Posted on 07/25/2004 1:12:55 AM PDT by MadIvan
New super-strength marijuana readily available on US streets is prompting the White House to change direction in its war against drugs.
Research from the government-sponsored Marijuana Potency Project claims today's cannabis is more than twice as strong as in the mid-Eighties, leading to greater health risks for those smoking it at increasingly younger ages.
Now President George Bush, who had already promised a more aggressive campaign against substance abuse, has ordered that resources be allocated to fighting so-called 'soft' drugs instead of concentrating on harder forms, such as heroin and cocaine.
'We are working hard on education, but unfortunately a lot of today's parents are under the impression marijuana is harmless and that their kids trying it is some kind of rite of passage,' said Jennifer de Vallance, of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
'They might have had experience in their own teenage years with no problems, but this is not the same marijuana as in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. Today's forms are much stronger and potentially more harmful, especially to young people whose brains are not fully developed and are therefore more susceptible to adverse reactions.'
The Marijuana Potency Project, at the University of Mississippi, analysed more than 30,000 samples seized over the past 18 years by the authorities. It found that the average level of the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), jumped from 3.5 per cent in 1985 to more than 7 per cent in 2003.
Of more concern to the analysts is that the upward trend appears to be continuing. The average potency of 20 marijuana samples seized and tested so far this year exceeds 9 per cent, with a peak of 27 per cent in one batch from a state in the North West.
'Today's marijuana is a much more serious problem than the vast majority of Americans understands,' said John Walters, the government's director of drug control policy who has promised a clampdown on producers.
Those who support the legalisation of cannabis are not convinced. 'Whenever government officials speak about drugs issues, a more detailed examination of the facts is a good idea,' said David Borden, executive director of the Washington-based Drug Reform Coordination Network.
'These projects are always government-funded and, without criticising the researchers, officials take what they want from it and send out their press releases. There has always been a wide range of potencies. It doesn't mean people are getting more intoxicated, because the higher the potency, the less they smoke.'
Figures suggest overall drug use in America's high schools has fallen by 11 per cent in two years but the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports the number of children and teenagers receiving treatment for marijuana abuse jumped 142 per cent over the last decade, and that emergency hospital admissions of 12 to 17-year-olds in which marijuana was implicated rose 48 per cent in four years.
Borden acknowledges children must be steered away from drugs, but says: 'Their anti-drugs efforts have had a paradoxical effect in promoting the underground cultivation of marijuana. The number of users makes it an appealing target and there is no limit to the number of arrests that can be made, and the government uses those numbers to scare the public into thinking there is some big problem.
'All the government has been able to do is encourage people to experiment with stronger drugs than they would have before.'
Basically, yes.
If we assume that it is the responsibility of government, and its legal system, to ride herd on everyone's behavior, then NO behavior should be off-limits for them.
That would mean that we are property, and the owners get to decide what we do with ourselves.
Wasn't there another system of governance with a similar philosophy? It existed until a few years ago... hmm... "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", I think it was called.
People these days like to get the jitters when they smoke pot?
Yech. Why not just lace oregano with strichnine or something?
Get this stuff off the street.
Thank you for your honesty. Not many here will answer that question since the argument leads directly to legalization of cocaine, heroin, etc.
Why don't we have a caste system, like India. We can make some folks untouchables, and leave them to do what they wish... as long as they do it out of the sight of the higher forms...
I will volunteeer to be so lowly! Hell, I may even move to New Hampshire...
Legalize drugs and criminalize socialism.
Spring the dopers - lock up the engorged predators, scavengers, and parasites on the gubmint pad!
End the War on Drugs - start the War on Socialism.
Ditto!!
Marijuana is not even as dangerous as alcohol. Give it a rest Mr. Bush, and think about the thousands of Moslem Arabs coming across our boarders, and the thousands of Black American prisoners being converted to that hate Islamic cult daily under our noses, by the Saudis.
And the converse leads directly to socialized medicine.
Obviously, you have a poor understanding of what leads to socialized medicine.
I'm pretty sure it starts with thinking the government is better able to determine what's good for you than you are.
You're in law enforcement, aren't you?
LOL!
Best line of the morning!
I'm not completely sure, and I don't want to spread false information about someone. I heard rumors from another FReeper. Something to do with the old NewsMax forums.
What is it with you and the spreading of false rumors? Don't you have some work your boss wants you to do?
Is that where you and your doper buddies hang out?
I specifically avoided spreading rumors. I asked you about it before I posted anything and got blown off. Have you ever posted to the old NewsMax forums? If not, the FReeper I was talking to must have mixed you up with someone else.
Don't you have some work your boss wants you to do?
Spamming forums with Soros pro-drug propoganda is my work.
You never specifically asked. You place strategic innuendos hoping to create controversy and slander. Now nix it with the false associations.
I said, "what's this I hear about you and thongs". If you had denied knowing what the hell I was talking about, it would have been dropped right there. So are you the person from the NewsMax boards or not?
I tried to ignore your and your buddies who started this 'thong' thing thinking you would tire of your personal attacks. I know how y'all work. Y'all go to other boards and start false rumors about others then come back here and repeat the rumors.
I have no idea what false rumors you and your buddies spread on other forums.
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