cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Harmless? Hardly, Says Drug Czar Marijuana Harmless? Hardly, Says Drug Czar Posted by CN Staff on August 03, 2007 at 06:12:36 PT By William H. Janes Source: Tallahassee Democrat USA -- Wednesday's column by Tallahassee Democrat Senior Writer Gerald Ensley (“Reefer madness: It's time to fix the marijuana laws”) has resulted in numerous calls to the Florida Office of Drug Control (ODC). The callers are not from Mr. Ensley's “otherwise law-abiding citizens” who choose to break the law and smoke marijuana. The callers are Floridians who do not want to change the marijuana laws. They want to protect our youth. They want to abide by our laws. They want informed decisions about marijuana, a harmful drug. I share Mr. Ensley's concerns about the harm caused by alcohol and tobacco. As ODC director, I have always contended that alcohol is our most dangerous drug. Indeed, a priority effort of ODC is to reduce underage drinking. However, my alignment with Mr. Ensley ends here.Democrat readers must weigh both sides of the legalization argument. In Mr. Ensley's column, Allen Turnage, legal director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Florida, does a great disservice to his supporters and recklessly misleads the public by mischaracterizing marijuana smoking as a “genuinely harmless activity.” Marijuana smoking, of course, is not a harmless activity, as some of the very data marshaled to bolster the case for decriminalization or legalization indicate. As noted in the column, about 10 percent of experimenters or casual users of marijuana will eventually become heavy, dependent users. These dependent users find the process of reducing their use or quitting quite difficult, and many seek assistance from drug treatment providers. Cannabis dependence harms users in other ways as well. Students who are constantly high typically display a diminished ability to learn and recall new information, potentially resulting in poor academic and occupational achievement.Research also correlates marijuana use and adverse health effects, including a strong association between chronic smoking of marijuana and abnormalities of cells in the respiratory system, increased risk of cancer, lung damage, chronic bronchitis, increased risk of pulmonary disease, and poor pregnancy outcomes. If we, as a society, now spend so much energy and resources persuading people to stop smoking, why would we now send a signal that smoking marijuana is acceptable?Last week, a study funded by the British Health Department concluded there “is sufficient evidence to warn young people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life.” While causation was not directly established, the results were strong enough to further warn that “despite the inevitable uncertainty, policy makers need to provide the public with advice about this widely used drug.” While the likelihood of a cannabis-related psychotic disorder is low, the prevalence of marijuana use mandates wide dissemination of this warning.Ignoring the harms of marijuana use may be convenient when arguing for a system of taxation and regulation similar to alcohol and tobacco. However, a discussion of the potential harms of cannabis is not the only thing missing from the article's plea for reform. A frank assessment of what might happen to marijuana use rates if marijuana were available in a legal market is also conspicuously absent. Perhaps this is because regulating marijuana in the same way we regulate alcohol and tobacco - with all of the big-budget marketing and advertising that goes along with it - could lead to a substantial increase in marijuana use. It certainly would be more available to our children. I do not believe our society or health-care system is ready for the consequences.I ask Floridians to consider the evidence. Marijuana is illegal because it is harmful. Studies consistently correlate marijuana use with adverse health issues. Marijuana that is grown today is more potent and potentially more harmful. Appropriately, our government has drawn a line saying we are not going to add marijuana to our long list of alcohol and cigarette problems. Do not change the marijuana laws. William H. Janes is director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)Author: William H. Janes Published: August 3, 2007Copyright: 2007 Tallahassee DemocratContact: letters tallahassee.comWebsite: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/Related Article & Web Site:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Marijuana Laws Have To Changehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23222.shtmlCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #19 posted by Wayne on August 08, 2007 at 21:31:03 PT re: user123 "The callers are Floridians who do not want to change the marijuana laws. They want to protect our youth. They want to abide by our laws. They want informed decisions about marijuana, a harmful drug."I've got my money on one of those callers being Mel Sembler. He started STRAIGHT, Inc., remember, the drug-free gulag for teens back in the 70s and 80s? He also founded the new-and-improved Drug Free America Foundation. He's still alive and kicking down here in FL. And he controls a good chunk of the construction contracting money and most of the money flowing through the FL Republican party, helped pay for Scooter Libby's defense fund, and is now financing Mitt Romney's campaign. I just bet he's got his grubby old wrinkled hands in this editorial somewhere. Maybe Jeb Bush's too, for all I know...I actually looked him up in the WhitePages. There's a Melvin Sembler living in Treasure Island. I wonder if it's him?? His address and phone# are on there... Mel Sembler [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by John Tyler on August 05, 2007 at 08:08:25 PT more crazyness This is the kind of thing I was mentioning earlier. A purposely deceptive and misleading “junk” science article is published with a shocking headline based on slippery nonspecific words like “suggests”, “might”, and “maybe” and then percentages are added to the mix to create more confusion. Fifty percent of this, and 20% of that, means that 40% of something else, plus or minus some percentage, might suggest (might suggest mind you, not specific direct words like does or will) that something might happen sometime, somewhere to somebody. (Does that sound like any kind of proof?) Then the prohibitionist crowd reads the headline and not much beyond the first paragraph and says this proves it. It, of course does no such thing, but now they can cite it as an independent scientific source and run with it for a while. It’s all crap, but they don’t care. This is part of a political agenda; truth has nothing to do with it. And speaking of making you crazy, did you see the article in the New England Journal of Medicine that said that Tagamet, Pepcid and Zantac, the big three anti acid drugs by GlaxoSmithKlineFrench, cause (not might or maybe) memory impairment and cognitive problems especially in the elderly? And that restless leg syndrome medicine when taken in higher doses will make you as “dingy” as the mad hatter in “Alice in Wonderland”. So much for crazy. The addiction rate for tobacco use is 50% (according to the History Channel) and it definitely leads to deadly health problems. So if we have to “protect the youth” why isn’t tobacco illegal? [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by whig on August 04, 2007 at 11:04:04 PT rchandar Gilead is the name of the company that Donald Rumsfeld ran.Gilead Sciences, Inc. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by user123 on August 04, 2007 at 10:30:18 PT: Duh Sheeple "The callers are Floridians who do not want to change the marijuana laws. They want to protect our youth. They want to abide by our laws. They want informed decisions about marijuana, a harmful drug." Let me guess who those callers might be - Big Pharm, Anheiser-Busch, & a few people who unquestionly believe everything their gov't tells them. When will we stop passing moralistic laws designed to help the 10% of the population that can't manage self control? [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by rchandar on August 04, 2007 at 07:39:35 PT: Shame, Shame, Shame How dare our state government make such a vilifying statement in support of our law. How dare he.Listen folks, including Mr. James. Listen. MJ is 2 million strong here. 2 million. State law: possession of under 20 grams is punishable by a prison sentence of 1 YEAR. How DARE he come out and expect people to support such an outrageous distortion of social responsibility. Next thing he'll say is that MJ users should go to the gas chambers. None of Mr. James argument justifies the absurd penalties. Nowhere.If a person has "health issues" because they smoke a lot of chronic, he/she doesn't need the government to seize his hands and shove him into treatment, with the grisly threat of sodomization following close behind. Folks, picture it. Innocent teenage boys and girls. A minor indiscretion. And a Gilead-driven witchhunt to spread terror and rape amongst the innocent.Totally disgusted. Sorry, guys. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by legalizeit on August 03, 2007 at 18:58:19 PT Tickle Me Prohib... ... these idiots who are paid to vilify cannabis and other formerly legal sacraments remind me of those dolls that say canned phrases when you poke them in the belly. Prohibitionists don't have any new evidence to prove their shaky arguments, so they just blab the same crap over and over. Pot's more potent, blah blah, it's not harmless, blah blah, the childruuuun, blah blah, lung cancer, blah blah blah. Of course this dingbat had to include their latest "triumph," that stupid study that says pot can cause psychosis or whatever. He says, "I do not believe our society or health-care system is ready for the consequences." Oh really? You mean consequences like fewer people clogging the treatment system because those who really need treatment are the only ones there? People peacefully smoking herb instead of getting soused and beating people up, driving drunk, etc.? Sick and terminally ill people being able to just go to the corner drugstore and get something that really helps them, instead of forking it over to Big Pharma for crap that does a half-assed job (or going to a drug dealer for what they really need and God intended for them to use?)Yeah, I guess our society isn't ready for that yet. We're too busy waging war and running around like pansies every time a steam line blows up, a 66-year-old lady checks an ice pack in her luggage, or Bush blurts out that magic number "911." [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by OverwhelmSam on August 03, 2007 at 17:06:28 PT Constantly High The reality with weed is that if you smoke every day, it tends to be a bland experience after a while. However, if you toke only every other two to three days, the experience is fresh. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Had Enough on August 03, 2007 at 15:17:26 PT Hair And that Valedictorian wore a ponytail too!!!All the way down and 'past' his waist.And wore the clothes of style of the time.The principal and faculty at the time really liked that. Not!!!But we did. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Had Enough on August 03, 2007 at 15:02:42 PT The Valedictorian and… I would like to add.The Valedictorian of our class was also a drummer, a very good one, and we had many hours jamming.Last I heard he was in the Silicone Valley doing computer stuff, and making a very good living. I last saw him about 8 years ago. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Had Enough on August 03, 2007 at 14:54:07 PT Pot Heads Pot BrainsThe Valedictorian of our Senior High School Class and the one before that were stoners.My, that was a while ago. Early 70’s.And that is when all the Panama Red, Columbian Gold, and Thai Sticks were popular.You know!!! The stuff the Drug Czars talk about when they say today’s pot is 10 times as strong (or what ever convenient number they pull out their butt) as what it used to be.***Panama Red is a legendary cannabis sativa cultivar of the 1960s and 1970s, popular amongst cannabis afficiandos. Panama Red is genetically related to Columbian Red.[citation needed] It is known for causing a racy, paranoia-inducing, psychedelic high. Cannabis culture died off in Panama with the rise of cocaine trafficking. Today, there are still Panama Red seeds available from collectors, but this strain is very rare.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Red****The legendary Panama Red's album Choice Buds, produced by Dick Cooper, is dedicated to singer/songwriter Fred Neil and has the work of many wonderfully talented people contributing to a rich, full sound. This is Panama's first video that is long overdue for such a tremedous talent and one-man Americana national-treasury of sound. A member of the Bethlehem Asylum and co-writer and player with many including Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch4tSwP2_4M***Panama Red: New Riders of the Purple Sagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVZZ-zkNNxk&mode=related&search= [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on August 03, 2007 at 14:29:17 PT: Institutionalized fraud "As noted in the column, about 10 percent of experimenters or casual users of marijuana will eventually become heavy, dependent users. These dependent users find the process of reducing their use or quitting quite difficult, and many seek assistance from drug treatment providers." Lie. Most treatment for cannabis is court remanded, not voluntary."Cannabis dependence harms users in other ways as well. Students who are constantly high typically display a diminished ability to learn and recall new information, potentially resulting in poor academic and occupational achievement."Lie. As had been mentioned by others in the comments, quite a few people appear to be able to excel in academics while being consumers of cannabis...like Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Cary Mullis (originator of the DNA testing widely used today) etc. Didn't seem to bother them at all.(In a personal sidenote, one of the biggest stoners I knew in high school was a grade A+ student. He told me that he smoked partly because he found the school curriculum to be so stultifying that he felt the need to preserve his brain cells from turning to mush due to sheer, crying boredom caused by the entire class having to progress at the speed of the slowest student. He could have graduated by 9th grade and gone on to college, but for the sake of his 'socialization'...and the need for public schools to have numbers of students in order to justify their budgets...he was kept in school long after he should have been attending higher education. Cannabis was in essence inoculation against mental atrophy. The same kind of mental atrophy seemingly illustrated by this article.)"Research also correlates marijuana use and adverse health effects, including a strong association between chronic smoking of marijuana and abnormalities of cells in the respiratory system, increased risk of cancer, lung damage, chronic bronchitis, increased risk of pulmonary disease, and poor pregnancy outcomes. (And isn't it interesting that not one of these researchers are ever named?)Lie...and a shamelessly sloppy one at that. It was a study done at the behest of the government, the Tashkin Study, which not only proved the cancer connection was phony, but also repeated what the Russo study of the Compassionate Use program recipients found: it actually helped lung operation due to it's bronchial dilation properties - even with crappy weed from Uncle.Yes, this wonk is repeating from the playbook, alright. But in a court of law that playbook would quickly become damning evidence that the entire DrugWar is in fact institutionalized fraud, and the 'bunco artists' are being paid from our taxes. Scammers, bloody scammers, all of them... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Had Enough on August 03, 2007 at 14:12:54 PT re: #7 “People like the Drug Czars, still think marijuana is an evil drug that will make you crazy and kill you...”They don’t think that. They know the truth about weed. They tell untruths to people (sheeple) to keep they’re bureaucratic butts in business, Industrial Prison Complex going, and all the other stuff that goes along with it like controlling the masses.Drug Czars feed off the Drug War.Czars belong in Russia not America. And America should not be importing goods from a country that uses communist slave labor to make the products, like China. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by NikoKun on August 03, 2007 at 13:19:47 PT End Prohibition NOW! The Drug Czar is not correct! People like the Drug Czars, still think marijuana is an evil drug that will make you crazy and kill you... They hold religious morals and try to control the morals of others and control other's personal life and choices. They see themselves as morally above the rest of us, and fight this battle like a crusade... Blind to anything else..."As noted in the column, about 10 percent of experimenters or casual users of marijuana will eventually become heavy, dependent users." That percent is even higher for Alcohol users. And is not a reason to keep Marijuana illegal, as long as alcohol IS legal.No matter what harms they can come up with, Marijuana is still a relatively safe drug when compared to alcohol, and since alcohol is legal, Marijuana should be too. It is the biggest no brainer EVER. Common sense and logic... but no, our government chooses to remain hypocritical about this topic, and laughs in the face of opposing scientific data that says they're wrong.Prohibition is an illogical, pointless, and failed policy... We shouldn't be trying to prohibit people's personal activities and choices they make for their own bodies...We need to end this failed prohibition now so we can finally advance as a free and modern civilization... These policies are not free, and not modern, and strive to stifle mankind's understanding of personal freedom. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by ekim on August 03, 2007 at 12:55:05 PT good going museman-- ur walking the walk we can only hope that we are helping the next gendo a little bit better than how we found this wonderful place.sounds like http://www.otherpower.com is no stranger to youi have been hearing a good comercial radio ad near here latly -- is from the Nationl Wildlife Fed and the Sierra Clubis talking about how using fast growing grasses for cellulose ethanol will help the conservation of our lands.seems the tech on the enzymes that can break down cellulose into sugars so as to be distilled into ethanol is painfully slow-- but its here just needs some more pushing when the dust clears -- cannabis prohibiton will be shown to have set back our great inovational minds eye --all under the pretext of ordering personel freedom and logic to zero http://blog.leap.cc/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by museman on August 03, 2007 at 11:23:26 PT constantly high continued And if any of you prohibitionists out there want to match brains with someone who is 'constantly high' here I am.As long as we are sticking with intellect, and not beliefs, because there is nothing about American politics, religions, or corporations, or organized systems of the status quo that I believe is anything other than the root cause of all the worst scenarios in the world.So no associating my total lack of ambition to be a successful predator with my pot smoking. I eat (intelectually) predators at every chance I can get. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by museman on August 03, 2007 at 11:14:34 PT constantly high. "Students who are constantly high typically display a diminished ability to learn and recall new information, potentially resulting in poor academic and occupational achievement."Well, since I don't know exactly what 'constantly high' really means in the DEA dictionary, I am assuming that it means they wear a gas mask to bed and breath smoke 24-7. Maybe under those conditions this statement, along with the rest of the lies and obfuscations might have some validity, I mean brains need oxygen, just look at what happened to Mr. Bush.However if they are talking about 'heavy to moderate use every day,' I have some actual facts for you;My eldest daughter has been around the world, went to college in Tokyo, (as well as graduating with honors from U-of-O) and got her masters degree in political science at Oslo University in Norway. She speaks 5 languages fluently, and is currently rising up the list of people for the government to watch, She'll be in DC within the next few years. I've a son who is currently in his third year at college, on the national honor roll, and who was in the top of his class during his junior and senior year in High School.I've a daughter who just graduated from high school with higher averages than my son. She's going on to the same college.I have 3 other sons who are talented artists and musicians. One is currently touring Europe with his music promoters who are grooming him for a tour and recording contract next year. One is studying to be a chef, and my oldest son is working on a Right -Brain approach to new mathematical theory, and is a walking encyclopedia about ancient history and the original sources of religions.All of them smoked herb during their teenage years, and while in school. I tried to get them to wait until they were finished growing, because there are no real studies on the effects of cannabis on teens, just government inventions like this one.If smoking of cannabis does 'result in poor academic and occupational achievement' then I submit that the brains involved in this 'research' were already inadequate to begin with, probably the same range of IQ that it takes to be a DEA agent, or a politician, or a cannabis researcher.Somewhere around 50. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Toker00 on August 03, 2007 at 09:15:33 PT Will there ever be a more hollow law than Cannabis Prohibition?"As noted in the column, about 10 percent of experimenters or casual users of marijuana will eventually become heavy, dependent users."Meaning: Some of us will use cannabis so responsibly that even with heavy use we suffer no arrest, commit no crimes, present no danger to others or effect society in any negative way like the more dangerous LEGAL drugs such as ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO do. Not to mention the pharma-poisons or other illegal drugs. There is no arguement AGAINST Legalizing Cannabis. None.Toke. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Truth on August 03, 2007 at 08:20:19 PT well? "As ODC director, I have always contended that alcohol is our most dangerous drug."OK, so you let them sell alcohol at the corner store and you want to destroy someone's life because they choose a far safer substance, cannabis. Great, pat yourself on the back and go home and have a scotch to celebrate. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by dongenero on August 03, 2007 at 08:13:28 PT yawn.... blah, blah, blahThe ONDCP affiliated rubber stamp propoganda article. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment