Of Voodoo and the Brain

Why Ms. Begley's bachelor's degree and "honorary" doctorate qualify her in any way to criticize science she can't begin to understand is beyond my reach. Ms. Begley's position as a journalist should be to accurately and fairly report based on facts she can obtain through unbiased interviews, not to make and broadcast assumptions using her background as a writer, which she would do well to remember does nothing to qualify her to turn on an fMRI machine, much less criticize what real professionals with real educations see on their screens. The most she can do is go to the scientists and ask, but apparently Newsweek doesn't think that kind of fact finding is necessary. Well done Ms. Begley!

Why Ms. Begley's bachelor's degree and "honorary" doctorate qualify her in any way to criticize science she can't begin to understand is beyond my reach. Ms. Begley's position as a journalist should be to accurately and fairly report based on facts she can obtain through unbiased interviews, not to make and broadcast assumptions using her background as a writer, which she would do well to remember does nothing to qualify her to turn on an fMRI machine, much less criticize what real professionals with real educations see on their screens. The most she can do is go to the scientists and ask, but apparently Newsweek doesn't think that kind of fact finding is necessary. Well done Ms. Begley!

Perhaps, since marijuana addiction has yet even to be firmly established as fact, and even if it does exist, it does so in only a tiny, tiny fraction of its users, and even for those users, symptoms of withdrawal are nearly imperceptible, it would have been more appropriate for Ms. Begley to have cited, rather than a bong, as an object that inspires craving, a martini glass or a BIC lighter.

Perhaps, since marijuana addiction has yet even to be firmly established as fact, and even if it does exist, it does so in only a tiny, tiny fraction of its users, and even for those users, symptoms of withdrawal are nearly imperceptible, it would have been more appropriate for Ms. Begley to have cited, rather than a bong as an object that inspires craving, a martini glass or a BIC lighter.