# Bad news about pot from USA Weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332 "2005-09-19T06:37:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/21 "2005-09-19T16:22:22Z")
> [@Erinaceus europaeus](#): > > I know some people that came close. They were **not** moderate users. Let’s just say it’s not going make you a very productive member of society 🙂 > > That’s completely ridiculous. 50 joints a day would basically mean you’d be smoking **constantly**. Not necessarily. [There’s always time for a little flavor in your ear.](http://www.blueballs.ch/img/news/George_Clinton.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/22 "2005-09-19T16:32:11Z")
I think the only source of government-approved marijuana is a farm in Mississippi and perhaps that’s what’s being used in the study. I read an article about medical marijuana where someone who had a government prescription complained of the poor quality of the product. So perhaps it’s much weaker than anything commercially available. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/23 "2005-09-19T17:26:34Z")
Wow. Imagine being paid by the US Government to smoke 50 joints a day of Uncle Sam’s legendary genetically engineered goodness. Somehow, my high school guidance counselor failed to mention this career path. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/24 "2005-09-19T17:27:41Z")
Here’s a quote from Scientific American of December 2004 on the issue of government-issued marijuana: > [@](#): > > Any researcher attempting to study marijuana must obtain it through the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ). The U.S. research crop, grown at a single facility, is regarded as less potent–and therefore less medicinally interesting–than the marijuana often easily available on the street. Thus, the legal supply is a poor vehicle for studying the approximately 60 cannabinoids that might have medical applications. And here’s a statement from an ACLU webpage, quoting someone who was given medical marijuana as part of a study: > [@Phillip T. Alden](#): > > I participated in a recent study testing the effects of the medical use of marijuana on AIDS and cancer patients. As a study participant, I used the marijuana supplied to the researchers by the federal government. The quality of the marijuana, which included stems and seeds, was low to begin with and rolled in cigarette paper. It tasted awful and often gave me a headache. In addition, the federal government freeze-dried the marijuana it sent to the study, further destroying the few THC crystals – the active ingredient in marijuana – that remained ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/25 "2005-09-19T18:01:41Z")
Let’s see - 50 joints per day…getting up at 8 am, going to sleep at 10 pm…awake for 14 hours…smoking a joint every 20 minutes…42 joints…not counting time for eating, brushing teeth, trying to do anything else…finding time to smoke the other 8 joints…7 days a week… I think I have some questions about the methodology here. I know a guy named Ernie, who has friends who are stoned all day every day, and they don’t come near this level of use. He knows people who smoke several joints in a day, sometimes three or four, sometimes more. They’re pretty heavy users. But 50??? Every day??? This data doesn’t make sense. I also had no luck finding the original cite in the on line journal, Neurology. I think I believe some people did some looking at brain blood flow in heavy users, and found some differences between them and non-smokers. OK. We’ve got a way to go before this study gets accepted into the cannon of medically sound advice. 50. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/26 "2005-09-19T18:25:57Z")
It helps to put a question in the OP in this forum. Otherwise it might be mistaken for fodder for another forum. I’ll assume the question here is “Is this study likely to be valid and useful?” bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/27 "2005-09-19T19:08:00Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Let’s see - 50 joints per day…getting up at 8 am, going to sleep at 10 pm…awake for 14 hours…smoking a joint every 20 minutes…42 joints…not counting time for eating, brushing teeth, trying to do anything else…finding time to smoke the other 8 joints…7 days a week… I think I have some questions about the methodology here. I know a guy named Ernie, who has friends who are stoned all day every day, and they don’t come near this level of use. He knows people who smoke several joints in a day, sometimes three or four, sometimes more. They’re pretty heavy users. But 50??? Every day??? This data doesn’t make sense. Plus these survey people must be independently wealthy, what with plowing through 4 ounces of weed per month, at roughly $350-$400 per ounce, with no free time to actually perform any sort of work to cover their expenses. Or maybe they’re paid handsomely by the survey. I’d like to see that Craigslist posting. “Salary commensurate upon experience…” ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/28 "2005-09-19T19:34:37Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > It helps to put a question in the OP in this forum. Otherwise it might be mistaken for fodder for another forum. I’ll assume the question here is “Is this study likely to be valid and useful?” > > bibliophage > moderator GQ …and let’s go ahead and assume the answer here is “not bloody likely.” ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/29 "2005-09-19T19:45:42Z")
Ye gods, there is only so much pot you can smoke in a day before it makes you unable to resist going to bed for about 14 hours, or throw up, or both. I can’t imagine how stoned you would be if you tried to adhere to that schedule. I certainly couldn’t do it. Barring extremely unusual usage patterns, I don’t think most pot smokers set out to get as ripped as possible and stay that way. It would be insane, not to mention prohibitively expensive, to even try. And you’d never get anything done. Who wants to be incapacitated all day, every day? Nobody I know, or have ever known, and I have known _a lot_ of pot smokers. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/30 "2005-09-19T20:59:11Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Wait - what? > > :eek: > Does that sound obscene to anyone else? 70 joints, all by yourself? That’s 10 joints a day, every day. 350? Unfathomable! That would last …uh…my freind…literally 10 years - considering…she…doesn’t even smoke every weekend. Do lots of people really smoke this much pot? No, the people who smoke that much are a vanishingly small portion of the population. I am an every day smoker and I don’t go through even close to that. A heavy smoker will blow through about an ounce a week, maybe a little more. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/31 "2005-09-19T21:00:46Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > Plus these survey people must be independently wealthy, what with plowing through 4 ounces of weed per month, at roughly $350-$400 per ounce, with no free time to actually perform any sort of work to cover their expenses. Yikes, $400 an ounce? It better be spectacular at that price. I think you will find the average price in the NE US about half that. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/32 "2005-09-19T21:31:44Z")
Hmmm. Could this be one of those hired-propaganda thingies this administration is known for surreptitiously planting? ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/33 "2005-09-19T22:00:14Z")
70 a week, 350 a week. Funny, they’re both divisible by 7 and 10. Slip a decimal and make a multiplication error… 1 joint a day would be 7 a week or 70 in 10 weeks, and might be called moderate. 5 joints a day would be 35 a week or 350 in 10 weeks, and might be called heavy. Anyway, somebody didn’t do their reality checks. I’m not going to do it, but I’d love to see someone contact whoever reported this (and their editor) and ask for specific milligrams per day from the original report–hey, get a copy of the original report. Who were the subjects of the experiment, anyway? What sane person would agree to smoke 50 joints a day for a week or more? And don’t tell me potheads, some might agree, but the experimenter would have to supervise them the whole time to make sure all 50 got smoked each day. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/34 "2005-09-19T23:03:46Z")
ummmmm. what was I going to say? what? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/35 "2005-09-19T23:41:26Z")
> [@Bongmaster](#): > > Yikes, $400 an ounce? It better be spectacular at that price. I think you will find the average price in the NE US about half that. Humboldt brick, San Francisco prices. According to my…uh…Google search. Yep. Google search. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/36 "2005-09-20T02:02:37Z")
> [@MaryEFoo](#): > > …hey, get a copy of the original report. The paper is found [here](http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/full/64/3/488?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=MARIJUANA&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1127182301905_7895&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=neurology). Anyone wanna pony up $20 to read it? You can read the [abstract](http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/3/488?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=MARIJUANA&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1127182301905_7895&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=neurology), for a rough outline. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/37 "2005-09-20T02:45:52Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > The paper is found [here](http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/full/64/3/488?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=MARIJUANA&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1127182301905_7895&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=neurology). Anyone wanna pony up $20 to read it? > > You can read the [abstract](http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/3/488?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=MARIJUANA&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1127182301905_7895&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=neurology), for a rough outline. Google Scholar found it in a few more locations. I’m not sure if I can access this because I’m on the universities VPN or if it’s free but [here’s a link](http://www.csdp.org/research/488.pdf). (pdf) (e-mail me otherwise) Here’s the joint/blunt numbers: > [@](#): > > a blunt (cigar-size marijuana smoking material) was equal to four joints (small diameter cigarette-size smoking material). The light group smoked 11.0 +/- 3.5 joints per week (n = 11; range 2.2 to 15.0). The moderate group smoked the equivalent of 43.7 +/- 16.4 joints per week (n = 23; range 17 to 70). The heavy group smoked the equivalent of 130.8 +/- 73.0 joints per week (n = 20; range 78 to 350). ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/38 "2005-09-20T02:55:29Z")
Linky no worky. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/39 "2005-09-20T02:56:04Z")
Of course pot smokers could never be convinced it was bad, even if it is. Because, simply, they enjoy doing it. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332/40 "2005-09-20T06:21:10Z")
- Originally posted by jimpatro\* > [@](#): > > Of course pot smokers could never be convinced it was bad, even if it is. Because, simply, they enjoy doing it. In that connection I remember an item from _Prevalence of Nonsense,_ a book published in 1970 and written by Ashley Montagu and Edward Darling. They told about someone to started drinking gasoline. (Imagine!) He decided he liked it; this continued until the orthocresyl phosphate started softening his bones. It took a while for him to recover. Montagu and Darlking ended the articvle with “True, he liked it. But the gasoline wasn’t good for him.” And Isaac Asimov once mentioned a compound calld the sugar of lead. It’s sweet, all right, but it’s a deadly poison as well. Point: Just because you like it doesn’t override the risk you take–a point I would apply to tobacco too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-about-pot-from-usa-weekend/322332.md?page=3)