The best evidence we have does suggest weed can be harmful – both due to the smoking itself, and more intrinsically in the form of developmental effects. How long it has been used for is irrelevant, tobacco has been used for thousands of years as well.

“… a medical procedure…” I disagree with your interpretation that this was anything of the sort. This was some grade-A quackery but it’s not exactly like the doctors sought her out specifically either. I can find a back-alley abortionist too but that doesn’t mean it’s the same as the real thing. In this case I suppose it’s possible that she didn’t know the dangers or wasn’t told what the level of risk was; it’s also possible she didn’t care. But we could make up stories all day and it still wouldn’t change the central point I was making that no matter what, this is yet another First World Problem.

And secondarily a little light-ribbing about it being money well spent that could better have been spent helping poor people, yeah I guess that’s pretty sanctimonious. But you are even better than me on the moral high-ground doesn’t it feel so good to be so right?

You may have a point about her borrowing the money as opposed to earning it herself or the whole 2nd wife bit (isn’t she more than just a wife? Hell with 20K she could have been a philanthropist. Well she is but not the way she intended.) The quote above goes a long way to explain why I made the assumption that this person had money to burn and made a poor choice.

By the way, we do not know that this woman “made” anything. She had 20k to spend (or borrow) and spent it on surgery. Well, I could spend 20k on surgery but that doesn’t make me Paris Hilton. For all we know she’s the ailing 2nd wife of a narcissist tax lawyer and this is her both her escape mechanism and her defense. Look! I can make up stories too!!!

“Serves you right you boney old bag.”

Some one deserves to have a medical procedure poorly explained, botched, have multiple surgeries to correct, face irreparable damage to their eye, and likely severe pain, and get insulted by sanctimonious you… and you think that’s kindly?

Well aren’t you the patron saint of irony!

No, you can take your kindness and share it with people who have an equally distorted view of kindness.

Yeah, the “we built it,” argument doesn’t go very far for me. BTW, we do tell the welfare recipients what to do, ie “get a job”, “stop having kids”, “get off drugs”, “dress for success”, “go back to school”… etc, etc, etc.

Fun question, where the hell is the money for any of that catch-22 BS coming from? (Also, as per Florida’s new drug-testing for welfare recipients program shows, big surprise people on welfare by and large can’t do drugs because they can’t fucking afford them!)

And how exactly was I saying that she is required to do anything else than whatever “she please[s]“? I was simply pointing out that she COULD and would have gotten a better ROI instead of bones in her eyes. So in short don’t tell me what I can and can’t tell other people that they should be doing.

I’m watching the deep lines come in by the side of my mouth while I wonder what is going to become of my life and whether this will matter or not. But I’m kind of glad I opted not to get on that particular hamster wheel.