Posted on 08/15/2018 9:06:53 AM PDT by fwdude
Yesterday I visited our local bookstore and was struck by the abundance of magazine covers promoting marijuana. Later my wife commented that she’s received two ads this week for cannabis products, something she’s never received before! What’s going on?
In case you haven’t noticed or are simply distracted by the busyness of life, propaganda promoting marijuana and its legalization is bombarding us. Should we be concerned about something that is celebrated as a “harmless recreational” indulgence that progressive people should embrace excitedly?
Recently our state newspaper ran a prominent piece by a young woman calling for weed to be legalized. Coincidentally, she works for a statewide cannabis advocacy group. Reading her arguments and questionable statistics made me wonder if we should begin distributing marijuana freely since she opines it is so harmless and beneficial!
What follows is my pushback to the propaganda. Feel free to “borrow” any and all my counterpoints for op-eds you can submit, exposing the seductive logic.
Let’s Get Serious
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, dxxxxd lies and statistics,” said Mark Twain. He was pointing out the use of statistics to bolster weak or fallacious arguments. The dope supporter whose article appeared in our newspaper, typical of many, deserved a five star Pinocchio award for her misleading stats and misguided presentation.
Recently, I had an in-depth conversation with a police officer formerly on paid leave who has since retired. He was rehabilitating from a serious injury sustained when he confronted a young man about to commit a crime who was stoned on marijuana. He subsequently assaulted the officer, tearing his rotator cuff. He now faces numerous felony offenses plus decades behind bars, in addition to the impounding of his car containing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps, often appears in the news with his lovely wife and two little boys celebrating his success emerging from rehab and his near-death experience. “Not wanting to be alive anymore” at one point, the champion who smoked marijuana, deceived it would not affect his ability to excel, now swears off any drugs as he encourages youth to emulate his example.
Close to where I live, a 33-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her reckless driving which resulted in the death of a teenager helping change his mother’s flat tire. The THP report showed her high on drugs and impaired in her driving ability as she callously fled the scene of the homicide. She’ll now have many decades to ponder her stupidity, recreational drug usage and the devastation it brought her and a grieving family.
With scores of people killed, maimed, or disabled for life from drunk driving, especially by young people, do we really want to compound the problem by adding marijuana to the mix? Teens can think they are invincible and adding a joint can seem innocuous until the tragedy happens, which it does all too frequently.
Contrary to what drug proponents profess, marijuana and other drugs take a toll—eventually, if not immediately. Drugs don’t deliver as advertised. Why do you think they call it “dope?”
Even pot-smoking, poster boy Willie Nelson, battling emphysema and pneumonia four or five times, admits his lungs have gotten “really screwed up.”
In Willie’s own words, “There’s been a lot of talk about marijuana being harmless, but I think it’s a lot more dangerous to the lungs than most dope smokers realize. Especially the strong marijuana that’s around these days. Each year it seems to get a little stronger … your lungs are not really supposed to breath anything but oxygen—pure, fresh air.”
How about the tragic, premature deaths of both Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse portrayed in recent documentaries? Both got started on the path to their destruction the exact same way, smoking weed, those “harmless” joints.
Research Studies Should Not Be Ignored As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on the TV program Dragnet, “Just the facts!” so here they are …
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency states: “U.S. drug overdose kills more people than traffic accidents and gun incidents.” The total number cited was 46,471! If we could ask these victims how many started on marijuana or maintained their marijuana usage along with other drugs, I wonder how many would hang their heads in regret wishing they’d never succumbed to the seduction of the Pied Piper’s enticement onto this pernicious path?
My best friend growing up started experimenting with recreational drugs when he started college with me. What started as a fun escape spiraled into his premature death in his mid-20s. I carry an ache in my heart to this day from this experience.
When marijuana proponents glorify drugs and celebrate its “harmless” even “beneficial effect,” they should take heed to the words of an expert, Dr. Ed Gogek, an addiction psychiatrist. He wrote the following in the uber-liberal New York Times: “I’ve spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers and they are con artists…. Marijuana activists are phony scientists. For years they said marijuana is good for glaucoma when it actually worsens it! They said it is not addictive and this is false! They said it doesn’t increase usage among teenagers and all evidence says the opposite…. It is not harmless! Youth do worse in school and have two times the dropout rate while marijuana permanently lowers their IQ.”
Joseph Califano, head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, declares without qualification that “pot smoking adversely affects motor skills and does serious damage to the brain over the long term.” It is a fact that objective studies repeatedly show that regular users find their IQ dropping and all cognitive functions hindered. Finally, a recent study from Northwestern University established clearly that teen “potheads” had brain abnormalities related to poor short-term memory performance. Healthy individuals who did not use marijuana scored 37 times better on average than users—not just addicts—who had smoked pot in the past. The National Institute of Health makes it clear: “One in six youth who try marijuana before age 18 will either abuse it or will become addicted.” Those are dangerous odds, parents. Is this what we want for our children and grandchildren? What’s Happening in Massachusetts? The state of Massachusetts jumped on the bandwagon to legalize marijuana. After a number of months, a study was done to discover the impact on young people. The results are sobering and startling: currently 1/2 of youth ages 18–25 have smoked marijuana in the past month!
In the classic film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy finally pulled back the curtain and exposed the deceiving mastermind behind the façade. May we do likewise amid celebrities and other pot promoters who glamorize toking up, some under the ruse of the “medical marijuana” argument (which can have some medicinal benefits but it’s not the only alternative).
A little while ago, in the mall where I daily exercise, a middle-aged mother darted from the coffee shop and stammered these words amidst her tears, “They just found my daughter dead!” She proceeded to tell me about her 27-year-old daughter who met a young fellow who influenced her to start smoking dope. Prior to this encounter, “she had never been involved with any drugs” but this was the gateway to her death and her mother’s devastation.
Here’s the deal: Scripture says, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:22). People will accuse us of being “fear mongers,” but we must not back down. Let’s winsomely and confidently communicate the truth about this massive deception permeating America today.
Main Street Drive Thru Liquor
1005 E Main St, Mandan, ND
Meet the Business Owners: Shawn and Jerry moved to North Dakota in 2012. They came in with a different mindset being from a different area made them realize the need for a drive thru liquor.
https://www.facebook.com/mainstreetdt/?rf=468732593256276
Just because a person wants to do something doesn’t mean that person is addicted to that thing, even if they want to do it really darn badly all the time.
Physical addiction to a substance is totally different.
~~~~
They will always say they only enjoying and as you say they just ‘want’ it, but then they are sneaking out of work to hit some, or driving at strange hours of the night because they are out, or otherwise displaying high risk behaviors that they will rationalize away. You ask them about it and they become very defensive and agitated... classic signs of dependency. They can’t consciously acknowledge the need to themselves, so they certainly wont admit it to you, and attempts to get them to will be met with hostility.
I used to buy into the psychological dependency versus physical addiction argument, but I even question that anymore. If you get them to let their gaurd down, such as when they are talking to other chronic users, they will admit things like “I just can’t relax without it” or “I’m going to need more of it to get though [fill in the blank]”
That depends on the whiskey!
Apparently, President George Washington thought that defending a whiskey tax was the right position.
-PJ
What percentage of the time would you say you drive at or below the posted speed limit?
With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility.
This being true, our country has a vested interest in Making America Great Again.
That goal is unattainable as long as we deregulate common sense laws and force same sex marriage, pro-dope laws, transgender rights, feces in the streets, open border policies and thousands of other liberaltarian ideals and objectives.
My problem with this is that pot is still a Schedule 1 drug. This means that companies who want to explore industrial hemp possibilities are out of luck. Currently US companies have to import hemp, becasue across most of the country growing it is illegal. The 2018 Farm Bill passed int he Senate made industrial hemp legal; the House blocked it's passage, though.
Low ball estimates of the industrial hemp market in the US at around $688M a year. That's $688M without a single puff of a joint.
Have no problem at all with the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, Cannabidiol, which can be produced from HEMP plants now genetically re-engineered to produce only Cannabidiol and ZERO THC (the psychoactive stoner component). CBD oil can be incorporated in agents as a pain reliever (non-opioid) topical, oral and vaped. CBD is a component of recently FDA approved seizure disorder pharmaceutical from the UK. The Israelis have patented the hemp/cannabis that has ZERO to almost zero THC. They are marketing this CBD oil source, as well as potentially breaking the Canadian “lock” on fiber producing Hemp plants.
THC has zero.. no clinical value as a pain reliever. It is legally approved (synthetically) as the product Marinol (tm) indicated to inspire appetite in bedridden elderly who are in danger of starving from lack of normal nutrition brought on by psycho social and nutritional deficiencies. It is effective in that usage. (Much as THC is effective in illegal pot— in creating feminized males with man tits and Oreo cookie pear shaped fatty waistlines... just saying, LOL). Sure to be flamed here— but talk to other clinical pharmacology experts who are not on the payroll of the “machine”.
reno wants to ban everything from tobacco to pit bulls. He is not much of a free type of person. I’m not sure why he is here.
whether physically or habituation related— the “dosing” of the destructive agent is merely a matter of semantics. The “dose” is administered regularly to affect the destruction.
An argument in semantics. Input of agent results in output of behaviour and clinically significant end points.
It’s no use debating pot smokers. They just repeat the same old bogus studies and false statistics to justify the right to kill off brain cells. Oh, and other harmful substances are legal too, so why not. Except pot also is really good for you, it kills cancer and stuff. It’s true, it’s on the internet.
Legalizing a previously illegal, illicit mind-altering substance (state-wise) always metastasizes into unintended consequences that the stupid never, ever anticipate. They don’t want to.
Professional organizations (MD’s, CPA, Legal, law enforcement, etc.) have standards of conduct for certain activities. Most look unfavorably on illicit drug use and deny or revoke membership upon evidence of guilt on this matter. “legalization” of drugs (it’s really not ‘legalized’) in a large degree makes it ‘licit,’ at least in the public mindset. Are these professional groups then no longer allowed to bar membership based on marijuana usage of members or applicants?
Do HS students who are 18 then get to smoke it at lunch or on their free time? College students on campus? Will public college campuses ever be allowed to ban it?
Which you just did, hypocrite.
Is it OK if I use your ad hominem attacks against YOU?
I assume you would NOT want children to freely buy and use marijuana, right? I could be wrong. You could be a complete idiot who thinks it’s fine for 7 years old smoke pot, but for sanity’s sake - I’ll assume you would want to keep pot illegal for kids.
Using your own words - that makes you a dolt.
Having made that clear - won’t you try and use a rational argument next time? Thanks.
Several close friends are transplant surgeons. Heart transplant surgeons. The will NOT transplant a heart into a person who is addicted to tobbacco— for CLINICAL reasons. So— yeah, there is an argument to stop the sale of tobacco. But politically— our “leaders” suck money out of the producers (who now IMPORT tobacco to the US from... Zimbabwe?..Seriously!!) from the tax revenue the addiction produces. And... on another level, the mortality tables of insurers (at least the socialist obamaumaumaocare ones) absolutely LOVE smokers— they have to pay the premiums and the die long before they can access the funds for their own care coverage. Once heard this “subject rate payer” described as a “perfect HMO enrollee” who dies young. And social security too— benefits from death before eligible age. Truth.
Listen, it doesn’t matter what they say or do not say.
Nothing in MJ is physically addictive. Nothing.
They might believe they can’t live without it, they might believe they can’t relax without it, they might believe they can’t sleep without it, but they can.
Someone who has been physically addicted to a substance, such as myself with the substance being alprazolam, knows the difference.
When you are a user of a substance, and your lack of access to that substance or act of quitting use of that substance presents you with a very great chance of literal death, that is when you are addicted.
And even in that state, it is in one’s greatest benefit to endure, find a way to survive the withdrawal, and quit.
If you want to know what true addiction is, take a bunch of benzodiazepines every day at large doses for several years, and then stop. Then you will know.
Do not do what I suggested above. It can kill you. I just said that to illustrate the difference.
A key point left out though is that Philadelphia needs the money.... I mean, if pot is legalized, then Philly wouldn't be able to confiscate your house when they find that your son was dealing pot out of his bedroom.
"Do you really want to be on the same side with the most radical of the left?"
I'm on my side. Frankly, I take offense to your logic. To me, one is a hypocrite if they do not champion the return of prohibition on alcohol while championing the criminalization of pot.
Furthermore, the 'social contract' stuff about the do-we-need-another-problem like alcohol belies personal responsibility and most assuredly is a position of the left.
furthermore, I cannot recall of a reported incident where someone overdosed and died on pot, or beat his wife or shot his neighbor. I'm sure the hit piece would have covered such instances if there were any.... or did I rush through the article too fast, having read the same stuff for years.
Oh, wait till October when pot becomes legal in Canada. Oh, that's right.... They're all commies and we can't do what they do even if it's the right thing, can we.
Please see my post #56.
It most certainly is not an argument in semantics.
I know what I am talking about.
You just described the average libertarian.
Yes, it is an industry of the Big State. There must be a way to get rid of them w/out legalization. That is to say near impossible “clever” law writing which our political types are intellectually incapable of doing (because they too are stoners?) You make very good points. Ones made once by William F. Buckley. My worry is the developing children’s brains— such as they are being warped at the same time by our “edumacators” of the public govt. school State.
Home school— the only way to keep away from this crap.
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