Pertaining to the Boston Globe’s recent publishing of an opinion piece advocating to “End Prohibition of Heroin”…
The Manipulation of the American Public
In 1912 the United States signed an international convention restricting the use of opium, heroin and cocaine and as a direct result of prohibitive drug policies, the use of these illicit drugs has remained below .5% for the American population.
Is the fact that 91% of Americans over the age of 12 don’t use drugs , and that only .01% or 200,000 people use heroin really a failure of prohibitive drug policies?
Think again and say no to legalization of a third or fourth or fifth harmful addictive drug.
Cannabis use is higher at 7.2% as a direct result of the aggressive campaigning by the pro pot lobbyists.
The influence is substantial and they have the means and wealth to drive public opinion.
The Drug Policy Alliance budget, for fiscal year ending 5/20/2012 was $47,135,352. These revenues do NOT include income for the related advocacy and political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance, Drug Policy Action.
Marijuana Policy Project Foundation data for fiscal year ending 12/20/2012 had revenues of $3,533,657. Again these revenues do NOT include income or expenses for the related advocacy and political arm of the Marijuana Policy Project Foundation – Marijuana Policy Project. Data was not available for The NORML Foundation. The political arm of the NORML Foundation is NORML.
The United States is one of the signatories to the United Nations Convention the Rights of the Child in which article 33 states: “shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative, administrative, social and educational measures, to protect children from illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic (cannabis) substances…reverse the emerging trend of increases in child abuse and neglect, both to the unborn child and those who are growing up in families where illicit drugs are used regularly.”
Quoting from the 1996 US Department of Health and Human Services ‘National Household Drug Survey, the nation’s most extensive assessment of drug use, reports that from 1979 to 1994 the number of drug users (those using within the past month ) had dropped from 24.8 million to 13 million, marijuana users from 23 million to 10 million. During alcohol prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, consumption dropped, rates from cirrhosis dropped from 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 to 10.7 per 100,000 in 1929, admission to mental health hospitals for alcohol psychosis dropped by 60 percent, arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct by 50% and there was a significant decline in alcohol related family problems. Homicide rates also dropped during prohibition.
We must not take our facts of historical events from the producers of film.
The proposition that prohibitive versus permissive drug policies are the best route to keeping youth off of drugs is supported by the Rand Corporation’s testimony – Insights on the Effect of Marijuana Legalization on Prices and Consumption prepared and reported for the California State Assembly Public Safety Commission on September 21,2010 presenting evidence that after legalization, the pre-tax retail price will drop dramatically and after legalization, consumption will increase.
Further evidence to support prohibition of cannabis is supported by study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy by researchers affiliated with New York University’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) which found proportions of high school students normally at low risk for marijuana use (e.g., non-cigarette-smokers, religious students, those with friends who disapprove of use) reported intention to use marijuana if it were legal.
There are four factors that determine the rate of drug abuse; price, availability, perception of risk, and public attitude.
It is basic economic theory. Marijuana under legalization over time, will be more affordable, something youth use is particularly sensitive to (as we know from tobacco), will be more available, will be promoted by commercial interests and those with teeth in the game, and the pot lobby will continue to discredit reputable science and scientists as they pour out their propaganda.
We can also now look to the Colorado experiment for further evidence that legalization will get more kids involved in marijuana use, the ramifications of such an increase are for another time and place. They are daunting not just to the individual users but all of society.
The average past month marijuana use for young adults in Colorado increased from 21.43% in 2006 to 27.26 in 2011. Denver legalized possession of marijuana in 2005 with first stores appearing in 2007, with 700 stores open by 2009 and full legalization in 2012 and full recreational stores opening in 2014. That is a 27% increase between 2006-2011. This increase speaks directly to permissive public attitude towards cannabis and the introduction of medical marijuana. 74% of Denver-area teens in treatment said they used somebody else’s medical marijuana an average of 50 times.
This is the direct result of the pro-pot lobbyists strategy. d Keith Stroup, head of NORML 1979.
There is extensive confusion over the potential health benefits of marijuana versus the risk of harm.
It is our opinion that no region should have moved to legalize this drug until a Surgeon General’s report on cannabis could be prepared and released.
In 1964 the Surgeon General of the United States released a report on the link between tobacco and cancer and while the public perception of the risk did impact smoking rates it has taken us 60 years to get ahead of the tobacco train.
In the case of marijuana we are already up against a monolithic machine that wants to grow a pot industry the likes of which can only be imagined and pale in comparison to tobacco.
This is a drug unlike alcohol that can impair cognitive function, making finishing or excelling at school much more of a challenge, and unlike tobacco will put more impaired drivers on the road.
Marijuana use in youth primes the brain for a life time of addiction issues, is a gateway to killer tobacco and is an addictive substance that will addict one in six kids who use marijuana, 50% of those that use it everyday. The ramifications are truly horrific.
Is the fact that 91% of Americans over the age of 12 don’t use drugs , and that only .01% or 200,000 people use heroin really a failure of prohibitive drug policies?
Think again and say no to legalization of a third or fourth or fifth harmful addictive drug.