cannabisnews.com: The War On Drugs - Reefer Madness





The War On Drugs - Reefer Madness
Posted by FoM on July 30, 1999 at 20:08:47 PT
Al Krulick, The Amnesty Project
Source: CRRH
Reefer madness is, once again, gripping our nation! No locality is immune. But this madness is not the one supposedly caused by the indiscriminate inhaling of the devil’s weed.
 No, this reefer madness is the one engendered by the drug warriors themselves, as they continue to defy all reason in their insane war against America’s most popular illegal drug. Consider: Last week, in Orlando, we learned that Mary Dowdell, a 69-year old diabetic with chronic renal failure was facing eviction from her apartment in Winter Park , because one of her twenty children pleaded guilty to possession of a tiny amount of marijuana. Apparently, laws that are supposed to keep drug dealers and pushers out of public housing must also be enforced against poor, sick, innocent people as well. Does the government really believe that we will all sleep safer, knowing that a law-abiding grandmother is being kicked out on the street? Madness! Also last week, we read that Florida’s Drug Czar, Jim McDonough, wishes to eradicate the state’s marijuana crop with the fungus Fusarium Oxysporum, despite warnings from our own Department of Environmental Protection. While research shows that the toxins derived from fusarium oxysporum may be deadly to humans and other animals, and while there is no way of knowing whether or not the fungus can be prevented from attacking other crops once it has been let loose. Jeb Bush’s man apparently feels that the risks are acceptable in our fight to protect us from the harm caused by the much more benign cannabis sativa plant. To some, this is reminiscent of the Vietnam War philosophy of “destroying a village in order to save it.” Madness! What is also maddening (in that it contributes to the madness in a more subtle way) is the way the mainstream press, such as our own Orlando Sentinel, so unquestionably recycles the lies and distortions about marijuana coming out of the drug warriors’ propaganda factories. In an article in Friday, July 23 rd's Living Section, Sentinel reporter Darryl Owens pointed to a study from Joe Califano’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, stating that children who smoke marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than those who do not. This canard, commonly known as the “gateway theory”, is continually trotted out by Califano and his cohorts, and has been disproved and debunked countless times, because it presents a statistical association between marijuana and cocaine use as if it were a causal explanation.  Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs, any more than riding a bicycle leads people to become motorcycle drivers (although most motorcyclists have, in fact, ridden bikes as kids.) People who use cocaine are more likely to have smoked pot, but they are also more likely to have had previous experience with alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, as well. None of these substances, including marijuana, causes people to use more dangerous drugs, or predicts that they will. The fact is, that for the vast majority of users, marijuana is a terminus, rather than a gateway drug. Owens also wrote that today’s pot is 40 to 100 times more potent than the marijuana of thirty years ago. This is a myth. The amount of THC (the chemical that produces the marijuana high) has actually remained constant for years. And even if marijuana potency had increased, it would not necessarily made the drug more dangerous. Marijuana that varies substantially in potency produces similar psychoactive effects. But finally, what kind of reason and sanity can we expect from today’s drug warriors, who see themselves on a jihad, a holy war, to enforce their mad agenda on the nation? Like their spiritual forebear, Harry Anslinger, the first head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, they will say whatever suits their purpose, hoping that the lie, when repeated often enough, will be believed.Remember, it was Anslinger who testified before Congress in 1935, that marijuana must be illegal because it made its users violent and prone to all sorts of “...murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity.” It was the same Harry Anslinger who testified again, before Congress, in 1948, stating that marijuana must remain illegal, because it made its users too peaceful, thereby making our country ripe for a Communist takeover. Madness! Yes, fifty years later, and reefer madness is as strong as ever. Amazing, isn’t it, still crazy after all these years? Yours truly,Al KrulickThe Amnesty ProjectP.O. Box 540316Orlando, FL 32854(407) 422-3602E-mail -- akrulick purplenet.net Al Krulick is an actor, writer, and director living in Orlando, FL. He has twice been the Democratic Party's candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 8th District.. In 1998, he was the only major party Congressional candidate in America to make ending the "War on Drugs" a key plank in his campaign platform. He received 34% of the vote against an 18-year incumbent.
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