Schwarzenegger considers legalizing marijuana..DARE flips!

[Justforfun000]

While I'm not a PERSONAL fan of Marijuana...I'm one of the types that get paranoid and very freaked out on it...I thought I saw enough objective evidence that it was still relatively soft. Especially in comparison with alcohol. Is this guy below totally wanking out an over-exaggeration of the negative effects or is he fairly accurate? I would assume some people here would have some more info..

Schwarzenegger's Call To Consider Marijuana Legalization To Boost Taxes Is "Irresponsible," Says Chairman Of DARE Board
Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 08 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Recent calls by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others to study the legalization of marijuana as a way of boosting tax revenues are "irresponsible" and send a dangerous message, the chairman of the board of the drug abuse education program D.A.R.E., prominent Los Angeles attorney Louis "Skip" Miller, said today. "Marijuana is a dangerous drug with numerous demonstrable ill effects on health," Mr. Miller added.

"As we all know, these are difficult economic times, and California is facing severe budgetary problems," Mr. Miller said. "But it is completely irresponsible to suggest that the legalization of a dangerous drug could be a way to help us out of the budget mess we're in. Such comments send entirely the wrong message, especially to young people who face a difficult enough time resisting the pressure of peers and others to try drugs."

"Legalizing marijuana as a way of bringing in more tax revenue is just bad policy," Mr. Miller added. Schwarzenegger made national headlines recently when he said that while he doesn't personally support legalization, it's time to study the idea as a way of "creating extra revenue." California faces a budget shortfall of more than $20 billion.

"Let's be clear," said Mr. Miller, speaking on behalf of the board of directors of D.A.R.E., the world's largest drug abuse resistance program. "Marijuana is not benign. Scientific studies have decisively documented marijuana's harmful effects on the body's cardiovascular system, brain and respiratory functions. Despite what you might hear from the pro-legalization side, marijuana use can cause cancer and does impair judgment."

"Marijuana has a host of harmful effects, ranging from the immediate to the more long range," said Dr. Sheila Kar, clinical chief of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, a member of the D.A.R.E board of directors and the liaison with D.A.R.E.'s scientific advisory board. "It has been shown to cause an immediate rise in the heart beat by 20-30 beats per minute along with an increase in blood pressure, thus increasing the workload of the heart. Marijuana is an irritant to the lungs and contains proportionally more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. It is associated with increased incidence of cancer of the head and neck area and lungs. It works on the brain, causing short- and long-term memory loss and impairing judgment, and it affects the sensations of taste and smell. One of its more pernicious effects is that it reduces inhibitions and can lead a person under the influence of marijuana to try even more harmful substances."

"Legalization is not a path we want to pursue," Dr. Kar added. "This is sending a message that use of marijuana is okay. If marijuana is legalized, people and especially young people, will tend to look at it and think, 'Well, if it's legal, it can't be too harmful.'

"It is by no means the benign drug that some would have us think. The most complete, objective and reliable scientific evidence is entirely in the other direction. We would run the risk of having a rise in a sicker and nonproductive population, which would be further detrimental to the state's economy, if more people were to begin using marijuana."

More in-depth information about the harmful effects of marijuana use can be found on the website of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health, at http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports ... fault.html.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1983, D.A.R.E.'s programs are implemented in the classroom and now reach 75 percent of the nation's school districts and 43 countries around the world. Mr. Miller, a trial lawyer and founding partner of Miller Barondess LLP, Los Angeles, has served as the chairman of D.A.R.E.'s board of directors for four years.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) recently instituted a new curriculum that goes beyond the "Just Say No" approach in which a police officer stands behind a podium and lectures youngsters sitting in straight rows of desks. Now D.A.R.E. officers are trained to be coaches who can help kids deal with and refuse peer-pressure to use drugs. Among other innovations, they show students high-tech brain images so they can see for themselves the effect of drugs on emotions, coordination and mental activity.

In an effort to stay ahead of the drug-abuse curve, D.A.R.E. has introduced, with the backing of pharma companies, a new program attacking the problem of youthful abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications, a problem which heretofore has attracted little notice but which studies have shown to be on the rise even as abuse of illegal drugs declines. Other new curricula take D.A.R.E. beyond drug education and tackle such issues as bullying, gang activity and internet safety.

In July of this year, another major component of the new D.A.R.E. will be officially rolled out. Developed by Penn State University and representing 20 years of research into why youth use drugs, "keepin' it REAL" - Refuse, Explain, Avoid and Leave - targets the critical junior high/middle school student audience, teaching them how to act decisively and confidently in difficult situations with their peers. Successfully evaluated and tested with more than 6,700 students at 35 Phoenix middle schools, it goes far beyond just say no by teaching students how to say no.

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DARE

[Koolaidkirby]

There have been enough arguments for the legalization of marijuana to throw this guy out, everyone who's educated on the matter knows that the only thing keeping it illegal is historical precedence and people who AREN"T educated about it.

[Rahvin]

From the focus on how marijuana is an "irritant to the lungs" and how the smoke contains carcinogens, it's pretty clear that they're only talking about smoking marijuana. There are plenty of other ways to use the substance...and of course it ignores the fact that tobacco smoking is still legal despite the fact that it causes cancer, and alcohol is still legal despite the fact that it impairs judgment.

I'd also want to see the scientific studies that show such a drastic increase in heartrate and blood pressure. The regular pot smokers I know certainly haven't mentioned hypertension or heart rate problems.

[The Yosemite Bear]

or the fact that MJ gets laced with other stronger drugs, because it's not legal, and there's no controls. If we compared Beer to moonshine we could get simular results. I've hated DARE for years, because even when I was in grade school their propaganda was insulting to my intellegnece and education.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'm all for legalizing and SAFELY REGULATING marijuana. Tax money, fewer people in prison...

Question: When the US repealed prohibition, did we start getting the people who were only in jail for bootlegging-related crimes out more quickly than they otherwise would have been?

[KlavoHunter]

or the fact that MJ gets laced with other stronger drugs

Laced with stronger drugs? No dealer would "lace" their weed with cocaine or PCP or what have you, to sell to unsuspecting customers. It makes exactly zero business sense, and I wish people would quit repeating this falsehood.

The only thing of this nature that goes on would be shady dealers bulking their weed up with non-drug substances, to increase its weight. This is a particular problem over in the UK.

[Oscar Wilde]

My question is, why is D.A.R.E still around? Hasn't it been shown that the kids are more likely to do drugs?
Oh right. Propaganda doesn't need to make sense.

[ClownPrinceofCrime]

My question is, why is D.A.R.E still around? Hasn't it been shown that the kids are more likely to do drugs?
Oh right. Propaganda doesn't need to make sense.

If I remember my university lectures correctly, DARE has little effect on drug use by teens, and in some areas, students with DARE education were found to be more likely to use drugs. Because of its lack of efficacy, it is no longer a federally funded program, and is now supported with private donations.

[KlavoHunter]

Pretty sure DARE exists so you can wear one of their shirts ironically while using drugs.

[Broomstick]

While I'm not a PERSONAL fan of Marijuana...I'm one of the types that get paranoid and very freaked out on it...I thought I saw enough objective evidence that it was still relatively soft. Especially in comparison with alcohol. Is this guy below totally wanking out an over-exaggeration of the negative effects or is he fairly accurate? I would assume some people here would have some more info..

I'll see what I can do. I'm not a fan of marijuana, either, but I don't think it's demonic, either.

"It has been shown to cause an immediate rise in the heart beat by 20-30 beats per minute along with an increase in blood pressure, thus increasing the workload of the heart.

This if the first I've heard of that effect from marijuana, however, a similar effect can be seen in over the counter medications such as Sudafed, too. A normal, healthy person would not be endangered by occasional use of a substance with this effect.

Marijuana is an irritant to the lungs and contains proportionally more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. It is associated with increased incidence of cancer of the head and neck area and lungs.

OK, general principal here - smoke of any sort is bad for you. Tobacco, marijuana, your neighbor's house - it doesn't matter. Combustion products are toxic regardless of origin. When smoked, marijuana smoke is typically not filter either, unlike most commercially produced cigarettes, hence the increased incidence of cancer.

It works on the brain, causing short- and long-term memory loss and impairing judgment, and it affects the sensations of taste and smell.

This is well known about marijuana.

One of its more pernicious effects is that it reduces inhibitions and can lead a person under the influence of marijuana to try even more harmful substances."

That could be said about a lot of drugs, including therapeutic pharmaceuticals and over the counter medications. It is certainly true about alcohol, which is legal in this country.

I am surprised no one mentioned "the munchies" and the potential for obesity.

[The Yosemite Bear]

yes, they can now blame the whole Diabeties increase on the munchies, which of course can be blamed on pot. It fits with their dishones claims.

[Justforfun000]

Broomstick Wrote:

That could be said about a lot of drugs, including therapeutic pharmaceuticals and over the counter medications. It is certainly true about alcohol, which is legal in this country.

I am surprised no one mentioned "the munchies" and the potential for obesity.

Yeah, when you really pick apart his comments to get at the meat of them, they really don't have much do they? Ultimately his points are either "duh", or "so what"? Nothing really earth-shatteringly dangerous. As I've stated before in defense of many activities that could be considered "vices", MANY things in life are technically bad for you in some way but that doesn't mean they aren't useful or desirable. Even some forms of food need to be detoxified through the liver as just one example...something about natural "toxins" that's par for the course in eating other substances, but a walk in the park for the average, healthy liver. Or the kidneys filtering water is another good example. I'm sure there are many impurities in certain types of water that could be overexaggerated and strawmanned into demonizing water itself.

The problem with organizations like this is they live in a fairy-tale world of imagining everyone living in perfect harmony, no harmful activities, no badness, nasty sex, getting tipsy, etc. Norman Rockwell thinking.

[Ryan Thunder]

What kills me every single time is that legalizing it actually causes a net decrease in usage.

I lose a bit of faith in humanity every time I have to acknowledge that, yes, we're so stupid that we'll do things for no better reason than because we were told not to do them.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Laced with stronger drugs? No dealer would "lace" their weed with cocaine or PCP or what have you, to sell to unsuspecting customers. It makes exactly zero business sense, and I wish people would quit repeating this falsehood.

And it's a falsehood because you say so, right? Weed laced with cocaine or PCP it is a pretty well documented (if admittedly infrequent) phenomena. Actually, more common than cocaine or PCP is marijuana laced with formaldehyde, powdered opium or heroin, or crystal meth.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I was thinking of Formalyn or glycolhol ones myself, sure blindness, perminate brain damage, oh yeah, this is as good as the fucks that spike moonshine with glycohol (anti-freeze) as an obvious paralle.

[Wicked Pilot]

Why can't the decision whether or not to legalize pot be made based upon it's own merit? It's not like the drug is somehow less dangerous when the government's no longer running a budget surplus. I guess that's just the level of conversation we should expect in this country.

[FireNexus]

And it's a falsehood because you say so, right? Weed laced with cocaine or PCP it is a pretty well documented (if admittedly infrequent) phenomena. Actually, more common than cocaine or PCP is marijuana laced with formaldehyde, powdered opium or heroin, or crystal meth.

PCP ("wet") and cocaine ("turbo") laced marijuana is known, but is almost always advertised as such. That was the point Klavo was making. And by the way, to my knowledge there is absolutely zero evidence for actual use of formaldehyde in marijuana. Street myth often states that "Wet" is laced with embalming fluid, but that has as much credibility to it as the belief that you can get high smoking banana peels.

[Ziggy Stardust]

PCP ("wet") and cocaine ("turbo") laced marijuana is known, but is almost always advertised as such. That was the point Klavo was making.

Ah, I misunderstood, I thought he was intending to say that nobody laced marijuana with other drugs at all.

And by the way, to my knowledge there is absolutely zero evidence for actual use of formaldehyde in marijuana.

This essay and this article in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry disagree with you, but I was certainly mistaken when I implied that it was "common." That was just clumsy writing on my part. However, it is possible that those two pieces I linked to are not entirely reliable, I can't seem to verify them one way or the other (and the fact that they are both appear to originate from the mid-1980s, when the anti-drug movement was particularly strong, not to mention idiotic, does arouse some suspicion in my mind).