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The recreational use of marijuana has been glamorized over the years by such on-screen duos as Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar, but is the drug everything that Hollywood makes it out to be? Then again, are we being hypocritical by allowing alcohol consumption but not cannabis usage? With passionate believers on both sides of the argument, it will be interesting to see what happens when the smoke clears.
Does this matter I wish more people would use MJ please! Stop the meth, steriods, alchol and other drugs that make people mean.
The point is our leaders are putting Americans in jail for being Americans! Our rights are being stripped daily I feel they (our leaders) should be put in jail for starting and perpetuating this war on drugs. I call it War on the American way of life. Where did freedom of choice go? Look at history this war was started for racist reasons aimed at the blacks and Hispanics.
Now fed by there addiction to the 100 billion spent every year and there part in the form of kickbacks from corporations and PACs.
- Cherokee Fred hussein August 17, 2008 10:27PM
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"Soon after Britain eased restrictions on marijuana use, drug problems increased, leading Prime Minister Gordon Brown to re-classify marijuana to a more serious status."
What? No, they didn't! The reclassification led to a marked drop in wasted police resources, and was widely welcomed. Brown's decision to re-reclassify cannabis as a dangerous drug flew in the face of all the expert recommendations he had received, and is regraded as a retrograde step meant entirely to boost his popularity with the 'hang&flog' brigade. It has neither popular nor scientific support.
Sabet says nothing about the nature of the 'drug problems' he claims increased during the downgraded period. Details, please - or admit that they don't exist.
CD
- cdavis999 September 17, 2008 2:16AM
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Where Legalization Has Flourished, Drug Use Has Increased
- From Dr Kevin Sabet
By Dr. Kevin Sabet - Special Advisor for Policy, ONDCP
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Where Legalization Has Flourished, Drug Use Has Increased
I would see a slight to medium increase in the use of marijuana if it were legalized. Most of the increase would be people officially admitting using drug. I believe the consequences of the drugs illegality would make a majority of the people who use it highly secretive about their use.
The truth is nobody really knows how many people are using marijuana. Recently there have been studies done where scientist would analyze sewage to try to estimate how many people were using certain types of drugs.
For the most part I feel there are few people who would like to use marijuana ,but just don't do so because of its illegality. For instance if crack cocaine were legalized I'd bet there wouldn't be an increase of its usage. People generally observe users of drugs before they partake in its use. In the case of marijuana users can easily observe that it is less damaging than alcohol.
- rchot August 10, 2008 12:11PM
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Inconsistent Statistics
In your first argument, you used the "current user" statistics to show that "not everyone is doing it," comparing it to higher rates of legal drugs like alcohol. In your second, you point to the "lifetime user" statistics to show that an increasing number of people have tried it at some point in their lives, in a nation where it is legal. Is it really surprising that where marijuana is legal, that more people have experimented with it - or that where it is illegal, more people use the legal drugs?
- BobApril
November 5, 2008 5:25PM
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The Good Doctor is not being honest
The Good Dr. Kevin isn’t telling the whole truth. Or, put another way, Dr. Kevin is attempting to deceive us with disingenuous facts
I just checked the following website - European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction -
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/themes/drug-situation/cannabis
There is something really interesting in the statistics on Cannabis use in the Netherlands.
Based on Dr. Kevin’s assertions, I would expect the Netherlands to be ranked among the highest cannabis using countries in Europe. It isn’t.
The statistics below are taken from the website mentioned above. These statistics are from a page listing only the highest usage countries. The age group is 15 to 64 year olds. Stats are broken down by Lifetime use, Last Year and Last Month. Here are the stats for 2008:
Country Lifetime Last Year Last Month
Denmark 36.5%
France 30.6% 8.6% 4.8%
UK 30.1%
Italy 29.3% 11.2% 5.8%
Spain ?? 11.2% 8.7%
Czech Rep ?? 9.3% 4.8%
Cannabis is illegal in all the countries listed above.
Here are the lifetime usage statistics for 15 to 64 year olds in the Netherlands as reported on the website:
1997 - 1998 19.1%
2001 19.5%
2005 22.6%
Now, Compare these numbers with France, Italy and Spain:
1992 1999 2000 2005
France 11.3% 21.9% 22.5% 30.6%
2001 2003 2005
Italy 21.9% 22.4% 29.3%
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005-06
Spain 14.2% 21.7% 19.8% 24.5% 29% 28.6%
Shame on Dr. Kevin. He didn’t provide the whole picture. It is true that cannabis use has increased in the Netherlands - a whopping 3.5% since 1997. Compare that to;
a 7.4% increase for Italy
a 14.4% increase for Spain
a 8.7% increase for France (from 1999 to 2005)
Intellectual prostitution is alive and well. It means nothing to be educated if you lack the discipline to be honest.
- csmith
January 26, 2009 11:30PM
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Get all the Details
An interview with a dutch offical has shown that one the best things about the legilzation of marijuana in amsterdam is that because its legal more people stay away from hard drugs such as cocaine, herion, meth, etc. i sure that if the US legalizes than ,as rchot has said, the increase would mainly be in the number of people actually admitting to smoking marijuana, and im sure that if it was legal then people would be less inclined to trying hard drugs because they wouldnt be in contact with it. i mean if it was legal then people could get it from safe licensed shops and not have to come into contact with drug dealers who would probably try and pressure them into buying hard drugs.
- ShiverYaTimbers
April 1, 2009 12:32PM
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medical legalization
Just wondering have you looked at the California Statistics published by our good old Government? Useage esp. in teen populations has significantly dropped since inception of MM in 1996-2007...REGULATED LEGALIZATION DOES NOT EQUATE TO BROADER USEAGE...READ YOUR #'s
- proposition1MD
April 15, 2009 2:32PM
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Do you even read case studies...
Or just make them up?
So let me ask you this doc, if what you're saying is true, then how is that the report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm /att_93236_EN_EMCDDA_AR2009_EN.pdf
Says that the Netherlands (the home of dutch coffee houses) that have had laxed laws on "soft drugs " (like Cannabis) for the past few decades, are showing the LEAST amount of Cannabis use compared to the rest of Europe?
- dmunkey
November 10, 2009 3:59PM
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Drug use increase? No duh.
Of course it increased what does that have to do with anything?
- VarGulF42 February 23, 2010 9:22AM
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Sure it does.
Even IF that were true, if people drink less alcohol that is a VERY GOOD thing!
I don't know why people keep saying how dangerous MJ is. If it is so dangerous, SHOW ME THE BODIES!
(Caps fopr emphasis not shouting)
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3383
- SamFox
February 28, 2010 9:06PM
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