Pubdate: Sat, 22 Aug 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Madeleine Winer

In 2016, Arizona Voters Will Likely Have the Choice to Legalize 
Marijuana for Recreational Use.

Experts and Users Warn of the Risks of Casual Smoking.

HIGHER RISKS

Elisabeth Davies smoked marijuana to escape. To ease anxiety. To 
decompress and forget about life's responsibilities.

Davies started as a social smoker at 17. Years would go by, and she 
wouldn't smoke pot.

"It made me feel better," said Davies, a life coach, counselor and 
author in Peoria. "It took away my anxiety and stress. It made my 
emotions more tolerable."

But when her father died 10 years ago, her casual use became an 
addiction. She smoked every day after work to escape the grief.

"They (my family) could see changes in me... decreased memory, like 
I'm not appearing as intelligent under the influence," she said. "My 
judgment is impaired. My clear thinking is impaired. My inhibitions 
are impaired. I'm more self-centered. I'm not thinking about how my 
abuse is affecting the people that love me."

Medical marijuana has been legalized in Arizona since 2010, and 
voters likely will be asked to legalize the drug for recreational use 
in 2016. The legalization campaign has collected about a third of the 
150,642 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.

Proponents of recreational marijuana tout pot as a safer alternative 
to other drugs and even alcohol. Indeed, no evidence suggests users 
can overdose and die from marijuana use.

But others predict about 9 percent of users - and about 17 percent of 
teenage users - will become addicted. Those figures come from a study 
endorsed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The addiction rates 
for alcohol or tobacco are about 15 percent. They reach up to 23 
percent for youth. They warn that legalizing marijuana for 
recreational use will lead to wider use and increased addiction.

Former addicts, marijuana advocates, doctors and scientists agree 
that marijuana can be addictive. But they disagree on whether 
legalization will lead to more marijuana use and result in a spike in 
addiction.

Addicts: Pot is addictive

Every Wednesday, marijuana users, former addicts and those trying to 
kick the habit gather at a Marijuana Anonymous meeting at Crossroads 
West, a substance-abuse recovery center in west Phoenix.

Some seated in a circle in a cafeteria at the center cheerfully 
proclaim their sobriety, while others remain quiet hoping to find the 
strength to stop using the drug through the weekly meetings.

Members describe their meeting spot as holy ground - they understand 
each other's logic and know one another by their first names. "There 
is no way to feel what we feel when we use. Everyone understands 
here. People freak out at why I did the s--t I did," said one man, 
who used marijuana for 15 years.

Scotty, the group's leader, started smoking his sophomore year of 
high school. He soon became known as the "stoner kid" and later as 
the guy at Greenway High School who could get you pot.

Eventually, he dropped out. He worked only long enough in the 
fast-food circuit to get money to buy weed, sell it and smoke it. He 
remembers weekends when he and a friend would smoke a pound of the drug.

Legalizing marijuana could raise $40 million for Arizona schools, backers say

"Stoned was my natural state," said Scotty, now 38, who with other 
members of Marijuana Anonymous only use their first names.

"I missed a lot. A lot of memories aren't there," said an elderly 
woman who smoked for 44 years.

"Your maturity and education stops when you start using," she said. 
"I isolated myself to a point where I had no contact with my husband. 
. I raised a son, but I wasn't there mentally at all."

How addiction works

Addiction is "a form of learning," according to Frances Jensen, who 
is chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of 
Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.

When someone repeats a task, it strengthens synapses, gaps at the end 
of nerve cells that allow communication between brain cells.

Each time a synapse fires, or each time a message is passed through 
the brain, people learn behaviors, Jensen said. Repetition 
strengthens those synapses, creating learned behaviors, such as 
playing an instrument or practicing a sport.

When someone smokes pot, the chemicals in marijuana attach to a 
receptor in the brain, slowing the firing of synapses. For adults, 
this effect lasts one to two hours. In the still-developing brains of 
teens, Jensen said, it can last two to three days.

Teens are most at risk for addiction since they have more developing 
brain receptors and synapses. Their frontal lobes, which control 
judgment and emotions, aren't fully developed.

Jensen, author of the bestseller "The Teenage Brain," said because of 
this, teens "have more of this ability to change and respond to 
anything ... even a drug."

"You do a drug multiple times, and it builds the synapses stronger 
for that drug so you end up ... becoming addicted," she said. 
"Unfortunately, there's all real science in it."

Davies, author of the self-help book "Good Things Emotional Healing 
Journal," said some people have an addictive personality or resort to 
addiction because of circumstances.

Some turn to alcohol, and others turn to exercise to de-stress. 
Davies relied on addictions to food, cocaine and other substances 
throughout her life.

"I would have school or work and your reward at end of the day would 
be to escape with marijuana," she said. "Somehow my mind confused 
that as a reward. Just like someone saying having a piece of 
chocolate cake at the end of the day is my reward. No, it's not. It's 
not healthy."

Will legalization increase addiction?

So would legalizing marijuana increase addiction?

The answer: We'll see.

With states legalizing marijuana for recreational use, scientists 
have started to investigate if legalizing the drug increases the rate 
of addiction.

Those who claim it will lead to increased addiction say it's 
inevitable because more people will use the drug.

"Clearly, the more people use an addictive substance, the more people 
become addicted to it," said Sheila Polk, Yavapai county attorney and 
an opponent of marijuana legalization in Arizona. "Science clearly 
tells us that marijuana is addictive. ... Do you want to experiment 
on your own brain and experiment on the brains of kids on the off 
chance that science is wrong?"

Polk also worries that if the drug is legalized for recreational use 
the perception of the drug as not addictive will increase.

J.P. Holyoak, chair of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like 
Alcohol, disagrees. Marijuana has always been available for people 
who want to use it, he said.

The campaign cites research to counter other studies on the issue. 
Holyoak points to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry that 
found no evidence legalizing medical marijuana led to increased use 
among teenagers. He also cited the National Institute on Drug Abuse 
statistics that alcohol and tobacco, both legal substances, have a 
higher addiction rate than marijuana.

However, he said, the campaign agrees some people will get addicted 
to the drug.

"There are people who shouldn't use marijuana," he said. "Marijuana 
can be addictive. But it's less addictive than alcohol. There's a 
minority of people who abuse and are addicted to it. ...You can be 
addicted to anything. ...You can be addicted to shopping...but we 
don't ban shopping."

Because states have only recently legalized pot, no data show 
increased addiction rates related to legalizing it for recreational use.

State officials in Colorado and Washington say it's too early to 
determine the effects of legalization since both states started 
selling the drug for recreational use in January 2014.

"But marijuana is not anything new," said Trooper Josh Lewis, 
spokesperson for the Colorado State Patrol.

Jensen of the University of Pennsylvania and others in the medical 
field said more research is needed to fully understand the drug's 
dangers and potential benefits.

Dr. John: Little is known on the health risks of marijuana. 9NEWS at 
6 p.m. 11/07/12. KUSA

The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a January study that 
limited research has been conducted on medical marijuana for adults 
and no studies have been published that involve children.

"We have not done due diligence on this," Jensen said.

In June, the Obama administration responded to more states legalizing 
the drug by speeding up the process for researchers to submit pot 
studies to the government.

But Davies, the woman who became addicted, isn't sure if legalizing 
marijuana will increase use by people who don't use it already.

"I am so torn. I think when something is really easily and readily 
accessible, its easier if you have a vulnerability to it to use it," 
she said. "But do I think legalizing marijuana, (use) will change in 
any way? No, I don't."

[sidebar]

Addiction resources

SMART Recovery: A self-empowering addiction support group offering a 
variety of recovery services. Local meeting times can be found on 
www.smartrecovery.org.

Marijuana Anonymous: A 12-step program that aims to help recovering 
addicts believe in a higher power to overcome addiction. Find local 
meeting times at https://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/meetings.

To find the nearest residential marijuana recovery center near you, 
call 1-844-545-1270 or visit recovery.org.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom