Worcesters favorite mustachioed super hero has taken his side show on the road. First stop The Berkshires! Ellen G. Lahr, reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, was kind enough to sit in as Breaults away team straight man for this interview and did she shine. But, as we must do in a day and age when newspapers lack funding for fact checkers, let’s pull out the red pen together and clean up Bills mistakes for the Eagle staff.
He said the decriminalization effort is at sharp odds with evidence that marijuana use, particularly among teens, carries more health risks than it did years ago, when the drug had less concentrations of THC, the main psychoactive component of pot.
What Billy means to say is, according to US Government research THC toxicity in humans would require consumption of 1500 pounds in under 15 minutes. In other words, the artificial sweetener you used in your coffee this morning still poses much greater health risks than Marijuana.
Breault said that in his Worcester neighborhood, he’s seen people robbed, injured and killed over marijuana, and with decriminalization, those problems could escalate.
What Billy means here is, he’s full of shit. He’s trying the best he can to make sense of a world that is simply far too confusing for him. What Billy sees in his neighborhood is people robbed, injured, and killed over money. Marijuana is a mostly worthless plant. It can be grown pretty much anywhere on earth with even the poorest of soil conditions. You could throw seeds into just about any urban alleyway and see successful germination. It’s really quite amazing and should make marijuana no more valuable than heirloom tomatoes. Because prohibition has led to increased risk in trafficking, marijuana has increased in value artificially as a commodity. Its value is determined by availability. We’re not just talking about price here. Prices of marijuana are actually relatively low. Its overall risk (imprisonment, loss of employment and asset forfeiture) that raises value as a commodity when prohibition is figured in. If criminal penalties for marijuana are removed for simple possession of under an once, Billy looses one of his best lies to throw around; that drugs and violence are forever married, when history has shown us it is prohibition and violence which can’t be separated.
Marijuana use cited in emergency room admissions is on the rise nationally, Breault said.
This is where Bills ignorance shines. If you go to an ER with an overdose, you’re asked what drugs you use and are using. Since marijuana use is so prevalent, of course more people report using it. But it’s not the reason they’re in the ER. This is one of those lines of reasoning you have to be a total douchbag to fall into. There are no marijuana overdoses, or even medical emergencies, period.
And contrary to what the Boston group states, he claimed that few, if any, inmates in the state’s jails are sent there for minor marijuana possession alone; in local courts, it’s not uncommon for first-time possession offenders to receive an eventual dismissal of the charges, with no criminal record resulting.
This red herring is either evidence that Bill may not be a complete moron, or he’s such a moron he can’t follow his own bull shit anymore. If we do in-fact have a system where simple possession results in dismissal, why wouldn’t that be cause enough for decriminalization? Do we simply enjoy wasting money on arrests and court proceedings?
The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that THC increases the heart rate.
I just finished my second cup of coffee and can actually see my heart beating against my chest wall. Can’t remember a single time where smoking weed has resulted in a rapid heart rate, your millage may vary. If this is a sign of the desperation the prohibition crowd is feeling, the Committee for a Sensible Marijuana Policy should be proud.
A recent Yale University study also showed that THC administered to 150 health volunteers led to psychotic symptoms in 50 percent of them.
Sort of. First of all, this study is over a year old. Maybe news just travels slowly to the Berkshires. The important factor of this research is the involvement of schizophrenics. The Yale folks were trying to judge the effects of marijuana on schizophrenics whose symptoms were controlled. The “psychotic symptoms” reported were hallucinations and paranoia. This is where medicine and the real world start the diverge briefly. For a sober person to experience hallucinations and unprovoked paranoia you have “psychotic symptoms”. If a marijuana smoker experiences hallucinations and paranoia, you simply have a person who should be smoking indicas as opposed to sativas or at the very least an indica dominate hybrid. So parents, don’t worry about your kids going psychotic, they already know this.
Capeless said his overriding concern is that the ballot measure “sends the wrong message to kids,” who in general have been reporting less marijuana use in recent years.
Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless is a dick. You know what really sends the wrong message to kids, Dave? Asset forfeiture and using them as tools to snitch on their parents. Fuck you.
Big thank you to a certain Taxi Guy for bringing this Eagle story to our attention.
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