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Methodology manipulative

Editor: Re: Let science lead pot policy, Sept. 10 letters.

Editor:

Re: Let science lead pot policy, Sept. 10 letters.

One side says marijuana is much less harmful than tobacco and/or alcohol; while the other side says that such vague general claims are untrue – that cannabis is not at all so innocuous.

Although I’ve learned about pot consumption’s effect on my health the hard way, I must admit that research findings regarding pot’s effect on health that ‘reveal’ a benign or, contrarily, insidious nature of cannabis consumption make me instinctually wonder: Who commissioned the research?

As cynical as it may sound, I’m one who believes that knowing the interests of the entity who has commissioned the research quite often reveals much about the research ‘findings’ to come.

The research commissioner, through the news-media, will typically propagate self-descriptive adjectives such as “independent,” but such doesn’t necessarily translate into 100-per-cent accuracy, for research methodology can be quite manipulative.

Frank G. Sterle, Jr., White Rock