How Do You Fix Fear?

Posted on February 1, 2019 by Servetus

Drug war fear and loathing in Mexico provided University of Colorado Denver researchers with some critical new evidence on how fear does severe harm to a nation:

…Previous research on risk preferences has relied on data gathered only after a violent event, and found insecure environments made residents either more risk tolerant or had no effect at all.

But this new study, Impact of Violent Crime on Risk Aversion: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, found the opposite is true. By also using data collected before the rise in crime, it found that fear had a profound effect on the residents, leading them to express more cautious attitudes toward risk. This change has the potential to have a widespread and long-lasting impact on the economy, as risk tolerance is associated with opening a business, investing in education and migrating to greater opportunities. […]

[Ryan] Brown and his team [Verónica Montalva, Duncan Thomas and Andrea Velásquez] found … an increase of one homicide per 10,000 people increased the likelihood of being in the longitudinal study’s most risk-averse category by 5 percent. Uniquely, the researchers provided evidence that this relationship was predominately caused by an increase in feelings of fear. […]

“We understood why being in an insecure environment would change your risk preferences, but until now, we didn’t know the mechanisms behind it,” said Brown. “This study allows us to rule out the policy mechanism; that improving access to health care, the economic environment or mental health will make a difference.”

Instead, we’re left with a much more difficult question: How do you fix fear?”

Donald Trump believes he can fix fear by constructing a wall on the US southern border—giving rise to fears a wall might actually get built.

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13 Responses to How Do You Fix Fear?

  1. WalStMonky says:
    February 3, 2019 at 12:11 pm

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    Wouldn’t the more salient question be “how do you fix stupid?”
    —————————————————-

    World Health Organization Recommends Reclassifying Marijuana Under International Treaties
    February 1, 2019

    The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for whole-plant marijuana, as well as cannabis resin, to be removed from Schedule IV—the most restrictive category of a 1961 drug convention signed by countries from around the world.

    The body also wants delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its isomers to be completely removed from a separate 1971 drug treaty and instead added to Schedule I of the 1961 convention, according to a WHO document that has not yet been formally released but was circulated by cannabis reform advocates.

    Marijuana and cannabis resin would also remain in Schedule I of the 1961 treaty—they are currently dual-designated in Schedules I and IV, with IV being reserved for those substances that are seen as particularly harmful with limited medical benefits. (That’s different from the U.S. federal system, under which Schedule I is where the supposedly most dangerous and restricted drugs—like marijuana, heroin and LSD—are classified.)

    WHO is also moving to make clear that cannabidiol and CBD-focused preparations containing no more than 0.2 percent THC are “not under international control” at all. It had previously been the case that CBD wasn’t scheduled under the international conventions, but the new recommendation is to make that even more clear.

  2. Weed Idolatry says:
    February 3, 2019 at 1:00 pm

    This post reminds me of a t-shirt I saw on a large man.

    Everyone has plans until they get punched in the face

    Kevin Phillips in his book American Theocracy claims religion “feeds a willingness to war.” I believe any discussion on how to fix fear must acknowledge the fear-inducing practices of religion and how religion creates the “other.”

    Monotheism is a fear factory. One way to fix fear would be to reduce the role of religion in society.

  3. WalStMonky says:
    February 5, 2019 at 12:03 pm

    .
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    I often find myself wondering “why does it appear that no one outside of law reform advocates is worried about ‘Big Addictionology’ and its caustic effect on our society?”
    <blockquote>Traffic deaths rose, then fell, after three states legalized marijuana. But that’s not the entire story.
    February 5, 2019

    /snip/
    A study published today in the journal Addiction found that, on average, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington state (all of which have legalized medical marijuana) had about one additional traffic death per million residents. The same effect was true for the neighboring states, probably because people drive across state lines to buy cannabis. In total, there were about 170 extra deaths in the first six months after legalization.

    Never let the facts get in the way of disseminating an effective piece of hysterical rhetoric” ~~ The Prohibitionist’s Motto

    • primus says:
      February 5, 2019 at 2:26 pm

      Can’t help but wonder what happened to the death statistics following the repeal of alcohol prohibition.

      • DdC says:
        February 6, 2019 at 12:13 am

        It wasn’t illegal to drink alcohol during Prohibition. The 18th Amendment only forbade the “manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors”—not their consumption. By law, any wine, beer or spirits Americans had stashed away in January 1920 were theirs to keep and enjoy in the privacy of their homes. Jan 16, 2015

        The Ganjawar profits on cages and courts, for possession, inhaling or not. Prohibituals profit on misery they create. Booze is better for profits “treating” drunk’s driving victims to the crashes. Ganja use was thought to be another cash cow when newbies started spiking the graphs. Only to be saddened when they returned to previous #s. Combined with lower opioid use and even an aid to alcohol and pharma drugs withdrawal or as an alternative. Toss in Hemp and the Fossil Fools are nervous. Wellness is a commie plot.

        Of coarse the Church wants their cut.

        Illinois bishops want lawmakers
        to vote ‘no’ to legalizing recreational marijuana

        And the cheerleaders
        we pay with our taxes…

        DEA Denver Verified account
        Dabbing (inhaling of marijuana concentrate – wax/shatter) causes lung injury which mimics symptoms of pneumonia!!
        https://t.co/rPi5PKnhEL

        Cummings Announces Hearing With ONDCP Director
        on New White House Drug Strategy

        Tax Paid Propagandist

        The Tainted Herb
        The History of Marijuana Stigma
        https://t.co/H5vRYSEQQN

  4. strayan says:
    February 6, 2019 at 1:41 am

    https://amp.greenvilleonline.com/amp/2746412002?

    Jarrod Bruder, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association who frequently lobbies for law enforcement interests at the Statehouse, said that without the incentive of profit from civil forfeiture, officers probably wouldn’t pursue drug dealers and their cash as hard as they do now.

    If police don’t get to keep the money from forfeiture, “what is the incentive to go out and make a special effort?” Bruder said. “What is the incentive for interdiction?”

    • kaptinemo says:
      February 6, 2019 at 4:51 pm

      Well, it’s been known from the beginning that ‘civil forfeiture’ is like inflation, a de facto invisible tax on (certain) people, to fund law enforcement organization’s ever-growing fiscal greed.

      And when economic times get tight, and it becomes politically expensive to give more funding to police organizations when there are calls to re-allocate resources for social welfare/safety net programs, police organizations are very happy indeed for this largely ‘underground’ revenue source.

      But what is amazing here is that all pretense regarding the purpose of the DrugWar has been dropped, to reveal the naked, seething greed writhing at the core, like worms in a rotten apple.

      Forget the Straussian ‘noble lie’ about “Savin’ the chilluns frum derugs!”, its all about the money. And Mr. Bruder, candidly, brashly, and seemingly without a scintilla of self-awareness about how in-your-face corrupt this looks, obliviously blurts out the bald-faced truth of it.

      He’s either too stupid to realize what he’s done, or he arrogantly doesn’t care. In any event, he’s given reason, courtesy of that investigative series, to have some unwelcome political scrutiny aimed in his direction and that of his benefactors.

      • strayan says:
        February 8, 2019 at 8:57 am

        kap are you on Twitter? If not please for the love of god get on Twitter.

        • kaptinemo says:
          February 8, 2019 at 4:33 pm

          Strayan, sorry, I don’t do much social media at all. I’ve always been suspicious of such venues, and that suspicion was vindicated with the WikiLeaks revelations about intelligence agencies conducting domestic spying via ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) and ‘social media’ being a goldmine for them to accomplish that domestic spying.

          When you hear former Cold War KGB operatives grumbling that they wish that they had had such free access to what people are just practically gushing all over the ‘Net via ‘social media’, then it’s time to re-assess ‘social media’s value.

          The very concept of privacy has been so stretched and deformed that it is barely recognizable. What tattered shreds of my privacy remain I shall guard jealously, and so I’ll remain a techno-anachronism WRT ‘social media’, even though my forte is IT. Ya gotta draw the line, somewhere…

    • DdC says:
      February 6, 2019 at 5:15 pm

      “If we keep together we shall be safe, and when error is so apparentas to become visible to the majority, they will correct it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
      https://twitter.com/DendeCannabist/status/1093066319723778048

  5. DdC says:
    February 6, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    Former California Governor Jerry Brown
    Won’t Stop Insulting Marijuana Consumers
    And Legalization Advocates
    https://tinyurl.com/stigmatizingidiots
    Just a month after leaving office, Brown sat down with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd at a writers festival and made a series of dismissive remarks about cannabis and the people who use it.

    ☛ Maureen Dowd Tries Edible Marijuana
    And Has A Really, Really Bad Trip
    https://t.co/vLKGvgohhf

    ☛ The Tainted Herb
    The History of Marijuana Stigma
    https://t.co/H5vRYSEQQN

    ☛ The evolution of the stigma on marijuana
    and attempts to tear it down
    https://t.co/1iSsE4sSKT

    ☛ Study: Legal Risks Stop New Mothers
    from Asking About Marijuana Safety
    https://t.co/x3Mf7KBEIl

    ☛ California Governor Proposes Massive Prison Expansion
    To Avoid Freeing Inmates     8/27/2013
    https://t.co/RVrEN0XPKc

  6. kaptinemo says:
    February 6, 2019 at 5:07 pm

    When I see and hear Brown, I have a hard time reconciling the fact that, back in the day, he and Linda Rondstadt were a hot item.

    Now he’s nothing more than just another crotchety old fart, waving his cane at the neighbor kids in impotent fury, screaming at them to get off his lawn. Bugger-off, Jerry, you sellout. California, once the gem of the US, possessing the 6th largest economy on the planet (and some of that due to the genius of cannabis entrepreneurs), has become a shitehole in no small part thanks to you.

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