cannabisnews.com: Smoking Up The Debate on Pot Smoking Up The Debate on Pot Posted by CN Staff on September 24, 2002 at 17:21:37 PT By Daniel Port Source: Daily Trojan The state of Nevada is set to vote on whether or not to legalize the most widely used illegal substance in America. It's clear, however, that the sagebrush state is a bit too "high" on the idea of legalizing marijuana.Remember those kids in high school who smoked pot everyday? Weren't they cool? I mean, they never showered or shaved or did homework or graduated, but man, they said some funny stuff! Of course, chances are that at least some of them have moved on to harder, more taboo substances. It's well known that Marijuana use is as common as the chicken pox, but overuse and it's role as a gateway drug is a silent epidemic.A good share of marijuana's popularity is based on the fact that alcohol use is strikingly common, so using marijuana is the far more rebellious outlet. Marijuana use in the demographic of teens and young adults, however, is startlingly high compared to other age groups. It is a peer pressure drug; many feel obligated to use it because it is so prevalent. Based on the amount of marijuana abuse taking place, it is a fair assumption that people may use weed while they move on and try something more rebellious (and more deadly). At present, more than half of all marijuana smokers use harder drugs, according to the American Medical Association. If marijuana were legalized, there would be a dramatic spike in the use of possibly fatal drugs, such as cocaine and heroine. It's just human nature.Despite a shortage of thorough research, it's clear that marijuana carries a good share of usage complications. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, marijuana has numerous side effects. Psychological effects include memory trouble, altered time perception, severe anxiety and paranoia. Marijuana users can't perform otherwise simple tasks.Plus, the psychological effects of avid marijuana users, according to studies by the American Medical Association, become remarkably severe after usage is ended. Current research has revealed that marijuana is addictive, thus crushing a previously popular conception. There is even a Marijuana Anonymous organization to help addicts quit.A person who smokes pot even a few times a week loses a great deal of cognitive functionality once their usage is ended. Their thinking does return to normal eventually, but not until nearly a month after they stop using. This is withdrawal.Granted, marijuana has had success in the relief of pain and glaucoma. The problem with these results is that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there is not a distinctive pattern of success in marijuana's medicinal uses and physicians are advised to prescribe it only on a patient by patient basis. Furthermore, there are more common alternative medicines to combat glaucoma and pain that do not involve smoke inhalation, which is extremely detrimental to the lungs of certain patients, particularly the geriatric.Besides, might the likely reason for the success of marijuana as a pain reliever be somewhat of an illusion? Patients may not be concerned with their pain if they are receiving a drug-induced high. Similar results might be reached through alcohol or illegal substances. I mean, a man with a broken leg might feel better after throwing back a dozen shots of tequila, but that doesn't mean a doctor should be prescribing it.Because of widespread abuse of the drug, raising the availability of pot would have very negative effects. The American Academy of Family Physicians points to reduced blood flow to the brain, nausea, headaches and tremors as some of the short-term physical effects of marijuana use. Also, since pot is usually smoked in an unfiltered form, its effects on the human lungs are more dangerous than common cigarettes. Smoke equals tar, whether it's a cigarette, a joint or a campfire. Smoking is smoking, and it isn't healthy.Most startling perhaps is a 2001 report by the American Medical Association which links marijuana use to heart attacks. The likelihood is small, but it has been shown that, in more than a few instances, marijuana has triggered a myocardial infarction.USC Professor of Preventative Medicine and Professor of Psychology Dr. Steven Sussman, an expert in the human behavioral effects of substance abuse, notes some further dangers of marijuana use. "In terms of health problems, more people use cigarettes (25 percent of world population), whereas only 2.5 percent of the population use marijuana regularly (certain subgroups are much higher, of course). Marijuana certainly causes lung damage and accidents in regular usage, and may lead to memory problems as well."Sussman goes further and outlines some other risks of marijuana use, including the possibility of lung cancer, pregnancy effects and impaired coordination, particularly behind the wheel. Sussman also cracks a common stereotype about violence and marijuana by stating "marijuana use empirically in the U.S. does predict violence perpetration a year later among teens, and has repeatedly been found to be associated with violence."Health care commentator Dr. Joel Hay concurs that marijuana use has negative effects on the ability to operate an automobile. While alcohol still has a worse effect, driving simulation tests have revealed that marijuana still makes for unsafe drivers. Hay continues that, unlike alcohol, marijuana's active ingredient (THC) stays in the body for several weeks afterwards and is by far the most common illegal substance found in accident victims.Of the small amount of existing reports on marijuana's long-term effects, most contain inconclusive and conflicting results. This, of course, means that much is still unknown, which is scarier than anything that is known.So let's recap: this is a drug that is already in wide use (and abuse) that causes multiple psychological and physical short-term side effects (some very serious), has unknown long-term effects and is already quantitatively abused. And they are considering legalizing it? Moronic.As much as I would enjoy day-tripping to Nevada and selling Big Grabs of Cheetos for $50 a piece, I just can't get behind this legislative possibility.I suppose one could just trust in people accepting the side effects and using it moderately at their own discretion. One could just sit back and say "You wanna get high? Go ahead. What do I care?" Then again, seeing as marijuana has never been fully available to the modern U.S. population (280 million), the effects of legalization cannot be fully realized. Might widespread use lead to health and legal risks, such as second-hand smoke? I can hear the lawyers salivating already.Legalizing this drug is a very unnecessary decision. If scientific evaluation and experimentation can clarify the long-term and eliminate the short-term effects of marijuana, then maybe legalization should be considered. Until then, it's just not a well-thought out idea.Note: Should we follow Canada and Nevada’s lead to legalize?Editorial writer Daniel Port is a junior majoring in creative writing. Source: Daily Trojan (CA Edu)Author: Daniel PortPublished: Vol. 147, No. 20 - Sept. 24, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Daily TrojanContact: dtrojan usc.eduWebsite: http://www.dailytrojan.com/ Related Articles:Experts Disagree on Merits of Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14232.shtmlNew Breed of Voters May Stir Pot of Politicshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14214.shtmlLegalizing Marijuana: Five Major Sticking Points http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14204.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by ariel on September 25, 2002 at 13:53:28 PT: usc idiot right on, idbsnel, on that idiot letter from a true usc junior idiot. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by DANA on September 25, 2002 at 03:04:54 PT p4me ..I dont know....in a certain way,I like the new word;"obsufucation."...when I first saw it,I thought it was actual ,and I went for the dictionary...I think that if we found it in the dictionary,,it would say something like::"obsufucation: 1.).obstruction caused by,or related to,suffocation of an idea,or thought; 2)obscurement or obstructions relating to matters that involve suffering"....(?) [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by cltrldmg on September 25, 2002 at 02:28:47 PT An Incorrect diagnosis The problem with this article is, that it assumes that hard drug use is really very bad, and that if marijuana leads on to them then it's enough to justify banning it. The problem with hard drug users isn't the drugs, it's the people. Yeah, a lot of marijuana users are lazy hippies, and a good number of heroin users are social outcasts, but not all of them. Some of them are respected, middle-aged family men and CEO's. The real fuel of the prohibitionist a sociological problem (in their view) not a drug problem. They got the diagnosis wrong, that's why the medication isn't work. But it doesn't matter because the doctor makes more money and doesn't give a shit about the side effects.As long as people don't get that into their thick skulls things can only get worse. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on September 24, 2002 at 18:32:02 PT Thanks idbsne1 I just got it posted. I didn't see the counter point. Thanks for the heads up. I haven't done this many articles in one day in a long time. I'm tired to say the least! [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by idbsne1 on September 24, 2002 at 18:14:33 PT Hey FoM... Could you print the counterpoint....at the Daily Trojan page there is a counterpoint that is EXCELLENT.....I might havbe to take back what I said of U$C juniors.....lol....well only in Jason David's case....:)idbsne1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by p4me on September 24, 2002 at 18:11:04 PT Make that obfuscation I took a permanent marker and wrote the word, obfuscation, on the top of my monitor so as not to misspell it again.I was looking up some to see what was on th Net about John Kennedy and his use of marijuana. I had read about him using it for his back pain. Reading the links came up with an interesting thing from http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id1415/pg1/The following from the above link talks of the murder of a woman said to have smoked with him in bed:"The Timothy Leary connection is interesting because at that time in the early sixties there was a group of society-type women in Washington who thought that if they could get men in power involved in mind?altering drugs they could see the world in a different way and this would end the Cold War and end all warfare. It was a very ambitious plan and a lot of them got their marijuana and LSD from Timothy Leary, who at that time was a professor of psychology at Harvard and had access to these drugs. At that time were very experimental and they were going around in a lot of the elite circles. It didn't have the same connotation that it has today of the hard stuff, of the cocaine and the heroin. This was all very beautiful and mind-expanding type stuff. So she was involved with Kennedy and they used to supposedly smoke marijuana together in Kennedy's bedroom and I think Leary said that she also gave him LSD, although I couldn't swear to that.""Anyway, she got murdered. She was murdered a year after Kennedy died. Kennedy was killed in November '63 and Mary Meyer was killed in 1964. She was walking her dog in Georgetown through a wooded area and she was stabbed to death. And they never found the killer. Some young black man was put in jail for ten months, held over until his trial and then he was acquitted because there was no evidence. And they've never found the killer but people who have investigated the case say that it had all the earmarks of a professional assassination."1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by idbsne1 on September 24, 2002 at 18:08:36 PT Please write to this idiot..... Figures it would come from U$C....It is well known that U$C Alumnists are power/money hungry aristocrats that in their own words choose USC "not for the education, but for the connections."How surprising that from a University paper we find such prohibitionist dribble....no doubt influenced by conservatives.All the lies spouted in this paper are presented as if they are fact... when the only solid evidence in the form of quotes doesn't demonize MJ as the writer asserts. The writer is a junior... and a junior at a less than adequate educational institution, where the Bush's of the world are being raised.These self-righteous, idealistic morons need to ask them selves who they trust?God... or the FDA?idbsne1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Dankhank on September 24, 2002 at 17:57:17 PT: This says it all .... Editorial writer Daniel Port is a junior majoring in creative writing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by p4me on September 24, 2002 at 17:41:12 PT I call propaganda. I call lies.I call bullshit.I call obsufucation.The issues before us my friends are the definition of freedom and what to do about the corruption that ruins our media and democracy/republic.I did not see the either of the words, freedom or corruption, in this article. If it does not contain these words it is not relevant to the main issues at hand.The LB&O's are getting old, you practitioners of BJ.1,2 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment