Sunday, December 13, 2009

HA Seattle


After being to HempFest this year I rased concern that kids ought not to be there amidst the clouds of pot smoke. Several times, I asked Lee, our local pot fanatic,  if he planned to do anything to protect children by banning kids from the next Hempfest.

After ignoring my questions, he finally answered .....

"@42Lee

You keep bringing this up and I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. I was at Hempfest for over 4 hours this past summer. I walked from one end of the park to the other and I did not come in contact with any marijuana smoke at all, let alone enough that would constitute a health risk for a child."

I replied


"I think this says it all.

BTW, if you go to my post at SJ, there are a lot of pix of folks smoking pot. I must say people were also rather generous about passing joints around. If you had a problme scoring a joint, maybe they took you for a cop?"

So far, no answer from the self righteous one.
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4 comments:

John said...

What exactly are you worried is going to happen to the kids? That they see canabis being smoked and realize the sky is not falling?

Have you ever been to a wedding? Do you see how a powerful drug called alcohol is consumed freely and is actually a part of the service?

If you don't want your kids to see canabis, don't take them to Hempfest. If you don't want them to see people drink alcohol, stay away from weddings.

SM Schwartz said...

Hi John,

Thanks for the post.

First, to get one issue aside, I have no problem with legalizing marijuana.

Let me make three points:

1. Smoking marijuana is not the same as ingesting it in other ways. The active ingredient in MJ, THC, is pretty harmless for adults ... certainly not as harmful as LOTS of legal things ... alcohol Nyquil, chocolate bars, etc.

2. Marijuana smokes has a very high content of carcinogens. These tars are known to cause cancer when delivered in other ways .. e.g. in cigarette smoke. The probability that mj SMOKE causes cancer is very high. Even though the level of that risk is not known, exposing children to any risk is wrong.

3. Children are not adults. Being at a party with drunken (or high) adults may be OK. Being in an offcie with caffeine loaded adults is OK too .. I guess. BUT at hempfest kids do inhale THC. That makes no more sense than forcing kids at a wedding to drink rum. (I have seen that too.)

Hope this helps clarify the issues. Persoanlly, I enjoyed HF and will go again.

=============

2.

John said...

I think the problem is; in order to control cannabis it must first be removed from the black market and regulated. The nature of a free speech event means that the organizers may not place restrictions on who may enter a public park. Therefore, children may not be restricted.

Appropriate areas for the consumption of cannabis may solve the problem but, because of the legal status of the plant, the organizers may not declare areas where it is appropriate. It is not legal anywhere in the park. Therefore, until laws change, children can not be completely separated from cannabis smoke. The law of unintended consequences due to trying to legislate morality.

I will say two things: Firstly, the same is true at any festival with cigarettes a substance that is proven to cause cancer due to second hand exposure. Secondly, cannabis has not been proven to cause any risk of cancer. Most of the actual science suggests that it does not. Current laws allow for little scientific research that follows any scientific protocol.

SM Schwartz said...

1. I see little reason to control cannabis at least no more than tobacco. The problem is, having illegalized the stuff, how to untangle a mess of prudoscience.

2. Free speech and orhanizers restricting access for children to any event is not an issue.

3. Yep. cigarettes smokign is a problem and should be kept from kids.

4. No, the evidence for SMOKED MJ being carcinogenic is about the same as it was for tobacco before the extensive studies to prove what was already very likely. Tobacco smoke and MJ smoke both contain proven carcinogens.

There is a study which seems to show a lack of the predicted effect and if that were validated, it would merit a lot of work.

5. There is nor real evidence that would justify research in cannabis cpds. If there were, there is no impediment to do that. If anything, some drug co. would be certain to use a method called combinatorial chemistry to create effective drugs from the natural cpds.

BTW chocolate has effects closely related to MJ.

Bottom line.

If you wanna use pot, it is safer not to smoke it. If you want mj for medical reasons, THC taken w/o the tars is likely to do the same things at no risk.