February / March 2009 - The Marijuana Debate - The Crystal Angel Fashion and Design Magazine - February 2009 - 2nd Anniversary Issue - Crystal Angel Fashion and Design - The Premier Fashion and Design Magazine for Moove.com

The Crystal Angel tackles a tough subject with an unbiased approach.

As the posters and quotes on the first part of this article show, fear was used to outlaw marijuana and to keep folks from using it. Fear is a great tactic and is still used today - from the war on terror to selling us home alarm systems to getting us to stop eating eggs. Fear sells things, almost as well as sex.

But the long term damage of using fear and in some cases, even fibbing, only hurts the Government's credibility. So when they do finally tell us the truth, we do not really believe them.

I have seen pot blamed for everything from teenage pregnancy to contracting AIDS to being a gateway drug to chronic paranoia. In the meantime, people try it and find out they are not turned into drug crazed sex fiends, and so they think the stories about crack, meth, heroin and cocaine are not true as well. I think this is one of the

reasons it is labled as a "gateway" drug. Truth is a rare and precious thing. So let's look at the TRUTH.

What is Marijuana?

Call it pot, grass, weed, or any one of nearly 200 other names, marijuana is, by far, the world’s most commonly used illicit drug— and according to the National Institue on Drug Abuse, "far more dangerous than most users realize".

Marijuana has been around for a long while. Its source, the hemp plant (cannabis sativa), was being cultivated for psychoactive properties more than 2,000 years ago. Although cannabis contains at least 400 different chemicals, its main mind-altering ingredient is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). (b)

The amount of THC in marijuana determines the drug’s strength, and THC levels are affected by a great many factors, including plant type, weather, soil, the time of harvest and how much of a green thumb the grower has. Sophisticated cannabis cultivation of today produces high levels of THC and marijuana that is far more potent than pot of the past. THC content of marijuana, which averaged less than 1 percent in 1974, rose to an average 4 percent by 1994. (b)

For the highly popular form of marijuana called Sinsemilla (from the Spanish word "without seeds"), made from just the buds and flowering tops of female plants, THC content averages 7.5 percent and ranges as high as 24 percent. As for hashish, a resin made from flowers of the female plant, THC levels may be five to ten times higher than crude marijuana’s. (b)

How is it Used?

Marijuana and other cannabis products are usually smoked, sometimes in a pipe or water pipe, but most often in loosely rolled cigarettes known as "joints." Some users will slice open and hollow out cigars, replacing the tobacco with marijuana, to make what are called "blunts." The National Institute on Drug Abuse throws in the fear thing by adding, "joints and blunts may be laced with other substances, including crack cocaine and the potent hallucinogen phencyclidine (PCP), substantially altering effects of the drug". (b)

Smoking, however, is not the only way to catch a buzz from marijuana. Marijuana can be brewed into tea or mixed in baked products (cookies or brownies) which removes the dangers that come with smoking anything.

How Does it Affect You?

A mild hallucinogen, marijuana has some of alcohol’s depressant and disinhibiting properties. User reaction, however, is heavily influenced by expectations and past experience, and many first-time users feel nothing at all. (b)

Effects of smoking are generally felt within a few minutes and peak in 10 to 30 minutes. The National Institue on Drug Abuse (NIDA) warn that the effects are dry mouth and throat, increased heart rate, impaired coordination and balance, delayed reaction time, and diminished short-term memory.

The NIDA goes on to state that moderate doses tend to induce a sense of well-being and a dreamy state of relaxation that encourages fantasies, renders some users highly suggestible, and distorts perception (making it dangerous to operate machinery, drive a car or boat, or ride a bicycle). Stronger doses prompt more intense and often disturbing reactions including paranoia and hallucinations. See how fear is placed into the formula to offset the "dreamy state of relaxation". It makes taking what the NIDA states seriously, harder to swallow. Soooo, since the NIDA seems to have an agenda to focus on the most horrible aspects of using marijuana, lets go someplace else and try to get the facts without the TERROR.

We could go an visit the Pro-Hemp web sites, but they are using the wonderful properties of hemp as a non-drug to push an agenda to legalize pot smoking which makes them almost as bad as the NIDA in telling the truth. Let's head off to the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Effects on the Body

According to research done by UCSB, the rumors that marijuana has relatively few adverse side-effects on the body are not completely true. With its high intoxication potential, it does have relatively low dependency potential and low risk of organ damage or death. At the same time, the consequences of marijuana (even if low) should not be ignored.

It has negative effects on memory - information learned while smoking or recently before smoking is easily forgotten, which is why chronic smokers are at a disadvantage at school and at work. Using marijuana with especially high potencies can be quite dangerous. High levels of THC can cause panic attacks, similar to those produced by hallucinogenic drugs, and the users can feel like they are losing their minds. (c)

There are indications that regular marijuana smoking may lead to lung disease and lung cancer. Smoking marijuana reduces the ability to expel air from the lungs even more than tobacco smoke does - this could be in part due to the fact that marijuana contains more tar and benzopyrene than tobacco smoke. As well, it is possible to become addicted to marijuana. Once a tolerance is

built up and the drug is taken away, users may experience withdrawal symptoms of restlessness, irritability, and flu-like symptoms. (c)

Effects on Sexuality

Perhaps part of the appeal of marijuana is its rumored aphrodisiac qualities. Marijuana has the reputed effect of elevating mood and arousal and stimulating sexual activity. Just think of the common stereotype of the "sex-crazed, dope-fiend" - the use of marijuana has been quite eroticized. In reality, sex under the influence of marijuana isn't always so romantic. While the drug does enhance mood and reduce inhibitions, much in the way that alcohol does, it also plays quite fickly with libido. Some claim that it substantially increases sexual desire: "My sexual drive goes up when stoned; I have more need for sex." Others experience the opposite effect: "I have much less sexual drive when stoned; it's difficult to arouse me even in a situation which would normally arouse me."

As well, many users fall between the two extremes: "I have no increase in sexual feelings unless it's a situation that I would normally be sexually aroused in, and then the sexual feelings are much stronger." Smokers and their partners (who may or may not be smokers) also experience

different reactions to using pot during intercourse. There are some that claim a greater bond between partners, claiming marijuana facilitates a more beautiful, spiritual connection: "It may be a turn-on toward an aura of gentleness, sensitivity, and glow." The flip side to this is that lovers feel that marijuana takes each one of them into his or her own personal space and distances them: "It creates a separating, fuzzy, dreamlike quality that diffuses the reality of sex."

In regards to the rumors that marijuana heightens sexual climax, much scientific research seems to discredit that. Marijuana may distort the time sense, with the resulting illusion of prolonged arousal and orgasm. Chronic marijuana smokers do show signs of infertility - men may have lower sperm counts and women may have abnormal ovulation (but this does not mean that marijuana is effective in preventing pregnancy…marijuana is not a contraceptive!). As well, marijuana is believed to inhibit testosterone synthesis in males. The use of marijuana while pregnant can be quite damaging to the health of the fetus. Because THC crosses the placental barrier, smoking increases the risk of pregnancy loss, birth defects, and retardation of fetal growth and development. (c)

Hmmmm. So, there are health risks involved, but aren't there health risks involved in everything? From driving, to swimming to skiing to eating too many Oreos? Let's compare how pot

Principles of Responsible Cannabis Use

Adults Only

No Driving

Set and Setting

Resist Abuse

Respect Rights of Others

When cannabis(marijuana) is enjoyed responsibly, subjecting users to harsh criminal and civil penalties provides no public benefit and causes terrible injustices. For reasons of public safety, public health, economics and justice, the prohibition laws should be repealed to the extent that they criminalize responsible cannabis use.

By adoption of this statement, the NORML Board of Directors has attempted to define "responsible cannabis use."

Adults Only
Cannabis consumption is for adults only. It is irresponsible to provide cannabis to children.

Many things and activities are suitable for young people, but others absolutely are not. Children do not drive cars, enter into contracts, or marry, and they must not use drugs. As it is unrealistic to demand lifetime abstinence from cars, contracts and marriage, however, it is unrealistic to expect lifetime abstinence from all intoxicants, including alcohol. Rather, our expectation and hope for young people is that they grow up to be responsible adults. Our obligation to them is to demonstrate what that means.

No Driving
The responsible cannabis consumer does not operate a motor vehicle or other dangerous machinery while impaired by cannabis, nor (like other responsible citizens) while impaired by any other substance or condition, including some medicines and fatigue.

Although cannabis is said by most experts to be safer than alcohol and many prescription drugs with motorists, responsible cannabis consumers never operate motor vehicles in an impaired condition. Public safety demands not only that impaired drivers be taken off the road, but that objective measures of impairment be developed and used, rather than chemical testing.

Set and Setting
The responsible cannabis user will carefully consider his/her set and setting, regulating use accordingly.

"Set" refers to the consumer's values, attitudes, experience and personality, and "setting" means the consumer's physical and social circumstances. The responsible cannabis consumer will be vigilant as to conditions -- time, place, mood, etc. -- and does not hesitate to say "no" when those conditions are not conducive to a safe, pleasant and/or productive experience.

IV. Resist Abuse
Use of cannabis, to the extent that it impairs health, personal development or achievement, is abuse, to be resisted by responsible cannabis users.

Abuse means harm. Some cannabis use is harmful; most is not. That which is harmful should be discouraged; that which is not need not be.

Wars have been waged in the name of eradicating "drug abuse", but instead of focusing on abuse, enforcement measures have been diluted by targeting all drug use, whether abusive or not. If cannabis abuse is to be targeted, it is essential that clear standards be developed to identify it.

Respect Rights of Others
The responsible cannabis user does not violate the rights of others, observes accepted standards of courtesy and public propriety, and respects the preferences of those who wish to avoid cannabis entirely.

No one may violate the rights of others, and no substance use excuses any such violation. Regardless of the legal status of cannabis, responsible users will adhere to emerging tobacco smoking protocols in public and private places.

Adopted by the NORML Board of Directors
February 3, 1996
Washington, DC

relates to other "legal sins".

Marijuana appears to be far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco." (d)

Well, plain thinking will tell you that putting any smoke in your lungs is probably not a good idea if you are planning to do it all the time, so, just because it is not as bad as tobacco or alcohol does not make a really good argument that it is okay to use. I mean, just because poking your eye out with a clean stick instead of a red hot dirty poker does not make the clean eye poking all that healthy. (Blond Logic) That makes the NORML argument as effective as the NIDA.

Darn! Is there no place to get the TRUTH? Everyone has an agenda.
.

I guess I will just have to make my own decision based on what I study and that rare thing called common sense.

Whenever I have a moral or intellectual puzzle I need a solution to, I like to to list all the negatives and positives and do a kind of analyzing of each. It is a bit more complicated than just that, but I would bore you with how I do it all just to reach my own decision on things. LOL

BAD - Gateway Drug

This is really the weakest argument I think. The gateway drug is not pot. It is how society has evolved. People have always used something or another to escape bad days. Some people are strong enough to handle it with yoga, others need a relatively safe and legal way to escape reality. That is why they make a thing called "Happy Hour" in bars and pubs. It is a way to escape the hard day of working for a living, even for a short time.

The true "gateway drug" is whatever the chemical is that is whoosing around our heads making us think that our lives are not all that great. Somehow, we have become a species that has forgotten that everything happens for a reason. How we handle and absorb these "happenings" is one of the most wonderful things about being a human.

and....it feels sooooo good to escape this world for even a short time, so we drink, and toke and smoke and snort and put needles in our arms (YUCK).

BUT...that is not really a pure argument either. I know happy people who come to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and smoke up enough pot to darken our cobalt blue skies. I also know people who come to the same festival and do not drink or smoke and have just as good of a time as the stoners. So it must be something to do with personal choice. OMGAWD...personal choice and responsibility! Now that is a concept. LOL

There are some studies that show pot use by teens often does lead to more dangerous and harder drugs. The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found adolescents who smoke pot 85 times more likely to use cocaine than their non–pot smoking peers. And 60 percent of youngsters who use marijuana before they turn 15 later go on to use cocaine.

At the same time, teens who smoked pot are more likely to have smoked a legal cigarette before trying marijuana. So I would think that cigarettes, which are illegal for teens to smoke, would be the first gateway drug. The best way to insure children do not use any drug, legal or illegal, is by true and honest education so when they reach the legal age, they can make a wise and personal decision based on facts, not fear.

Teens and Marijuana

Although dangers exist for marijuana users of all ages, risk is greatest for the young. For them, the impact of marijuana on learning is critical, and pot often proves pivotal in the failure to master vital interpersonal coping skills or make appropriate life-style choices. Thus, marijuana can inhibit maturity. (a)

One thing that makes me crazy is when the Government tries to use the same fear tactics on the modern teen that were used in the late 1930's. It just does not work. No matter how the facts are presented.

NIDA: "Many teens encounter serious trouble well short of the "gateway." Marijuana is, by itself, a high-risk substance for adolescents. More than adults, they are likely to be victims of automobile accidents caused by marijuana’s impact on judgment and perception. Casual sex, prompted by compromised judgment or marijuana’s disinhibiting effects, leaves them vulnerable not only to unwanted pregnancy but also to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)". HUH?

I am sure that "fear tactic" probably has some truth in it, but alcohol makes us girls drop our panties faster than smoking pot, I think. Seriously? Have you ever found undressing anything but a total "bummer" when you were high on pot? That is like outlawing back seats in all teenagers cars because that is where most of us rounded second base....or so I have heard.

The answer? Factual education to kids on the TRUE dangers of any drug. Keep alcohol, pot, and cigarettes illegal for anyone under 18. Include stiff fines if you break the law - but unless it endangered an innocent person, throwing kids in jail just is sooooo, ineffective and short-sighted.

And to the teens and kids out there. Be smart. Keep your panties on, learn the facts about anything and everything you put into your body (yep, that thing too!). It is YOUR body. Be smart. Be the generation that shows the world that education, and personal responsibility work better than any

Government passed law or "exaggeration" of the facts. I for one have faith in you all.

BAD! Violent Drug Cartels

Yep, marijuana smuggling sure attracts some scary folks. Killers who run drugs and weapons are pretty much in control of the Northern portion of Mexico along the Southwest border of the United States. It is not just marijuana they are smuggling. They move cocaine up from Columbia and Peru, weapons, and some known as Coyotes smuggle people.

If marijuana did not exist, these people would still be smuggling something else. Few of them are smuggling booze or cigarettes. Why? They are legal and therefore not really worth the effort. So my advice is to legalize pot on a Federal level

and allow individual States to decide whether they wish to legalize and tax it. But, let's be honest and call it what it is. A recreational plant that if taken incorrectly or excessively may harm your health. I do not think that is such a hard answer to removing something that is helping people kill other people.

Officials in Mexico reported about 1,600 homicides in Juarez in 2007 and at least 20 people have been killed in the first nine days of this year. (e)

To date, there has been no significant violent spillover from the drug war in Mexico, but U.S. authorities have spent a tense year watching and waiting. (e)

In October, Hidalgo County officials issued fully automatic weapons to deputies patrolling the river in the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Lupe Trevino also authorized his deputies to return fire across the border if smugglers or other criminals took aim at them. (e)

In El Paso, the country's largest border community and one of the safest metropolitan areas in the nation, Sheriff Richard Wiles said that while he doesn't anticipate the city or county being overwhelmed by border violence he applauded the DHS plan to quickly respond if the worst should happen. (e)

Do we really want people getting killed over pot? Is spending 10 billion dollars a year JUST to locate and burn pot fields really a good investment? As the small business owner of the Crystal Angel, I know a little about a thing called "Return on Investment" or "ROI". Where is the ROI on our 10 billion dollar investment?

Here is an idea, allow the hemp and "smoking pot" crop to be grown legally, tax it like cigarettes and alcohol - take those taxes and some of the 10 billion being wasted and use it to build a better America where people are too busy enjoying life to care if they are drunk, high or stoned. Better schools, cleaner air, job security and fighting poverty could use some money.

BUT PLEEEEEZE, call it what it is - a recreational smoking product for adults. Trying to legalize it so you can listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" really high is one thing. Trying to legalize it for medical reasons is whole different debate.

Click to Turn the Page

(b) Nora D. Volkow, M.D. Director - National Institute on Drug Abuse
References:
Crooks, Robert, Karla Baur. Our Sexuality. eighth edition. Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth. 2002
Comer, Ronald J. Abnormal Psychology. fifth edition. New York: Worth Publishers. 2004
Lewis, Barbara. The Sexual Power of Marijuana. New York: Peter H. Wyden, Inc./Publisher. 1970
Jay, Mike ed. Artificial Paradises: A Drug Reader. "On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication". Penguin Books: London. 1999
Smith CG, Asch RH. "Acute, short-term, and chronic effects of marijuana on the female primate reproductive function". NIDA Res Monogr. 1984;44:82-96.
Smith CG. "Drug effects on male sexual function". Clin Obstet Gynecol. 1982 Sep;25(3):525-31.
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