Today’s Biology Topic: Medical Marijuana
Today was my first biology lab. What we were supposed to be doing; preparing a lab on the affect of SSRIs on freshwater invertebrates(answer: death. It's always death). What we did instead; learn about the health benefits of medical marijuana.
As it turns out, my lab teacher was asked to do this huge research project on whether or not medical marijuana is beneficial. It's all for the state, because Indiana is considering legalizing medical marijuana. I don't remember exactly how it came up(it had to do with getting drunk in New Orleans and the Vietnam War) but he mentioned this project to us, and of course someone asked for the details.
Well, as it turns out(if my professor can be believed) medical marijuana has a lot of uses. Regular marijuana users(who smoke at least 3 joints per week) have a decreased risk of; cancer, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and brain damage. It also significantly decreases the number of opioid overdose-related deaths, because it works as a pain killer, and drug related traffic accidents, because, supposedly, medical marijuana doesn't mess with your head the way most drugs do. Of course, you have to get the right strain, otherwise you'll end up plastered to a couch trying to figure out how to peel a banana.
But ya'll can look up the benefits of medical marijuana if you really care about it. I don't write these to be informative, I write about them because a) I want to rant about the petty annoyances of my life and b) I find this form of communication easier than talking to people.
So I have established that the vending machines on campus really are evil, and out to scam me. I actually went to other vending machines today, and guess what? Only the broken machine had crunch bars! To be fair, its not a major inconvenience, and I did get the correct change today, but that's not the point. The point is that vending machines are evil con artists masquerading as delicious-but-overpriced food dispensers.
Since today is Thursday, I had a bio lecture(bio is Tuesdays and Thursdays). Have you ever had someone in class who constantly made very loud, vocal comments? And not things that were relevant to the class- just their personal opinions, or squealing when they see something they find cute? There was a person like that in class today. Apparently, she was absent last class for various reasons(which she claimed she didn't want to discuss, then went on to vary loudly explain. I won't write them here out of respect for her privacy), but she's going to be there every day from now on.
This annoys me to no end. It's a pet peeve of mine when people constantly interrupt a teacher(or anyone who's trying to convey information to you) like that. It feels disrespectful to me, to the other students, and to the teacher themselves. I'm there to learn, not listen to you have a conversation with the professor! However, I'm trying not to let that color my impression of this girl too much. I've dealt with some people like this before, and once I've talked to them they've seemed like perfectly nice people. They just don't seem to 'get' that what they're doing is wrong, or that it irritates others.
On a completely unrelated note, my little sister has an instrument that costs more than my college tuition. My old high school just got a lot of money from the government or something, and while they're using the lion's share(a million dollars!) to renovate the stadium, they gave a sizable amount to the band. The school system expected this money to pay for like the next five years of band. It didn't. Instead, the band director spent it on professional-grade instruments, including; a $15,000 clarinet, two $16,000 euphoniums, and a $25,000 trombone(I think it was a trombone, but don't hold me to that). My little sister(who is only a sophomore) got one of the fancy euphoniums, which she has christened Hugo Polston the Second.
Just to make it clear; I understand that these are reasonable prices for professional grade instruments. I mean, if its your livelihood, you're of course going to buy the best quality tools you can, and a lot of time, and effort goes into making these instruments(I might be wrong, but I think most super high quality instruments are still made by hand). For professional musicians, it's an extremely good investment, what with all the time and work they put into playing. I feel like its a bit excessive, however, to spend so much money on instruments for a high school band, even one of the top in the nation, because a) most of the band members likely do not intend to be professional musicians, and b) high schoolers will, even if they are well-intentioned, likely treat their instruments with less care than professional musicians, whether because they don't know better or just aren't thinking. Of course, if I breathed one word of my doubts to Larry, she would murder me, so this is my only outlet for them. On the bright side, though, she might soon be able to take medical marijuana for her chronic shoulder pain, which will hopefully curb her murderous tendencies a bit!