Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jun 2014
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2014 Albuquerque Journal
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Ruth Marcus, Washington Post Writers Group.
Page: A6

HEALTH OFFICIAL SEES RISK IN LEGALIZED POT

BETHESDA, Md. - From her perch as head of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow watches anxiously as the country embarks on
what she sees as a risky social experiment in legalizing marijuana.

For those who argue that marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco
and alcohol, Volkow has two main answers: We don't entirely know, and,
simultaneously, that is precisely the point.

"Look at the evidence," Volkow said in an interview on the National
Institutes of Health campus here, pointing to the harms already
inflicted by tobacco and alcohol. "It's not subtle - it's huge. Legal
drugs are the main problem that we have in our country as it relates
to morbidity and mortality. By far. Many more people die of tobacco
than all of the drugs together. Many more people die of alcohol than
all of the illicit drugs together.

"And it's not because they are more dangerous or addictive. Not at all
- - they are less dangerous. It's because they are legal. ... The
legalization process generates a much greater exposure of people and
hence of negative consequences that will emerge. And that's why I
always say, 'Can we as a country afford to have a third legal drug?
Can we?' We know the costs already on health care, we know the costs
on accidents, on lost productivity. I let the numbers speak for
themselves."

Volkow, 58, speaks rapidly, even urgently, in an accent that lingers
from her childhood in Mexico. The great-granddaughter of Soviet
communist Leon Trotsky, Volkow grew up in the Mexico City home where
Trotsky was fatally attacked. It is easy to imagine, in her passionate
determination, some of her ancestor's revolutionary fervor, melded
with a scientist's evidentiary rigor.

As Colorado and Washington state approve the sale of marijuana for
recreational use and other states consider following suit, Volkow
says, the notion that legalization represents a modest, cost-free move
is dangerously overblown. The evidence on the supposed safety of
marijuana - particularly marijuana in its modern, far-more potent form
- - is far from clear enough to take this leap.

"I think that what we are seeing is a little bit of wishful thinking
in the sense that we want to have a drug that will make us all feel
good and believe that there are no harmful consequences," she said.
"When you are intoxicated, your memory and learning are going to go
down. When you are intoxicated, your motor coordination is going to go
down. When you are repeatedly using marijuana, there is an increased
risk for addiction. And if you are an adolescent and you are taking
marijuana, there is a higher increased risk for addiction and there is
also a higher risk for long-lasting decreases in cognitive capacity -
that is, lowering of IQ."

Adolescents are a chief focus of Volkow's worry, to the extent that
when I observe that tobacco use is clearly worse for teens, she
challenges that easy assumption.

"Wait a second. ... Nicotine does not interfere with cognitive
ability. So if you are an adolescent and you are smoking marijuana and
going to school, it's going to interfere with your capacity to learn.
So what is worse, as an adolescent right now? To have basically
something that is jeopardizing your development educationally or to
smoke a cigarette that when you are 60 years of age is going to lead
to impaired pulmonary function and perhaps cancer? ... I would argue
that you do not want to mess with your cognitive capacity, that that
is a very large price to pay."

Legalization advocates counter with two contradictory arguments: that
marijuana is already readily available to teenagers who want it, and
that the new laws impose strict controls on sales to minors.

Volkow is unconvinced, arguing that the evidence from alcohol suggests
that the already large number of teenagers who have tried marijuana by
the time they graduate from high school - nearly half, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - will only increase,
along with the already rising number of those who use it on a daily
basis.

"Our kids are sensitive to norms, so if they feel that marijuana is
harmful, their consumption goes down," Volkow said. Legalization sends
the opposite message.

Vokow herself has never smoked pot - or, as she tends to say, "taken
marijuana" - and she isn't tempted now that it is legally available in
some places. "I'm not going to negate that I am curious," she said.
"But I am terrified about doing anything that would interfere with my
cognitive capacity. ... I don't like to contaminate my perception of
the world. I have too much respect for my brain."
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MAP posted-by: Matt