NeoCon BS — We’ve Had Enough

[Photo from High Times] 

Due to the popularity of our post Super ‘Skunk’, Dangerous as Cocaine? we’ve decided to investigate further on these claims of the heightened threat posed by new stronger ’skunk’ weed…

The executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, has recently warned the British government that it must ” avoid being swayed by misguided notions of tolerance”. God forbid there be tolerance for ‘vicitimless crimes’ like puffing guanja… but we digress…

“While governments around the world generally have succeeded in containing use of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines, marijuana is a different story”, Costa said.

“It’s out of control in supply because it’s a weed; it grows everywhere. It’s out of control in demand because it’s erroneously considered a light drug,” he said. “But, and indeed, it is extremely problematic because of much-increased THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, content.”

John Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, agreed that marijuana is “a massive global problem.”

“It’s not just a gateway, it is a dead end as well as an opening for many other people who go on and use other things, and are polydrug users. It has been for a long time,” said Walters, who joined Costa at the news conference.

It’s a “dead-end”, huh? Is that like Dick Cheney’s “dead-enders” in Iraq?

Could the reason that governments have difficulty controlling the supply and demand be  because large numbers of productive members of society enjoy consuming the devil weed on occasion?

Regarding the strength of the storied super ’skunk’, a reader sent this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2041750,00.html which basically says that the claims of “15 times stronger” are wildly exaggerated… And the strengthening that has occured is due in part to the prohibition of the plant…

Regarding schizophrenia, there are some pretty damming medical studies of the effects of heavy smoking on young adolescent brains: http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/street.html

Those genetically prone to schizophrenia are more at risk. I don’t think that can be denied.

Obviously heavy use of anything during development of bodies and brains can have ill-effects… those effects are not yet clearly understood with regard to cannabis.

However, consenting adults should have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to use an herb that grows freely in nature and has been used by humans for thousands of years.

An important thing to consider is that the rates of youth cannabis use within the Netherlands (where it’s decriminalized) trend basically the same or lower than other European countries. And the use of hard drugs by youth in the Netherlands is lower than the majority of European countries… which refutes baseless statements by head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, John Walters.