<div dir="ltr"><div>I enjoyed this article about why talking drug use prevention is so difficult on the internet. Certainly matches my own findings. My father was also roundly attacked when he lobbied against M legalization in his state.</div>
<div> </div><div><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><font color="#000000"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt">This article from Sue Rusche of What About The Children
campaign was published</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"> to show just how inane are comments from the drug
user community on the internet. The sad part is that many young people use
Facebook and Twitter and can be easily influenced by the comments they read on
these and similar sites.<span> </span>Parents need to
educate their youngsters so that they know how biased and full of untruths such
comment from drug users can be. NDPA</span></i></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"><span>
</span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a title="Permanent Link to Don’t Expect to Learn Anything True about Marijuana From Internet Commenters" href="http://www.butwhataboutthechildren.org/?p=1079"><b><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Don’t Expect to Learn Anything True about Marijuana From Internet
Commenters</font></span></b></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Six days after <i>The Huffington Post</i> published
my latest article, browsers had logged in 156 comments. The post was titled </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-rusche/marijuana-legalization-pr_b_2884765.html" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Marijuana Legalization Proponents Deny Health Harms
Just Like the Tobacco Industry Did</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">; 153 of the 156 comments proved the point. </font></span></p>
<font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Just 30 people made 80 percent (125) of the
comments. Contributing the most were </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/truthaboutmmj?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">truthaboutmmj</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (19); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/kevin_hunt2012?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">kevin hunt2012</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (12); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Andrew_swanteni?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Andrew swanteni</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (9); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Blows_Against_the_Empire?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Blows Against the Empire</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> and </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/ConnieInCleveland?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">ConnieInCleveland</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (6 each); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/RMForbes?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">RMForbes</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/SchumannFu?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">SchumannFu</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, and </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Volteric?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Volteric</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (5 each); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/JohnThomas?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">JohnThomas</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Tomaniac?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Tomaniac</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, and </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/WowFolksAreDumb?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">WowFolksAreDumb</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (4 each); </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/average_dude?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">average dude</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/FlyingTooLow?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">FlyingTooLow</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/JD_Salinger?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">JD Salinger</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Matthew_Fairbrother?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Matthew Fairbrother</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/McMike55?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">McMike55</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/moldy?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">moldy</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Paul_Paul?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Paul Paul</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, and </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/susierr?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">susierr</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> (3 each). Eleven people contributed 2 comments each; 28 contributed 1
each. Only one person, </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jan_Beauregard?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Jan Beauregard, PhD</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, a Virginia </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://ipivirginia.com/2012/10/jan-beauregard/" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">psychotherapist</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> whose
specialties include addictive disorders, agreed that marijuana has health
harms. She contributed three comments. </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Clicking a link in a commenter’s name will take you
to </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/your-huffpost-experience_b_260666.html" target="_hplink"><i><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Huff Post’s</font></span></i></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> Social News and a collection of all the comments that person has made
about <i>Huff Post</i> stories. Commenters </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.butwhataboutthechildren.org/?paged=1"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">apply</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> for a spot on Social News by linking it to their
Facebook accounts, which magnifies <i>Huff Post’s</i> reach. Call it <i>Huff
Post</i> squared.<i> Huff Post</i> cubed occurs if commenters also link Social
News to their Twitter accounts. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/introducing-huffpost-badg_b_557168.html" target="_hplink"><i><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Huff Post </font></span></i></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">awards badges to commenters based on the number of comments they make on
<i>Huff Post’s</i> stories and the number of Facebook Friends and Twitter
Followers they have. The more comments, friends, and followers, the higher
level badges they earn. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/WowFolksAreDumb?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">WowFolksAreDumb</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, for example, who must hold some kind of record, has written more than
10,000 comments since joining Social News in May 2012 and has earned four
badges–Level 2 Networker, Level 2 Superuser, Level 1 Crime Solver, and
Moderator. </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><font color="#000000"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt">Huff Post</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"> has brilliantly tapped into social media to expand
its audience exponentially. But this brave new world comes at a cost. Few
editors live in this world. Opinions triumph over facts. Quantity trumps
quality. Truth loses. </span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Juxtapose this with two major problems of current
science: 1) the public cannot access most published studies and 2) scientific
disciplines are so specialized that </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.butwhataboutthechildren.org/?paged=1"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">public
access</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> would hardly matter. A PhD is
needed to understand the complexity of new knowledge scientists are developing
today, and a PhD in one discipline does not guarantee understanding of
knowledge developed in another. Scientists can’t speak each other’s languages
anymore, so specialized have various disciplines become. An astronomer couldn’t
explain the genome to you any better than a geneticist could explain the
cosmos. </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Without access to comprehensible science, science
illiteracy rules, particularly in the area of the science that underlies
addictive drugs. Perhaps the most puzzling argument that runs through many of
the comments about my post is one that rejects later work which contradicts
earlier studies. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/WowFolksAreDumb?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">WowFolksAreDumb</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, for example, writes, “According to Dreher 1994, there are no prenatal
or neonatal differences between babies from mothers who did use cannabis during
pregnancy and babies from mothers who did not.” In addition to the 2012 study I
wrote about, more than 50 other studies about the harmful effects of marijuana
on the developing fetus have been published since 1994, but </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/WowFolksAreDumb?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">WowFolksAreDumb</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> claims the 1994 study negates them all. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/maxpost?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Maxpost, Midnight Toker</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">, goes a step further. He interprets Dreher’s study
to mean: “Pregnant women SHOULD smoke DOPE!!!” </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Commenters attacked all the studies I wrote about,
particularly the study indicating a link between marijuana use and testicular
cancer. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Steven_Hager?action=comments" target="_hplink"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">Steve Hager</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> dismissed it this way: “I believe the testicular cancer study involved
6 people, maybe it was only 3. Worthless, really.” That study actually involved
163 young men diagnosed with testicular cancer and a control group of 292
healthy men of the same age and ethnicity and asked them about their drug use.
The investigators found that compared to those who had never used marijuana,
men who had used the drug were twice as likely to have testicular cancer. It’s
difficult to understand why Mr. Hager couldn’t trouble himself to check how
many people were involved in the study since I provided links to both the
account of it published by <i>Science Daily</i> and the abstract of the study
itself. Both clearly state the number of research subjects.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">The collision of social media with current, complex
science produces a chasm where scientific truth can be manipulated easily – and
aggressively. I emailed Dr. Beauregard to thank her for supporting the
marijuana science I had written about. She emailed back, “I have found many of
the same facts, but the comments are more than I can stand and the backlash is
horrific. I only posted a few things and have had literally over 50 people
email me with hostile, emotional comments based on personal experience as a
user.” </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">And that, in a nutshell, is the heart of the problem.
When it comes to marijuana, users dominate not just <i>Huff Post</i>, but the
Internet as well. They relentlessly assault anyone who reports that a marijuana
study might show a detrimental effect. Few have time to put up with this, not
therapists like Dr. Beauregard who treats marijuana addiction, not scientists
who conduct the studies, not writers who report the science. With marijuana,
what takes place on the Internet is a shouting match; those who shout loudest
win.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">After this experience, I’ve learned something else
about the drug: marijuana not only makes you lie, it makes you rude.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000">Source: </font></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.nationalfamilies.org/"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">www.nationalfamilies.org</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><span><font color="#000000"> </font></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a title="Posts by National Families in Action" href="http://www.butwhataboutthechildren.org/?author=2"><span style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">National
Families in Action</font></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> March 29,
2013 </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";font-size:10pt"><font color="#000000"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font></div></div>