MNN - Mother Nature Network

reputable studies that show it has the potential to cause serious, long term health risks. For example, studies have shown it doesn't cause lung cancer like tobacco and a U of Alabama study showed that pot smokers have better lung capacity than even people who don't smoke pot or cigarettes. Hundreds of peer reviewed studies have shown it benefits people with serious health issues like emphysema and asthma. And what about the health effects of incarcerating several hundred thousand people a year for smoking pot? The US has more people in prison than even Red China with 6 times the population of the US, many of them for non-violent drug offenses, the cost of which is also very unhealthy for our economy. "It is reasonable to assume the new laws will lead to an increase in marijuana use by teens," No, its not reasonable. Teen use in countries like Portugal and the Netherlands where cannabis use is decriminalized is much lower than in the US. And how does moving sales out of the alleys and into state-controlled stores where you have to be 21 to purchase MJ - just like alcohol - increase teen use? "The drug temporarily impairs memory, coordination and perception, which affects driving ability and therefore endangers public safety." Yes, so does alcohol, but no one is proposing that be illegal. We already tried that and it was a failure, though not as big a failure as our current War on Drugs which has cost in excess of $1 trillion in the past 4 decades. But no one disputes that marijuana, unlike alcohol, cannot kill you which says a lot about how benign it is in comparison to many totally legal drugs that are used by millions of people every day. "Some studies have linked use of marijuana early in life with an increased risk for mental illness, and one recent study found a link between marijuana use in adolescents and lower IQ later in life." Again, taking sales out of the hands of dealers should reduce availability to teenagers. "Indeed, studies have found that people who drive within a few hours of using marijuana are more than twice as likely to be involved in a car crash compared with other drivers, " Ditto re alcohol or prescription drugs. Deciding to drive while impaired is about the person, not the drug. With 30-50 million Americans using cannabis annually, its not like the current laws are keeping from doing it right now. But the number of cannabis users involved in accidents is much lower than the number of drivers impaired by other drugs. "Another unknown variable is the potency of the drug that becomes available to recreational users." Testing to determine potency will presumably be a part of state regulated sales. Try asking your local dealer for that. As with alcohol, sometimes you want beer, sometimes bourbon. Shouldn't adults be allowed to make that choice. "even in countries where the drug is legal...." Fact Check: CO and WA are the only places on the planet where it is legal. Even in the Netherlands, cannabis has only been decriminalized, and penalties for sale are actually harsher than in many places in the US. ""When we have knowledge of those things, we'll be able to say wither public health is likely to go up or down," Until the DEA relents on their 40 year refusal to take marijuana off Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act so some really good studies can be done on its health impacts, we will have to continue to look outside of the US for them. It is surprising that Ms. Pacula, as a spokesperson for Rand, and someone who presumably has a college degree, has such a poor grasp on facts and logic. The only refreshing thing about her article is that it shows how weak the prohibitionists' arguments have become in the fading twilight of the War on (some) Drugs.