THE SEDUCTIVE LOGIC OF MARIJUANA ADVOCATES
Larry Tomczak (Via The Nashville Tennessean, Feb. 17, 2016)
Marijuana is not harmless, despite what its proponents say.A Northwestern study recently found that long-term memory was affected in some former heavy users.
On New Year's Day, a 30-something fellow stood in our kitchen relating how his cousin started on weed, moved on to cocaine, then thievery, and was kicked out of his home. He lamented, "Marijuana ruined his life."
Recently, the police report came out on Lakeisha Holloway, a 24-year-old woman who plowed into pedestrians in Las Vegas, killing one and maiming 35 others, with one still in critical condition. Yep, she was high on marijuana.
It was recently discovered that Willie Nelson slipped away for controversial stem-cell therapy to rescue his damaged lungs. "There’s been a lot of talk about marijuana being harmless, but I think it’s a lot more dangerous to the lungs than most dope smokers realize,” says this poster boy for weed in his autobiography.
Cecily Shamim, who works for a statewide cannabis advocacy group, recently wrote her opinion in The Tennessean that marijuana should be legalized in our state. Reading her arguments and questionable statistics made me wonder if we should begin distributing marijuana freely, since she believes it is so harmless and beneficial.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, ****ed lies and statistics," said Mark Twain. He was pointing out the use of statistics to bolster weak or fallacious arguments. Shamim deserves a five-star Pinocchio award for her misleading stats and misguided presentation.
Over Thanksgiving I had an in-depth interaction with a police officer on paid leave. He was rehabilitating from a serious injury sustained when he confronted a young man about to commit a crime who was stoned on marijuana. The young man subsequently assaulted the officer, tearing his rotator cuff. He now faces numerous felony offenses and decades behind bars, in addition to the impounding of his car containing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Sports Illustrated recently featured a thought-provoking interview with Michael Phelps, the all-time Olympic gold medalist who has emerged from rehab and a near-death experience. "Not wanting to be alive anymore" at one point, the champion, who drank, smoked marijuana and was deceived into believing it would not affect his ability to excel, now swears off any alcohol or drugs and is trying to regain his sanity and swimming prowess.
Recall the story of Tina Wilson, the 34-year-old woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for striking with her car and killing a teenager who was changing his mother's tire? The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report showed that she had amphetamines, alprazolam (Xanax) and marijuana metabolites in her system, impairing her driving ability as she callously fled the scene of the homicide. She'll now have many decades to ponder her stupidity, recreational drug usage and the devastation it brought her and others.
When marijuana proponents glorify drugs and celebrate its "harmless," even "beneficial" effects, they should listen to the words of an expert, Dr. Ed Gogek, an addiction psychiatrist who wrote in the liberal New York Times: "I’ve ... spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers, and I know their games. They’re excellent con artists." He went on to call marijuana activists "phony scientists," adding, "For years they claimed pot was good for glaucoma and never apologized when research found it could actually make glaucoma worse. They still insist weed isn’t addictive, despite every addiction medicine society saying it is. They’ve even produced their own flawed scientific studies supposedly proving that medical marijuana laws don’t increase use among teenagers, when almost all the evidence says just the opposite. ... It sends the message that weed is harmless, even though research shows that teenagers who use it regularly do worse in school, are twice as likely to drop out and earn less as adults. Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower IQ."
Finally, a recent study from Northwestern University found that teens who were heavy marijuana users have poor long-term memory in adulthood. Healthy individuals who did not abuse marijuana performed about 18 percent better than young adults who abused marijuana.
At the end of the classic film "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy pulls back the curtain and exposes the deceiving mastermind behind the facade. May we do likewise amid celebrities and pot advocates like Miley Cyrus and Ms. Shamim.
We don't need any more tragedies like Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and multitudes of others who dabbled in so-called "harmless" recreational drugs, then moved on to other drugs to maintain their "buzz." As the Bible says, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools." (Romans 1:22).
Sorry, Cecily, Tennessee should not embrace legalized weed.
Larry Tomczak is executive director of T.A.G. (The Awareness Group) and a cultural commentator who has aut****d nine books, including a quarter-million bestseller. His latest book, "Bullseye," will be released Feb. 12 from Dunham Publishers.
