POTENT POT JUST ONE REASON LEGALIZATION UNWISE

Long before today's extremely potent strains of cannabis were developed,
there were individuals who suffered severe psychotic episodes when smoking
marijuana (feral cannabis hemp). In fact, this phenomenon was the basis of
"Reefer Madness," the 70-year-old zombie movie about individuals who became
crazed from smoking marijuana.

Today, pro-legalization partisans complain that "Reefer Madness" and the
thousands of scientific studies that document marijuana's many insidious
and dangerous side effects, are "just scare tactics" and insist that
marijuana be given the same status as alcohol and tobacco.

Today marijuana is so potent (compare taking 20 aspirin at a time instead
of two) that it has become a leading cause of drug related medical and
psychiatric emergency room episodes, impacting thinly-stretched medical
resources.

Several recent scientific studies have found that marijuana use can indeed
cause psychosis and worsen psychiatric disorders. It also causes short-term
memory loss, impaired cognitive functions such as attention and judgment;
impairs coordination, balance and reaction time; increases heart rate, risk
of chronic cough, bronchitis, and emphysema; and increases risk of head,
neck and lung cancer.

Male infertility is also associated with marijuana use. Studies have noted
lower I.Q. in children born to pot-smoking mothers.

Pot smokers have a higher incidence of absenteeism and injury in the
workplace. The unemployment rate for drug users is more than 150 percent
greater than that of nonusers and drug users typically earn less.

Marijuana use contributes to delinquency and crime. Society often ends up
subsidizing users' housing, food, utilities, medical expenses, and other
basic needs. All of these problems would increase dramatically if marijuana
were legalized because easy access to marijuana will increase use and
addiction just as it has with tobacco.

The actual number of persons jailed for marijuana possession in the United
States, many of whom have plea-bargained down from more serious drug
charges, is around 35,000. There are approximately 3,365 local jails in the
United States, for an average of 10 to 11 marijuana possession offenders
per jail. This figure does not include the 9,000-10,000 incarcerated in
federal prisons on marijuana charges, where the average possession has been
measured in pounds and tonnage, not grams and ounces.

Danger on the Roadways

Marijuana not only plays a key role in auto accidents but is a bigger
factor in trucking related fatalities than is alcohol. A well-done study on
airplane pilots found that even 24 hours after smoking a low-potency
marijuana cigarette, pilots could not land a flight simulator on which they
had been trained.

The impact of marijuana on American education should be of grave concern.
Although tobacco has insidious long-term medical consequences and is
perceived to be the greater menace, it does not interfere with the ability
to learn.

Does anyone believe that dumbing down American students, many of whom can
now claim they smoke pot for "medical" reasons, will make them competitive
in the job market? Special-education teachers are already overburdened with
drug impacted children children who come to school impaired by second-hand
smoke from the psychoactive drugs used by their parents.

California, with its lax marijuana laws, now mandates treatment instead of
incarceration for drug users and it not only is bankrupting the system, but
most arrestees don't complete treatment or bother to turn up.

Sweden and Japan both tried legalization but suffered dire consequences and
reinstituted strong drug policy. Unfortunately, society has a short memory
and is often doomed to repeat its most egregious mistakes.

Legalization would be one of those terrible mistakes that would take
generations to undo.