MARIJUANA is no more a gateway drug to opiate abuse than drinking milk is a gateway to alcohol abuse. "Nearly all people with substance abuse problems; most heroin users, initiated their drug use beginning with marijuana." This is about as useful as revealing that all alcoholics at one time drank mothers' milk. There is no proven connection between marijuana and heroin abuse nor is there any reliable evidence that "establishing cannabis as a third tranche legal drug, along with tobacco and alcohol, will increase drug abuse, including the expanding opioid and ice epidemic." [continues 155 words]
IN THE US prohibition of drugs led by Harry Anslinger was predicated on racial grounds, cocaine and marijuana associated with African Americans and jazz and opioids with Chinese. Further cannabis had strong opposition from timber investments supplying the newspaper industries. Nixon's war on drugs continued this precedent. In an interview in 1994 with investigative journalist Dan Baum Nixon advisor John Erlichman admitted, "the Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. [continues 146 words]
THERE appears to be an inexorable advance in acceptance of the ubiquitous use of party drugs and a concomitant approach to safe use of these drugs at music festivals. In NSW a group of doctors, led by Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Drug Law Reform Foundation, is preparing to provide drug testing facilities at music festivals, giving sound scientific and medical advice to recreational drug users on site. Experience has shown that this approach saves more young lives than the current saturation police enforcement policy. [continues 153 words]
SO 'ICE' is an epidemic. In 2013 it was established that less than 7% of Australians over the age of 14 years had used methamphetamine at least once in the past year. Methamphetamine first synthesized from ephedrine in 1918 (and amphetamines synthesized in 1888) were used during the Second World War o enhance endurance during long range bomber flights. Servicemen often believed it was bromide to suppress their libido. Truckies used amphetamines to combat fatigue and increase alertness. Today, amphetamines are still used medically to treat narcolepsy (a sleep disorder) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). [continues 242 words]
DIETER Moeckel (May 5) makes dealing with the illicit drug trade sound so simple. It's obvious to me Mr Moeckel has had little experience with drug dependency. It sounds to me we wouldn't have any more heroin addicts because the illicit trade would die due to availability of prescription heroin if Mr Moeckel's theory had any credit. Maybe he could enlighten me to some question I have on this theory. Who is going to administer the heroin injections considering an addict can need three to five hits a day? [continues 339 words]
OVER the past years, I have witnessed a lot of information for and against the use of marijuana. However, we will never know the "unmeasurable statistics" of families whose lives are destroyed because either the parents or children are using marijuana and other drugs. I use the words "unmeasurable statistics" because of experiences and circumstances as a parent and being a support person for parents and their children. I have experienced that society is very quick to blame, use excuses, assume, shift the responsibility and label parents as irresponsible. [continues 227 words]
SO the problem with heroin is its illicitness (being illegal), according to Dieter Moeckel (June 11). Try telling that to the heroin addict who has just given birth to a heroin-addicted baby who is going through the excruciating pain of withdrawal. Mr Moeckel tries to delude us into believing that marijuana is "less harmful than either tobacco or alcohol". Not according to Dr Donald's research at the University of California. He found marijuana had four times the cancer causing potential of tobacco. [continues 199 words]
