cannabisnews.com: Legalized Pot Said a Danger to Kids!





Legalized Pot Said a Danger to Kids!
Posted by FoM on July 13, 1999 at 09:29:41 PT
Source: USA Today
WASHINGTON Young people who smoke marijuana are far more likely than nonusers to move on to harder drugs, a substance abuse research group concludes in a report that opposes efforts to legalize or decriminalize nonmedical marijuana.
''Teen experimentation with marijuana should not be considered a casual rite of passage,'' said Joseph Califano, chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. ''Teens who smoke marijuana are playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette,'' he said. The center's report was released as a House Government Reform Committee held a second hearing today on pros and cons of decriminalizing drugs. Testifying were former Drug Enforcement Administration head Thomas Constantine and advocates of relaxed laws on marijuana use. ''Marijuana stands convicted as a gateway drug,'' Califano concluded, citing conclusions in the report that youngsters 12 to 17 years old who smoke marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than those who do not. The report, which focuses on nonmedical use of marijuana, said the drug is especially dangerous for teens, impairing short-term memory, stunting intellectual and emotional growth and increasing the likelihood of unprotected sex as well as leading to other drugs such as cocaine or heroin. It said that of 182,000 teens and children who entered treatment in 1996 for substance abuse, nearly half, 48 percent, were admitted for marijuana abuse or addiction. That compared to 19% for alcohol and a secondary drug, 12% for alcohol alone, 3% for smoked cocaine, 2.4% for methamphetamines and 2.3% for heroin. The report concluded that decriminalization or legalization of marijuana would surely increase use among teen-agers and children. But it also opposed mandatory sentences for possession of small amounts of marijuana, saying prosecutors and judges should be given wide discretion in order to encourage teens to stop using the drug. ''Mandatory sentences are particularly insidious where teens convicted of possession of marijuana are concerned,'' Califano said. The report said that 70 million Americans have tried marijuana, making it the nation's most commonly used illegal substance. In 1998, almost 23% of 12th graders said they had smoked marijuana within the past month, and just under one-half had tried marijuana during their lives.07/13/99- Updated 11:18 AM ETŠ Copyright 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndstue07.htm
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Comment #2 posted by Trini on May 01, 2001 at 11:11:44 PT:
Against legalization of drugs...
To legalize drugs would only be inflecting more harm than good. Drugs are harmful to prople, not only to those that choose to use drugs, but to those around them. With legalization of drugs would be an increese of deaths due to driving under the influnces, babies dying at birth or being addicted to drugs right from the start with no choice of its own, a lot of domestic voilance cases have been found to be due to others being under the influence of some drug, not to mention drug related crims, etc... With drugs not being legal at this time we are having enough of these problems. Plus there is the harms one is causing themself. Injection, for example, causes infection (including AIDS), even casual use of some drugs pose risks of serious harms such as synthetic drugs like ecstacy where even one dose can cause harm. 
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Comment #1 posted by BIG BUD BOB on April 05, 2000 at 02:46:13 PT:
I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU
I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU AND ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT THINK THAT LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WILL DESTROY SOCIETY. YOU SAY THAT ITS A GATWAY DRUG, BUT IF THERE WERE NO BUD DEALERS THAN THERE WOULD BE NO BODY TO TRY AND GET YOU TO TRY STRONGER DRUGS......MAYBE TAKE THE GATWAY DRUG AWAY FROM THE DEALERS BY GOVERNMENTLY CONTROLING IT AND THEY WOULD HAVE NO WAY OF GETTING TO THE 50% OF HIGH SCHOOL KIDS THAT SMOKE IT NOW. STRONGER DRUG USE WOULD DROP. ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO ARE AS OR EVEN MORE DANGEROUS THAN MARIJUANA. I COULD GO ON AND ON ABOUT WHY MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGAL BUT I REALLY DONT THINK THAT IT WOULD MATTER MUCH TO YOU.
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