Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jul 2013
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Calgary Herald
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Naomi Lakritz
Note: Naomi Lakritz is a columnist with the Calgary Herald.

POT IS DANGEROUS AND LEGALIZATION IS A DUMB IDEA

I have lost all respect for Justin Trudeau. Until Thursday, I'd been 
rooting for him all the way. No more, though. Not since he announced 
that he thinks marijuana should be legalized.

In advocating for legalization, Trudeau cited the futility of the war 
on drugs. But this is not about the war on drugs. This is about the 
impact on everyday life if marijuana were legal. One commenter on the 
Calgary Herald's website wondered whether Trudeau is aware of all the 
social ills that legalization would bring. Indeed. For one thing, if 
this ever comes to pass, we will add to the carnage caused by drunk 
drivers more carnage caused by drivers who are stoned.

Nor is it valid to argue that since alcohol is legal, marijuana 
should be legal, too. Alcohol is out of one's system in a matter of 
hours for moderate drinkers. THC, the main ingredient in cannabis, 
stays in the body for up to 30 days, which means it continues to 
impair the user that much longer after the first high has worn off. 
Harvard psychiatry professor Harrison Pope studied marijuana's long 
term effects on cognition. He postulates that one reason for the 
lengthy period of impairment is that THC "dissolves in body fat, then 
slowly percolates into the blood and brain over days and weeks after 
a joint is smoked," according to the Harvard Gazette.

Marijuana today is nothing like what it was when Trudeau's father was 
prime minister. The University of Mississippi's marijuana potency 
monitoring project found that in 1983, the average THC concentration 
was less than four per cent; in 2008, it was over 10 per cent. For 
hydroponically grown marijuana, it's around 25 per cent.

C. Heather Ashton, emerita professor of clinical psychopharmacology, 
at Britain's University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, reviewed the 
scientific knowledge "of mechanisms of action, effects on psychomotor 
and cognitive performance, and health risks associated with cannabis 
consumption." Her report, published in 2001 in the British Journal of 
Psychiatry, concluded that "... actions on specific brain receptors 
cause dose-related impairments of psychomotor performance with 
implications for car and train driving, airplane piloting and 
academic performance. Other constituents of cannabis smoke carry 
respiratory and cardiovascular health risks similar to those of 
tobacco smoke. Cannabis is not ... a harmless drug, but poses risks 
to the individual and to society."

A study led by Harvard University's School of Public Health showed 
that "at least weekly use of marijuana during pregnancy" is a risk 
factor for premature separation of the placenta, which can result in 
fetal brain damage, prematurity and stillbirth.

Columbia University researchers have found that marijuana smoking can 
cause "long-term impairment of memory in adolescents; prolonged 
impairment of psychomotor performance; a sixfold increase in the 
incidence of schizophrenia; cancer of mouth, jaw, tongue and lung in 
19-30-year-olds," and leukemia in children whose mothers smoke pot.

In a 2009 report, Evidence on the Carcinogenicity of Marijuana Smoke, 
the California Environmental Protection Agency noted: "Studies 
reporting results for direct marijuana smoking have observed 
statistically significant associations with cancers of the lung, head 
and neck, bladder, brain, and testis. The strongest evidence of a 
causal association was for head and neck cancer, with two of four 
studies reporting statistically significant associations ... Among 
the epidemiological studies that reported results for parental 
marijuana smoking and childhood cancer, five of six found 
statistically significant associations." That included higher rates 
of leukemia in children whose fathers or mothers smoked pot.

Then, there is the link between marijuana and schizophrenia. 
"Schizophrenia caused by or contributed by cannabis may be more 
severe than schizophrenia in general," Dr. Peter Allebeck, a 
professor in the department of public health sciences at Stockholm's 
Karolinska Institute, said last April at the 21st European Congress 
of Psychiatry. Allebeck noted that marijuana users appear to have a 
type of schizophrenia "that may be more severe than schizophrenia 
cases in general."

Earlier this month, Dr. Samuel Wilkinson, of Yale University's 
department of psychiatry, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Though 
they receive little attention in the legalization debate, the 
scientific studies showing an association between marijuana use and 
schizophrenia and other disorders are alarming. A 2004 article in the 
highly respected British Journal of Psychiatry reviewed four large 
studies, all of which showed a significant and consistent association 
between consumption of marijuana (mostly during teenage years or 
early 20s) and the later development of schizophrenia."

Just last month, the journal Biological Psychiatry published a study 
showing that long-term pot smokers have lower levels of dopamine in 
their brains, resulting in a lack of motivation.

Marijuana can also destroy marriages. Researchers Kazuo Yamiguchi of 
the University of Chicago and Denise Kandel of Columbia University 
wrote in the Journal of Marriage and Family that their studies have 
shown that "marijuana use greatly increases the rate of becoming 
divorced..." Just like any substance abuse - so no surprise there.

Legalizing this drug would only increase the misery and the harm it 
is already causing.

Flip-flops are nothing new for politicians, and Justin Trudeau needs 
to do a major one on this issue.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom