Bravo. Now if we could only get one or another political party or leader to sign on to this position.
Perhaps the issue should be put to a national referendum. arthur -----Original Message----- From: pete [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 8:13 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] Possible U.S. cutbacks? On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Christoph Reuss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >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 Everything quoted here (below) would apply pretty much equally to alcohol, yet alcohol is universally legal, and most people are able to manage it quite well. More importantly, experience has shown that prohibition results in worse problems. The bottom line here is that there is a population which is vulnerable to psychological dependencies, and if they don't acquire dependency on one thing, they will just focus on something else. If they've been socialized to resist strongly psychoactive chemicals, they will just turn to something acceptable within their worldview, such as sex or chocolate. Furthermore, those whose social situation leads them to pursue such dependencies at a young age are subject to co-development of dependency-based brain structures during subsequent adolescent brain development. This is universally recognized, and that is why it is necessary to restrict consumption of psychoactive substances including alcohol to fully adult brains. Dependencies such as those described in the article, besides being largely independent of the particular substance, are much less common (arguably non-existent) among people whose consumption commenced in adulthood. If someone is going to spin these data so hard that they intend to use it to justify cannabis prohibition, they must accept that this argument requires alcohol be prohibited as well. Otherwise, the perception of hypocrisy will undermine respect for their position. And as prohibition of alcohol is thoroughly discredited, it is clear that their position is untenable. The issue of how to manage ingestion of psychoactive substances must always remain a personal one, for adults. The culture surrounding the ingestion of alcohol reveals that the best management mode is free access in the context of a mature culture which faces the pros and cons of consciousness alteration without hysteria. All psychoactive substances should be legalized, regulated, and vigourously taxed. Social and legal sanction should deny access to these substances for minors, and dependencies should be regarded as a medical problem of a psychosocial nature, requiring treatment funded out of the tax money collected. Any other scheme for managing such substances is doomed to failure, in any allegedly free society. -Pete Vincent > >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. > >"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. > >"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. > >More than 80 percent of the boys and 60 percent of the girls were >clinically dependent on marijuana. > >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. > >Most also said their problems started before they started using >marijuana. > >"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 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. > >"This important study underscores what drug treatment professionals have >long recognized: that marijuana is a dangerous drug, and its use can lead >to severe consequences for vulnerable young people," McCaffrey said in a >statement. > >Drug abuse experts say the problem is a physical, not a moral one and say >drug addicts should be treated like anyone else with a disease rather >than jailed. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
