THE PURPLE BRAIN: AMERICA'S NEW REEFER MADNESS

The ONDCP Is Spreading New Propaganda That the Pot Grown in the 1960's And '70s Is Far Weaker Than Today's "Pot 2.0," Making Absurd and Unsubstantiated Claims of "Brain Damage."

More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the
notorious 1936 film, Reefer Madness has arrived. It's called The
Purple Brain, and just like its unintentionally campy predecessor,
its purpose is to frighten Americans about marijuana.

The particular target audience for the Feds' new production is the
millions of parents who may have, without incident, experimented with
marijuana in the 1970s, when they were about the same age as their
children are today.

The plot is as follows: Sure, the pot you and your 40-something peers
once enjoyed may have been innocuous, but that's only because it
bears no resemblance to the super-potent weed of today-- strains with
such foreboding names as "Train wreck," "AK-47," and "The Purple." As
proclaimed by Drug Czar John Walters recently, "[W]e are no longer
talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s -- this is [in computer
parlance] Pot 2.0."

To top off this frightening message, unsubstantiated claims of "brain
damage" resulting from the use of this super-pot are new buzzwords in
today's Prevention circles.

If ever there was an attention-getting script for scaring the hell
out of parents, this is it.

Fortunately, while the headlines are grabbing, the story lacks credibility.

Growers in the business of selling marijuana have always attached pet
names to selected strains of pot. In the 1970s, popular varieties
included "Acapulco Gold" and "Maui Wowie." Today, as in the past,
most of these labels are little more than clever marketing gimmicks
devised by producers and sellers to distinguish their particular
product in a highly competitive marketplace.

While a handful of potent strains may be available in limited
quantities today, these varieties compose only a minute percentage of
the overall marketplace -- at a price tag that is cost-prohibitive to
anyone but the most wealthy of aficionados. For others, marijuana
remains essentially the same plant it has always been, with its
relatively mild rise in average potency akin to the difference
between beer and wine.

Unlike alcohol -- or even aspirin, -- today's marijuana still poses
no risk of fatal overdose, regardless of the strength of its primary
psychoactive ingredient, THC. Moreover, cannabis consumers readily
distinguish between low and high potency marijuana and moderate their
use accordingly.

Finally, despite claims that marijuana alters the brain, it is
important to note that THC -- regardless of its potency -- is
surprisingly non-toxic to the adult as well as the teenage brain.
Recently scientists at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric
Research reported that they could find "no ... evidence of cerebral
atrophy or loss of white matter integrity" attributable to cannabis
use in the brains of frequent adolescent marijuana users (compared to
non-using controls) after performing MRI scans and other advanced
imaging technology. Separate studies assessing the cognitive skills
of long-term marijuana smokers have also reported no demonstrable deficits.

Of course, marijuana is an intoxicant that should be avoided until
and unless an individual has reached an age of mental and physical
maturity, and this might be well into his or her twenties.

But as we urge adolescents to abstain or at least delay, let's not
forget the lessons we've learned after two decades of drug education
that has failed to convince students to "just say no." When teens
ultimately learn the truth, exaggerated campaigns like "The Purple
Brain" do little more than create skepticism about anything adults
tell them about drugs, not to mention fueling their natural curiosity.

What's really frightening is that when teens realize they've been
deceived about marijuana, they tend to disregard warnings about the
very real dangers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. It's this
latter scenario that ultimately trumps The Purple Brain as the real
horror show.