Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Synthesis Sketch Report

 
For this post, I will write a synthesis sketch report on the decision problem I have been discussing over the last few months.  The problem is as follows:
Should you use marijuana to treat for anxiety or depression?
In order to address this problem, I have formed two hypotheses.  The two hypotheses are as follows:
Marijuana is effective when treating for anxiety and depression,
and
Marijuana isn’t effective for treating for anxiety and depression.
As marijuana is an illegal substance in most of the world, the professional studies I will use will mostly focus on the latter hypothesis.  Finding studies for both of these hypotheses are difficult, but the studies I have found mostly relate to proving the second hypothesis.  I will use three studies to address this issue.
For the former hypothesis, I will use newspaper articles that support its claim.  It was decidedly easier to find articles that didn’t involve actual marijuana use in an experimental environment because of its illegality.
Reports used after the break…

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Article Review 3

The study that I used for this review was an interventionist study to determine the effects of marijuana on driving ability.  The causal hypothesis for this study is as follows:  marijuana impedes driving ability.   
According to the study, the smoking of marijuana by human subjects has a detrimental effect on driving skills and performance in a restricted driving area.  Furthermore, this effect is greater under normal driving conditions on city streets.  
While the effect of marijuana is not uniform in all subjects, the effect of smoking the substance is bidirectional.  Whether or not there was a significant decline depended on the subject’s ability to compensate and the dose of marijuana consumed. 
The street portion of this study tried to emulate regular driving conditions.  However, the actual driving experience on city streets was purely experimental.  The study provided for maximum safeguards which contained a dual control vehicle and a driver observer.  Also, subjects were professionally screened and were determined to be emotionally stable.   
The study concluded that driving under the influence of marijuana should be avoided as much as driving under the influence of alcohol. 
Details of the study after the break…