Pubdate: Wed, 13 Aug 2014
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Authors: William J. Bennett And Robert A. White
Note: Mr. Bennett is a former secretary of education (1985-88) and 
was the first director of the National Drug Control Policy (1989-90). 
Mr. White is an attorney in Princeton, N.J.

LEGAL POT IS A PUBLIC HEALTH MENACE

Public Opinion Is Moving in Favor of Marijuana, Even As Medical 
Research Raises Fresh Alarms.

The great irony, or misfortune, of the national debate over marijuana 
is that while almost all the science and research is going in one 
direction - pointing out the dangers of marijuana use - public 
opinion seems to be going in favor of broad legalization.

For example, last week a new study in the journal Current Addiction 
Reports found that regular pot use (defined as once a week) among 
teenagers and young adults led to cognitive decline, poor attention 
and memory, and decreased IQ. On Aug. 9, the American Psychological 
Association reported that at its annual convention the ramifications 
of marijuana legalization was much discussed, with Krista Lisdahl, 
director of the imaging and neuropsychology lab at the University of 
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, saying: "It needs to be emphasized that regular 
cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may 
result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth."

Since few marijuana users limit themselves to use once a week, the 
actual harm is much worse for developing brains. The APA noted that 
young people who become addicted to marijuana lose an average of six 
IQ points by adulthood. A long line of studies have found similar 
results-in 2012, a decades-long study of more than 1,000 New 
Zealanders who frequently smoked pot in adolescence pegged the IQ 
loss at eight points.

Yet in recent weeks and months, much media coverage of the marijuana 
issue has either tacitly or explicitly supported legalization. A 
CCN/ORC International survey in January found that a record 55% of 
Americans support marijuana legalization.

The disconnect between science and public opinion is so great that in 
a March WSJ/NBC News poll, Americans ranked sugar as more harmful 
than marijuana. The misinformation campaign appears to be succeeding.

Here's the truth. The marijuana of today is simply not the same drug 
it was in the 1960s, '70s, or '80s, much less the 1930s. It is often 
at least five times stronger, with the levels of the psychoactive 
ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, averaging about 15% in the 
marijuana at dispensaries found in the states that have legalized pot 
for "medicinal" or, in the case of Colorado, recreational use. Often 
the THC level is 20% or higher.

With increased THC levels come increased health risks. Since Colorado 
legalized recreational use earlier this year, two deaths in the state 
have already been linked to marijuana. In both cases it was consumed 
in edible form, which can result in the user taking in even more THC 
than when smoking pot. "One man jumped to his death after consuming a 
large amount of marijuana contained in a cookie," the Associated 
Press reported in April, "and in the other case, a man allegedly shot 
and killed his wife after eating marijuana candy." Reports are coming 
out of Colorado in what amounts to a parade of horribles from more 
intoxicated driving to more emergency hospital admissions due to 
marijuana exposure and overdose.

Over the past 10 years, study after study has shown the damaging 
effect of marijuana on the teenage brain. Northwestern School of 
Medicine researchers reported in the Schizophrenia Bulletin in 
December that teens who smoked marijuana daily for about three years 
showed abnormal brain-structure changes. Marijuana use has clearly 
been linked to teen psychosis as well as decreases in IQ and 
permanent brain damage.

The response of those who support legalization: Teenagers can be kept 
away from marijuana. Yet given the dismal record regarding 
age-restricted use of tobacco and alcohol, success with barring teens 
from using legalized marijuana would be a first.

The reason such a large number of teens use alcohol and tobacco is 
precisely because those are legal products. The reason more are now 
using marijuana is because of its changing legal status-from 
something that was dangerous and forbidden to a product that is now 
considered "medicinal," and in the states of Colorado and Washington 
recreational. Until recently, the illegality of marijuana, and the 
stigma of lawbreaking, had kept its use below that of tobacco and alcohol.

Legality is the mother of availability, and availability, as former 
Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. put it 
in his 2008 book on substance abuse, "High Society," is the mother of 
use. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration, currently 2.7 million Americans age 12 and older meet 
the clinical criteria for marijuana dependence, or addiction.

Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of 
California, Los Angeles, has estimated that legalization can be 
expected to increase marijuana consumption by four to six times. 
Today's 2.7 million marijuana dependents (addicts) would thus expand 
to as many as 16.2 million with nationwide legalization. That should 
alarm any parent, teacher or policy maker.

There are two conversations about marijuana taking place in this 
country: One, we fear, is based on an obsolete perception of 
marijuana as a relatively harmless, low-THC product. The other takes 
seriously the science of the new marijuana and its effect on teens, 
whose adulthood will be marred by the irreversible damage to their 
brains when young.

Supporters of marijuana legalization insist that times are changing 
and policy should too. But they are the ones stuck in the past-and 
charting a dangerous future for too many Americans.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom