Pubdate: Thu, 20 Dec 2012
Source: Washington Examiner (DC)
Copyright: 2012 Washington Examiner
Contact:  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3788
Author: Joyce Nalepka
Page: 49

MARIJUANA IS NOT HARMLESS AND SHOULD NOT BE LEGALIZED

Re: "President's pot comments prompt call for policy," Dec. 17

In the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting, I find it both 
ironic and infuriating that a president of the United States would 
discuss legalization of marijuana, the drug that has been so damaging 
to America's children.

President Obama said he has "bigger fish to fry" than recreational 
pot users, but marijuana is far more dangerous than most people 
realize. It is currently 244 percent more potent than it was in the 
1970s, and more than 15 other nations link it to schizophrenia.

No one likes to speak about the fact that it was another president, 
Jimmy Carter, who looked the other way while the founders of the 
legalization movement smoked marijuana on the White House balcony and 
promoted the idea that marijuana is harmless. Parents struggling to 
bring their children back from addiction to pot know better.

I know hundreds of parents whose children are in treatment or prison 
with the major diagnosis being "marijuana addiction." Dr. Robert 
DuPont, an internationally recognized psychiatrist and the first 
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, states: 
"Marijuana damages the brain, lungs, reproductive and immune systems."

Pro-drug groups continue to lie about the harm done by pot and claim 
they don't support legalization. But the Marijuana Policy Project, or 
MPP, admitted in a recent newsletter that "MPP is fighting for full 
legalization."

Joyce Nalepka

President, Drug-free Kids: America's Challenge

Silver Spring
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom