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In Case You
Thought You Knew The Truth...
The
Claim:
“Each year drug use
exacts $110 billion in social costs, contributes to 52,000 drug-related
deaths…” (Letter
from Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Barry
McCaffrey to New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, September 16, 1999.)
The Facts:
The
study Director McCaffrey used to estimate a $110 billion social cost
states that sixty percent (60%) of those costs are due to drug-related
law enforcement, incarceration and crime, which would disappear if
legalized.
The
Claim:
“We're making progress in reducing illegal drug use and its
consequences.” (Barry McCaffrey, September 16, 1999.)
The Facts:
The
Survey excludes all 1.8 million persons who are currently behind bars,
many of whom are imprisoned for drugs, but now do not show up on
national statistics.
The health and social
consequences associated with drugs; overdose deaths, mentions of drugs
in hospital emergency rooms and spread of disease, particularly AIDS,
have worsened since 1978. Saying that the nation has made progress on
the consequences of drug use is simply untrue.
The price of heroin
has fallen from $1,200 per pure gram to $317 per pure gram, while
average purity of street-level heroin has increased from less than 5% to
25% since 1981.
The price of cocaine
is half of what it was in 1981 and the average purity has risen from 40%
to more than 70%.
The
Claim:
“Findings
so far show that regular use of marijuana or THC may play a role in some
kinds of cancer and in problems with the respiratory, immune, and
reproductive systems.” (US
Dept of Health and Human Services, Marijuana:
Facts for Teens, 1995, p. 9.)
The Facts:
The DEA's
Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young concluded: “In strict medical
terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For
example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By
comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to
induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of
rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised
routine of medical care. (US
Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency, “In the Matter of
Marijuana Rescheduling Petition,” [Docket #86-22], (September 6,
1988), p. 57.)
The
Claim:
“Marijuana is also a gateway drug.” (Barry
McCaffrey, July 22, 1997.)
The Facts:
For
every 112 marijuana users, there is only one regular user of cocaine and
less than one heroin addict. (U.S.
Government, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1996.)
“There is no
conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally
linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.” (Janet
E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A Benson, Jr., Marijuana and
Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Division of Neuroscience and
Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press, 1999.)
The
Claim:
It is now frequently stated by law enforcement and government agencies
that marijuana is profoundly addicting and that any increase in
prevalence of use will lead inevitably to increases in addiction.
The Facts:
Dr. Jack Henningfield of the Addiction
Research Center (part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse) and Dr.
Neal Benowits of the University of California ranked heroin, cocaine,
nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and marijuana in terms of their power to
induce psychological dependence. Nicotine was first, marijuana last.
Even caffeine is more addictive. Marijuana also ranked last in terms of
producing a physical tolerance to the drug, and was deemed least likely
to produce signs of withdrawal upon quitting (Schlosser, 1994, p.92).
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