Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jun 2014
Source: Daily Local, The (PA)
Copyright: 2014 Daily Local News - a Journal Register Property
Contact:  http://www.dailylocal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4704
Author: Ruth Marcus
Page: B5

THE MYTHS OF SMOKING MARIJUANA

 From her perch as head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 
Bethesda, 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, 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 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.

Volkow 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: Jay Bergstrom