Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2016
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: William R. Todd-Mancillas

LAW ENFORCEMENT GROUP MISREPRESENTS MARIJUANA

The California State Sheriffs Association claims marijuana seriously 
impairs driving and has other adverse consequences (AP, Mercury News, 
June 28). Yet researchers find that while obviously inadvisable, 
marijuana only modestly affects driving (Journal of Drug And Alcohol 
Dependence, June 23, 2016).

Marijuana users know their performance is impaired and compensate by 
slowing down and being especially attentive. By contrast, inebriated 
drivers are seriously impaired. They merely think they are in 
control; in fact, they speed, weave across lanes, have lethally 
slower reaction times, and cause thousands of accidents (National 
Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 2015).

Moreover, illegality accounts for marijuana's negative societal 
consequences, not its use per se. Incarceration soils reputations, 
deprives children of custodial parents, financially and mentally 
stresses families and society, blackballs one from employment, and 
puts one at risk for assault. Violence results from gangsters killing 
other gangsters and, as Denise Hopper can testify (letters, Aug. 15), 
innocent bystanders. Gangsters are not discretionary users. In fact, 
among occasional users, alcohol precipitates while cannabis reduces 
aggression and is associated with less - not more - domestic violence 
(Psychoparmacology, July 15, 2016; Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 
Sept., 2014).

Law enforcement receives substantial funding to prosecute the drug 
war, so it is not surprising the sheriffs association misrepresents 
marijuana's true character - a relatively benign profile coupled with 
considerable therapeutic utility. The consequences of this outsized 
misrepresentation are serious. Not only is the public duped on an 
important issue, law enforcement's credibility is reduced as well.

- - William R. Todd-Mancillas, Chico
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom