cannabisnews.com: One Toke Over The Line
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('One Toke Over The Line');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26205.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






One Toke Over The Line
Posted by CN Staff on December 15, 2010 at 18:37:12 PT
Editorial
Source: Los Angeles Times
USA -- California, whose initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use drew national headlines this year, is notoriously tolerant of a drug considered an evil weed in some parts of the country. But is our lax attitude creating a school system full of Jeff Spicolis, the iconic California stoner from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"? R. Gil Kerlikowske, the Obama administration's drug czar, suspects that it is.After an annual survey of teen drug use nationwide found that marijuana smoking is on the rise among eighth- through 12th-graders, Kerlikowske attributed the uptick to California's Proposition 19 and other states' initiatives to legalize medical marijuana.
"Mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame," he said in a news release. "Such messages certainly don't help parents who are trying to prevent kids from using drugs."Anecdotal evidence suggests that he has a point. In Los Angeles, where billboards promoting doctors who pass out medical marijuana recommendations are commonplace and green crosses identifying pot "clinics" can be found on hundreds of street corners, cannabis seems as harmless and ubiquitous as nasal spray. It would be surprising if kids weren't influenced by adults' blase attitudes about the drug.Yet anecdotal evidence is no substitute for rigorous study, and Kerlikowske should have checked such sources as the Congressional Research Service before jumping to conclusions. An April report, issued to advise Congress on whether to loosen federal restrictions on medical marijuana, examined studies comparing teen pot smoking in states with and without medical marijuana laws and found no connection between such laws and drug use. "Concerns that medical cannabis laws send the wrong message to vulnerable groups such as adolescents seem to be unfounded," it stated.Most studies on the issue were performed about a decade ago, and it's clear that more research is needed on the effects of legalization debates on teen attitudes. Even if a causal connection is discovered, though, it doesn't imply that the solution is to stop discussing legalization — as evidenced by the same National Institute on Drug Abuse survey that prompted Kerlikowske's comments.Even as teen marijuana use is rising, tobacco and alcohol use is falling, according to the report, which found that 21.4% of high school seniors had smoked pot in the previous month and 19.2% had smoked tobacco — the first time since 1981 that marijuana was more popular than cigarettes. This may indicate that public health campaigns aimed at discouraging alcohol and tobacco use are working, and that similar campaigns aimed specifically at marijuana might be equally effective. There's little evidence that continued criminalization has discouraged teen drug use, but better education might. Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Published: December 16, 2010Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/g64fvFP4CannabisNews  Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #11 posted by b4daylight on December 16, 2010 at 11:59:10 PT
Mixing
"Mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame," he said in a news releaseOr the drug commercials on TV telling us to use drugs. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by Storm Crow on December 16, 2010 at 11:19:50 PT
Spicoli vs.........
Carl Sagan, John F Kennedy, President Obama, Al Gore, Andy Warhol, Bill Clinton, Cary Grant, Conan O'Brian, Dr Francis Crick (Nobel Prize winner), George W Bush, Jack Kerouac, Jack Nicholson, Jackie Gleason, Jesse Ventura, Joan Rivers, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Mary Tyler Moore, Montel Williams, Pablo Picasso, Phil Donohue, Stephen King, Queen Victoria, Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize Laureate physicist) and Willie Nelson - to name a few! Somehow the Spicoli stereotype just doesn't hold water when you think about what those cannabis-using people have done! It's long past time to dump the Spicoli/Cheech and Chong stereotypes! We need to equate cannabis with compassion and action in the minds of the public! 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by Sam Adams on December 16, 2010 at 07:51:16 PT
LA Times
when the upper 1% that controls the corporate newspapers is SO hell-bent on maintaining something totally counterproductive for our society - cannabis prohibition - you know this country is going down the toilet
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by CropReport on December 16, 2010 at 06:41:18 PT
Outdated Stereotype
Jeff Spicoli is a fictional character played by Sean Penn who has been nominated five times for an Academy Award for Best Actor. The real Sean Penn is a cannabis smoker and an outspoken political activist for legalization.The unmotivated slacker stereotype that has been hung on cannabis users is outdated and there are just too many examples of HIGHLY MOTIVATED users. *cough*michael phelps*cough*
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by runruff on December 16, 2010 at 03:44:41 PT
rastaman,
You are spot on!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by rastaman on December 15, 2010 at 20:48:49 PT
Its not about the jobs that would be lost 
its about losing the choke hold on the consumer. If cannabis becomes legal, corporations lose their control over us. all the products hemp can produce will be done locally and money would be in our pockets, not theirs. This issue has nothing to do with public safety, protecting us from violent drug lords or any of that. Cannabis can't be controlled by a big business, its too easy to grow, has so many uses and its simply a weed. Hemp won't make a single person rich but it would make the entire community rich. which is evil in their eyes. but the thing that upsets me the most is that they insult our intelligence and get away with blatant lies telling us crystal meth and coke are safer than cannabis. I am no idiot, I am not fooled by this. we have to speak up people. its a must, let your voice be herd. I will no longer be silenced, on 4/23/11 I am hosting a protest in New York City. if this interests you let me kno. Jah bless
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 15, 2010 at 19:53:23 PT
The GCW
I remember when I saw this on Lawrence Welk! LOL! Goodness gracious what went wrong! Look at how stupid they act now from way back then.Lawrence Welk said it was a modern spiritual and it was! Does anyone remember people talking about Jesus Freaks? One Toke Over The Line - Lawrence Welk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by The GCW on December 15, 2010 at 19:44:36 PT
Can't help it
Brewer and ShipleyOne Toke Over the Linehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql0IB1zv2MA&feature=related
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 15, 2010 at 19:27:01 PT
DrDunkleosteus 
I think that is true to a degree but that's by far not all of the reason. These people will have good paying jobs no matter what. It has to do with sacrificing their own value structure. They cast their own logic to the wind.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by DrDunkleosteus on December 15, 2010 at 19:07:29 PT:
FoM
I like how NORML's Paul Armentano described the situation in his recent blog entry on the same subject:Paul Armentano: "As for the Drug Czar and his mindless rhetoric, never forget the words of novelist Upton Sinclair, 'it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.' In reality, Kerlikowske is not nearly as stupid as his sound bytes imply; he just assumes that you are." We can't be surprised by any of these outlandish, illogical claims anymore. The truth is so obvious, you know they know it, too. They are witholding intelligence as a strategic maneuver.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 15, 2010 at 18:42:43 PT
What Is It About Politicians in Washington D.C.?
They are angry and defensive and logic just goes out the window. I heard a lot of alcohol flows in D.C. and that could contribute to some of the really odd and unpopular ideas in Washington. Maybe it's something in the water. Just kidding on that but really what causes such lack of logic and lack of reason to surface?
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment