Marijuana.com

xxdr_zombiexx

Not your father's mary jane
Stronger marijuana has scientists concerned for young people
Lexington Herald | Posted on Tue, May. 04, 2004

By Benedict Carey | LOS ANGELES TIMES

The high-potency marijuana now widely available in cities and some small towns is causing an increasing number of teenagers, and some preteens, to land in drug treatment centers or emergency rooms, recent government statistics suggest.

The numbers are not conclusive, experts say, but have renewed scientific interest in and debate about the risks of marijuana use.

"The stereotypes of marijuana smoking are way out of date," said Michael Dennis, a research psychologist in Bloomington, Ill. "The kids we see are not only smoking stronger stuff at a younger age, but their pattern of use might be three to six blunts -- the equivalent of three or four joints each -- just for themselves, in a day. That's got nothing to do with what mom or dad did in high school. It might as well be a different drug."

Although overall marijuana use in minors has declined slightly since the mid-1990s, recently released statistics from hospitals and treatment centers suggest that the drug is causing many young users serious problems.

Late last year, federal health officials reported that the number of marijuana-related emergency room visits for ages 12 to 17 had more than tripled since 1994, to 7,535 in 2001, the latest year for which figures were available. The most common reason for the visit was an "unexpected reaction" to the drug. "Overdose" was cited in 10 percent of these cases, "chronic effects" in 6 percent and "accident or injury" in 4 percent.

The latest U.S. Health and Human Services Department data show that marijuana or hashish use is, by far, the most common reason why children ages 12 to 17 were placed in licensed public or private treatment centers, accounting for more than 60 percent of reported cases in 2001.

In an analysis published recently, researchers at Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse calculated that the treatment rate for cannabis dependence or habitual use in youngsters had jumped 142 percent in the past decade.

[zombienote: This is CASA, owned/run bt a man named Joe Califana, a lawyer, not a scientist. He is one of the biggest purveyors of marijuana hate speech since Harry Anslinger. He is a professional liar.]

It is too early to tell whether these statistics truly represent a surge in habitual use, experts said. Admission figures could be skewed by changes in the way some states collect data and report it to the federal government. Forced drug treatment is also a way many teens avoid juvenile detention after a drug arrest.

Most children who smoke marijuana are occasional users, experts said. And there is little evidence that a heavy marijuana user who quits the habit will experience the kind of physical withdrawal symptoms reported by heroin or cocaine users.

Because marijuana seized by federal authorities today is about twice as potent as it was in the 1980s, health officials are taking the drug more seriously.

Although some scientists doubt that marijuana induces real physical dependence, many top drug researchers have concluded otherwise.

"There is no question marijuana can be addictive; that argument is over," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The most important thing right now is to understand the vulnerability of young, developing brains to these increased concentrations of cannabis."

[zombienote: Sorry Dr. Nora - but you are a liar too. It's not addictive. People would have known by now. You just want a paycheck. All the studies mentioned below are totally focused on "proving' the false mythologies of reefer madness. For a buck.]

More than 50 government-funded studies of cannabis are under way, and Volkow has pledged agency funds to investigate areas related to regular marijuana use. These include:

• Effect of cannabis on the young brain. Doctors have little understanding of how regular marijuana use alters the biological development of the brain.

• Medications to help break the habit. Doctors have done very little testing of drugs to ease marijuana craving.

• Genetic susceptibility. In a recent study of 198 young people, doctors in New Zealand found that those who reported enjoying their first-time use of marijuana were more likely to develop a habit later on. The researchers said their findings suggested that some people might be genetically vulnerable to addiction.

[zombienote: Guitar is then addictive too. I enjoyed my first experiences with it as a child, and have been a life-long addict. Because of tolerance I often play more than an hour or 2 a day, and have puchased equipment to record myself so I can hear even more guitars. I have now got several guitars as well, but no medical guitars.

Reefer mad propagandists simply have no morals or sense of decency. And they never let real facts get in the way. They are the government and they make their own 'facts'.

See: Dutch drug policies do not increase marijuana use.]

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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.

 

jnfdmjnf

I believe if we (marijuana users) want our laws to change then we need to be heard. I never hear of any News of legalization on television or anything like that. We need to get on cnn and tell them that we should be alllowd to smoke.

Jose Melendez

from: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread18734.shtml#31

Comment #31 posted by FoM on May 03, 2004 at 20:50:31 PT

Letters To The Editor - Los Angeles Times

Data on Marijuana Treatment Present a Distorted Picture

May 3, 2004

Re "Marijuana Use Is Pushing Teens Into Treatment," April 26: Allegations that marijuana smokers compose 60% of drug treatment admissions require further explanation and context. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, fewer than one in five people admitted to drug treatment for marijuana in 2001 did so voluntarily, and more than half — 57% — were referred by the criminal justice system. In many cases, these were first-time offenders arrested for marijuana possession and given the option by a judge or drug court of entering drug treatment as an alternative to jail.

As such, the dramatic rise in marijuana "treatment" admissions over the past decade is primarily because of a proportional increase in individuals arrested on marijuana charges and referred to drug treatment in lieu of incarceration. At a time when tens of thousands of hard-drug addicts are being denied access to drug treatment due to a lack of bed space and federal funding, it is disconcerting that America's drug treatment centers are bursting at the seams by needlessly housing marijuana smokers.

Paul Armentano

Senior Policy Analyst

National Organization for

the Repeal of Marijuana Laws

Foundation

Washington, D.C.

•

Cannabis is not "50 times" stronger than in the 1970s. These estimates are based on faulty statistics derived from samples of cannabis that police confiscated and stored in hot evidence lockers before the THC content was assessed. Heat destroys the THC, leading laboratories in the 1970s to estimate that THC concentrations were around 1%. Cannabis that is 1% THC actually has no effect, so obviously, no one would have smoked it.

Cannabis today is probably two or three times stronger than 25 years ago, but this increased potency does not mean people actually get any higher or develop more dependence. In fact, some research shows that stronger cannabis leads people to smoke less, decreasing the risk of lung problems.

Mitchell S. Earleywine

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology

University of Southern

California

•

The story pointed out correctly that there has been a recent increase in teens seeking treatment for marijuana use, but its agreement with the folklore of the drug treatment community is betrayed by the data.

The Health and Human Services data that the article refers to state in no uncertain terms that the number of court-ordered treatment [program] admissions increased every single year (but one) between 1992 and 2001, and that noncriminal referrals were stable or declined from 1995 on.

By perpetrating the myth of increased addictive liability of high-potency marijuana, health professionals are assisting the government in putting the health and safety of the millions of responsible American marijuana smokers in jeopardy.

Adam Scavone

New York

•

Marijuana's increasing potency is no surprise. Under alcohol prohibition, the strength of liquors rose rapidly and deaths due to alcohol poisoning went up 400%. If government officials and researchers are truly concerned about the rising harm caused by more potent marijuana, they should support legalization and sell safer, more regulated versions of the drug.

Evan Woods

Student

Occidental College

Copyright: 2004 Los Angeles Times

- - -

And as for: "In a recent study of 198 young people, doctors in New Zealand found that those who reported enjoying their first-time use of marijuana were more likely to develop a habit later on. "

From: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread18788.shtml

"Researchers from the University of California and the University of Amsterdam conducted detailed interviews with hundreds of randomly chosen marijuana users -- people who had used marijuana at least 25 times-in both cities. "Proponents of criminalization attribute to their preferred drug-control regimen a special power to affect user behavior," the authors write. "Our findings cast doubt on such attributions. Despite widespread lawful availability of cannabis [marijuana] in Amsterdam, there were no differences between the two cities in age at onset of use, age at first regular use, or age at the start of maximum use. ... We also found consistent similarities in patterns of use across the different policy contexts."

One significant difference: Marijuana users in San Francisco were much more likely to use powder or crack cocaine, opiates, amphetamines or ecstasy than their Amsterdam counterparts. Lifetime crack cocaine use in the San Francisco sample was five times that of the Amsterdam group. "Dutch decriminalization does not appear to be associated with greater use of other drugs," the researchers report. "Indeed, to judge from the lifetime prevalence of other illicit drug use, the reverse may be the case."

- - -
So, drug war is fraud, illegal (antitrust), unconstitutional (on several counts) and immoral (still, to this day).

Dennis

Oh my God! It's addictive! So is gambling, masterbation, and glutony.

Food is the drug of choice for many people. It leads to obesity and diabetes and there's not even a crazy street preacher standing on the street corner of some major city warning of the evils of food. But if a substance that kills no one, like marijuana, is addictive, run for the hills everyone! Jesus.

I agree with one ONDCP myth. Marijuana causes paranoia. Mass paranoia.


Dennis

Logos

Man, I have been looking for this increasingly available potent pot. Not to be had anywhere around here, or anywhere else I have ever been. I have had probably 4 instances where I was able to acquire something of very high quality.

Upsides, fewer hits, stash lasts longer, and in the long run less money spent.

How is it that the government can always twist a good thing into something bad, and whatever happened to truth in reporting. Starting to think that all news should be relegated to the opinion page these days.

Some scientists as opposed to top scientists..... yada, yada, yada... Whenever something significant comes along, like Francis Youngs ruling in which he wrote that there is no overdose threshold for cannabis, and it is completely ignored by the press and the government.

Shaffer commission, laguardia report, and about a thousand other research conclusions that support legalizing marijuana simply because the laws against it have a more negative impact than the plant itself on society...

Hell, the government won't even authorize research that is designed to find the good side of cannabis use. They only seem interested in finding the harm. When that isn't the conclusion, the research is ignored, or burried.

Keep repeating the lies though, won't make me believe them, it will just reinforce my personnal belief that we would be beter off without our current federal government.

The best government is one that governs the least.

God gave us free will, the government seems to think that we are too stoopid to use that little feature of our existance. Must be a lack of quality education that makes us all too stoopid to make a responsible decision.

Please toke responsibly...

Logos

__________________
Brother Logos
The more I learn, the less I know. | Truth doesn't change, only our perception of it does.
THC Ministry | The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ | The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion
True religion is real living, living with all one's soul, with all ones goodness and righteousness. --Albert Einstein

 

JTP

What Logos said 100%

king cola

alright if this pot is as strong as they claim it is, then theres no way 1 person is going to smoke up to 6 blunts to themself in 1 day! As for them saying the pot my dad smoked back in the day wasn't as strong, how would they know? They never tested THC from strong strains back in the late 60s and 70s, instead they took low grade shwag and tested that and use those results with the pot of today.

My dad used to tell me a few tokes of the pot he would smoke would put him and his friends out, obviously that's not weak pot! He's heard all the stories about them sayin the pot he would smoke in the 60s and 70s wasn't that potent but then he just says if that's the case then they weren't smokin some of the stuff he used to get! A half joint of some pot from back then would put 1 person out, but yet the pot today is supposedly so strong but yet they say the kids are able to smoke as much as 6 blunts by themself in a day!

Some kids probably smoke more than they should and start having anxiety attacks, then their parents or whoever they smoked with rush them to the hospital! Then in some cases they show a survey of how many people were treated for marijuana use over the years. Most people are in drug alcohol classes because they want to avoid jail time or want their first offense erased from the records so they agree to take a drug/alcohol class.

What about strong alcohol? Kids get a hold of that to and have died from drinking too much but hey it's tax dollars so they will never argue about that but marijuana is illegal so they keep talking all kinds of bullsh*t about it! Anything the gov says about the effects from marijuana i wouldn't believe, these are the same people who at one time said it made guys grow breasts or make people go insane!

Cassius

Three to six blunts a day, AND more powerful than our father's stuff! That has to be at least mids then. I wonder where these teenagers are getting the money to support that kind of a habit for personal use? They must be out robbing banks like all the heroin addicts!! Oh nooooooz

Sigh. I'm about fed up with the propaganda that is getting to be more and more blatant lies. Instead of telling people the truth about marijuana, we're gonna have to start telling them that it will solve all their financial problems, make them more sexually active and gratifying, and extend their lifespan by 20+ years, just to compensate!

melanotaenia

First of all, when has anyone OVERDOSED on marijuana? is that even possible, I mean sure psychologically overdosed leading to weird reactions, but physical overdose like in alchohol overdose? And as far as the blunt statement goes, I agree it is would be hard to smoke that much, but I know a kid here who smokes about that a day, just kind bud, smokes about a quarter ounce of weed per day. How does he do it? Rich parents, pure and simple. So though that statement may be far fetched, there are people who do use it to that excess. They sleep alot

Zilos

Im just so sick of all this crap bout how bad marijuana is, and all the lies, there spending so much time and money on trying to get people to quit pot, when they could be focusing there time on real problems, like coke, meth, heroin, pcp. I know where I live in BC, Meth is a huge problem, it's gotten so bad, its almost easier to get than pot! And it will hill you! But I have yet to see an ad on TV or anywhere showing the effects, so most just think it's harmless!

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