Posted on 01/15/2014 9:15:01 PM PST by MeshugeMikey
No one here is advocating that pilots be intoxicated by anything while flying. That is a dishonest straw-man argument.
Cannabis causes mental illness
Cannabis use is now the biggest single cause of serious mental disorders in the UK, a leading expert warned yesterday.
Up to 80 per cent of new patients at many units have a history of smoking the drug, said consultant psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray.
The stark message comes just three weeks before the Government officially downgrades cannabis to Class C, putting it on the same level as growth hormones and prescription painkillers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205447/Cannabis-causes-mental-illness.html#ixzz2qXexlPgJ
The study, out of New Zealand, found that patients who had either an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA; also known as a “mini-stroke”) were over twice as likely to have cannabis in their urine compared to people who did not have a stroke. A stroke happens when blood flow is impaired to part of the brain.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/02/15/pot-linked-risk-stroke
Alan Barber, a professor of clinical neurology at the University of Auckland. “Marijuana is associated with lung disease, heart attacks, and atrial fibrillation,” in which the speed or rhythm of the heartbeat is impaired, Barber told TakePart. “[Marijuana] is also known to constrict down the arteries in the brain. Our study suggests that a lifestyle that includes marijuana is associated with an increased risk for stroke as well.”
If they were good pilots, no I would not. I am perfectly willing to listen to reason-based replies that offer some objective evidence but you are still merely offering straw men, red herrings and other non-substantive responses. Analytical decision making requires more input than opinion and deflection in order to come to sound conclusions.
-— Hey, if what it does to people hasn’t already convinced you, then I guess that’s not enough evidence -—
If you want to criminalize possession of a potentially harmful substance, you have to weigh the evils associated with the substance against the evils associated with criminalization.
Impure drugs, and violence associated with drug trafficking, are evils which result from criminalization.
We know the evils associated with the abuse of pot. But in considering criminalization, we must also consider its effectiveness in diminishing drug abuse.
I don’t want pilots totally smashed on alcohol while flying either, but alcohol remains legal. Why?
Correlation does not prove causation. It should be no surprise that people with mental and emotional problems self-medicate with all manner of intoxicants.
Is that all you have to offer? Straw man arguments? No one is advocating that pilots should be intoxicated on anything or be allowed to be.
“New research continues to reveal the multiple health consequences of smoking cannabis, [yet] there is still a dangerous lack of public awareness of quite how harmful this drug can be,” said Dame Helena Shovelton, BLF chief executive.
“Young people in particular are smoking cannabis unaware that each cannabis cigarette they smoke increases their chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 tobacco cigarettes.” She called for a public health campaign to “dispel the myth that smoking cannabis is somehow a safe pastime”.
The reason why cannabis is more dangerous than tobacco, per cigarette, is thought to be related to the way it is smoked. Cannabis smokers inhale more deeply and hold it longer than tobacco smokers.
Cannabis smoking has been linked with a wide range of respiratory problems, while the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the drug’s psychoactive ingredient – has doubled since the 1990s, according to analysis of samples from police seizures. THC has been linked to an increased heart attack risk and suppression of the immune system.
It is a straw man precisely because no one has suggested that it should be the case. The definition of a straw man is to put up an argument that is false, defeat that argument and conflate that as having made a point. You clearly will not offer anything else so I’ll just leave it there.
Life has risks and choices. Should tobacco be outlawed? Alcohol does literally kill brain cells and cannabis does not so should alcohol be outlawed?
Antiemetic (anti-nausea) use
Early on, THC had been shown to be effective for some patients who suffered nausea from cancer chemotherapy treatments. However, the narrow window between the anti-emetic dose and that which caused unwanted psychic effects made THC difficult to use.3 In some studies, negative side effects occurred in up to 81% of patients.4 In one of the few studies using smoked marijuana, 20% of patients dropped out of the study, while another 22% reported no relief of nausea symptoms.5 The advent of serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonists as new and more powerful anti-emetic drugs that were free of unwanted psychic effects has made cannabinoid use less attractive. For this reason, physicians virtually never prescribe marijuana or THC as an antiemetic for use by chemotherapy patients.6
Multiple sclerosis
Studies have shown that cannabis can relieve muscle pain and spasticity in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis7 and can control tremors in multiple sclerosis animal models.8 However, a study in ten patients with spastic multiple sclerosis showed that smoking marijuana further impaired posture and balance in those patients.9 In addition, MS patients who used marijuana had a greater number of psychiatric diagnoses and a slower mean performance time on standard neurological tests.10 Some randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group crossover trials have found no significant improvement of MS symptoms during cannabis plant extract use. However, in some trials patients did show an increase in aggressive behavior and paranoiac tendencies in a standard psychological test.11 Another placebo-controlled study, examining the effect of a cannabis extract on spasticity in MS, found a positive partial relief of symptoms in 40% of patients.12 A 10-week, placebo-controlled study of MS patients found that 42% withdrew due to lack of efficacy, adverse events and other reasons. Patients reported 292 unwanted effects, of which 251 were mild to moderate, including oral pain, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea. Three patients suffered five serious adverse events, including two seizures, one fall, one aspiration pneumonia, one gastroenteritis. Four patients had first-ever seizures. A minority of patients received some relief of symptoms.13 So, overall, studies show that a minority of multiple sclerosis patients can receive some symptom relief through the use of marijuana extracts or THC, although a significant percentage of patients suffer unwanted adverse effects.
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/medical_marijuana_review.html
“Is alcohol legal for your pilots?”
Not when they are on duty or when they are due to fly. Otherwise a pilot is like any other citizen and can drink alcohol legally.
Is it a good thing the FAA won’t allow it?”
I already said I don’t want pilots smashed on alcohol while flying. Did that not answer this question?
So tell me, why is alcohol legal when we run the risk of our pilots being drunk while flying?
Analgesia (pain relief)
Some clinical studies have indicated that THC has some analgesic activity in patients with cancer.18 However, there is a narrow therapeutic window between doses that produce useful analgesia and those that produce unacceptable central nervous system effects. Several studies have shown improvement of pain at higher doses,19 while others have shown no effect or a negative effect at higher doses compared with placebo.20
Medical marijuana summary
The use of marijuana or cannabis extracts for medical treatment has been extensively studied over the last 20 years. Initial enthusiasm for THC as an antiemetic or to reduce intraocular pressure has waned with the advent of new medications that provide superior medical benefits with fewer adverse effects. The main success of THC has been found in patients suffering from AIDS-related wasting syndrome and in some cases in which patients are suffering from intractable pain. However, nearly all of these studies involved the use of controlled doses of purified cannabinoids, bypassing the adverse effects associated with smoking marijuana. Dr. Robert L. DuPont, Georgetown University School of Medicine, says that most opponents of the medical use of smoked marijuana are not hostile to the medical use of THC, while “most supporters of smoked marijuana are hostile to the use of purified chemicals from marijuana, insisting that only smoked marijuana leaves be used as ‘medicine,’ revealing clearly that their motivation is not scientific medicine but the back door legalization of marijuana.”21
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