More stupid propaganda
Johnnybgoodaaaaa @ Wed May 04, 2005 5:55 pm
$1:
Feds Sound New Warning About Marijuana Use
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Wed May 4, 7:22 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday. A private group said law enforcement increasingly is targeting people who smoke and deal the drug.
Past medical studies have linked marijuana with a greater incidence of mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. But questions remain about whether people who smoke marijuana at a young age are already predisposed to mental disorders, or whether the drug caused those disorders.
Government officials say recent research makes a stronger case that smoking marijuana is itself a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms, particularly schizophrenia.
"A growing body of evidence now demonstrates that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.
Administration officials pointed to a handful of studies to make their case. One, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found adult marijuana smokers who first began using the drug before age 12 were twice as likely to have suffered a serious mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking after 18.
The ratio was 21 percent to 10.5 percent. Those who first started as teens also were at significantly higher risk.
Also Tuesday, The Sentencing Project released a report that found the government's "war on drugs" has become the "war on drug" as police agencies increasingly target marijuana.
Begun in the 1980s, the war on drugs was aimed at stopping large-scale narcotics traffickers, particularly those selling cocaine. But since 1990 more of the focus has been on catching users and low-level dealers. And more often than ever, the drug targeted is marijuana, according to the group, a national nonprofit organization that works on judicial reform and favors alternatives to jail.
Of some 700,000 marijuana arrests in 2002, 88 percent were for possession, it said. And only one of every 18 of those arrests ended in a felony conviction.
"Arresting record numbers of low-level marijuana offenders represents a poor investment in public safety" and diverts resources from "more serious crime problems," said Ryan King, co-author of the report.
King found that in 1992 arrests for heroin and cocaine comprised 55 percent of all drug arrests and marijuana 28 percent. A decade later heroin and cocaine arrests accounted for less than 30 percent of all arrests, while marijuana's share had risen to 45 percent.
Jennifer deVallance, spokeswoman for the White House drug office, said there are many reasons for the greater focus on marijuana. Among them: Marijuana is the single largest drug of abuse in the nation, the strains are more potent than ever and more is known about health dangers.
"For the first time, more kids are seeking treatment for marijuana use than alcohol," she said.
The Sentencing Project called for renewed national discussion of the war on drugs, an idea echoed by the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The group reported last month that despite spending at about $40 billion a year now and toughening drug sentencing laws, "America continues to experience the Western world's worst drug problems."
An epidemic of heroin use more than three decades ago, followed by a 1980s epidemic of cocaine and crack, prompted a massive intensification in drug enforcement while giving short shrift to prevention and treatment, the institute reported. It decried budgeting that spends two-thirds of drug control funds on enforcement, 25 percent on treatment and just 12 percent on prevention.
___
Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this story.
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Wed May 4, 7:22 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday. A private group said law enforcement increasingly is targeting people who smoke and deal the drug.
Past medical studies have linked marijuana with a greater incidence of mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. But questions remain about whether people who smoke marijuana at a young age are already predisposed to mental disorders, or whether the drug caused those disorders.
Government officials say recent research makes a stronger case that smoking marijuana is itself a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms, particularly schizophrenia.
"A growing body of evidence now demonstrates that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.
Administration officials pointed to a handful of studies to make their case. One, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found adult marijuana smokers who first began using the drug before age 12 were twice as likely to have suffered a serious mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking after 18.
The ratio was 21 percent to 10.5 percent. Those who first started as teens also were at significantly higher risk.
Also Tuesday, The Sentencing Project released a report that found the government's "war on drugs" has become the "war on drug" as police agencies increasingly target marijuana.
Begun in the 1980s, the war on drugs was aimed at stopping large-scale narcotics traffickers, particularly those selling cocaine. But since 1990 more of the focus has been on catching users and low-level dealers. And more often than ever, the drug targeted is marijuana, according to the group, a national nonprofit organization that works on judicial reform and favors alternatives to jail.
Of some 700,000 marijuana arrests in 2002, 88 percent were for possession, it said. And only one of every 18 of those arrests ended in a felony conviction.
"Arresting record numbers of low-level marijuana offenders represents a poor investment in public safety" and diverts resources from "more serious crime problems," said Ryan King, co-author of the report.
King found that in 1992 arrests for heroin and cocaine comprised 55 percent of all drug arrests and marijuana 28 percent. A decade later heroin and cocaine arrests accounted for less than 30 percent of all arrests, while marijuana's share had risen to 45 percent.
Jennifer deVallance, spokeswoman for the White House drug office, said there are many reasons for the greater focus on marijuana. Among them: Marijuana is the single largest drug of abuse in the nation, the strains are more potent than ever and more is known about health dangers.
"For the first time, more kids are seeking treatment for marijuana use than alcohol," she said.
The Sentencing Project called for renewed national discussion of the war on drugs, an idea echoed by the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The group reported last month that despite spending at about $40 billion a year now and toughening drug sentencing laws, "America continues to experience the Western world's worst drug problems."
An epidemic of heroin use more than three decades ago, followed by a 1980s epidemic of cocaine and crack, prompted a massive intensification in drug enforcement while giving short shrift to prevention and treatment, the institute reported. It decried budgeting that spends two-thirds of drug control funds on enforcement, 25 percent on treatment and just 12 percent on prevention.
___
Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this story.
I'm sorry, but anything that has the American Enterprise Institute in it is laughable. Most people are having to go into treatment because of being sentenced to rehab for marijuana offenses.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3375
BartSimpson @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:02 pm
I don't mind if people use drugs.
Just don't make me pay the social costs of their overdosing and etc. like when they contract AIDS from needle-sharing.
Take the drugs and take responsibility for taking the drugs and that's fine with me.
Scape @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:03 pm
Johnnybgoodaaaaa Johnnybgoodaaaaa:
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday.
New tapes say Bush may have smoked marijuana
BartSimpson @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:06 pm
Scape Scape:
Johnnybgoodaaaaa Johnnybgoodaaaaa:
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday.
New tapes say Bush may have smoked marijuana
Sometimes I wonder if he still smokes pot.
Johnnybgoodaaaaa @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:09 pm
Scape Scape:
Johnnybgoodaaaaa Johnnybgoodaaaaa:
WASHINGTON - Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, the government said Tuesday.
New tapes say Bush may have smoked marijuana
That must be why he has mental probs
I do sense some sort of schizo/paranoia in Bush.
Johnnybgoodaaaaa @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:35 pm
I think the funniest thing I saw yesterday was when I watching Crossfire on CNN. Some conservative guy, the same guy who was saying how pot shouldn't be legal, was bashing the liberal guy because he wanted more government controls on the food in schools to help with childhood obesity. He used such lines as "the government has no business telling us what to eat" and "we need a smaller government"....yet on the other hand he is fine with the government telling us what drugs we can put into out body. I don't need the government telling me how to take care of myself. I mainly blame Nixon and Reagen for such ridiculous policies, but the democrats themselves have done nothing either. The punishment is worst than the crime. This is big government at it's worst, basically saying they will seek out users. If someone is smoking pot in their house, and the government bust them, then this is a war on personal freedom. Nothing ever changes though because these Parent groups think it's their job to dictate how everyone else should live.
Constantinople @ Wed May 04, 2005 6:43 pm
Johnnybgoodaaaaa Johnnybgoodaaaaa:
If someone is smoking pot in their house, and the government bust them, then this is a war on personal freedom.
So just like killing in the home then, too, right?
Robair @ Wed May 04, 2005 7:36 pm
If or when they find negative effects from pot, I would like to see a comparison with the negative effects of a couple of legal substances. Alcohol and tobacco.
Not that I'm an avid user of the stuff, I smoke it and I go to sleep... where's the fun in that? But I don't see why we shouldn't make the stuff legal and tax the hell out of it.
Zipperfish @ Wed May 04, 2005 9:13 pm
The vast weight of evidence, starting witht eh British Royal Commission in 1898, indicates that marijunana is overwhelmingly an individual risk and not a social risk, and not muchof an individual risk at that. In keeping with the tenets of a liberal democracy, individual risks that have little social costs should be allowed.
There's more Christian puritanism than science in marijuanna prohibition decisions.
Thankfully Canadian law makers are slowy coming around, though there could very easily be a relapse. Studies that indicate that THC has valuable and legitimate therapeutic value -- particularly as an anti-nausea agent -- have helped.
Focussing on marijuanna brings the entire drug enforcement regime into disrepute. They'd have more availbale funds and more public support if they dropped pot and went after crystal meth, heroin and the such.
Johnnybgoodaaaaa @ Thu May 05, 2005 1:07 am
TheUSofA1776 TheUSofA1776:
Johnnybgoodaaaaa Johnnybgoodaaaaa:
If someone is smoking pot in their house, and the government bust them, then this is a war on personal freedom.
So just like killing in the home then, too, right?
Smoking pot is a personal matter and only effects you. Killing someone else means you are intruding on them. If I sit in my room and smoke pot, and get busted by the cops because I was smoking pot and only doing something to myself out of my own choice, I really don't see how that's the same as someone killing someone else. Killing someone else intrudes on their freedom, just like cops busting someone for marijuana intrudes on their freedom. Me smoking pot does nothing to anyone else as long as I use responsibly, just like someone who is responsible when they drink(studies have actually shown that potheads are safer drivers than drunks, go figure)
Of course, if someone else asks you to kill them, I suppose you should first have them psychologically examined, and then go from there.
Johnnybgoodaaaaa @ Thu May 05, 2005 1:13 am
Robair Robair:
If or when they find negative effects from pot, I would like to see a comparison with the negative effects of a couple of legal substances. Alcohol and tobacco.
Not that I'm an avid user of the stuff, I smoke it and I go to sleep... where's the fun in that? But I don't see why we shouldn't make the stuff legal and tax the hell out of it.
Not that I'm an avid user of the stuff, I smoke it and I go to sleep... where's the fun in that? But I don't see why we shouldn't make the stuff legal and tax the hell out of it.
Oh man, I was the biggest pothead for years. I still remember the Jorome baker bongs, which had the best artwork out there -- fucking US government closed down alot of those bong shops. I don't really advertise how much I enjoy pot, but if I did I would probably get a pothead medal
although it seems pretty hard to get a medal on here. I laugh at this whole "the marijuana is so much more potent nowadays" bullshit. I will admit, smoking some dank crystal covered bud is alot better than a bad of dirty schwag, and I might even feel a bit more high off of less, but they make it sound like you lose all control. I mean, 1-2 later you are back to somewhat normal, and after you smoke pot for some years, even smoking the high quality stuff isn't THAT big of a deal.
Scape @ Thu May 05, 2005 1:17 am
[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7672769/site/newsweek/]Chong’s Bongs Gone Wrong
The hippy half of Cheech and Chong, who just served a nine-month stint for selling drug paraphernalia, is being sued for quitting a traveling comedy show about—wait for it—marijuana.[/url]