Alaska Nurse-Politician Perpetuates Slanted Weed Info.

[moose eater]

Yes, they’re still out there, lurking, hoping for a return to the days of dinosaurs and propaganda-fueled laws that result in the unjust treatment of cannabis smokers/growers.

http://www.newsminer.com/opinion/community_perspectives/marijuana-is-no-golden-goose/article_37f2c664-80f9-11e8-b8e1-cbe127a610bc.html

Marijuana is no ‘golden goose’

• Sen. Cathy Giessel
• Jul 6, 2018 Updated Jul 6, 2018
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------
  
  My thoughts re. this article:
  

Pretense of knowledge, achieved through skewed information, is what is sometimes referred to as propaganda.

Propaganda takes many forms, to include the use of half-truths, or mere portions of information; i.e. ‘cherry-picking.’

I’d say this article, linked above, provides evidence of what happens when a decent profession becomes political by virtue of 'free' publicity and/or seeking re-election.

The comments section at this paper, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, is Face Book-based, and my lousy connection will no longer support even opening up the comments section for perusal, let alone commenting therein.

But I believe this ‘article’ is more than deserving of some respectful, balancing, informed (and well-documented/sourced) information by way of intelligent comments by persons who can hopefully refrain from simply throwing proverbial feces in retort.

In other words, please slam-dunk this nurse-turned-politician, preferably with well-researched and well-founded information that reveals her to be the dinosaur-vintage perpetrator of Anslinger bullshit that she is.

Thanks in advance to all of the medically-well-researched folks with feet on the ground. Wish my computer had better functioning… Maybe once we get hooked up to fiber-optic cable and wi-fi in the future.. Maybe..

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Could I get two grams of Black Vulture hold the bullshit please?

 

[moose eater]

Exactly.

What she misses is the War On (Some) Drugs IS (and has been) the 'Black Vulture' she speaks of, ruining more homes, futures, families, and children's early lives than all of the illicit drugs we can imagine or count.

Once you add injustice, guns, force, and imbalance to ANY problem, it's pretty rare that the problem becomes better.

How slow have we been to acknowledge that important tidbit?

 

[JustSumTomatoes]

The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[moose eater]

Or.. The more chance equity and justice are given to become a bit closer in reality, the more those who oppose that shift become extreme in their tweaked assertions... as Ms. Giessel demonstrates in her piece.

Had to wonder, though, if in her obvious melodrama, does she really believe 'Black Vulture' is an appropriate label to reference cannabis with? Does she really believe her own extreme statements, or is she merely posturing for the readers?

Her skewing of information prompted me to consider filing a complaint for lack of timeliness in her studies as they relate to her licensed profession. Having persons so imbalanced in their addressing of such a contemporary issue as cannabis, could be seen as a serious flaw in her professionalism as it relates to her licensing..

Maybe mustard's got something though; could be a great label to put a patent or copyright on. 'Black Vulture Ganja.' "Careful, it'll swoop right in on you."

 

[EsterEssence]

I read a few of the comments and no one agrees with her. Neither do I...

 

[Easy7]

Never under estimate the power stupid people get from being stupid. Just another crazy lady crying oh the children.

It's sad really. But truth is kids know where to get more drugs than most adults. They go to school and have more connections. College kids the most for sure.

As for the psychotic claim I have researched this. The so called cannabis induced psychotic state doesn't even follow traditional THEORY for dopamine psychosis. It is all just theory and I wouldn'ttrust these people. They're the same folks that brought you shock therapy and lobotomy.

 

[moose eater]

I'm out of rep again...

Agree with both of you, EsterEssence and Easy.

The disconcerting part is that she will find followers to reference her, who will vote accordingly if/when the next opportunity to either tighten restrictions on the market/personal growing, or to recriminalize altogether; a moving goal post that Alaska has witnessed for over 43 years now.. Moving the legal lines back and forth, to the point that at times persons needed a game program to keep track.

Which is why I toyed with, and am currently toying with, the prospect of filing a complaint with her licensing board for her lack of balanced knowledge in a subject that she clearly intends to continue voluntarily acting in and about.

When I was licensed as a mental health pro, I was required, under similar criteria, to maintain current education in those areas I intended to continue work in, to include educational roles. The licensing requirements are much the same for her profession.

It's not a new approach to dealing with licensed propagandists and 'scare techs.' I voiced similar intentions when a rural school board in Ak was bringing in another licensed MH pro who was spreading huge amounts of BS to school kids, on the school district's dime.

It made me a bit more controversial for a while, especially after I provided a literal stack of valid research to the school board that clearly refuted her nonsense, but I don't think she appeared at that school again. Formal legal proceedings, or quasi-legal proceedings, when one knows they're dealing in gray areas they've pretended to be black or white, can be effective without actually going to the proverbial mat.

There are formal means by which to attempt to deal with such propagandists who pose such a risk to balanced justice.

Maybe we need to use more of those to rid ourselves of the threats posed by the Anslinger minions.

 

[Gry]

These folk burn midnight oil with ill intent.

 

[moose eater]

Agreed.

Dick Gregory's speech/presentation at Kent State on May 4th, 1971, a year after the shootings by the Guardsmen there, sometimes re-titled as (from his words in part of that speech), 'The Cowboy Always Needs an Injun'..." The concept that once it becomes acceptable to keep someone down, folks often/sometimes hesitate to let go of that ability to do so.

Institutionalized hate and mal-treatment can become some sort of expectation of rights.

Echoes of some social Neanderthal some place where weed is going legal, saying, "What do you mean we can't just take hippies' & dopers' shit, bust up their families, and put them in prison any more??! What's Amerika coming to??!!"

Every now and again, genetic engineering comes close to taking on a desirable glow. Almost.

 

[troutman]

Take her on a Grizzly hunting trip and forget to put bullets in her gun.

 

[JustSumTomatoes]

I think people of this kind are going to believe what they're going to believe no matter what evidence they're provided with or facts that're presented before them. I think it's at the point where they are so deep into their ideology that they can't possibly back out, even if the truth is staring them right in the face. They may very well know that the so call evidence they support is total BS but are so invested in their beliefs that they've fabricated their own reality to fit them. Sort of a self hypnotism.

Weed causes man boobs, we will have to put down drug dogs if it's legalized, good people don't use MJ, the list goes on... You just can't reason with stupid or crazy.

Get ready for plenty more ridiculous claims and desperate tactics as the black vulture spreads its wings and descends upon the rest of America and abroad. Reefer madness is still very much alive and is madder than ever.

On a side note, Black Vulture would be a really cool strain name.

 

[moose eater]

A fellow from Honduras ~42-43 years ago, whom I met on the road, was from Cotton Tree Village, in the Cayo Rd. area.

He told me about their best ganja back then, saying it produced blackish resin and drew small worms to it, which was one of the marks of good local reefer there, per our talk..

Just such an herb might be a source of the strain to come; a sativa, 'Black Vulture' from a Central American landrace. I could see that. And cut Senator Geissel in for a gratuitous token; .5% or 1% royalty each year, sending her a check, and thanking her for having named such a noteworthy strain.

"Dear Senator Geissel.... I'm once again writing to you to thank you for the massive amount of success our 'Black Vulture Sativa' has had, and wanted you to know we really appreciate your efforts.. to this day they've brought us more positive sales and PR than we possibly could've achieved from an advertising agency.."

S'pose she'd cash the checks??

On the rest of it, I agree, mostly. Folks will believe what they do, and the hard-core will rarely be swayed, unless they witness some sort of miracle.

It's for the limited number of voters who are true fence-sitters, and potential followers, who are sometimes too easily led by smooth dialogue and misused credentials; those are the folks who need to see her publicly being told to cease and desist by a licensing board.

If she insists on being a bone-head on her own time, and not flaunting credentials as a nurse, then she's just another random individual among many on the planet. But when she flies her Nurse Practitioner's license in an effort to make her statements sound more credible, and in fact, she's clearly ignoring the best of current science, then she's out of bounds, and ought to get metaphorically slapped a bit, if it can be made to happen.

That's my take on it, anyway..

But yeah, plenty of windmills to tilt at out there, and they seem to be increasing in number daily.

I think people of this kind are going to believe what they're going to believe no matter what evidence they're provided with or facts that're presented before them. I think it's at the point where they are so deep into their ideology that they can't possibly back out, even if the truth is staring them right in the face. They may very well know that the so call evidence they support is total BS but are so invested in their beliefs that they've fabricated their own reality to fit them. Sort of a self hypnotism.

Weed causes man boobs, we will have to put down drug dogs if it's legalized, good people don't use MJ, the list goes on... You just can't reason with stupid or crazy.

Get ready for plenty more ridiculous claims and desperate tactics as the black vulture spreads its wings and descends upon the rest of America and abroad. Reefer madness is still very much alive and is madder than ever.

On a side note, Black Vulture would be a really cool strain name.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

I just get this :451: Unavailable due to legal reasons
We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact [email protected] or call 907-456-6661. when I try accessing that link, so could someone cut and paste it into a post for me?.....THANKS.

 

[moose eater]

At 56k dial-up speed, with a real delivery speed to my computer of 3-8 k. it may take a bit to load, but I'll 'head there' now.

 

[moose eater]

Here ya' go. It took a couple extra minutes to reformat it, due to all kinds of gifs, etc. clinging to it when I copied it to my Word program.

Note: a bit of a kick in the pants is that part of Ms. Geissel's region of representation includes Girdwood, Alaska & Indian, Alaska. Girdwood was often referenced as Girdweed back in the later 70s, with just cause, and Indian had its own raucous rep, with a crude woman who worked at an establishment called the Birdhouse, with a mini-dress hiked up far enough to show her panties, and who told jokes off-color enough to make worldly sailors blush.

------------------------


Marijuana is no ‘golden goose’

• Sen. Cathy Giessel
• Jul 6, 2018 Updated Jul 6, 2018Bottom of Form

FAIRBANKS — When is a “golden goose” really a black vulture?

Answer: When it preys on our children, families and workforce.

A recent opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News by a “child of the 60s and 70s” called marijuana taxes a “cash cow” for the municipality, state and nation. Let’s review the facts. This black vulture is after our kids.

Marijuana use by high school kids has increased in the past three years and our own Alaska data shows that 11 percent of kids who have used marijuana tried it before age 13.

The Anchorage School District has more than doubled the suspension numbers for using or carrying it in school, with middle school suspensions ballooning from one student in 2015 to 26 students in 2017.

And it’s not harmless. Teachers could tell you about the significant debilitating effects on their students who use marijuana, effects corroborated by research. Adolescents who consume marijuana regularly, on average, permanently suffer an 8-point decline in their IQ, according to a 2012 study from Duke University researchers.

Why does this matter? Pediatricians from Boston Children’s Hospital say there is ample evidence that marijuana users, especially adolescents, have much higher rates of mood disorders and psychotic disorders, loss of motivation, lower functioning at school and at work and cognitive deficits. Research documents a 159 percent increase in psychoticlike experiences in youth using marijuana.

Addiction to marijuana is very real for adults and even more so for adolescents. Adolescents who use marijuana are more likely to misuse prescription opioid medications, too. Pediatric addiction specialists report that nearly all their patients with opioid addiction first used marijuana heavily.

Pregnant women are the prey of this black vulture. Some have promoted marijuana as safe for use during pregnancy to treat nausea, aches and pains. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no safe level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the active substance in marijuana). THC crosses the placenta to the unborn baby and is carried in breast milk to the newborn baby.

Advocates say a marijuana high is better and mellower than alcohol. Tell that to the family and friends of people injured or killed by marijuana impaired drivers. Our Anchorage Police Department has now deployed specially trained officers to identify drug impaired drivers. Earlier this year, an Anchorage man was charged of manslaughter due to marijuana impaired driving.

Marijuana tax income is not a golden goose from a fairy tale. It’s a very real black vulture, preying on our children, families and workforce. The social, educational, public safety and unemployment costs of marijuana will rapidly consume any tax revenue dollars and more.

Sen. Cathy Giessel, MS, registered nurse,advanced nurse practitioner, fellows of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She represents District N (Northeast Anchorage, Anchorage Hillside, Indian Bird, Girdwood and Portage).

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

A nurse should know that the most damaging drugs in society are prescribed by doctors.

Here is one of them that causes hundreds of deaths per year just in the UK, and is a toxic drug from big-pharma that is prescribed more than any other.

Paracetamol poisoning

Synonyms Acetaminophen toxicity, paracetamol toxicity, acetaminophen poisoning, paracetamol overdose, acetaminophen overdose, Tylenol toxicity
Paracetamol-skeletal.svg
Paracetamol.

Symptoms Early: Non specific, feeling tired, abdominal pain, nausea.
Later: Yellowish skin, blood clotting problems, confusion.
Complications Liver failure, kidney failure, pancreatitis, low blood sugar, lactic acidosis.
Usual onset After 24 hours (toxicity)
Causes Paracetamol (acetaminophen) usually > 7 g
Risk factors Alcoholism, malnutrition, certain other medications.
Diagnostic method Blood levels at specific times following use.
Differential diagnosis Alcoholism, viral hepatitis, gastroenteritis.
Treatment Activated charcoal, acetylcysteine, liver transplant.
Prognosis Death occurs in ~0.1%
Frequency >100,000 per year (US)

Paracetamol poisoning, also known as acetaminophen poisoning, is caused by excessive use of the medication paracetamol (acetaminophen). Most people have few or non-specific symptoms in the first 24 hours following overdose. This may include feeling tired, abdominal pain, or nausea. This is typically followed by a couple of days without any symptoms after which yellowish skin, blood clotting problems, and confusion occurs. Additional complications may include kidney failure, pancreatitis, low blood sugar, and lactic acidosis. If death does not occur, people tend to recover fully over a couple of weeks. Without treatment some cases will resolve while others will result in death.

Paracetamol poisoning can occur accidentally or as an attempt to end one's life. Risk factors for toxicity include alcoholism, malnutrition, and the taking of certain other medications. Liver damage results not from paracetamol itself, but from one of its metabolites, N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI). NAPQI decreases the liver's glutathione and directly damages cells in the liver. Diagnosis is based on the blood level of paracetamol at specific times after the medication was taken. These values are often plotted on the Rumack-Matthew nomogram to determine level of concern.

Treatment may include activated charcoal if the person presents soon after the overdose. Attempting to force the person to vomit is not recommended. If there is a potential for toxicity, the antidote acetylcysteine is recommended. The medication is generally given for at least 24 hours. Psychiatric care may be required following recovery. A liver transplant may be required if damage to the liver becomes severe. The need for transplant is often based on low blood pH, high blood lactate, poor blood clotting, or significant hepatic encephalopathy. With early treatment liver failure is rare. Death occurs in about 0.1% of cases.

Paracetamol poisoning was first described in the 1960s. Rates of poisoning vary significantly between regions of the world. In the United States more than 100,000 cases occur a year. In the United Kingdom it is the medication responsible for the greatest number of overdoses. Young children are most commonly affected. In the United States and the United Kingdom paracetamol is the most common cause of acute liver failure

My own doctor prescribed paracetamol for my back pain, and it doesn't work, cannabis does, without all the risk of paracetamol/tylanol.

 

[troutman]

She won't be a nurse for long if she bad mouths Big Pharma.

She's on their payroll.

 

[moose eater]

She paints causal relationships where none has been concretely proven to exist, per peer-reviewed studies to date.

The prospect that kids who already -have- various forms of depression or adjustment disorders, & are -looking- to self-medicate in ways to satisfy what ever hope, hole, void, or niche social circle's acceptance, is equally plausible, and likely more so, than the prospects of adolescents being turned into Adderall, Cylert, and Zoloft-gobbling zombies by pot.

Same-same for those, of all ages, who are alleged to have schizoid disorders by virtue of cannabis, versus having been pre-disposed to schizoid disorders and cannabis (or other drugs) being used to self-medicate, ultimately, for SOME, adding less-than-beneficial outcomes to their effort.

I had a self-medicating bipolar (with mixed features, and psychosis) client years ago who comes to mind. I doubt that pot was helping him in the ways he hoped it would, though that was his choice. But repeatedly getting caught toking AT work, on the clock, didn't help his resume' or his living situation. But I don't believe for an instant, nor did his history indicate, that his struggles began with reefer; though his reefer use added to his problems... in HIS case.

Ms. Geissel takes numerous sets of stats for which there is a very valid, and yet unresolved, chicken and egg debate within, and pretends to have definitive answers.

And that, for a health professional, is irresponsible... And possibly actionable. (*I hope).. ;^>)

 

[Gry]

While it should be actionable, it makes it clear why this administration is working over time in an effort to stack the courts.