Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2016 Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Copyright: 2016 Chico Enterprise-Record Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority Author: William R. Todd-Mancillas LAW ENFORCEMENT GROUP MISREPRESENTS MARIJUANA The California State Sheriffs Association claims marijuana seriously impairs driving and has other adverse consequences (AP, Mercury News, June 28). Yet researchers find that while obviously inadvisable, marijuana only modestly affects driving (Journal of Drug And Alcohol Dependence, June 23, 2016). Marijuana users know their performance is impaired and compensate by slowing down and being especially attentive. By contrast, inebriated drivers are seriously impaired. They merely think they are in control; in fact, they speed, weave across lanes, have lethally slower reaction times, and cause thousands of accidents (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 2015). Moreover, illegality accounts for marijuana's negative societal consequences, not its use per se. Incarceration soils reputations, deprives children of custodial parents, financially and mentally stresses families and society, blackballs one from employment, and puts one at risk for assault. Violence results from gangsters killing other gangsters and, as Denise Hopper can testify (letters, Aug. 15), innocent bystanders. Gangsters are not discretionary users. In fact, among occasional users, alcohol precipitates while cannabis reduces aggression and is associated with less - not more - domestic violence (Psychoparmacology, July 15, 2016; Psychology of Addictive Behavior, Sept., 2014). Law enforcement receives substantial funding to prosecute the drug war, so it is not surprising the sheriffs association misrepresents marijuana's true character - a relatively benign profile coupled with considerable therapeutic utility. The consequences of this outsized misrepresentation are serious. Not only is the public duped on an important issue, law enforcement's credibility is reduced as well. - - William R. Todd-Mancillas, Chico - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom