Science shows that drug criminalization has very little impact on cannabis use.

I would (and do) encourage all kids to wait until adulthood before experimenting with drugs. Many drugs have long reaching effects on us when we use them young, but become relatively benign when we mature into adulthood.

I just think it would be better if our drug policy didn't encourage kids to use drugs while they are young and the criminal justice penalties are relatively minor. I also believe that by treating these substances as "forbidden fruit," young people are inexorably drawn to them as a result of their rebellious nature. Both of these points are held up by the data that shows that drug use by teenagers in the US is roughly DOUBLE the rate in Holland, where mar1juana is tolerated and sold by legitimate businesses rather than drug dealers.

 

LIES AND THE LAZY REPORTERS WHO REPEAT THEM

On May 5, newspapers and news broadcasts around the country carried alarming stories about a new study of mar1juana, published in that day's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Stronger mar1juana makes more addicted," screamed the Los Angeles Daily News. "Abuse and dependence rise as pot becomes more potent," headlined the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Rising mar1juana potency, the stories claimed, was leading more Americans to become addicted to the devil weed.

Small problem: The theory that pot that is more potent is getting people hooked is almost certainly wrong. But none of the newspaper stories gave the slightest hint that might be the case.

The government-funded study on which the stories were based, "Prevalence of mar1juana Use Disorders in the United States," was conducted by scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It compared survey data from 1991-92 to 2001-02, indicating an increase in mar1juana "abuse" or "dependence," as defined by the DSM-IV, the American Psychiatric Association's official diagnostic manual for mental disorders. The study's authors hypothesized that the most likely cause for this increase is "increased mar1juana potency." As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, picked up by the Daily News, put it, "It's not your parents' mar1juana." Wire stories used by most other papers took roughly the same line, though in less shrill language.

None of these stories chose to mention a salient fact: The "potent pot" hypothesis is pure speculation. As Mitch Earleywine, University of Southern California associate professor of psychology and author of "Understanding mar1juana" (Oxford University Press, 2002) notes, there is no scientific evidence that mar1juana that is more potent leads to greater levels of dependence. Indeed the JAMA article makes no claim that any such evidence exists.

Second, as the JAMA article notes, under DSM-IV criteria, people can be classified as mar1juana "abusers" if they experience "legal problems related to mar1juana use." The FBI Uniform Crime Reports arrest tabulations show that mar1juana arrests skyrocketed from about 300,000 in 1991 to well over 700,000 in 2001. What may be simply the results of shifting law enforcement priorities were presented in both the study and in news reports as the dire effects of "potent pot." Strikingly, the JAMA article fails to identify which abuse/dependence criteria increased, and by how much.

That alone should have led an inquisitive reporter or two to ask if there might be an alternative explanation to the "potent pot" theory. But the journalists covering the story failed to ask this most basic question even though the study contained a giant red flag: The increased "abuse" occurred almost entirely among young blacks and Hispanics. There was no similar increase among whites in the same age group.

Young blacks and Hispanics have no special access to high-potency mar1juana, and there is no evidence that THC affects black and Hispanic brains differently than those of whites. But people of color are well documented to be at disproportionate risk for arrest for drug crimes.

None of this was discussed in the Journal-Constitution story, or in the AP, Reuters and Scripps-Howard wire stories that were reprinted across the country. Indeed, what is striking about all of these stories is their similarity to the National Institute on Drug Abuse's press release. None of these esteemed newspapers or wire services chose to quote even a single expert or advocate skeptical of the government line. None of them seems to have considered the possibility that our government might spin the data in order to match its Drug War policies.

For shame.

 

No new thread for this one...

 

That would work for me...

Maybe we can take suggestions for the thread name.

Drug War Report?

A Prohibitionist's Nightmare?

Or, in tribute to rvolkin, "Silver Spoons, Hypodermics, and Bongs."

 

Some people around here would just say that I am damned.