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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 5,797
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 New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading
#8387091 - 05/10/08 09:16 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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May 10, 2008 - salem-news.com
New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading, Groups Say
Is this a reaction to the beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition?
A new federal government report on the ill effects of marijuana on teens may be a last ditch effort to demonize the medical weed before it sees its own day of emancipation. As it stands, even the most hardcore marijuana legalization advocates do not support children using anything that causes intoxication.
This new report uses scare tactics and seems to regard medical facts as a meaningless burden, and they are enlisting the help of celebrities with big money and big media ties to drive their message home. (see:Report: Depression, Teens, Pot Unsafe Mix)
"Don't be fooled into thinking that pot is harmless," said Dr. Drew Pinksy, internist, addiction expert, and host of VH1's Celebrity Rehab. "Marijuana is an addictive drug. Teens who are already depressed and use marijuana may increase their odds of suffering from even more serious mental health problems."
But medical marijuana and pharmacology experts like Dr. Phil Leveque of Molalla, Oregon, who writes regularly for Salem-News.com, suggest that there is no truth to the statement and that most of those who ultimately suffer from mental illness already would have.
"One of the biggest claims from the federal government is that marijuana causes 'euphoria' and if anyone needs that explained to them, it means the opposite of depression," Leveque said.
He and most other advocates say kids should stay free and clear of marijuana use unless it is medically necessary, but it is a pussycat next to more deadly things like alcohol, prescription drugs, heroin and meth that potentially lead to death. Marijuana has no lethal quality; it can't kill a person. It seems like a waste of time to get people listening, and then only tell them the bad data on marijuana. It seems very irresponsible.
Marijuana is not "Different Today"
Marijuana is a natural herb that is cultivated to have better potency. The herb is the same that it has always been, and the ability of people to grow it well and to learn about the agricultural significance has improved. In the 1970's most marijuana was sold under the name "commercial" and it all came from Mexico. In that country the male and female plants are not separated, and the result is a below average grade of marijuana packed with seeds.
When the government tries to suggest that marijuana is "different today", they are suggesting that a human process has changed marijuana into something it didn't used to be. This is scientifically impossible. No doubt far more money is invested in other types of ag research and so far fruit is about the same as it used to be; except maybe for the addition of human added poisons to increase its marketability.
But this study, like others that benefit the pharmaceutical companies that don't want to compete with marijuana as a medical product, is more of the same, "The potency of smoked marijuana has risen consistently over the past decades and higher potency translates into serious health consequences for teens."
They also stated, "Some studies show that higher potency marijuana may be contributing to an increase in the number of American teens seeking treatment for marijuana dependence."
Marijuana dependence? This in and of itself is extremely debatable. For the most part, doctors agree that marijuana is only mildly addicting and that relates to a mental addiction, not a physical addiction. One interesting fact always deleted from the federal studies is that for many years, marijuana was considered the best substance for getting people off hard drugs. Heroin addicts given marijuana, can kick their deadly habit.
Of course funding all of those taxpayer funded, court ordered "marijuana addiction" programs is another concern of the federal government. They make money from marijuana being illegal, plain and simple. The notion of "marijuana addiction" is very unique to the groups and agencies and courts that profit directly from it.
The new federal report suggests that marijuana use can cause a small percentage of users to consider "suicide." Perhaps if this is true, it is more based on the stigma that the federal government, fully in bed with the pharmaceutical groups, gives to marijuana.
"Gateway Theory"
It is not very different from the so-called "Gateway Theory" that marijuana leads to harder drugs. Many believe that the seed is planted by the theory, and that kids feel compelled to "move to harder drugs" because that is what the government and the D.A.R.E. officer told them would happen. It is a simple notion called "programming" that has undeniable impact on a person's mode of thinking, their overall knowledge, and ultimately their actions.
Those willing to face the truth on a daily basis know that half of what is wrong with people in this country is a result of adverse and negative programming.
It happens when clergy sexually abuse children and tell them they will go to hell if they ever talk to their families or police. It is the conditioning applied to people in Communist nations that makes them believe Americans and western countries are all evil, and it is the same poison given to Islamic fundamentalist radicals whose lives are entirely based on fear. Our government needs to give it up and move into the light of truth.
Marijuana may not be "great" to anyone except a medical patient who directly benefits from it, but it is a plant and a flower that God placed on the earth and it is entirely vain and ironic of our society to place what is probably the single most useful plant on the planet in an illegal criminal category with heroin and meth. It reflects our own ignorance as a nation.
Real Studies
The nation's second largest association of doctors, the American College of Physicians, stated in a report that marijuana has been smoked for its medicinal properties for centuries, and preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports suggest numerous potential medical uses for marijuana. (see: American College of Physicians Endorses Medical Marijuana)
They confirm that the use of medical marijuana in treating HIV wasting and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting has been well documented, and they believe additional research is needed to clarify marijuana’s therapeutic properties and determine standard and optimal doses and routes of delivery.
Reports like this new one from the federal government do not help doctors learn the real facts about medical marijuana.
In fact, the oldest continuously published pediatric journal in the country, a Journal of the American Medical Association called the "Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine", released new information in November '07 (see: Study Shows Surprisingly Few Negative Impacts on Kids Who Use Marijuana) indicating that pot smoking teens tend to function at better levels than teens who also smoke tobacco, and better in some ways than kids who abstain from both.
The study, completed in Switzerland, did not have an obligation to demonize marijuana on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies as the U.S. seem to. The report should actually make parents feel much better about teens and marijuana. The study compared students who smoked both pot and cigarettes, with kids who smoke marijuana only.
The study revealed that those who use only cannabis were more socially driven, and showed no more psychosocial problems than those who had never taken either of the substances.
As far as marijuana leading to harder drugs, the authors of the study say an accurate listing of the problems actually fall in a different order, and that cancer related illnesses suffered by cigarette smokers are the biggest risk of all.
The government report suggests that "Not only are adolescents at greater risk for drug abuse, but they may suffer more consequences," said Nora D. Volkow, M. D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "There is also some evidence that in vulnerable teens-because of genetic factors-the abuse of marijuana can trigger a schizophreniform disorder."
Misleading Statements
Groups involved in marijuana laws and policy say the report is misleading. U.S. News and World Report quoted Bruce Mirken, director of communications at The Marijuana Policy Project, saying "We agree that kids shouldn't smoke marijuana, but we simply have to be honest to teens and parents. This report [is] deliberately confusing correlation with causation." (see: Teen Depression Worsened by Marijuana, Government Says)
The Washington-based group Mirken represents intends to remove criminal penalties for marijuana use and make medical marijuana available to seriously ill patients with doctor's approval.
"This very week the British government's official scientific advisors on illegal drugs issued a report saying they are 'unconvinced that there is a causal relationship between the use of cannabis and any affective disorder,' such as depression." Mirken also questions the lack of warning about alcohol's relationship to depression, which is completely left out of their new report.
"Data linking alcohol to depression is much stronger and alcohol use by teens is greater than marijuana use," he notes.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have each been clear that they do not see marijuana as a problem in our society that requires federal money and intervention and incarceration. Perhaps this new federal report represents the death throes of a movement that began in the 1930's as an effort to remove hemp rope from the commercial marketplace.
Hemp, the industrial marijuana plant, provides the strongest natural fiber known to man. Dow Chemicals, Dupont and the Hearst Newspaper chain were the biggest foes of marijuana at the time. They funded the movie "Reefer Madness." Today the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture addictive "prescription drugs" are enlisting the federal government's help to produce more fiction presented as fact.
The list of marijuana opponents is different in this century, but the corporate spirit of greed that made it illegal in the first place is alive and well.
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 Coaster
ChemicalResearcher
 
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 11,463
Loc: La La Land
Last seen: 1 hour, 9 minutes
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: veggie]
#8387134 - 05/10/08 09:37 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
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mindspin
Stranger
Registered: 10/23/07
Posts: 36
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Coaster]
#8387299 - 05/10/08 10:35 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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I don't feel like the article really addressed the gateway thing, so I'll throw my own bit in there.
Marijuana is *not* a gateway drug, simply because relationships with people are the gateways, not the drugs. For instance, I live in a fairly nice college area outside Baltimore, and I buy weed regularly. The people I buy from are no different than myself, they're not trying to sell me anything else but weed, and not trying to get me hooked on some fucked up hard shit like crack. However, having met some people involved in that scene from inner city Baltimore, I can say from my own experience that they're a different breed of drug dealer. They're not just selling, they're PUSHING, and they push hard. The whole realm of addictive substances and the transactions that take place are completely different than the herb, if you ask me.
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,010
Loc: Americas
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: mindspin]
#8387433 - 05/10/08 11:09 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
mindspin said:
Marijuana is *not* a gateway drug, simply because relationships with people are the gateways, not the drugs. For instance, I live in a fairly nice college area outside Baltimore, and I buy weed regularly. T
How does this refute the theory?
I'm not really sure what the term means, but its at least impossible to prove its not a gateway drug without doing experiments.
I tend to think its correlated with people who will use harder drugs, so I guess its a gateway drug in that sense, but I can't really figure out if there's some definition of the term or if people just throw it around for impact wihtout defining just what they're discussing.
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 Cannashroom
Stranger
Registered: 10/25/07
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: johnm214]
#8387485 - 05/10/08 11:24 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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I think what it meant was it is the people/drug dealers who make it a gateway drug. You're with a weed dealer and he tries to sell you coke, thats not the weed doing this, its prohibition. Marijuana is only a "gateway drug" because you are forced into the black market where other harder drugs are also sold. It could also be meaning that you smoke weed with your friends and this connection to the underworld and the relationships with the people there could lead you to other drugs.
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Coaster
ChemicalResearcher
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 11,463
Loc: La La Land
Last seen: 1 hour, 9 minutes
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Cannashroom]
#8387576 - 05/10/08 11:49 PM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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prohibition opens the gateway to the stocked drug dealer
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kiowa27
educated idiot
Registered: 01/30/08
Posts: 144
Loc: Midwest
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Coaster]
#8388744 - 05/11/08 11:35 AM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
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marijuana has taught an entire generation of americans the metric system 
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Evil is wasted on the wicked. Only the virtuous can truly plumb its depths, because only they have the necessary strength of conviction.
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b0red5tiff
THE CANDY KING
Registered: 09/16/06
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: kiowa27]
#8389029 - 05/11/08 01:09 PM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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best damn article i've read for a long while.
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***if you're reading this then you're already asleep***
***if we're gonna kill each other how are we gonna live forever? if we're gonna live forever how are we gonna kill each other?***
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Coaster
ChemicalResearcher
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 11,463
Loc: La La Land
Last seen: 1 hour, 9 minutes
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: kiowa27]
#8389033 - 05/11/08 01:10 PM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
kiowa27 said:
marijuana has taught an entire generation of americans the metric system
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH ya dood i always get those conversion questions right b/c of my dr00gz
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bongoboy2000
Bongoboy2000
Registered: 02/07/04
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Loc: Seattle
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Coaster]
#8390565 - 05/11/08 08:21 PM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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I think statistically you'll always see a correlation between weed smokers and hard drug users because, let's face it, most people start with weed. (excluding alcohol, of course, because we all know it's perfectly safe because it's legal)
I completely agree that you cannot blame marijuana for people choosing to try other drugs. But it's hard to refute a fact like "90% of heroin addicts started with weed."
It doesn't obviously take into account how many people smoke weed and DON'T end up shooting herion...
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...I got nothin..
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,010
Loc: Americas
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Cannashroom]
#8391477 - 05/12/08 01:59 AM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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well, yeah, so what? How does that make it not a gateway drug?
Again presuming I know what that means. If anyone has a definition feel free to hit me with it and a source.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: johnm214]
#8391637 - 05/12/08 03:54 AM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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> How does that make it not a gateway drug?
I haven't read the posts you are speaking of, but in general, the gateway drug propaganda is a fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc. The propaganda has been rebuked by many medical and scientific journals. Even the WHO claims that the gateway drug propaganda is bunk.
Quote:
There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.
... and ...
Quote:
Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana - usually before they are of legal age.
Source: Joy, Janet E., Stanley J. Watson Jr., and John A. Benson Jr., Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine, "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999).
Quote:
While the findings of this study indicate that early cannabis use is associated with increased risks of progression to other illicit drug use and drug abuse/dependence, it is not possible to draw strong causal conclusions solely on the basis of the associations shown in this study.
Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Household Survey on Drug Use 2000 (Washington, DC: SAMHSA, 2001
Quote:
"Our key findings were that 1) there are no unique factors distinguishing the gateway sequence and the reverse sequence—that is, the sequence is opportunistic; 2) the gateway sequence and the reverse sequence have the same prognostic accuracy; and 3) a sizable proportion of substance users begin regular consumption with an illicit drug. These results, considered in the aggregate, indicate that the gateway sequence is not an invariant pathway and, when manifest, is not related to specific risk factors and does not have prognostic utility. The results of this study as well as other studies demonstrate that abusable drugs occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete position in a temporal sequence. These latter presumptions of the gateway hypothesis constitute what Whitehead referred to as the 'fallacy of misplaced connectedness,' namely, asserting 'assumptions about categories that do not correspond with the empirical world.'
Source: Tarter, Ralph E., PhD, Vanyukov, Michael, PhD, Kirisci, Levent, PhD, Reynolds, Maureen, PhD, Clark, Duncan B., MD, PhD, "Predictors of Marijuana Use in Adolescents Before and After Licit Drug Use: Examination of the Gateway Hypothesis," American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 63, No. 12, December 2006, p. 2139
Quote:
The World Health Organization's investigation into the gateway effect of marijuana stated emphatically that the theory that marijuana use by adolescents leads to heroin use is the least likely of all hypotheses.
Source: Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28, 1995 (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
Quote:
According to CASA (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse), there is no proof that a causal relationship exists between cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Basic scientific and clinical research establishing causality does not exist.
Source: Merrill, J.C. & Fox, K.S., Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Introduction (New York, NY: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, October 1994).
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Just another spore in the wind.
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,010
Loc: Americas
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: Seuss]
#8391716 - 05/12/08 06:23 AM (3 months, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
the gateway drug propaganda is a fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc.
Is it?
I can't figure out if there's a set defintion of it, as ti seems to just be political mumbo jumbo that no one knows what it means. Sort of like "they hate us for our freedoms."
All the online dictionaries use the very vague word "lead" describing the relationship between the substance and the further behavior. Is lead a casual term? I don't really know. Why couldn't they either say "suspected of causing" or "associated with" and then we would know wtf they're talking about?
Nice citations btw.
I think that marijuana smoking is a gateway drug, if we're talking about causality, in some sense. I do think that using an illegal drug would make someone less skeptical of others. Especially when they realize they've been fed lies about the drug in school and figure the rest of the drugs are as safe.
But in this sense I'm clearly talking about the activity and the social ramifications, not the pharmacological effects, of the substance, and I would suspect that the later (social) is mroe controlling(activity) than the former.
But of course the same motivations, amusement, curiosity, and satisfaction, drive someone to use marijuana as well as cocaine or whatever. So it's hard to sepperate the two.
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Divided_Sky
Ten ThousandThings
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Re: New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading [Re: johnm214]
#8392649 - 05/12/08 01:01 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Yes, but there is so much more beyond the gateway...
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1. "After an hour I wasn't feeling anything so I decided to take another..."
2. "We were feeling pretty good so we decided to smoke a few bowls..."
3. "I had to be real quiet because my parents were asleep upstairs..."
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