THE JUDGES AND THE WEED

The opening salvo in America's interminable drug war was actually fired in
1914. With the passage of the Harrison Act, it became essentially illegal
for a non-physician to prescribe opiates or cocaine. At the time they
passed it, some legislators wondered if the government wasn't overstepping
its bounds. After all, didn't free citizens have the right to decide what
substances they would put in their bodies? And anyway, wasn't the practice
of medicine something for the States to regulate?

But if the government was timid in beginning the Drug War, it quickly got
over it. By 1937, marijuana had been added to the list of forbidden fruit,
and by 1997 the list had been so expanded that the first of its five
categories had grown to 83 named drugs.

Included in Schedule I - the most dangerous and medically unredeemed - are
diacetyl morphine (Heroin), dihydromorphine and other highly addicting
opiates. In the same Scheduled I you'll find mescaline, LSD and DMT: all
potent hallucinogens. But curiously missing from Schedule I - or Schedule
II, III, IV, or V - is the drug MHM.

Any kid who is savvy about drugs knows about MHM. And if he's taken a high
school chemistry class, he could manufacture it. The ingredients are cheap,
and the equipment needed for manufacture is easy to find.

The effect of MHM varies considerably from person to person. Most users
report a mild euphoria initially, but as the dose is increased, reactions
become more variable.

Men, more than women, are apt to become aggressive. Younger men will
frequently fight, older ones may become abusive. Cases of spousal abuse
from heavy MHM users are commonplace.

At particularly high doses, MHM causes sedation and amnesia. This
combination of effects makes it a superb date-rape drug. Among male users,
stories abound of young women whose virtue was purchased for a few dollars
worth of the stuff.

MHM wrecks coordination and the ability to operate dangerous machinery.
But, unfortunately, it also deceives the user. Although totally unfit to
handle an automobile, for instance, the user feels superbly qualified.
Tales of bloody mayhem in motor vehicles can be found in every police
jurisdiction.

And still the DEA will not act.

The long-term physical dangers of MHM, are worth repeating. A small, but
significant number of users become hopelessly addicted. Their entire life
revolves around the drug. From the moment they open their eyes, until the
time they collapse in bed, they need their "fix." Over time, it severely
damages their brain, their nervous system, their internal organs. They know
they should quit, but they cannot. And if - for some reason - they try to
go "cold turkey" they risk seizures and possibly death.

These addicts pay a terrible social price. As their addiction worsens, they
become incapable of holding a job. After they lose their livelihood, they
typically lose friends, and finally family. They are genuinely powerless to
control their slide into social oblivion.

Yet the DEA will not control MHM.

Let me tell you the tale of one young man, then I will stop. He woke up in
a jail cell, with both hands bandaged, and no idea how he got there. When
he was told the story, he was horrified.

As was his habit, he'd started the previous night with a dose of MHM, then
another, and another. He'd been at a party where the drug had been
plentiful, and nobody knew for certain how much he'd taken, but it was
enough to make him drowsy. Some time during the night, while he was still
high, his date had begun dancing with his best friend. At the end of one
dance, she had kissed him.

The young man, who had been dozing, opened his eyes at just the moment they
kissed. Fearing the worst, he had angrily confronted his friend. They had
exchanged words, then pushes, and finally punches were thrown. Although he
remembered none of this, he had then grabbed a knife from a food tray and
lunged. The knife went through his friend's heart.

Everything I've told you about MHM is true. If anything, I've understated
the damage it does. In one California college town, the police estimate
that fully half their resources are spent dealing with the consequences of
the drug.

And what is MHM? It stands for Methyl-Hydroxy-Methane. As any chemist will
tell you, that's another name for alcohol. The same stuff in wine, beer,
and distilled spirits. It accounts for more death, work-loss, spousal
abuse, brain damage, and physical illness than ALL of the drugs on the
DEA's Schedule I. As a drug of abuse, marijuana can't hold a candle.

And why is MHM unregulated by the Controlled Substances Act? Seems that
when the law was written, MHM was specifically excluded. The same brilliant
minds that classified marijuana as dangerous and medically useless - when
it is neither - have exempted the one drug which rather nicely fits their
very own criteria.

Jay Davis is a local physician who reminds himself that in the Drug War, as
in all wars, truth is the first casualty.

Comments welcome!