FROM OUR INBOX
P.J. O’Rourke comment: Well, Eliezer, it may work for you ... But it didn’t work for me in the 1960’s. I was puttering along at 3 mph with one wheel in the ditch thinking, “Oooo... Look at all the pretty flashing blue police car lights...” I don’t really have an opinion on cannabis – other than I think it should be legalized. Otherwise, I don’t really knowwhether these medical studies are worth much. Some of them, of course, are probably well done. But, I’ve seen the effects of bias too much to put much credibility in most studies coming out. I’ve seen how unblinding of doctors in randomized controlled trials ruins study results. I hope cannabis turns out to be super safe and a “wunder” drug – but it will likely cause lung cancer and not be too much better than existing treatments... – Evan W. P.J. O’Rourke comment: Evan, I agree with you about the medical studies. I did my best to research them for our “Cannabis Means Business” issue and found they were limited in number, scope, and types and kinds of test participants and, on careful reading, less conclusive than they’re said to be. Plus, as you point out, they include too much subjectivity – what social science calls “confirmation bias.” My advice: Don’t smoke the hash brownies. I am terribly disappointed with you advertising the selling of such a dangerous and illegal product, marijuana. Why would you want to promote such a dangerous material? Oh, never mind, I
get it it’s the money. The heck with the consequences... Just because something is lucrative doesn’t mean it’s right to promote it. Very disappointed. – Bonnie B. P.J. O’Rourke comment: Bonnie, you’re not very wrong. But I don’t think American Consequences is very wrong either. Money is our beat. We try to cover it with clear-eyed dispassion. There will always be some clashes between the market freedoms of material liberty and the ethical freedoms of moral liberty. These are the prices we pay for liberty as a whole. Re: ’You should be ashamed of yourself...’ I think for people who are horrified by the concept of legalization and investing in marijuana stocks, certainly bringing up a comparison message about cigarettes and caffeine and alcohol investments is fair, but I suggest go to the next step. Investments in any aspect of the U.S. military industrial complex or petrochemical industries have caused more deaths and harm on this earth than most else in comparison, by far. That is the outcry I await and listen for. – Michael G. P.J. O’Rourke comment: Michael, the path to being perfectly good in this world is steep and difficult. I wish you luck on your journey. But I doubt if your destination can be reached. It’s hard to live – let alone to invest – without causing fault of some kind. If what the climatologists tell me is true, every time I
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April 2019
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