Linkfest: Avocados, Peanut Butter and Pot Good for You

You can reference weed on the BPP? Man, I totally took the wrong approach with my "Fields of Gold" rewrite last month . . .

And Mr. Kuncinich appears to be testing Alison's lukewarm journalistic support. Come over to the Dark side Alison! You can't fight it any longer! Even the McClatchy Newspapers is on record for calling Rep. Kuncinich a "peacenik munchkin."

Sent by Will G | 3:02 PM | 11-7-2007

Is it just my iTunes problem or are we podcastless today?

Sent by Maura | 3:43 PM | 11-7-2007

Ba-bong! It's another weed story. And the link was posted by 'MJ'. Sweet. And the pot story is followed up by peanut butter... awesomeness.

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/161/11/1042

"Compared with abstainers, they are more socially driven and do not seem to have psychosocial problems at a higher rate."

Maybe things are different in Switzerland, or maybe it's just a fluke of the people I've met. But out of the people I've known there is a higher percentage of some type of psychologicial issue in those who smoke (fairly often, regularly - not once/twice experimenters) as opposed to a lower percentage in those who don't. It's by far usually the case that the psych problem preceeded the drug use.

And in terms of socializing, the people I knew in high school who did smoke (fairly often, regularly - not once/twice experimenters) marijuana could really only socialize well with other drug users. So in general, they were socially stunted in their own way.

I didn't smoke pot in high school. But out of the people I've met who did start smoking in their teens, they've typically shown a sharper decrease in enjoyment with marijuana over the years. On average the people I've met who started smoking younger say they quit becuase they started to get paranoid, or just at general unease.

People who start smoking after their teens, typically enjoy their hobby for a greater stretch, and get more out of it too - developing deeper highs, and are more successful at using highs to develop creative and intellectual persuits.

These are just averages, and just averages of people I've come across. And also in Switzerland, the teen years have a different dynamic as school is only manditory up to age 16 and most go into vocational training afterwards. So teens and young adults in different societies might approach drugs in different ways. The study is probably a little off, but not totally askew.

In the same issue of _ Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine_ is the article "Prevalence of Positive Substance Abuse Screen Results Among Adolescent Primary Care Patients". The study was led by John R. Knight, MD, Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research; the study was executed in New England.

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/161/11/1035

The study uses a drug abuse screening process called CRAFFT. 2 of the CRAFFT questions are really wonky:

"Do you ever use alcohol or drugs to RELAX, feel better about yourself, or fit in?"

Fit it... that's bad. But medicinal marijuana is prescribed to many individuals to help them relax, and help balance their thinking, so they can feel better about themselves. This study was made for teens, and teens under 18 arent typically going to have access to medicinal marijuana programs, but still the concept is the same and its a bad question.

"Do you ever use alcohol or drugs while you are by yourself, ALONE?"

I typically agree that one shouldn't drink alone in most cases. But smoking marijuana alone is fairly common for people who are medicating. (Doing any type of medication alone is usually the standard.) Or what if you want to smoke pot and do a freestyle painting, or write, or some such solo activity? "Do you only smoke alone?" - that would be a better question. But ever smoke alone - that doesn't mean anything one way or another.

It's only 2 bad questions, but there's only 5 questions on that test, and saying yes to 2 (or more) "is highly correlated with having a substance related diagnosis and the need for substance abuse treatment".

In general, most people (aside from experimenting, or rare use) don't do marijuana. So it's not completely out of the question to wonder what's up with someone who does. Sometimes there is a drug problem at play; unwise toking. But sometimes in an indicator of nothing, and sometimes its an indicator of a preceeding problem the pot can tame.

Oh, and cashew butter is rad too.

Sent by Brian | 2:43 AM | 11-8-2007