Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jan 2006
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (CO Edu)
Copyright: 2006 Rocky Mountain Collegian
Contact:  http://www.collegian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1370
Author: Vimal Patel

WHAT'S WORSE -- POT OR ALCOHOL?

As A Pro-Pot Legalization Group Works To Get A Statewide Measure On
November's Ballot On The Heels Of Its Victory In Denver, The Controversial
Debate Rages.

The concert floor was vomit-drenched, Mason Tvert said, and alcohol
was the culprit.

"We saw about 10 girls carried out," said Tvert, executive director of
the pro-pot legalization SAFER , about a Thursday night concert he
attended. "They weren't smoking marijuana. They were wasted (on alcohol)."

And as SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation) pushes its
statewide ballot measure that would legalize marijuana, the group
continues to hammer its message: Alcohol is far more dangerous than
marijuana, and therefore it's illogical and fundamentally unfair to
keep the plant illegal.

Many students agree.

"I think marijuana is a safer alternative to alcohol," said Peter
Zola, a freshman history education major . "We should be looking
toward the welfare of the people."

THROUGH THE GATEWAY

But some said the debate over which is worse misses the point and the
drug is harmful, even if not as much as alcohol.

"There's a possibility that it could lead to (harder drugs) with some
people," said Greg Myers, sophomore history major .

The "gateway" effect Myers eluded to states that marijuana use often
and disproportionately leads to the use of harder drugs.

"From what I see working at a drug facility, people start at marijuana
and move on when they get bored," said Holly Conklin, director of
public promotion for Narconon International, a drug prevention and
rehabilitation program.

She added that her center has treated several people for
marijuana-only addiction.

Tvert, however, said the notion that marijuana is a gateway drug has
been debunked numerous times by reputable studies, including one by
the nationally and internationally respected RAND Corporation.

"The real 'gateway' is the fact that we make people buy the drug on
the black-market where there are harder drugs available," he said.
"Just because there's a correlation doesn't mean there's causation.
There's also a correlation between eating fries and
cheeseburgers."

Fries and cheeseburgers are often eaten together because they're
available in the same place, but that doesn't mean the eating of one
causes the eating of the other, his argument continues.

And by this reasoning, the so-called gateway effect would be
eliminated if the government were to regulate marijuana, knocking the
underground market out of business.

The 2002 RAND study cited by Tvert states that marijuana is typically
the first drug used because it's the most readily available.

"While the gateway theory has enjoyed popular acceptance, scientists
have always had their doubts," said Andrew Morral, lead author of the
study, according to a press release. "Our study shows that these
doubts are justified."

RAND did not advocate for legalization or decriminalization of
pot.

"I can only hope that (the study) will be read with objectivity and
evaluated on its scientific merits, not reflexively rejected because
it violates most policy makers' beliefs," said Charles R. Schuster, a
former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA),
according to the statement.

THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS

In the days before voters approved the groundbreaking city ordinance
in Denver that legalized pot - the drug remains illegal under state
and federal law - SAFER chided the city's brewery-owning mayor, John
Hickenlooper.

In response to the mayor's chief of staff joking about sending a
shipment of Oreos and Doritos to pot-legalization proponents, SAFER
fired back by sending Hickenlooper a body bag with a fake foot
sticking out, surrounded by jugs of alcohol from the mayor's brewery.

The message: Which is worse, the "munchies" that result from smoking
pot or an alcohol-induced death?

No one has ever died from only smoking pot, legalization proponents
say.

But that's doesn't mean the munchies are the only negative effect of
marijuana.

Pot use hinders the ability to think, according to the
NIDA.

"Because marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember
information," the institute states, "the more a person uses marijuana
the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating
intellectual, job or social skills."

In the hours following use, the drug also increases the risk of heart
attack five-fold, according to various studies, including one by a
teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in 2000.

But the same study also put the spike in perspective: Pot use
increases the chance of a heart attack only twice as much as a lazy
person having sex, and is less risky than a couch potato's spurt of
exercise.

Bruce Mirken, communications director for the pro-legalization
Marijuana Policy Project , said pot use isn't completely safe but it's
not nearly as harmful as alcohol.

"Any drug has potentially negative effects and more so if it's used
stupidly or recklessly," he said, adding that pot use increases the
risk of bronchitis, like all smoke does.

"No mood-altering drug should be used if you're operating a car or
machinery or doing anything risky," he said. "Beyond that, there's
very little documented harm associated with marijuana use."

ALCOHOL ABUSE HITS CSU

Alcohol, on the other hand, kills. And it does so frequently.

Of college-age students 18 to 24, alcohol contributes to an estimated
1,700 deaths, nearly 600,000 injuries and 97,000 cases of sexual
assault or date rape every year, according to the National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

In 2004, CSU student Samantha Spady died after reportedly consuming a
large amount of liquor. Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr., a University of
Colorado-Boulder freshman, also died of alcohol poisoning days later.

"If they would have used marijuana instead of alcohol, they'd still be
alive," Tvert told the Collegian in November.

Tvert said SAFER, which has gained international attention since its
November victory in Denver, started on Colorado's university campuses
because they're at the forefront of the national problem with alcohol.

To get a statewide measure on November's ballot, SAFER will first have
to get a ballot title and then collect about 67,000 signatures.

If voters approve the proposed measure, then individual cities will be
free to decide on the legality of pot. Some cities, including Fort
Collins, have no such city ordinances and are guided by state law.

If a statewide measure passes, the only way Fort Collins citizens 21
or older could be prosecuted for recreational use of small amounts of
pot is by federal law, and it's extremely rare for the federal
government to intervene in minor pot cases.

MORE THAN SLIGHTLY STUPID

The Thursday night "Slightly Stoopid" concert that Tvert attended in
Denver consisted of common behavior for drunks, he said.

"They're more likely to get involved in altercations," he said. "They
just act like fools."

Zola could drink to that.

"The mentality of wasted people is far more chaotic," and it's not the
same with pot smokers. "They're too paranoid to cause trouble."

SAFER officials said if they educate Coloradans about pot's relatively
benign negative effects, at least compared to alcohol, then the
state's voters will approve the proposed ballot measure.

"Times are changing and the policy needs to change," Tvert said. 
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