XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: drooler@gmail.com   
      
   A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research contains   
   some inconvenient news for the rosy worldview of those who claim that   
   marijuana is a completely harmless drug.   
      
   The paper reviews data on opioid and marijuana use and makes two key   
   findings — first, that “medical marijuana, particularly when available   
   through retail dispensaries, is associated with higher opioid mortality.”   
   The second finding is that data “for recreational marijuana, while less   
   reliable, also suggest that retail sales through dispensaries are   
   associated with greater death rates relative to the counterfactual of no   
   legal cannabis.”   
      
   The increase in opioid deaths associated with marijuana use is greater for   
   men, nonwhites, and young people.   
      
   That may be somewhat disturbing, but the details appear even more   
   devilish. The study importantly addresses earlier results, based on data   
   from 1999 to 2010, that had seemed to suggest a more beneficial effect. It   
   turns out, though, that the results abruptly changed. If you include data   
   from 2010 to 2017, the period when medical and/or recreational marijuana   
   legalization began in earnest in the states, the results swing from a 21%   
   reduction in opioid deaths to a 23% increase.   
      
   The results are complex, but the study undercuts a key claim of marijuana   
   legalization proponents who argue that marijuana is a harmless substance   
   that causes a cheap, temporary high and nothing more.   
      
   Here, the relationship between cannabis and opioid deaths is interesting   
   in that it reinforces a much-mocked description of marijuana as a “gateway   
   drug.” Different drug habits might well be related in ways we do not yet   
   understand.   
      
   And of course, this is not the only pitfall associated with marijuana use   
   that marijuana campaigners work hard to minimize. For example, habitual   
   marijuana use as late as one’s mid-20s can cause permanent brain damage.   
   That’s because it prevents proper development of the frontal cortex, which   
   the American Psychological Association describes as one of the last   
   regions of the brain to develop fully. This brain structure is “critical   
   to planning, judgment, decision-making, and personality.”   
      
   This means that use among teenagers, which is a lot more common than   
   people would like to admit, and even use among young adults has   
   deleterious and permanent health effects.   
      
   This is something to remember when these campaigners come to your state   
   and try to sell you on the idea of cannabis as something completely   
   harmless. One need not exaggerate the dangers of marijuana to acknowledge   
   that they at least exist.   
      
   https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/marijuana-   
   legalization-is-not-   
   harmless?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_   
   rail   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)