Why Blame Marijuana For Sandra Bland's Death?

[damnedifIknow]

In 2013 tests by TV stations in Denver and Seattle found that experienced cannabis consumers could perform satisfactorily on simulators and driving courses at THC levels as high as 47 nanograms per milliliter. Columbia University neuropsychopharmacologist Carl Hart, based on his studies of regular users, says “Bland’s levels were well below the THC levels that I have found necessary, in my experimental research on dozens of subjects, to induce intoxication: between 40 and 400 nanograms per milliliter.” In fact, says Hart, the THC level that Goldberger equates with impairment is “comparable to baseline (or sober) levels of about 10-20 nanograms per milliliter of many of my research participants.”

We don’t know enough about Bland’s pattern of cannabis consumption to say whether she qualified as a regular user. Furthermore, it’s not clear whether even a regular user would test as high as she did after three days of abstinence, which has led to speculation that she consumed cannabis behind bars. Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said a thorough inspection of her cell, including the plumbing, found no evidence of that.

Even if Bland managed to get high in jail without leaving a trace, the relevance of that detail is not obvious, since suicide is not a commonly observed side effect of cannabis consumption. As Hart notes, “the main effects of the drug are contentment, relaxation, sedation, euphoria and increased pulse and hunger.”

*Since we are talking about a black woman who was arrested by a white cop for being uppity, the invocation of marijuana as an explanation brings to mind the long history of drug-fortified Negroes as figures of fear. “Waller County officials might be mad for marijuana, but there is no evidence indicating reefer madness had its grip on Sandra Bland,” Hart writes. “It’s high time Americans called out racists when they employ the ‘drug-crazed black person’ myth.” I think that charge goes too far, since local officials may simply be desperate for any explanation of Bland’s arrest and death that does not implicate them. But if so, they will have to do better than “marijuana made her do it.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2015/07/30/why-blame-marijuana-for-sandra-blands-death/

[Warpy]

1. Why? Demon weed is all they've got between them and gross negligence lawsuits

at the very least. They're grasping at straws, the whole uncaring bunch of them.

[Half-Century Man]

2. Fornicate the Waller co. autopsy.

How does a second toxicology match up?

Are there organic traces of Marijuana in her digestive tract? her large intestine?
She only was there three days, is that enough time to completely absorb all traces from a human digestive tract? What were her meals and when did she get them?

What about a hair sample?

[Uncle Joe]

3. Because it takes the attention away from Keppra and Big Pharma

spends far more megabucks on television than whatever cannabis supporters spend.

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/keppra-side-effects.html



More common
•Aggressive or angry
•anxiety
•change in personality
•chills
•cough or hoarseness
•crying
•depersonalization
•diarrhea
•dry mouth
•euphoria
•fever
•general feeling of discomfort or illness
•headache
•hyperventilation
•irregular heartbeats
•irritability
•joint pain
•loss of appetite
•lower back or side pain
•mental depression
•muscle aches and pains
•nausea
•painful or difficult urination
•paranoia
•quick to react or overreact emotionally
•rapidly changing moods
•restlessness
•shaking
•shivering
•shortness of breath
•sleepiness or unusual drowsiness
•sore throat
•stuffy or runny nose
•sweating
•trouble sleeping
•unusual tiredness or weakness
•vomiting
Less common
•Bloody nose
•burning, crawling, itching, numbness, prickling, "pins and needles", or tingling feelings
•clumsiness or unsteadiness
•discouragement
•dizziness or lightheadedness
•double vision
•earache
•feeling of constant movement of self or surroundings
•feeling sad or empty
•increase in body movements
•loss of bladder control
•loss of memory
•mood or mental changes
•outburst of anger
•pain or tenderness around the eyes and cheekbones
•problems with memory
•redness or swelling in the ear
•seizures
•sensation of spinning
•shakiness and unsteady walk
•shakiness in the legs, arms, hands, or feet
•tightness of the chest
•tiredness
•trembling or shaking of the hands or feet
•trouble concentrating
•unsteadiness, trembling, or other problems with muscle control or coordination
Incidence not known
•Attempts at killing oneself
•being forgetful
•bleeding gums
•blistering, peeling, or loosening of the skin
•bloating
•blood in the urine or stools
•bloody, black, or tarry stools
•blurred vision
•changes in vision
•chest pain
•constipation
•dark urine
•difficulty with moving
•fast heartbeat
•general feeling of tiredness or weakness
•high fever
•increase in body movements
•indigestion
•itching
•light-colored stools
•muscle pains or stiffness
•painful or difficult urination
•pains in the stomach, side, or abdomen, possibly radiating to the back
•pale skin
•pinpoint red spots on the skin
•red skin lesions, often with a purple center
•red, irritated eyes
•sores, ulcers, or white spots on the lips or in the mouth
•stomach pain, continuing
•swollen glands
•swollen joints
•thoughts or attempts at killing oneself
•trouble with balance
•twitching, twisting, or uncontrolled repetitive movements of the tongue, lips, face, arms, or legs
•uncontrolled jerking or twisting movements of the hands, arms, or legs
•uncontrolled movements of the lips, tongue, or cheeks
•unexplained bleeding or bruising
•unusual bleeding or bruising
•upper right abdominal or stomach pain
•weight loss
•yellow eyes or skin

The only side effect that I couldn't find on this list was, chance of penis falling off.

Thanks for the thread, damnedifIknow.

[msongs]

4. and how did she get cannabis inside a secured police facility exaCTLY?

[Igel]

5. And that would be the question.

Mostly people are questioning motive and intend of those who ran the tests and released the coroner's report. (Everybody wanted it released and suspected malfeasance in not releasing it sooner, but as soon as it was released they questioned why they'd released it, it must be defamation. Catch-22.)

I assume she didn't get it inside a secured police facility. If she had it in her car it would have quickly vanished. While providing a further excuse for her being irritable. If she had used soon before getting in the car, she would have been anxious about being tested. She already had one misdemeanor conviction for pot possession/use in Waller County. I don't know what a second conviction would have done.

And even if she hadn't used it soon before getting in the car, reaction times and judgment are impaired for 24 hour or more after consumption.

Note that even in the OP the tv-sponsored not-entirely-scientific test showed that experienced users could perform adequatedly. That's narrowly reporting what the test showed. Experienced users could but often failed to perform adequately--their failure often included difficulty in staying in a lane, inappropriate judgments, and driving too slow (with slow driving being a cause of other people's accidents as they try to get around the snails). Note that the word "could" entails, has as a logical necessity, the rest of that; however, it was also explicitly reported at the time and in later press reports on that study. Many read "could" as "usually or always does". Inexperienced users have more problems.

As for Hart, he's deep into race-baiting. Roman Jakobson famously said that one's personal history shouldn't drive one's research. In Hart's case, it's his prime mover.

Note that research is often corrupt. The more researchers are emotionally or financially attached to the social outcomes of their research, the more corrupt. So social science research is awfully flaw-ridden. Medical research has problems. Quantum chemistry? Not so much. We "get it" when a researcher may make $150k more by doctoring some research for a company--but we act like the motivation to help 100,000 minority kids or one's ethnic group by showing how we need to restructure society is nothing. Both lead us to ad hominem arguments, sadly.

[hobbit709]

6. Because they're trying anything that works in their cover up.