Pubdate: Fri, 08 Nov 2002
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2002 The Hartford Courant
Contact:  http://www.ctnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183
Authors: Jim Severson
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2054/a06.html

PRESENT POLICY CAUSES DANGEROUS DRUG USE

Drug czar John P. Walters' lame reasoning on marijuana dependency 
[Commentary, Nov. 3, "Pot Shots"] does far more harm than the higher 
strength pot he blames for drug addiction.

According to Walters, similar "chemical changes in the brain" resulting 
from heroin, cocaine and marijuana prove marijuana's equivalent 
"dependency-producing" properties.

Chocolate and dozens of FDA-approved pharmaceuticals also produce such 
changes. Following Walter's logic, those substances therefore produce 
dependency for which treatment should be sought.

Walters also argues that young people erroneously "believe [marijuana] is 
not as dangerous as ... other substances are."

Yikes!

The problem is that kids aren't learning to differentiate between marijuana 
and truly hard drugs, and that the marijuana prohibition condemns them to 
an exposure to a potentially deadly black market. The teen rite of passage 
typically goes: cigarettes, booze, pot. When the catastrophes predicted by 
many parents, drug czars and programs like DARE fail to manifest themselves 
as predicted, as is frequently the case, these young folk conclude that 
everything they've been told is bunk.

Kids who would be content smoking a little reefer then become dangerously 
vulnerable to a dealer offering free samples of crack, smack or ecstasy, 
along with the news that "all your friends have tried it." Another youth is 
thus needlessly exposed to a drug that can kill them inside of 15 minutes.

Many experts agree that the focus of the so-called war on drugs should be 
on harm reduction. We can start by getting rid of this drug czar, before 
his 20th-century views result in another young life lost to truly hard drugs.

Jim Severson

Willimantic
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