I recently started using Facebook (peer pressure), under my real name of course. But I make it a point to never discuss religion, politics, or cannabis there. Yesterday I noticed a "friend" posted an article from the UK that concluded that cannabis causes psychosis. This person is a former colleague that I worked with years ago, not exactly a "real" friend. Seeing as how we are both in the science education game, I couldn't help but comment. I pointed out that this article was a great example of the misuse of statistics, how correlation does not imply cause and effect. I just talked about the science of the article, not about the content, so I figured my cover was not blown. Today when I looked, I was expecting some kind of discussion about my comment. But NO! The link to the article was gone! How great is that? Not only will no one see my comments, but it's one less piece of propaganda Facebookers will be exposed to. One thing I did learn from this is that even someone who supposedly knows science can be blinded by their support of prohibition. Makes me realize yet again how hard it is to change the prohibition mindset. Might as well be trying to change their religion.
That fallacy of logic is very common in reductionist scientific thinking. Everything is about searching for a cause to put to the effect. That's a big reason, IMO, that a lot of people in scientific professions are pro-prohibition... it is popular tp link Drug abuse, crime, and social disorder as cause and effect relationships in that order, instead of seeing them as three correlating but independent factors (or, by my opinion, two of them are results for the third, see Emile Durkheim's research on anomie). I'm glad you called BS and remain safe
