Presidential science:Marijuana is dangerous but alcohol is not.
You may remember President Obama promising to listen to science when determining policies. “I’ll change the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology.” he told Computer World.
To the Washington Post he said : “Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources - it’s also about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about letting scientists like those who are here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s
inconvenient - especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda - and that we make scientific decisions based on
facts, not ideology.”
Good stuff…were it true. In reality the President’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowski pronounced marijuana “dangerous” the other day. The President invited his friend Professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. and the police officer that arrested him to the White House for a beer. The drug czar pronounced marijuana “dangerous” but the President thinks it’s OK to drink alcohol, a far more dangerous intoxicant.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the United States, with about 35,000 deaths attributed to its use each year, including hundreds from accidental overdose. The CDC does not report any deaths attributable to the use of marijuana. So much for science.
During the hearings in Congress back in 1937 about making marijuana illegal Congress had heard quite fantastic annecdotal marijuana horror stories from Harry Anslinger and others and convened with the intent of passing a bill prohibiting the drug. The only medical testimony heard was that of a Dr. William C. Woodward. Dr. Woodward was a lawyer and a doctor and he was Chief Counsel to the American Medical Association. Dr. Woodward testified representing the American Medical Association and said: “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug.”
The next quote in the record comes from a Congressman who said: “Doctor, if you can’t say something good about what we are trying to do, why don’t you go home?” Another Congressman said, “Doctor, if you haven’t got something better to say than that, we are sick of hearing you.”
Apparently Obama & Kerlikowski are just continuing in a long-standing tradition of ensuring that “scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda”
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[...] Presidential science:Marijuana is dangerous but alcohol is not. tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.weedplay.com/magazine/presidential-sciencemarijuana-is-dangerous-but-alcohol-is-not.’;tweetmeme_source = ‘weedmaster’; You may remember President Obama promising to listen to science when determining policies. “I’ll change the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology.” he told Computer World. To the Washington Post he said : “Promoting science isn’t just [...] Read more … [...]