Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2013
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2013 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Naomi Lakritz
Page: A10

TRUDEAU SHOULD RETHINK LEGALIZING POT

I have lost all respect for Justin Trudeau. Until Thursday, I'd been
rooting for him. No more, though. Not since he announced that he
thinks marijuana should be legalized.

In advocating for legalization, Trudeau cited the futility of the war
on drugs. But this is not about the war on drugs. This is about the
impact on everyday life if marijuana were legal. One commenter on the
Herald's website wondered whether Trudeau is aware of all the social
ills that legalization would bring. For one thing, if this ever comes
to pass, we will add to the carnage caused by drunk drivers, more
carnage caused by drivers who are stoned.

Nor is it valid to argue that since alcohol is legal, marijuana should
be legal, too. Alcohol is out of one's system in a matter of hours for
moderate drinkers. THC, the main ingredient in cannabis, stays in the
body for up to 30 days, which means it continues to impair the user
that much longer after the first high has worn off. Harvard psychiatry
professor Harrison Pope studied marijuana's long-term effects on
cognition. He postulates that one reason for the lengthy period of
impairment, is that THC "dissolves in body fat, then slowly percolates
into the blood and brain over days and weeks after a joint is smoked,"
according to the Harvard Gazette.

Marijuana today is nothing like what it was when Trudeau's father was
prime minister. The University of Mississippi found that in 1983, the
average THC concentration was less than four per cent; in 2008, it was
over 10 per cent. For hydroponically grown marijuana, it's about 25
per cent.

C. Heather Ashton, emerita professor of clinical psychopharmacology at
Britain's University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, reviewed scientific
knowledge "of mechanisms of action, effects on psychomotor and
cognitive performance, and health risks associated with cannabis
consumption." Her 2001 report, published n the British Journal of
Psychiatry, concluded: "... Actions on specific brain receptors cause
dose-related impairments of psychomotor performance with implications
for car and train driving, airplane piloting and academic performance.
Other constituents of cannabis smoke carry respiratory and
cardiovascular health risks similar to those of tobacco smoke.
Cannabis is not ... a harmless drug, but poses risks to the individual
and to society."

A study led by Harvard University's School of Public Health showed "at
least weekly use of marijuana during pregnancy" is a risk factor for
premature separation of the placenta, which can result in fetal brain
damage, prematurity and stillbirth.

Columbia University researchers have found marijuana smoking can cause
"long-term impairment of memory in adolescents; prolonged impairment
of psychomotor performance; a sixfold increase in the incidence of
schizophrenia; cancer of mouth, jaw, tongue and lung in 19-30 year
olds," and leukemia in children whose mothers smoke pot.

In a 2009 report, the California Environmental Protection Agency
noted: "Studies reporting results for direct marijuana smoking have
observed statistically significant associations with cancers of the
lung, head and neck, bladder, brain, and testis. The strongest
evidence of a causal association was for head and neck cancer ...
Among the epidemiological studies that reported results for parental
marijuana smoking and childhood cancer, five of six found
statistically significant associations." That included higher rates of
leukemia in children whose fathers or mothers smoked pot.

Then, there is the link between marijuana and schizophrenia.
"Schizophrenia caused by or contributed by cannabis may be more severe
than schizophrenia in general," Dr. Peter Allebeck, a professor in the
department of public health sciences at Stockholm's Karolinska
Institute, said last April, at the 21st European Congress of
Psychiatry. Allebeck noted that marijuana users appear to have a type
of schizophrenia "that may be more severe than schizophrenia cases in
general."

Earlier this month, Dr. Samuel Wilkinson, of Yale University's 
department of psychiatry, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Though they 
receive little attention in the legalization debate, the scientific 
studies showing an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia 
and other disorders are alarming. A 2004 article in the highly respected 
British Journal of Psychiatry reviewed four large studies, all of which 
showed a significant and consistent association between consumption of 
marijuana (mostly during teenage years or early 20s) and the later 
development of schizophrenia."

Last month, the journal Biological Psychiatry published a study
showing that long-term pot smokers have lower levels of dopamine in
their brains, resulting in a lack of motivation.

Marijuana can also destroy marriages. Researchers Kazuo Yamiguchi of
the University of Chicago and Denise Kandel of Columbia University
wrote in the Journal of Marriage and Family that their studies have
shown that "marijuana use greatly increases the rate of becoming
divorced ..." Just like any substance abuse.

Legalizing this drug would only increase the misery and harm it is
already causing.

Flip-flops are nothing new for politicians, and Justin Trudeau needs
to do a major one on this issue.
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MAP posted-by: Matt