White House Releases Rebuttal to Marijuana Legalization
According to a new White House Office of National Drug Control Policy report, teens using marijuana put themselves at higher risk for serious mental problems including worsening depression, schizophrenia, anxiety and suicide. by Kipper Mathews
(libertarian)
Monday, May 12, 2008
In response to news this week regarding Ron Paul co-sponsoring legislation decriminalizing the personal use of marijuana, (Related article) The White House has released "new" evidence in rebuttal that they coincidentally have been recently researching showing that teenagers who smoke pot are more likely to become depressed and commit suicide.
A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year (all of them) is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed -- 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Where they got these figures is unknown as most teens that smoke marijuana don't report it to The White House Office of National Drug Control.
The actual evidence reported seems to have been distorted by The White House as shown here:
'The report, entitled "Teen Marijuana Use Worsens Depression: An Analysis of Recent Data Shows 'Self-Medicating' Could Actually Make Thing Worse," cites statistics to support its warning message, but experts are quick to note that it should be interpreted with caution. For example, the report's statement, "One 16-year study showed that individuals who were not depressed and then used marijuana were four times more likely to be depressed at follow-up," suggests marijuana might cause depression. That data from a 2001 studyin the American Journal of Psychiatry was only statistically meaningful after the researchers adjusted for variables including age, gender, and antisocial symptoms, suggesting a weaker relationship between depression and marijuana before adjustments were made.1The study also showed that those who were not depressed when first surveyed and then used Opioids were 228 times more likely to be depressed at follow-up—without any adjustments. That statistic was not mentioned in the Drug Control Policy's report today. "Adolescent marijuana use may be a factor that triggers psychosis, depression, and other mental illness," says Walters, acknowledging that "research about causality is still ongoing." ' (US NEWS)
VIEW POINT: 1This is just another example of how the US government manipulates it's reports of scientific studies with propaganda. In the 1950's and 60's experiments on marijuana they injected rats with pure THC, in this report they substitute marijuana with opioids.
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Posted By: Ivan from Oregon
Date: 2008-05-12 07:28:55
If memory serves, until the late '40's, MJ was listed in the American Pharmaceutical Journal as a remedy for menstrual cramps, epileptic seizures, glaucoma, etc. Also in that timeframe, a Laguardia Commission report was favorable toward MJ. It has been used for hundreds of years as medicine in the orient. Our founding fathers, like Washington grew their own weed and exchanged seed of the really good stuff. More recently, there is huge, well documented, anecdotal evidence of hemp-oil used as a cure for cancer in Nova Scotia, where they jailed the good Samaritan for giving it away free ( a clear threat to the cancer industry).
The industrial uses of hemp are well known. Hemp is much more efficient product for biofuel than food crops.
Suppose marijuana is as bad as the WH thinks. What does that have to do with the question of whether a national prohibition is a good or Constitutional way to addess the issue? What makes Bush think that I, an anti-drug tea-totaler in Indiana, would want to fund the federal government to send federal agents out to California in my name to arrest people in possession of as little as an ounce of marijuana, while the local government who represents those constituents doesn't have a problem with it? And why is it that when we passed a national prohibition of alcohol it required a Constitutional amendment, but when we have a national prohibition of marijuana it doesn't? And who really gains the most from this marijuana prohibition? Is it perhaps the major pharmaceutical corporations who have valuable patents on artificially made drugs that are designed to emulate marijuana, that have the same chemicals, similar potential medical uses, and worse side effects?
Alcohol is known to make depression worse. Prohibition of MJ is bullshmidt! The fact that it is a depressant is not a good enough reason to ban it. The psuedoscience that it can cure cancer should not be used to promote the legalization of it. What we should remind people of is how it is less harmfull than Alcohol, while at the same time not being a riskless drug.
I found whatever the Gov't says, the oppisite is true.
The Gov't Lies! lol
Too bad they don't do a study on anti-depressants and suicide. It's a known fact that most of the school shootings, the kids were on anti-depressants or trying to get off of them when they went postal.
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