COMMONSENSE CANNABIS REFORM - CANNABIS 101

Wow... the overwhelming interest in my last post leaves me breathless.  Zero comments, although I get viewed by up to one thousand vistors on average for a post. So curious about that.

Well hope all having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you get enough of the relatives and family, there are two links here to two articles published on CNN today. If you're interested please read them.

To me, they are two distinctly diverse points of view, stemming from the same concern. The "Drug War/Problem" in America.

LINK: Kevin Sabet served as a senior drug policy adviser in the Obama administration. He is an assistant professor and director of the Drug Policy Institute at the College of Medicine, University of Florida.

LINK: Joy Strickland, founder and CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence, is an Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow at Texas Woman's University.

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My basic thoughts about the articles:

Joy Strickland is speaking from her heart, and knows the facts.

Kevin Sabet on the other hand, is still hiding behind the facade that, "marijuana is the destroyer of youth". His article fails to describe the problem or if marijuana really IS the problem? He sites lower IQ in youth, health problems from smoking, youth drug addiction and the advertizing he suggests is based on former alcohol and tobacco ads, designed to appeal to youth, but it doesn't have to be like that. Regulation can control advertising, and he fails to consider that. What's worse, is the idea that the tobacco industry is ready to "pounce" on the marijuana industry.

Sorry... Big Tobacco had it's chance during the 1970's and turned tail. I guess Richard Nixon was too scary for them.  But, fact is, cannabis is NOT tobacco. It doesn't need proprietary chemical infusements... it doesn't need to be sold in "packs", and it's not addictive like tobacco or alcohol is addictive. Big tobacco would most likely not be welcome in the cannabis culture today - they blew it in the 1980's when Reagonomics became the fashion of the day. Bluemoon friends. Yeah. No one wants to buy cannabis that's been processed by Big Tobacco.

Point is: Mr. Ex-Senior drug policy director, you seem to me to be playing the same old broken record about "Save our youth", do not say in what direction you would change the laws, keeping cannabis illegal, and ad naseum, incarcerating people for possession, growing it, using it... why didn't you do a better job when you had the chance as a policy director? Why do you feel adults should be punished for lack of realistic regulations regarding cannabis. Why do you combine youth drug abuse with the rights of adults?

Incarcerating the number of adults that we have done for the past 50 - 75 years for cannabis, isn't a solution at all. 1/4 of the world's incarcerated individuals are in the US.

And in case you simply don't know - the stronger the cannabis - it doesn't mean the more one needs/wants to use it, or make it more dangerous, what it does mean is less is possible than in the 1970's... in the 70's one may have smoked 2 joints and now they may only need three puffs.  It's not alcohol. It's not tobacco. For those who do use a lot of cannabis, it's not the "high" they're increasing, the more you use doesn't mean the higher one gets - it's not alcohol. Those people simply like to use a lot of it - but the high is the same as for that of the person who may need only three puffs.

Regarding one's IQ: Again you, Mr. Sabet, refer to youth, not adults. I gather you have proof also that cannabis use by adults causes lower IQ too? I doubt it.

This whole cliche of an idea that marijuana makes people unmotivated and stupid is so bias and  unproven. Everyday evidence if one were to look around exists to prove otherwise.

To Joy Strickland, my condolences and thank-you for a very well thought out and poignantly well written letter to President Obama.