Elvis_Christ

I read this (http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v02/n847/a04.htm) a few days ago, and was inspired to respond to it. My response, via e-mail to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is below.


I recently read a Washington Post op-ed piece (supposedly) by
Drug Czar Walters in which he makes several factually FALSE claims.
Such as: That marijuana is now 10 to 20 times more potent than it once was (disproven by studies of effective potency of street cannabis in the early 1970's, and NOT the DEA/government figures of analysis of seized marijuana which was in a substantially degraded condition after a long period of storage in non-climate controlled evidence rooms).

That marijuana is an addictive substance, which implies that it is PHYSICALLY addictive. It isn't. Marijuana may be PSYCHOLOGICALLY addictive, but then so may
eating (many people, particularly females, have been shown to eat to feel better, thus resulting in obesity). Physically, marijuana is a less addictive and less harmful substance than caffeine, alcohol or tobacco.

The claim that marijuana contains carcinogens is true, BUT...so does coffee. (No fewer than sixteen of the chemicals present in roasted coffee have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.) And the typical marijuana user does not consume marijuana in anywhere near the amount that the typical tobacco or caffeine user (or should it be abuser? After all, legal or no, these are still drugs) does.

As far as the assertion that marijuana dealers are dangerous criminals...if they are, it is because of the illegality of marijuana.
Not because of something intrinsic to marijuana. The problem of crime related to marijuana is one which has been created by making it illegal, and, quite honestly, as long as marijuana REMAINS illegal, as long as there's a black market for it, as long as there is massive profit potential in it...you will have the problem of drug dealers. Fact. Unarguable.

In closing allow me to say that the lies, factual distortions, and
half-truths put forth by ONDCP and the DEA sicken me, and should sicken any right-thinking individual. The idea seems to be that if you tell people your version often enough, it will become the truth. The fact that
so many people take your propaganda seriously is proof that it seems to work. Of course, the "Big Lie" technique has been known to work in authoritarian/totalitarian societies for decades or centuries...after all, the Germans believed Hitler. And the efficacy of the current anti-drug/anti-marijuana hysteria says to me that H.L. Mencken was right: "No one ever went broke by underestimating the gullibility of the American public."