cannabisnews.com: Anti-Pot Campaigns Face New Obstacle
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Anti-Pot Campaigns Face New Obstacle
Posted by CN Staff on August 04, 2013 at 05:00:16 PT
By John Keilman and Lisa Black, Tribune Reporters
Source: Chicago Tribune
Illinois -- Gabrielle Abesamis said she and her classmates at Niles West High School in Skokie receive plenty of information about marijuana from their health teachers, but when it comes to using the drug, some of her peers shrug off the lessons and just say YOLO — "You Only Live Once."With medical marijuana now encoded into Illinois law, she said, that attitude will only strengthen. "Even though it's for medical use, I don't think that matters to them," said Abesamis, 17. "The fact that it's legal for some people to possess it, they feel it's OK for them to have it too."
Illinois on Thursday became the 20th state to legalize pot for some medical patients, and although lawmakers say the rules will be among the toughest in the nation, educators and treatment experts worry that putting a partial stamp of approval on a once-forbidden drug will send a confusing message to young people."What happens with teenagers is (that) they begin to have that medicine-versus-drug argument," said Andy Duran of Linking Efforts Against Drugs, an educational group based in Lake Forest. "They begin to think it's not harmful or it's not addictive because it's a medicine."Teen views about the risks of marijuana have been easing for more than 20 years, according to the University of Michigan's authoritative Monitoring the Future study. In 1991, about 4 in 5 high school seniors believed that people put themselves at great risk by smoking pot regularly. In 2012, fewer than half shared that opinion.Attitudes appear even more casual around Chicago. The Illinois Youth Survey, which polls students about alcohol, tobacco and drug use, found that only a third of suburban teens and a quarter of those in the city believed that smoking pot once or twice a week brought great risk."Already, adolescents perceive marijuana to be not harmful, so I don't know that we're in a position where they could perceive it to be less harmful," said Pamela Rodriguez of TASC, or Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, which connects teens coming from juvenile court with drug treatment specialists.She said the new marijuana law might actually prompt productive discussions about the proper use of medications. The abuse of prescription drugs is another major issue among her clientele, she said, and talking about medical pot could be a way to address the risks that any medication can pose.The Robert Crown Center for Health Education in Hinsdale teaches thousands of children about drugs each year, and Margo Schmitt, the center's director of education and evaluation, said its science-based presentations won't change with the new law."We have actually been getting a lot of questions about it, especially this last spring," Schmitt said. "Many of the kids have family in other states that have had something to do with (liberalized marijuana laws), so we get a lot of questions. We always answer them scientifically."Frank Pegueros, president of the international D.A.R.E. program, based in Los Angeles, said it has not made substantive changes to its anti-drug lessons, taught by police officers, even as states have relaxed their laws on pot."The fact that states have legalized marijuana for some purposes really calls for additional prevention education … because the fact is, the greater prevalence of the substance, the more accessible it is to minors," he said.Kate Mahoney of PEER Services, which provides drug education and treatment in Evanston and Glenview, said teens have long pointed to the medical use of marijuana to excuse their own pot smoking. Her response, she said, has been to say that she hopes they'll never have a condition like cancer that might justify such a prescription."It is really challenging, because the truth is that most teens really do best with clear black-and-white boundaries," she said. "We have muddied the waters."Dr. Thomas Wright, chief medical officer at the Rosecrance treatment center in Rockford, said he will try to draw parallels between marijuana and other legal substances."Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's going to be good for you," he said. "It'll just join the ranks of alcohol and tobacco — two of the deadliest and most addictive drugs we have." Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author:  John Keilman and Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune ReportersPublished: August 4, 2013Copyright: 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLCWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/iM2Z4CJlContact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by Swazi-X on August 04, 2013 at 15:28:19 PT
The New Obstacle To Anti-Pot Campaign?
The Truth. Science. Common sense. Logic. Reason. Compassion.www.cananbisevangelist.com
*Eat it Fresh!*
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Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on August 04, 2013 at 14:23:37 PT
disturbing
still sends a chill down my spine to see the blatant lying in the mainstream media. "Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's going to be good for you," he said. "It'll just join the ranks of alcohol and tobacco two of the deadliest and most addictive drugs we have."This is brazen lying.  The CDC in Washington has been publishing the correct facts on this for decades - cannabis is SPECIFICALLY the least addictive, least dangerous drug "we have"!!!these clinging parasites and treatment Nazis are frightening. Our economy just can't afford to have these people leaching off us. We need to focus our resources on those who need it - medical bankruptcy devastates thousands of productive families every year.we have 8,000 US military veterans committing suicide every year. We should be directing treatment resources to people who can help them, not these hectoring Communist types
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Comment #4 posted by HempWorld on August 04, 2013 at 10:46:21 PT
Anti-Pot Campaigns Face New Obstacle
Facts and the unmasking of lies perpetrated by your own government... on the internet!
Rocky Give It Up! Yer Losing...
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Comment #3 posted by HempWorld on August 04, 2013 at 08:58:28 PT
kaptinemo
Bulls Eye! Great rant!Happy sunday all, don't bogard that joint!
Cannabis Is Non-Toxic, Cures Cancers and Many Other Diseases!
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on August 04, 2013 at 06:57:17 PT:
And every official source quoted is the PROBLEM
After all these years, after all this time and money wasted, the prohibs still don't see the real problem...because they refuse to look in the mirror. For every single 'official' source quoted in this article has a mercenary motive. One not concerned with the welfare of their present and future victims, but with their own paychecks. Each and every quoted prohibitionist has significantly benefited by two things: greed and mendacity. The greed of letting dollar signs cloud their judgement...and the mendacity that that greed requires to keep repeating the lies that support that greed.One other thing: they keep forgetting that kids are not, as the old saying went, 'tabula rasas'. They are not 'blank slates', incapable of learning the truth for themselves, wholly dependent upon parents and educators. Once those parents and educators lie to their own progeny, said progeny realize they need to find out things for themselves...and they do.Needless to say, that's where the Intenet comes into play; the Internet has proven to be the prohibitionist's worst nightmare, providing the tools needed to separate the truth from the lies their targets have been told about drugs. And when their targets learn that truth, the mendacious prohibs are revealed for what they are: mercenary liars seeking to either feather their own nests and/or maintain an (ultimately, illusory) control over their fellow citizens, based on an ideology fueled by authoritarianism.Same old prohib game, lying for power and profit...and it's doomed. For the kids can find out the truth with a few mouse clicks. A fact which seems to have eluded the authors, who don't deserve to be called 'journalists' for their cut-and-paste rote regurgitation of propaganda. 
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on August 04, 2013 at 06:39:13 PT
Oh that proverbial dark place with the damp...!
" — two of the deadliest and most addictive drugs we have."This statement is true, probably the only thing said here not BS [Bovine Scat]. I know this age old tactic; guilt by association. He is trying to imply that a nontoxic herb is as bad as these toxic substances that CAN kill you. Disingenuous, Liar or Stupidity? Either way these old school drug warriors have not come up to speed with science or the experiences of 19 other states or 10 years of legalization in Portugal. I get the impression that they believe if they say it long enough, if they hold their breath and stomp their feet, maybe, just maybe, cannabis will somehow turn wicked bad over night and prove them right. Of course this is delusional thinking and their desire to villinize the herb [today] only makes them look stupid to the young people who know better but are not working off of an agenda.Don't fear the reefer! [Fear those suffering from methane poisoning 'cause we know how they got it.] 
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