On November 2, voters in Arizona and South Dakota decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical use, as 14 states and the District of Columbia already have. Meanwhile, in California, where medical marijuana is legal, voters are deciding whether to decriminalize recreational marijuana use. Is marijuana a gateway to harder drugs? Lucky Severson reports from Los Angeles.
BISHOP RON ALLEN (President, International Faith-Based Coalition, speaking in a church): It is because Satan has tried to make us think and have tried to make us believe that it’s nothing. Isn’t that just like the enemy? That it is less harmful than alcohol. Isn’t that how Satan comes in the back door to make you think that one sin is greater than another? You all have to say “amen.”
LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: It’s Sunday, so Bishop Ron Allen is guest preaching in church. Any other day of the week and he’ll be preaching the same message to anyone who will listen. Bishop Allen is president of the International Faith-Based Coalition, comprising what he says are over 4000 churches nationwide. His one mission is to teach drug prevention to church leaders, and more urgently to defeat Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in California.
I would be shocked if that measure passes in South Dakota. They had trouble even getting enough signatures to get it on the ballot here.
“voters are deciding whether to decriminalize recreational marijuana use”
Well over here increasing numbers of our kids are already stoned from illegal sources and adding to the mental health figures; only this morning I spoke to a distraught mother whose son is now an addict – why not give them legitimate sources so that more of them can make a complete mess of their lives. We have never been better at child care.
We truly live in insane times. Indeed smoking tobacco is bad, but smoking marijuana is good. And please be honest, “medical” marijuana is only about eventual legalization as a recreational drug.
And when the bill comes due for personal indulgence and NPR touts the downside to behavior they have long advocated, it will be “society”, that is you and me, who will be asked to pay for the results of what we sought to avoid.
If THC is such a great source of improving people’s lives, why don’t we standardize it as a pharmaceutical, and produce it as a pill? I saw a video segment (can’t remember where) that showed an Israeli doctor who was working on standardized THC extracts to use for things like pain management. He was aghast that people would smoke marijuana because of the widely varying dosages obtained.
I think what a lot of people really want is just an excuse to get high. I believe that if you could get the medicinal benefits of THC in a pill, people would be against it because they really just want to inhale and get high.
As an aside, marijuana cigarette users inhale more deeply, hold the smoke longer, and consequently do more damage to their respiratory systems, per cigarette, than a regular smoker.
With the tobacco prohibitionists in full force, I find it curious they are not as vocal about initiatives like this. Medical study after medical study has shown the Marijuana smoke is much more harmful to lung tissue that tobacco smoke, and creates extensively higher risks of emphysema and lung cancer.
And I am still not convinced how marijuana could possibly be effective as a medicinal pain killer, if prescribed drugs like Tylenol 3 or Morphine or whatever no longer work. And then you have the pot legalization crowd claiming that Marijuana is no different than tobacco. If its somehow more effective that prescription narcotics, then obviously there is justification for keeping it illegal.
But, hey, what’s a little doobie between friends…
Well, the rumor is in California that the pot legalization measure is on the ballot to ensure that more Dems get to the polls on election day. . . don’t know how valid that impression is, but it’s out there.
Actually, the evidence does not indicate that Marijuana is more dangerous than tobacco. There’s very little evidence of much about Marijuana, because it’s impossible to get a reliable study in the US for political reasons. What’s certain is that the drug war hasn’t worked. And it’s cost a lot of money. It’s one good reason to distrust the Government’s use of tax money (why not instead spend all that money on the drug war on more teachers?)
How many people have died due to Marijuana use? Strictly marijuana use? Why do we consider Marijuana a “gateway drug” rather than tobacco?
Doctors, not politicians, should be orienting policy around drugs. It’s morally appropriate, and means a lot less spending on prison infrastructure.
No. 6,
No, actually there have been several studies in the last ten years regarding tissue degradation and oxygen assimilation into the bloodstream. Consult the AMA journals and the Registry of Internal Medicine.
Also for references concerning its affects on the human brain consult:
American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV, 4th ed. s.215-221 Cannabis-related disorders.
The clinical experience of Wendy Moelker, Psychologist in charge, tutor, Emergis center for mental health care, Goes, the Netherlands.
As to the medical dangers of marijuana, I remember reading an article iin Sci Am several years ago that concluded that its toxins were as significant as tobacco’s. The is far enough in the past so that I cannot remember the issue or the year. But that’s beside the point. Shall we conclude that, contrary evidence lacking, marijuana is GOOD for the lungs and the head? Come on now. And what of the rest, that it is the major gateway drug, that it has done countless adolescents enormous damage, that every other vice gathers around an established vice, that where the drugs go, violence follows… and on and on. The evidence here is clear and indisputable. And here in Maine we are being peddled every conceivable lie and con and sematic manipulation using medical necessity as the baseline. And the necessity of the medical necessity? Medicine says that marijuana is simply not necessary, that the pharma has many resources that work as well. But this can’t be denied, that getting stoned is what marijuana does best, and the “medical” users have discovered this charming function.
When oh when are we going to get free of the psycho-social evils that the Baby Boomers have cursed us with? The cheap and easy sex, the brazen trashing of privacy, tbhe denial of self restraint, the apotheosis of homosexuality, the institutionalizing of narcissism, the passion for drugs of all sorts, and now, here in Maine, another God Damned casino. (and I say that literally). Where is there a Jeremiah who will cry out? Larry
As to the medical dangers of marijuana, I remember reading an article iin Sci Am several years ago that concluded that its toxins were as significant as tobacco’s. The is far enough in the past so that I cannot remember the issue or the year. But that’s beside the point. Shall we conclude that, contrary evidence lacking, marijuana is GOOD for the lungs and the head? Come on now. And what of the rest, that it is the major gateway drug, that it has done countless adolescents enormous damage, that every other vice gathers around an established vice, that where the drugs go, violence follows… and on and on. The evidence here is clear and indisputable. And here in Maine we are being peddled every conceivable lie and con and sematic manipulation using medical necessity as the baseline. And the necessity of the medical necessity? Medicine says that marijuana is simply not necessary, that the pharma has many resources that work as well. But this can’t be denied, that getting stoned is what marijuana does best, and the “medical” users have discovered this charming function.
When oh when are we going to get free of the psycho-social evils that the Baby Boomers have cursed us with? The cheap and easy sex, the brazen trashing of privacy, tbhe denial of self restraint, the apotheosis of homosexuality, the institutionalizing of narcissism, the passion for drugs of all sorts, and now, here in Maine, another God Damned casino. (and I say that literally). Where is there a Jeremiah who will cry out? Larry
If the choice is down to hanging out with stoners or drunks, I’ll take the stoners. Less angry, more laughter (even if the jokes aren’t at all funny).
If marijuana is as harmful as tobacco (and I have no reason to doubt that it is), it should be regulated as tobacco is regulated. High taxes, penalties for sales to minors, vehicle operation etc.