cannabisnews.com: What Are You Smoking, Canada?





What Are You Smoking, Canada?
Posted by CN Staff on May 16, 2003 at 07:50:31 PT
By Joseph Califano
Source: Globe and Mail 
The issue of decriminalizing marijuana is first and foremost about safeguarding kids and Canada should be attentive to the threat that marijuana poses to youth.We know that neither Canada nor the United States has been able to keep its two legal drugs -- alcohol and tobacco -- out of the hands of teenagers and children. Members of Canada's Parliament should keep this in mind as they consider any proposal to decriminalize marijuana, because the drug's sharp edges undercut claims that smoking pot is a harmless recreation.
Research at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) has established a statistical relationship between the use of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana and the use of harder drugs such as cocaine, heroin and acid.Examining data from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control survey of 11,000 ninth- through 12th-graders, CASA isolated teen use of these "gateway" drugs from other problem behaviours. The conclusion: Among teens with no other problem behaviours, those who drank, smoked cigarettes and used marijuana at least once in the past month are almost 17 times likelier to use another drug such as cocaine, heroin or LSD.Most people who smoke marijuana do not move on to other drugs, just as most who smoke cigarettes don't get lung cancer, but both kinds of smokers hugely increase their risks. These risks rise with teen use: The earlier and more often an individual uses marijuana, the more likely that person is to use cocaine.Biomedical research tells us why. Studies in Italy, Spain and the U.S. reveal that marijuana affects levels of dopamine (the pleasure chemical) in the brain in a manner similar to heroin, cocaine and nicotine. The research indicates that marijuana may prime the brain to seek substances such as heroin and cocaine that act in a similar way.While psychological dependence on marijuana is widely recognized, the drug's potential for physical addiction is only recently becoming clear. Studies show that rats subjected to immediate cannabis withdrawal exhibit behaviour changes similar to those after withdrawal from cocaine, alcohol and opiates. Science magazine calls this "the first neurological basis for marijuana withdrawal."Canada's politicians should not underestimate the dangers of marijuana. In the U.S., more teens and children under 19 enter treatment for marijuana abuse and dependence than for abuse and dependence involving any other drug -- including alcohol. Research shows marijuana use can cause respiratory infections, increased heart rate, anxiety and panic attacks. A 2002 study associated marijuana smoking with an increased risk of head and neck cancer. There is also evidence of a relationship between the use of marijuana and psychiatric illness; studies have shown that marijuana use increases the risk of depression and may trigger the onset or relapse of schizophrenia in predisposed individuals. We have known for some time that marijuana harms short-term memory, motor skills and the ability to concentrate.Decriminalization of marijuana would send a signal to Canadian teens that smoking pot can be seen as a rite of passage. It is not. Smoking pot is a dangerous game of Russian roulette that can ruin young lives and devastate parents. That's why Canadians should reject any proposals to decriminalize this dangerous drug.Joseph Califano, chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, is a former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare. Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Joseph CalifanoPublished: Friday, May 16, 2003 - Page A23 Copyright: 2003 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmLighter Penalties for Minors in Pot Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16309.shtmlNew Pot Plan Just Token Effort http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16308.shtmlStop The Reefer Madness http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16301.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by greenmed on May 16, 2003 at 21:53:45 PT
addiction?
"The earlier and more often an individual uses marijuana, the more likely that person is to use cocaine.Biomedical research tells us why. Studies in Italy, Spain and the U.S. reveal that marijuana affects levels of dopamine (the pleasure chemical) in the brain in a manner similar to heroin, cocaine and nicotine. The research indicates that marijuana may prime the brain to seek substances such as heroin and cocaine that act in a similar way."-----------------------------------This is not true.The "holy grail" of addiction theory is enhanced dopamine activity in the "pleasure center." Neurons located in the ventral tegmentum (VT) and whose axons project to the nucleus accumbens (NA) release stored dopamine from their nerve endings into their synapses with target neurons in the NA. The "addicting" drugs - including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, nicotine, and ethanol - bind to receptors on the surface of these or closely related neurons to greatly elevate extracellular dopamine levels in the NA (see for instance "A Primer of Drug Action," Robert M. Julien). THC is known to bind to CB1 receptors in the brain, but there are none located on dopamine neurons. Miles Herkenham, who first determined the distribution of CB1 receptors, concludes in "Cannabinoid Receptors" (R. Pertwee, ed), chapter 5: "Localization of Cannabinoid Receptors in Brain and Periphery" that the evidence indicates "lack of relationship between cannabinoids and the mesostriatal reward system." Therefore the claim that cannabis affects the brain "in a manner similar to heroin, cocaine and nicotine" is patently false.Like any pleasurable activity, consumption of cannabis can raise synaptic dopamine levels in the pleasure center. This is an indirect effect however and has more in common with watching a sunset, enjoying a fine meal with good company, or reading a good book, any of which can also enhance dopamine activity.
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on May 16, 2003 at 11:13:51 PT
Telling us about fantasyland again
The issue of decriminalizing marijuana is first and foremost about safeguarding kids and Canada should be attentive to the threat that marijuana poses to youth.Well, my bullshit meter went off on the opening line. Kids and think about youth as if somehow prohibition helps them were dead giveaways to the trash that would follow. Of course the biggest problem in America is now lack of honesty that sends a clear message of what is true. Here we have a prohibitionist mixing the message of truth with his prohibitionists crap and in the perverts fashion of turning things on their head will later chant that the reform community is sending mixed messages. I do not know of any reformer that writes of promoting lies or even abandoning truth. Reformers that want to be taken seriously deal in truth and that truth has to be sorted out from the rabid perverts that spout crap like this and start chanting mixed message, mixed message. If the goddamn dumbasses would shut up and the media was responsible we would not be in this mess to start with.Inverting the truth is what this guy is trying to do. Stand all reason on its head is guideline #1 for prohibitionist. Invert, pervert, and subvert the truth and then chant mixed message. Cannabis prohibition is a plaque upon the people and if anything hurts children more than an adult that has means of sufficiency. Even talk from the prohibitionist is now sickening and it spells their demise.I bet you could even ask a prohibitionist a question he could not answer wrong and he would screw it up. Is the glass half empty or half full. If it is one it is both so a prohibitionist would have to obfuscate as in "What glass?" The tenacity of the prohibitionists is all telling. Ignore the real problems of the human condition but don't let reason, freedom, pragmatism or anything else pull out the center pole of our great tent or our circus will be over and we have nowhere else to go sense we have no compass, moral or otherwise, and are useless in a sane environment.I call cannabis prohibition a hoax and I think it a great title for a movie or documentary to replace "Reefer Madness" that the prohibitionist have finally made true. There are no Martians, yet we had a word for it. Cannabis never made anyone go mad until the prohibitionists decided that a fantasyland was needed to preserve the Great Hoax. So, I await the documentary or movie titled "The Cannabis Hoax" because one day the the title will be far more remembered than the content, just like Reefer Madness. I have a paragraph of the day concerning the Texas legislatures going to Oklahoma to keep from redistricting Texas from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57328-2003May14.html When our governor, Rick "Goodhair" Perry (that's a head of hair every Texan can be proud of, regardless of party), asked New Mexico to arrest any escapees lurking there, the state's attorney general, Patricia Madrid, said, "I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care and against tax cuts for the wealthy."
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Comment #4 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on May 16, 2003 at 10:59:22 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Joe Califano runs the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, and would not be in business were it not for the war on drugs. Chretien's decriminalization bill is a threat to his job security, so he feels compelled to speak out against it. Notice, however, that the only Americans saying this is a bad idea are people like Califano and John Walters: people who would be on the unemployment line if the drug war was over. Califano doesn't care about the children - he's happy with the current system which saddles them with a lifelong criminal record for smoking a non-lethal plant.  Mr. Califano needs to learn the difference between the effects of the drug and the effects of drug prohibition. Yes, we still have large problems with alcohol - but we do not have bootleggers shooting it out in turf wars and distributing products of questionable quality. Marijuana is not harmless, but why is it any safer when biker gangs are the ones in charge of its production and delivery?  Please, Canada, pay no attention to the empty threats issued by drug-war zealots south of the border. You are a sovereign nation, completely capable of making up your own mind without caving in to pressure from these bullies.
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Comment #3 posted by malleus2 on May 16, 2003 at 10:36:31 PT
Hold it right there, Joe...
Here he goes again, twisting the facts to match his twisted mind:*Canada's politicians should not underestimate the dangers of marijuana. In the U.S., more teens and children under 19 enter treatment for marijuana abuse and dependence than for abuse and dependence involving any other drug -- including alcohol.*What Saint Joe fails...as he always does...to inform his audience is that those teenagers are being REMANDED to wholly unnecessary treatment for non-existant cannabis 'addiction' by court order, not through personal choice.'Treatment' programs run by him and his equally slimy cohorts. If ever there was a case which proves 'conflict of interest', it's this one. Antis lie like they breathe: completely obliviouly. But what they fail to understand is that those who possess the facts know they are lying...as most of his intended audience up north already know.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 16, 2003 at 09:58:37 PT
Don't Rush Pot Law
Montreal Gazette Friday, May 16, 2003 
 
At a meeting in Washington this week with Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, U.S. officials registered their concerns over liberalized Canadian marijuana laws: Would this lead to more "growing operations" producing the drug to be smuggled south?After the meeting, Cauchon delayed introducing his legislative package on the subject, pushing it back from this week until the end of the month.But the Americans aren't the only ones asking hard questions: There are indications of caucus discord and cabinet disagreement over the bill. A "national drug strategy" -more "just say no" ads and the like - is being thrown together to mollify those Canadians who have no enthusiasm for the government's plan to relax penalties.Given all this, we wonder why the government is rushing ahead so frantically with this at all. Marijuana-law reform is long overdue, but this sort of pell-mell rewriting on the back of an envelope seems more likely to result in court challenges than in coherent policy and law.With regard to the Americans, our federal government needs to show some backbone. The proposed less punitive approach to marijuana possession, although opposed by some Canadians, will barely catch up with most of public opinion. The last thing we need is to draw up our drug laws in accordance with American morality.Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/editorials/story.asp?id=F7896422-0202-4A06-B6CB-953CA48F8D9D
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 16, 2003 at 08:54:30 PT
Brave Image Goes Up in Smoke
Vetting our marijuana law with the U.S. belies the government's insistence on independence.
 
 Times Colonist Friday, May 16, 2003 
 
No wonder the federal cabinet is so keen on decriminalizing marijuana. They're already smoking it.They must be.How else could anyone explain behaviour so bizarre and ill-conceived as vetting the proposed Canadian legislation dealing with marijuana with the Americans before introducing it in the House of Commons?Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/editorials/story.asp?id=4C99907E-42DD-4A3E-8924-B9D814DB7F9C
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