Pubdate: Sat, 22 Mar 2014
Source: Morning Sun (Mt. Pleasant, MI)
Copyright: 2014 Morning Sun
Contact:   http://www.themorningsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3938
Author: Les Rosan
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n224/a06.html

NOT HEARING MESSAGE ABOVE CACOPHONY

Mt. Pleasant Police Officer Michael Covarrubias authored an oped 
column titled "The dangers of decriminalizing marijuana" which was 
published by the Morning Sun on March 1.

The Covarrubias epistle immediately generated a tremendous amount of 
negative pushback from the online community which seemed to delight 
in pillorying his literary foray.

On March 4 the Morning Sun published a rebuttal column titled 
"Physician response to dangers of decriminalizing marijuana." This 
guest column was authored by Dr. Robert Townsend, the president of a 
pain management clinic located in Mt. Pleasant. The online reaction 
to the Townsend column was instantaneous jubilation as the online 
community heaped accolades of praise upon their newly anointed messiah.

Unfortunately, as is the case with many contentious issues, the facts 
and opportunity for reasoned debate often become the casualty of an 
escalated emotional cacophony.

I know Mike Covarrubias personally and I have no doubt that his heart 
is in the right place and that his column was written with the best 
of intentions. I do not know Dr. Townsend, but I would suspect that 
this observation would also apply to him he prepared his rebuttal response.

A majority of the information in Covarrubias's column was culled from 
a study prepared by University of Colorado Associate Professor, Dr. 
John Martyny. Dr. Martyny and the National Jewish Health research 
facility located in Denver, Colorado undertook a study on the harmful 
effects of indoor marijuana growing operations.

 From what I have been able to determine, the final report was 
unpublished and not subject to the normal peer review process 
necessary to validate the conclusions and recommendations.

Some might construe this study as biased from the onset since it was 
coordinated by the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. The study 
received funding from a variety of law enforcement sources including 
the Department of Justice, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of 
Police and the County Sheriff's of Colorado Association.

One of Dr. Martyny's final conclusions was that law enforcement 
personnel were being exposed to hazardous levels of mold when 
entering indoor marijuana growing operations He further suggested the 
health risks rose to the same level as those encountered in meth labs 
which require a full hazmat response complete with ancillary 
protective equipment.

It is unknown at this point if Martyny's recommendations have been 
implemented or if children found to be living in these growhomes are 
now immediately taken into protective custody. This study is 
reminiscent in many ways to some of the self-serving studies which 
had been funded by the tobacco companies years ago.

After the Martyny study had been released, Caoimhn P. Connell, a 
well-respected Colorado industrial hygienist, authored a lengthy 
rebuttal response to the conclusions and recommendations found in the 
Martyny report. Mr. Connell's detailed rebuttal response may be 
located at the following link: http://bit.ly/1f0FRyQ.

Officer Covarrubias's column also cited a study by Madeline Meier. He 
claimed that this study concluded that the use of marijuana lowers a 
person's IQ. This is a very broad-based simplistic conclusion. The 
underlying fact overlooked by Covarrubias was that the Meier study 
focused on those who began smoking marijuana as adolescents and 
studied the effect of marijuana on the developing adolescent brain.

It is just not as simple or as inflammatory as "marijuana use lowers 
IQ" because there is more to the story.

In an attempt to be fair and balanced I must direct some attention to 
Dr. Townsend's column which was not without its own agenda-driven 
issues. Townsend made the broad assumption that Officer Covarrubias 
never speaks with college students about drug use unless they are in 
handcuffs and under arrest.

That assertion is entirely baseless and Townsend has no way to verify 
his statement. Townsend wrote the following statement in his column: 
"All this nonsense about children being kicked out of their bedrooms 
so people can grow marijuana is designed not to show the danger to 
children, but to show their marijuana smoking parents are incapable 
of caring for them properly."

Covarrubias was simply citing a study which concluded that there were 
hazards with maintaining indoor grow operations and perhaps that was 
not the best environment for young children. He in no way implied 
that adults who happen to smoke marijuana on occasion were poor 
parents incapable of caring for their children.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom