October 17, 2018 will go down in history as the day that the Y2K bug finally hit Canada legalized cannabis. It’s also getting legalized or decriminalized in more and more locations around the world.
Over the past year, I’ve been asked a ton of questions about this. In particular, people want to know whether I’m “for” or “against” legalization…
But I’m not the right person to answer that. The legal, social, and economic reasons for legalizing weed aren’t my area of expertise. My expertise is within science and health.
We know that criminalizing marijuana simply hasn’t worked. So I guess it’s a good idea to try something else.
And we have to face the facts: in Canada, at least 15% of people are known to consume cannabis. For young people, that number is 30-40%.
Still, I find myself annoyed by the two types of comments I hear most often, namely :
I do think it’s important to speak openly about cannabis. Unfortunately, I hear a lot of sketchy claims going around… so let’s assess their scientific accuracy!
Note #1 : For the sake of transparency, I should admit that I’ve never consumed cannabis in my life, not even a single toke. In general, I don’t really enjoy psychotropic substances (i.e. substances that produce an altered state of consciousness), including alcohol. I assume this doesn’t disqualify me from discussing the topic, considering that I haven’t consumed 99.999% of the medication I work with on a daily basis…
Note #2 : There are certain points that I don’t cover in the comic: driving under the influence of pot; the lack of a legal limit on the amount of THC in products containing marijuana; children or animals becoming intoxicated by accidentally consuming cannabis products; microdosing…This comic is pretty long as it is, so if need be, I’ll revisit the topic another time!
Note #3 : Many thanks to Robyn Penney for the translation!
Posted in Comics
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Initially, I wanted to create a comic about the influenza (flu) vaccine.
My goal was to convince you that this vaccine is effective, safe and essential to modern society. Because that’s what I think.
But by doing this, I would have skipped steps … because before trusting the flu vaccine, you must first trust vaccines.
You’ve probably heard of some public figures’ efforts to limit vaccination in the USA:
But they’re not the only ones. All over the world, tons of people are opposed to vaccines. Many of them are intelligent, highly educated people who seem to know the topic extremely well. Some of them are even healthcare professionals, including physicians.
So, who should you believe? I can easily understand why you’re confused when you hear stuff like:
- “Vaccines cause autism!”
- “Vaccines are released on the market before we know they’re safe!”
- “The diseases we vaccinate against are long gone!”
There’s much to do to put the record straight.
So the flu vaccine will have to wait for another comic. In the meantime, let’s start from the beginning.
Translation by Olivier Bernard, proofreading by Lauren Knight.
Posted in Comics
Tagged adjuvant, allergic reaction, aluminum, Alzheimer's, Andrew, anti-vaccine, anti-vaxxers, attenuated, autism, autoimmune, bacteria, big pharma, boost, breast milk, business, child, clinic, concerns, conjugate, damage, dangers, death, developmental disorders, diphteria, diseases, effective, evidence, evolution, fatigue, fear, fever, flu, flu-like symptoms, fraudulent, Guillain-Barre, headache, heavy metals, homeopathic, immune system, immunity, inactivated, influenza, kids, killed, live, lobby, manufactured, measles, meningitis, mercury, microbe, money, multiple sclerosis, mumps, nervous system, pain, pharmaceutical, poisoning, polio, poliomyelitis, preservative, preventable, propaganda, rare, risks, RRO, rubella, safe, scapegoat, scientific, sensitive, subunit, sudden infant death syndrome, swelling, syndrome, tetanos, thimerosal, thiomersal, vaccinated, vaccination, vaccines, Venn diagram, virus, Wakefield
