cannabisnews.com: Is America Going to Pot? Is America Going to Pot? Posted by CN Staff on November 18, 2002 at 09:10:10 PT Letters To The Editor Source: Time Magazine Time's coverage of the medical marijuana controversy was thoughtful and scrupulously researched. But what argues most persuasively for a ban on marijuana is the extraordinary threat the drug poses for adolescents. Marijuana impairs short-term memory, depletes energy and impedes acquisition of psychosocial skills. Perhaps the most chilling effect is that it retards maturation for young people. A significant number of kids who use lots of pot simply don't grow up. So it is hardly surprising that marijuana is the primary drug for more than half the youngsters in the long-term residential substance-abuse programs that Phoenix House operates throughout the country. MITCHELL S. ROSENTHAL, M.D.PRESIDENT, PHOENIX HOUSENew York City The question is not whether marijuana is good for you but whether it is so bad that people should be put in jail for personal use [Society, Nov. 4]. The answer, based on your story and research on both sides of the issue, is clearly no. Legalize it and regulate it. ROY HOBBESRio de Janeiro Of all the risks involved with pot smoking, the biggest one is getting arrested and thrown in prison with violent criminals. Last year more than 734,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana violations — more than for murder, rape, armed robbery and assault combined! Our court system and prisons should be reserved for people who harm others — not just potentially themselves. KIRK MUSEMesa, Ariz. Used in moderation, neither marijuana nor alcohol will ruin your life. But if you're caught with pot, the legal system will see to it that your life becomes a shambles. Sanctioning alcohol use while persecuting pot smokers is the height of hypocrisy. Thank you for providing the facts so Americans can make up their minds intelligently. STU ALDERMANReno, Nev. Successful, hardworking people smoke marijuana. To paint them as dumb and on the way to using other drugs is no different from characterizing those who drink alcohol as reckless drivers and child abusers. KIRK BATTLEConway, S.C. I fail to see how legalizing a drug that impairs one's ability to concentrate and retain information can be viewed as good public policy. I have worked in drug-treatment centers for more than 20 years, and I continue to see clients who identify marijuana as their gateway drug to alcohol, cocaine and heroin. PHYLLIS SELLNERIndianapolis, Ind. The claim that marijuana is a gateway drug is true for one reason: to buy pot, one must rely on an illegal-drug dealer. This dealer probably has connections to other illegal substances like cocaine and heroin. Legalize pot, and the connections will be severed. The government is wasting too much money fighting a drug that at best has medicinal value and at worst is not all that dangerous. The war on drugs would gain credibility if pot weren't enemy No. 1.BENJAMIN L. MOANFlagstaff, Ariz. Thanks in large part to big money, Americans at least had a chance to vote on marijuana laws. For this, pro-pot activists George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis should be applauded. But the opportunity to vote on legalizing pot is a painful reminder that the democratic process is intricately connected to the almighty dollar. As for drug czar John Walters and the rest of the Federal Government, they would be wise to listen to the people and stop stepping on the states. That would be democracy!MATTHEW ALBRIGHTToronto --Drug czar Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is just as unpopular with some of our readers as the laws against pot are. "Having a culture warrior like Walters dictate marijuana policy is like putting an Islamic fundamentalist in charge of alcohol," wrote a Virginian. A New York reader asked, "Where does Walters get off saying the billionaire philanthropists who bankroll the movement to legalize marijuana should debate him? They don't owe him an explanation any more than someone who backs the Red Cross does." And a man in Utah went further: "For Walters to cry foul at the marijuana lobby's use of the tactics long employed by Republican robber barons is just a hoot!"Biblical Brother Complete Series: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/index.html Source: Time Magazine (US)Published: Monday, November 25, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Time Inc.Contact: letters time.comWebsite: http://www.time.com/time/Related Articles: Is Pot Good For You? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14575.shtmlThe New Politics of Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14574.shtmlMedical Marijuana: A History http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14573.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #18 posted by Truth on November 19, 2002 at 13:44:25 PT: Cannabis Culture The magazine "Cannabis Culture" is a lot more truthful about the herb then Time was . Makes you wonder. In the end, truth prevails. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by DdC on November 19, 2002 at 12:04:50 PT Keep on Truckin Doc, Don't Let the Time warped win "Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own." John Walters and Ashcroft together in the heyday of 2000s fascism. I believe its what I do and not what they do about it. We can see the truth and others are seeing it each day. Remember their names. Neuromberg trials will return!This time maybe the black listed won't roll over and play D.E.A.d at the McArthyism and Censorship of these Fascist...Thanks for all you do, regardless if Time prints it. It's their loss of integrity. DdC [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 19, 2002 at 08:45:08 PT: I Appreciate It Thanks for your comments.All I have on my side are the truth, and the desire to see it spread.Too bad the government is not into fair fights. No wonder we suffer from alienated youth. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by afterburner on November 19, 2002 at 07:22:11 PT: Time Is a Tease: Culture Vampires. They excite the movement with splashy pictures to sell magazines, but their hearts are not in the stories. They trot out all that drug war propaganda and sprinkle liberally on the glimmers of truth, like a dime bag from a dirty street dealer, cut with God-knows-what. Cheap thrills, that's what Time sells. Did we really expect more from AOL-Time-Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate? Their worst offense is to lead off their interviews with the most salacious of all the drug war propaganda arguments: what about the children and their development? No one in the movement is in favour of children having access to cannabis. Legalization is for adults when we finally grow a brain and re-legalize cannabis. Putting humans in cages to keep cannabis from filtering down to kids not only doesn't work, but it is massive overkill, cruel and inhuman torture. Dr. Russo, I know you are dedicated to spreading the truth about medical cannabis, but be happy that your good name is not associated with this obviously biased doubletalk.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by scott on November 19, 2002 at 07:00:07 PT time is money First off: Dr. Russo, I, too would be frustrated. Please know that your thoughtfull, knowledgable, and insightful comments are appreciated even if they are not presented in an 8 by 11 glossy format with lots of pictures and such.Secondly: Keep in mind that the only goal at TIME is to make money. The editors may trumpet freedom of the press, or enlightening the masses, or any other such drivel, however they will always be slaves to the dollar. As such, they believe they must provide some sort of balance, even if one end of the beam is weighted with crap. The balance is what makes people from both sides buy the mag, thus bringing in more cash. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 19, 2002 at 04:03:14 PT: Thanks, Sam In the future when a reporter does not "get it," I am tempted to ask, "Are you willing to listen to and report the truth, or are you interested in merely parrotting the same tired old lies about cannabis?" I expect to hear stunned silence. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on November 18, 2002 at 23:29:04 PT Time I thought the Time articles were full of outright lies and bigotry. Dr. Russo I'm not surprised they ignored you, salient facts have no place in a McNews publication like Time.The whole medical marijuana issue and the Drug War in general is very eye-opening once you realize the extent of it. It quickly dispels any notion one might have had about the sophistication of modern man, justice and fairness in America, or even the quality of modern medicine and the motives behind it.It's not the Gateway drug, it's more like a catalyst. A catalyst to free thinking. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by The GCW on November 18, 2002 at 17:33:15 PT Cannabis Rescheduling http://www.drugscience.org/ The purpose of this rescheduling petition is to have the federal government acknowledge that cannabis ... [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by The GCW on November 18, 2002 at 17:28:28 PT America has gone to worse than pot... Return of the Phoenix http://www.hempbc.com/articles/2602.html Global drug war is just part of the CIA's secret battle against all things good. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by goneposthole on November 18, 2002 at 12:31:10 PT Time out of step in time The magazine may be entitled Time, however, they surely are not zeitgeist.Cannabis: 8000 years of history behind it.US gov: 226 years of history minus 65 years of cannabis prohibition equals 161 years of sensible history.8000 years to 161years. Cannabis wins and always will. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by p4me on November 18, 2002 at 12:22:12 PT Dr. Russo, I like how you sing. You will have to come sing with the Extremist Choir sometime. The whole media thing is scandalous. There is an Asian Black Cloud so large that it has its own name. In a cloud two miles thick people might look up and see no sun, only a rain of particle pollution two miles thick. It changes the weather patterns because so much sun is blocked from heating the ground and evaporating water. There have got to be millions of people die from particle inhalation and then you have floods in Europe and drought in Africa and Afganistan.The press will not speak of the medicines the children are taking at school. Well, educate me you goddamned Republican fascist on what it is that these kids are being handed by the school nurse. How much Prosac and Ritalin? It is scandalous to talk education for the children so that they can grow up to be told nothing important by the media or the government and then if they do say something, just how big of lie is this one.1 in 250 kids now has autism. Of course with all the pollution and carcinogens in the air and water how can you figure out if it is the synthetic growth hormone and feed to our kids under federal mandate to push milk as a national lunchtime drink. Monsanto is killing people so why should they worry if the US is the only place they can sell their Prilosac? Why do they care if thy harm or kill Americans. Hell, they probably own a big casket-making plant in China and sell embalming fluid. Then there is the increase in cancer. Diabetes and asthma are prevelant now that the children have joined the group. This MTBE thing is an environmental disaster already because that stuff gets in the groundwater. It breaks down with oxygen when the two cycle jet-skis pollute the lakes. Now that Busch wants to encourage snowmobiling in the national parks we will see how MTBE does in the snow. It is a scandal and the fact that people are ignorant of something this disasterous is another scandal.It is the same big fascist scandal that doesn't want you to know anything important and wants you to get sick so you can buy some pills. And now the Republicans won't let people buy Canadian medicine. Some godamn free trade for the American consumer. Lies on top of lies from the evil empire and no one says anything important.Don't tell the blissfully ignorant about this. They are in their happy place and we wouldn't want to disturb their bliss.1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by firedog on November 18, 2002 at 12:21:24 PT Encouraging... Well, 6 of the 8 LTEs were in favor of legalization, or at least decrim.And, as usual, the two that support the status quo come from people who receive their paychecks from drug treatment dollars. Their employers stand to lose a lot of money if the courts stop forcing people into their programs for possessing a few grams of pot.Dr. Russo, although your views were not presented in the article, at least you were able to present them at length to the authors. I'm sure you showed them the light, and once enlightened, a person is never the same. I think the articles had better coverage of the medical uses and research than any *mainstream* publication I've seen, and maybe that's because they talked to you about it? Just a thought.On the lighter side, some of you might find these links entertaining... a lot of you have probably seen them already in one form or another.http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dhmo.htmhttp://www.dhmo.org/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on November 18, 2002 at 11:58:35 PT Dr. Russo You don't need to apologize. You have expert advice. You've spent years doing research and if you can't get upset then who can? [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 18, 2002 at 11:54:52 PT: Apology I am sorry for the sour grapes, but this guys gets disturbed when every slanted allegation against cannabis sticks like proverbial flypaper, and any therapeutic breakthrough, such as the GW Phase III clinical trials on chronic pain and MS, go totally unreported. The bias and lack of genuine critical analysis by the press on the issue of clinical cannabis are nothing short of scandalous. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by TroutMask on November 18, 2002 at 11:17:10 PT The British tested other things... http://hes.iki.fi/video/LSD_Being_Tested_on_Brtish_Troops.mpg-TM [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by krutch on November 18, 2002 at 11:13:38 PT: Extraordinary Threat ? It is aways the drug counselors who make these ridiculous arguments. Mr. Rosenthal only sees the worst cases; the ones that end up in rehab. Millions of Americans have taken this drug. Only a very few of them wind up in rehab for it.I think the kids he sees have other problems besides "Marijuana Addiction". I know plenty of people who got high as kids and grew up just fine.If he fears the drug's effect on children perhaps we should legalize it for adults only. If we do this children will have a more difficult time getting the drug. I had a hard time getting booze when I was a kid. Street drugs were easy. Most of the dealers were kids. Booze was not available in the school yard. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 18, 2002 at 09:57:37 PT OT: Nazis studied cocaine Hitler's scientists were trying to create a drug which would allow their soldiers more fighting stamina. One of the ingredients was cocaine. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 18, 2002 at 09:18:37 PT: Censored or Ignored Once again, I spent 45 minutes on the phone being interviewed for these articles, much longer in correspondence with one author, and then submitted an LTE. None of this made the cut. My opinions were not presented. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment