One Reporter's Opinion – Never Legalize Pot!

Newmax ^ | Friday, June 10, 2005 | Gearge Putnam

[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!

[mugs99]

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

In other words, you are completely stumped and can't back up your argument. I used common english, not technical terms, and paraphrased those great men who founded our Republic.

I would think that a person who expressed admiration of Bentham, Spencer and Green would have no trouble at all following my "prima facie thought". Your heros specialized in it!
Bentham, Spencer and Green founded no Constitutional Republic, they are amateurs.

Again...The self ownership argument stands.
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[hosepipe]

[ Nobody has the right to recreational self medicate with pot or anything else. ]

The Constitution says THAT.. Where.?.

[RightWhale]

Fails. No argument.

[mugs99]

ROFL!
Still stumped, I see.

[RightWhale]

Fails. No meaning. Prima facie intuition is wrong.

[A CA Guy]

The Constitution is enabling the process where we the people who vote, or the representatives we voted in get to make the laws.
It usually only restricts dopers who are big users or sell the stuff, so for most, this isn't an issue, they are too busy having a life to care about recreational drugs.

[A CA Guy]

I did check out and read DU for a time now and then, because I want to see how weird and extreme they were.

Of course, your guys were their all over the place pushing drugs because it is a liberal issue.

Conservatives don't care about personal recreational drug abuse as some right among the addicted at all.

[185JHP]

BTTT

[mugs99]

I did check out and read DU for a time now and then, because I want to see how weird and extreme they were Of course, your guys were their all over the place pushing drugs because it is a liberal issue

I'll have to take your word for that. I don't read DU.
It's a liberty issue. It crosses party lines. Do you own your body or are you the property of someone else?

Conservatives don't care about personal recreational drug abuse as some right among the addicted at all

CA GUY is now the spokesman for conservatives? ROFL! I'm a conservative and you do not speak for me. In fact, you are no conservative. You are a big government liberal!
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[mugs99]

No meaning. Prima facie intuition is wrong

ROFL!
Are you holding your head? Just keep repeating that over and over. I did not use intuition. I used the same common sense as expressed by the men who gave us the Constitution.

You are trying to base your arguments on the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham. Won't work. Bentham could not answer the simple question of "who owns me" and neither can you.

Self ownership stands.
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[RightWhale]

I used the same common sense as expressed by the men who gave us the Constitution.

You do not know who gave us the Constitution. Intuition would tell you.

[A CA Guy]

So you think conservatives care for self medicating with recreational drugs?

On what planet?

[bikepacker67]

the true self does not exist independently of the community.

Holy Shyt!!!

I never thought I would hear "it takes a village" mentality on FR.

You are a fool who doesn't have the FIRST CLUE what the forefathers meant by self-determination.

[RightWhale]

You are a fool

Thanks. I value your opinion.

[A CA Guy]

Both populations are suffering in mind, spirit and in personal behavior with the illegal drugs.

You basically have to be a fool to get into drugs like that.
If people know you self medicate, they lose all respect for you unless they are another doper.
Your parents spend the rest of their lives probably praying for your salvation from drugs.

Not exactly peace of mind for the parents.
Not a dependable person to form a family unit with either.

[bikepacker67]

Whether you value it or not, the fact still stands.

You represent the worst of the Democratic Party - a deep pathological need to control the free will of others.

[RightWhale]

I value all opinions expressed on pot threads.

[mugs99]

So you think conservatives care for self medicating with recreational drugs?

Some do, some don't. Whether I think it's right or wrong isn't the issue. Do I have the right to dictate to you what you can or cannot put into your body?
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[A CA Guy]

Nonsense, coservatives are not about recreational drugs at all, that belongs to people who are irresponsible.

[mugs99]

Nonsense, coservatives are not about

Since you speak for conservatives, tell me what conservatives are about.
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