ATTITUDES DRIVE ACTIONS

One of the principal reasons for the alarming rate of drug use among teens
is the lack of understanding within large segments of our society about the
risks inherent in using illegal drugs. Movies like "Half-Baked" and others
portray marijuana use as comical. Pop culture continues to both normalize
and glamorize drug use. The legalizing and harm reduction crowd argues
vociferously -- and yet without a scintilla of factual basis -- that drugs
like marijuana are benign. All of this gives our young people a false sense
of security about using drugs. However, the facts are that drugs are neither
funny nor safe. They are tragic and deadly.

Science, for example, increasingly shows that marijuana -- the drug most
often misunderstood as benign -- impairs the workings of the human brain.
Attachment B to this testimony is a comparison of PET scans of two brains,
which documents the effects of marijuana on the normal neurochemical
activity of the human brain. The four images at the top of the slide show
normal brain activity. The four images at the bottom show the brain activity
of a marijuana abuser. The color red indicates the highest level of
activity. Yellow, green, and lastly blue, show respectively diminishing
levels of brain activity. Compared to the normal slides, the brain slides of
the marijuana abuser clearly show diminished activity in all cross sections,
particularly in the cerebellum. Lower cerebellar metabolism explains not
only defects in motor coordination, but also seems to account for some of
the reported learning disturbances found in chronic marijuana users. These
are the facts about marijuana; they make a compelling case why a young
person should never want to try this drug.

Yet, the real dangers to our young people inherent in marijuana and other
drug use have not yet broken through the current haze of misinformation.
There is an carefully-camouflaged, exorbitantly-funded, well-heeled, elitist
group whose ultimate goal is to legalize drug use in the United States.
However, because the impacts of legalization -- heroin being sold at the
corner store to children with false identifications, the driver of an
eighteen-wheeler high on methamphetamines traveling alongside the family
minivan, skyrocketing numbers of addicts draining society of its
productivity -- are so horrifying to the average American, the legalizers
are compelled to conceal their real objectives behind various subterfuges.
(Currently, 87 percent of Americans reject legalization on its face.)
Through a slick misinformation propaganda campaign these individuals
perpetuate a fraud on the American people -- a fraud so devious that even
some of the nation's most respected newspapers and sophisticated media are
capable of echoing their falsehoods.

As a result, at a time when we need to be sending our young people a clear
message that drugs are wrong, the message they hear is far too often
muddled. We have been down this path before with disastrous results. In the
1970s and late 1980s, when we did not adequately explain to our young people
the dangers of drug use, we failed our children -- we allowed far too many
lives to be wasted by these deadly poisons. It is incumbent upon all
Americans to see these efforts for what they truly are -- political
movements aimed solely at legalizing drugs -- and reject them outright. We
need to be united as a society in making it clear to America's youth that:
"drugs destroy lives, don't let your life be wasted."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett