Posted on 06/10/2005 2:32:31 PM PDT by Nachum
It is this reporter's opinion that each generation in turn takes a new look at the marijuana question. Now it's this generation's turn. In a 6-to-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-marijuana statutes overrule the laws in ten states that allow the use of marijuana plants to ease pain or nausea.
Fifty years ago, as a much younger television reporter, I did a series of interviews with Dr. Hardin B. Jones, Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Jones, in his thorough study, raised disturbing questions about marijuana's effects on the vital systems of the body, on the brain and mind, on immunity and resistance, and on sex reproduction.
Dr. Jones addressed such problems of society as the hazards to non-smokers, crime, the law, and the effect of widespread smoking among the military – including atomic weapons personnel. And he didn't stop there. The good doctor included telling comments from interviews conducted with scores of marijuana users and ex-users.
I concluded, after this exhaustive study, that the very idea of legalizing marijuana is to follow a senseless, immoral, perilous path – a slippery slope, that the use of marijuana is dangerous on many fronts, that it impairs memory, alters time perception, reduces coordination, damages the immune system, is psychologically habit-forming and creates a wide range of effects on moods and behavior.
Dr. Jones offered an open letter to parents. Following are the main points discussed in his letter:
Marijuana is not a benign drug. Use of this drug impairs learning and judgment and may lead to the development of mental health problems.
Smoking marijuana can injure or destroy lung tissue.
Teens who are high on marijuana are less able to make safe, smart decisions about sex, including knowing when to say "no."
Marijuana can impair perception and reaction time, putting young drivers and others in danger.
Marijuana use may trigger panic attacks, paranoia, and even psychoses.
Marijuana can impair concentration and the ability to retain information during a teen's peak learning years.
Recent research indicates a correlation between frequent marijuana use and aggressive or violent behavior.
Dr. Jones concludes: MARIJUANA IS ADDICTIVE, and says that more teens are in treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined.
Personally, I recall one visitation to a rehabilitation center where we interviewed recovering heroin addicts. We had to interview 25 hard-core drug users before we found a single one who had not started with marijuana!
As for those who say they must rely on marijuana to treat their pain, Dr. Jones cited a Washington University School of Medicine study on the subject: the experiment on twenty young men who were experienced marijuana smokers. Before and after they smoked reefers, electric impulses of different strengths were applied to their fingers and pain thresholds recorded. It was a method that earlier had verified the pain-killing effects of morphine, aspirin and codeine. MARIJUANA NOT ONLY FAILED TO LESSEN PAIN, IT ACTUALLY INCREASED IT! That finding casts doubt on the usefulness of marijuana as an analgesic.
The same facts and conclusions are repeated generation after generation with the same conclusion: DON'T EVER LEGALIZE POT!
Hey, how do you differentiate between "socialism" and the "post offices and post roads" clause in the Constitution?
Bentham is one with rare insight. Spencer is another. Green is the godfather of the theory of the State.
Who owns the patent on your DNA?
We ought to distinguish between possession and property. Property is something acknowledged by the State. There is a Title or Deed. Something can be possessed without being property. Treating a person as property is slavery, whether the State, or the whipboss, or yourself do it. Slavery is illegal, in this country, to a degree.
Industrial or military use? In that case, so does iron or Portland cement.
I guess it is more popular than I realized. I don't know why anyone else chose the name but mine is the nickname my little bratty sister gave me because she couldn't say my real name. There was a monkey on TV, when we were little girls, named J Fred Muggs and that's were she got the name.
Those ultimately became much more important than the brass or the bulls. Gold and silver didn't become money until AFTER that time, although both were in use in ancient Sumer.
With GPS equipment, we will shortly be able to eliminate PUBLIC HIGHWAYS and ROADS. UK is working on charging folks by the mile, and once that's in place there are an infinitude of business opportunities.
Let's say I think I can take care of 10 miles of Arlington Boulevard better than Virginia. So, I buy the highway~! Then I take care of it, and let the GPS system figure out who owes what and remits that to me out of the direct payments made by drivers.
Someone else buys another highway. And so forth. We begin competing ~ my 10 miles against your alternate route.
We could get rid of the "post roads" part in the Constitution as well.
Eliminate the "gold and silver as lawful money" clause, thereby allowing anybody to do anything, and I just bet we could initiate the extirpation of every last vestige of socialism from our society.
So what's this "reasonable" stuff again? Sounds positively Luddite!
The post used to be operated by the University as an adjunct to the Church. Let the guys on bicycles do it, they visit everybody anyway.
Self-ownership is impossible, however self-government is the situation.
If we persist in using technical terms on the street level, nothing but prima facie thought is demonstrated, and FR ought to do better than that or fold its tent.
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