Pubdate: Thu, 30 Dec 2010
Source: Oceanside Star (BC)
Copyright: 2010 Oceanside Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/oceansidestar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4880
Author: Deborah Joyce
Note: Deborah Joyce is the Executive Director of District 69 Family Resource
Association serving children, youth and families in Oceanside. Contact
her at 250-752-6766.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POT AFFECTS MOTIVATION, MEMORY

Once again we seem to be on the theme of legalizing marijuana. I was 
a youth in the 1960s so I have some knowledge of the subject and I 
even remember seeing the grainy images of beatniks in the 50s 
lounging in coffee houses in Greenwich Village. They always looked a 
little "far out," as the saying goes.

Those days seem rather far removed from the reality of our current 
drug-saturated society. As a whole we have more experience and more 
information about the use of drugs now, both legal and illegal.

At the same time, the drug product itself has matured. Marijuana and 
hashish are laced with poisons that one would not even consider 
keeping in the house let alone ingesting. As my daughter has told me, 
"Mom, this is not the flower-power weed of old."

One thing we definitely know about marijuana is that it is 
amotivational. Adding that little 'a' at the front of the word gives 
it the opposite meaning. It is the total lack of motivation that 
signals marijuana use to teachers and counsellors in the school 
system and to the parent who is paying close attention to their 
child's behaviour in the home.

You don't have to follow your child around every day to figure out 
what is happening. All the signs are available to you in your own 
home if you pay attention.

Poor memory is a by-product of smoking marijuana. In days gone by we 
all laughed uproariously at the Cheech & Chong depictions of the 
forgetful stoners and their laid-back antics. Now the laughter seems 
rather pathetic.

Not that we didn't have this information many years ago. As far back 
as the mid-1800s a man name Schroff experimented with the use of 
hashish. His idea was to smoke the hash and then make notes. Can you 
guess what went wrong? Exactly! He realized that when he was under 
the influence he could not take notes so he planned to do it the next 
day. On the following day he couldn't remember a thing.

There is enough evidence to establish that marijuana use takes away 
motivation and seriously affects memory. We also know that every 
youth who smokes marijuana does not become a drug addict, contrary to 
the fear-mongering message of that classic documentary 'Reefer Madness.'

If we imagine for a minute the effect a motivation-reducing drug that 
extinguishes memory has on a growing brain, I think we can come up 
with a reasonable answer to the campaign to legalize marijuana. 
Marijuana may not lead directly to addiction for some, but it is the 
gateway drug for others. The 60s and 70s proved that beyond a doubt. 
But even if addiction doesn't necessarily follow, what is the lasting 
effect on the brain, on the executive functions that support 
problem-solving and decision-making?

Legalizing marijuana is not a good thing, folks!
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom