cannabisnews.com: Sabotaging Drug 'Education' in S.F. Public Schools





Sabotaging Drug 'Education' in S.F. Public Schools
Posted by CN Staff on June 15, 2004 at 11:38:06 PT
By Mitch Earleywine
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
Pseudoscience and misinformation plague many efforts to keep young people off drugs. These errors destroy our credibility with teens and sabotage drug-abuse prevention immensely. As Nanette Asimov documented in The Chronicle ("What Narconon tells students," June 9) our children hear outrageous ideas as early as the third grade. My personal favorite: Drugs will store in your fat cells forever but niacin and saunas will release their remnants as colored ooze.
Programs that rely on lies such as these make me very pessimistic. I wish this example of misinformation was an isolated slip, but as a drug researcher I hear comparable tales daily. A recent e-mail from a boy in Danville explained how his teacher held up a peanut to the class to emphasize the size to which their testicles would shrivel if they smoked marijuana. (I hesitate to think what the girls in the class must have thought.) Students in my undergraduate course on drugs and human behavior also heard some real whoppers growing up. A woman from Texas learned that 1 in 3 people who try marijuana become heroin addicts. (The actual number is 1 in 333, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.) The health instructor of a boy from Southern California explained that a single puff of marijuana would later cause debilitating flashbacks. These flashbacks allegedly would force his eyes back in his head as he fell to the floor babbling during job interviews. A woman from Alaska had a DARE program police officer threaten to arrest her uncle who successfully used marijuana to battle chemotherapy-related nausea because "medical marijuana is a myth." Obviously, research does not support the claims of these drug-prevention approaches. Snipped: Complete Article: http://freedomtoexhale.com/sabotage.htmSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Mitch EarleywinePublished: Monday, June 14, 2004 - Page B - 7 Copyright: 2004 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Related Articles & Web Site:Safety Firsthttp://www.safety1st.org/DARE Program: Sacred Cow or Fatted Calf?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18280.shtmlJust Say No Againhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18254.shtmlShifting Strategy In The Drug War http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10243.shtml
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Comment #15 posted by OverwhelmSam on June 16, 2004 at 06:33:59 PT
The Miracle Cure
Interesting that the Hawaiian Legislature has considered a bill to prescribe marijuana to help crack and meth addicts ween off of their addictions to these more dangerous and debilitating drugs. I suspect herion and alcohol addicts could use marijuana to help them too.
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 22:08:42 PT
afterburner
That's a good web site. Back before LSD was illegal I had a friend who moved to Berkeley to go to school. She wrote me and told me that there was this substance that she was going to take soon and she explained how it was all planned for weeks in advance. They went to classes and discussed what it would be like during a many houred trip on LSD. They were told what might scare them and how not to dwell on any negative thought for too long a time. How to experience the whole thing and on the other side of the trip believing that they would have a deeper meaning about issues in their life. The Psychologist that was teaching or I think it was called guiding this group would not take any LSD but would be there to help them if they started to go on a bum trip. She said after it was all over that it was a beautiful experience. She later came back to the East Coast and became a Lawyer. 
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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on June 15, 2004 at 20:53:17 PT
E_J and FoM
History repeats itself: by trying to remove the "high" from opium while keeping the pain-killing, the chemists created the more addictive morphine. Then, to again remove the "high" and keep the pain-killing, the chemists created the even more addictive heroin."I believe that if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing capabilities more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonder child."
- Dr. Albert Hofmann, Discoverer of LSD - An interesting herbal site I just discovered today: A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs. http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html 
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 19:54:40 PT
That Won't Help
EJ if a vaccine doesn't stop the craving it can't be a benefit at all. The craving is what makes people return to a drug. Taking the high out could make a person find another substance to substitute what they are missing. It just won't work in my opinion. When a person gives up a drug they need something to fill that empty spot or depression could drive them back to the drug they are trying to quit just so they can feel "normal".
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Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on June 15, 2004 at 19:31:25 PT
FoM I think this is the issue
"The vaccine does not stop the craving for cocaine, but will stop addicts experiencing a high when they take it."It doesn't stop the craving but it stops the high.So the person doing the craving is going to respond how? By doing more and more to see how much thery can do before the high beats the vaccine.It doesn't sound promising from that perspective.
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Comment #10 posted by afterburner on June 15, 2004 at 18:10:44 PT
Why Should Drug Education Use Lying? 
Imagine the disciplinary action a teacher would face who deliberately lied to the students about anything other than drugs. "The truth will out."
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 16:17:48 PT
Cannabis Enthusiast 
Let's try not to talk about drug use. CNews is to help bring change to the current drug laws but use of drugs is illegal and we don't need problems like that here. 
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Comment #8 posted by Cannabis Enthusiast on June 15, 2004 at 16:13:54 PT
Indoor hydroponic Coca farms in every U.S. city!
If there were mega warehouses with hydro Coca grow operations in them in every major metropolitan area in the U.S., there would probably be a lot less problems with Cocaine and Crack as people could just chew coca leaves which is rather healthy and doesn't have many downsides.I personally don't use cocaine or crack, but I would probably chew coca leaves if I could get them fresh (they only retain their usefulness for a few days after being off the bush) every morning at my local coca shop.I would much rather chew coca leaves than drink coffee any day.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 14:30:41 PT
BigDawg
That's exactly what I mean. You said it better then I did. Some people want to quit and keep failing and just can't seem to stay clean. When a drug controls a person rather then a person having a drug in control they are the ones who might need this help. Drugs shouldn't rule a persons life.
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Comment #6 posted by BigDawg on June 15, 2004 at 14:15:32 PT
The article answers the question about the vaccine
It is primarily for those who have already quit... and need that extra help to stay clean and avoid rebound.There are those who reach the point of consciously WANTING to quit... but just can't hang in there.I figure this will slow down relaspe allowing for more time in therapy.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 13:41:08 PT
Cannabis Enthusiast
I've been meaning to ask you a question but I just haven't until now. The question you ask seems strange to me. Why wouldn't a hard core user of Coke want to stop? It's a serious drug and creates problems with many people. Didn't you quit drinking and drugs about a month ago? Don't you understand why some addicts would want a vaccine if it helps them quit?
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Comment #4 posted by Cannabis Enthusiast on June 15, 2004 at 13:21:21 PT
Cocaine vaccine "stops addiction"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3804741.stmWhy would any serious coke-head use this "vaccine"?
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on June 15, 2004 at 12:21:00 PT
How about this?
If you're some born-again right wing Christian who's worried about kids doing drugs why don't you:1st: stop drinking, smoking and doing illegal drugs yourself2nd: work to help and support friends and family who are struggling with substance abuse3rd: work to help people in your community that are at-risk for substance abuse problems.Note that "clamoring for more tax money to be spent brainwashing someone else's kids" does not appear anywhere on the list.In other words, BUTT OUT of my family.
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on June 15, 2004 at 11:50:50 PT
The deadly disease of trope addiction
"We're all willing to do anything to prevent teen drug problems. We've spent billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours at work and in school. And we should. Drug problems are a debilitating and preventable waste"Drug problems is an idea that people use to avoid thinking about a problem that they aren't ready to think about.Maybe it's the general emptiness and lack of sustainability of our entire modern way of life on this planet. I don't know. How much addiction and depression did they have in the ancient world? I don't know.People with drug problems don't have them merely because drugs are there in front of them. What about all the people who use those same drugs at the same parties and walk away the next day without a problem?If drugs are the problem then what explains causal moderate use of drugs?What about the people who can't stop eating ice cream, and the people who can eat it once a week and be happy with that for the rest of their lives?Something else is the problem, and that something else just hasn't been given a name yet.Maybe because calling it "drugs" makes so many people so much money and leaves them feeling rightly or wrongly like they have served God and mankind in addition to themselves.And that is what I call the deadly disease of trope addiction.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 15, 2004 at 11:41:31 PT
Related Article: What Narconon Tells Students 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/09/MNGL2736S31.DTL
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