Pubdate: Fri, 12 Dec 2003
Source: Ocean County Observer (NJ)
Copyright: 2003 Ocean County Observer
Contact:  http://www.injersey.com/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1212
Author: Edward H. Decker

NO MORE STUDIES NEEDED ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

First Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Terrence P. Farley says we need to 
do more studies on marijuana first. Let's see, New Jersey authorized a 
study being done in 1981, it's now 2003, 22 years later, and the state 
hasn't done anything yet.

That means if you were an 80-year-old cancer patient in 1981, and wanted to 
try marijuana to see if it helped, you would propably be dead right now, 
and the state hasn't even started the study yet.

And, even if it does, so what? There already have been lots of studies 
done, and the results are posted on the Internet with positive results in 
favor of the marijuana.

But, people like Farley, who are on a crusade, and other government 
leaders, just ignore those facts, even when they come from their own funded 
studies. Apparently it's done because law enforcement gets a huge chunk of 
money each year for fighting drugs. With more than 700,000 arrests for 
marijuana each year, apparently that's how those people keep their jobs. 
The plan seems to be that they tell us we need studies, they just aren't 
going to do studies, and will ignore the ones already done, because all the 
money goes to law enforcement.

But, wait. There have been lots of studies done in the past in both this 
and other countries. Here are just a couple of them.

The Jamaican studies of 1968-74 and 1975 by the National Institute for 
Mental Health found marijuana causes "no impairment of physiology, sensory 
and perception, and motor performance in tests of concept formation, 
abstraction ability, cognitive style and memory. Social studies report 
positive effects. There is no link to criminal behavior."

The Nixon Blue Ribbon Report of 1972 found that marijuana does not cause 
violent aggressive behavior, does not lead to the use of harder drugs, does 
not constitute a major public health problem, does not lead to major 
chromosomal or brain damage, and does not lead to physical dependency. The 
commission advocated the decriminalization of marijuana for private use. 
This commission was disbanded after reporting these findings.

I could give you dozens more, but what's the point? These are legitimate 
studies, some done by our own government, but, I still don't see Farley in 
favor of it. In fact, I'm seeing a callous disregard to the sick. And, 
instead of following the recommendations of these studies, the government 
still is following the same old "reefer madness" tactics of the past 89 
years when the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed. That would be 89 years of 
dismal failure by law enforcement to stop people from using drugs, for any 
reason.

No matter how long Farley keeps beating that dead horse, it isn't going to 
get up again. And if we could get the media to print a couple of these 
studies in the papers, I'm betting I get anti-medical marijuana people to 
eat their words, because these are real facts from medical institutes, and 
not the Disneyland garbage they keep coming up with.

EDWARD H. DECKER,  Whiting
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