Posted on 01/02/2003 5:17:17 AM PST by Sparta
BENTON - Prosecutors around the country are being urged to take a stand against attempts to legalize or decriminalize controlled substances - in particular, marijuana.
“Those who support drug legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the media,” reads a Nov. 1 letter to prosecutors from the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks. “And they do not mind deceiving the American public as well.”
The letter warns of “incremental victories” by those in favor of legalizing drugs and notes the “key role” local prosecutors play in anti-drug efforts.
Included with the letter was an open letter also dated Nov. 1 from Scott M. Burns, deputy director for state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, urging prosecutors “to take a stand publicly and tell Americans the truth” about marijuana and warning of “deceptive campaigns to normalize and ultimately legalize the use of marijuana.”
“I think it would be a nightmare to legalize it,” agreed Scott County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Boyd. “It would lead to so many more people out there high operating machinery and other things.” Boyd will be sworn in as the next county prosecutor at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Of the 16 million drug users in America, 77 percent use marijuana and 60 percent of teenagers in treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis, according to Burns. “No drug matches the threat posed by marijuana.”
Marijuana, Burns writes in the letter, is not harmless but has risen as a factor in emergency room visits 176 percent since 1994, surpassing heroin.
Burns writes of the increasing potency of marijuana and its addictive properties in addition to being a “gateway drug” for many people.
“I would agree that marijuana is a gateway drug to hardcore drugs,” Boyd said. Marijuana is “the great seducer,” Boyd said, because “it breaks down a person’s defense to say ‘no’ to the harder drugs.”
John McMinn of Charleston, administrator for the Circuit 33 Drug Court, also agrees that marijuana remains a problem for the courts.
According to National Institute of Justice statistics on arrests, 39 percent of the males and 26 percent of the females test positive for marijuana, and 53 percent of male juveniles and 38 percent of female juveniles test positive. “Roughly 80 percent of adult offenders in the 33rd Circuit Court come in with some kind of a drug issue be it alcohol or some other drug,” McMinn said.
“More people enter drug treatment every year because of marijuana as their drug of choice,” he added.
McMinn said a 2001 study of students in grades 8-10 showed 20 percent of 8th graders had used marijuana and 9 percent were current users, defined as having used the drug within the past 30 days. By the 12th grade, nearly half of the students had tried marijuana and 22 percent were current users.
McMinn does think research on medicinal and therapeutic properties should be pursued: “There is still so much research left to be done regarding the use of marijuana - the good and the bad.”
However, “there are other drugs that will work as well as marijuana,” he added, with some of the alternatives being more addictive and others that are just as effective while being safer.
No, I hadn't...
"Does Marijuana Lead to Dangerous Drugs?"
by Erich Goode
"The Appendix to Drugs in American Society, by Erich Goode, Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook."
"Pretty much destroys all the propoganda we are hearing now, from 30 years ago, commisioned under Nixon."
Upon any unbiased study, the propaganda is easily-destroyed. Considering most of the folks who are legislating this krap smoked the WhackyWeed at some point in their lives, I think they also know it ain't as bad as the Pro-WOSD folks make it out to be. But folks are afraid to be labeled as ProDrugsFerChildren!!
FReegards...MUD
And what do you bring to the discussion other than Vile Insults and Generic Nastiness?!
Exactly...NOTHING!!! And I'm sure it's not becuz yer not a bright fellow with many good insights, but yer defending the indefensible when you defend the Federal WarOnSomeDrugs.
I don't blame you fer staying away from this thread...it doesn't make you look too bright, my FRiend...MUD
Actually, just FYI, he's none of those things.
Ah, argument by inserting-fingers-in-ears-and-singing-la-la-la.
Well, I'm not letting you off the hook:
TAKING the high road may not be so dangerous after all. Ministers are set to be embarrassed by government-funded research which shows that driving under the influence of drugs makes motorists more cautious and has a limited impact on their risk of crashing.
In the study, conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, "grade A" cannabis specially imported from America was given to 15 regular users. The doped- up drivers were then put through four weeks of tests on driving simulators to gauge reaction times and awareness.
Regular smokers were used because previous tests in America using first- timers resulted in the volunteers falling over and feeling ill. The laboratory found its guinea pigs through what it described as a "snowballing technique" - one known user was asked to find another after being promised anonymity and exemption from prosecution agreed with the Home Office.
Instead of proving that drug-taking while driving increased the risk of accidents, researchers found that the mellowing effects of cannabis made drivers more cautious and so less likely to drive dangerously.
Although the cannabis affected reaction time in regular users, its effects appear to be substantially less dangerous than fatigue or drinking. Research by the Australian Drugs Foundation found that cannabis was the only drug tested that decreased the relative risk of having an accident.
The findings will embarrass ministers at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) who commissioned the study after pressure from motoring organisations and anti-drug campaigners. Lord Whitty, the transport minister, will receive the report later this month.
Last week police revealed details of new drug-driving tests to be administered by the roadside, which were received with some amusement. They require suspected drug- drivers to stand on one leg, lean back and touch their nose with their eyes closed, and to count to 30 silently with their eyes shut. This is apparently difficult for those on a drug trip.
However, if the findings are less than frightening on the effects of marijuana, they may convince ministers to put more money into raising driver awareness of fatigue. Tiredness is now blamed for causing 10% of all fatal accidents, compared with 6% for alcohol and 3% for drugs.
A low-key radio campaign will be launched tomorrow warning drivers to take breaks.
The report's surprising conclusions will not sway organisations such as the RAC, which believes there is incontrovertible evidence that drug-driving is a growing menace. DETR statistics published in January showed a six-fold increase in the number of people found to be driving with drugs in their system after fatal road accidents. The figure jumped from 3% in 1989 to 18%.
Dr Rob Tunbridge, the report's author, refused to reveal his findings before they were published but said: "If you were to ask me to rank them in order of priority, fatigue is the worst killer, followed by alcohol, and drugs follow way behind in third."
Tunbridge admitted that the effect of drugs differed with the individual, the amount taken, the environment they were taken in and the point at which you tested reactions.
Actually Bill, most of my views of marijuana devotion come from the Cheech and Chong movies of the late 70's and early 80's.
Once I grew up, I saw the Libertarian drug culture for what it was, a sham.
BTW, I caught one of the zillion Cheech and Chong pro-dope movies(Nice Dreams) on Comedy Central about a month ago and I couldn't believe that I paid good money to see it 20 years ago.
The movie was plotless, disjointed(I know, an oxymoronic statement for pro-dopers) and a commercial for NORML(the DC pot lobby).
What is the "Libertarian drug culture"? The term "drug culture" as commonly used has nothing in particular to do with libertarianism (or the Libertarian Party).
In a bell curve you are going to find that a small number of people with a slight buzz are more careful, the majority with an average buzz are simply less able to drive and a small number with an average to major buzz are not safe operating a can opener. The deaths on the highway due to alcohol is a much more valid statistic because it is huge and known and provable. 41.5 k per year 17k per year where alcohol is involved. Make pot more available and the number will go up.
I'm not such a prude that many of my bible thumping brothers are to think that the gmt should regulate everything and that all alcohol is bad. I have a very hard time with the empowerment of the government to regulate weed which, for all practical purposes, is nore more illegal than prostitution. But I do close my ears to illogical arguments like this one or the other silly one that said that weed smokers don't drive anyway. A good case loses all credibility when this kind of argument is included.
Really? Huh I guess it has nothing to do with Libertarian Party candidate for Lt. Governor in Virginia in 2001 running on a "reeferendum"(i.e a the life or death issue for him was marijuana glorification).
Really LeRoy, a vast majority of people see through you and your feckless arguements.
BTW, LeRoy, how was your holiday season? It seems that your higher ups at NORML(the DC pot lobby) gave you all a liberal vacation for the holiday season and now you have come back on FR with a vengence. Very transparent, IMO.
Yeah, the London Times is in the habit of making up stories.
In a bell curve you are going to find that a small number of people with a slight buzz are more careful
Where in the article did it say the subjects had only a "slight buzz"? YOU'RE the one who's making things up.
So he's a one-man "drug culture"?
BTW, LeRoy, how was your holiday season?
Very enjoyable---and completely free of all drugs, including the deadly addictive drugs tobacco and alcohol. How about yours?
It seems that your higher ups at NORML(the DC pot lobby) gave you all a liberal vacation for the holiday season
I have never worked for NORML; as a 7-plus-year employee of ************* Software Corporation, I get 20 vacation days a year, several of which I like to use around Christmas and New Year's to leverage those four paid holidays into a long break. I'm sorry to hear you're not doing as well at McDonald's.
Gary Reams doesn't want Virginians to vote for him for Lt. Governor this year -- he wants them to vote against marijuana prohibition.
That's why the Libertarian candidate is running what he calls a "Reeferendum," a unique single-issue campaign that will allow voters to make a statement against the War on Drugs.
"Libertarian Gary Reams plans unique race for Lt. Governor (to end WOD in Virginia)
"That's why the Libertarian candidate is running what he calls a "Reeferendum," a unique single-issue campaign that will allow voters to make a statement against the War on Drugs."
You neglected to answer my question: So he's a one-man "drug culture"?
I do not work at McDonald's, never have, although I have worked in a fast food business in the past, but I would respect a person making an honest living at McDonald's and trying to work his/her way up, than a cop killer drug dealer/drug culture advocates that you and other Libertarians on FR wish you could glorify.
You all take Atlas Shrugged way to far, IMO.(especially with your typical Libertarian elitist crack against people working to make an honest living by working at McDonald's).
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