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.'
This could end up being a vast waste of taxpayer money, and time.
You have to wonder about a Christian who feels they are smarter than GOD who made the plant and pronounced it good.Regretably he is still the best choice for Pres.In the choice between ignorant and evil, the dumb one is the best choice.
Seems like a plan Stan.
Let the wackos that use cocaine and heroin travel down the road to extinction unimpeded, and keep the hemp heads on the run.
Afterall, it's not like they are making anymore great music!
Lucy in the skyyyyy with diamondssss ...
I think that means I smoke less of it then inorder to achieve desired results. Isn't technology wonderful.
Utter rubbish.
Oh, Lordy. That ought to get the Red Zone base energized. Right.
LOL! bump.
Oh wow, man, like you are so relevant to the times. I don't care about terrorist WMD any more! Thank you, drug warriors!!!
Whatever shall we do ?
" emergency hospital admissions of 12 to 17-year-olds in which marijuana was implicated rose 48 per cent in four years "
It appears that there is no possible way to find out what the real issue is here. Is the more potent pot causing this increase in emergency room activity? Are these hospital admissions because of kids doing stupid things from being high?
From a personal view I tried pot once and I got paranoid and "freaked-out" (I'll never try it again) every pot devotee that I tell this to says that it can't be the pot. Pot is completely harmless -- don't you know -- only those who are uninformed can believe that pot makes you paranoid.
A good childhood friend has spent 25 years as as a street person and he smokes only pot and pot has ruined his brain. So there must be something that does harm your brain in THC for some people -- it is just my experience.
" You have to wonder about a Christian who feels they are smarter than GOD "
Perhaps that Christian believes that hemp is intended by God for the production of clothes and ropes not smoking. It is a perversion to use pot to get high. This article is about the increase strenght of the active ingredient in pot and therefore not really "natural" like God intended.
Bush losing the election isn't gonna make conservatives very happy.
There are many who are just barely able to hold their nose in contempt of the liars and jackboots, asscough and walters, et-al, willing to hold their nose and vote (R) because the alternative is so disgusting, but this 'elmer gantry-ism' is just going to cost us votes.
Just as it always has been.
Its seems they can do neither walk nor chew.
MadIvan is not one of the jackboots, he just posted an article from a Brit source. (I think.)
That's juat stupid.
...just stupid.
Where's my bong?
"You have to wonder about a Christian who feels they are smarter than GOD who made the plant and pronounced it good."
GOD also made poison oak and called it good. At least we know what HE was smoking.
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