Slog
News & ArtsThursday, February 11, 2010
Science The Slowness of Sperm
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:13 AM
The Slog tends to go on and on about the greatness of pot. Pot is always so wonderful here. It can do no wrong. So, for once, I want to share just one of the bad consequences of smoking lots of pot:
Fancy goggles, a swimming cap or the latest high-tech suit won’t help human sperm power through their race to fertilize an egg. Instead, the tiny cells rely on a proton-shedding pore to speed toward their target, a study in the Feb. 5 Cell finds.That's it. Nothing more. All done. Yes, yes, hardly a big deal for many of you, but still something to think about—pot slows down the sperm.The study also reports that a compound similar to the active ingredient in marijuana might interfere with this channel, offering a molecular link between habitual marijuana use and male infertility.
2
1) I cannot recall the last time anyone posted something about pot. Perhaps I am not an attentive-enough reader.
2) I thought that pot and impaired sperm had been known of for years? Maybe this is just a new reason for the connection.
3) Please make some sort of inane philosophical connection, so posters can make fun of you.
Thank-you.
2) I thought that pot and impaired sperm had been known of for years? Maybe this is just a new reason for the connection.
3) Please make some sort of inane philosophical connection, so posters can make fun of you.
Thank-you.
3
@2 I am with you. I am confused as to why there is not a philosophical point reached here. Maybe Charles decided to sit this one out, not something I ever expected him to do.
Anyway everyone knows pot is bad for you. Impaired reasoning and motor control, cancer risks from the smoke the same as smoking ANY leaf will give you, and finally possible addiction/habituation problems. Pot isn't very bad at all but nobody claims it is completely harmless right? Oh ya wait people do.
Anyway everyone knows pot is bad for you. Impaired reasoning and motor control, cancer risks from the smoke the same as smoking ANY leaf will give you, and finally possible addiction/habituation problems. Pot isn't very bad at all but nobody claims it is completely harmless right? Oh ya wait people do.
6
You're still going to get preggers.
While altering acidity can reduce the probability, it only slightly. Sperm have survived in far more hostile environments with far more environmental damage.
While altering acidity can reduce the probability, it only slightly. Sperm have survived in far more hostile environments with far more environmental damage.
7
With over 6 billion humans on this plant already, I'd say that's reason enough to promote more pot smoking.
8
Apparently, pot also slows down your blogging, as this was covered yesterday by Cienna.
P.S. For those of us who have all the kids we need, this is not a bad consequence.
P.S. For those of us who have all the kids we need, this is not a bad consequence.
10
@8, Charles and I are nearly the same person, hence the constant double-posting. The only things that separate us are my youth and his blackness.
11
@10, you didn't declare anyone "correct" or "incorrect" in your post, nor did you tie your sameness to anything completely unrelated, trivialize something tragic by using it as proof for an iffy philosophical idea, or mention Hegel. So, not quite the same.
13
@ 12 - Thank you the world is overpopulated - please refrain form breeding. This is another reason that pot should be legalized, slow down the production. I think China has the right idea only 1 kid per family!!
14
You don't get to make the assertion that pot slows down sperm when the actual writing you're quoting here says "a compound SIMILAR to the active ingredient in marijuana MIGHT interfere with this channel."
15
Bad news - smoking ganja reduces the likelihood you'll remember to take your birth control at the same time each day ...
Which means you'll get pregnant MORE often!
Which means you'll get pregnant MORE often!
16
@10 - Totally! I'm constantly getting your musings about Heidegger confused with Charles' revelations on Nietzsche. And Police Beat and Your Worst Enemy were pretty much the same column, give or take a squad car. You even have the same initials. Wild.
17
@ 7
"Impaired reasoning and motor control"
Well first, wouldn't that be why people drink? Second, I certainly wouldn't call it an impairment so much as a change (and sometimes an improvement - see: pro gamers who smoke to help their performance). If it was an undesirable feeling, people wouldn't do it. If it's not causing harm, what is it to you if people want to temporarily change the way they feel? I don't understand how this is a point in the argument against pot.
"...cancer risks from the smoke the same as smoking ANY leaf will give you"
One word: vaporizer.
"...and finally possible addiction/habituation problems."
Although the possibility of something remains in the absence of evidence of it, I'm not sure that makes it worth bringing up in this case. Studies show it isn't physically addictive (although plain ol' observation could tell you the same thing), and I don't see why habituation would, in itself, be a problem.
I'm sorry, but your argument seems completely hollow.
"Impaired reasoning and motor control"
Well first, wouldn't that be why people drink? Second, I certainly wouldn't call it an impairment so much as a change (and sometimes an improvement - see: pro gamers who smoke to help their performance). If it was an undesirable feeling, people wouldn't do it. If it's not causing harm, what is it to you if people want to temporarily change the way they feel? I don't understand how this is a point in the argument against pot.
"...cancer risks from the smoke the same as smoking ANY leaf will give you"
One word: vaporizer.
"...and finally possible addiction/habituation problems."
Although the possibility of something remains in the absence of evidence of it, I'm not sure that makes it worth bringing up in this case. Studies show it isn't physically addictive (although plain ol' observation could tell you the same thing), and I don't see why habituation would, in itself, be a problem.
I'm sorry, but your argument seems completely hollow.
19
So that makes 2 Stranger "Journalists" who have fallen for more bullshit drug war propaganda.
If smoking marijuana caused infertility Jamaica would have ceased to exist years ago.
You can trace the pot=infertility lie all the way back to the refer madness days of the 1930s.
Its bullshit.
If smoking marijuana caused infertility Jamaica would have ceased to exist years ago.
You can trace the pot=infertility lie all the way back to the refer madness days of the 1930s.
Its bullshit.
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