Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2014 The Trentonian
Contact:  http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006
Author: Dave Neese
Page: A3

LEGALIZED MARIJUANA A DOWNER FOR NEW JERSEY

Advocates of marijuana legalization might call it "Reefer
Madness."

New Jersey drug-treatment officials call it simply a
fact.

There are more than 12,000 state "treatment admissions" annually for
marijuana users - a rising number, according to the state's Division
of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

And this at the very time marijuana is winning wide public acceptance
as a relatively harmless substance and even legalization.

Colorado and Washington State voters have approved "recreational"
sales of marijuana. And 19 states including New Jersey, plus
Washington, D.C., have legalized medical use of it.

Gallup says its polling now shows a clear majority of Americans - 58
percent - favoring legalization.

Many localities have moved toward de facto if not official
decriminalization - traffic-violation type fines for possession of
small amounts.

Yet, state drug-treatment officials point to unsettling warning signs.
Marijuana - Mary Jane, pot, grass, weed, reefer - is not heroin or
methamphetamines, but neither is quite the harmless substance you may
have thought, they say. They point to recent research showing that:

Among adolescent heavy users, new medical technology reveals
"deficits" - possibly permanent ones - in the part of their brains
related to "learning and memory." (Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration.)

Marijuana use among 8th, 10th and 12th graders has been on the rise
nationally in recent years, reversing a trend that was going in the
opposite direction in the 1990s. The percentage of high school seniors
who smoke marijuana has more than doubled since 1993. (National
Institute of Drug Abuse.)

Drug abuse and mental illness are often linked. Nearly 20 percent of
problem marijuana users had diagnosable mental problems within the
past three years. Only about half that percentage of non-users did.
(National Survey on Drug Use and Mental Health.)

Other research reported by Frontiers in Psychiatric Study, Treatment
Research Institution and Schizophrenia Bulletin have noted
MRI-detected brain-structure or brain function changes among frequent
marijuana smokers. These are to affect especially areas of the brain
associated with responsible behavior and control of emotions.

Legalization advocates may wonder if such data indicate a latter-day
scare campaign, a coordinated effort to spread anti-pot panic like the
much-mocked 1936 film "Reefer Madness."

Now something of a cult classic, the film purported to dramatize how
unsuspecting teens were lured into marijuana smoking and began a
descent into criminality and finally insanity. The film later inspired
an Off-Broadway musical spoof of the same title.

Officials aren't comparing marijuana to heroin or meth. But they are
saying that just because it's not in a harm class with those
substances - or perhaps even alcohol - that hardly commends its use.

The National Survey on Drug Abuse and Mental Health stresses the point
with these other ominous findings:

In 25 percent of treatment admissions in which marijuana was the
primary abused substance, potsmoking began as early as age 12.- Nearly
six out of 10 problem marijuana users (56 percent) also have problems
with other drugs, 41 percent with alcohol.
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