cannabisnews.com: Pot Not a Good Thing





Pot Not a Good Thing
Posted by CN Staff on November 12, 2002 at 10:47:00 PT
By Kaffie Sledge 
Source: Ledger-Enquirer 
Let's hope no young people read the Sunday letter to the editor, "Pot hysteria," in which the reader would have us believe marijuana is almost as harmless as bottled water.Mental health professionals who work with substance abuse and addiction know this is nonsense. People who never use street/illicit drugs of any kind don't run the risk of having to try to stop themselves.
Smoking marijuana may not automatically turn someone into a Class-A addict. But all too often it is the first step on a journey that twists and turns along back alleys, shelters, hospitals, prison cells and morgues.But there are addicts, then there are addicts . The average gas station, for example, caters to various addictions. These stores stockpile cigarettes, beer, lottery tickets, rolling paper and cigars. And let's not forget the soft drinks and other sugary treats.We know life places before us many opportunities to stumble and fall. For many, marijuana is chief among these stumbling blocks. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the lanes must be marked with good feelings.Not to over-simplify, but alcohol and other drugs make users feel better -- at least initially. And marijuana, primarily known for its feel-good effects, may reel in some users who think they can quit any time they want to.In 1999, marijuana was the drug most commonly used by male and female juvenile arrestees. More than half of the males and nearly 40 percent of the females tested positive for marijuana, says Merrill Norton, president of the Georgia Addiction Counselors Association and president of Chemical Health Associates, a national consulting organization for alcohol and drug services. Norton recently traveled from his Atlanta office to Columbus for a workshop.One of the positives of smoking marijuana or other forms of cannabis is that it usually has lighter effects than those of many other recreational pychoactive substances, Norton says. "People are generally capable of carrying out normal actions and activities while high."The experiences of people who smoke cannabis include mood lifts, stress reduction, increased awareness of senses (eating, drinking, smell), pain relief (headaches, cramps), and reduced nausea (used medically for this), he says.But there are negatives: nausea, coughing, asthma, upper respiratory problems, difficulty with short term memory, racing heart, agitation, tenseness, mild to severe anxiety, headaches, dizziness, paranoia. And possible psychological dependence on cannabis.No, pot smokers aren't committing armed robberies to get money to smoke, but that doesn't mean there is no downside to it. A counselor of children and adolescents once said, "If you start smoking pot in high school, you never finish anything. If you start smoking pot in college, you never complete anything."But some addicts say if you start smoking pot period, you may spend the rest of your life in search of higher highs.Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA)Author: Kaffie Sledge Published: November 12, 2002Copyright: 2002 Ledger-EnquirerContact: letters Ledger-Enquirer.comWebsite: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by john wayne on November 12, 2002 at 13:42:49 PT
Kaffie Sledge not a good thing
Hey, we're all entitled to an opinion, right?
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Comment #1 posted by p4me on November 12, 2002 at 12:01:08 PT
Potsmokers blahblahblah
People that use cannabis at least are not evildoers. They are incomplete doers is what this article says.And where it says stay pure and you won't have any problems with MJ, I say they should council everyone on the dangers of credit cards. If you get strung out on credit cards the junkies will load you uop until they get those late fees and then they know they have you. And Busch wants it so they cn take your house. Another example of evildoings from the misadministration.They want to go on and on about how Mj has side effects. They lie about what they really are so almost everyone is confused yet they don't even call for a repeal of the paraphanalia laws that would allow people to invest in vaporizers. That is what Arizona and Nevada should have had. The iniatives should have at least made vaporizers legal with an iniative of its own.Yep, they will tell you why a person should not use MJ, but they never try to explain why it should make it illegal. If it were legal and they threw this crap atit to make it illegal, oh how the people would laugh.1
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