As I understand it, he's refering to a prior study which, after further research, he now finds was in error.
2006-03-08 12:41:00 Odie
Let's face it. If someone truely wants to believe there is no danger to smoking marijuana they will find all the research in the world that supports their belief, I mean what the hell, I did that over 30 years ago when I was in school.
Are you comparing yourself as a teenager to DEA administrative judge, Francis Young? Seriously, no one who's given it due thought would say that
any substance on this planet or activity in which people engage is without risk. However, as drugs go, whether you're talking about recreational, medicinal use or use w/ unexamined motive, cannabis is safer than damned near anything else. Safer than Tylenol or aspirine, far safer the tobacco or alcohol.
All I'm saying here is present both sides of the argument and let people choose what they want to put into their bodies. Marijuana is not by far the most dangerous addictive drug but that is not to say that it is safe either.
That's what
I'm tryin' ta say! Unfortunately, in recent decades (hell, generations if you really get down to it) we, as tax paying Americans, have been compelled to fund extremely biased research designed to support the drug warriors' preconceived notions about cannabis.
These people lie, cheat and steal just as much when employed as researchers and policy makers for the Federal government as they do when they're pretending to cure the disease of adolescence. And they
are the same people, just check. Donald Ian MacDonald is a good one to look into on that count.
When they wanted to "prove" that extacy was a highly dangerous drug, they actually had to substitute methamphetamine for MDMA in the lab in order to get the results they want. This caused harm on two fronts. 1) their intended effect; tougher laws on MDMA and MDMA users (who, as a group, had been getting rather political) and 2) it further muddied the waters wrt what the hell MDMA actually is and what it does. Me? I've never touched the stuff. I may later when I'm older and a little more time has gone by. But now? Fuck that! I view it w/ almost as much suspicion as any of the other new psyche drugs.
So, much of what you "know" about drugs simply isn't true because, like most everyone, you've been duped.
At the end of the day, no one is seriously advocating a policy to mandate the use of Cannabis or any other drug (cept the shrinks, and they like to push speed and SSRIs, not Cannabis) But there is a long standing, credible movement afoot for some decades to debunk the false research which has scared the shit out of certain influential Americans, causing them to believe we need laws to protect us from Cannabis. We don't. The shit is just not that dangerous.
It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues
--Abraham Lincoln
