Posted on 08/06/2006 6:04:24 AM PDT by Wolfie
Reefer is Worth Getting Mad About
Vienna -- Supporters of the legalization of cannabis would have us believe that it is a gentle, harmless substance that gives you little more than a sense of mellow euphoria.
Sellers of the world's most popular illicit drug know better. Trawl through websites offering cannabis seeds for sale and you will find brand names such as Armageddon, AK-47 and White Widow. "This will put you in pieces, then reduce you to rubble -- maybe quicksand if you go too far," one seller boasts. This is much closer to the truth.
In Canada, as in most parts of the world, cannabis is by far the drug of choice. An estimated 4 per cent of the world's adult population -- that's about 162 million people -- consume cannabis at least once a year, more than all other illicit drugs combined.
Does that matter? I firmly believe it does, because the cannabis now in circulation (like Canada's BC Bud) is many times more powerful than the weed that today's aging baby boomers smoked in college. The characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.
Evidence of the damage to mental health caused by cannabis use -- from loss of concentration to paranoia, aggressiveness and outright psychosis -- is mounting and cannot be ignored. Emergency room admissions involving cannabis are rising, as is demand for rehabilitation treatment. These health problems are increasingly being seen in young people.
North America is the world's largest cannabis market and most of its cannabis is homegrown. The U.S. market alone has been valued at more than $10-billion. As Canadians are starting to discover, a market that size inevitably attracts organized crime. So cannabis is a security threat as well as a health risk.
Amid all the libertarian talk about the right of the individual to engage in dangerous practices, provided no one else gets hurt, certain key facts are easily forgotten.
Firstly, cannabis is a dangerous drug, not just to the individuals who use it. People who drive under the influence of cannabis put others at risk. Would even the most ardent supporter of legalization want to fly in an aircraft whose pilot used cannabis?
Secondly, drug control works. More than a century of universally accepted restrictions on heroin and cocaine have prevented what would otherwise have been a pandemic. Global levels of drug addiction -- think of the opium dens of the 19th century -- have dropped dramatically in the past 100 years. In the past 10 years or so, they have remained stable.
Cannabis is the weakest link in the international effort to contain the global drugs problem. In theory, it's a controlled substance. In practice, it's running rampant. It grows under the most varied conditions in many countries, a high-yielding plant that can be grown indoors. This makes supply control difficult.
But we can tackle demand, particularly among the young. That need not mean sending them to jail. Young people caught in possession of cannabis could be treated in much the same way as those arrested for drunk driving: fined, required to attend classes on the dangers of drug use and threatened with loss of their driving licence for repeat offences. Prison would be a last resort. Schools and universities should apply zero tolerance.
National policies on cannabis vary and sometimes change from one year to the next. The experience of countries that were more tolerant of cannabis use is ambiguous and not persuasive. The distinction between "soft" and "hard" drugs is, at best, artificial, especially with such a damaging psycho-active substance as modern-day cannabis. Even some advocates of cannabis as a "soft" drug are now reconsidering as they observe the devastating health consequences of abuse.
Canada was a pioneer in introducing systematic anti-smoking policies, which are now being copied around the world. Their success demonstrates that preventive measures can help to change attitudes. Similar policies are needed to prevent cannabis use getting completely out of control.
Let's draw the right conclusions. Cannabis is dangerous. We ignore it at our peril.
Antonio Maria Costa is executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Lost all credibility with that one sentence.
I'm sure Everclear is MUCH more intoxicating than about any drug out there, and worse for you I'm sure as far as health is concerned.
Maybe their first concern is whether they or their families live or die? Just maybe?
This sentiment from KowYourRights home page explains it:
"And if they are bound for the grave, I want them to die quietly from an overdose under a bridge like the drunk bums do, instead of forcing me to kill them in defense of myself and my family during a robbery or a hot burglary. "
I expect advertisers to make ridiculous claims. This "writer"'s pathetic attempt at agitprop was what my BS meter was reacting to.
Why do I have to have smoked G12 skunk to make the statement that the author stated it was closer to the truth?
Why didn't you ask Joe Brower in post #6 or Know your rights in post #19 if they smoked G12 to say the author's statement was BS? You're being selectively indignant and hypocritical by questioning just my statement.
Yes, exactly so.
The most convenient tinfoil hat story would probably that they are being funded by the cartels :D
Well, listen to the expert.
So, you're saying that if we legalized all drugs, disbanded the DEA, opened the borders to drug imports, and made cheap drugs available to all, there'd be no increase in drug use or the number of users.
Excuse me when I say I don't believe you, no matter how much you really want me to.
Joe and KYR already have display experience (it seems clear to me, anyway) to differentiate hyperbola from minutia. It isn't rocket science.
It also seems clear that your desperate attempts for attention are clinically treatable. The pharmaceutical companies have some good drugs for that, you know.
Ask President Bush. He thinks everybody oughta get screened... and medicare will pay for the drugs.
Widespread use of all sorts of drugs won't exactly boost a nation to greatness. However, the WOD and the paramilitary emphasis it has now impressed upon all our police forces of every size and jurisdiction is a worse problem still.
No "good versus bad" choice there, but we are forced to decide anyway. I will err on the side of freedom and less police toting machine guns on daily duty.
Nobody says drug availability needs no restriction whatsoever. But keeping something as widely used and as comparably harmless as mariuhana illegal means filling the wrong pockets with money. I won't argue about possible negative side effects from excessive drug abuse, but this is dependent on the set and setting of the usage. Maybe there should be put energy into developing a more sophisticated drug control effort than just banning them, because this is obviously not working.
Thanks for posting this.
Its amazing to see how defensive some people are of their vices. "I have a right to destroy myself if I want as long as I don't hurt anyone else." and refuse to recognize the bad affects their habits have on others or on society. That defend their vice--here, marijana, by saying that all science lies, it doesn't harm the brain, ignoring both testing and statistics that suggest a link between use and schizophrenia. Or, by dismissing and ignoring non-users sometimes painful personal experiences and observations of users self justification and self destructive behavior. Finally, by ignoring those whose lives have been damaged or destroyed by its use and point to their experience to try to warn others.
LOL and a bag of chips. The author writes
"Does that matter? I firmly believe it does, because the cannabis now in circulation (like Canada's BC Bud) is many times more powerful than the weed that today's aging baby boomers smoked in college. The characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs, such as cocaine and heroin."
One of the reasons that marijuana is more powerful today is because of the concentrated effort to stamp out its cultivation and its use. Because of this there is now a higher risk involved in its cultivation. No longer is the person growing pot the laid back college student who grows for his own use or to sell to friends. Instead we have cartels both foreign and domestic who are willing to assume that risk in exchange for the high profits they make. Like any other business they have figured if they offer a better grade of pot their profits will be higher. This is what makes the risk worthwhile to them.
Sadly since they are willing to assume the risk they are also willing to protect their investment. Unfortunately this protection is usually in the form of armed attacks on law enforcement and innocent trespassers. And the bigger the money involved the more likely the growers are to be armed and dangerous.
As for the second part of the statement that "The characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs, such as cocaine and heroin." I am not a botanist or a chemistry or pharmaceutical expert. But I have a feeling that this statement could be challenged on all of these fronts. One thing I do know is that pot smoking does not have the same effects on society at large that cocaine and heroin do.
I live in Florida and I remember the cocaine wars of the 70's. I have yet to read about a promising young person od'ing on pot. I have yet to read about a father and husband embezzling to support his marijuana habit. I have yet to read about a mother leaving her children in squalor while she went to get her pot fix.
The author needs to realize that most people who use pot are ( with the exception of the pot smoking) law abiding people, they have jobs, families and would never think of using stronger substances.
It is not the usage of pot that is the problem. The problem is that the stiff criminal penalties have lead to the growing of pot becoming a major profitable criminal enterprise. The legalization or decriminlization of pot would do a lot to put an end to this.
Not me. I just hate lying bureaucrats.
Is that the International Shrine To Cannabis Smokers?
Heh heh. Millions of Americans are hooked on legal drugs far more dangerous than most street drugs....the machine marches on..... I haven't seen people hooked on weed or heroin shoot up their local post office or MacDonalds. SSRI addicts though......
Whatever. Go ahead and repeat your policies and expect different results.
Thanks! Glad to see a bit a sanity in the posts here, re:
Its amazing to see how defensive some people are of their vices. "I have a right to destroy myself if I want as long as I don't hurt anyone else." and refuse to recognize the bad affects their habits have on others or on society. That defend their vice--here, marijana, by saying that all science lies, it doesn't harm the brain, ignoring both testing and statistics that suggest a link between use and schizophrenia. Or, by dismissing and ignoring non-users sometimes painful personal experiences and observations of users self justification and self destructive behavior. Finally, by ignoring those whose lives have been damaged or destroyed by its use and point to their experience to try to warn others.
Hey! Just don't get too carrried away and impugn Wild Turkey, okay?
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