Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Garbage and cannabis studies

Soooo - schools are closed and the roads are perfect - way to mess every ones lives up. Why would they close schools - do they not look at weather forecasts?  It's above freezing the roads are wet.

I remember when I was a child . . . . . . .

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Garbage collection - seems to have good smoothly (???).  You know you live in a small town when a new garbage collection company is exciting.

Gov. Walker says - don't look at what I have done in the past 6 years - look at what I will try to do in the future.  DON'T LOOK BEHIND THAT CURTAIN. What a buffoon.

And don't get me started on the Congressional Ethic board that the House is trying to abolish - Even Trump blasted them for being sneaky.

Then there is Obamacare and the GOP - like a dog that chases a car and all of a sudden he catches it. What will the GOP do to Obamacare now that they can delete it.  They already made sure it would fail by making sure insurance rates would rise AND THEN blaming it on Obamacare.

Insurance companies hate risk AND hate paying out claims.  So when ACA was established, like Bush's Medicare drug plan the government would help pay for claims from people with existing health issues. The insurance companies were fine with that, in fact they embraced Oamacare.

So what did the GOP Congress do?  After ACA started they voted to only give insurance companies 12% of what they were promised.  Insurance companies raised rates because teh GOP cut their funding and BAM - the GOP could blame Obamacare as failing.

SO - now they can do what they want . . . but they have zero idea how to do it.  Glad I'm not in their shoes. I expect nothing but chaos with health care industry for the next 4 years.

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A new image of Sophie


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My x-wife from many many years ago had osteogenesis imperfecta a degenerative bone disease.  She had pain 24/7. We tried all sort of pain relief from electric stimulation to acupuncture and so many different prescription drugs it was crazy. The ONLY thing that helped was cannabis which, was illegal. That is why I get on this cannabis kick from time to time. I have first hand knowledge of just what this vile weed can do to improve your life.  

Thus - ever since Colorado went pro cannabis I have tried to read every article on the subject - bad AND good. Their forward looking government has down an outstanding job. When a problem comes up - they fix it without years of committees and bickering.  Even their govonor who was against it has said he was wrong.

WELL

A number of studies have come out lately on cannabis.  One is that with 28 states now with legal medical cannabis they have found that auto deaths in each one of those states have dropped by about 10%.

Another monthly study by the Census buero (Bureau)  found there is a modest but statistically significant decline in workplace absences due to sickness (after controlling for race, marital status, age, and education level).  This is just another study that contradicts the Tavern Leagues fake news that Cannabis is a vile weed and "adds to a growing number of studies that point to favorable associations between the implementation of medical cannabis laws and positive societal outcomes. These include a decrease in alcohol consumption and traffic fatalities, as well as suicides"

Yet another study found that medical cannabis is making prescription drug use drop like a rock

"On average, states with legal medical cannabis saw 1,826 fewer daily doses of prescription pain medications filled each year per physician. This is what you would expect if medical cannabis serves as an alternative or a supplement to traditional prescription pain medications. "

Of course the pharmaceutical is VERY opposed to cannabis.

One study about teen use. 45,000 teens are annually surveyed.  Cannabis, alcohol and other drug use is dropping in schools from 2015 to 2106.  Cannabis use in 8th to 10th graders has dropped significantly.  The fears that more cannabis will lead to more school stoners is not happening.  In fact teen cannabis use is at it's lowest since 1993. One reason is that it's harder to find.  Like the alcohol prohibition. If you make it legal there is less black market booze and it's harder to get.    

A cohort study in the UK over the last 20 years has shown cannabis use does not lower IQ long term. It's a tough study as cigarette smoking and alcohol have to be factored into the mix as those two do lower IQ over the long run.

"In fact, when researchers analyzed data only from those who had never smoked cannabis before, they found a significant negative association between cigarette use and IQ and educational attainment".  

This DOES NOT mean it's OK to smoke pot when young, absolutely not.  it just shows that there are so many other factors you can not blame one thing.

That was the cliff notes - here is the article

Cannabis Does Not Lower your IQ 

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My newest image of Sophie