Posted on 07/20/2004 11:39:07 AM PDT by missyme
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Alarmed by reports that marijuana is becoming more potent than ever and that children are trying it at younger and younger ages, U.S. officials are changing their drug policies.
Pot is no longer the gentle weed of the 1960s and may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin because so many more people use it. So officials at the National Institutes of Health and at the White House are hoping to shift some of the focus in research and enforcement from "hard" drugs such as cocaine and heroin to marijuana.
While drug use overall is falling among children and teenagers, the officials worry that the children who are trying pot are doing so at ever-younger ages, when their brains and bodies are vulnerable to dangerous side effects.
"Most people have been led to believe that marijuana is a soft drug, not a drug that causes serious problems," John Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview.
"(But) marijuana today is a much more serious problem than the vast majority of Americans understand. If you told people that one in five of 12- to 17-year-olds who ever used marijuana in their lives need treatment, I don't think people would remotely understand it."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I'm going to go get drunk to celebrate.
Too funny!
How much did MO and BUD kick in for this study?
Institutionalized Insanity
So... basically you needed to smoke 5 joints, and introduce more nasty tars and resins, and that was considered "gentle".
MJ is interesting in the sense that most users have no problem mediating their dosage, and won't continue taking hits after reaching the place they desire.
So weed was innocuous and 'gentle' in the 60s, and somewhere along the line became an insidious hard drug on par with heroin and cocaine? Sorry, not buying it.
Maybe he had a hit of Acalpulco Gold with Tommy Chong and thought this stuff is no where near strong enough as the stuff there smoking today!
Here comes the last stand.
Pot is 80% of the Drug War.
The Drug War is 85%+ of the federal prison population.
That's a multibillion-dollar industrial complex.
Built on our tax dollars.
Time to disemploy the narcs and scrwes.
Say all the 50-something year old bureaucrats at NIH and the White House, half of which probably have first hand experience with the "gentle weed of the 1960s." This crapola about how it's so much worse now is salve for what's left of their consciences as they try to cope with their own hypocrisy.
And raging munchies.
If this were true, I doubt the National Review would have dedicated a cover story recently to advocate for overturning anti-pot laws.
The scary part is that we have some HS kids smoking weed and the government tells them that its a hard drug that's a greater threat then cocaine/heroin.. And the kids are going to think that, hey, if I am smoking pot and its the worst out there, why not try the "lighter" stuff?
I can't imagine where kids get the notion to experiment with marijuana....could it be that their parents' medicine chests are filled with Cialis, Zantax, generic vicodin, Darvon, percocet, and every other little miraculous pill ever created?
As George Carlin put it --
"Don't smoke dope when you're stoned. You don't get any higher, you only get lower on dope."
"Stronger pot causes policy shift."
Sure - blame the delusional policies they're pursuing on the bud they're puffin'.
Typical!
THe Federal Government never has and never will have any credibility on the issue of pot. They have been lying since the thirties and it looks like there is no end in sight. Even attempts to disavow "Reefer Madness" gets followed up with crap like this.
Compared to alcohol I wonder how many families pot has destroyed?
I thought Thai Stick was pretty strong myself? but that was the 70's maybe every 10 years Pot changes it's chemistry...(Of course according to them)
pretty stupid...
Ask the professional Tommy Chong...
"Reports of stronger pot found to encourage more federal WOD spending. News at 11."
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