Sunday, March 25, 2012

High on life . . .

THE AMERICAN INDEPENDENT proclaims itself tasked with impact journalism in the Public Interest. Scot Kersgaard has a fascinating report, worthy of your attention: "Study: suicide rates fall when states legalize medical marijuana".

A University of Colorado economics professor has co-authored a study, just released by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany, that concludes that suicide rates among young males decline markedly after states legalize medical marijuana.
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They also note that the sale of alcohol to young males declines in states that legalize medical marijuana and note that alcohol is a known depressant the use of which can lead to suicidal thoughts.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately the author of this study seems to be unfamiliar with Nunavut which has high rates of marijuana usage and a suicide rate 17 times the national average.

double nickel said...

Congrats WWU, it's still early, but I predict this is the moronic comment of the day.

Anonymous said...

No Sir, YOU are the moron. Suicide is a very serious topic. I speak of an region of Canada I lived in for a number of years, with which I am very familiar with and I was unfortunate to get to know many people there who were touched by suicide. Perhaps your cute little theories work well in an urban/suburban environment but they go all out the window in the real world.

Yes, suicide is is horrible. But that's just moronic.


Jackass!

double nickel said...

That's a very touching story, however, it has nothing to do with the research in question. Your glib attempt to discredit the study, based on some anecdotal stories about your life in the north is typical of a person who knows nothing about scientific research. I'm sure it fits with all the other anecdotal stories you tell about the "myth" of climate change, the "myth" of evolution etc.

Steve said...

I am with double nickel.

Rev.Paperboy said...

to all of you, remember that correlation is not causation.
When it come to something as complex as suicide, there are a huge number of factors at play, with legal weed an order of magnitude less likely to be a vital factor than access to mental health care, economic and social mobility and opportunity, education, peer group trends, religious background, family dynamics and how the Habs are doing this year.

Anonymous said...

Double Nickel

Anecdotal stories....hardly. It's called real life. And trust me I have more experience dealing with suicide than you will have in 10 life times.

"myth of climate....myth of evolution" Ok, I have no idea why you are even bringing this up......smoke one and go back to sleep.

double nickel said...

@WWU...you're the one who tried to change the subject. Typical con troll trick.

liberal supporter said...

WWU:
Feel free to post any actual facts, other than your assertions. Please provide actual objective data rather than demanding

"trust me".

With your real life knowledge, I'm sure you can answer the following questions:

What percentage of suicides were chronic cannabis users but not alcohol users?

What percentage of suicides were chronic alcohol users but not cannabis users?

What percentage of suicides were chronic users of both?

What percentage of suicides were chronic users of neither?

You can round the numbers but if you can't provide actual numbers (with references please) then you are making stuff up.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Liberal Supporter.....What the hell does it matter? These individuals are dead.

Double Nickel...I"m just saying that the issues behind suicide are much more complex and involve many factors other than whether a person smoked up or not. Suicide is part of the topic and that's what i'm discussing.

"con troll".....nice.

Anonymous said...

Double Nickel...and I've never voted Conservative....I'm not sure what part of that is difficult to understand. Yes, we disagree on this issue but that doesn't mean I'm automatically a Conservative. On many other issues, i actually disagree quite vehemently with Conservatives...religion in schools, the Israel/Palestinian Issue, Canada's role in Afghanistan. Rather than paint me into an ideological corner like Stephen Harper, why don't you look for commonalities. Canada needs civl discussion, not brazen insults.

double nickel said...

The study would seem to cast doubt on your hypothesis that suicides in the north are the result of smoking cannabis.

Anonymous said...

Suicide is the result of many different factors. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert. I can only base it on my own experience and I'm not sure that this study has considered all of the many factors involved in suicide which of course are many.

And, not to be accused of changing the subject here, but please, come to Alberta and help us in this election campaign, lest we wind up with a slew of Wild Rose idiots. ;)

liberal supporter said...

What the hell does it matter? These individuals are dead.
What matters is that when people die, we try to determine causes of death. You just claimed earlier that smoking dope was a major cause of suicides. Now we're just supposed to give up? We should not try to determine if this is in fact the case?

With your attitude we'd still be unable to account for why the guy that drank the hemlock suddenly died soon after. Even my most religious friends don't simply throw up their hands and call it the will of God when someone dies. They will look for causes.

Should we stop putting those poison labels on things that experience shows, kill people? Should we repeal the murder laws because, well just because person A fired a bullet through person B, we shouldn't care why person B died?

Are you going to attempt to back up your assertions, or will you retract them?

Anonymous said...

Ok Liberal Supporter, because you obviously just HAVE to win an arguement, and for the sake of you not freaking out on me, I will retract my arguement. There. Happy?

PS - Seeing as the Liberals will likely get slaughtered here in the upcoming Alberta election I figured you could use a break.

Any Nunavut government or federal government website will tell you the figures on suicide. It's not difficult to find.

liberal supporter said...

Any Nunavut government or federal government website will tell you the figures on suicide. It's not difficult to find.
But you're too lazy to do it yourself to back up your statement. Why should I do your research for you?

Thanks for conceding though.

Anonymous said...

Why the hell would I want the reminder? You asked me if I had figures and I told you where you could find them.