cannabisnews.com: A Bad Trip for Democrats
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A Bad Trip for Democrats
Posted by CN Staff on November 08, 2012 at 18:34:24 PT
By Ed Gogek 
Source: New York Times 
USA -- Tuesday's election was a victory for the marijuana lobby: Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize recreational use, while Massachusetts will now allow doctors to recommend it as medicine. It’s a movement around which many Democrats have coalesced. In Colorado, legalization was part of the state party’s platform. And last year, in Montana, Republicans voted to overturn the state’s medical marijuana law, but the Democratic governor saved it with a veto.
But Democrats should think twice about becoming the party of pot. I’m a lifelong partisan Democrat, but I’ve also spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers, and I know their games. They’re excellent con artists. Take, for example, medical marijuana laws. They were sold to more than a dozen states with promises that they’re only for serious illnesses like cancer. But that’s not how they work in practice. Almost all marijuana cardholders claim they need it for various kinds of pain, but pain is easy to fake and almost impossible to disprove. In Oregon and Colorado, 94 percent of cardholders get their pot for pain. In Arizona, it’s 90 percent. Serious illnesses barely register. It’s possible that they all really do need pot to help them. But consider this: pain patients are mostly female, whereas a recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that adult cannabis abusers were 74 percent male. So which one do marijuana patients resemble? Though only two states release data on gender, a vast majority of medical-marijuana cardholders are male. In Arizona, it’s 73 percent, and in Colorado, it’s 68 percent. The best explanation for such skewed numbers is that most medical marijuana recipients are drug abusers who are either faking or exaggerating their problems. No one should support this subterfuge, but especially not Democrats. It turns us into hypocrites. We fumed when President George W. Bush proposed gutting the Clean Air Act and called it the Clear Skies Initiative. That’s no more dishonest than calling pot “medical” when it almost all goes to recreational use. Indeed, marijuana activists use phony science, just as global warming deniers do. For years they claimed pot was good for glaucoma and never apologized when research found it could actually make glaucoma worse. They still insist weed isn’t addictive, despite every addiction medicine society saying it is. They’ve even produced their own flawed scientific studies supposedly proving that medical marijuana laws don’t increase use among teenagers, when almost all the evidence says just the opposite. How can Democrats criticize Republicans for disregarding science and making up facts when people on our side do the same? Democrats know we need government regulation to protect the public from unhealthy products. But the marijuana lobby wants us to distrust two centerpieces of the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The whole purpose of medical marijuana laws is to evade the regulatory power of these agencies. We’re the political party that got the F.D.A. to regulate tobacco. How can we now say it shouldn’t regulate pot? Legalization also runs counter to the Democrats’ commitment to education. States with medical marijuana laws have always had much higher rates of teenage marijuana use, but now the effect is nationwide. Since 2008, teenage use has increased 40 percent, and heavy use (at least 20 times a month) is up 80 percent. Blame the drive to legalize pot. It sends the message that weed is harmless, even though research shows that teenagers who use it regularly do worse in school, are twice as likely to drop out and earn less as adults. Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower I.Q. No other drug, not even alcohol, affects academic performance like marijuana. How can we make education a focus, and then support laws that will blunt the next generation’s ability to compete? Legalization would also undermine a successful Democratic program: drug courts, which were written into the 1994 crime bill by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. They use coercion, the threat of jail, to keep addicts in treatment. But the marijuana lobby opposes coercion. That’s not surprising. Drug users just want to be left alone to get high. If we side with them, we’re undercutting the Democratic answer to substance abuse. In effect, America now has two tea parties: on the left they smoke their tea; on the right they throw it in Boston Harbor. Both distrust government, disregard science and make selfish demands that would undermine the public good. But while Republicans have completely caved in to their Tea Party, several Democrats, including the president, are standing up to ours. Ed Gogek is an addiction psychiatrist and board member of Keep AZ Drug Free, which opposes medical marijuana laws. A version of this op-ed appeared in print on November 8, 2012, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: A Bad Trip for Democrats.Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Ed Gogek Published: November 8, 2012Copyright: 2012 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/c6Lf1f1ZCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on November 09, 2012 at 14:05:59 PT
Ed Gogek 
He is messed up.
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Comment #11 posted by shielde on November 09, 2012 at 13:26:45 PT
pain patients female
I'm trying not to insult anyone with this but might the reason that most pain patients being female is because a large portion of males tend to drink away their pain. Now that they have an option to use something else they do.
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Comment #10 posted by The GCW on November 09, 2012 at 04:28:42 PT
A PLANT was RE-legalized.
Summit County (14,278' high / Grays Peak -Highest point on North American Continental Divide) considers impacts of Amendment 64Marijuana not legal yet, but big changes on the horizonIn the legal confusion following the historic vote approving Amendment 64 — a measure permitting adults older than 21 to possess limited amounts of marijuana in Colorado — what's clear is that the drug didn't become legal Tuesday night. But big changes to both state and local laws are likely on the way, experts say.“We're going to have a good dialogue next year,” local marijuana attorney and advocate Sean McAllister said. In the meantime, recreational users will have to wait until the election is certified before they are in the clear to possess, grow and consume marijuana under state law. CONT.http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20121109/NEWS/121109781/1078&ParentProfile=1055
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on November 09, 2012 at 03:50:56 PT
IGNOID EXPOSURE CONFIRMED.
"Legalization would also undermine a successful Democratic program: drug courts, which were written into the 1994 crime bill by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. They use coercion, the threat of jail, TO KEEP ADDICTS IN TREATMENT."AND He thinks cannabis users are addicts... (wouldn't everyone love an occupation which FORCES a segment of the population to give them money / read -GRAVEY???) bone juiceBINGO - Gravy.Wont be dwelling on this dweeb more except for a chuckle.And chuckle We shall.
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Comment #8 posted by boballen131313 on November 09, 2012 at 01:36:39 PT:
Prohibition in the Rearview
I remember law enforcement touting,"We only enforce the laws, if you don't like them, change them!" It was meant as a slap to those who object to prison for the answer to cannabis. When does Obama give Marc Emery a Presidential Pardon and a Sincere apology...? Ain't going to happen. The Prohibitionists will need to challenge the change to their precious livelihoods and make the US Supreme Court tell us that the Constitution is no longer a functional document since it was written on hemp paper. But, in the end, I predict a lot of politicians will see the light of reason or they will be back home telling how they fought the great Drug War and got wounded. 
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on November 08, 2012 at 23:37:33 PT
Keep AZ Drug Free opposes medical marijuana
"Ed Gogek is an addiction psychiatrist and board member of Keep AZ Drug Free, which opposes medical marijuana laws." medicine=drug. drug=medicine. Wow! "Keep AZ [medicine] Free opposes medical marijuana laws." Another absolutist position! Why does America still have drug stores? Don't they just undermine the whole drug free message for the children?As I was reading this screed, I had to double-check that the author was not Mitt Romney. So many myths, lies & denials! "Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower I.Q."Permanently? We are willing to consider that early cannabis use *may* impede development, but studies show that even chronic users can recover cognitive deficits.Also, women and pain: well, "Only women bleed." (Alice Cooper). If cannabis medicine was good enough for Queen Victoria's menstrual pain, why should it be denied to today's women? How insulting to imply that all those female cannabis pain patients are faking it!
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Comment #6 posted by runruff on November 08, 2012 at 21:06:43 PT
This doctor ain't too bright.
It looks like the art of the nuance has eluded the good doctor. It seems he has never heard of the "wink and a nod" tacit permission.He, with all of his book learned understanding, don't get it. No one has been fooled but him. The states that have mmj are not concerned with if a few people are getting by with a license to get high. It ain't no big deal!Now to his professional attitude toward cannabis.He is showing himself to be one of two positions here. He does not know about the relationship human bodies have with cannabinoids. Does not know that cannabis is not addictive or is an opportunistic charlatan ridding the prohibition gravy train.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 08, 2012 at 20:36:28 PT
Eric Holder
I read he will be replaced. The only one I like the idea of having is Patrick Deval. The others just don't seem like they would be open minded at all.
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Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on November 08, 2012 at 19:56:35 PT
twisted point of view
Spoken like a true prohibitionist. 
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on November 08, 2012 at 19:27:46 PT
NY Times
ah, the desparate bleatings of a publication seeing one of their most-hated scenarios coming truebtw, only 1 in 4 patients recommend Dr. Gogek...25%...isn't that a failing grade???http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-ed-gogek-2m46p
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on November 08, 2012 at 19:22:36 PT
NY Times
ah, the desparate bleatings of a publication seeing one of their most-hated scenarios coming true
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on November 08, 2012 at 18:58:09 PT
Ed Gogek is an addiction psychiatrist...
You don't want to support legalization if your job depends on it being illegal...But, legalization is finally here! And it will take the world by storm...God Bless!
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