----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 8:57
AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Possible U.S.
cutbacks?
Hi Chris,
I guess I was speaking from personal
experience.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Possible U.S.
cutbacks?
> Ed Weick wrote:
> > I don't consider
pot a drug. It's not addictive.
>
> It is addictive (see
below). Or why else do you think
> there are Marijuana Addiction
Treatment Programs like
> http://www.solutions4recovery.com/marijuana.htm ?
>
> Denial won't solve problems -- on the
contrary.
>
> Chris
>
The "addiction" from marijuana when no other intoxicants or
drugs are used is minimal; physical desires are gone within 3 to 5 days
although the smoking of the plant creates a similar addiction, if there is
high usage, as cigarettes from the tar and slight nicotine
content.
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/marijuana0331.html>
> Looks Like Marijuana's Addictive
> More
Evidence in Study
>
> W A S H I N G T O N, March 31 -
Troubled teens who use marijuana can
> quickly become dependent on the
drug, Colorado researchers report.
>
> More than two-thirds of
teens referred for treatment by social service or
> criminal justice
agencies complained of withdrawal symptoms when they
> stopped using
marijuana, Dr. Thomas Crowley of the University of Colorado
> and
colleagues reported.
There is always a withdrawal "episode" from anything
that has been abused - even sugar or coffee. If we are considering those users
who smoke to relieve their emotional problems, then it is not used
recreationally, it is being used as an escape or a band-aid solution because
the medical establishment will not or cannot treat the emotional problems
reasonably or safely. The use of pharmaceuticals (anti-depressants or the
harder psychotropics) is usually much more damaging to the individual
(physically, due to side-effects, and emotionally) and creates a much more
intense "addiction" than marijuana.
> "This study provides additional important
data to better illustrate that
> marijuana is a dangerous drug that can
be addictive," Dr. Alan Leshner,
> head of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which paid for the
> study,
said in a statement.
This is the root of the problem here. This is a
federally funded organization and if the findings are not those the government
wishes to see, the report is shelved and the researchers and director are
fired
> "It also identifies the devastating impact
marijuana dependence can have on
> young people and highlights the fact
that many both need and want help
> dealing with their addiction," he
added.
>
> Crowley's team at the university's Addiction Research
and Treatment Service
> studied interviews, medical examinations and
social histories of 165 boys
> and 64 girls aged 13 to
19.
When we speak of children this age, we are speaking
of people who are not physically mature and no where near emotionally mature.
Any escape from their pain will be sought by them if their caregivers and/or
doctors cannot help them. And to leave that escape will be difficult and may
be construed as withdrawal.
> More than 80 percent of the boys and 60
percent of the girls were
> clinically dependent on
marijuana.
There is no chemical dependency on marijuana. If
there were, one would be unable to leave the substance for even a day without
severe physical and emotional upheaval.
> When asked, 97 percent of the teens said
they still used marijuana even
> after realizing it had become a problem
for them.
>
> Eighty-five percent admitted their habit interfered
with driving, school,
> work and home life, while 77 percent said they
spent "much time" getting,
> using or recovering from the effects of
marijuana, according to the study,
> published in the journal Drug and
Alcohol Dependence.
This is absurd propaganda. These are high percentages
of an extremely small group and would never in any other field be considered
an appropriate statistic
> Most also said their problems started before
they started using marijuana.
Note the above line carefully.
Marijuana was not the problem. The problems began before. Therefore, treat the
problem not the result of the problem.
> "About 825,000
youths were arrested and formally processed by juvenile
> courts in
1994," Crowley said in a statement.
>
> Negatives Tests, High
Risk
> "About 50 percent of these youths tested positive for marijuana
at the time
> of arrest and many fit the profile of the teens in this
study, making them
> at high risk for marijuana dependence," he
added.
The current medical establishment would have made
these same individuals extremely dependent upon any of the "prescription
drugs" (is Prozac a big seller these days?) as well as damaging the liver or
other organs or glandular activity. Some anti-psychotics come with a higher
price, requiring heart monitoring for their use. A friend of ours died at age
45 due to heart failure from one. In most cases, because these drugs work only
for a small percentage of patients, there is a distinct inability to access
creativity because feelings are controlled and suppressed. Life is not worth
living when you feel like that for prolonged periods of time. Withdrawl from
Prozac and most its contemporaries often leads to suicide, or a different
presciption of similar ilk--again resulting in the
"revolving door syndrome" of the mental health systems. The cost to society is
two-fold, and to the individual it is most often at the cost of quality of
life or life itself.
FYI--Prozac was developed by Eli Lilly, released by
its CEO George Bush Sr. around 1987, when he was serving as Vice President. No
conflict there! Also, this drug is still classified by the U.S. military as a
mind control devise.
> "The challenge now becomes to develop highly
effective methods to treat
> high-risk adolescents dependent on
marijuana," Leshner said.
>
> President Clinton's anti-drug
leader Barry McCaffrey said 50,000 young
> people seek treatment for
marijuana dependence every year.
If these same young people sought
and received quality help for the problems they were attempting to escape in
their own homes, they would not be claiming addiction to marijuana and
may (or may not) have used it recreationally.
>
"This important study underscores what drug treatment professionals
have
> long recognized: that marijuana is a
dangerous drug, (propaganda) and its use can
lead
> to severe consequences for vulnerable young people," McCaffrey
said in a
> statement.
Consequences - possibly. Every action is like a
ripple that spreads outward; if you drive under the influence, you may have an
accident. If, however, you invite some friends over and sit around discussing
Tolkein, you may pursue some fascinating ideologies. But currently the
only REAL consequences are those applied by the state as it attempts to
ruin the lives of these individuals. Remember, it was mostly Dupont along with
cotton industries in the 20's who lobbied the U.S. government to make it
illegal. The hemp industry, which had nothing to do with pot, was a threat to
Dupont's well being because hemp fibres are quite tough, have a 4-1 biomass
advantage over wood, and can be grown without pesticide. All of those European
countries now barren of trees must have followed suit, but the cost to their
environment (discussed a few weeks ago) was what you have today--along with
high winds, high heat, fierce cold and flooding. Big corporations lie, and in
this matter there is no difference. To keep pot outlawed translates into high
profits for pharmaceuticals, and scapegoats for the real criminals performing
white collar crimes, rapes, spousal and child abuse, polluters, and of course
those legal drug producers.
> Drug abuse experts say the problem is a
physical, not a moral one and say
For marijuana it is neither
physical nor moral, it is not a barbituate which is what these people normally
deal with.
> drug addicts
should be treated like anyone else with a disease rather than
>
jailed.
This is the first true and honest statement of this
report.
Chris, to pull one very limited report and hold it up
as God's Truth, as well as it being from a country that has waged war on this
plant ever since the tobacco and alcohol lobby of the late 20's sought to
rid themselves of this competition to their profits, is not what I have grown
to expect from you.
Darryl
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