Comments on: Bill Maher, Salman Rushdie, and Christopher Hitchens Discuss Drug Prohibition

By: CarlM

CarlM — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:17:32 +0000

At 5:57 or so, an exchange starts in which (IMO) Bill Maher loses ALL credibility.

6:18 “There is no doubt that any amount of liquor, any amount of any poison, is bad for you.”

He then goes on to give an example that (if true) actually would provide some evidence that a small amount of alcohol is good for you. But, the fact is that there are MANY things (water for example, but also most essential nutrients) that are poisonous at quantity X but quite necessary for life at quantity Y (where Y is generally considerably less than X). So, his statement is simply false. To be fair, he is NOT calling for alcohol to be illegal (otherwise, I'd also be calling him a hypocrite).

While it may be true as Hitchens says that marijuana can treat glaucoma, this is not a sufficient reason for making it legal. If it was safer or more effective than existing drugs in the treatment of glaucoma, we could discuss making it legal for this purpose. It apparently is not. See: http://www.glaucoma.org/treating/medical_mariju…

As for the treatment of nausea, there is clearly benefit, but it is NOT at all clear that marijuana is the optimal treatment. See: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Su…

But, in any case, the question posed to Obama wasn't about possible medical uses of marijuana. So, THAT part of the discussion was NOT relevant to a discussion of Obama's response to the question.

By: CarlM

CarlM — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:17:32 +0000