Marijuana.com

xxdr_zombiexx

Marijuana abuse grew in U.S. in 1990s
TwinCities.com | BY MICHELLE FAY CORTEZ

Bloomberg News - About 1 million more Americans are addicted to marijuana now than a decade ago, even as casual use of the illegal drug remained the same, according to a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 4 percent of U.S. adults smoked marijuana in 2001 and 2002, the same number researchers found 10 years earlier, according to a U.S. government survey involving almost 100,000 Americans. Among users, marijuana abuse or addiction rose to 35.6 percent from 30.2 percent, the survey found.

For the first time, government researchers found an increase among older Americans, specifically white male baby boomers who came of age when marijuana use was widespread. More young black and Hispanic women also started smoking marijuana, while abuse levels in both minorities rose significantly.

"There is no change in the frequency or quantity that people report they are using," Wilson M. Compton, division director from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a telephone interview. "Underlying the increase in abuse and dependence is the increase in potency" of marijuana, he said.

The researchers want primary-care doctors to start warning their patients about the dangers of illegal drug use and abuse, a first step to lowering the persistent levels, Compton said. Studies have shown marijuana use interferes with education, workplace productivity and safe driving, while harming the heart and lungs and leading to other drug use.

"The rates remain stubbornly high among all groups," Compton said.

For white males ages 45 to 64, 2.5 percent reported using marijuana in 2001 and 2002, compared with 0.8 percent in 1991 and 1992, he said.

The number of U.S adults who abuse or are addicted to marijuana rose to 1.5 percent of the population in 2001 and 2002, or 3 million people, up from 1.2 percent, or 2.2 million, a decade earlier, the study found.

The so-called baby-boomer generation is Americans born between 1946 and 1964, according to the Census Bureau.

"It seems quite likely that this is the baby-boomer generation who were adolescents in the late '60s and '70s," Compton said. "I suspect they are carrying their habits with them."


[zombienote: I have no facts, but my gut tells me 4 million people smoke pot in California (or at least on the West coast) alone. I figure about 12 to 15 %, conservatively smoke between once a year and once a day. Something around 12 to 16 million people. Minimum. A huge voter block.

The Myth of Consensus is a propaganda tactic that tries to tell, in this case, pot smokers that they are a marginal and deviant group while those who suck up to reefer madness are good people. Lies, entirely, of course.]

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Cassius

So let me get this straight. They did a poll and found that there is no change in the frequency or quantity that people report they are using. Yet they know marijuana is more potent today than a decade ago. So people must be more addicted. How do they get the figure of 1 million then? If it wasn't from people reporting that they are addicted, where does that number come from?

Kannibal

About 1 million more Americans are addicted to marijuana now than a decade ago...


Addicted? someone said that word is used way to loosely nowadays and i've got to agree.
Addiction:

1 : the quality or state of being addicted <addiction to reading>
2 : compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

Fastfood,chocolate,salt,aspirin,soda,coffee,just to name a few that fall into that last category there imho.


"There is no change in the frequency or quantity that people report they are using," Wilson M. Compton, division director from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a telephone interview. "Underlying the increase in abuse and dependence is the increase in potency" of marijuana, he said

Not to difficult to see where they are trying to take this.How many people out there think they may be addicted to cannabis? I'm certainly fortunate that I am not because my connections for the herb are sporadic at best,at least for the quality I seek and smoke.I keep hearing about this super weed and I feel so damn left out . I want some!


Studies have shown marijuana use interferes with education, workplace productivity and safe driving, while harming the heart and lungs and leading to other drug use.

I must be reading the wrong studies because i've heard the contrary.Whose right and whose wrong? and why can't I choose for myself whats good for me and whats not?

The article above confirms once again,for me,that this war on weed is heaped in bullchit and lies.Same old crap over and over with an occassional new twist.The persistance and tenacity of the prohibitors is unrelenting and me thinks they are stirred up more than ever because they also see the sign that the people are waking up to the facts.Every day that passes and every truth that gets out puts them more and more on the defensive.

fight4rights

I will use my alcohol anology again. Is hard alcohol more addictive than beer?
No, a product with higher potency is consumed is a smaller quantity.

Alcohol can interfer with education, workplace productivity, and safe driving. Responsible users of either marijuana or alcohol do not let it interfere with these things.

Marijuana does damage to the heart? Has anyone else heard of this? And if they have, could they please tell me where i could get some information on it?

Marijuana doesn't cause people to use harder drugs. Reality is that people who use harder drugs start out with marijuana, alcohol, or nicotine. We know this because very few people who use marijuana go on to use harder drugs, but many people who use harder drugs used marijuana.

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