Saturday, May 3, 2014

Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:

Marijuana Is Harmful: Debunking 7 Myths Arguing It's Fine

Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:

Myth No. 1: “Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive”

No, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but calling it harmless or non-addictive denies very clear science embraced by every major medical association that has studied the issue. Scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some 5–6 times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, and some strains are upwards of 1020 times stronger than in the past—especially if one extracts THC through a butane process. This increased potency has translated to more than 400,000 emergency room visits every year due to things like acute psychotic episodes and panic attacks.

Mental health researchers are also noting the significant marijuana connection with schizophrenia, and educators are seeing how persistent marijuana use can blunt academic motivation and significantly reduce IQ by up to eight points, according to a very large recent study in New Zealand. Add to these side-effects new research now finding that even casual marijuana use can result in observable differences in brain structure, specifically parts of the brain that regulate emotional processing, motivation and reward. Indeed, marijuana use hurts our ability to learn and compete in a competitive global workplace.

Additionally, marijuana users pose dangers on the road, despite popular myth. According to the British Medical Journal, marijuana intoxication doubles your risk of a car crash.

Myth No. 2: “Smoked or eaten marijuana is medicine.”

Just like we don’t smoke opium or inject heroin to get the benefits of morphine, we do not have to smoke marijuana to receive its medical effects. Currently, there is a pill based on marijuana’s active ingredient available at pharmacies, and almost two-dozen countries have approved a new mouth spray based on a marijuana extract. The spray, Sativex, does not get you high, and contains ingredients rarely found in street-grade marijuana. It is likely to be available in the U.S. soon, and today patients can enroll in clinical trials. While the marijuana plant has known medical value, that does not mean smoked or ingested whole marijuana is medicine. This position is in line with the American Medical Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, American Glaucoma Foundation, National MS Society, and American Cancer Society.

Myth No. 3: “Countless people are behind bars simply for smoking marijuana.”

I wholeheartedly support reducing America’s incarceration rate. But legalizing marijuana will not make a significant dent in our imprisonment rates. That is because less than 0.3 percent of all state prison inmates are there for smoking marijuana. Moreover, most people arrested for marijuana use are cited with a ticket—very few serve time behind bars unless it is in the context of a probation or parole violation.

Myth No. 4: “The legality of alcohol and tobacco strengthen the case for legal marijuana.”

“Marijuana is safer than alcohol, so marijuana should be treated like alcohol” is a catchy, often-used mantra in the legalization debate. But this assumes that our alcohol policy is something worth modeling. In fact, because they are used at such high rate due to their wide availability, our two legal intoxicants cause more harm, are the cause of more arrests, and kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. Why add a third drug to our list of legal killers?

Moreover, marijuana legalization will usher in America’s new version of “Big Tobacco.”

Myth No. 5: “Legal marijuana will solve the government’s budgetary problems.”

Unfortunately, we can’t expect  societal financial gain from marijuana legalization. For every $1 in revenue the U.S. receives in alcohol and tobacco taxes, we spend more than $10 insocial costs. Additionally, two major business lobbies—Big Tobacco and the Liquor Lobby—have emerged to keep taxes on these drugs low and promote use. The last thing we need is the “Marlboroization of Marijuana,” but that is exactly what we would get in this country with legalization.

Myth No. 6:  “Portugal and Holland provide successful models of legalization.”

Contrary to media reports, Portugal and Holland have not legalized drugs. In Portugal, someone caught with a small amount of drugs is sent to a three-person panel and given treatment, a fine, or a warning and release. The result of this policy is less clear. Treatment services were ramped up at the same time the new policy was implemented, and a decade later there are more young people using marijuana, but fewer people dying of opiate and cocaine overdoses. In the Netherlands, officials seem to be scaling back their marijuana non-enforcement policy (lived out in “coffee shops” across that country) after witnessing higher rates of marijuana use and treatment admissions there. The government now only allows residents to use coffee shops. What all of this tells us about how legalization would play out in the U.S. is another point entirely and even less clear.

Myth No. 7: “Prevention, intervention, and treatment are doomed to fail—So why try?”

Less than 8 percent of Americans smoke marijuana versus 52 percent who drink and 27 percent of people that smoke tobacco cigarettes. Coupled with its legal status, efforts to reduce demand for marijuana can work. Communities that implement local strategies implemented by area-wide coalitions of parents, schools, faith communities, businesses, and, yes, law enforcement, can significantly reduce marijuana use. Brief interventions and treatment for marijuana addiction (which affects about 1 in 6 kids who start using, according to the National Institutes of Health) can also work.

And one myth not found in the book: “Colorado and Washington are examples to follow.”

Experience from Colorado’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana is not promising. Since January, THC-positive test results in the workplace have risen, two recent deaths in Denver have been linked to recreational marijuana use, and the number of parents calling the poison control hotline because their kids consumed marijuana products has significantly risen. Additionally, tax revenues fall short of original projections and the black market for marijuana continues to thrive in Colorado. Though Washington State has not yet implemented its marijuana laws, the percentage of cases involving THC-positive drivers has significantly risen.

Marijuana policy is not straightforward. Any public policy has costs and benefits. It is true that a policy of saddling users with criminal records and imprisonment does not serve the nation’s best interests. But neither does legalization, which would create the 21st century version of Big Tobacco and reduce our ability to compete and learn. There is a better way to address the marijuana question—one that emphasizes brief interventions, prevention, and treatment, and would prove a far less costly alternative to either the status quo or legalization. That is the path America should be pursuing—call it “Reefer Sanity.”

Kevin A. Sabet is the author of “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana” and the Director of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana). Sabet will appear at The Heritage Foundation Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. EST to discuss his new book. Further detailshere

Posted in Front Page [slideshow_deploy]

Comments (402)

+69
Morganstern 51's avatar

Morganstern 51· 5 days ago

Just more "Reefer Madness" nonsense. The biggest danger having to do with pot IS the war on drugs. Yes, legalization is not as good as one would think. That is because it should e completely decriminalized.
4 replies · active 3 days ago
+55
KaptainKannabis's avatar

KaptainKannabis· 5 days ago

This article is absolutely laughable. Its amazing with technology giving us such easy access to studies and anecdotal evidence proving how safe and effective cannabis actually is, that some people still pull out this fear mongering reefer madness BS which shows no signs of anything even resembling Truth, Fact or Logic. My only guess is big corporations are behind pushing this anti marijuana agenda forward simply to keep hemp illegal. Hemp would absolutely turn corporate industries upside down. 

@ValVenisEnt
+36
Andrew 's avatar

Andrew· 5 days ago

And, here's where Heritage shows just how out-of-touch it really is...
2 replies · active 4 days ago
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You are a master of the Fallacious Argument, a superb anti-intellectual and your use of intellectual dishonesty; combined with a poetic flow of willful ignorance is truly awe inspiring. Most certainly, with someone at your level writing for the extreme right, you might be able to drag what's left of the middle class along another decade or more with those powerful policy successes, like "The War on_____(insert epic fail)" or the brilliant "Get Tough On _____(insert another fail)" my fav, "Just Say No" combined with it's twin, "Abstinence". "Prohibition has always been so successful for the "Private Prison System.. Without people with morality and ethics like you, we could have never beaten Stalins record. 

Trickle Down works, you just gotta give the rich a little more, a little longer, DONT GIVE UP...It's happening! 

Bengazamalulu! 

You sir, are a True American Patriot.
2 replies · active 4 days ago
+11
mike's avatar

mike· 5 days ago

Say what you will... 

I'll continue to ingest cannabis, because it works for me.
+25
Kirk Muse's avatar

Kirk Muse· 5 days ago

Kevin Sabet is professional drug war cheerleader. That's his job. His only job. The re-legalization of cannabis will lead to the unemployment of Kevin Sabet and he knows it.
-15
DEEAR's avatar

DEEAR· 5 days ago

This article is ridiculous, only half of it is true at best.
1 reply · active 1 day ago
+14
Brian's avatar

Brian· 5 days ago

Holy smokes! Its as if someone batted the bees in the pot-head lobbyist hive. Relax dopers...no one is going to take your weed away :)
12 replies · active 3 days ago
-2
Todd S's avatar

Todd S· 5 days ago

You really have NO IDEA how many "Buckley Republicans" voted for legalization in CO....
0
Richard's avatar

Richard· 5 days ago

RE: comments 

pothead ad hominem is more vitriolic and fringe than the conjectural madness of athiests and evolutionists gribbing the ignorant and self-absorbed walking 'freely' among moral society as though their liberties are more than equal- probably co-populating the same clans, clubs, tribes, etc. FAIL
+21
jules's avatar

jules· 5 days ago

Garbage, pseudoscience.......big govt article, way to lose me heritage.
+3
Michael's avatar

Michael· 5 days ago

This is more media crap that's being spoonfed to us. Obviously if the author knew what he was talking about with reference to taxes in Colorado, he'd have told us that Colorado was only assuming it would hit $60 million in taxes but it looks like it could hit $90 million or more in the first year. It's pretty bad when a conservative website won't take the blinders off for a bit and find out that the term "medical marijuana" means it helps people. And two people getting into a car wreck doesn't mean it was because of marijuana. 

Take the prison population out of jail for smoking week, and you'll save 3/4 of the prison industry money that our taxes go to paying. $80,000 per year to keep a prisoner because he smoked a bit. Get real.
3 replies · active 4 days ago
+61
Veritas's avatar

Veritas· 5 days ago

Notice the common thread in these comments? 

Intolerance. 

Condescension, ridicule, insult. All common responses from the intolerant left when they don't like something. 

In some cases it's obvious they didn't even read the article, but merely lashed out at the writer because of the title, or because someone else posted ridicule somewhere else encouraging readers to come here and discredit the article. 

Sad, but typical of those who are motivated by hate for anything which doesn't fit their fantasy of life.
16 replies · active 1 day ago
+26
BigRod's avatar

BigRod· 5 days ago

Common sense just does not happen with "reefer madness".
1 reply · active 4 days ago
+4
Emeric's avatar

Emeric· 5 days ago

This article has nothing to do here, just against the liberty to smoke. Again someone who think that the gouvernment know better than me what is good for me.
4 replies · active 3 days ago
+32
SWC's avatar

SWC· 5 days ago

As with so many other debates, it becomes clear that one side is on to something whenever the other side unleashes the ad hominem storm. Assault everything but the facts - and pray no one notices! 

But it seems to me that one side in this argument is all about just whatever "feels good" anyway.
7 replies · active 3 days ago
Sabet... you're nothing but a tool. Literally and figuratively.
1 reply · active 4 days ago
-2
Bob's avatar - Go to profile

Bob70p· 5 days ago

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What a BS article. I've grown up with people who used both pot and booze. Both of these can be abused. I would say that neither is really any worse than the other. I've used both myself.....haven't used much pot in the last 25 years or so because it's illegal and that was a problem with my job. I chose not to risk that, so I stayed away from it. If pot was legal, I would use it on occasion. It's really not big deal. It's not good for kids, perhaps not good for young adults either, although I used it every day for about a year when I was a young adult without any serious issues that I can see. I consider myself a conservative/libertarian, but this social conservative stuff really gets under my skin. How about if the government just lets the individual decide what is good for them? Why do we need all these laws to protect us from ourselves? If the GOP continues to have this social conservative mindset, we are no better than the leftists who want to control how we spend our own money or what we can think and say. Think about that for a while. Oh, and all this BS about how pot is so much stronger now than it used to be, and that is enough to make it illegal. What a crock. In the mid 70s, we would smoke three joints in an evening if we wanted a good high. With the newer stuff, it may take half a joint. Big deal. This argument about today's pot being "too strong" could be used to restrict whiskey, because a shot of whiskey is stronger than a shot of beer. C'mon, folks, use your heads. Conservatives are supposed to be smart.......
4 replies · active 1 day ago
+24
Frankthetank's avatar

Frankthetank· 5 days ago

As I read this article a pop up kept interrupting me advocating the reduction in the size of the government. Why is the government involved in my personal decisions? To smoke or not to smoke? It's my decision, go away uncle Sam, get out of my life and serve your original purpose!
7 replies · active 1 day ago
+5
Ryan's avatar

Ryan· 5 days ago

Oh the comments..."I don't want marijuana to be bad, so it isn't!" That Red vs. Blue episode of Real Life vs. the Internet nails this thread dead on.
+14
Johnny S.'s avatar

Johnny S.· 5 days ago

No deaths, true, but bad side effects, both personally and, in many cases, with civilians. If a pot head isn't careful, we'll start seeing more accidents/deaths related to being high on the road. Is this what we really need?
19 replies · active 1 day ago

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Friday, May 2, 2014

Socialist Democrat Golf Hat “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”—George Orwell

History is an untrue account of something that really happened, while fiction is a true account of something that never happened.”—Anon
 
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”—George Orwell
 
 
 
Socialist Democrat Golf Hat
 
cid:1.2910185589@web122306.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
 
In other news... We all remember when KFC offered the "Hillary" meal, consisting of 2 small breasts and 2 large thighs. Now, KFC is offering the "Obama Cabinet Bucket". It consists of nothing but left wings and chicken shit.   
 
 
NO thanks necessary, just keeping you up to date, as this is my civic duty.
 


In God I Trust

Food for Thought! ... November Coming. Take Back America!



In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this in response to Obama's "income inequality speech":
 
Two Americas
 
The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.
 
The America that works, and the America that doesn’t.
 
The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t.
 
It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts.
 
Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.  That’s the divide in America.
 
It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility.
 
It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office.
 
It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.  That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.
 
The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.”   He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just.
 
That is the rationale of thievery.  The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you.  Vote Democrat.
 
That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.   It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America.
 
It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.
 
The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope.
 
The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.
 
Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences.  Those who choose wisely and responsibility have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.   Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.
 
You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education.
 
You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course;  you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course.
 
Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take. 
My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do.  There is significant income inequality between us.  Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort.   While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.
 
He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes.  His outcome pays a lot better than mine.
 
Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth?  No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.
 
It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom.  The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. 
 
There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.
The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy.
 
Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.  Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.
Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.
 
The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get." Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.
 
Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way.   He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.
 
He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other.   America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.   It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization.
 
What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism.  He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.  That’s what socialists offer.  Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow.
 
Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.




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