MarijuanaHarmlessThinkAgain.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2015
CONTACT: Seth Leibsohn (602) 687-8425
Confusion & Concern On Marijuana Legalization By Seth Leibsohn* Last week, the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy stated that legalizing marijuana for recreational use is likely going to be a state ballot initiative for Arizonans next year. Its poll on the issue found some 45% of respondents supporting such legalization. To many of us who have studied the issue of marijuana and public health, these findings are nothing short of surprising. Take a look at just five of many recent headlines about several scientific studies examining the effects of marijuana on the brain, especially the teen brain: Significant link between cannabis use and onset of mania symptoms (Science Daily, February 10, 2015); Marijuana can cause mental disorders, loss of intelligence, 20year study (New York Daily News, October 7, 2014); The Adverse Health Effects of Marijuana Use (New England Journal of Medicine, June 4, 2014); The brains of marijuana users are different, especially if they start young (Washington Post, November 10, 2014); Pot studies suggest regular use is bad for teen brains (USA TODAY, August 9, 2014). The foregoing headlines are just samples from dozens of recent studies that have come out from research performed at a diverse range of institutions that include Northwestern University, Harvard University, King’s College in London, and, of course, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The upshot of all these studies? Marijuana is not safe, in fact it is dangerous. The ASU Morrison poll thus reveals an odd divergence that boils down to this contemporary public cognitive dissonance: the more dangerous a substance becomes, the more available we seem to want to make it. Let us dispense with a few immediate and conventional talking points from those who doubt the gravity of these studies. First, every time a study comes out revealing the negative health consequences of marijuana, there are those who try to dismiss the study—either as flawed or as overwrought. Welcome to the world of behavioral and social sciences! There is not a single study performed in any field that does not have its detractors. But the question—especially when dealing with children’s health—should not be, “What if all these studies are wrong?” but, rather, “What if they are right?” Try this thought experiment: A parent brings her child to a doctor. The doctor says a given drug may help the child. The parent asks if there are any dangers or side effects. The doctor says, “There are some studies that show this drug could cause or is related to schizophrenia and changes in the teen brain, could cause a loss of IQ, About Marijuana Harmless? Think Again! Marijuana Harmless? Think Again! is a nonpartisan alliance of concerned citizens, business professionals and community leaders who are committed to raising awareness about the harms of marijuana. Marijuana is an addictive substance that affects the brain, especially in kids, in ways that impair intelligence, reasoning, judgment and clarity of thought. The legalization of marijuana in Arizona would result in an additional 32,000 high school students being more likely to use the drug putting them at risk in school and in life.
but a lot of people have discounted those studies.” If the parent were to ask the doctor where those studies came from and the doctor said, “Oh, places like Harvard Medical School, Northwestern, the New England Journal of Medicine,” no parent would take a roll of those dice—even if, perhaps, there were as little as a five percent chance those studies were right. And that is the question a sane society needs to ask itself: Are all these studies wrong or is it possible they—even just one of the dozens of them—may be right? Second, is it not interesting that with all the concern society has recently shown over protecting our children’s health and the nurturing of their brains—from curbs on sugary drinks to the dietary structures of school lunches to the safety of helmets in sports to the campaigns against tobacco to the increased efforts on early childhood education—that it is, at the same time, racing to legalize a substance far more damaging to the brain than sugar or tobacco or saturated fats, a substance that can nullify every effort aimed at increasing brain potential, a substance that has been shown to cause psychiatric disorders that not even a helmet or the arresting of childhood obesity can prevent? Third, while the quest to legalize marijuana is aimed at laws that only allow adults to consume the product, it is a fallacy of experience to think use will be confined to adults. Today, nearly 25 percent of our nation’s high school students use tobacco and nearly 25 percent of 16-17 year olds and almost 45 percent of 18-20 year olds use alcohol. Indeed, the experience of our neighboring states tells the same tale with just “medical” marijuana. Just last month, a CBS headline read: “Report: Medical pot is getting into LA school kids' hands.” In Colorado, as one recent federal report found: “There was a 26 percent increase in youth (ages 12 to 17 years) monthly marijuana use in the three years after medical marijuana was commercialized (2009) compared to the three years prior to commercialization.” People can try to disregard the statistics and the science, and no doubt there will be letters to the editor written about this op-ed claiming I am captured by some reiteration of the movie Reefer Madness. Let me stave that off now: Reefer Madness is an 80-year-old movie. It was made before World War II. What is at issue is current, relevant science and fact. Those who raise the specter of Reefer Madness are the ones living in yesteryear, not those of us who read the latest scientific findings and do our best to disseminate them. The ultimate point is this: our society is presently rife with youth challenges based on legal substance abuse, from tobacco to alcohol. We cannot now illegalize those substances—they are, as it were, out of the bottle. What a sane society can do is say let’s not add one more dangerous substance to the menu of problems our youth now face. And make no mistake about it: legalization, for any age group, is the handmaiden of adolescent use. *Seth Leibsohn is the host of the Seth Leibsohn Show, airing nightly on 960am/KKNT; a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and Chairman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy. ***