SilverFeniks said:
Here's an idea .. STOP USING MICE FOR TESTS
Mice don't smoke pot, people do. I'm not some PETA activist, just wish people would stop wasting money testing shit on animals when it should be tested on people.
I once got a pack of gum that said it contained sacharyin (major sp.), which had been shown to cause cancer in lab rats. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. That's not relavant at all. Goddamn scientists.
To which I respond, "goddamn ignorant people!" Though it would obviously be best to test shit on people, testing new substances with unknown effects on a large enough group of people for the results to statistically generalize to the whole population would be ethically bankrupt, not to mention that it would be difficult to find an adequate number of volunteers. Also, in animal studies, it is a hell of a lot easier to control for possible confounding factors that result from the diversity of human lifestyles. Animal results can be VERY relevant to humans, as a large chunk of our successful medical technology attests. HOW relevant they are depends on the specific system being studied, and how similar it is to the homologous or analogous system in humans. If people like you had their way, and we stopped testing on animals, the development of new drugs to combat disease, as well as the study of cancer, alzheimer's, heart disease, and other ailments, would suffer greatly. Obviously, some of the results may not generalize to humans, but enough of them do that it is worth it to keep on doing experiments on animals. Your objection to testing on animals obscures the more salient arguments about methodology, such as the fact that people do not administer cannabis by injection. In conclusion, I have to say that these findings are worrying, as I smoke pot almost every day, but I do not assume that they generalize to humans. Rather, it is possible, and maybe even probable, that they do. Only future research, and more advanced techniques of human examination, will tell.
Also, as another note, I have found that virtually all the critics of animal testing do not have a firm enough grasp of biology to appreciate its usefulness. Once you learn how much of the architecture is conserved at the cellular and molecular level, it is easy to recognize that animal testing is extremely valuable.