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!
I want to meet that czar.
Why do you ignore all the more dangerous drugs that kill more children and innocent people than pot ever did? Do really have any idea how full of Sheet the Government is about illegal drugs?
I for one would make pot legal and collapse thousand if not millions of dealers, smugglers , and terrorists around the world. I would use all the money to help the abused children of alcoholic parents for starters.
The money saved by law enforcement , the Court system, Lawyers, Incarceration, would be huge. The benefits out weigh all the pro illegal arguments hands down. gee all the people that are getting stoned ALREADY now pay the US Government to do instead of Poppy down on Clinton Ave.
Marijuana is total crap and is best left alone for everyone's sake. It isn't worth your life.
Do you agree the War on Drug is the single biggest waste of money in the history of this country?
All of them involved in illegal drugs are scum.
Most certainly not a behavior found in conservatism.
Can be found all over DU though, here look...
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=marijuana&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F&safe=images
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050610/the_compassion_drug.php
"The campaign to legalize marijuana for medical use deserves a home in the Democratic Party"
Marijuana is much, much safer than alcohol. This is an indisputable scientific fact.
Alcohol kills tens of thousands of people each year. It kills them quickly, with alcohol poisoning. It kills them slowly, with liver cirrhosis, heart failure and cancer. Of all the poisons known to man, it is one of only twenty-five or thirty which is unquestionably proven to cause birth defects.
Marijuana never -- never-- killed anyone by overdose, and far fewer than alcohol in car wrecks. I'd drive a thousand miles with a pot-head at the wheel before I'd go around the block with a staggering drunk. The same is true of crimes of violence; there's simply no comparison between a whacked out pot head watching TV and eating Pringles by the can, versus a mean drunk looking for a fight in a bar.
If alcohol had just been discovered, busybodies of your ilk would be clamoring for it to be treated as a Schedule I drug, with lengthy prison sentences for mere possession.
I think free men ought to be allowed to destroy themselves by whatever means they see fit, and that the health of this nation would be substantially improved by a switch from alcohol to marijuana. Anybody who can argue that alcohol should be legal and marijuana should not, is an IDIOT and no true conservative.
--ccm
You, sir, are a G**-damned liar.
-ccm
"Recent research indicates a correlation between frequent marijuana use and aggressive or violent behavior"
In my experience, they were always quite mellow.
What an excellent argument for getting rid of zero-tolerance policies in our schools, and putting an end to prison sentences for harmless pot-heads.
The War on Drugs is more dangerous to America than the drugs themselves. Anybody who supports drug criminalization is a traitor to the American way of life. You are simply not a conservative if you support the War on Drugs as it currently exists. You are a statist and a fool, certainly, but you are no conservative.
-ccm
Only abuse of alcohol is a problem, not all alcohol use is bad at all, matter of fact it's food purification benefits go back to the Bible itself.
Your stick about pot though is best directed towards DU or addicts, the rest won't buy your hype.
How defensive and paranoid of you...
You pro addiction lackys are too much with the far out things you like to post. Check out DU for similar posts to yours all over the place.
You ranting and anger seem to betray your own pot user descriptions... Funny how angry users are. Depressed. Schizophrenic.
Oh, see my 110 btw.. A true democrat/liberal position you take.
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