Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Paul Steinberg
Note: The writer is a psychiatrist.
Page: C4

STAVING OFF A SLACKER GENERATION

With the legalization of marijuana by District voters this month, the 
fun begins for some, and pitfalls begin for others. As the kinks are 
worked out before the distribution and sales arrangements are 
unveiled, we can look at what we have gotten ourselves into.

The legalization of pot takes marijuana out of the shadows, removing 
it from the black-market economy that fosters further criminal 
activity. It could potentially allow the government to monitor its 
use and sales and to tax these sales. It eliminates a whole category 
of criminal trials and incarcerations.

Another benefit may be a reduction in alcohol-impaired driving. 
Colorado has seen a significant decrease in alcohol-related traffic 
deaths since the legalization of marijuana took effect in January.

Yet there are major downsides. Regular marijuana use, particularly 
daily, affects motivation and ambition. Marijuana, maybe more than 
other drugs, helps people care less. But caring is an important 
emotion. And learning to care less without drugs is a valuable coping 
skill. As a psychiatrist, I have seen men and women in their 30s and 
40s wondering what they could have accomplished had they not been 
smoking weed daily as teenagers and young adults. Ambition and 
motivation are terrible things to waste. We have no way of measuring 
motivation. But, as with pornography, we know it when we see it - and 
when we don't.

Also, marijuana is addictive - not as much as cocaine or opiates but 
addictive nevertheless. Some people confuse addictiveness, physical 
dependency and tolerance. Marijuana does not cause a physical 
dependency. It does not have a physical withdrawal syndrome, unlike 
withdrawal from alcohol or opiates. And it does not produce increased 
tolerance to its effects over time.

Marijuana follows the same principles of any other addictive drug. 
Consider the principle reflected in a Japanese proverb initially 
applied to alcohol: "First the man takes a drink, then the drink 
takes the drink, then the drink takes the man." Likewise, anyone who 
smokes weed long enough will reach a point at which the marijuana is 
smoking him. The chemicals in cannabis attach to the cannabinoid 
receptors in the human brain, and we can become chemically addicted 
to external cannabinoids - marijuana.

Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to create a legal age for inhaling 
weed of 35 or 40 - the age at which people might be able to use 
marijuana responsibly, without a huge effect on their lives. The law 
passed in the District allows for smoking and absorbing marijuana 
products at age 21, just as with alcohol. At the very least, however, 
we should discourage its regular and daily use until later adulthood.

Prohibition of alcohol did not work in the early 20th century; 
perhaps prohibition of marijuana makes no sense either. Still, 
despite my usual decisiveness and despite my knowledge of the issue, 
I found myself freezing up in the voting booth on Nov. 4. I easily 
could have voted either way. I ended up voting against legalization 
because I could not help but think of all the teenagers and young 
adults who would learn to consider marijuana innocuous, who would not 
learn naturally how to care less and who might become addicted to 
daily pot use and lose motivation and ambition.

In whatever way we unveil the legal use of marijuana, let's make sure 
we do not create future generations of genuine slackers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom