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 like smoking weed. I'll continue to do so.
Marking.
The issue wasn't rock and roll, it was about the hippie drug culture surrounding it. Often overtaking many people in music today even, right?
I leaned what Junk Science looks like. Coincidence is not causality, no matter how fervently you wish it so.
See, proof that no proof will be enough for those wanting their illegal recreational drugs.
Thanks for your honesty.
Science is science. The studies you cite prove nothing. Play your immature word games all you want.
Slim to none.
The issue is whether FedGov should undertake healthcare as if the citizens are an asset of the State.
I don't think so. Some cancer patients use marijuana to reduce the nausea produced by chemotherapy, but I have never heard it touted as a pain-killer.
Study exposes mental effects of pot
what is the mental effects of TV? Of Junk food? Of Drinking Booze? What a silly study.
I quite smoking years ago. There is no reason to let the dealers and the terror element collect all the money spent on weed. The war on drugs is the biggest joke in my lifetime. How many people are in serious addictive states due to legal prescription drugs? Why are people like you so opinionated towards pot and could give a hoot about booze and prescription drugs? Makes me wonder.
Study exposes mental effects of pot
According to the New Scientist, there was hardly enough reliable evidence to support the idea that cannabis use could cause such mental illnesses until now. The lack of good evidence has delayed studies in finding harmful effects of a seemingly harmless drug.
One of the main conclusions of the research was that people who start smoking cannabis as young adults were at the greatest risk of later developing mental health problems. Another study done by an associated team concluded that depression and schizophrenia in the United Kingdom's population could be reduced by 13 percent if marijuana use was eradicated.
They concluded that regular marijuana use led to educational failure and unemployment, which could increase the risk of depression.
Researchers at King's College London, UK, analyzed continuous data taken on over 1000 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, and found that people who used cannabis by age 16 were four times as likely to have a diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder (a milder version of schizophrenia) at age 27 than those who didn't use the drug.
Another study done to see the drug's effects on the lungs was coupled with research done on the long-term mental effects of cannabis usage. According to the New Scientist, The British Lung Council concluded in a recent study that smoking marijuana was as bad if not worse than smoking cigarettes.
Furthermore, the cannabis produced and harvested now had been proven to be 10 to 12 times stronger than the trees smoked in the "flower-power' generation
By further examining marijuana joints, the scientists found that the tar from a joint contains concentrations of carcinogens benzathracenes and benzpyrenes up to 50 percent higher than tobacco smoke, and that THC, which is the most concentrated psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, destroys the immune system cells that help protect the lungs from infection.
Just a few parts of the article for those who want current stuff.
http://www.jhunewsletter.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/11/3e95e7d8a6ea7
See #71 and repent.
You're a knucklehead if you truly believe this drivel.
MJ is no where NEAR as damaging as alcohol. Nor does it produce nearly the number of addicts as the "Jesus Juice".
The guy turned around after his youth and has been a total conservative fighting illegal immigration for 20 years, he is very responsible for helping Howard Jarvis pass Prop 13 which allowed Californians to afford their houses.
What you are saying is so crazed, that people will read you and believe you to be some third party libertarian type here to post your allegiance to illegal drugs.
Hard to believe...
It does indeed. And if it were somehow hypothetically just discovered that alcohol could be used as a mind-altering recreational drug, it would certainly not be legalized.
Growing your own pot is drug trafficking.?..
Really.. trafficking is one thing, smokeing the crap is another..
Most pot heads I know would smoke it and to be honest might GIVE some to a few friends.. thereby lessening the pot trade.. overall.. Are you "afraid" some might smoke it.. or deprive the gov't of "TAXES".. Be careful here, RINOism is nasty habit..
More nasty than any pot smoker I've met.. RINOism very close to treason... And I've been following RINOism for at least 30 years..
Hell if it was legal to grow it, I might grow a bit just to do it..
Which clause of the Constitution would be the one that covers the attempt to impose common sense?
Or desire to get high out of stupidity perhaps!
I think that the desire to get high is generally stupid. Maybe we should make stupidity illegal.
hide your shame..
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