Rated
01:50am
•
3 reviews
•
health, mental health
• time.com
One of many comments about the Headline : "Dude, Where's my Trauma? Marijuana Could Treat PTSD"
Interesting article tho...(A new study "published in the Journal of Neuroscience "found that a synthetic drug that acts like one of the active components in marijuana (THC) can prevent stress-induced enhancement of fear memories in rats. PTSD is basically a syndrome in which fear-filled memories intrude on daily life and sleep"so preventing stress from strengthening memories of fear could potentially prevent or treat it.....)
THE COMMENT
"Congratulations, TIME, you're my 2009 Winner for the NORML Daily Audio Stash Worst Pot-Pun Headline of the Year. An Ashton Kutcher stoner movie reference to preface a medical miracle that far too many Vietnam vets already realize and far too many Iraq and Afghanistan vets are denied now. You narrowly eked out a win over:
KTVU San Francisco: "Puff Puff Tax" (coverage of Assemblymember Tom Ammiano's historic cannabis legalization bill in California.)
Kansas City Star: "A tiny Joplin, Mo., suburb has rolled itself a fat one" (coverage of the town passing a symbolic medical marijuana ordinance.)
The Oregonian: "Sex-for-marijuana sting in Tigard goes to pot" (coverage of police using Craigslist to lure guys into prostitution busts with girls in singles ads who will "party" for "420".)
Willamette Week: "High-Jacked" (coverage of a rural 53-year-old medical cannabis patient in Oregon who was threatened at gunpoint and beaten with a golf club in a home invasion robbery attempt.)
Willamette Week had won last year for "Working Spliffs", its coverage of attempts by business and law enforcement lobbyists to deny medical marijuana patients the right to work.
Seriously, the article is great, but the pot-pun headlines have got to go. The prohibition of cannabis is a serious issue, but the media continue to frame it with ridiculous double entendres that would be completely forbidden if the topic were women, gays, race, or religion, to name a few. It is bad enough that the constraints of headlines force editors to use "pot" instead of "cannabis" and search engine optimization dictates the use of "marijuana" if there's enough room for "cannabis".
Medical miracles in cancer, pain, spasticity, and other treatments are being denied, even the research into them is being denied, because of the prohibition of cannabis. Supermajorities of people in every part of the country support medical access to cannabis. Yet the politicians lag behind the people, partly because they don't take it seriously or fear ridicule in the media.
Treat the issue with more respect, please.
Russ Belville
NORML Outreach Coordinator
Host - NORML Daily Audio Stash podcast
