Do you care if Bills players smoke marijuana?

[Sen. John Blutarsky]

So, it comes down to, what you happen to find out, about someone? You make your decisions based on a single piece of data on a single issue? A top surgeon who has performed successful surgery on you, or someone in your family, is now to be avoided if you discover he smokes a little pot, in the evening?

 

I guess that's one way to go about it, but I'm surprised someone as intelligent as you would be so reckless in their decision-making.

Well it moreso comes down to this. In the case of a surgeon, they run a tremendous risk of losing everything they've worked for by doing that. Yet they choose to do it anyway. Why is that choice made? Are they cavalier about the situation and say my time is my time and I'll do what I want or is it because they arrogantly believe they are bulletproof and it won't even matter if they get caught. It's not that I don't want someone who smokes pot as my surgeon bvecause of a phsyiological effect, its that I don't want someone who will take that kind of a risk to be the one cutting me open. If they'll take that risk with their own livelihood what risk won't they take with me when deciding what to cut and what not to cut?

 

I understand that in order to be a surgeon you have to have some degree of ego but IMO once people cross into the area of feeling like they are bulletproof they run much greater risk of catastrophic error. It comes back to patterns of decison making. The surgeon has to know that if he screws up once in the OR and someone dies and the malpractice lawyer has him tested that he's toast. You obviously never want to have that happen at all but things happen in hospitals and people often sue even when the doctor didn't do anything wrong. It would be really really hard to go in front of a jury of people and expect not to be ruled against in a serious way if your piss test came back dirty. Since the half life of MJ is so long it just amplifies the risk that much more.

 

If laws about MJ change then that risk goes away and I'm better with it. Until then it indicates an unacceptable level of risk taking behavior for a person who is in control of my life.

[Cookiemonster]

Whoa--you didn't mean me, right? I'm the one who doesn't smoke (my personal choice) but who thinks it's ok if others do (their personal choice). You quoted my post, but not sure if that's what you meant to do.

Quite the contrary, I was backing you up, sorry for the confusion.

[Matt in KC]

FYI, Here's a good article from statistician Nate Silver on American's opinion of whether marijuana should be leagalized.

 

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/ame...der-to-bud.html

 

That all three polls show support for legalization passing through the 40 percent barrier may be significant. I compiled a database of every past poll I could find on this subject, including a series of Gallup polls and results from the General Social Survey, and could never before find more than 36 percent of the population (Gallup in October, 2005) stating a position in favor of legalization: [graph displayed showing trend since 1969]

[Guest three3]

If laws about MJ change then that risk goes away and I'm better with it. Until then it indicates an unacceptable level of risk taking behavior for a person who is in control of my life.

 

so you are better with the surgeon smoking when society has declared MJ legal but until that point you are not OK with it? do you wait for society's take on everything before forming your own?

 

for those not logged in, the tally so far is 174 in favor of NOT caring if Bills smoke and 65 caring.

[Sen. John Blutarsky]

so you are better with the surgeon smoking when society has declared MJ legal but until that point you are not OK with it?

Basically yeah and I think I fleshed out some pretty good reasoning for that.

 

This is what we've come to now? Even if my only reason were "you shouldn't do it because it's illegal" (which it's not)that's grounds to imply that I'm some sort of lemming? Wow.

 

For your benefit, because you obviously didn't get the rest of the last post I wrote, here is the cliff notes version of my "take". In the specific case we're talking about I don't care about any physiological effects of MJ. We're going to assume that the doctor doesn't have a 4 foot bong in the OR so that piece of the argument is irrelevant to me.

 

My concern is that I know what personal and professional risks the doctor is taking by choosing to engage in that activity. I would have a hard time letting a person who is that cavalier and/or arrogant about that level of personal risk for the sake of recreation be my surgeon. If they'll take that much risk on themselves for recreation who knows what level of risk they are comfortable with when operating. If you don't think that risk is real then you are kidding yourself. Docotrs already pay massive malpractice insurance because they get sued all the time. If they test positive for an illegal substance my guess is that it will negatively impact their insurance coverage in a malpractice case (sort of like how your auto insurance won't pay if you smack up your car when you're drunk). The doc's personal assets would then be on the line in court and trust me there isn't a jury in the world that wouldn't hammer a doctor in that situation with exceedingly punitive monetary damages. That doesn't even consider what any state licensing boards would have to say. I'd imagine you'd at least be looking at a suspension of your license. That's an awful lot of risk to take to smoke some pot. I have a similar circumstance. I teach school and I have to have 3 different clearances for my job, state police, fbi (w/ fingerprints) and a background check specifically looking for any offenses toward children. If I pick up a DUI tomorrow I'm going to have a major problem at work, if I get busted for pot I'm completely screwed. Thus, no drunk driving and no pot. It's not worth my career. Hell it's getting to the point that it's risky just to have a Facebook account because so many other jackasses have gotten in trouble that employers will search you out and some require you turn over usernames and passwords so they can check you out. If my employer comes to me and says "We'd prefer you not have Facebook and are prepared to take action if you use it." Guess what, no more Facebook.

 

It'd be sort of the same if I had to pick between the doctor that goes base jumping or the doctor who plays squash. Neither one will impact their ability in the OR, however, each one lets me know a little about their personality. Base jumping doc is the guy I want when I have a 5% chance to live. Squash doc is the guy I want when I'm getting my appendix out.

 

The law impacts my "take" because if MJ becomes legal that inherent risk is removed and pot smoking doc is no longer displaying risk taking behavior in the name of recreation. In that case I can revert solely back to any concerns based on phsyiological effects and since my concerns in that area are fairly limited I would then have no problems with the doctor in question.

 

While we all want to be the ballsy guy it's not always the best guy to be. Sometimes you want to make the safer cut or fly around the storm rather than through it.

[Peevo]

Reality is for the sad group of people that can't handle drugs. People should read "Food of the Gods" by Terrence McKenna. You ever read Louis Carroll, Aldous Huxley, Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway? Listen to the Beatles, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Soundgarden among a laundry list of other tremendously influential musicians? All of the above were either brutal alcoholics (Poe and Hemingway) or drug users.

 

Mankind has discovered all there is on this planet, we've been to the moon, we've been to the darkest parts of the ocean. What's left to do? Occupy our time.

 

Television, movies, chocolate, fast food, drugs, alcohol, sex, tobacco, gambling, these are all mediums in which we indulge to enhance our current state of mind. Quite seriously, whats the difference if it produces the same effect in your brain, a sense of euphoria. We all engage in some sort of vice, and anyone that's pretentious enough to devalue conscientious, responsible adult marijuana consumption is just sitting on a throne of sanctimony. Why do we watch football on Sundays? To be entertained for a few hours.

 

If the government were really concerned with our health, McDonald's, Phillip-Morris, Budweiser would all be illegal. Prohibition has done nothing but fuel the problem.

[Dante]

No. As long as its not the day before or of the game. No problem with it.

[toddgurley]

Do you care if Bills players smoke marijuana?

 

 

is anyone else amazed that this thread got TEN PAGES worth of comments? WOW-