In general I support drug decriminalization for ethical and economic reasons, although I draw the line when people suggest that, for instance, smoking pot is good for you.
One need not make the argument particularly in matters of personal choice that if something is bad for you it should therefore be illegal. Being a fat guy is bad for me, for instance, but I have not yet been sent to prison as a result of my impersonation of Moby Dick.
Anyway, a researcher on the active receptor for marijuana, the molecules that are in action when people get high on pot (which I personally do not recommend), cannabanoid receptors had to retract a paper recently because he plaguerized, um, himself.
You can't make this stuff up.
The link below comes from...
...newsletter, Biotechniques.com.
Harvard Researcher Plaguerizes Self
Two separate research papers from a team of Harvard researchers have been retracted due to duplicate publication of data. The studies were led by Hava Karsenty Avraham, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Both papers describe how lipid-signaling molecules—called endocannabinoids—act through cannabinoid receptors to play a role in trafficking hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow into general circulation. The first was published 12 November 2010 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) and was “withdrawn by the authors” on 31 May 2011 without further explanation. The journal’s director of publications, Nancy Rodnan, declined to comment on the matter, citing confidentiality.
Two separate research papers from a team of Harvard researchers have been retracted due to duplicate publication of data. The second paper was published 20 January 2011 in the journal Blood and then retracted on 24 June 2011. According to the journal’s retraction notice, the two papers had “multiple instances of duplicate (redundant) publication of data, text, and images that are nonessential to the paper.” Blood editor-in-chief Cynthia Dunbar did not respond to a request for more information on the incident...
...In cases of duplicate or redundant publication, it is common for the second published paper, where the duplicated data was published, to be retracted. But in this case, Dittel speculated that the decision to retract both papers resulted from a decision by the authors, their institution, and/or the journals to act conservatively until further investigation into the matter could be completed.
Neither Avraham nor the first authors of the papers could be reached for comment. Harvard Medical School’s director of external relations, David Cameron, provided BioTechniques with a statement issued by Harvard Medical School that reiterated the confidential nature of the matter and suggested that the university was reviewing the matter.
Maybe they "couldn't be reached," because, um, of their receptor activation experiments.
I don't actually have a sense of humor, but if I did, this diary would represent it.