Marijuana Debate

Attached an interesting letter to the editor published in the Miami Herald.
As addiction professionals we need to be able to respond to questions posed regarding Marijuana use and abuse.
We should gather the facts and discuss the issue openly and objectively.
Maybe the attached letter can contribute to stimulate the discussion.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Yours
Bernd


The Miami Herald
Posted on Tue, Dec. 14, 2010
Marijuana is not the `safer' drug


Re the Dec. 2 story Presidential hopeful: Legalize marijuana: Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson's statement, ``Marijuana is a lot safer than alcohol,'' cannot go unchallenged and should be debated in a larger context. One important factor, often left out of the conversation, is that marijuana use (especially in young adults) can lead to or aggravate mental illness.

Studies support findings that risk of schizophrenia doubles in young abusers. Pot is also a gateway drug, leading abusers to graduate to harder drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine.

I am a certified addiction specialist specializing in adolescent substance-abuse, and my message is this: Beware marijuana's potency, no matter the arena of debate. Whether one discusses the medical merits or legal ramifications, one must also consider real-life implications.

• The medical debate: The medical merits of THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, have been identified, and THC is available in pill-form as Marinol and Cesamet. However, according to proponents of legalizing medical marijuana, the medical merits of THC are best experienced by smoking it -- absent FDA approval or review.

• The legal debate: The legal merits of marijuana cannot be supported. One argument is to tax the drug and collect revenue. According to Joseph Califano Jr., CASA founder and chairman of Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), for approximately every $1 of tax revenue, there could be as much as $7 incurred in medical costs.

Califano also points out that legalizing marijuana means easier availability to children, and the debate is already contributing to teens' softening attitude about drugs, specifically marijuana. According to CASA findings, ``Despite reported declines in teen marijuana use -- in 2007 almost 11 million teens report using marijuana -- marijuana is a major substance abuse among teens, more than five times the increase in such findings for all other substance abuse.''

Here's the real debate: Today's marijuana is not the pot of the 1970s. Its THC potency, the amount of psychoactive ingredient found in the drug, has more than doubled since 1983. This decade has brought a 175-percent increase in pot potency. According to a 2008 analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, the drug's potent effects have severe consequences. Marijuana's growing potency not only affects the risk of addiction and increased experimentation to harder drugs, but also the ``risk of psychological, cognitive and respiratory problems.'' In addition, the study found that marijuana abuse increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent -- another serious side effect that's rarely reported.

There are several issues in the marijuana debate. We must consider all of them.

MARINO E. CARBONELL, South Miami