Wednesday, June 27, 2007

All Those Dead Pot Smokers

Good catch at Talk Left of Newsweek’s story on medical experts who argue that good parents should let their kids do pot rather than alcohol.

Even if they don't become alcoholics, teens who drink too much may suffer impaired memory and other learning problems, says Aaron White of Duke University Medical Center, who studies adolescent alcohol use. He says parents should think twice about offering alcohol to teens because their brains are still developing and are more susceptible to damage than adult brains.

"If you're going to do that, I suggest you teach them to roll joints, too," he says, "because the science is clear that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana."

Of course, this kool-aid drinking drug warrior from DEA disagrees: "This ain't your grandfather's or your father's marijuana," Trouville said. "This will hurt you. This will addict you. This will kill you." This is when medical experts don’t even agree that cocaine is addictive (as a book review I’ll do this weekend points out). We've been hearing this sad, automatic ventriloquist response from drug agents for decades, as if they've actually done tests of all the weed in the country at one time and all the weed Grandpa and Daddy did. I’ll make a deal with Agent Trouville. Show me one person who verifiably died from the toxicity of a marijuana overdose. Not even one for every person who’s drunk alcohol to excess and death in an evening, as happened at U of MD Greek houses practically every year I lived in the state. Just one. Until then, stop being silly. It's way past time for us to get serious about what we're doing, like the doctors are doing. Too many kids are dying and will continue to while you chase hemp smells.

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