Some of you guys need to re-evaluate yourselves

[dutchman]

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Weed is not a drug people. It is just a thing.

 

[Darksmurf]

I know a couple MD/PhD students at a top medical school that do lines. One of them was able to bust out his PhD in 3 years, the other is top of his class in medical school. This pre-med elitism makes me sick. Judge less, snort more. J/M

Ah, the classic ubermensch rationale, a surprisingly fellatious argument from such a cunning linguist. I'm not exactly sure why the comment is in response to my comment, as I was simply answering a question (do you know any who has used cocaine) that someone asked me, not making a point.

But since you brought it up, I must point out that what we've got here is a failure to reason. Some people you just can't reach, so you get what you wrote here last week: a vacuous implication.

Your modus tollens in this case is: If people fail when using cocaine, then cocaine must be bad. Some people succeed when using cocaine. Therefore, cocaine is not bad.

Unfortunately, the implied premise in this case (If people fail when using cocaine, then cocaine must be bad) is wrong. It's a non sequitur, if you will. Whether or not cocaine is bad is independent of whether or not some people are able to use cocaine and still have 'success.'

Case in point: William Stewart Halsted. He developed his cocaine addiction innocently enough doing research on the drug as an anesthetic before much was known about it (a much more laudable purpose than the onanistic reasons of those mentioned above). Despite his addiction, he went on to become the greatest surgeon-scientist of all time, the inventor of plastic gloves for surgery and the originator of myriad landmark surgical techniques (both achievements that dwarf three-year PhDs and medical school test scores), not to mention his membership in the founding four of Johns Hopkins medical school. On the face of it, cocaine again seems to be not so bad if someone can have an addition (a more serious probably than 'doing lines' infrequently) and still achieve 'great things,' no? Except that Halsted's addiction altered his personality and drove him into an introverted existence--a consequence that many people would deem as 'bad.'

Thus the inaccuracy of your above premise.

That's really neither here nor there, though. What's really disturbing about your flippant comments is the exaltation of error simply because some people ostensibly get away with it. The implication that if some people can 'do lines,' as you so appropriately put it, and still do something you find praiseworthy like 'bust out' a PhD in three years or be at the top of a medical school class, then perhaps you can do the same thing.

Let's not justify vice because it doesn't always correlate with a deleterious outcome. After all, Roman Polanski likes to have sex with prepubescent girls, but he still manages to make damn good movies. OJ killed his wife ('If I did it'), but was a phenomenal football player. Clinton is a lecherous scumbag, but still had a successful presidency. And Pinochet killed thousands of people, and still pulled Chile out of an economic slump.

But that don't make it right.

Oh, and I'm not pre-med, I'm pre-dent. I just applied to med school to see if I could get in. So it's pre-dent elitism that sickens linguists as cunning as yourself.

 

[Darksmurf]

j/m

 

[LastOneStanding]

Big philosophical high and mighty talk, but there's a lot of opinion in there, and a lot of insulting. You seem to take this entire discussion as an insult towards you?

but nicely illustrated by your response, there are other factors than drug use that determine a person's worth. And many people can have both "good" and "bad" characteristics, even in respect to drug use. But there is a line where drug use affects people's lives and they loose control.

But in terms of us pre-meds here (and yes even you as a future dentist, and part of the medical care provider network) I would like to think of this in terms of the ramifications for us as future doctors and our patients.

Addiction is a disease. Someone, anyone addicted to cocaine or whatever to the point where it screws up their lives needs help. And doctors need to realize that addictions of many varieties can severely affect their patients. Whether it is illegal drugs, legal ones (that you may be prescribing!), dangerous legally or physically, affluent cocaine addicted lawyers or winos off the streets, YOUR patients will have drug problems. Helping them find treatment will be much more effective than labeling them as "bad people", despite what McGruff the crime dog may say.

Locking people up in jail or sending them out of your (office, ED) and not treating them will not solve these problems, and with the rising tide of meth addiction across the Midwest (to name one problem), we will be dealing with this in our practices.

🙂

 

[Towelie]

There's nothing wrong with smoking weed. It helps me remember stuff. If I forget something, I just need to get high, and I'll remember it.

Just watch this, and you'll see what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fYJW5S9g5g&mode=related&search=

 

[Haemulon]

Is there really an argument here about whether or not it is good or bad to do drugs?

To each his own I say, I am no prude. Things certainly are not always black and white when discussing right and wrong. However ... there certainly is legal versus illegal. As a general rule, I think we can say that doctors should be expected to avoid behaviors that are illegal. How about that for a professional guideline of behavior? Like I said though, to each his own.

 

[Towelie]

There's nothing wrong with drug use. Just look at Dr. House--he's an addict, and yet he still saves many lives. We could all do the same.

Game. Set. Match.

 

[FemalesCANTDriv]

There's nothing wrong with drug use. Just look at Dr. House--he's an addict, and yet he still saves many lives. We could all do the same.

Game. Set. Match.

you stole game set match from one of my posts... i dont find anything wrong with your drug use... but i will not tolerate you stealing

 

[Haemulon]

There's nothing wrong with drug use. Just look at Dr. House--he's an addict, and yet he still saves many lives. We could all do the same.

Game. Set. Match.

He also hires prostitutes, breaks into peoples houses, insults people constantly, and miraculously performes all kinds of medical procedures and tests that usually takes a hospital full of specialists and technologists 10 times longer to perform. 😉

 

[christian15213]

does anyone else here start to realize that they're typing more carefully now so as to not be scrutinized by the walking dictionaries here 😉

I am nto a literally major so I could give a crp... most of the time it is idiots that can't do anything else correct, or they are severly losing an argument and punctuation is there <their> they're only method of fighting back... LOL it is funny though...