cannabisnews.com: Outside View: Kicking Grass





Outside View: Kicking Grass
Posted by CN Staff on October 15, 2003 at 08:32:55 PT
By Joyce Nalepka
Source: United Press International
Silver Spring, Md. -- A vigorous effort by a small band of admitted marijuana users has, over the past 25 years, tried to convince the public that their drug of choice marijuana is less harmful than the laws that control it. They have it backwards. Marijuana is not harmful because it's illegal. It's illegal because it's harmful. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency includes it on Schedule I, its list of the most dangerous drugs.
Parents and teachers can provide firsthand accounts of its effects on children and students. In the beginning, the damage appeared subtle, taking time to become obvious -- even to the user. Back then it was a low-potency weed containing about 10 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC, the so-called active ingredient that produces the narcotic effect. The marijuana being sold today has a THC content measuring as high as 150 mg. Because it does not cause deaths by overdose, like heroin and other Schedule I drugs, there are many who continue to wink at its use. Nevertheless, says parents and teachers, it is a gateway drug to those that do. There is plenty of research showing the harm exposure to marijuana can cause. The problem is that the "Just say 'No'" message is overpowered by cultural pressures, messages from music and movies and others who give the use of illegal drugs a "hipness" it does not deserve. There are also those, including many politicians, who have bought into the argument that marijuana is "medicine," backed by millions of dollars and intense lobbying efforts. Proponents of legalization have spent millions convincing the voters that it is good for something, that so-called medical marijuana is akin to a new kind of penicillin or some other wonder drug. A teacher from one of the most prestigious school systems in the country, who did not want to be identified by name or district, recently told a conference sponsored by America's Challenge that, "Every morning I face my first period class where 20 percent of the students are high. And then my second period, my third period and the fourth and fifth!"The evidence shows that marijuana is a very complex, unstable, dangerous drug. We now know that marijuana:* forces more teens into treatment than all other drugs combined * adversely affects all body systems including the brain and lungs * contains 50 to 70 percent more cancer-causing hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. * is fat soluble and collects in the fatty tissues of the brain, lungs, and reproductive system. It is also an identified cause of motor vehicle accidents. The state of Maryland's shock trauma unit reports that more accident victims had marijuana in their blood samples than had alcohol.At the end of the day, though, the science has been set aside in favor of the desire to satisfy a teen culture that worships rebellion. The drive to legalize marijuana is not in the best interests of the American people generally and America's children specifically.The children are our most precious natural resource. We should not allow that resource to go up in a puff of smoke. * Joyce Nalepka is president of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, a non-profit group. She served as president of former First Lady Nancy Reagan's National Federation of Parents and co-sponsored the legislation that closed Maryland's drug paraphernalia shops.* United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. Source: United Press InternationalAuthor: Joyce NalepkaPublished: October 14, 2003Copyright 2003 United Press InternationalWebsite: http://www.upi.com/ Contact: http://www.upi.com/about/contact.cfmRelated Articles:Debating Pot - Joyce Nalepkahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16773.shtmlAnti-Marijuana Activist Persistent http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16433.shtmlAntidrug Activist Was Barred From Signing http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16385.shtml
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Comment #29 posted by Dan B on October 17, 2003 at 06:37:00 PT
Joyce Nalepka - Evidence?
Joyce Nalepka enjoys the torture that the war on drugs brings to people. She likes it when people are herded into jails and prisons for long stretches of time because she is a sadistic, hateful person. She enjoys lying in much the same way that Nazis enjoyed their lies: because the lies directly lead to the creation of a culture of hate, and hate is what she adores. Anyone who does not act or behave as she does is to be hated and terminated from society. She would prefer that all people who use non-sanctioned drugs and herbs in this country were shot and killed. She is, in essence, and evil person, and I have ansolutely no respect for her because she has no respect for human life and dignity. I would say that she is a moral maggot, but that would be offensive to maggots.See how easy it is to attack the person without providing any evidence to back up one's claims? But then, I have this article as part of my evidence. What evidence does Joyce Nalepka have to offer to back hers?Dan B
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Comment #28 posted by freedom fighter on October 15, 2003 at 23:50:35 PT
A Gateway to Heaven!
"Because it does not cause deaths by overdose, like heroin and other Schedule I drugs, there are many who continue to wink at its use. Nevertheless, says parents and teachers, it is a gateway drug to those that do. "A GateWay Drug away from those shitty heeroin and other Scheeedddduullleeee 1 drugs??????(especially those rush blue pillss))I agree!pazff
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Comment #27 posted by E_Johnson on October 15, 2003 at 17:31:54 PT
Gee Joyce
I wonder why they won't let YOU on PBS?
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Comment #26 posted by john wayne on October 15, 2003 at 16:17:31 PT
joyce nalepka loves pot
I mean, come on, using an alias like "Mary Friend"?
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 13:36:20 PT
fearfull 
That's ok. I was always told if you don't want to fight don't talk about politics or religion and I know that's true. That's all really. I like not being one party or the other or one religion or another here on CNews. My husband just told me to say that I speak softly but carry a big stick. He said that not me! PS: Cannabis and drug policy reform are issues. They are issues and they bridge political parties and religions too.
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Comment #24 posted by fearfull on October 15, 2003 at 13:20:06 PT
Bush?
So I can't say that I think Bush sucks raw eggs??
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Comment #23 posted by kaptinemo on October 15, 2003 at 13:08:59 PT:
A rough measure of our success
is how often we hear from Joyce, publicly or otherwise. The more shrill and factually incorrect her statements are, the more effective our efforts have evidently been.As I pointed out, and as she proved in an LTE, she sticks her head in here from time to time. I imagine she gets an eyefull.But she has never, ever, not once, deigned to answer any of her opponents questions, on those rare instances when she has posted comments as "Mary Friend" or "Gradma" or on even rarer occasions, using her own name.As the old saying goes: "If you can't sway them with the facts, then baffle them with BS." Ms. Nalepka is a master of the latter technique. 
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 12:43:36 PT
Adam1
As long as you don't post about Bush it won't be a problem.
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Comment #21 posted by Adam1 on October 15, 2003 at 12:41:33 PT:
FoM?.....So this(CN.com) is your baby........
I had an account terminated earlier and didn't quite know what was going on. First my password was changed a few times and then after contacting Matt E. I was told that I was terminated for being "off topic" with the impeachment promotions. I am not affiliated with vote to impeach. com, I just thought this was an appropriate place to promote the movement for Bush's removal... being he is actively working against our cause. Your input would be appreciated on this and I hope you'll allow me to continue this account if I agree to stop the vote to impeach URL stuff.
Respect & Peace
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Comment #20 posted by Jose Melendez on October 15, 2003 at 12:36:02 PT
strange search results.
from:http://www.namebase.org/xmza/Joyce-Nalepka.htmlNALEPKA JOYCE Covert Action Information Bulletin 1987-#28 (26) Covert Action Information Bulletin, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 732, Washington DC 20005, Tel: 202-331-9763, Fax: 202-331-9751. Subs ($22/year) and back issues ($8/ea) are available from CAQ.    Covert Action Information Bulletin began publishing in 1978, and currently issues a well-produced quarterly of about 70 pages with no advertising. Some themes include CIA in academia, the new world order, CIA in Eastern Europe, George Bush, domestic surveillance, CIA and drugs, AIDS, the religious right, and the Nazi-Vatican-CIA nexus. Most articles contain plenty of footnotes. Most names from almost every issue through 1992 (Number 42) are in NameBase; since Number 43 the magazine changed its name to Covert Action Quarterly (CAQ) and the indexing in NameBase has been more selective.   Before 1982, this publication was best known for its "Naming Names" column, which tracked CIA officers under diplomatic cover by researching the State Department Biographic Register and the diplomatic lists issued by the U.S. and other countries. This finally became illegal when Reagan signed the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. CAIB was forced to drop this column and also became generally more cautious on the matter of CIA names. One foreign publication is continuing the earlier tradition, but CAIB/CAQ's reputation for quality, consistency, and accuracy make it a hard act to follow. 
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 11:50:57 PT
Jose
I know you could be right. That's sad. 
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Comment #18 posted by Jose Melendez on October 15, 2003 at 11:47:29 PT
maybe ?
I think she would like us to be jailed. Adam, Joyce is at 
http://www.ourdrugfreekids.orgDon't bother sending it to her. She knows she is wrong, he proof is in how she modifies the argument when confronted with contradictory evidence.Write letters to editors, I think they are more effective, because others out there become less fearful of speaking out.Anyone know how Tommy Chong is holding up? I'm guessing Rush needs a joint right now.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 11:34:14 PT
Exactly Nicholas
That's what I meant. Let her meet everyone and maybe she would like us. 
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Comment #16 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on October 15, 2003 at 11:28:33 PT:
Joyce would be an interesting speaker but..
...what would be more interesting is who she is introduced to the conference by: NORML could raffle tickets to win the intro spot! The thing is: NORML's conference is open where as drug warrior events are usally closed. She wouldn't know how to handle the honesty & freedom.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 11:21:19 PT
Adam1
I don't receive e-mail for CNews anymore because it became overwhelming for me to handle and too many viruses. 
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Comment #14 posted by Adam1 on October 15, 2003 at 11:18:04 PT:
Thank You Jose Melendez!!
I would definitely send your comprehensive response to Joyce Nalepka at United Press International, but, her contact link does not appear to work. This war is becoming more laughable every minute with the exception that people are still being imprisoned for this archaic, disproven, offence. P.S. To: CannabisNews.com: your contact links are not working on the site. I have attempted to contact admin cannabisnews.com as well as the other contact links and I get my letters returned saying your mailbox is not functioning. Please respond. Thanks!!
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Comment #13 posted by Jose Melendez on October 15, 2003 at 11:05:58 PT
each point already disproven
FACT: We are drastically outspent by our own government on this issue.FACT: It is prohibition that forces teens into "treatment" for marijuana.FACT: Legal intoxicants also adversely affect the brain, lungs but often also the liver, among other body systems, and to a far greater and more devastating extent, and yet no one calls for the arrest of those users unless they commit a REAL crime. Even then, assett forfeiture is almost never applied even if that crime was done under the influence of those legal substances. FACT: Almost no legal drugs have demonstrated the neuroprotective properties of cannabinoids.FACT: Prohibition has had the positive effect of increasing the availability of higher THC content raw marijuana, however hashish has a far higher THC content, and has been used safely for thousands of years.Regardless, a high THC content REDUCES the percentages of those hydrocarbons created during combustion, specifically benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, toluene and carbon monoxide to below that consumed "in the 70's" if you even accept the idea that Woodstock hippies smoked 1 percent hemp. Of course, almost no pot smoker consumes anywhere near the amounts of those substances as do those that smoke cigarettes, cigars, or even pipe tobacco. FACT: Cannabis would very likely be cooked, eaten or vaporized more often if it were not illegal, AND the supposedly dreaded fat solubility and the fact that metabolites collect in the fatty tissues of the brain, lungs, and reproductive system is largely BENEFICIAL. Finally, the suggestion that more accident victims had marijuana in their blood samples than had alcohol only confirms the FOUR studies that show that experienced pot smokers were ALWAYS safer on the road than their "drunk" counterparts in those peer reviewed studies.Do a search on Jopyce Nalepka, you can see that she purposefully misrepresents statistics, and when her objections are answered, she simply modifies what she has said, and repeats her case even in the face of proof to the contrary. So what if she smiles at you as she's lying, that's not tough, that's phony, crooked and disingenuous!Each and every one of the claims she makes above has been refuted right here on cannabisnews.com;  I guess it's not within UPI's code of journalistic ethics to call her on it. The worst part is that an ever increasing percentage of those precious children are being fed Adderol, Ritalin, Concerta, Straterra or whatever the popular substitute for parenting is these days. Got hypocrisy? Just don't mention it, Joyce! Know truth? Just don't publish it, UPI! Freedom. Justice. Right.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 10:21:55 PT
Nicholas
Have you ever thought of asking Joyce to join NORML at your spring conference? She might think differently then. Just one of my profound revelation you know! LOL!
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Comment #11 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on October 15, 2003 at 10:07:02 PT:
Actually, Joyce is a nice lady who....
....I spoke with shortly after going to work for NORML. She admonished me -- as a "Reagan conservative" according to news reports -- for jumping ship. I told her I was disappointed she did not understand that Reagan supported states' rights, individual responsibility and privacy, and that if the right to marijuana was put into that perspective to him, he would most likely agree. Maybe even in his current state. No, Joyce is tough but smiles after telling you off: what more can you ask?
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 09:37:20 PT
Nicholas
Now I've stopped looking for news for a bit because of hair-doo. Here's one of my favorite songs from years gone by.http://janfox.com/sixties_live_lyrics.htm#"Hair"
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 09:25:09 PT
Nicholas
When you said hair-doo I thought of the movie Hair Spray! LOL! You're funny.PS: Joyce I am not laughing at you but at Nicholas's comment if you read this. 
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Comment #8 posted by Virgil on October 15, 2003 at 09:25:08 PT
Upside down thinking at its best
A vigorous effort by a small band of admitted marijuana users has, over the past 25 years, tried to convince the public that their drug of choice marijuana is less harmful than the laws that control it. What the ef does she mean a small band? What does she mean by the last 25 years? What does she mean try? What does she mean retreating to the last Moony outpost to get her nonsense in print?From the June 27th posting at Cnews- http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread16716.shtml -
A Time Magazine/CNN poll released last October showed that 72 percent of Americans favored marijuana decriminalization, where marijuana offenders are fined but not jailed. Forty percent of those polled favored outright legalization. That figure was more than double the percentage that backed marijuana legalization in 1986. How many man years of jail and prison has CP given us, to protect us from what? How many billions was spent on CP and for what? How many people fell terror from the USG in our country and around the world because of CP and for what? How many billions have laughing grass users been robbed of by the black market imposed on us by Warshington and for what? And how much gas has been wasted chasing nickels and dimes and how many wrecks and for what? Jail is the opposite of freedom and seizure is the opposite of protecting property and the government has built us an upside down world and will not even call it Fantacyland and for what?So that people might suffer while the police state cometh and the CIA terrorizes the people of the world with profits the control from the black market.Goddamn Joyce, haven't you figured out that you are an idiot? You must be below idiot or you would have figured it out.Cannabis Prohibition is a million times more harmful than regulated cannabis could have ever been.
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Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on October 15, 2003 at 09:21:00 PT
Joyce is wrong- period
"The children are our most precious natural resource. We should not allow that resource to go up in a puff of smoke."Children are viewed as a 'resource'; something to be 'processed'? yikes!No wonder they're smoking cannabis in droves. It is the only true enlightening experience that has any benefit for them. To be viewed as a 'resource' is a terribly disheartening realization. They're doing what comes naturally. More power to them.They follow the example of the birds. If it's for the birds, it's alright."Birds, on the other hand, can be a serious problem in the seed crop. Birds love hempseed. Good luck."http://www.gametec.com/hemp/IndHmpFrmfr.html
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Comment #6 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on October 15, 2003 at 09:19:42 PT:
Sort of a cross between Divine....
....and Paulie from the Sopranos: weird upsweep with silver dyed streaks parted in the middle. Come to think of it: that's who she reminds me of, director John Waters' (as opposed to John Walters' favorite drag queen, Rush Limbaugh) favorite drag queen, Divine.
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Comment #5 posted by darwin on October 15, 2003 at 09:11:07 PT
I'm convinced now.
I used to wonder if Joyce was a well meaning moron or a paid schill. I am now convinced she makes her money spouting this crap. She's been around long enough to know that she is misrepresenting the truth. "president of former First Lady Nancy Reagan's National Federation of Parents ""co-sponsored the legislation that closed Maryland's drug paraphernalia shops"I'm sure she started out as a well meaning morron, but by now, she should now better.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 15, 2003 at 09:11:00 PT
Nicholas
A new hair-doo? Too much!
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Comment #3 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on October 15, 2003 at 09:04:52 PT:
Now, now....
....U.P.I. has no stake here -- they frequently run NORML's Paul Armentano's opeds and are drug war neutral, overall -- but what really hurts is that Joyce (who looked GREAT in her new hair-doo at a recent congressional hearing: you go girl, keep us guessing if you are 70+ or 80+) forgot to list her usual suspects in her missive. Joyce: have you forgotten thems that brought ya to the dance?
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Comment #2 posted by phil_debowl on October 15, 2003 at 08:48:07 PT
Hey look, it's joyce
Our friend Joyce :). I hear her use the word research alot, but i don't think i've actually ever seen sources for that research. Oh well, some people just need a cause to make themselves feel good and important, regardless of the torture it does to other people and families.
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Comment #1 posted by John Markes on October 15, 2003 at 08:40:22 PT
say what?
"United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues." I never realized that specializing in lying was an important issue...
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