cannabisnews.com: Pot May Be Popular, But Is It Safe?





Pot May Be Popular, But Is It Safe?
Posted by CN Staff on September 24, 2007 at 05:33:22 PT
By Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Source: Daily Bulletin
California -- City Councilman Doug Wilson uses an opened magazine as a makeshift table as he stuffs his marijuana pipe. He leaves his stash on the passenger seat and inhales. This pot, he says, is "primo."So begins the first season of the cable television comedy "Weeds," where drug dealing has replaced cookie baking as a fundraiser in a fictional Los Angeles suburb.
The show is just one of countless examples of how prevalent marijuana is in popular culture. From the lyrics of popular songs to the recognizable leaf patterns emblazoned on T-shirts, marijuana is everywhere, and acceptance of it seems to keep growing.Years ago, presidential candidates might duck the question and deny inhaling, but now they're admitting to smoking pot, often with an air of nonchalance.Acceptance also spawns backlash. The federal government insists marijuana is a dangerous, highly addictive substance, a "gateway drug" that exposes experimenters to other illicit substances.That distinction, coupled locally with a wave of city moratoria and police crackdowns on medical-marijuana dispensaries and grow operations, reveal a deep division created by the leafy plant:Is it a recreational drug and pain reliever, or a dangerously addictive starter substance?"Because we've been desensitized to it doesn't make it right," said Ed Hills, a Rancho Cucamonga resident pushing for repeal of the state medical marijuana initiative.Hills, 42, is pressuring his city, which has temporarily banned medical-marijuana dispensaries, to make the ban permanent.He got involved when he and his neighbors grew wary of suspected drug activity on their street. Hills said he and his neighbors witnessed drug exchanges made on the street, as well as an increase in the number of people coming and going. Hills believes the state's marijuana laws are to blame, though the activity has subsided since the Sheriff's Department helped start a Neighborhood Watch program.Hills considers marijuana a harmful drug and says Proposition 215, the voter initiative that legalized medicinal marijuana in the state, sends mixed messages to children, including his 12-year-old son."We've now taken marijuana - something I've spent his childhood telling him to stay away from - and brought it down to the equivalent of Advil," Hills said.In 1998, Hills' father died of lung cancer. Hills is skeptical marijuana would have helped ease his suffering."When he passed, there was nothing left unsaid, not one word, not one feeling. I wonder how that relationship would have manifested if we spent every afternoon for those six months stoned," he said. "I don't think we would have nearly as healthy a relationship."Smoking marijuana is not the miracle drug that it's made out to be. If it is the miracle drug of the 21st century, are we advocating that cancer patients in children's hospitals in Orange County join in bong sessions in the afternoon to deal with chemotherapy?" Access DiminishingThe stoner stereotypes are what make people oppose pot so adamantly, said George Agatep, a medical-marijuana patient from Mira Loma.Agatep, 36, likes to dress smart, perhaps in an attempt to change public opinion of smokers."When you think of marijuana, you think of some counterculture hippie who burns the flag," said Agatep. "When you think of someone who's conservative, or clean-cut, your attitude sort of changes."Agatep, a fitness trainer, is a self-described conservative who as a student was president of his college Republican group. He campaigned for both Proposition 215 and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole.In 1996, Agatep suffered patellar tendonitis on both knees. The surgery left two long, dark scars that slice through the front of his knees and are the source of regular cramping and spasticity. Marijuana, which he said doesn't give him symptoms of withdrawal, is his medicine of choice."I tried it, and I was impressed. I didn't even know it was going to help me out that much," said Agatep.But his access to the drug continues to be threatened as more and more cities block establishment of dispensaries. Norco, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and many other cities have either temporarily or permanently banned such operations.Margaret Dooley, acting director of the Southern California Drug Policy Alliance, sees these bans as city leaders' way of turning a blind eye to pot."It's a continuation of the fallacy that prohibiting sale makes something go away," said Dooley. "Marijuana is extremely available in the black market. The only people who have trouble getting access to it are those who are supposed to have it in California - sick and dying patients."Dispensary moratoria push marijuana patients into a thriving black market, said Dooley."We have not removed it. It is all around us," she said. A Question of AddictionAt Rancho Cucamonga's Matrix Institute, where methamphetamine and heroin users seek treatment, director Deborah Service said most of the clients who are strictly marijuana users are young - between 12 and 18 years old."Some start out with friends," said Service. "And it's a generational thing. They see parents use, grandparents use. And they use with their parents, too."Josie Ramirez-Herndon is all too familiar with young people and drug abuse. The Beaumont resident heads a company of call centers that place people in drug treatment. She has heard the stories of families in peril when dealing with drug abuse.Those stories hit home when she found out her teenage son, now 19 and no longer living with her, had been smoking marijuana since he was 12.One major source of frustration for Ramirez-Herndon is acceptance of the drug as harmless and not habit-forming."When people say it's not a problem, it's not addictive, I don't believe it," she said. "I've seen the difference."When her son isn't using drugs, she thinks of a happy, lively young man. But "when he's smoking marijuana, he doesn't have motivation, he lies, he's manipulative," she said. "It's the same thing as any other addiction."When her son was 17, Ramirez-Herndon sent him to rehab and then to a sober-living facility, where he stayed clean for a year. But two months after he got out, he started smoking again. Ramirez-Herndon said he also has tried meth.Nevertheless, she is optimistic about his future."I have to keep that hope," she said. "Otherwise, the only thing that could happen is he'd die from addiction, and I can't think of that."Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)Author: Wendy Leung, Staff WriterPublished: September 24, 2007Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper GroupContact:  letters dailybulletin.comWebsite: http://www.dailybulletin.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by gloovins on September 26, 2007 at 00:21:02 PT
I love it ...
The meth comment slipped in at the very end...Duh?! This kids meth use should be front and center, I agree & the point about Advil / NSAID gets a bullseye BGreen!
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Comment #10 posted by whig on September 24, 2007 at 18:29:39 PT
OverwhelmSam
Or the kid could overdose on Oxycontin and then Purdue Pharma will pay her to blame cannabis. ;-)
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on September 24, 2007 at 16:28:16 PT
Question for Ed Hills
I take great offense by your passionate but completely off-base claim regarding cannabis."We've now taken marijuana - something I've spent his childhood telling him to stay away from - and brought it down to the equivalent of Advil," Hills said.Which set of odds would you bet the life of your 12-year-old son on, Mr. Hills?Cannabis - No known deaths from overdose, toxicity or allergic reactions in thousands of years of use amongst millions of people.Advil and other related NSAID drugs?Complications from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAID, have been linked to 103,000 hospitalizations and more than 16,000 deaths per year in the US, according to a study published in the American Journal of Therapeutics.http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/00231/Advil_Motrin.htmlWhy can we accept unfettered access to poisons that kill 16,000 people in this country every year and fearfully and unjustly condemn a plant that has killed no one ... ever?The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #8 posted by OverwhelmSam on September 24, 2007 at 13:18:18 PT
whig
That's exactly my point. The average American would not look at a wino on skid row and say drinking alcohol makes everyone that way. That's ridiculous on it's face. The over zealous fanatics think that pot makes everyone lazy and ignorant when the truth is, it simply does not. The woman in this story just doesn't understand that her son was lazy and ignorant before he started using marijuana. Case and point, she states that he used meth too, which is not too smart in my book. Based on this woman's statements, she is the kind of ignorant mother who makes their kids want to take drugs. Refusing to take responsibility, she has to blame it on the drug of course.Would serve her right if her son overdosed on meth, at least then she would have a flimsy justification to harp about cannabis users.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 24, 2007 at 11:00:37 PT
Just a Comment
I am amazed at what is on the news. I feel proud but scared to be an American at this moment. 
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Comment #6 posted by whig on September 24, 2007 at 10:42:16 PT
Mental exercise
Reading and writing and interacting with people and living normally with cannabis is like anything, a learning experience. If you're not used to doing these things it can be strange and bewildering at first, like a child in a new school. And so we are, even those of us who are maybe in the first or second grade instead of kindergarten by now. :)The truth is, no matter how much we learn, we are only beginning to learn. No matter how much we think we know, we know little. And I have much to learn.
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Comment #5 posted by whig on September 24, 2007 at 10:35:13 PT
OverwhelmSam
I'd like to point out to you that when I go outside, nobody notices me. I take cannabis several times per day. It isn't obvious because I don't act stoned. I just do my thing. It's just normal.
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Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on September 24, 2007 at 08:39:26 PT
Degrees
I guess it's human nature to stereotype, but it is a self imposed mental block."When people say it's not a problem, it's not addictive, I don't believe it," she said. "I've seen the difference."The only reason you haven't seen the rest of Society is because they moderate their use and balance it with their lives.There are Social drinkers who have a glass of wine with diner, there are the weekend warriors who abstain from drinking through the week and get drunk Friday and Saturday nights, there are the functional alcoholics who drink everyday and manage to hold a job, there are the people who drink all day every day and usually end up sleeping on the streets.The same is true of marijuana. The only reason you notice the lazy all day recreational users is because of their level of abuse. The average marijuana user has a few puffs after work or a few times a week and still manages to wash their car and fix diner before bed time.But nobody notices the casual user. They just point to the extreme cases to make up their false beliefs and then stereotype all users to be the same.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 24, 2007 at 08:03:07 PT
Expectations of Parents
Children are not perfect and what becomes important to them might not be what is important to the parents. Talking can help but parents must accept responsibility for how their own children behave. Society in general shouldn't be punished for children's youthful indiscretions.
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Comment #2 posted by potpal on September 24, 2007 at 08:01:50 PT
To answer your question
Yes. 
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Comment #1 posted by OverwhelmSam on September 24, 2007 at 07:37:55 PT
Sorry Excuse For A Parent
"But "when he's smoking marijuana, he doesn't have motivation, he lies, he's manipulative," she said. "It's the same thing as any other addiction."Pot didn't make her son lie and be manipulative, but it does show you how much respect he had for his bully mother. "When her son was 17, Ramirez-Herndon sent him to rehab and then to a sober-living facility, where he stayed clean for a year."Now we know the rest of the story. Doting bitch of a mother, I would use drugs too.
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