cannabisnews.com: The Myth of 'Harmless' Marijuana 





The Myth of 'Harmless' Marijuana 
Posted by FoM on May 01, 2002 at 07:29:44 PT
By John P. Walters
Source: Washington Post
Last December the University of Michigan released its annual survey "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. The report generated little in the way of public comment.Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month.
After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness," we've become almost conditioned to think that any warnings about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown. But marijuana is far from "harmless" -- it is pernicious. Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar.Marijuana directly affects the brain. Researchers have learned that it impairs the ability of young people to concentrate and retain information during their peak learning years, and when their brains are still developing. The THC in marijuana attaches itself to receptors in the hippocampal region of the brain, weakening short-term memory and interfering with the mechanisms that form long-term memory. Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student achievement?Marijuana smoking can hurt more than just grades. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, every year more than 2,500 admissions to the District of Columbia's overtaxed emergency rooms -- some 300 of them for patients under age 18 -- are linked to marijuana smoking, and the number of marijuana-related emergencies is growing. Each year, for example, marijuana use is linked to tens of thousands of serious traffic accidents.Research has now established that marijuana is in fact addictive. Of the 4.3 million Americans who meet the diagnostic criteria for needing drug treatment (criteria developed by the American Psychiatric Association, not police departments or prosecutors) two-thirds are dependent on marijuana, according to HHS. These are not occasional pot smokers but people with real problems directly traceable to their use of marijuana, including significant health problems, emotional problems and difficulty in cutting down on use. Sixty percent of teens in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis.Despite this and other strong scientific evidence of marijuana's destructive effects, a cynical campaign is underway, in the District and elsewhere, to proclaim the virtues of "medical" marijuana. By now most Americans realize that the push to "normalize" marijuana for medical use is part of the drug legalization agenda. Its chief funders, George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis, have spent millions to help pay for referendums and ballot initiatives in states from Alaska to Maine. Now it appears that a medical marijuana campaign may be on the horizon for the District.Why? Is the American health care system -- the most sophisticated in the world -- really being hobbled by a lack of smoked medicines? The University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is currently conducting scientific studies to determine the efficacy of marijuana in treating various ailments. Until that research is concluded, however, most of what the public hears from marijuana activists is little more than a compilation of anecdotes. Many questions remain unanswered, but the science is clear on a few things. Example: Marijuana contains hundreds of carcinogens.Moreover, anti-smoking efforts aimed at youth have been remarkably effective by building on a campaign to erode the social acceptability of tobacco. Should we undermine those efforts by promoting smoked marijuana as though it were a medicine?While medical marijuana initiatives are based on pseudo-science, their effects on the criminal justice system are anything but imaginary. By opening up legal loopholes, existing medical marijuana laws have caused police and prosecutors to stay away from marijuana prosecutions.Giving marijuana dealers a free pass is a terrible idea. In fact, thanks in part to excellent reporting in The Post, District residents are increasingly aware that marijuana dealers are dangerous criminals. The recent life-without-parole convictions of leaders of Washington's K Street Crew are only the latest evidence of this.As reported in The Post, the K Street Crew was a vicious group of marijuana dealers whose decade-long reign of terror was brought to an end only this year after a massive prosecution effort by Michael Volkov, chief gang prosecutor for the U.S. attorney's office. The K Street Crew is credited with at least 17 murders, including systematic killings of potential witnesses. (It should not be confused with the L Street Crew, a D.C. marijuana gang that killed eight people in the course of doing business.)Says prosecutor Volkov: "The experience in D.C. shows that marijuana dealers are no less violent than cocaine and heroin traffickers. They have just as much money to lose, just as much turf to lose, and just as many reasons to kill as any drug trafficker."Skeptics will charge that this kind of violence is just one more reason to legalize marijuana. A review of the nation's history with drug use suggests otherwise: When marijuana is inexpensive, as it would be if legal, use soars -- bad news for the District's schools, streets and emergency rooms.The writer is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: John P. WaltersPublished: Wednesday, May 1, 2002; Page A25 Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com Related Articles:Outside View: Nixon Tapes Pot Shocker http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12680.shtml The Other Drug War - John Waltershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12611.shtmlSecret Nixon Tapes Show Why US Outlawed Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12324.shtml 
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Comment #25 posted by RavingDave on May 02, 2002 at 14:07:47 PT
Pat Yourself on the Back, John
You have a real talent for twisting the facts and warping reality. You and Einstein would have had lots to talk about.Seriously, is marijuana so dangerous that it needs to be illegal? No one is recommending that young people smoke it every day, if at all. However, if you are so stupid as to think that making it illegal is taking it away from them, then you have to ask yourself how 49% of high school seniors still manage to get hold of the stuff.But that would mean diving into the nebulous world of facts and reason, now wouldn't it.The U.S. healthcare system is the number one in the world from the standpoint of corruption, bribes, and dishonesty. Doctors and hospitals receive more kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies than anywhere else in the world. Medications are over- and mis-prescribed here more than anywhere else in the world. People are forced, coerced, or intimidated into using harmful chemicals with only marginal success rates and often-terrible side effects, while at the same time being told that herbal or natural remedies are the work of charlatans. If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black...So, is our "#1" healthcare system being crippled by the lack of a natural remedy (which, incidentally, doesn't have to be smoked), which has been tested for millenia, and is regarded to be an excellent treatment for hundreds of ailments, including cancer? Of course not. Our healthcare system is being aided by the denial of this herb to patients who need it. And you, of course, knew that, because you are probably receiving kickbacks from those self-same pharmaceutical companies. After all, if cannabis were legal, what would we need them for?Good job, John. Keep up the great work. Your lies are just becoming more obvious every time you open your mouth.
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Comment #24 posted by kaptinemo on May 02, 2002 at 04:43:40 PT:
Way ahead of you, Den  :)
I hope more of us let the Post know what we think of this shameless drivel pouring from the (ample) chops of a so-called 'public servant'...and that we are paying this man to lie to us.
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Comment #23 posted by DdC on May 02, 2002 at 03:24:18 PT
Help nail Drug Kzar's latest Cannabis attack!
From Richard LakeToday, Wednesday, our Drug Kzar attack cannabis in a Reefer Madness OPED in the Washington Post titled "The Myth of 'Harmless' Marijuana."By now many of you may have seen it. As Kevin Zeese writes below, it is important that the Post receive as many Letters to the Editor (LTE) as possible so that a good and large selection makes print, and the editors know how strongly we feel about this yellow journalism.The OPED is well written to scare the public (and being in the D.C. paper read by government workers send a signal about the party line) with a few out of context facts, a lot of spin, and outright b.s.To help you respond a Focus Alert, written by the worlds most published letter to the editor writer, Robert Sharpe, has been published. It includes potential LTE talking points, a sample LTE, and a target analysis as well as the actual article. Designed to help increase your chances of being published, it is online at:http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0239.htmlToday Kevin Zeese wrote:Friends:
One thing that the drug warriors and reformers seem to agree on is that marijuana is the crux of the reform debate. No doubt part of the reason Walters is so focused on marijuana is he sees the same polls we do e.g., the recent poll conducted for NORML by Zogby that showed 61% of the public opposes jailing nonviolent marijuana offenders and they also see medical marijuana votes winning, winning and winning. They know they are losing the PR war on marijuana.The op-ed in The Post by Walters overreaches so far and exaggerates so much that his desperation shows blatantly. The drug warriors protest too much -- they are not confident, they are insecure. It is time for us to drive the stake into the heart of the drug war dracula.I encourage everyone to write letters to the editor of The Post and get their members/activists to do the same. The Post should feel a flood of negative reaction to Walters nonsense. I know DrugSense is preparing a focus alert on this op-ed, perhaps they will share it with ARO so it can be widely distributed.Common Sense has put together a team to do a definitive response to Walters. Input is welcome. We expect to have an op-ed draft to them by the end of this week or the beginning of next. While it would not surprise me if The Post refused to publish it, we will give it our best shot and if they don't we are considering an advertisement that lists Walters claims alongside the facts.Walters overreach can be his undoing if we handle this correctly. 
KevinDoug McVay wrote:
Good Morning All,
This appeared in today's Post. Walters has made similar mis-statements about marijuana recently, including on his recent trip to the US-Canada border. Kevin feels that he's laying the groundwork for the next move by the feds. I hope that his focus on marijuana in these days of the war on terror, particularly the old myths he's pushing, can make him lose credibility with the public.
Have a great day,
Doug
D.E.A.th Deceptions 
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Comment #22 posted by dddd on May 02, 2002 at 03:19:02 PT
....Masterpiece.....
...Instead of getting upset by this amazing piece of journalistic blasphemy,,I decided to take a whole different outlook........after all,,this article is nearly comical in its' own absurd way......As I read through it, I started to think about all the different ways that it could be picked apart,, letsgetfree wrote;" i could sit here all day and shoot holes through this joke.....".....So I decided to view it as an amazing masterpiece....It is indeed significant, in that it verifies that the Washington Post, ,along with the rest of the "media",,is no longer a "free press"... 
These are the words of an obsessed creep,,,,,but come to think of it,,he was appointed by obsessed creeps..
...What I'm saying,,is that this article is a classic example of what has happened to the US.. People see,hear, and read the "news",, and they usually believe what the news says......This article by Walters,,is a truly astounding artifact!.It stands out,,and rivals,or exceeds,the true greats like McCaffrey, ,McDonough, Bennett, Weiner, Nalepka,,and a host of other freaks of drug war hysteria,,,some of which,,are actually convinced of the validity of their cause,,and others, who are aware of the ulterior motives involved in the drug war sham. I would like to be able to give people like Walters,the benifit of the doubt,,and say that they are people of integrity,who are pursuing the drug war witch hunt,,because they are honestly convinced that it is a good cause... I think Joyce Nalepka is sort of innocently obsessed in this way...She blames drugs for the death of one of her children...and now,,she has been made a member of the government sponsored CULT,, known as the War on Drugs!...
 ..Yes,,,I think that such things as the War on Drugs,and the War on Terror, are purposely designed and fabricated ,to encourage a cult of mass hysteria.... Drug war kingpins like Walters will have to pretend that they were simply soldiers in the drug war,,,claiming that they are blameless,because they were merely "following orders", from their superiors...They will shrug like natzis at Nurembourg, ,,they will tell tales of being endoctrinated like scientologists,,or somehow compare themselves to catholic pedophile priests,,who just made a few "bad judgements"... No one will ever be there to take "The Blame"...That is what it comes down to nowdays. Anytime you try to place blame on some political entity,or person,,then the blame is reflected on "We,The Sheeple",for being so foolish as to elect the creeps who we know are to blame.?. ...
...I think the basic problem with America today,,is that Uncle Sam is strung out on a crackpipe full of CASH, ,(crack+cash=CRASH?)...and,the people no longer have the power to bust the old sleezeball... Uncle Sam runs the most sophisticated organized crime ring the earth will ever see...
..This is a wonderful article from Mr Walters. It's a true classic .... ..I think it should be on display in the Drug War Memorial,that will be built in Washington DC in 2038..I think the victims of the war on drugs,would easily outnumber those who have died from using drugs.... ..and once again,,I must mention,, that:
The war on drugs,will continue to become an element of the war on terror. ..
The internet as we know it,,will no longer exsist ten years from now...
.........I know that all this sounds farfetched,,,,,, but consider the fact that an article like this ,from Mr Walters exsists.?...
...it aint pretty................................................dddd
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Comment #21 posted by Rainbow on May 01, 2002 at 21:02:56 PT
Name change
I noticed a while back that the title "Drug Czar" is now used by the DEA(th) goons to fefine Asa (hemp) Hutchinson instead of the walters gut.Seems to me just another step in ratched campaign against some drugs.Comments?Cheers
Tom
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Comment #20 posted by lookinside on May 01, 2002 at 19:56:39 PT:
The University of California's Center for Medicina
A friend was arrested for cultivation for sales last year. His jury trial is winding up tomorrow. We went to watch yesterday, and will be there tomorrow for the finish. This man had his Recommendation posted on the wall next to his indoor "grow".Total usable(leaf and buds) Cannabis was under 3 ounces. 52 of his plants are in a manila envelope. The cops(idiots) found no scales. No baggies. No money. They lied under oath. And were forced to admit it.The prosecution's expert rebuttal witness is one of the doctors administering the program for UC. His specialty?
Psychiatric shock treatment. My friend's attorney made this man look like an idiot. I'm sure half the jurors know more about the cultivation and effects of Cannabis than he exhibited on the stand. I'm sure EVERYONE here knows more.I'm afraid that the government is going to try to skew the results of this study in every way possible.Wish my friend luck. With juries, you never know.After the trial is over, I'll post email addys to contact the UC "experts". I think these men need a little advice.
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Comment #19 posted by Jose Melendez on May 01, 2002 at 18:16:27 PT
the myth of drug war justice
from:http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA3X7CSP0D.htmlBIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A woman who was sentenced to life without parole for a first-time drug offense was released Wednesday after spending five years in prison.
About two hours after a judge reduced her sentence to time served, Theresa Wilson, 34, walked out of the Jefferson County Jail, arm-in-arm with her husband.
"You've gotten a second chance. Don't blow it," Judge Tommy Nail said at her hearing.
Wilson became a poster child for critics of mandatory sentencing in 1998, when she was ordered to spend the rest of her life in prison because of a law that branded her a "drug baron" when she sold a morphine mixture for $150. The 1986 law mandated the sentence because the mixture weighed more than 56 grams.
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Comment #18 posted by freedom fighter on May 01, 2002 at 16:43:19 PT
Walters's best friends
By writing this drivel, he literally supported the organized criminals and terrorists. What a waste of taxpayers's money!ff
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Comment #17 posted by letsgetfree on May 01, 2002 at 14:55:28 PT
oh boy
i could sit here all day and shoot holes through this joke. but that would just make me mad. so i'm going to go smoke some weed. 
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Comment #16 posted by SWAMPIE on May 01, 2002 at 14:40:22 PT
JOHN WALTERS.HOLE....
 Don't forget that the teen population has risen greatly since these"studies"were made,and if you take that into reality,it may be that some of the statistics quoted are less than what you say.The shift is on the parents REALLY talking to their children!I know that MY child was TOLD THE TRUTH!
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Comment #15 posted by Dan B on May 01, 2002 at 13:22:49 PT:
Marijuana directly affects the brain
To echo greenfox (excellent post, by the way), so does chocolate. And so does broccoli, and so does that glass of fruit juice you had with breakfast, and so do those eggs, and so does milk, and so does everything you put into your body, including (and especially) the air you breathe. In other words, the statement that marijuana directly affects the brain is a non-statement. There is absolutely no substance to that statement. Furthermore, all of the effects Walters describes are short-term; that is, they are transitory, and if he is worried about these effects as they pertain to kids, he would do well to consider what has already been said here a couple of times: dealers of illegal substances don't ask for ID. Finally, a note about this question posed by Walters: "Is the American health care system -- the most sophisticated in the world -- really being hobbled by a lack of smoked medicines?"No, but the American health care system is not our concern. Our concern is the people who have been literally murdered by the American health care system, and the people who are suffering on a daily basis, whose goals are simply to function and to stay alive in spite of the thriving megalopoly that is the American health care system, a system that deprives them of a basic medicine that works, a medicine that has been used for over 5000 years without serious incident. Screw the American health care system. Dan B
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Comment #14 posted by Crissos on May 01, 2002 at 12:55:09 PT
I think it's great...
that John P. Walters finds it necessary to respond to the growing sentiment that marijuana is not the Devil's weed it is made out to be. But the WOD will be won or lost in the minds of the American people in general. Why can't someone like NORML write an OP ED piece in the Washington Post rebutting the myths that the drug czar purveys? Or a full-page "ad"? Would that be too much to ask? We've got to reach the average taxpayer, voter, mom and dad. I believe that most Americans don't favor legalization at this time.
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Comment #13 posted by idbsne1 on May 01, 2002 at 12:19:39 PT
HAHA! they're scared, what do they do....
when they're scared..... LIE!"Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month."THAT'S BECAUSE THEY KNOW YOU'RE LYING."Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar."WHERE ARE THE STUDIES TO SHOW THIS? The only paper published in the 70's regarding this was done by Mahmoud ElSohly at University of Mississippi's Pharmacology Dept. and they cataloged 5-7% thc content. So, we need to see the modern study showing thc% to be 50%-140% thc!?!?!? LIAR!"Marijuana directly affects the brain. Researchers have learned that it impairs the ability of YOUNG people to concentrate and retain information during their peak learning years, and when their brains are still developing. The THC in marijuana attaches itself to receptors in the hippocampal region of the brain, weakening short-term memory and interfering with the mechanisms that form long-term memory. Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student achievement?"FIRST OFF, THOSE SIDE EFFECTS ARE TEMPORARY!!! Second, no one is saying that kids should be doing it habitually. And, you ask that last question while you hold back money from education in the amount of $40 billion while spending it on the futile Drug War?!?!?!? Oh yeah, and waste a couple million on Super Bowl ads that make people laugh their ass off, and then RIGHT AFTERWARD market alcohol to teenagers?!?!?!"According to the Department of Health and Human Services, every year more than 2,500 admissions to the District of Columbia's overtaxed emergency rooms -- some 300 of them for patients under age 18 -- are LINKED to marijuana smoking, and the number of marijuana-related emergencies is growing. Each year, for example, marijuana use is LINKED to tens of thousands of serious traffic accidents."NICE CHOICE OF WORDS...vis. SNAKE OIL SALESMAN!!! Linked!?!?!? Forgot to mention that the LINK is ALCOHOL?!?!?"Research has now established that marijuana is in fact addictive. Of the 4.3 million Americans who meet the diagnostic criteria for needing drug treatment (criteria developed by the American Psychiatric Association, not police departments or prosecutors) two-thirds are dependent on marijuana, according to HHS. These are not occasional pot smokers but people with real problems directly traceable to their use of marijuana, including significant health problems, emotional problems and difficulty in cutting down on use. Sixty percent of teens in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis."OUTRIGHT LIE!!!!!!!! HHS IS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY...SO NO CREDIBILITY. Check out you're own IOM study THAT SAYS THAT YOU'RE LYING!!! BTW, you put those teens in rehab, idiot. Not them."By now most Americans realize that the push to "normalize" marijuana for medical use is part of the drug legalization agenda."BUT NOT THE ONLY PART YOU "UN"COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE! "Now it appears that a medical marijuana campaign may be on the horizon for the District."WAS ALREADY PASSED...THEN YOU "BARR"ED IT...THEN UNCONSTITUTIONALLY TRIED TO STOP ANY MORE CAMPAIGNING...you're not very smart, are you?"The University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is currently conducting scientific studies to determine the efficacy of marijuana in treating various ailments. Until that research is concluded, however, most of what the public hears from marijuana activists is little more than a compilation of anecdotes. Many questions remain unanswered, but the science is clear on a few things. Example: Marijuana contains hundreds of carcinogens."DID YOU TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU GAVE THEM THE MJ FOR THE STUDY? THAT IT IS MOSTLY SEEDS AND TWIGS? THAT THE PATIENTS ARE COMPLAINING OF THE QUALITY? Also, we activists have so much evidence that refutes your lies, you'd be sh*tting MJ if you'd actually read it. And, those carcinogens will do nothing if you vaporize, eat, use as a tincture, spray, or sniff, etc....oh yeah, and don't forget to tell them about the study that shows thc fills the receptor sites that the carcinogens WOULD fill....."Moreover, anti-smoking efforts aimed at youth have been remarkably effective by building on a campaign to erode the social acceptability of tobacco. Should we undermine those efforts by promoting smoked marijuana as though it were a medicine?"They are effective because the TRUTH came out about tobacco... isn't that their campaign? TRUTH.COM? YES you CAN "undermine" these efforts, because the IOM doctors said that it was ok...they said in some cases smoking MJ helps...are YOU a DOCTOR? And why does it only have to be smoked ignoramus?"While medical marijuana initiatives are based on pseudo-science, their effects on the criminal justice system are anything but imaginary"THAT'S RIGHT...LOCK UP 700,000+ MJ USERS AND WASTE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS....IDIOT. Those DOCTORS don't think it is pseudo-science... so how can you? Earth to J. P. Walters.... YOU ARE NOT A DOCTOR!!!!!"Skeptics will charge that this kind of violence is just one more reason to legalize marijuana. A review of the nation's history with drug use suggests otherwise: When marijuana is inexpensive, as it would be if legal, use soars -- bad news for the District's schools, streets and emergency rooms"THIS IS THE BIGGEST LIE OF ALL!!!!! WHAT?!?!?! SHOW ME THE HISTORY BOOK THAT SHOWS THAT?!?!?!? WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE???We have rich, powerful, and corrupt people controlling this nation.... I know what George Washington would do.....idbsne1 
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Comment #12 posted by krutch on May 01, 2002 at 10:46:48 PT:
Walters is Part of the Problem
Legalization is the solution.His piece is pure propaganda. Walters and his ilk still do not understand that MJ's most harmful affects on society(such as the K Street Crew) come from the fact that it is illegal.His coverage of the health affects is astonishing:"Marijuana directly affects the brain."Wow John, that some revelation. Alcohol and tobacco and most other psychoactive drug also directly affect the brain. If they don't then perhaps a metabolite of the drug affects the brain, or some hormone stimulated by the drug affects the brain. At any rate, the fact that MJ directly affects the brain implies nothing negative about the drug. The statement, which sounds scary at first, means nothing. The effects on memory he speaks of have been shown to be temporary. When we compare the mental effects to those of legal alcohol, we find the they are mild.This is a real laugh:anti-smoking efforts aimed at youth have been remarkably effective by building on a campaign to erode the social acceptability of tobacco.Should we undermine those efforts by promoting smoked marijuana as though it were a medicine?Nobody in the medical MJ movement is asking the government to promote smoking MJ. They are asking that patients with painful and debilitating conditions be allowed to use MJ to alleviate their symptoms. The fact that a drug is legal does not constitute a stamp of approval for recreational use. By the author's logic we could say that no patients should get any opiates because it would send the wrong message to those who might try heroin.He procedes to call medical MJ pseudo-science. This is the pot calling the kettle black. The federal government specializes in manufacturing delusions and lies from scientific data. Notice that we never hear a scientist making these bold statements about the dangers of MJ. It is always some troglodyte federal employee with an ax to grind,like Walters.Here is the bottom line:MJ is not any more debilitating, addictive, or dangerous than any of our legal recreational drugs. The fact that it is illegal creates an massive black market which is a terrific opportunity for criminals to make money dealing it. We hear Walters and his ilk say that legalization would not change this, but when was the last time we saw competitors in the alcohol business have violent confrontations in the streets?
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on May 01, 2002 at 09:54:42 PT:
My LTE to the Post
They never print mine; too erudite, I guess :)But here goes:Dear Sirs,I didn’t know the Post was still in the habit of printing falsehoods; I would have thought the Janet Cooke incident had cured you of it. But, there it is, in black and white: John Walters’ myths about the ‘myths’ of ‘marijuana’ harmlessness.Mr. Walters very conveniently forgets to mention that ‘marijuana’, (it’s true name is cannabis; marijuana is a slang term the non-cognoscenti are fond of brandishing as if it were some fetish to be waved about to frighten Hispanophobes) for something so ‘dangerous’, hasn’t killed anyone in 5,000 years of recorded human history. Can he say the same about alcohol (which claims 100,00 lives a year through simple imbibing, not to mention car accidents and murders) or tobacco (450,000 lives a year)? Of course not. The figures he uses to justify his tirade (such as the vaunted super-potency of cannabis) are themselves based upon flawed studies…and organizations such as his have obstructed objective research into the true properties of cannabis in order to hide that fact. One need only consult Dr. Donald Abrams, who can verify the extent of Federal duplicity in preventing such research…unless it is done by Federally sanctioned scientists on the Federal payroll and they support the Federal claims.If the Post truly is interested in the public weal, it could do much better than publishing the propaganda of the ONDCP – which needless to say, has a huge monetary interest in continuing these baseless allegations of cannabis’s deleterious properties. Even worse, they do so with billions of our tax dollars. Now, there would be fertile ground for an expose. Hint, hint, hint… Sincerely,
(Me)
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Comment #10 posted by Sam Adams on May 01, 2002 at 09:39:30 PT
congrats to MPP
Looks like the MPP effort to do medical MJ in DC is having the intended effect - these guys are all riled up about it. And of course, they're going to lose badly, no amount of propaganda will put the horse back in the barn on med MJ."Now it appears that a medical marijuana campaign may be on the horizon for the District"Uh, actually Johnny, DC already voted once by 80% to approved med MJ, that was before your fascist friends cruelly suppressed the result. The usual Prohibitionist routine: blaming the results of current policy on those who want to CHANGE it. Every one of the bad effects - crime by dealers, high youth usage, ER visits, etc, is a DIRECT effect of Prohibition. Each one is much better in Holland. Again, great move by MPP. Massive embarrassment to the Prohibition movement coming up in November!
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Comment #9 posted by project419 on May 01, 2002 at 09:04:18 PT
BULL
So if I smoke Marijuana I am going to either Get an F in all my classes, I am going to be lazy and stupid, I am never going to know what is going on around me. And, I can't drive a car because I will end up driving into a pole or somthing, and I am more likely to get hurt and end up in the hospital...all because I smoke weed?....ANYONE WITH A LITTLE COMMON SENSE WOULD KNOW THIS IS THE BIGGEST SHIT YOU EVER HEARD...
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Comment #8 posted by greenfox on May 01, 2002 at 08:11:31 PT
Hi, me again, here to debunk the bullshit- again.
Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar.
Dick Cowen says this best (marijuananews.com), but I'll try my voice at this one- SHOW ME THE STUDIES!!!!! There is no "conclusive" cannabis studies done on potency in the 60's and even the early 70's to determine THC and other cannabanoid levels in "that" marijuana. Thus, how do we KNOW if it is or isn't stronger? Besides, isn't the TRUE mesure of a poison's toxicity its LETHAL DOSE? Show me a study (other than the oxygen-deprived monkey study) and maybe I will believe this. Moving on....
Marijuana directly affects the brain.
So does Chocolate.Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student achievement?No the quesiton SHOULD be do our loyal amerikan readers really need another propoganda mouthpiece when there are already SO MANY OUT THERE? This is bullshit! And actually, I'm not going to waste my time quoting and debunking the rest of this ....this.....FETAL ATTEMPT at journalism! It's a waste of TIME!!!! What I will say is this: I truly believe since the recent overturn of Mr. Barrrrrrrr's (rarrrrr as in a lion's rar)..... uncounstituional bullshit pork rider, it made him and his pundit friends (fiends) very, very sad..  So now that there's a chance DC voters will be able to vote on this issue again, OHHH! the phone calls are made (and don't you dare think they are not, lest you be just plain ignorant,) and the greasy pig palms rub together to try to find ways of destroying honest growers like myself, and you know what? F*CK EM, because they have the money, the power, and the PRINT, (which, by the way, IS the power,) to come after us. So I hope you aren't holding a remote control when they kick in YOUR door, or they will have just cause to MURDER YOU DEAD FOR SMOKING A JOINT!, ("....bu, bu, bu, but.....I thought it was A gun!!") And don't think it can't, won't, happen to you. The jews thought that. Sieg heil!sly in green, foxy in kind...-gf(and by the way, I'm dating a jew so don't come after me, the comment was made for point, not dis-taste). :P~~~((what is TRULY distasteful is the fact that we even need to read this psudo-crap journalism driiiivel!!!! ARGH!!!))
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Comment #7 posted by bruce42 on May 01, 2002 at 08:07:37 PT
ah yes,
"The University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is currently conducting scientific studies to determine the efficacy of marijuana in treating various ailments. Until that research is concluded, however, most of what the public hears from marijuana activists is little more than a compilation of anecdotes."we have to wait for that one study from a respectable institution that was conducted properly that completely trounces the devil weed. didn't Nixon try the same thing? Unfortuneately for us he was a lot less patient. Never mind the IOM study that actually recommended marijuana research and that did find at least SOME medical value."Why? Is the American health care system -- the most sophisticated in the world"Is it really? I think he is equating sophistication with red tape and high costs, not actual quality of health care.God this is such shite.
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Comment #6 posted by Dankhank on May 01, 2002 at 08:07:28 PT:
Wow !!!
I had to take a breath after reading this drivel ..."intransitive senses
1 : to let saliva dribble from the mouth : SLAVER
2 : to talk stupidly and carelessly"It's breathtaking to see that this man can assemble all of the LIES together and present them as if they were the truth.It explains the blank stares I received from the masses ... all thirty of them, last Sunday evening at OK former-Governor now Senate-candidate Walters' town hall meeting. I did manage to give him a 500 MB CD containing much scientific data regarding MM and watched him gesture with the CD for the last ten minutes of his town meeting.the CD named "Cannabis Reference Library" I obtained from an AMMA member now includes Dr Russo's "Chronic Cannabis Use." I hope you don't mind, Doc.The election season is cranking up, time to go to those political meetings and ask candidates what they will do that is different from the norm, since the drug war is not working, and ... oh ... by the way, unconstitutional, too ..When Congress wanted to prohibit alcohol they had to cobble an amendmant to the Constitution ... to prohibit some drugs the government invoked the interstate commerce clause and other arcane interpretations to do the dirty work ...Who knows the question we are all supposed to ask?. I forget ...Goes something like this ...Sir/Ma'am? do you support the drug war because it enriches smugglers or .....??Help ...Peace to all who fight ...
Hemp N Stuff ...
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Comment #5 posted by Dark Star on May 01, 2002 at 08:06:33 PT
Reefer Madness Lives
John Walters is nothing but a propagandist. Virtually nothing he states here is accurate, but rather a bastardization of facts along with half-truths and downright fabrications.He should be sentenced to read Marijuana Myths/Marijuana Facts for the rest of his days.
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Comment #4 posted by JSM on May 01, 2002 at 08:05:38 PT
Walters
"The writer is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy." This should read: the writer is a paid liar and propagandist for the ONDCP who will do anyway to continue their miserably failed policies. If prohibition was successful cannabis use would have stopped decades ago, but instead it use continues to rise and there is no way to stop it under our current government mindset short of a completely closed and totalitarian form of government. Does Singapore sound like paradise to anyone???
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Comment #3 posted by bruce42 on May 01, 2002 at 07:59:26 PT
of course not
. Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student achievement?No. That is why we need to get drugs out of the hands of corner drug dealers whose only goal is to sell as many drugs to as many people as possible regardless of age. Someone here already said it: drug dealers don't check I.D.
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Comment #2 posted by el_toonces on May 01, 2002 at 07:48:21 PT:
Didn't I just read in...
...a transcript from a P.I. show I missed a statement by a government official who also said we should keep "fighting" but for the opposite reason -- our present U.S. tactics are successful and we should continue them?These smart governemnt folks have me so confused:(El
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Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on May 01, 2002 at 07:47:12 PT
Oh boy
another rabid rant. This man needs to be taken off of the street, and placed in pschiatric care. He has clearly gone over the edge and into the cuckoo's nest. 400,000 deaths per year from tobacco use and he has nothing to say about it. Beam me up. 
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