Posted on 06/10/2005 2:32:31 PM PDT by Nachum
It is this reporter's opinion that each generation in turn takes a new look at the marijuana question. Now it's this generation's turn. In a 6-to-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-marijuana statutes overrule the laws in ten states that allow the use of marijuana plants to ease pain or nausea.
Fifty years ago, as a much younger television reporter, I did a series of interviews with Dr. Hardin B. Jones, Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Jones, in his thorough study, raised disturbing questions about marijuana's effects on the vital systems of the body, on the brain and mind, on immunity and resistance, and on sex reproduction.
Dr. Jones addressed such problems of society as the hazards to non-smokers, crime, the law, and the effect of widespread smoking among the military – including atomic weapons personnel. And he didn't stop there. The good doctor included telling comments from interviews conducted with scores of marijuana users and ex-users.
I concluded, after this exhaustive study, that the very idea of legalizing marijuana is to follow a senseless, immoral, perilous path – a slippery slope, that the use of marijuana is dangerous on many fronts, that it impairs memory, alters time perception, reduces coordination, damages the immune system, is psychologically habit-forming and creates a wide range of effects on moods and behavior.
Dr. Jones offered an open letter to parents. Following are the main points discussed in his letter:
Marijuana is not a benign drug. Use of this drug impairs learning and judgment and may lead to the development of mental health problems.
Smoking marijuana can injure or destroy lung tissue.
Teens who are high on marijuana are less able to make safe, smart decisions about sex, including knowing when to say "no."
Marijuana can impair perception and reaction time, putting young drivers and others in danger.
Marijuana use may trigger panic attacks, paranoia, and even psychoses.
Marijuana can impair concentration and the ability to retain information during a teen's peak learning years.
Recent research indicates a correlation between frequent marijuana use and aggressive or violent behavior.
Dr. Jones concludes: MARIJUANA IS ADDICTIVE, and says that more teens are in treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined.
Personally, I recall one visitation to a rehabilitation center where we interviewed recovering heroin addicts. We had to interview 25 hard-core drug users before we found a single one who had not started with marijuana!
As for those who say they must rely on marijuana to treat their pain, Dr. Jones cited a Washington University School of Medicine study on the subject: the experiment on twenty young men who were experienced marijuana smokers. Before and after they smoked reefers, electric impulses of different strengths were applied to their fingers and pain thresholds recorded. It was a method that earlier had verified the pain-killing effects of morphine, aspirin and codeine. MARIJUANA NOT ONLY FAILED TO LESSEN PAIN, IT ACTUALLY INCREASED IT! That finding casts doubt on the usefulness of marijuana as an analgesic.
The same facts and conclusions are repeated generation after generation with the same conclusion: DON'T EVER LEGALIZE POT!
OMG... you are insane. Do you have posters of Nancy Reagan on your walls?
MJ users are no more likely to "mix it with everything they can" then your average bar-hopper. Let me ask you this.... if just about every heavy heroin abuser has smoked pot AND drank beer, AND smoked cigs... which is the "gateway"?
Just remember all these pro-pot people are pathetic users. Don't let it get to you. They can't quit, pity them.
I'm sure in many cases, even their parents still pray for them over this issue.
Hate to bust your buzz, but...
http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevent2.htm
Street Drugs increase risk of Schizophrenia - Use of street drugs (marijuana/hash - cannabis, etc.) have been linked with significantly increased probability of developing schizophrenia.
Psychiatrists in inner-city areas speak of cannabis being a factor in up to 80 per cent of schizophrenia cases. Researchers in New Zealand found that those who used cannabis by the age of 15 were more than three times (300%) more likely to develop illnesses such as schizophrenia.
Other research has backed this up, showing that cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis by up to 700 per cent for heavy users, and that the risk increases in proportion to the amount of cannabis used (smoked or consumed).
Additionally, the younger a person smokes/uses cannabis, the higher the risk for schizophrenia, and the worse the schizophrenia is when the person does develop it.
Except that tobacco is considered the gateway drug by researchers.
He talked about pot being bad drug to stay away from 50 years ago. Lots more evidense since then of course.
Also warned about illegals, headed up Prop 13, Doug From Upland was a regular there at times.
Great guy.
Started younger on the wrong side, but corrected his course in short order.
Well your entitled to your opinon...
So am I.. I am correct of course.. You are for the status quo..
WHich seems to be working.?. The Status Quo or my idea.. WHich has not been tried yet..
The use of pot as not waned in the 50 years I've been following it.. I don't use the stuff. I don't like the feeling.. But many I mean many I know of havn't suffered.. from it.. except for the effects that make them stupid.. like booze.. I get stupid every now and again with beer.. I like beer..
Forbidding stupidity, is "STUPID"... People want to get stupid.. Hell some some try religion.. some are democrats.. People should be allowed to get stupid, it should be a "RIGHT"... Pot is only another way.. But I just don't like the feeling it gives me.. physically.. many are like that.. So we don't use it..
In a FREE REPUBLIC people should have a right to get stupid..
Intelligently.
I'll defend his right to be temporarily overcome with self-righteous idiocy, but LIMITS and MODERATION to his puritanical pleasure must be a prerequisite.
Nobody has the right to recreational self medicate with pot or anything else.
You have all kinds of problems made for employers, families, medical facilities and so on.
I see no connection between drugs and intelligence.
"I see no connection between drugs and intelligence."
I do, all the people I knew that went on pot turned into lazy ass loser pizza drivers. The ones that didn't, ended up with management jobs.
So you're calling for a ban on coffee, nicotine and alcohol.... yes? Or are you one of those selective "morally superior" pains-in-the-ass?
I guess you have a point, all the potheads from high school I remember either died from heavier drugs, went on government assistance or drove off roads on the way to colleges and killed themselves.
True stuff by the way!
Of what you posted, though I don't drink coffee, don't smoke, I do get some caffine.
Alcohol abused is the only one I see there that has an issue. We agree that alcohol abuse is wrong.
Ahhhhh but do we both agree that alcohol abuse is a much, MUCH bigger problem than legal or illegal pot has EVER been?
That is the point (supported by an avalanche of evidence) that you are in dire need of understanding.
I for one think that adult folks should have the right to make there own decisions about what sortsa recreational chems they wish to ingest - and make no mistake about it, Mr. Teetotaler, caffeine is a powerful mood-enhancer. Which is why humanity has been fascinated with it since its initial discovery.
See below. Note "anodyne" means "serving to assuage pain." From Herbs that Heal: Prescription for Herbal Healing by Michael A. Weiner, Ph.D and Janet A Weiner, 1994:
Marijuana: This illegal weed has proven to be an effective treatment for glaucoma and an aid for cancer patients undergoing chemotgherapy.
Currently an illegal drug in almost every country of the world, Cannabis has enjoyed a long and respectable history as a medicinal agent....Cannabis was formerly utilized in medicine to treat insomnia, allay pain, and sooth restlessness...Cannabis has been given in the treatment of neuralgias, spasmodic coughs as in pertussis and asthma, as well as in tetanus and hydrophobia and other painful spasmodic diseases...[I]t was recognized in the 1918 U.S. Dispensatory as a general nerve sedative for use in hysteria, mental depression, and neurasthenia.
...Although many refer to Marijuana as a "narcotic" or "hallucinogen," in a strict scientific sense neither term is applicable. Marijuana is not "addicting,"nor does it produce true hallucinations, except in extremely high does. Its anodyne and soporific action resembles that of Opium, but without the undesirable aftereffects of constipation and appetite loss.
Recent clinical experience demonstrates that Cannabis has a wide range of useful applications in medicine. Certain types of glaucoma that are resistant to conventional types of treatment can be controlled by smoking Marijuana. Administration of THC to cancer patients who experience nausea and vomiting as a common side-effect of chemotherapy produces relief of those symptions.[bold in original text]
Based on results of human studies, other remarkable effects of THC are to relieve pain, control seizures of epilepsy, relieve symptoms of asthma, and to act as a sedative. It is now well established that the use of Marijuana in the treatment of pain, to induce sleep, and for other maladies, has been fully justified on the basis of solid scientific evidence. Indeed if it were not for the undesirable mind-altering side effects, Marijuana would probably be widely used in the practice of medicine.
It isn't an issue, alcohol abuse is wrong, pot is wrong.
You can drink and do good things for your digestion and thin your blood, it is specifically mentioned as a food purifier in the Bible.
Pot has tons of negatives that I listed earlier by at least two articles full of scientific studies. Nothing makes it worth of legalization except for the very sick IMO.
Mind you, I know the difference between moderate or less use of alcohol versus abuse. I bet you do also.
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