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   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
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   From: mars1933@hotmail.com   
      
   Marijuana Is Harmful   
      
   John P. Walters is the director of the Office of National Drug Control   
   Policy. In the following viewpoint Walters argues that marijuana is a   
   potent, addictive drug that impairs brain function in teens and young   
   adults. In addition, he asserts that attempts to legalize marijuana   
   for medicinal purposes are based on pseudoscience and open up legal   
   loop-holes that allow dangerous drug dealers to control their cities   
   with a reign of terror.   
      
   Far from Harmless   
      
   After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories   
   like the 1936 movie Reefer Madness, we've become almost conditioned to   
   think that any warnings about the true dangers of marijuana are   
   overblown. But marijuana is far from "harmless"-it is pernicious.   
   Marijuana directly affects the brain. Researchers have learned that it   
   impairs the ability of young people to concentrate and retain   
   information during their peak learning years, and when their brains   
   are still developing. The THC [which is the active ingredient that   
   produces the high] in marijuana attaches itself to receptors in the   
   hippocampal region of the brain, weakening short-term memory and   
   interfering with the mechanisms that form long-term memory. Do our   
   struggling schools really need another obstacle to student   
   achievement?   
      
   Marijuana smoking can hurt more than just grades. According to the   
   Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], every year more than   
   2,500 admissions to the District of Columbia's overtaxed emergency   
   rooms-some 300 of them for patients under age 18-are linked to   
   marijuana smoking, and the number of marijuana-related emergencies is   
   growing. Each year, for example, marijuana use is linked to tens of   
   thousands of serious traffic accidents.   
      
   Research has now established that marijuana is in fact addictive. Of   
   the 4.3 million Americans who meet the diagnostic criteria for needing   
   drug treatment (criteria developed by the American Psychiatric   
   Association, not police departments or prosecutors) two-thirds are   
   dependent on marijuana, according to HHS. These are not occasional pot   
   smokers but people with real problems directly traceable to their use   
   of marijuana, including significant health problems, emotional   
   problems and difficulty in cutting down on use.  Sixty percent of   
   teens in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis.   
      
      
    Marijuana contains hundreds of carcinogens.   
   Moreover, anti-smoking efforts aimed at youth have been remarkably   
   effective by building on a campaign to erode the social acceptability   
   of tobacco.  Should we undermine those efforts by promoting smoked   
   marijuana as though it were a medicine?   
      
      
   Says prosecutor Volkov: "The experience in D.C. shows that marijuana   
   dealers are no less violent than cocaine and heroin traffickers. They   
   have just as much money to lose, just as much turf to lose, and just   
   as many reasons to kill as any drug trafficker."   
   Skeptics will charge that this kind of violence is just one more   
   reason to legalize marijuana. A review of the nation's history with   
   drug use suggests otherwise: When marijuana is inexpensive, as it   
   would be if legal, use soars-bad news for the District's schools,   
   streets and emergency rooms.   
      
      
   OKAYAMA, Japan, July 1 (UPI) -- Genetic anomalies tied with   
   marijuana-activated brain chemicals appear linked to schizophrenia,   
   Japanese researchers report.   
      
   "This result provides genetic evidence that marijuana use can result   
   in schizophrenia or a significantly   
   increased risk of schizophrenia," lead researcher Hiroshi Ujike, a   
   clinical psychiatrist at Okayama   
   University, told United Press International. Schizophrenia is one of   
   the greatest mental health challenges in the world, affecting roughly   
   one of every 100 people and filling about a quarter of all hospital   
   beds in the United States.   
      
   For years, clinical scientists have known that abusing marijuana, also   
   known as cannabis, can trigger hallucinations and delusions similar to   
   symptoms often found in schizophrenia. Prior studies also show that   
   cannabis used before age 18 raises the risk of schizophrenia six-fold.   
   The hallucinogenic properties of marijuana, the researchers explained,   
   are linked to a biochemical found abundantly in the brain. The   
   chemical, called cannabinoid receptor protein, studs the surfaces of   
   brain cells and latches onto the active chemical within marijuana   
   known as THC. "These sites are where marijuana acts on the brain,"   
   Ujike said.   
      
   Ujike and his team examined the gene for the marijuana receptor in 121   
   Japanese patients with   
   schizophrenia and an average age of 44. When they compared this gene   
   in schizophrenics with the same   
   gene in 148 normal men and woman of the same average age, they found   
   distinct abnormalities in DNA   
   sequences called nucleotides among the schizophrenics. Some of their   
   nucleotides in the marijuana   
   receptor gene appeared significantly more often than normal while   
   others appeared less frequency.   
      
   "This finding is the first to report a potential abnormality of the   
   cannabinoid system in schizophrenia," said   
   clinical neuroscientist Carol Tamminga at the University of Maryland   
   in College Park. "The importance of a finding here cannot be   
   overstated, in that it would form a tissue target for drug development   
   and allow targeted treatments to emerge for the illness." It appears   
   malfunctions in the brain's marijuana-linked circuitry may make one   
   vulnerable to schizophrenia, Ujike said.   
      
   This holds especially true for a condition called hebephrenic   
   schizophrenia, which is marked by deterioration of personality,   
   senseless laughter, disorganized thought and lack of motivation. These   
   symptoms are similar to psychotic behavior sometimes triggered by   
   severe cannabis abuse, which could mean the marijuana receptors in   
   schizophrenics are far more active than they should be. Ujike stressed   
   there is no evidence yet these genetic abnormalities can affect how   
   the marijuana receptor actually acts in the brain. "We would also like   
   to replicate our findings with different ethnic populations and more   
   people," he added.   
      
   The researchers described their findings in the scientific journal   
   Molecular Psychiatry.   
   (Reported by Charles Choi, UPI Science News, in New York)   
      
      
      
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