23536
Bluelight Crew
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-nehring/medical-marijuana-is-far-_b_3084491.html
Protecting children and vulnerable adults from the destruction substance abuse can cause should not be a partisan issue. In fact, saving a generation from the scourge of addictive drugs is going to require effective government policy, private sector ingenuity, and leaders of both major parties.
That's why I've teamed up with former Democrat Congressman Patrick Kennedy and conservative author David Frum to support a new initiative to protect young people from drugs and roll back recent advances by groups seeking to expand drug use through legalization.
For me, this is a deeply personal issue. For seven years I lived with my two parents while they were helpless against the addictions that had befallen them. The destruction of their physical health, their mental and emotional capacity, and our family is something I never want to see happen to anyone else.
No one sets out with the goal of developing a substance abuse problem, but it occurs when vulnerability, availability, and permissibility all meet. In fact, the National Institutes of Health report that 1 in 6 people who try marijuana as a kid even once will become addicted to it. Marijuana affects young people in particular ways, hindering their intellectual capacity and school performance, as well as their motivation.
Drugs like marijuana are not like typical goods in a marketplace, or even like the pot that became popularized in the 1960s. Today's marijuana is far more powerful, more addictive, and causes more mental and physical damage than ever before -- in fact, today's marijuana is about 5-6 times stronger than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. And too many Americans are using it, with devastating results.
Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) is a response to the lavishly funded efforts by a variety of groups -- including billionaire financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis, and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling to expand marijuana use by redefining the drug as "medicine," removing its negative social stigma, and grow its acceptance.
Although often mocked pro-marijuana advocates, Nancy Reagan's 1980s "Just Say No" campaign proved extremely effective in reminding parents and children alike of how to respond to opportunities to take drugs. Unfortunately, "Just Say No" has been slowly replaced by "medical marijuana" as the dominant framework in public policy debate. Marijuana, according to these activists, is just "medicine."
But it's not. We have a process in America for approving new medicines, one that has been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike for a hundred years. And whole, smoked marijuana consistently fails to meet the test. Smoked cannabis, it turns out, is not medicine. We don't need to derive whatever therapeutic benefit it might have by smoking it any more than we need to smoke opium to get the effect of morphine.
cont. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-nehring/medical-marijuana-is-far-_b_3084491.html
Protecting children and vulnerable adults from the destruction substance abuse can cause should not be a partisan issue. In fact, saving a generation from the scourge of addictive drugs is going to require effective government policy, private sector ingenuity, and leaders of both major parties.
That's why I've teamed up with former Democrat Congressman Patrick Kennedy and conservative author David Frum to support a new initiative to protect young people from drugs and roll back recent advances by groups seeking to expand drug use through legalization.
For me, this is a deeply personal issue. For seven years I lived with my two parents while they were helpless against the addictions that had befallen them. The destruction of their physical health, their mental and emotional capacity, and our family is something I never want to see happen to anyone else.
No one sets out with the goal of developing a substance abuse problem, but it occurs when vulnerability, availability, and permissibility all meet. In fact, the National Institutes of Health report that 1 in 6 people who try marijuana as a kid even once will become addicted to it. Marijuana affects young people in particular ways, hindering their intellectual capacity and school performance, as well as their motivation.
Drugs like marijuana are not like typical goods in a marketplace, or even like the pot that became popularized in the 1960s. Today's marijuana is far more powerful, more addictive, and causes more mental and physical damage than ever before -- in fact, today's marijuana is about 5-6 times stronger than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. And too many Americans are using it, with devastating results.
Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) is a response to the lavishly funded efforts by a variety of groups -- including billionaire financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis, and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling to expand marijuana use by redefining the drug as "medicine," removing its negative social stigma, and grow its acceptance.
Although often mocked pro-marijuana advocates, Nancy Reagan's 1980s "Just Say No" campaign proved extremely effective in reminding parents and children alike of how to respond to opportunities to take drugs. Unfortunately, "Just Say No" has been slowly replaced by "medical marijuana" as the dominant framework in public policy debate. Marijuana, according to these activists, is just "medicine."
But it's not. We have a process in America for approving new medicines, one that has been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike for a hundred years. And whole, smoked marijuana consistently fails to meet the test. Smoked cannabis, it turns out, is not medicine. We don't need to derive whatever therapeutic benefit it might have by smoking it any more than we need to smoke opium to get the effect of morphine.
cont. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-nehring/medical-marijuana-is-far-_b_3084491.html
