MARIJUANA: ONE WAY TO MOVE DOWN IN LIFE

A study published in 2007 by the medical journal Addiction confirms
what many of us have observed for years. People who regularly smoke
marijuana grossly underachieve in life.

This breakthrough research studied the progress of approximately 1,900
teens for 10 years, and found that regular marijuana users were three
times more likely to be unemployed or drop out of school than nonusers.

The evidence of marijuana's negative effect on young people is so
overwhelming that the scientist who conducted the research pronounced
that marijuana is "the drug for life's future losers."

Young people who have the intelligence and motivation to go to college
or technical school and begin smoking marijuana almost always abandon
these aspirations for something less rigorous.

The research is clear regarding marijuana's effect on the brain and
behavior. Cannabis impairs memory, motivation and something called
executive functioning, which involves the ability to organize tasks,
control impulses and set priorities.

In other words, most marijuana users adjust their life's goals and
priorities downward to accommodate their impaired condition.

It's hard to smoke weed three to four times per week and remain
disciplined enough to get up early, think clearly enough and work hard
enough to attain the grades and skill necessary to succeed in
something difficult.

Marijuana users are frequently unemployed or underemployed in
vocations that are less challenging.

Additionally, because the genetically engineered cannabis is so
potent, its use is now associated with early-onset psychosis, and is
now a risk factor for schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders.

This is irrefutable in the current medical literature. The cost to an
individual and our collective economic productivity as a result of
marijuana's debilitating physical and mental effects are
devastating.

The bottom line is that decriminalizing marijuana will result in more
mental illness, more addiction and more uneducated and unemployable
persons. We simply cannot afford this.

Drew Edwards,

executive director,

Ennoble Foundation,

Jacksonville