Young People Smoke Dope, Call For Legalization Despite cancellation of many weekend events out of respect for the victims of terrorist attacks last week, an estimated 10,000 people still gathered at Boston Common on Saturday for an annual rally for the legalization of marijuana. The smell of pot hung in the air over groups of young people openly passing joints and smoking pipes while sitting on the grass. Uniformed police and park rangers stood on the peripheries of the crowd in small clusters, while some rode on horseback. [continues 950 words]
More disturbing is the manner in which marijuana users come into contact with pushers of harder drugs. The black market status of marijuana puts its distribution in the hands of organized crime. Marijuana is not a gateway drug, but marijuana prohibition is definitely a gateway drug policy. Not only do current drug laws facilitate the introduction of hard drugs to youth, but they also enrich organized crime, which in turn fuels violence and corruption. America's experience with alcohol prohibition confirms that legalization will not only eliminate drug law related violence, but also make it significantly harder for children to purchase drugs. [continues 74 words]
They wonder whether the Libertarians 1) merely advocate the freedom of adults to use any drug they choose or 2) whether they are also saying that marijuana is harmless. So we commissioned this debate. The answer turns out to be that the Libertarians do not believe that marijuana is much of a problem. We asked Prof. Miron to write an article for us that appeared in the February issue. He basically said that marijuana is minimally dangerous. Therefore, we have apparently reached the conclusion that the Libertarian participation at the marijuana rally is not just for the freedom to use any drug, but also to dispel any belief that marijuana is dangerous. We have received many letters from all over the world on this subject. [continues 387 words]
Jeffrey Miron did an excellent job refuting the junk science-based reefer madness put forth by George Biernson. Nonetheless, it is not the relative harmlessness of marijuana that compels many activists to advocate legalization, but rather the effects of existing drug laws. Here in America children have an easier time buying marijuana than beer. While a liquor store will refuse to sell alcohol to a minor to avoid losing its license, a drug dealer will sell to anyone. More disturbing is the manner in which marijuana users come into contact with pushers of harder drugs. [continues 711 words]
In Mr. Miron's reply to "Marijuana, the Deceptive Drug," (February issue) it is clear that he "protests too much." Having been involved for over fifteen years in fighting those whose goal is legalization, in my opinion, this article had no new rhetoric; the same old claims with the same lack of substantiation. In faulting Mr. Biernson's cited studies, why then, does Mr. Miron fail to cite any studies to validate many of his statements? Contrary to the Grinspoon/Bakalar quote: "...the only deleterious physical effect of marijuana is harm to the pulmonary system," is a recent report (December, 1999) by Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang of the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, which adds to evidence that smoking marijuana can cause cancer. "Many people may think marijuana is harmless, but it's not." [continues 396 words]
Harms Of Marijuana Are Real And Medically Established This is a rebuttal of the reply by Jeffrey A. Miron to my article on marijuana in the January 2000 Massachusetts News. I agree with Mr. Miron that "the literature on marijuana is vast and contains at least one or two studies that appear to support almost any view." Why is this so? We are bombarded by propaganda on marijuana funded by vast sums from the drug cartels, which is designed to support their cocaine and heroin products. This confusion is augmented by naïve individuals who are blindly repeating the propaganda. [continues 1036 words]
Professor Miron claims that the benefits of smoking marijuana outweigh any potential harms. [Massachusetts News, February 2000] This view is not shared by our nation's top public health official, Dr. Donna Shalala, who has stated, "Research tells us marijuana limits learning, memory, perception, judgment, and motor skills, and it damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system. Marijuana is not a 'soft' drug." [Time, 12/9/96] To support his view, Professor Miron refers to books by Drs. Lester Grinspoon and John Morgan. Both are on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a legalization group which funds marijuana rallies that target the youth, such as the annual Boston Common rock concert. [continues 794 words]
Beliefs About Marijuana Are Confused January 5--Marijuana is very deceptive because it is extremely slow acting. Very little of its active ingredient, THC, has reached the brain at the time of the "high." Hence the drug appears to the user to be mild. However, the user does not realize that it has an appreciable effect on his body for over a month. About 40% of the THC is stored in the body fat and is then slowly released into the blood over many weeks. Each joint adds to the supply of THC that the body is storing, thereby increasing the level of it in the blood. When a person smokes regularly, the THC in his blood is sufficient to sedate him all the time. [continues 2051 words]
Biernson's Review Of The Evidence On Marijuana'S Effects Is Highly Skewed We requested Prof. Jeffrey A. Miron to reply to the article which appeared in our last issue about the dangers of marijuana. Prof. Miron is the founder of the Bastiat Institute, a libertarian think tank in Wellesley and a professor at Boston University. Needless to say, the author of the original article, George Biernson and others, are anxious to reply to Prof. Miron in our next issue. We hope this exchange will allow you to sharpen your views on the subject. - Massachusetts News [continues 2236 words]
