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Official tackles marijuana myths
The Press-Journal | February 18, 2004
By Tonya Alanez staff writer

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — "Marijuana is not medicine" and we need to keep it away from our children was the message delivered by a Washington anti-drug official at a lecture Tuesday.

Andrea G. Barthwell, from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is deputy director for Demand Reduction, a youth drug prevention program. She introduced a "fact-based marijuana initiative" to a group of more than 100 at the Indian River Community College's Mueller campus.

Barthwell outlined the following five "marijuana myths:"

• It is harmless.

• It is not addictive.

• Youth experimentation is inevitable.

• We should legalize marijuana.

• Prisons are filled with marijuana users.

"The legalizers are back and they're trying to convince Americans that smoked marijuana is a medicine and you can use drugs responsively," Barthwell said at the lecture sponsored by the Substance Abuse Council of Indian River County.

Since 1996 eight states, including Arizona, Alaska, California, Maine and Oregon, have passed medical marijuana laws. Approval of medical marijuana has also been approved in Canada.

"The people that have this as an agenda are not concerned for the sick or dying," Barthwell said. "They are concerned about getting marijuana into the hands of more people for personal use."

Barthwell presented information that said marijuana acutely affects learning, attention and motor skills and lends to gaps in a user's "fund of knowledge." She said these are some of the reasons to be concerned about youth and marijuana use.

In her hour-long discussion, Barthwell advocated for student drug testing and increased parental involvement in the fight to keep kids off drugs.

"We know that people do more of that which is sanctioned and allowed than that which is prohibited," Barthwell said, citing statistics that showed marijuana use nearly tripled in the Netherlands since coffee shops began selling it.

"It is important to have a non-drug-using norm to prevent children from using marijuana," she said.

Sgt. Brad Fojtik of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office School Resource Team said, "It's nice for somebody to step up to the plate and say what we've been trying to preach to our kids. There is no medicinal value in (marijuana), period."

- tonya.alanez@scripps.com

Personally, I speak to, discuss with and generally listen to kids. I find that preaching doesn't go over too well. And Preaching in this context has a sickly flavor of the Church of the Holy DARE .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ahhhh...editorial license

Have a cookie

Hugz,

Mama Budz

 

KWhite

ahhh we now call lying editorial license?

Where was this from? Podunk?

And lord those folks need another source of information..

*Welcome to marijuana.com*

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xxdr_zombiexx

The story does eem to come from a wide spot in the road in Florida.

Florida is home to Jeb Bush and the Semblers, owners of the "Partnership for a Drug-Free America, formerly known, infamously, as Straight , Inc. They are among the most reeefer mad freakazoids EVER to open their mouths a spew lies.


This Barthwell character is a Bush Administration ONDCP appointment, chosen to continue lying about marijuana and, especially medical marijuana, since the Pharms "contribute" so much money to them.

They are liars. She's a liar. Everything they say about marijuana is a lie, and mean-spirited at that. it is simply stunning to me they are still regarded as "credible" but this may be why they are in Podunk Florida, where many of the locals may be unaware of anything outside their zipcode.

Of course, to be fair, Bill Clinton appointed republican liars to be Drug Czar as well (Barry McCaffery), so the Bush's ain't alone.....

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Alien Space Signal

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Fear became the ultimate tool of this government - V.

Herb Ninja

Tonya Alanez, wow. Nice propaganda peice.

Ever imagine increased use was because tourists flocked to the netherlands and bought inexpensive buds?

She would rather see aids patients suffer more without cannabis then let them have medical marijuana.

Thats wrong, marijuana prohibition is immoral and tyrannical. Peace, HN-

Like said in the matrix:

"many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

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Ron Paul for the Long Haul

xxdr_zombiexx

Hey Ossifer Brad: Liar liar, pants on fire

"School Resource Team"? How Orwellian is THAT???

 

THE_ODA

Good Point :P

rick

I would say that Mrs. Barthwell needs to do some more research and stop being spoon fed Administration propoganda. Even the ONDCP is confused, or are they just LYING!

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mary jane

all that is wrong. marijuana should be legal. it is so much fun. thats the reason people do it. all the anti drug people are against it because they have never done it and felt its magic. marijuana isn't even bad. i do it and im fne. in fact im really baked right now and i'm fine. blaaaaa

lilgrasshoppah

Barthwell outlined the following five "marijuana myths:"
(and lilgrasshoppah exposes them for lies!)
• It is harmless.
Harmless? Maybe not. Suffice it to say that marijauna is significantly less harmful than jail.
• It is not addictive.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Oh wait that's supposed a myth. Multiple studies have consistantly demonstrated that cannabis has the addictive potential on par with COFFEE.
• Youth experimentation is inevitable.
Again, as with the "it's not harmless" argument and the "it's addictive" argument, this seems to require one hundred percent participation. If just one person is harmed by pot, in anyway, pot is not harmless. If just one person becomes addicted to pot, then pot is addictive... and if just one kid shows no interest in pot, then youth experimentation is not inevitable. But that is not how science works. Experimenting with psychoactive substances has been a staple of youth culture since prehistory. And many young people will experiment with pot. Every successive generation since 1937 has had a strong cannabis subculture attached to it.
• We should legalize marijuana.
This is not a myth. This is a conclusion that, if one follows the prohibitionist paradigm, comes from believing myths. Youth experimentation is inevitable, therefore we should legalize marijuana. Can you figure out which is the "myth" and which is the conclusion drawn from believing that "myth"? A better myth she could have attacked would have been the "myth" of medical marijuana. But then we would have eviscerated her completely. Ms. Barthwell is running out of arguments, the old windbag.
• Prisons are filled with marijuana users.
Something like 50% of all persons incarcerated in the states are nonviolent drug convictions. 90% of those are related to pot. END OF STORY

Editorial addendum: Ms. Barthwell is seriously grasping at straws. It was sad when the great ship went down to the bottom of the sea... but it is becoming excruciatingly obvious that cannabis prohibition is running out of lies, and it is running out of time.

Logos

I have never had a problem with withdrawls giving up marijuana, but I gurantee that giving up Pepsi would be tough...

I have to wonder if she is just evil, or if her consience is bound and gagged...

Doesn't she know that lying is bad for her soul...

Course if the government told the truth, and the people knew fact from fiction, the government would loose out on an 11 billion (yeah, I said BILLION) dollar cash cow that is extorted from our labor every time we get paid or buy something or own something, or call someone, etc, etc...

The time of the liars is running short... But for some strange reason, I feel compelled to forgive them their sins... I just wish that so many people didn't have to suffer becasue of those sins.

Medical marijuana is a reality, and I just wish they could produce even one study ever done that could back up her claims.

The drug war is merely a stepping stone to a police state.

The three rules of political parties.

1 Get into power.
2 Stay in power.
3 Increase that power.

If we knew that we didn't need them and their lies, they wouldn't have any power and we the people would run this world each holding one share in planet Earth.

"When seen from outer space, our beautiful blue planet has no national boundaries. --His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

We need to stick together to make this beautiful place better. --KMK

Laws that restrict only bennefit the rich.... --KMK

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Brother Logos
The more I learn, the less I know.
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True religion is real living, living with all one's soul, with all ones goodness and righteousness. --Albert Einstein