News post hails “Pot 2.0”

April 26, 2007 15 By Tad Reeves

A 25 April CNN story hailed the new wave of “Pot 2.0”, saying:

The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday.

Analysis of seized samples of marijuana and hashish showed that more of the cannabis on the market is of the strongest grade, the White House and National Institute for Drug Abuse said.

They cited data from the University of Mississippi’s Marijuana Potency Project showing the average levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in the products rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 8.5 percent in 2006.

The level had risen steadily from 3.5 percent in 1988.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fears the problem is not being taken seriously because many adults remember the marijuana of their youth as harmless.

“It’s really not the same type of marijuana,” Volkow said in a telephone interview.

“This could explain why there has been an increase in the number of medical emergencies involving marijuana.”

The pharmacy department at Mississippi has compiled data on 59,369 samples of cannabis, 1,225 hashish samples, and 443 hash oil samples confiscated since 1975. “The highest concentration of (THC) found in a cannabis (marijuana) sample is 33.12 percent from Oregon State Police,” the report reads.

I had earlier, foolishly, posted on a marijuana forum, trying to get some data about how people feel about marijuana – and how they feel informational sites like the new Drug Free World website would assist to sway people against taking drugs.   

What I got back was a wave of protest, all about how marijuana was outstanding, how there were no good reasons why such a site should make such claims about Marijuana, etc.  Just about everyone could agree that kids shouldn’t be taking drugs, no matter what their justification for it was.    However, in light of the above from this marijuana potency project, plus the studies done by the Church of Scientology, showing marijuana clearly as a gateway drug to bigger and much more destructive drugs, I think it makes the point that legalization and open support of marijuana is a destructive course of action. 

Now, just the simple idea that marijuana is ‘a gateway drug’ generated about 300 posts on the grasscity marijuana forum.  People seem to think it’s not, that they’re big and strong, and won’t get into heavier drugs.  But what about all of the people who do? 

A search around Digg for stories on such gives you items from ‘freetheplant.com’ and so forth, stating authoritatively that marijuana is no gateway drug, and that it’s but a myth.  Not sure how unbiased of an opinion any site called ‘freetheplant.com’ could be, however.   From Narconon California, a report on marijuana as a gateway drug cited the Journal of the American Medical association, stating a study that was done involving 311 sets of identical twins – one smoking pot, and the other not — just to eliminate any odd social effects one could throw in, saying why it wasn’t a factor.  Per this study, almost half of the young people who started smoking marijuana before the age of 17 went on to use harder drugs later in life. 

In any case, I would recommend, before arguing about it, to first get fully briefed on the effects of all major drugs, and how people get involved with them, and then take a fresh look at the situation.  As Pot 2.0 is definitely a situation.

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