[h=1]A Bad Trip for Democrats[/h] [h=6]By ED GOGEK[/h] [h=6]Published: November 7, 2012 NYTIMES EXCERPT:[/h]TUESDAYS election was a victory for the marijuana lobby: Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize recreational use, while Massachusetts will now allow doctors to recommend it as medicine.
Its a movement around which many Democrats have coalesced. In Colorado, legalization was part of the state partys platform. And last year, in Montana, Republicans voted to overturn the states medical marijuana law, but the Democratic governor saved it with a veto.
But Democrats should think twice about becoming the party of pot. Im a lifelong partisan Democrat, but Ive also spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers, and I know their games. Theyre excellent con artists.
Take, for example, medical marijuana laws. They were sold to more than a dozen states with promises that theyre only for serious illnesses like cancer.
But thats not how they work in practice. Almost all marijuana cardholders claim they need it for various kinds of pain, but pain is easy to fake and almost impossible to disprove. In Oregon and Colorado, 94 percent of cardholders get their pot for pain. In Arizona, its 90 percent. Serious illnesses barely register.
Its possible that they all really do need pot to help them. But consider this: pain patients are mostly female, whereas a recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that adult cannabis abusers were 74 percent male.
So which one do marijuana patients resemble? Though only two states release data on gender, a vast majority of medical-marijuana cardholders are male. In Arizona, its 73 percent, and in Colorado, its 68 percent. The best explanation for such skewed numbers is that most medical marijuana recipients are drug abusers who are either faking or exaggerating their problems.
No one should support this subterfuge, but especially not Democrats. It turns us into hypocrites.
<<<SNIP>>> Democrats know we need government regulation to protect the public from unhealthy products. But the marijuana lobby wants us to distrust two centerpieces of the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The whole purpose of medical marijuana laws is to evade the regulatory power of these agencies. Were the political party that got the F.D.A. to regulate tobacco. How can we now say it shouldnt regulate pot?
Legalization also runs counter to the Democrats commitment to education. States with medical marijuana laws have always had much higher rates of teenage marijuana use, but now the effect is nationwide. Since 2008, teenage use has increased 40 percent, and heavy use (at least 20 times a month) is up 80 percent.
Blame the drive to legalize pot. It sends the message that weed is harmless, even though research shows that teenagers who use it regularly do worse in school, are twice as likely to drop out and earn less as adults. Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower I.Q.
No other drug, not even alcohol, affects academic performance like marijuana. How can we make education a focus, and then support laws that will blunt the next generations ability to compete? END EXCERPT
Its a movement around which many Democrats have coalesced. In Colorado, legalization was part of the state partys platform. And last year, in Montana, Republicans voted to overturn the states medical marijuana law, but the Democratic governor saved it with a veto.
But Democrats should think twice about becoming the party of pot. Im a lifelong partisan Democrat, but Ive also spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers, and I know their games. Theyre excellent con artists.
Take, for example, medical marijuana laws. They were sold to more than a dozen states with promises that theyre only for serious illnesses like cancer.
But thats not how they work in practice. Almost all marijuana cardholders claim they need it for various kinds of pain, but pain is easy to fake and almost impossible to disprove. In Oregon and Colorado, 94 percent of cardholders get their pot for pain. In Arizona, its 90 percent. Serious illnesses barely register.
Its possible that they all really do need pot to help them. But consider this: pain patients are mostly female, whereas a recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that adult cannabis abusers were 74 percent male.
So which one do marijuana patients resemble? Though only two states release data on gender, a vast majority of medical-marijuana cardholders are male. In Arizona, its 73 percent, and in Colorado, its 68 percent. The best explanation for such skewed numbers is that most medical marijuana recipients are drug abusers who are either faking or exaggerating their problems.
No one should support this subterfuge, but especially not Democrats. It turns us into hypocrites.
<<<SNIP>>> Democrats know we need government regulation to protect the public from unhealthy products. But the marijuana lobby wants us to distrust two centerpieces of the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The whole purpose of medical marijuana laws is to evade the regulatory power of these agencies. Were the political party that got the F.D.A. to regulate tobacco. How can we now say it shouldnt regulate pot?
Legalization also runs counter to the Democrats commitment to education. States with medical marijuana laws have always had much higher rates of teenage marijuana use, but now the effect is nationwide. Since 2008, teenage use has increased 40 percent, and heavy use (at least 20 times a month) is up 80 percent.
Blame the drive to legalize pot. It sends the message that weed is harmless, even though research shows that teenagers who use it regularly do worse in school, are twice as likely to drop out and earn less as adults. Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower I.Q.
No other drug, not even alcohol, affects academic performance like marijuana. How can we make education a focus, and then support laws that will blunt the next generations ability to compete? END EXCERPT
