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Title: Teens and parents told: Marijuana is indisputably addictive and harmful
Source:
Chesterton Tribune
URL Source: http://chestertontribune.com/Police ... and_parents_told_marijuana.htm
Published: May 5, 2015
Author: KEVIN NEVERS
Post Date: 2015-05-06 00:28:42 by Gatlin
Keywords: None
Views: 16134
Comments: 53
Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Washington D.C. have all legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Observers believe that legalization could be put to a vote next year in five other states.
Fully 58 percent of the population believe that marijuana should be legal.
Fully 38 percent have tried marijuana at some point in their life, up from only 4 percent in 1969.
Big Pot, in other words, has both momentum and time on its side, and it’s hard not to conclude that, in five or 10 or 15 years, marijuana will be as legal and easily obtainable a recreational substance as alcohol now is, in every state of the Union.
Meanwhile, as well-intentioned people on both sides of the issue debate the merits of legalization, their kids may be reaching conclusions of their own: how can a substance that folks in Colorado are congratulating themselves on being able to use in their own homes, with the government’s blessing no less--a substance that’s prescribable as a medication in 23 states--a substance whose “impact on the individual consumer” even President Obama says is “less dangerous” than alcohol’s impact--how could such a substance possibly be bad for you?
And once a teen, or a tween, starts thinking that way, he or she’s only a friend’s nudge away from lighting one up. A joint, that is, not a cigarette. Thanks to the schools, every 8-year-old knows and is happy to tell you that tobacco is not only toxic but evil. That’s why, when the same kid turns 12 or 13 or 14 and is ready to experiment with a substance, he’s more likely now, for the first time ever, to smoke a J than a Marlboro.
For Michelle Volk, it’s what that kid doesn’t know--what maybe his parents don’t know either--that could hurt him: namely, that marijuana is addictive, that it is harmful, that there are in fact long-term non-negligible too-late-to-do-anything-about consequences from regular use.
Volk is president of the Porter County Substance Abuse Council (PCSAC), and last week at the IMAX in Portage PCSAC and its Lake and LaPorte county counterparts hosted “The Blunt Truth about Marijuana.” PCSAC’s goal, as Volk told the Chesterton Tribune before the event: “To show how dangerous this drug is to a teenager’s still developing brain.”
The keynote speaker: Carol Falkowski, formerly the director of the Minnesota Department of Human Service’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division; the author of numerous publications on substance addiction and trends; and a technical consultant to the FDA, DOJ, ABA, and the Rand Corporation.
12th Graders
Falkowski’s first point: nationwide, 44 percent of high-schoolers will have tried marijuana at least once by the time they graduate. And nearly half of any population is a lot of people. “Chances are it’s not someone else’s kid who’s smoking marijuana,” she said. “Chances are, it’s your own child.”
Simply put, there’s been a “decline in the belief that marijuana is harmful” and not just because President Obama says it’s safer than alcohol. When the legalization of marijuana is made to sound in the media like some kind of liberation movement, then the innocuousness of marijuana becomes a received wisdom.
“The less harmful kids think it is, the more likely they are to use it,” Falkowski said.
Potency
Here’s the problem: it’s not their parents’ marijuana. Even less is it their grandparents’. Fifty years ago, marijuana might have averaged a 1- or 2-percent concentration of THC, the psychoactive ingredient. By the 1980s, the typical concentration had increased to 4 percent. Now, Falkowski said, it can be anywhere from 12 to 20 percent.
And the cross-breeding and cutting-edge cultivation technologies which make the product available to kids today so much more potent than it used to be, also make its effects on their bodies and brain that much more powerful, Falkowski said.
Addiction
Back in the day, it was common to say that marijuana is “psychologically addictive,” whatever exactly, or inexactly, was meant by that.
Falkowski didn’t equivocate. Marijuana is addictive, she said bluntly. “The jury’s no longer out” on that one.
And by addiction she means just that: “a chronic disease that will require lifelong management.” Going cold turkey, Falkowski added, is a lot like quitting tobacco, with symptoms akin to those associated with nicotine withdrawal: irritability, anxiety, craving, sleep disruptions.
Fully 40 percent of kids younger than 15 who use marijuana “seriously” will become addicted to it, she said. They may have a genetic predisposition to addiction, they may be responding to their environment--a bad home situation, say--but in either case the fact that they’ve got 13- or 14-year old brains still “under construction” has something to do with it: more likely to make bad decisions, less likely to control their impulses, they enthusiastically accept the notion that “if something feels good, more of it is better.”
“So not only are they putting themselves at risk for doing stupid things under the influence of marijuana,” Falkowski said. “They’re also setting themselves up to become addicts.”
Smoking Oneself Stupid
As “indisputable” as the addictiveness of marijuana, Falkowski said, are the short- and long-term cognitive effects of using it. Turns out, you literally can smoke yourself stupid, according to a longitudinal study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It’s no surprise to be told, by the NEJM study, that marijuana use impairs short-term memory and motor coordination, alters a person’s judgment, puts him at greater risk of being injured in an accident. Cheech and Chong got rich making being high and dopey look hilarious.
There’s an increased risk as well, however, of chronic psychotic disorder, like schizophrenia, in predisposed users of marijuana. And of developing symptoms of chronic bronchitis later in life.
But the NEJM study showed something else, Falkowski said: “persistent” marijuana users who were tested at age 13 and then again, 25 years later, at 38, not only presented memory problems but had lost on average eight IQ points.
Persistent users in high school also tend to have “poor educational outcomes,” not a shocking finding inasmuch as the loss of short-term memory could make it more “difficult to learn.” And they tend to report what Falkowski called “diminished life satisfaction”--as measured, for instance, by earnings potential--the kind of correlation one would expect to be associated with a poor educational outcome.
Gateway Drug?
On the old chestnut--whether marijuana is a gateway drug to narcotics--Falkowski took no definitive position, although she allowed that it probably is for some. “Kids get fascinated by mood changes,” she said. “With marijuana the mood change is fairly mild. They may then start looking for other drugs to alter their mood.”
But marijuana is a demonstrably harmful drug already, all on its own, Falkowski concluded. It doesn’t need to be a gateway drug to make smoking it a bad idea.
The World We Live In
Falkowski urged parents to learn the signs of marijuana use--sudden changes in behavior, friends, personal appearance; secretiveness; defensiveness--and to begin an ongoing, non-confrontational dialogue with their children about its dangers.
She also counseled them not to despair if their kids become involved with marijuana. “It doesn’t mean they’re bad children or that you’re a bad parent,” Falkowski said. “It’s just the world we live in.”
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"Still trying to claim that natural cross breeding is the same as altering the essential genetic make-up of a plant in a laboratory?"
The same? No. Similar.
Cross-breeding mixes all the genes and you hope something favorable happens. Assuming you hit the Lotto, you still have to take the bad with the good.
GMO technology is nothing more than precision cross-breeding. You take a single gene, or maybe a small set of genes, and transfer them into a new genetic background. You get only what you want. No more, no less.
#15. To: Deckard (#6)
"Teens and parents should be told that the War on Drugs is deadlier than any illicit substance."
You do realize that the War on Drugs will continue even if marijuana is legalized?
Then again, once marijuana is legalized, you won't care if the War on Drugs kills a million people a year. You got what you wanted and f**k everyone else.
#16. To: misterwhite (#14)
GMO technology is nothing more than precision cross-breeding. You take a single gene, or maybe a small set of genes, and transfer them into a new genetic background. You get only what you want. No more, no less.
I don't know of any pot growers who add spider genes to their plants.
You still don't get it, do you?
Genetic modification is not the same as crossbreeding.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#17. To: Deckard (#16)
"Genetic modification is not the same as crossbreeding."
For the second time, I never said it was the same. It's similar. Genetic modification is precision crossbreeding.
#18. To: Deckard, A K A Stone, misterwhite (#8) (Edited)
Teens and parents should be told that the War on Drugs is deadlier than any illicit substance.
Why would you want parents to lie to their children?
It's not a lie.
| From pot to meth and beyond, the drastic impact of drugs on teens is becoming more severe as the full picture comes into public view….it is a far worse than ever imagined. The old days of casual pot-smoking has been replaced by the dangerous and deadly use of psychotic meth. The time has come when we are seeing much stronger forms of cocaine, heroin, pot and synthetic pot being joined with the other drugs like methamphetamine, bath salts and the like. Substance abuse has exploded reaching all levels of society and is no longer a part of the seedy elements of society. Sadly, it appears that the drug use continues to grow and take a stranglehold on teens….stripping them of any chance for happy, stable and productive lives if we do nothing to stop it and sit idly by. Even more sadly, it is social misfits like you, Deckard, who condone and even encourage this use. Promoting drug or even appearing to condone the use of drugs among teens is a vile thing to do. |
#19. To: Gatlin (#18) (Edited)
Even more sadly, it is social misfits like you, Deckard, who condone and even encourage this use.
Fuck you asshole, I do not promote, condone or encourage drug use by kids.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#20. To: Deckard (#19)
Fuck you asshole...
Don't drag me into your drug induced sexual fantasies...
I do not promote or encourage drug use by kids.
Oh but you do! Albeit it through your not spoken yet indicated tacit approval given with a smile and a wink….thus showing the implied or inferred consent of your approval.
#21. To: Gatlin (#20)
I do not promote or encourage drug use by kids.Oh but you do! Albeit it through your not spoken yet indicated tacit approval given with a smile and a wink….thus showing the implied or inferred consent of your approval.
Lying sack of shit.
I support the right of ADULTS to use drugs if they so choose.
You are too effing ignorant to grasp the difference.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#22. To: Gatlin, Pericles (#2)
By not smoking pot, you miss out on super-exciting experiences and intense feelings of pleasure. But you don't face the risk of bad trips and addiction.
Bad trips?
From marijuana?
You've been watching "Reefer Madness" again, haven't you tosser?
Addiction?
More lunacy.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#23. To: Deckard (#21)
I support the right of ADULTS to use drugs if they so choose.
You are too effing ignorant to grasp the difference.
As difficult as it is for you to face your problem, the consequences of your drug use is worse than the problems you are trying to solve by using them. You need to realize that the real answer to your problems is to get the facts and not to take drugs in the first place. Be grateful that I am here to help you get those facts….even though you are too effing ignorant to realize this, I will continue trying.
You need to realize that drugs are essentially poisons and the amount you take determines the effect. A little bit can act as a stimulant to speed you up, while a slightly greater amount will act as a sedative to slow you down. But the end result is that an even larger amount poisons you and can kill you. You should know that there are a number of signs that indicate drug use….these indicators are both physical and behavioral. While each drug will have its own unique manifestations to display, there is one good general indication that a person is using drugs, and maybe too much of them. That indication is to constantly promote the use of drugs on a public forum. But of course, that is not happening to you….right?
#24. To: Gatlin (#23)
As difficult as it is for you to face your problem, the consequences of your drug use....
As difficult as it is for you to understand, not everyone who is against the war on drugs is a drug user.
Oh, and while I have your attention - sod off you bloody lying wanker.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#25. To: Gatlin (#23) (Edited)
Be grateful that I am here to help you get those facts….even though you are too effing ignorant to realize this, I will continue trying.
You are insane, and a pompous, self-important ass.
You would be better off dealing with your own issues of psycopathic and extreme authority worship.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#26. To: Deckard (#22)
By not smoking pot, you miss out on super-exciting experiences and intense feelings of pleasure.
But you don't face the risk of bad trips and addiction.
Bad trips?
From marijuana?
You've been watching "Reefer Madness" again...
Not from watching Reefer Madness:
| This happened when i was a teenager back in 1993. i still remember it like t was yesterday. i was 15 years old and had only smoked pot a few times before. i had just moved to my dad's house and his girlfriend was a total pothead. so the first day i move there i ask his girlfirend if i could smoke some pot. she says yeah. so in the morning we smoke a joint. it doesnt do much to me. then a few hours later we go down to the beach and score some weed. we smoke it right there on the beach, hidden of course. again it doesn't do much to me. then around 7pm a guy comes around our pad with some pot. this was my 3rd time smoking that day and i was a newby. so this last joint i say screw it and went balls out. took like 10 long hits of it. then i had the munchies bad. my moms girlfriend makes us quessadillas to eat. and everything is funny as hell, i laughing at everything. then the pot guy leaves and its just me and her in the living room. my dad is asleep in the back. well around 8pm i go lay down and start to fall asleep in front of the tv. i nod off and suddenly i'm in a time warp going a million miles per hour through the galaxy (ever see that movie STARGATE). then i get up and something is definitaely wrong. its like i wasn't there. time has slowed down to a crawl, a minute seemed like 2 life times. getting deja vu like a mtherfcker. everything happening 1,000 times over and over and over. i began freaking. i go into the bathroom and suddenly its like i'm being flushed down the toilet. then i realize that i don't exist. life as we know it isn't. i'm and eveything is "nothing". then i'm in another universe 1,000,000,000,000 miles a way from earth. my mind and body ain't one. they have split up. my moms girlfriend tries calming me down to no avail, i yell to her to call 911. i have visions of me in straightjacket in a psych ward at the hospital. she decides not to call 911, instead gives me cold medicine to make me drowsy. she goes and wakes my dad in the back room. i lay down on the couch and my dad comes out and tries to calm me. and as he is, he begins turning into a horned devil about to engulf me in his evil. then everything goes black black black. all together this "bad trip" lasted about 30 minutes. i wake up 2 hours later and am a bit better and i'm off to sleep again. then i wake up the next day fine trying not to think about the previous night to hell. jfrom cli32. |
#27. To: Gatlin (#26)
Oh sure - some anonymous kid on the internet.
Your credibility has sunk even lower.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#28. To: Deckard (#24)
As difficult as it is for you to understand, not everyone who is against the war on drugs is a drug user.
But of course, every drug user is against the war on drugs...right?
#29. To: Deckard (#27)
Oh sure - some anonymous kid on the internet.
Out of the mouth of (a kid) hast thou established strength,
Because of thine adversaries,
That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger
~ Psalm 8:2 (ASV)
#30. To: Deckard (#25)
Be grateful that I am here to help you get those facts….even though you are too effing ignorant to realize this, I will continue trying.You are insane, and a pompous, self-important ass.
You rationalize because, you’re in the last stages of denial.
Be comforted by the fact that, I am still here to help you.
#31. To: Deckard (#24)
Oh, and while I have your attention ...
Oh, but you will always have my attention as I listen to hear your lone voice crying in the wilderness. Even if I am the only person who hears you expressing a particular opinion that makes no sense and other people also fail to understand. Your passionate pleas for help and peace will not go unanswered.
#32. To: Gatlin (#21)
Deckard ~Fuck you asshole
Lying sack of shit.
You are too effing ignorant
How classy
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Robert Kennedy
#33. To: GrandIsland (#32) (Edited)
Deckard ~
Fuck you asshole
Lying sack of shit.
You are too effing ignorant
How classy
Deckard’s choice of swear words indicate that he is fascinated with sexual references before he moves on to disgusting scatological objects. It is obvious that he can’t relate without injecting direct vulgar, succinct emotional components into the conversation.
I read neurologist Antonio Damasio showed that despite loss of language due to damaged areas of the brain, patients were still able to swear. It is obvious that Deckard is still able to swear, I cannot help but wonder just how severely his brain is damaged.
#34. To: Gatlin (#33)
Who the hell is Wild Bill Hitchcock?
#35. To: Gatlin (#2)
When will you die of old age so the conservative movement can be rid of you and your proven wrong 1970s establishment origins beliefs?
#36. To: misterwhite (#10)
Ecstasy and LSD
Both were legal.
#37. To: Pericles (#35)
When will you die of old age so the conservative movement can be rid of you and your proven wrong 1970s establishment origins beliefs?
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him. Proverbs 26:4
#38. To: Dead Culture Watch (#34)
Who the hell is Wild Bill Hitchcock?
Why the Hell ask me?
#39. To: Dead Culture Watch (#38)
Who the hell is Wild Bill Hitchcock?
Why the Hell ask me?
I know of no one named Will Bill Hitchkock. However, I think I know what you are mistakenly referring to. I suggest you go back and read the original post more carefully this time by clicking here.
Word recognition for you would not be so difficult if you spend more time to properly use your limited processing capacity while considering individual words. Reading comprehension is not difficult. It is simply a creative and multifaceted process that results in the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. There are a number of different approaches you can use to improve your reading comprehension through the proper use of the four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Check out the various methods for improving reading comprehension by using Google.
Your question to me clearly demonstrated that pragmatics is the biggest problem you are having with your reading comprehension. Concentrate on pragmatics because it is that branch of linguistics dealing with language in use and the contexts in which it is used, including such matters as deixis, taking turns in conversation, text organization, presupposition, and implicature. You need to recognize that presupposition is you biggest problem with pragmatics. You also need to worry about the implicature since your reply utterances are senseless gibberish.
I hope all this set you on the proper path to develop improved reading comprehension traits which will result in a much more informative life for you. If it did not, then you can seek assistance from Deckard to improve your reading comprehension. Wait….never mind, he has the same problem as you.
#40. To: Gatlin (#33)
Fuck you asshole
Lying sack of shit.
You are too effing ignorant
A Deckard Haiku original.
#41. To: misterwhite, Deckard, GrandIsland (#40) (Edited)
Fuck you asshole
Lying sack of shit.
You are too effing ignorantA Deckard Haiku original.
Ah, but Deckard should not be categorized as someone making an unsuccessful attempt at a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Deckard has demonstrated that he in on his way to a new career….that being a rising hip-hop star. With his talent, Deckard’s filthy lyrics will make hip-hop artists from Lil Wayne to Akinyele to Piles sound like they are doing nursery rhymes.
The way he already expounds profanity, coupled with sexual innuendos and his advocating for the use of illicit drugs to give him the ability to throw in a drug reference or two….will be great contributions to his new respective craft. It takes years and a very special kind of taboo-breaking spirit for most rappers to be viewed as tops in the field for spewing filthy language….but just look at the short time it has taken LF’s very own Deckard to climb the stairs putting him on the way to success.
YOYyoyoo!!,, DeCkArd ., JuSSS wEn Everyone $ays chuuu GoTs NaHh TalENT....LOoKK Att chuuu Goe (Hey, Deckard., just when everyone said you have no talent....look at you go).
Don’t be alarmed, Deckard, I am not trying to shoot you out of the saddle….I am only practicing hip-hop so I can still exchange posts with you after you hit the real big time.
#42. To: Gatlin (#41) (Edited)
Lil Wayne
Deckard sure has the same potty mouth as lil Weezy
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Robert Kennedy
#43. To: GrandIsland (#42) (Edited)
Lil WayneDeckard sure has the same potty mouth as lil Weezy
Last year the Potty Mouth band garnered attention in the underground punk world with an impressive new release.
Maybe Deckard can audition to appear with them...
#44. To: Pericles (#36)
Ecstasy and LSD
Both were legal.
As was heroin and cocaine. What's your point?
#45. To: Gatlin (#41)
Hip-hop sucks.
Oh - and so do you.
Your attempt at constructing a cogent post was quite amusing however.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#46. To: Deckard (#45)
...was quite amusing however.
...and TRUTHFUL. Which of course is more important.
#47. To: Gatlin (#43)
" Last year the Potty Mouth band garnered attention in the underground punk world with an impressive new release. "
Gee Gatlin, I didn't realize you followed punk world music.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
#48. To: Stoner (#47)
If you paid closer attention to my posts you would have known that I have an amazing world of knowledge about so many different and even controversial subjects and things. You would have known that I continually explore the bad as well as the good in order to continue being the successful independent thinker that I am.
#49. To: Gatlin (#48)
" I have an amazing world of knowledge about so many different and even controversial subjects and things. "
My apology's, I momentarily forgot that you are the proverbial "Wizard of Oz".
I bet that when Stephen Hawking has a question, you are the first one he consults with.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
#50. To: Stoner (#49)
My apology's, I momentarily forgot that you are the proverbial "Wizard of Oz".
Not a problem. Lapse in memory does occur....to some.
I bet that when Stephen Hawking has a question, you are the first one he consults with.Nope, I just checked.
He is not on the list of those who are approved to consult with me.
So, he is on his own....I wish him well.
#51. To: misterwhite (#44)
Ecstasy and LSD Both were legal. As was heroin and cocaine. What's your point?
Wasn't the world a better place in the past? Clearly the drug war has not made America Olde Timey like in the days of real cocaine in the soda pop.
#52. To: Pericles (#51)
"Wasn't the world a better place in the past?"
Well, the legal drugs were made illegal. Which means the world probably wasn't that good.
"Clearly the drug war has not made America Olde Timey like in the days of real cocaine in the soda pop."
Like the only difference between the USA in 1915 and the USA in 2015 is the legal status of drugs.
#53. To: Dead Culture Watch (#34)
An obese director of suspenseful cowboy movies.
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