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In Reply to: Re: here's some NEW research posted by Rocky on June 11, 2005 at 00:10:04:
Rocky, why do you find it necessary to put words in my mouth and end your post with a red herring? Perhaps to deflect from the weakness of your arguments? It certainly reflects the double-mindedness you express in this post. On one hand you say you support legalization, on the other you spout tired old prohibitionist arguments.
First, you will not find in any post of mine that I have said that cannabis use is without risk. To imply that I am unreasonable for taking that position is disingenuous and seems designed to discredit me. However, I still maintain that the risks associated with cannabis use are far, far less than many common medical and non-medical substances found in most households. Hell, it's even safer than some foods. Check out this article about the dangers of just one pharmeceutical. As I'm typing this, Elvis Costello is singing in the background, "It's a Kind of Murder", and that's exactly what the drug company, the FDA and doctor's in this story are complicit in. There are hundreds of horror stories similar to this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/business/10drug.html?th&emc=th
Second, your claim "that the average THC strengths of cultured cannabis are 6-8 times what they were in the past" is simply not true and not substantiated by the facts. It is an urban legend repeated by politicians, police officers, journalists, excitable and narrow minded prohibitionists and moralists, gullible customers and dealers happy to pocket a premium for a "unique" product. Here's a good article where you'll learn more about the myth you are perpetuating:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n475/a07.html?78068
Third, you end with the common prohibitionist red herring of impaired driving. It's just common sense that anyone who is impaired by any substance poses a public safety risk, but the issue of public nuisance and even danger caused by impaired citizens is always about the person, not about whatever substance he has chosen. There are all kinds of medications, prescription and non-prescription, with side effects that could impair one's driving. That doesn't stop those meds from being consumed and I doubt very many people who take a strong cold medication, for example, refrain from driving when they really should. For that matter, fatigue causes more traffic injuries than alcohol, so what are we going to do, criminalize insomniacs and people with colds?
I initially posted the suggestion about cannabis use as a relatively safe, alternative for some people for some conditions. All my subsequent posts, contrary to Yvonne's assumption in her last post to me, have not been an attempt to convince anyone, but to counter misinformation, myths and lies people have posted that have their origin in the propaganda of the political war on drugs, whether the poster realizes it or not.
Finally, for anyone interested, here's a recent article from the journal Scientific American, Dec. 2004, Vol. 291 Issue 6 called The Brain's Own Marijuana. This link should take you to the full article:
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=15024985
