people on the spectrum in New Zealand who covertly use Cannabis to help with studying and learning and some of them are doing their Bachelors, Doctorates or Masters. The worst thing that can happen is getting caught as New Zealand is very unforgiving when it comes to Cannabis

  7. CJ says:

    TIME OUT. i want to know who the asshole prohibitionist is that keeps coming here down voting things its not that im so sensitive to down votes or what have you as I dont even think ive been down voted personally (watch it happen now) but i would just like whoever is doing this to explain themselves and stop being a coward. Yes, you are being a coward by dissenting without expressing your opinion. If youre a typical prohibitionist though i expect nothing less than cowardly, ignorant, righteous behavior.

  8. Mr_Alex says:

    I see KevKev does not want to touch the Straight Inc closet which is filled with dead bodies, i simply asked him if Project SAM was started with Sembler money that was made from the abuse that happened at Straight Inc, it was total silence from everyone at Project SAM and the question that struck Project SAM’s nerve, what was Project SAM’s and Parents Opposed to Pot and Stop Pot 2016 relationship with Father Cassian Newton aka Virgil Miller Newton who has been exposed as sadistic and abusive, even Mccaffery did not want to touch the questions, i wonder why

    • kaptinemo says:

      As the old saying goes, “Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.”

      And if the dogs are rabid, to boot?

      Kevvie needs more than a change of flea collars, since he consorts with that crew. You are known by the company you keep.

      And don’t forget Jeb Bush. He’s a good buddy of both the Semblers and Kevvie. All peas in a pod of sadistic perversion. You’d have to be sick b@st@rds to do what Straight, Inc. did to helpless kids. And the money from that propelled Sembler’s career, donating it to the Republican Party, thus gaining him access to the high-and-mighty, earning him several ambassador postings to Developed World countries. Which had to know about how he got the money.

      Sending him was both a message and a warning: the US Elite don’t care what the world thinks when we send child torturers to represent the US.

      And the US sent him to our long-time allies in both Oz (G’day to all the good folks in Nimbin!) and Italy. Shameful. Shameful! They deserved much better.

      • Mr_Alex says:

        I am making sure these two articles are going viral as it proves Project SAM was started with money from Betty and Melvin Sembler and it speaks volumes when the Prohibs are confronted about their support or ties to the Drug Free America Foundation formerly Straight Inc, KevKev admitted to working with Betty and Melvin Sembler, that proves he and Project SAM cannot be trusted, I would not be surprised if Melvin Sembler used the money he accumulated from the abuse at Straight Inc and started up Project SAM

        http://www.hightimes.com/read/sabet-bloody-sabet-what-motivation-behind-kevin-sabet%E2%80%99s-fight-against-legal-marijuana

        http://www.substance.com/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-sabet/19316/

      • Mr_Alex says:

        I must have struck a nerve on KevKev as well, I asked him why is some of the stuff he says is the same stuff being said by the abusive Father Cassian Newton aka Virgil Miller Newton who was tied to Straight Inc and KIDS of Bergen County and I asked KevKev what is his relationship to Virgil Miller Newton

      • Mr_Alex says:

        I bet Project SAM will be facing backlash big time if the public finds out some of that money that started Project SAM up was indeed Sembler money that had been accumulated from the abuse at Straight Inc as for KevKev, he has started blocking people on Twitter questioning his ties to Melvin and Betty Sembler along with Virgil Miller Newton and Jeb Bush, also KevKev what you don’t want the public to know when it comes to your ties with the people just mentioned, you are known by the company you keep and it will be only a matter a time that you are working with the child torturers at Straight Inc along with your mate Julie Ann Schauer of Parents Opposed to Pot, don’t worry I have provided information regarding this to the Ohio Cannabis Activism groups who are having a ballot regarding Cannabis. By the way KevKev and Julie Ann Schauer, I really hope your connections to the Semblers, Jeb Bush and Virgil Miller Newton and the abuse at Straight Inc really comes back to bite you, it will be only a matter of time when it catches up

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