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Harris, It sounds to me like you would have an unnaturally close affiliation with some of the more "mentally unstable" types we have seen in past years . Since you call yourself a "Science Officer", I propose an experiment where we bring you out to Pompano Beach, to one of our deep wrecks like the RB Johnson. We will buddy you with another mentally unstable diver, who has been frequently referred to as the "Transformer", (a hideous snagletoothed transexual) and we will observe the effects of "unacceptable personal behaviors" on decision making and risk management at extreme depths. Your desire for reduced IQ and euphoria/narcosis (just a few of the effects of pot smoking) and the transformer's desire for physical thrills at any price (abhorrent as they may be, and as likely to lead to death by several unsavory causes), should be an interesting example of your own statements about how personal behavior in the home will not effect diving skills, and I quote:>>> "... what they do in the privacy >>>of their own homes or after the diving and sample processing is done is none >>>of my business and in my opinion, irrelevant." It is my opinion, and I know George and many others will back me up on this, that any person who demonstrates mental instability (as in the above exampes) can not be trusted to make safe decisions in a technical diving or deep cave diving environment. They would be a danger to themselves, and to us as well if we were to try to assist them. This has to do with "choices". It has to do with how well "wired" you are to make "safe" decisions. You can not be under any delusion that cigarette smoking is not going to cause cancer in most people, and that it will ABSOLUTELY damage your lungs and cause markedly decreased gas exchange function (very relevant to extreme exposure diving). Pot smoking has been demonstrated to cause much greater scarring of the alveoli than cigarette smoking, so endorsement of this behavior shows an extremely faulty risk accesment system that you are flaunting on the Internet. In this, you are not much worse than the transformer, whose abhorent sexual practices will undoubtedly lead to its untimely (or maybe timely) demise. Perhaps with counseling, you may learn to make proper decisions in the future, but right now having you on a tech dive would be begging for video footage of a deep diver death. To prevent this, I recommend you pay George several thousand dollars for a week's worth of his counseling. And if we find he can't help you, we can team you up with the transformer, and the two of you can kill yourselves in the privacy of someone's home... where the deaths will not be attributed to diving. Dan Harris Martin, December 12, 1995 on "cavers" > "Science Officer", US Deep Caving Team posted the following: Now if some say that >>>because a cave diver is non-hogarthian, is a beer drinker, ciggarette smoker, >>>or pot smoker, that they are patently unsafe for doing any kind of research >>>dives, that I reject as nonsense. To say that I should only work with divers >>>who configure their gear in a particular way, is nonsense (based on my >>>experiense and the Australian experience). Of course I can not have divers >>>sampling when they are high in any way. However, what they do in the privacy >>>of their own homes or after the diving and sample processing is done is none >>>of my business and in my opinion, irrelevant >> > - Harris Martin, December 12, 1995 on "cavers" > "Science Officer", US Deep Caving Team Dan Volker SOUTH FLORIDA DIVE JOURNAL "The Internet magazine for Underwater Photography and mpeg Video" http://www.florida.net/scuba/dive 407-683-3592
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