DON'T TRIVIALIZE POT, OFFICIAL WARNS PARENTS

WASHINGTON - The nation's drug-policy director warned parents yesterday
against trivializing the dangers of marijuana to their kids, warning them
that more teens are addicted to pot than to alcohol or to all other illegal
drugs combined.

Many parents and children have outdated perceptions about marijuana, said
John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They
believe marijuana is less dangerous than cigarettes or that it has few
long-term health consequences.

In reality, more teens enter rehabilitation centers to treat marijuana
addiction than alcohol or all illegal drugs combined, Walters said.

Regular users of marijuana can develop a marked tolerance to the drug and
psychological dependence, according to the most recent medical research.
But physical dependence characterized by significant withdrawal symptoms,
such as those caused by a drug such as heroin, has not been established in
either human or animal studies.

Walters announced an ad campaign by his office and 17 education,
public-health, anti-drug and family-advocacy groups. The effort will
include advertisements on television, radio and print media.

A common misperception is that smoking marijuana is less dangerous than
smoking a cigarette, said Surgeon General Richard Carmona. But marijuana
contains three to five times more tar and carbon monoxide than a comparable
amount of tobacco, he said. It also affects the brain in ways similar to
cocaine and heroin.

Carmona said one of five eighth-graders has tried marijuana, twice as many
as a decade ago.

Marsha Rosenbaum, director of the Safety First Project of the Drug Policy
Alliance, disputed some of Walters' figures: "Alcohol dwarfs marijuana in
terms of use. It's true that half of high-school students have experimented
with marijuana, but 80 percent have used alcohol."

She added: "The notion that marijuana is addictive, as evidenced by
increased treatment rolls, is misleading. ... When young people are caught
they have a choice between getting kicked out of school, losing their jobs
or going to treatment. What would you do?"