Pubdate: Sun, 23 Dec 2012
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2012 Dayton Daily News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l
Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Author: Gregory Ramey
Note: Dr. Ramey is a child psychologist at Dayton Children's Medical Center.

WASHINGTON STATE'S TOXIC GIFT OF MARIJUANA NOT APPRECIATED

New York Yankees baseball legend Mickey Mantle was my boyhood hero. I
collected all of his baseball cards and memorized every statistic
about his performance. I couldn't wait for my Uncle Tony to finish
reading the Sporting News so I could cut out articles about the
greatest baseball player of my generation, which I then carefully
stored in a shoebox beneath my bed.

It wasn't until I was much older that I realized that my boyhood idol
was an alcoholic who began drinking at age 20 after the death of his
father from Hodgkin's disease.

"I was devastated, and that's when I started drinking. I guess alcohol
helped me escape the pain of losing him" wrote Mick in his 1994 Sports
Illustrated article describing his 42 years of alcoholism. He lived an
unhappy life, overwhelmed with depression, anxiety, family turmoil,
and emotionally abusive behavior to the people around him.

I don't cry very often, but I became teary-eyed when I recently
watched an HBO special about the Mick. The real tragedy of his life
was that his extraordinary athletic gifts were wasted by his alcohol
abuse. He entered into treatment in the later years of his life, and
I'm guessing he uttered some of the saddest words you contemplate as
you enter old age, "I wonder what might have been..."

Mick's alcohol dependency is unfortunately too common a story. I won't
bore you with statistics about the seriousness of this problem, as I
guess it has touched most of our lives. The Department of Justice has
identified substance abuse as the nation's number one health problem.

With that backdrop, I couldn't help but be repulsed by the media
articles proclaiming that "smokers celebrate as Washington legalizes
marijuana." Parents shouldn't be rejoicing. They should be terrified
that yet another mind-altering drug is becoming readily available to
our kids.

Research published by the National Institutes of Health indicates that
marijuana use is now more common than cigarette smoking among our 12th
grade students, with 21 percent of our seniors having smoked pot in
the past 30 days.

Please don't bother sending me emails asserting that marijuana is safe
and that its casual use is no different from alcohol. I hear that
enough from "experts" in pharmacology, my adolescent clients. Perhaps
many people can use alcohol and even marijuana "responsibly,"
selectively altering their moods while living a healthy and meaningful
life.

However, I wonder about all those other people who become so easily
dependent upon drugs to change their feelings. I'm mostly worried
about our kids, who have to learn ways to feel good, deal with
depression, overcome rejection, and get through the day without using
chemicals.

And every now and then, I think about the Mick, and wonder what might
have been. 
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