Dear Science,
My body has been up to some strange things lately. After I quit taking the pill (I’d been taking Ortho Cyclen on and off for about eight years), my period stopped. No surprises there, as this had happened to me before. But it hasn’t started again (it’s been eight months!). I’m definitely not pregnant. I am well nourished, exercise moderately, and have a healthy BMI. When I asked my parents (a doctor and a nurse) what’s going on, they told me that the medical literature shows that marijuana disrupts female sex hormones (I’m an almost-daily smoker). This sounded highly unlikely, but I have had other symptoms that would seem indicative of a hormonal imbalance: My skin is worse than it’s been since high school and my body hair seems thicker and longer. I can’t afford to see an endocrinologist. Please help!
Wasn’t Expecting Endocrine Disruption
Science first must perseverate one more time on this point: It’s a national embarrassment that the United States does not have a universal single-payer health-care system. WEED, see a doctor; become Canadian if necessary. Your fearful correspondent cannot provide anything even resembling medical advice via a Stranger column.
The human reproductive system, particularly in women, is objectively absurd. To wit, how periods happen: At the end of your last period, estrogen and progesterone (sex hormones, most of which are slightly mangled cholesterol) levels are delightfully low. A little nubbin of tissue attached to your brain (the pituitary, if you must know), not feeling any estrogen, starts pumping out follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). The FSH causes your ovaries to start maturing little follicles, so that each produces some estrogen—with one follicle becoming the true master of the ovaries that month. When estrogen levels get high enough, the pituitary stops making FSH (too much estrogen, it says) and zaps out a burst of luteinizing hormone (LH). The LH causes the big kahuna follicle to burst—squirting the egg into the abdomen—and start producing progesterone. Soon, there is more progesterone than estrogen. Everyone waits around for some sperm. If no sperm comes along to fertilize the egg (and signal the joyous event to the now aged follicle with yet another hormone), the follicle dies off, progesterone and estrogen levels drop precipitously, and you have a period. Repeat until you hit 52 (or so).
A problem anywhere along this complicated chain results in you without a period. Pot has been shown in some animal and human studies to muck up LH production. (Recall: No LH means no follicle bursting, no progesterone production, and, therefore, no period.) Still, with so many things that can possibly go wrong, dozens of other factors could be stopping your periods. See a doctor, even if it bankrupts you. It’s the American way.
Hormonally Yours,
Science
Send your science questions to
dearscience@thestranger.com.
Oh I have an idea…. pay for medical insurance yourself. If you put Cable TV, Cell Phone, a car valued over $5k, and daily pot smoking, ahead of paying for health insurance, then you are not taking your own health seriously. Why should our tax dollars subsidize your lifestyle? I was out of work for 6 months. I got a high-deductible plan and paid for my own checkups. How about you do the same?
The embarrassment is that people think they should not have to plan for their own healthcare. For those so destitute that they *truly* can’t pay, then a Medicare-type plan can cover them. But don’t expect the same quality of care you get when you pay for your own. Like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Want a better car? Want a better house? Want better clothes? Get a better education and get a better job.
There are lots of places that charge a sliding scale fee, WEED. You can always try the 45th Street Clinic or Country Doctor to begin with. Who knows? It might be something pretty straightforward that a cheap generic pill will cure.
Good luck!
@tough love: i must’ve missed the part about WEED having cable tv, cell phone (which is honestly just a phone these days, can be had very cheaply and is really a necessity for having a job, friends, etc), or a car over $5k. while i do have a cell phone, i have lived MY ENTIRE LIFE without any of the others, which means it is very possible that WEED does as well. and it’s quite possible that she grows her own or has a solid hook-up that gets her her pot cheap. so good for you and your expensive insurance plan. just don’t go around making assumptions about what “destitute” means to other people.
If you can’t go to a doc, then why not cut out (or waaaaaaay down)on the pot for a couple months and see if things improve? I enjoy a toke from time to time as well, so I’m not judging here… but if you are unable to go without weed, even temporarily, then I’d suggest that’s an additional problem, over and above the possible hormonal imbalance.
@1 Great advice on getting a better education so you can get a better job. Y’know, because college educations are totally free and everyone with a degree has a job right now.
Stop being such a pompous, selfish asshole and try looking beyond your comfort bubble. I live in a country with universal healthcare that (surprise!) happens to have the longest life expectancy in the world, and I’m happy as hell to pay my completely reasonable premiums knowing that 1) I get world-class health care for myself; and 2) my money is being put to use helping to take care of the elderly and less fortunate.
The symptoms could also indicate PCOS.
http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/po…
So, yeah, get thee to a doctor if you can, a gynocologist should be able to tell you if you have ovarian cysts I’d think.
PCOS also plays havoc with your insulin resistance, have the gyn check your blood sugars too.
This link is easier to read:
http://mayoclinic.com/health/polycystic-…
Also, if you are too hard up for a doctor, you can try spearmint tea and stopping smoking pot for a bit. Spearmint tea lowers the levels of androgen in your blood, and should reduce the acne and hairyness problems.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/spearmint…
PCOS is very common, lots of women have it; and there should be plenty of web support forums for you to ask questions of.
Oh, and most insurance plans treat gyns as primary care providers for women, you shouldn’t need a referral and should be able to pay the regular co-pay, if you have basic insurance.
If you find a doc with a sliding fee, or just scrimp and save till you get $150 for that initial appointment, be sure to tell the doctor you have no insurance. When you do this and you need medication, most doctors will give you extra free samples of whatever the drug companies are trying to push that week – or they will prescribe something that is more affordable for you. Even if the doctor prescribes something expensive you can ask the pharmacist for a generic version (if one is available.)
But you should also draw up a budget and see if there is some way you can afford health insurance by reducing other expenses. Maybe you can’t, but at least try. If you don’t take care of yourself you could end up in the ER, and you don’t want that.
“Everyone waits around for some sperm.” Brilliant.
TokyoHenjin – Education is available for those who WANT to make it happen. Loans, grants, etc are available. One can WORK full time and go to school at night. College, eduction and success isn’t defined as going to an expensive university full time, paying top dollar, sitting in a coffee shop and debating other pretentious assholes. God forbid people should work hard, forgo their need for immediate for fun and satisfaction and invest in their future. Stop smoking weed daily. Stop hanging out watching The Daily Show. They can pick up a book. They can take a class at a time. They can MAKE AN EFFORT that will result in a better future. Don’t look to me to pay more taxes because they can’t be bothered to make an effort. Education is defined as learning something you don’t know. So let them learn something that they can leverage into a full time job. If I’m an asshole because I have don’t tolorate those who don’t try, so be it. I support public assistance those who can’t work due to disability. I see too many people who are fully capable but just don’t want to make the effort.
Pot is not stopping your periods. PCOS is most likely stopping your periods. It’s a chronic thing that you probably always had. You sound exactly like my story (minus the pot) four years ago. PCOS and birth control are not a good combination if you ever plan on having kids, in spite of docs prescribing it to treat the symptoms. Get screened for polycystic ovarian syndrome and/or endometriosis now. Incidentally, is there type 2 diabetes in your family? That shows a high correlation with PCOS. PCOS is the second leading cause of infertility, and there is evidence that long-term fertility is lowered if you have PCOS and take birth control. There’s similar evidence showing correlation between post-BC amenorrhea and PCOS. It’s treatable, but you want to find out now so your practicioner can avoid the wrong treatments. I’d advise you go see an ob/gyn who also treats infertility; they will have more than a passing familiarity with such cases. College women’s clinics are useless in my experience; there’s no awareness or concern for future fertility whatsoever.
Other signs of PCOS (these are dampened by birth control, so think back to before you took the pill) Irregularity, bad period cramps, ovulation cramps (two weeks before you get your period) extra/new body hair, adult acne. If you have three of the four criteria (you do, adult acne, hair, and amenorrhea) that is enough evidence in conjunction with normal hormone levels (get them screened) to diagnose for PCOS. (the major hormones that are out of balance are undetectible at the levels necessary using current tests) Also if they look at your ovaries (using ultrasound) and see cysts, you have PCOS. best of luck to you.
To my knowledge, the only things weed does to the reproductive system affects guys: It makes sperm use up their stored burst of energy too early and burn out. There’s also evidence that long-term use of ganja will lower overall sperm production, but sertoli cells are perky little guys and any dude who goes clean for a couple months will clear up the problem.
Thanks for all the advice, guys. I will make it to an OB/GYN one way or another.
@tough love – this was not a whiny plea for others to pick up my health care tab. I was simply trying to gauge the potential seriousness of the problem before shelling out for a doctor’s visit deemed unnecessary by people I trust.
I am a recent college graduate with a car valued at less than 1 k, ultra-cheap cell phone plan, and no TV at all, let alone cable. I graduated magna cum laude with the highest GPA in my major. I haven’t bought health insurance because my education got me months of unemployment followed by a restaurant job where I work with high-schoolers. Don’t get me wrong – I’m extremely grateful to be employed – but I’m not exactly rolling in the dough.
I smoke because I enjoy it, and because it helps to relieve the pain from a chronic arthritic condition. I spend an average of 50 dollars a month on pot – I do smoke daily, but in very small amounts. It’s far cheaper and less dangerous than prescription painkillers.
And by the by – I would be happy, nay, ELATED, to pay higher taxes if my money went to health care and education, even if it was for lazy saps who couldn’t be bothered. What does rankle me is seeing a huge proportion of my hard-earned wages being used to buy shiny new military equipment while veterans rot on the streets…
@1 you’re a jerk. Paying for your own insurance is great if you have the cash AND IF THEY’LL GIVE IT TO YOU! I had the misfortune of breaking two bones last year and now I’m rejected left and right for that horrible high-deductible insurance you say everyone should get because of a history of multiple fractures. It don’t matter that I’m well educated, exercise daily, am very healthy. I’m just screwed because I’m self employed. What else should I try @1?
It’s far cheaper and less dangerous than prescription painkillers.
Cheaper? Maybe. You might, however, want to reconsider your claim that marijuana is less dangerous than prescription painkillers . . . unless, of course, you don’t consider inhaling carcinogens and losing IQ points to be “dangerous”.
I’m glad other people mentioned the possibility of PCOS. The symptoms sound exactly like that, and a lot of women don’t even notice that there’s anything wrong them until later in life when they come off birth control.
Other people suggested websites, but I would also suggest http://www.PCOSupport.org It’s an informative website, with support resources and doctor information.
“Losing IQ points”?
Where in the fuck do you get that? The literature is replete with attempts and failures to demonstrate just that effect.
@ tough love – I went to an expensive college full time, paid my own way. Then I went and got my master’s degree. I made my effort. Now I teach at a local community college, contributing back to the whole education thing. My college (like most community colleges) doesn’t provide health insurance for adjunct instructors – and my college relies heavily on adjunct instructors. It’s not always a matter of being able to afford health insurance, sometimes it’s simply not available. Thankfully my partner has health insurance that covers my preexisting condition – diabetes that I’ve had for 20 years.
@BrainDoc:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content…
There have also been a number of studies (Peter Fried’s is the one that comes to mind offhand) demonstrating that heavy users suffered from lowered cognitive performance and general lack of motivation while they were using. However, these same studies suggested that those effects were reversible after use was discontinued (although it seems the jury’s out on that one, as can be seen from the article linked above).
Either way, however, it seems pretty indisputable that an “almost-daily smoker” is very likely to be slower on the uptake than she would be without the weed. Even if her IQ recovers once she’s stopped using, so long as she is using, she’s handicapping herself.
And that aside, there’s still the whole “inhaling carcinogens” issue.
So, um, where did you say you got your brain doctorate again?
Yes, pot is safer than a lot of other recreational psychoactive substances (probably including alcohol, assuming comparable levels of usage). However, while this fact may be relevant to question of whether or not pot should be legalized, it is totally irrelevant to the question of whether or not it’s a good idea to smoke up every day.
If someone wrote in to “Dear Science” and wondered if eating a stick of butter every day was giving her health problems, nobody here would be falling over themselves to point out that it would be so much worse if she were eating a tub of margarine every day instead. The general consensus would be “Dude, moderation in all things, go easy on the fucking butter.”
So yeah. I don’t mean to be a narc or anything, but WEED needs to go easy on the fucking pot.
[I don’t know exactly what sort of her arthritis she has (probably some form of rheumatoid arthritis, if she’s still in her early twenties), but it’s likely that simply dulling the pain (with pot or painkillers) really isn’t the best course of action. There are a lot of new and promising treatment options, and arthritis is a degenerative disease – it’s only going to get worse if she leaves it alone.]
Yes, pot is safer than a lot of other recreational psychoactive substances (probably including alcohol, assuming comparable levels of usage). However, while this fact may be relevant to question of whether or not pot should be legalized, it is totally irrelevant to the question of whether or not it’s a good idea to smoke up every day.
If someone wrote in to “Dear Science” and wondered if eating a stick of butter every day was giving her health problems, nobody here would be falling over themselves to point out that it would be so much worse if she were eating a tub of margarine every day instead. The general consensus would be “Dude, moderation in all things, go easy on the fucking butter.”
So yeah. I don’t mean to be a narc or anything, but WEED needs to go easy on the fucking pot.
[I don’t know exactly what sort of her arthritis she has (probably some form of rheumatoid arthritis, if she’s still in her early twenties), but it’s likely that simply dulling the pain (with pot or painkillers) really isn’t the best course of action. There are a lot of new and promising treatment options, and arthritis is a degenerative disease – it’s only going to get worse if she leaves it alone.]
Goddamnit, double post. Sorry.
Doctor’s appointment next week; hopefully I’ll get some answers.
@echizen_kurage: did you read the part about me graduating with honors at the top of my major? During college I worked, volunteered, conducted original research and was on the president’s list every quarter. Now I work, practice yoga, volunteer, paint, play music with friends and enjoy a full and intellectually stimulating life. Does it sound to you as if I’m ‘handicapped’ by drug use?
I’m not claiming that smoking pot has no ill effects – far from it – but most people have at least one vice, and I think this one’s relatively benign.
Finally, I challenge you to a public battle of wits – a debate, trivia contest, freestyle rap competition, whatever you want – and then we’ll see, definitively, which of us is “slow on the uptake”.
Oh, and I don’t have rheumatoid arthritis. It’s an irreversible condition (Freiberg’s disease) that I’ve already had (only semi-successful) surgery for.
i have head consistently for years now that pot makes you grow hair in areas where you did not previously grow it. i have never smoked it with enough regularity to verify this personally, but hormones dictate just about everything about your hair, so … could be.
Hi,
Sorry I just had to comment on the first poster. I am Australian. We have universal free healthcare. Without it, both my mother and i would have died, both of us needing operations at sometime in our lives for life-threatening problems – mine being a very high-tech operation for a congentital heart defect.
FREE HEALTHCARE IS NOT A PRIVELEGE, IT IS A RIGHT! Especially in Western countries where we pay taxes, partl so that we CAN take care of the weaker members of society. Healthcare and education should NOT be provided on a user-pays basis for necessary services. Forgive me, but the American model absolutely sucks, and you guys are being totally sold short. In this sense, you are truly undemocratic.
Thankyou! lol I’m Australian too, and I couldn’t beleive the shite that stuck up bitch was spewing. She thinks she’s better than others for paying her insurance?
Stop ridiculing people – your whole system is fucked up, you arrogant mole.
And further – you know what – I don’t care if some of my taxes go to paying for someone who is ‘too lazy to get a job and pay for themselves’ (my papaphrasing) because I’m sure that most of it actually goes where its supposed to, that’s why Australia doesn’t have people going bankrupt because they had the misfortune to get sick. Toughlove, I hope the rest of your life is perfect. I hope that your husband/wife never walks out on you leaving you with the children and no other income stream. I hope your elderly parents pass away in their sleep, bypassing dementia and the need for 24-hour care, i hope your children are perfect too, and that they can pay their own way through university, and that nobody you know ever needs your help if and when they are touched by that thing caled life. Insurance is an illusion. Either you are still in your early twenties, or you about the stupidest person who has read this article to date.
Hmmm, I’m surprized that no-one mentioned this, But if you’re low income (which it sounds like you are) Washington state has a marvelous health program called Basic Health. And it is just that, BASIC. But it’s affordable, co-pays and deductibles based on your income, etc. Up until recenly when my partners insurance started allowing un married partners on employee insurance plans, I used basic health for years. They don’t allow EVERYTHING but they’ll cover all the basics. And they too alow you to pick any gynecologist you’d like.
As for tough love…. you’re just a dick. Having all those things may make life easier, but as you have shown us all, it doesn’t necessarily make life BETTER. All it has done for you is make you bitter and hateful to anyone else that has chosen not to spend all their adult lives being a slave to societies idea of the American dream.
I think you need to smoke a bowl and calm down….
Hmmm, I’m surprized that no-one mentioned this, But if you’re low income (which it sounds like you are) Washington state has a marvelous health program called Basic Health. And it is just that, BASIC. But it’s affordable, co-pays and deductibles based on your income, etc. Up until recenly when my partners insurance started allowing un married partners on employee insurance plans, I used basic health for years. They don’t allow EVERYTHING but they’ll cover all the basics. And they too alow you to pick any gynecologist you’d like.
As for tough love…. you’re just a dick. Having all those things may make life easier, but as you have shown us all, it doesn’t necessarily make life BETTER. All it has done for you is make you bitter and hateful to anyone else that has chosen not to spend all their adult lives being a slave to societies idea of the American dream.
I think you need to smoke a bowl and calm down….
OOPS! Sorry for the double post!
#26/#27 Ahhh yes… the Australian healthcare system. The world is sooooo much better off for all the health improvements your fine system has brought to the world. New drugs and new procedures pour out of Australia daily!
Actually, toughlove, they do. Especially in anything related to heart health, cancer, and womens health. That’s where some of my tax-payer dollars go to. If you ever have any need for technology pioneered in Australia, I’d like you personally to reimburse us, the Australian taxpayers, for the money we put towards researching your treatment. But I suppose this is wasted on you, because you don’t even value yourself as a member of society in your own country, let alone a world citizen. Attitudes like yours are part of the problem, not the solution. You are lucky to be living in a country that allows you to pay for healthcare, and even luckier to be one of those who can actually afford it. Let’s hope you never get reincarnated into a third world country where you’d have to rely on the kindness of others.
How about this: The US keeps all drugs and procedures created in the US. Every other country gets to keep what they created. We won’t use yours – other don’t use ours. Now who’s Health Care System do you want to be part of?
Everyone loves to rip on the US but everyone also loves what the US provides to the world. How about recognition that the US healthcare system (drug companies, universities, medical companies), provides the world with a majority of new drugs and technology used worldwide.
The US healthcare system isn’t perfect. We need tort reform. We need to work harder to prevent fraud. We need to find a way for the government to fund BASIC care to underpriviliged. We also need to stop thinking that healthcare is a right. The Entitlement Mentality in the US keeps people from making an effort.
And for those of you who spend years and years in school studying what you love? Good for you. Your study of mating rituals of earth worms or whatever your area of specialty is of limited value if nobody is interested. At the end of the day, the HS dropout and you are waiting the same tables. Hopefully you are smart enough to realize that your love of earth worms won’t put food on your table. Go back to school and and learn something that earns. Or start a business doing something society wants to pay you to do.
Your parents are a doctor and a nurse and they won’t help you cover the cost of health care or insurance? I find this hard to believe. My parents weren’t interested in supporting me in any way after I moved out, but they actually insisted on covering my health insurance until I was in a position to provide it for myself, and they weren’t making MD/RN money. In fact, they did it even though I didn’t want them to (as a young man I didn’t see the need for it etc. etc.).
Also, tough love, the study of earthworms, fruitflies, etc. is called basic research. It happens in labs across the country because it’s important. It is especially important to medical science and is the backbone of all those fancy medical break throughs American research is famous for. It’s important to note that almost all of it is publicly funded. The NIH, NSF, the military, etc. all spend copious amounts of taxpayer money to make discoveries about things you don’t understand, and we then turn that data over to the public, so that others may benefit from it. Is it too much to ask that the pharmaceutical companies which benefit from the American tax-payer’s support sell us medications at the same price they sell them to Canadians?
@34: Actually, the health care system doesn’t have to do much with which drugs and procedures are developed by whom. Most up-to-date drugs are developed by multi-national corporations. And for their research and development, they don’t care about health care systems.
Have you heard about those big multi-national health care companies with lots of research, such as Bayer (German), Roche (better Hoffmann- La Roche; Swiss),GlaxoSmithKline (British), Sanofi-Aventis (French); Novartis (Swiss)? You notice something? They are all European, based in countries with, guess what, a public health system, either insurance or tax based.
If the Europeans get to keep their drugs and procedures, the Americans will suffer.
@1 you missed the thesis point of life: Make it a tad better for everyone before you die. It’s the courteous thing to do.
@tough love – yeah, sorry, but it’s universities/research institutes and pharmaceutical companies (actually, the US has head offices for companies like Merck and Pfizer, but plenty of their research is done overseas) who make breakthroughs in medical science.
Not even the surgeons in your ridiculously-overpriced hospitals are making amazingly innovative changes, except perhaps in plastic surgery, and enhancing existing techniques (such as the robot circumcision machine?):
* Penicillin – UK
* Vaccination – UK/France
* X-rays – France
* CT scans – UK
* MRI – US/UK
* Antisepsis – UK
* Anesthesia – US
* Aspirin – Germany
* Heroin and Amphetamines – Germany
* Surgical microscopy – Germany
* Insulin – Canada
* Valium – Switzerland
* Kidney transplant – US
* Heart transplant- South Africa
* Discovery that HPV causes cervical cancer – Germany
* SSRIs – Sweden (Prozac – US)
* Discovery of HIV virus – France
* IVF – UK/Australia
* Helicobacter discovery (cause of most stomach ulcers) – Australia
* Viagra – UK
Anyway, not to take away anything from US research, seriously, but pretending that the rest of the world is hanging off your coattails is complete rubbish.
@ Mischa Vainburg:
Yes, it’s obvious that you’re an intelligent person (if also a rather defensive one; surely you understood that you were opening your drug use to public scrutiny when you asked about it in an advice column, so why all the indignation?).
I’m not suggesting that chronic heavy use of marijuana will necessarily transform someone into a drooling moron; it will, on average, simply shave ~4 points off their IQ and reduce their attention span, motivation, and cognitive tempo. For most people, this doesn’t constitute a drastic impairment, but it is an impairment nonetheless. (Of course, it’s possible that your response to chronic heavy marijuana use is atypical, and your IQ is unimpacted. It’s also possible that the quantity you smoke is so miniscule that, despite your frequent usage, you don’t truly qualify as a heavy user.)
As I attempted to indicate in my “stick of butter versus tub of margarine” analogy, defending one’s favorite vice by claiming that there are so many worse vices doesn’t strike me as a particularly convincing line of argument. It’s the classic rationalization for pretty much every poor decision and ethical lapse known to humankind, and it rests on a false dichotomy: it’s either this, or something worse.
To be fair, I have no idea what degree of pain you’re in, or what kind of treatment/pain management options you have. It’s possible that in your case, heavy marijuana use is the least of all possible evils.
But heavy recreational marijuana use is never the least of all possible evils, although some potheads I’ve known like to insist otherwise. I always want to remind these people (and possibly you, depending on your ratio of medical usage-to-recreational usage) that lighter marijuana use is a feasible option. It’s entirely possible to refrain from smoking up every day of the week without turning to sniffing glue, guzzling vodka, or chowing down junk food. Your body doesn’t grade on a curve: the fact that other people drink/overeat/sniff glue in no way lessens the damage that heavy marijuana use is doing to you personally.
If you are going to keep using (and yeah, you probably are), I’d encourage you to at least make pot brownies, take THC pills, or use a bong. The average joint contains considerably more carcinogens and respiratory irritants than the average cigarette.
I don’t live in Seattle, and even if I did, I’m not interested in getting into public pissing contests with people I meet on the internet. But at the risk of being immodest, I don’t think I’m particularly slow on the uptake. My dog could kick my ass in a freeform rap contest, yes, but I’m pretty damn good at trivia and debate, and I have the trophies to prove it.
when i went off birth control, I didn’t get my period for 7 months and I was only on birth control for 2 years. you might just have to wait a bit longer. and oh yea, I’m a daily pot smoker too and I don’t think that has anything to do with it, especially when birth control is involved.
@echizen_kurage: point taken ^-^.
I do usually use a bong (water method seems less irritating) and I feel that I smoke significantly less than most other “heavy users” (we’re talking a single toke in the evening, not a multi-joint a day habit).
I also concede that moderation is the best course of action in most things (butter, pot, alcohol, etc.) I understand that any drug use has potential pitfalls, but I suppose I AM a tad defensive when it comes to pot because I’m sick of the unmotivated, inarticulate, layabout stoner stereotype. In feeling a personal responsibility to dispel this stereotype, I can get a bit, uh, strident. Anyway, your points are well taken, and I appreciate your willingness to engage in this discussion.
@lawlzumad: Yes, my parents also insist on providing me with insurance as long as I can’t buy my own. However, it’s catastrophic coverage only, with a $5,000 deductible; they’re both semi-retired and have a limited income.
@toughlove: My coworkers also include someone who graduated with a computer science/physics double major. In case you didn’t notice, this is a difficult time to be a recent college graduate. Or are you suggesting that the only people who deserve to subsist are those who follow a course of study deemed useful and lucrative by YOU?
Soooooooooooo, lemme see if I’ve got this straight. If I start smoking some weed, I’ll stop having such messy, God-AWFUL periods??
Where do I sign up???
@Mischa:
Thanks – I can kind of be Queen Stridentia of Stridentland myself, so no offense taken. You seem like a pretty cool person, and I’m sorry for taking a snide and superior tone. (But at least I wasn’t as much of an asshole as “toughlove,” so go me!)
I admit that I’m not totally free of the stoner stereotype myself, and my response to your letter wasn’t exactly coming from a place of pure scientific objectivity. Frankly, the handful of people I’ve met who were eager to rhapsodize about how much they looooooved pot did come across as lazy and inarticulate, so it’s difficult for me not to perceive a correlation, even though I know intellectually that my perceptions are skewed by selection bias: I’ve probably met many frequent smokers who led productive and intellectually engaged lives, and so had other things to talk about besides their favorite cultivar of marijuana, or how spiritually aware they felt when they were high.
@echizen_kurage:
Your comments sound as if you’ve rehearsed them a few too many times on your pothead acquaintances: you’ve forgotten to edit them for more than peripheral relevance to the subject at hand.
First, if pot shaves off about 4 IQ points on average, that difference is only measurable or statistically significant with an extremely large sample size, due to the variability of IQ and the imprecision in its measurement. Within that sample, there will be considerable variation in the level of pot usage and the degree of impairment. The effect is unlikely to be noticeable in someone who smokes on the lower end of the scale of what you are inexplicably referring to as “heavy usage,” with your label based only on frequency of use.
Second, the only person who actually brought up the “lesser evil” argument was yourself, which made it awfully easy to refute. Almost any enjoyable activity, taken to excess, can be self-destructive. That includes activities that are generally beneficial, such as exercise. Besides assuming that the “lesser evil” is evil in the first place, a point granted by no one but you, your argument also assumes that the “greater” evil is optional. However, giving up all activities that are potentially harmful is not an option, because giving up enjoyment of life is not an option. Moderation is… but abstinence is easier to advocate when other people’s quality of life is not at stake, not your own.
@Mischa: echizen_kurage has apparently received enough of an education to generate the form of a good argument, without benefiting enough from his education to create the substance of such an argument. You did not sound unduly strident and there’s no need to encourage him.
@ Shoshannah:
I’m not claiming that smoking pot has no ill effects – far from it – but most people have at least one vice, and I think this one’s relatively benign.
The above quote is taken directly from Mischa, so I’m not the only one who brought up the “lesser evil” argument (although I did anticipate it, because it comes up so very often in this discussion).
I apologize for not explaining what I meant by “heavy usage.” The term is borrowed directly from a 2002 study on marijuana use and IQ conducted by Peter Fried, which I referenced in passing earlier in this thread. The mean IQ loss of four points occurred in users who smoked five or more times per week (the study looked only at frequency, not quantity) – in Fried’s words, “heavy users.”
If you have questions about the methodology of the study, I suggest you take them up with Fried – that is, if it won’t be too great a blow to your ego to discover that you are not the only person in the known universe who has taken an introductory statistics course, and the mere mention of “sample size” and “statistical significance” does not constitute an instant victory (particularly when you don’t even know which study you’re criticizing).
Either the phrase “moderation in all things” has some hidden meaning of which I am unaware, or you might want to brush up on your reading comprehension skills, because I have been consistently advocating moderation rather than abstinence.
I’d take your criticism a bit more seriously if I didn’t suspect that you measure the “substance of a good argument” by its accordance with your own opinions.
Oh, and finally? I’m a woman.
Tough love@1 etc., Putting aside the moral argument that laziness is worse than a lack of compassion, and must be punished whenever possible, I’d like to point out a less normative argument for universal health care. Sickness and injury create something called negative externalities. An externality is something that harms people who are “uninvolved”. For example, if one of my co-workers doesn’t get the flu shot and gets sick, he might give me the flu. This is also a problem on a larger scale. Illness and injury cut down on productivity, hurting the economy we all depend on. People not having money (whether they earned it or not) means they are not contributing to demand, which also harms the economy. While adding money to wealthier pockets does little to increase demand (they tend to save it), poverty is a real problem for our economy. Free-riders is frankly just not as big of a problem. Unless you’re a fresh-water/classical economist and don’t believe in market inefficiencies despite all the empirical evidence. Go read some Keynes!
Can afford to smoke pot daily, but can’t afford a Doctor. Don’t worry about it, I’m sure that with your firm grasp of prioritization nothing could possibly go wrong… At least nothing you don’t clearly deserve.
Maybe Mischa had a high GPA (President’s Honor Roll! OOOH!) and yet doesn’t have a job because she majored in something general and simple like Psychology, Communications or Political Science. My advice? Go back to college, get an internship, something, so that you can find a career and stop working in a restaurant and smoking weed all the time. Your life sounds sad.
(And yes I’m for universal healthcare, but until that time people have to make do.)
@20. oh? what new and promising treatments are those??? chronic pain is typically treated either w/ NSAIDs or steroids. chronic steroid use will give you cushings, and chronic NSAID use will destroy her kidneys and give her ulcers. and if she wants to smoke pot everyday its not much different than smoking cigarettes everyday- carcinogens check, lack of oxygen to the brain check. like she said, everyone has their vices- you’re blowing hers out of proportion because you are ill informed.
What’s with all the hate? Has anyone ever stopped to consider why we engage in the anonymous critique of totally acontextual blurbs from complete strangers?
What is the value in asserting our superiority over one another in such a (seemingly) inconsequential forum?
Whence the investment in these exchanges?
Imagine the constructs that are created each day within our minds as we interact with co-workers, partners, family members and friends. Our own ideas, insecurities, and predispositions are co-mingled with everything we receive from others to create an ultimately indeterminate existential soup.
Blog commentary allows us to deliberate, to edit. We can rehearse, find the words with the greatest piquancy. We can bring forth the witty rejoinder, the metaphorical drink in the face that we’ve so often missed in real time (if only I’d thought of that ten minutes ago!).
In what strange pursuits we humans pass our time…
Ah, the delicious irony of anticipating the bile that will be directed at this post, and the one after! MwahahahHAHAHahahaHHAHahHHa
(Donald Rumsfeld)
Toughlove, please do the world (literally) a favor and have your precious health care provider permanently sew your fucking mouth shut, and your fingers sewn together so that we don’t have to listen to you (or read your tripe). Please move to your own little island where you can simper away about your fucking tax dollars. I can’t describe how revolting I find people with your mindset–and, since you probably believe in hell as well, I can fairly say that you’re on your way, jackass.
My deep suspicion is that your asinine comments were printed in The Stranger for sheer entertainment value. In other words, you are ridiculous, and represent everything that a huge percentage of our population (and the rest of the world) hates about our country. Please leave. Everything else has been covered by other posters, so I’ll just get the ranting out and done with. I hope your smug, pampered little attitude gets you exactly where you need to be–jobless, without any healthcare, and surrounded by intolerant shits like yourself. Better yet, a bitterly divorced hag whose asshole husband (assuming you’re a woman) leaves her for a younger trophy wife, and a kid who hates your guts. There’s thousands of you in this country, and you deserve every bit of life that hits you hard in the face.