There was an interesting story on the CNN website today that should be discussed. We have spoken during the last few articles about the history and effects of the “War on Drugs” and have shown that much of the information that we have been given by the government and our “unbiased” media is simply not true about both the history and health effects of marijuana use. The CNN article stated that 1 in 9 High School students are currently using a new synthetic version of marijuana colloquially called “Spice” and according to the story marijuana use is at epidemic proportions. Another story on MSNBC claims that more High School and College students are smoking marijuana than are smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. The disturbing thing about both of these stories however is not what they say, but what they fail to say.
In the CNN story for instance the writer states that the National Institute of Health “has long documented the harms of marijuana use”. Not only does the story fail to state exactly what these harms are but neither does the NIH on its website. The NIH website says that because young people´s minds are “still developing” , “its use by teens may have a negative effect on their development.” The report cites no studies on teens, no statistics, nothing. When reading the PDF of the actual report we see that in reality the effects of marijuana are actually far less devastating than either alcohol or tobacco, neither of which are even classified as drugs, let alone Schedule 1 dangerous drugs.
The last 40 years have seen the American tax payer fork out over $3 trillion fighting against anyone using drugs that are not government approved. This is one quarter of the nation´s current national debt. No one will argue that the United States has a problem with drug addiction that exceeds most other nations. The use of substances like heroin, cocaine, crack and crystal methamphetamine has sky rocketed since 1970 and we know that not only do this substances have severe health effects but the severe addictive properties make it difficult for users to function in either school or the work place. These are all dangerous drugs with no redeeming medical value and should be vigorously controlled. But the fact is that alcohol has nearly the exact same consequences as the above three drugs and is perfectly legal. Like these other substances, alcohol frequently causes violent reactions, loss of work and school time and severe health issues. Marijuana however has the exact opposite effect on users. Instead of becoming violent, marijuana smokers become calm and tranquil. The herb has not only never been shown conclusively to have any major health affects but has been found to have many health benefits, especially for patients with seriously debilitating conditions.
But there is now a new direction being taken by both our politicians and pharmaceutical industry. The active ingredient in marijuana is THC and several companies are developing a THC based pill for medical marijuana patients. The argument is that while THC is unarguably beneficial for some patients that smoking it is dangerous, even though marijuana is a vassal-dilator, which actually allows blood to flow more freely. Cigarettes on the other hand are vassal-constrictors, which restrict blood flow and are much more dangerous because of this. But the object of this new direction is simply business by Legislation. The best way to beat a competitor in business is to make their products illegal. This will essentially mean that anyone who wants to receive the benefits of THC, instead of being able to grow it at home, will be forced to pay the large Pharmaceutical companies inflated prices. While this may help create a few pharmacy technician jobs, the fact is that, once again, the medical community and drug companies will have successfully taken their place at the top of the heap.