LOVE AFFAIR WITH MISS MARY JANE

What unfolds is like something out of a director's cut of
Trainspotting. A man stumbles around in a daze, raspy voice and wispy
eyes. He mumbles "celery is all I've got," and the words seem to ring
true with one look at his hollow and oh-so-depressing living conditions.

This is the aftermath of a war with one's self, and it resembles a
heroin-addict-like squalor. But this guy, we'll call him "Dave" for
legal reasons, is not addicted to heroin. In fact he's got an
infatuation with a much tastier but less abrasive drug--marijuana. Is
marijuana ruining his life? Or is his green grown mistress all he's
got to get through the day? The truth is murky and unfriendly.

The man would have you believe that the so-called War on Drugs is
going well. This week alone, police in San Francisco refused to help
well-known grower Jason Beck, who was robbed of several thousand
dollars of pot at gun-point in his home. On Tuesday, May 18,
23-year-old Han Jie Guan was the latest victim of increased
surveillance for grow ops in the Calgary area. And just this weekend,
the U.S. Border Patrol seized 1,795 pounds of marijuana, worth $1.5
million U.S. Does sweet, sweet Mary Jane really cause enough trouble
for cops to go to this much effort?

The truth is ultimately what you want to believe. There is so much
speculation and dissention in the drug war that fact and fiction is a
blurred line. Is it addictive? Does it ruin lives? Is it a gateway
drug? To answer these questions one must understand what it is, what
it does, and why it affects people the way it does.

Marijuana is described as a psychoactive drug derived from the
cannabis plant. Two scoops of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannibol
will make you uncontrollably lazier, prone to eating and less stressed.

In the 1600S, industrial hemp-- marijuana sans THC--draped the New
World's northeast. In 1619, Jamestown Colony, Virginia created the
first law regarding marijuana, which actually jailed farmers for not
growing hemp. Early industrial uses included the creation of textiles,
fabrics and ropes.

Outlawing of marijuana didn't begin until the early 1900S. The reasons
given were believed to be in lieu of the rising use of the drug by
prominent Latin and Negro musicians. Marijuana opponents created a lot
of myth--suggesting that it helped the "foreign devils" to lure out
children and also that assassins used it in huge amounts to gain
superhuman powers.

Today, marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the United States.
A survey in 2002 revealed that at least 3.1 million people use the
drug on a daily basis. Its medical benefits have recently been
acknowledged, however marijuana still faces an uphill struggle. While
new smoking methods such as vaporizers are dramatically reducing the
harmful effects of the smoke, there are still short and long-term
effects which must be addressed. Attention span and memory loss are
both by-products, and long-term use can result in depression, changed
personality and anxiety.

However, there are specific methods being developed that will reduce
marijuana's damaging effects. One such product is the Volcano
Vaporizer. With a hefty price of $600 U.S. one would think people
would steer clear, however quite the opposite is happening-- people
are applauding its ability to reduce the harmful side-effects of
marijuana and tobacco smoke.

Perhaps more puzzling still are the political implications of
controlling the drug. In 1972, the Canadian government formed the
LeDain Commission which compiled a report on marijuana. The report
covered the political and social implications of the drug as well as
its medicinal benefits. The commission recommended the total
decriminalization of marijuana for the betterment of society as they
debunked many myths surrounding the drug and concluded that it did not
lead to other drugs.

There have been no inquiries into the drug since, and efforts to
decriminalize marijuana have been executed poorly. The Canadian
government has made some real attempts, though unsuccessful, to show
the public the truth behind the unjust assumptions and myths
surrounding cannabis.

However, issues surrounding the legalities of marijuana are still
quite prominent. Would decriminalization hurt the public? Would there
not be an increase in the number of individuals using the drug if it
were more readily accessible?

To investigate these inquiries, researchers from the University of
California and the University of Amsterdam conducted detailed
interviews with hundreds of randomly chosen marijuana users. They
interviewed people from both cities who had used marijuana at least 25
times. They found that despite widespread lawful availability of
cannabis in Amsterdam, there were no differences between the two
cities in the age at onset of use, the age at first regular use, or
the age at the start of maximum use.

While these findings may be isolated, it is interesting to note that
marijuana use doesn't differ greatly in a country where the laws are
much more lenient. Some studies even indicate a lesser number of
people under 16 using the drug since its legalization in Amsterdam.

There are many issues surrounding this debate, and whether or not
cannabis will be legalized is unknown.