IT IS ADDICTIVE, AND HIGHLY DANGEROUS TO U.S.

In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey,
"Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth.

What it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's
teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with 49 percent of
high-school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to
graduation - and 22 percent smoking it at least once a month.

Marijuana is far from "harmless" - it is pernicious. Parents are often
unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago,
with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which
they were familiar.

Marijuana directly affects the brain. Researchers have learned that it
impairs the ability of young people to concentrate and retain information
during their peak learning years, and when their brains are still
developing. The THC in marijuana attaches itself to receptors in the
hippocampal region of the brain, weakening short-term memory and
interfering with the mechanisms that form long-term memory.

Marijuana smoking can hurt more than just grades. According to the
Department of Health and Human Services, the number of marijuana-related
emergency room admissions is growing. Each year, for example, marijuana use
is linked to tens of thousands of serious traffic accidents.

Research has established that marijuana is in fact addictive. Of the 4.3
million Americans who meet the diagnostic criteria for needing drug
treatment (criteria developed by the American Psychiatric Association, not
police departments or prosecutors) two-thirds are dependent on marijuana,
according to HHS. These are not occasional pot smokers but people with real
problems directly traceable to their use of marijuana, including
significant health problems, emotional problems and difficulty in cutting
down on use.

Despite this and other strong scientific evidence of marijuana's
destructive effects, a cynical campaign is under way to proclaim the
virtues of "medical" marijuana. Its chief funders, George Soros, John
Sperling and Peter Lewis, have spent millions to help pay for referendums
and ballot initiatives in states from Alaska to Maine.

Why? Is the American health care system - the most sophisticated in the
world - really hobbled by a lack of smoked medicines? The University of
California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is conducting
scientific studies to determine the efficacy of marijuana in treating
various ailments. Until that research is concluded, however, most of what
the public hears from marijuana activists is little more than a compilation
of anecdotes.

While medical marijuana initiatives are based on pseudo-science, their
effects on the criminal justice system are anything but imaginary. By
opening up legal loopholes, existing medical marijuana laws have caused
police and prosecutors to stay away from marijuana prosecutions.

Giving marijuana dealers a free pass is a terrible idea. In fact, thanks in
part to excellent reporting in The Washington Post, District of Columbia
residents are increasingly aware that marijuana dealers are dangerous
criminals.

As reported in the Post, the K Street Crew was a vicious group of marijuana
dealers whose decade-long reign of terror was brought to an end this year
after a massive prosecution effort by Michael Volkov, chief gang prosecutor
for the U.S. attorney's office. The K Street Crew is credited with 17
murders, including systematic killings of potential witnesses.

Skeptics will charge that this kind of violence is just one more reason to
legalize marijuana.

A review of the nation's history with drug use suggests otherwise: When
marijuana is inexpensive, as it would be if legal, use soars - bad news for
schools, streets and emergency rooms.

Contact Walters, the U.S. drug czar, at Drug Policy Information
Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000.