IS POT TRULY 'ADDICTIVE'?

Marijuana "makes people lazy and stupid." So said Boulder County Sheriff
George Epp in a recent interview. Exaggeration, or observation? Perhaps both.

When I dabbled with pot (my youthful substance stupidity mostly revolved
around alcohol and foolishly inviting nicotine addiction), it left me
hungry, paranoid and sleepy, among other things. Blecch.

But I knew a girl who went from squeaky clean, to pothead, and back, and
she did seem to shed mental wattage while a stoner. We used to refer to her
as "Whaa-at?" - her response to anything more complex than "Hey."

However - and Epp agrees - once users quit toking up, their gray matter
seems to recover. My friend is now a brilliant grownup who speaks multiple
languages. (And in fairness, I have to say I've known "high functioning"
stoners who could comprehend physics class while "baked" - better than I
could sober.)

Epp, a member of the Colorado Juvenile Parole Board, also says that "lots
of kids ... are addicted to marijuana ... Maybe you can't say they are
physically addicted, but these kids are sure addicted ... it destroys their
lives."

Addicted? Maybe not.

Dr. Jack E. Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, while with the federal government's National Institute of Drug
Abuse, and Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California's medical
campus, ranked six substances by their addictiveness: alcohol, caffeine,
cocaine, heroin, marijuana and nicotine. Each was ranked 1 (most serious)
through 6 (least serious) according to severity of five indicators of
addiction, withdrawal, reinforcement (i.e. will test subjects use it to the
exclusion of other substances and activities), tolerance, dependence and
intoxication.

In both rankings, marijuana ranks last in dependence, tolerance, and
withdrawal. Henningfield places pot at fifth in reinforcement (ahead of
only caffeine) and fourth in intoxication (ahead of caffeine and nicotine).
Benowitz also ranks pot at fourth in intoxication, but last in reinforcement.

Overall, nicotine ranked highest for dependence, but averaging the
rankings, heroin is the most addictive, followed by alcohol, nicotine,
cocaine, caffeine and marijuana.

In other words, marijuana is less addictive than French roast. It might
make you a dullard, but if you want to quit, you should succeed. Some claim
pot is a "gateway" to harder substances, but the real gateways are
personality, environment, brain chemistry and other factors. Humans have
sought mind/body-altering substances throughout history.

Despite his recent comments, Epp agrees that pot isn't the worst problem in
the world. And he'd like society to stop pretending that drugs are
primarily a criminal problem.

"One of the biggest disservices we've ever done is to coin the term 'war on
drugs,'" he says. "I know that law enforcement is not in itself a solution
to the problem. We have to have education and treatment."

True. But I'd like to see law enforcement's role fade completely and
society recognize drugs as a public health issue.

I'm not pro-pot, or any drug, and hate being around intoxicated people. But
I am anti-drug war, and we should watch the rhetoric - i.e. that pot is
"addictive" - lest we tempt kids to disbelieve all that we say, like "pot
may dim your bulb."