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Pro-Marijuana Talking Points - CounterargumentsRESPONSESMedical marijuana is about helping sick and dying people.A recent exhaustive review of scientific studies on the efficacy of medical marijuana found that most of the wide range of conditions that states have allowed medical marijuana to treat were based on anecdotes and not rigorous scientific review. The average “medical” marijuana user is a 32 year-old white male with a history of alcohol, cocaine, and meth use, but no history of a life-threatening illness. The vast majority of “medical” marijuana users reported severe pain, not a debilitating disease, as the reason for using. “Medical” marijuana is really about bringing about legalization – as can be seen in the increased amounts of drug use that have occurred in those states. Studies have shown that medical marijuana programs had increased marijuana use that was not present in non-medical marijuana states.This has also led to increased marijuana use by teens – just look at Denver, where there are more medical marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks and 29% of high school students used marijuana in the last month. It’s also obvious that “medical” marijuana is easily diverted to youth, as can be seen, again, in the teen use rates in those states and how they report it being “easy” or “very easy” to obtain marijuana. Advertisements for “medical” marijuana are targeted at young men, not the terminally ill. There are even instances of “medical” marijuana products being marketed to children, in the form of products made to look like granola bars, pop-tarts, and other candies. There are medical components of the marijuana plant, but you don’t need to smoke it to take advantage of them. There is no other medication in the country that is smoked – indeed, no one smokes opium to get the benefits of morphine.No other medication in the country has been approved by a legislature before being approved by the FDA. Marijuana is being prescribed as medication through legislative action, not through rigorous testing by the FDA in clinical labs that every other medication must panies like GW Pharmaceutical have already developed and continue to develop pharmaceutical products containing non-psychoactive marijuana components, such as Sativex and Epidiolex, to treat certain conditions.There is not enough research, especially robust, peer-reviewed, clinical scientific research, into marijuana’s effects for medical conditions like PTSD, mental illnesses, cancer, kidney failure, etc. Preliminary research has shown that for certain conditions, such as PTSD, glaucoma, schizophrenia, and others, marijuana can exacerbate negative health effects. In fact, the Colorado Department of Health recently rejected listing marijuana as an eligible treatment for PTSD. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating component of marijuana, has shown some early promise for the treatment of epileptic seizures. More research needs to be done on this, research that fully complies with federal law and the high standards required by government agencies like the FDA, NIH, NIDA, and DEA. True compassion is when a purified, FDA-approved, pharmaceutical-grade CBD-based medication is available for children suffering from epileptic seizures, with doctors knowing exactly how much to prescribe and exactly what is in the medication.Currently, doctors who recommend marijuana for medical purposes don’t know what’s in the plant; they don’t know how much to recommend for a dosage; they are recommending something that can prove addictive, especially for a child; and they are recommending something that can have a profound impact upon the developing brain – all of which they would certainly not want to do for any other medication.Hundreds of thousands of people are arrested and sit in prison each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana.A miniscule amount of the prison population is incarcerated for any kind of marijuana offense, including large-scale distribution and cultivation. The Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that only 0.7% of all state inmates were in prison for marijuana possession only.What the statistics don’t always show is that many of the people who go to prison for possession actually committed more serious crimes but pleaded down to the possession charge, meaning that they were going to prison for a different reason than they were originally arrested for. Federal data show that the vast majority (99.8%) of federal prisoners sentenced for drug offenses were incarcerated because of drug trafficking. In Colorado, less than 1% of prisoners are incarcerated for marijuana possession.Many more people are arrested for alcohol – a legal drug. In fact, alcohol arrests (2.7 million) dwarfed the number of marijuana arrests (847,000) in 2008. Legalization is not the answer to reforming the criminal justice system in this way. While it’s true that the criminal justice system does disproportionately negatively impact minority communities, this is a systemic feature and not solely because of marijuana laws. Decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana will not reduce arrest rates among minority communities. A better way is to reform sentencing laws, enhance community anti-drug coalitions, increase prevention in communities, and provide more rehabilitative systems such as drug courts, mental health courts, and veterans courts, and diversion to treatment for those entering the criminal justice system through drug offenses. Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco.Alcohol is the most widely-abused substance in America, with alcohol taxes making up only a fraction of its societal costs. The same is true of the tobacco industry.Alcohol taxes only raise about 6% of alcohol’s total cost to society, with tobacco taxes only raising about 13% of tobacco’s cost to society.Alcohol results in many more arrests than marijuana and it’s a legal drug.Just like what happened with tobacco and alcohol, legal marijuana will lead to Big Marijuana – huge corporations whose profit-driven culture will lead to targeting youth.Big Marijuana, like Big Tobacco and the alcohol industry, will get most of its profits from a small handful of those most addicted to these products. Since addiction often starts at a young age, this will inevitably lead to targeting of young people by an aggressive industry. The rise of a corporate industry dedicated to promoting addiction for profits will vehemently resist increased regulation and taxation of its products – just like alcohol and tobacco. More regulation of marijuana as a result of legalization will result in higher costs imposed by state governments, which will impact residents in the form of higher taxes.Even if legal marijuana products are taxed, the revenue it would bring in is miniscule and won’t solve any states’ budget issues – after all, how did the introduction of state lotteries do in funding public education? Marijuana legalization will not eliminate the black market. In fact, it might even enhance it because the black market price will be substantially lower without the regulation and taxation required of a legalized marijuana product. At the same time that the black market price of marijuana would decrease, the availability and use would vastly increase, creating the worst of both worlds. Just because alcohol is a legal drug doesn’t mean that you can show up for work impaired – the same is true for marijuana use. But in this case, since marijuana is still illegal under federal law, marijuana use is still something that will block someone from passing an employment drug test. Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.Marijuana is addictive. 9% of users will become addicted, and that number rises to 1 in 6 (17%) of teens who use marijuana. Daily marijuana use can lead to addiction rates of 25-30%. Children who first smoke marijuana under the age of 14 are more than 5 times as likely to abuse drugs than those who first initiate use at age 18.Studies have shown evidence that heavy marijuana use can cause a permanent decline of up to 8 IQ points; that even casual marijuana use can cause brain abnormalities, especially among teens; that marijuana use negative impairs certain cognitive functions such as short-term memory; and that marijuana use can exacerbate certain psychotic symptoms such as psychosis and schizophrenia. Marijuana’s effect on the developing brain is particularly harmful. The human brain continues to grow and develop through young adulthood, meaning that the changes that marijuana can cause to the brain are of greater significance in teens and young people. The negative impacts of marijuana on the brain are especially damaging on the developing brain.The average age of initiation of use has decreased from 19 in the 1970s to 17.5 in 2011.Recreational use of marijuana regularly leads to feelings of anxiety, and can sometimes induce panic attacks, feelings of paranoia, and other psychotic episodes. Marijuana use has the potential to incite or exacerbate mental health problems in those who are susceptible to them, especially among youth.Studies have shown that heavy marijuana use is linked to poor educational outcomes, making life much more difficult for these children in various ways – finding a job, staying out of debt, staying fit, etc. Alcohol is already widely-abused and imposes high costs on society – why add another substance to this?Legal drugs are already a huge issue, with alcohol and tobacco being legal and causing massive harm to the public’s health. The problem isn’t that these drugs are more or less harmful, it’s that the legalization process leads to greater exposure, less perception of harm, and higher use rates. Legalization of marijuana will lead to higher use, especially among youth, as well as higher societal costs. Youth marijuana use is among the highest it’s ever been. At the same time, youth’s perceptions of harm from marijuana use has rapidly decreased, leading to increased use that doesn’t compare to alcohol or tobacco use. Among emergency room visits made by patients aged 20 or younger resulting in drug misuse or abuse, marijuana was the most commonly involved illicit drug. Marijuana legalization will lead to increased drugged driving, especially when people combined consumption of alcohol with marijuana. This will in turn lead to more fatal car accidents. In fact, marijuana is already the most prevalent illegal drug detected in impaired drivers, fatally-injured drivers, and motor vehicle crash victims. In Colorado, drivers testing positive for marijuana in fatal car crashes doubled between 2006 and 2010 (after the dispensaries were implemented) while all fatal car accidents over the same time frame decreased. Marijuana-impaired driving increased by 50% in 2012-2013 in Washington, one year after the state legalized marijuana. There is currently no widely-accepted, universally-valid test for law enforcement to administer to determine someone’s level of marijuana-related intoxication, unlike alcohol impairment. As well, there is not even a universally-accepted acceptable level of THC blood content level to determine inebriation like there is with alcohol.The frequent use of butane hash oil to produce highly-concentrated marijuana with sometimes 90% THC content is not harmless – if done incorrectly, it can explode. Similar to meth labs, butane hash oil explosions can seriously injure users and property, including house fires and severe burns. In fact, since legalizing marijuana, Colorado has seen an increase in the number of hash oil-related accidents and emergency room visits. Marijuana legalization advocates have shifted their messaging to the dangers of alcohol, which actually lowers the perceptions of harm for marijuana and has gradually increased use, thereby exacerbating public health risks in the process.Culturally, it has taken decades to stigmatize drunk driving and abusing alcohol, while being high from marijuana is considered “funny” – will we have to go through the same terrible consequences for people to consider marijuana abuse the same way as alcohol abuse?The THC content of marijuana is on average much higher than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the average THC level was 0.2%. In 2011, it was 11%. Some marijuana products – “ear wax”, “shatter”, butane hash oil, etc. – can reach 80-90% THC content. The higher the THC, the graver the problems associated with use. The production of these products is completely legal in certain states.Many people who say they’re in favor of legalization don’t know what they’re getting into – they don’t know that THC is much higher; that butane hash oil and edibles will be legal; that Big Marijuana will target children; or that the social costs will vastly outweigh the increased revenue from taxation of a legal marijuana product.Research has shown that youth marijuana use does not increase in medical marijuana states.These studies have looked at states that have passed but not implemented these laws and are therefore flawed.A 2011 study by Columbia University showed that states that have legalized medical marijuana have the highest addiction rates and lowest perceptions of harm among 12-17 year-olds.Peer-reviewed studies have shown unequivocally that teen marijuana use increases in medical marijuana states, with most medical marijuana states being clustered at the very top of states with the highest rates of teen marijuana use.Advertising for marijuana, whether for “medical” purposes or otherwise, has continually and deliberately targeted youth.Edible marijuana packages are often marketed to appeal to children and have resulted in increased calls to poison control centers and emergency room visits.Recent studies have shown that 34 percent of marijuana-using 12th-graders living in states with medical marijuana laws say that one of the ways they obtain the drug is through someone else’s medical marijuana “prescription.”Marijuana is not a gateway drug.People don’t just start using heroin and cocaine out of nowhere – the vast majority of those who develop a substance use disorder start out using alcohol, tobacco, and/or marijuana. Legalization will only exacerbate this and increase use, which will increase addiction rates.A 2011 study of French adolescents in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors reported that cannabis use is a strong contributor to other illicit drug use.One recent study showed that among adults 26 years of age and older who had used cocaine, 62% had started using marijuana before the age of 15. This compares to less than 1% of adults who have never used marijuana who go on to use cocaine. Another study showed that adults who were early marijuana users were found to be five times more likely to become dependent on any drug, eight times more likely to use cocaine in the future, and fifteen times more likely to use heroin later in life. According to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 65.6% of new users of a drug (those who had used a drug other than alcohol for the first time) reported that marijuana was the first drug they tried. Marijuana prohibition disproportionately impacts minority communities.According to a 2011 C.S. Mott survey, 33% of adults rate drug abuse as their top health concern. Among these adults, 49% of Hispanic adults view drug abuse as a “big problem”, compared to 44% of Black adults and 28% of White adults.Alcohol, a legal substance, is disproportionately located in minority communities that are often composed of lower socio-economic status residents. Studies have shown that alcohol outlet density is greatest in these minority communities and is a significant determinant of negative health outcomes, higher rates of crime, violence, and unemployment. With legalization, do we want to take the chance that a new addiction-driven corporate industry will not pursue similar strategies in marketing their products in these communities? The War on Drugs and law enforcement are grave threats to individual freedoms.Drug abuse takes away individual freedoms by enslaving its users to a life of addiction.Drug use ruins lives, including family members, and causes lasting public harm to society – whose freedom is being taken away there?In a world of legalized drugs, who will control distribution? Cartels? The government? Is this really freedom? ................
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