Your Government Is Lying To You About Marijuana

As I stated my opinion on  this subject just the facts on this issue I seek the truth and justice in the laws 

Your Government Is Lying To You  About Marijuana 

ALLEGATION #1
“There is a serious drug problem in this country.”

TRUTH
America does have a serious drug problem and our public policy needs to better address this issue with health and science-based educational programs, and by providing more accessible treatment to those who are drug-dependent. Unfortunately, the bulk of America’s anti-drug efforts and priorities remain fixated on arresting and jailing drug consumers – particularly recreational marijuana smokers.1

In this sense, there is a serious drug enforcement problem in this country. Despite the notion that America’s drug war focuses primarily on targeting so-called hard drugs and hard drug dealers, data compiled by the FBI reports that 46 percent of all drug arrests are for marijuana.2

In 2003, the last year for which statistics are available, law enforcement arrested an estimated 755,186 persons for marijuana violations.3 This total far exceeds the total number of arrests for the violent crimes of murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.4 Today, state and local taxpayers spend between $5.3 billion5 and $7.7 billion6 dollars annually arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. The federal government spends an additional $4 billion per year on marijuana-related activities.7 These monies would be far better spent targeting violent crime and protecting national security.

Since 1990, over 7.2 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges,8 more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming combined.9 Nearly 90 percent of these arrests were for simple possession, not cultivation or sale.10

Despite the fact that reported adult use of marijuana has remained relatively constant for the past decade, annual marijuana arrests have more than doubled since 1990.11 Arrests for cocaine and heroin have declined sharply during much of this period,12 indicating that increased enforcement of marijuana laws is being achieved at the expense of enforcing laws against the possession and trafficking of more dangerous drugs.

Rather than stay this course, federal officials ought to take a page from their more successful public health campaigns discouraging teen pregnancy, drunk driving, and adolescent tobacco smoking – all of which have been significantly reduced in recent years.13 America did not achieve these results by banning the use of alcohol or tobacco products or by targeting and arresting adults who engage in these behaviors responsibly, but through honest, fact-based public education campaigns. There is no reason why these same common sense principles and strategies should not apply to marijuana and responsible adult marijuana use.

ALLEGATION #2
“Nationwide, no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana.”

TRUTH
This statement is pure hyperbole. By overstating marijuana’s potential harms, America’s policy-makers and law enforcement community undermine their credibility and ability to effectively educate the public of the legitimate harms associated with more dangerous drugs like heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine.

In fact, almost all drugs – including those that are legal – pose greater threats to individual health and/or society than does marijuana.14 According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 46,000 people die each year from alcohol-induced deaths (not including motor vehicle fatalities where alcohol impairment was a contributing factor), such as overdose and cirrhosis.15 Similarly, more than 440,000 premature deaths annually are attributed to tobacco smoking.16 By comparison, marijuana is non-toxic and cannot cause death by overdose.17 In a large-scale population study of marijuana use and mortality published in the American Journal of Public Health, marijuana use, even long-term, “showed little if any effect … on non-AIDS mortality in men and on total mortality in women.”18

After an exhaustive, federally commissioned study by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1999 examining all of marijuana’s potential health risks, authors concluded, “Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications.”19 (It should be noted that many risks associated with marijuana and smoking may be mitigated by alternative routes of administration such as vaporization.)20 The IOM further added, “There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including cancers usually related to tobacco use.”21 A 2001 large-scale case-controlled study affirmed this finding, concluding that “the balance of evidence … does not favor the idea the marijuana as commonly used in the community is a major causal factor for head, neck, or lung cancer.”22 More recently, a 2004 study published in the journal Cancer Research concluded that cannabis use is not associated with an increased risk of developing oral cancer “regardless of how long, how much, or how often a person has used marijuana.”23

Numerous studies and federally commissioned reports have endorsed marijuana’s relative safety compared to other drugs, and recommended its decriminalization or legalization.24 Virtually all of these studies have concluded that the criminal “classification of cannabis is disproportionate in relation both to its inherent harmfulness, and to the harmfulness of other substances.”25 Even a pair of editorials by the premiere British medical journal, The Lancet, acknowledge: “The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health.26 … It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat … than alcohol or tobacco.”27 Indeed, by far the greatest danger to health posed by the use of marijuana stems from a criminal arrest and/or conviction.

ALLEGATION #3
“60 percent of teenagers in treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis. This means that the addiction to marijuana by our youth exceeds their addiction rates for alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy and all other drugs combined.”

TRUTH
This statement is purposefully misleading. Although admissions to drug rehabilitation clinics among marijuana users have increased dramatically since the mid-1990s, this rise in marijuana admissions is due to a proportional increase in the number of people arrested by law enforcement for marijuana violations and subsequently referred to drug treatment by the criminal justice system.28 Primarily, these are young people arrested for minor possession offenses,29 brought before a criminal judge (or drug court), and ordered to rehabilitation in lieu of jail or juvenile detention. As such, this data is in no way indicative of whether the person referred to treatment is suffering from any symptoms of dependence associated with marijuana use; most individuals are ordered to attend supervised drug treatment simply to avoid jail time. In fact, since 1995, the proportion of admissions from all sources other than the criminal justice system has actually declined, according to the federal Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS).30 Consequently, DASIS now reports that 58 percent of all marijuana admissions are through the criminal justice system.31 Referrals from schools and health care/drug abuse care providers comprise another 15 percent of all admissions.32 By comparison, only 38 percent of those admitted to treatment for alcohol and only 29 percent of those admitted to treatment for cocaine are referred by the criminal justice system.33

ALLEGATION #4
“We may never rid this country of every crack pipe or marijuana plant. However, research proves that we have made substantial success in reducing drug use in this country.”

TRUTH
In fact, marijuana enforcement has had no discernable long-term impact on marijuana availability or use. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, teenagers report that marijuana has surpassed tobacco and alcohol as the easiest drug to obtain.34 This result is hardly surprising, given that annual federal data compiled by the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future project reports that an estimated 86 percent of 12th graders say that marijuana is “fairly easy” or “very easy to get.”35 This percentage has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-1970s36 – despite remarkably increased marijuana penalties, enforcement, and the prevalence of anti-marijuana propaganda since that time.

The percentage of adolescents experimenting with marijuana has also held steady over the long-term. According to annual data compiled by Monitoring the Future, 47.3 percent of 12th graders reported having used marijuana in 1975.37 Despite billions of dollars spent on drug enforcement and drug education efforts (such as the federally funded DARE program) since that time, today’s number (for the Class of 2004) is 49 percent.38

In addition, according to data compiled by the federal National Household on Drug Abuse survey, an estimated 2.6 million Americans tried marijuana for the first time in the year 2003, up from 1.5 million in 1990 and 0.8 million in 1965.39 Today, nearly one out of every two American adults acknowledges they have used marijuana, up from fewer than one in three in 1983.40



Pro Deo et Constitutione – Libertas aut Mors
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber