Pubdate: Fri, 03 May 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: John P. Walters
Note: John P. Walters is director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy.
Note: From Newsday Editor: This is from The Washington Post.
Also: This does not contain the closing segment from Walters' original OPED 
from the Washington Post which discussed the violent 'marijuana dealer 
gangs' that plagued DC. For tips on responding by a Letter to the Editor 
please see
Alert: Drug Czar Ignores IOM Report, Record of Failure 
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0239.html

'HARMLESS' MARIJUANA? DON'T BET YOUR LIFE ON IT

In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey, 
"Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very 
little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat.

Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our 
nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 
percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once 
prior to graduation - and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month.

After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories such 
as the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness," we've become almost conditioned to 
think that any warnings about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown.

But marijuana is far from "harmless." Today's marijuana is different from 
that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger.

Marijuana directly affects the brain. It impairs the ability of young 
people to concentrate and retain information during their peak learning 
years and when their brains are still developing. The THC in marijuana 
attaches itself to receptors in the hippocampal region of the brain, 
weakening short-term memory and interfering with the mechanisms that form 
long-term memory.

Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student 
achievement? Marijuana smoking can hurt more than just grades. According to 
the Department of Health and Human Services, the number of 
marijuana-related emergency room admissions is growing. Each year, for 
example, marijuana use is linked to tens of thousands of serious traffic 
accidents.

Research has now established that marijuana is, in fact, addictive. Of the 
4.3 million Americans who meet the diagnostic criteria for needing drug 
treatment (criteria developed by the American Psychiatric Association) 
two-thirds are dependent on marijuana, according to Health and Human 
Services. These are people with real problems directly traceable to their 
use of marijuana, including significant health problems, emotional problems 
and difficulty in cutting down on use. Sixty percent of teens in drug 
treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis.

Despite this and other strong scientific evidence of marijuana's 
destructive effects, a cynical campaign is under way to proclaim the 
virtues of "medical" marijuana. By now, most Americans realize that the 
push to "normalize" marijuana for medical use is part of the drug 
legalization agenda. Its chief funders, George Soros, John Sperling and 
Peter Lewis, have spent millions of dollars to help pay for referendums and 
ballot initiatives in states from Alaska to Maine.

The University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is 
currently conducting scientific studies to determine the efficacy of 
marijuana in treating various ailments.Many questions remain unanswered, 
but the science is clear on a few things.

Example: Marijuana contains hundreds of carcinogens.

Moreover, anti-smoking efforts aimed at youth have been remarkably 
effective by building on a campaign to erode the social acceptability of 
tobacco. Should we undermine those efforts by promoting smoked marijuana as 
though it were a medicine? Although medical marijuana initiatives are based 
on pseudo-science, their effects on the criminal justice system are 
anything but imaginary. By opening up legal loopholes, existing medical 
marijuana laws have caused police and prosecutors to stay away from 
marijuana prosecutions.

Giving marijuana dealers a free pass is a terrible idea.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake