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Marijuana Laws and facts over the years Over the Years
In 2002, 45.3 percent of the 1,538,813 total arrests for drug abuse violations
were for marijuana -- a total of 697,082. Of those, 613,986 people were
arrested for marijuana possession alone. This is a slight decrease from
2000, when a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses,
of which 646,042 were for possession alone.
According to the UN's estimate, 141 million people around the world use
marijuana. This represents about 2.5 percent of the world population.
Marijuana was first federally prohibited in 1937. Today, more than 83
million Americans admit to having tried it.
"Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory animals (rats,
mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses of up to 1,000 mg/kg (milligrams
per kilogram). This would be equivalent to a 70 kg person swallowing 70
grams of the drug -- about 5,000 times more than is required to produce
a high. Despite the widespread illicit use of cannabis there are very
few if any instances of people dying from an overdose. In Britain, official
government statistics listed five deaths from cannabis in the period 1993-1995
but on closer examination these proved to have been deaths due to inhalation
of vomit that could not be directly attributed to cannabis (House of Lords
Report, 1998). By comparison with other commonly used recreational drugs
these statistics are impressive."
"The results of our meta-analytic study failed to reveal a substantial,
systematic effect of long-term, regular cannabis consumption on the neurocognitive
functioning of users who were not acutely intoxicated. For six of the
eight neurocognitive ability areas that were surveyed. the confidence
intervals for the average effect sizes across studies overlapped zero
in each instance, indicating that the effect size could not be distinguished
from zero. The two exceptions were in the domains of learning and forgetting."
"These results can be interpreted in several ways. A statistically
reliable negative effect was observed in the domain of learning and forgetting,
suggesting that chronic long-term cannabis use results in a selective
memory defect. While the results are compatible with this conclusion,
the effect size for both domains was of a very small magnitude. The "real
life" impact of such a small and selective effect is questionable.
In addition, it is important to note that most users across studies had
histories of heavy longterm cannabis consumption. Therefore, these findings
are not likely to generalize to more limited administration of cannabis
compounds, as would be seen in a medical setting."
"In conclusion, our meta-analysis of studies that have attempted
to address the question of longer term neurocognitive disturbance in moderate
and heavy cannabis users has failed to demonstrate a substantial, systematic,
and detrimental effect of cannabis use on neuropsychological performance.
It was surprising to find such few and small effects given that most of
the potential biases inherent in our analyses actually increased the likelihood
of finding a cannabis effect."
"Nevertheless, when considering all 15 studies (i.e., those that
met both strict and more relaxed criteria) we only noted that regular
cannabis users performed worse on memory tests, but that the magnitude
of the effect was very small. The small magnitude of effect sizes from
observations of chronic users of cannabis suggests that cannabis compounds,
if found to have therapeutic value, should have a good margin of safety
from a neurocognitive standpoint under the more limited conditions of
exposure that would likely obtain in a medical setting."
A Johns Hopkins study published in May 1999, examined marijuana's effects
on cognition on 1,318 participants over a 15 year period. Researchers
reported "no significant differences in cognitive decline between
heavy users, light users, and nonusers of cannabis." They also found
"no male-female differences in cognitive decline in relation to cannabis
use." "These results ... seem to provide strong evidence of
the absence of a long-term residual effect of cannabis use on cognition,"
they concluded.
"Current marijuana use had a negative effect on global IQ score only
in subjects who smoked 5 or more joints per week. A negative effect was
not observed among subjects who had previously been heavy users but were
no longer using the substance. We conclude that marijuana does not have
a long-term negative impact on global intelligence. Whether the absence
of a residual marijuana effect would also be evident in more specific
cognitive domains such as memory and attention remains to be ascertained."
"Although the heavy current users experienced a decrease in IQ score,
their scores were still above average at the young adult assessment (mean
105.1). If we had not assessed preteen IQ, these subjects would have appeared
to be functioning normally. Only with knowledge of the change in IQ score
does the negative impact of current heavy use become apparent."
In March 1999, the Institute of Medicine issued a report on various aspects
of marijuana, including the so-called Gateway Theory (the theory that
using marijuana leads people to use harder drugs like cocaine and heroin).
The IOM stated, "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects
of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit
drugs."
The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on marijuana explained that marijuana
has been mistaken for a gateway drug in the past because "Patterns
in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly
regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is
predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly,
most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact,
most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana, usually
before they are of legal age."
A 1999 federal report conducted by the Institute of Medicine found that,
"For most people, the primary adverse effect of acute marijuana use
is diminished psychomotor performance. It is, therefore, inadvisable to
operate any vehicle or potentially dangerous equipment while under the
influence of marijuana, THC, or any cannabinoid drug with comparable effects.
The DEA's Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young concluded: "In
strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly
consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response.
By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to
induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana
can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.:
Commissioned by President Nixon in 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana
and Drug Abuse concluded that "Marihuana's relative potential for
harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on
society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly
punish those who use it. This judgment is based on prevalent use patterns,
on behavior exhibited by the vast majority of users and on our interpretations
of existing medical and scientific data. This position also is consistent
with the estimate by law enforcement personnel that the elimination of
use is unattainable."
When examining the relationship between marijuana use and violent crime,
the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded, "Rather
than inducing violent or aggressive behavior through its purported effects
of lowering inhibitions, weakening impulse control and heightening aggressive
tendencies, marihuana was usually found to inhibit the expression of aggressive
impulses by pacifying the user, interfering with muscular coordination,
reducing psychomotor activities and generally producing states of drowsiness
lethargy, timidity and passivity."
When examining the medical affects of marijuana use, the National Commission
on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded, "A careful search of the literature
and testimony of the nation's health officials has not revealed a single
human fatality in the United States proven to have resulted solely from
ingestion of marihuana. Experiments with the drug in monkeys demonstrated
that the dose required for overdose death was enormous and for all practical
purposes unachievable by humans smoking marihuana. This is in marked contrast
to other substances in common use, most notably alcohol and barbiturate
sleeping pills. The WHO reached the same conclusion in 1995.
Source: Shafer, Raymond P., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding,
Ch. III, (Washington DC: National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse,
1972); Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications
of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological
Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28,
1995, (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
The World Health Organization released a study in March 1998 that states:
"there are good reasons for saying that [the risks from cannabis]
would be unlikely to seriously [compare to] the public health risks of
alcohol and tobacco even if as many people used cannabis as now drink
alcohol or smoke tobacco."
The authors of a 1998 World Health Organization report comparing marijuana,
alcohol, nicotine and opiates quote the Institute of Medicine's 1982 report
stating that there is no evidence that smoking marijuana "exerts
a permanently deleterious effect on the normal cardiovascular system."
Some claim that cannabis use leads to "adult amotivation." The
World Health Organization report addresses the issue and states, "it
is doubtful that cannabis use produces a well defined amotivational syndrome."
The report also notes that the value of studies which support the "adult
amotivation" theory are "limited by their small sample sizes"
and lack of representative social/cultural groups.
Australian researchers found that regions giving on-the-spot fines to
marijuana users rather than harsher criminal penalties did not cause marijuana
use to increase.
Since 1969, government-appointed commissions in the United States, Canada,
England, Australia, and the Netherlands concluded, after reviewing the
scientific evidence, that marijuana's dangers had previously been greatly
exaggerated, and urged lawmakers to drastically reduce or eliminate penalties
for marijuana possession.
The Canadian Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs recommended in
its 2002 final report on cannabis policy that "the Government of
Canada amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a criminal
exemption scheme. This legislation should stipulate the conditions for
obtaining licenses as well as for producing and selling cannabis; criminal
penalties for illegal trafficking and export; and the preservation of
criminal penalties for all activities falling outside the scope of the
exemption scheme."
The United Kingdom officially downgraded the classification of cannabis
from Class B to Class C effective Jan. 29, 2004. The London Guardian reported
that "Under the switch, cannabis will be ranked alongside bodybuilding
steroids and some anti-depressants. Possession of cannabis will no longer
be an arrestable offence in most cases, although police will retain the
power to arrest users in certain aggravated situations - such as when
the drug is smoked outside schools. The home secretary, David Blunkett,
has said the change in the law is necessary to enable police to spend
more time tackling class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine which
cause the most harm and trigger far more crime."
Source: Tempest, Matthew, "MPs Vote To Downgrade Cannabis,"
The Guardian (London, England), Oct. 29, 2003.
UK Home Secretary David Blunkett announced in July 2002 that "We
must concentrate our efforts on the drugs that cause the most harm, while
sending a credible message to young people. I will therefore ask Parliament
to reclassify cannabis from Class B to Class C. I have considered the
recommendations of the Home Affairs Committee, and the advice given me
by the ACMD medical experts that the current classification of cannabis
is disproportionate in relation to the harm that it causes."
In May of 1998, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, National Working
Group on Addictions Policy released policy a discussion document which
recommended, "The severity of punishment for a cannabis possession
charge should be reduced. Specifically, cannabis possession should be
converted to a civil violation under the Contraventions Act." The
paper further noted that, "The available evidence indicates that
removal of jail as a sentencing option would lead to considerable cost
savings without leading to increases in rates of cannabis use."
"Our conclusion is that the present law on cannabis produces more
harm than it prevents. It is very expensive of the time and resources
of the criminal justice system and especially of the police. It inevitably
bears more heavily on young people in the streets of inner cities, who
are also more likely to be from minority ethnic communities, and as such
is inimical to police-community relations. It criminalizes large numbers
of otherwise law-abiding, mainly young, people to the detriment of their
futures. It has become a proxy for the control of public order; and it
inhibits accurate education about the relative risks of different drugs
including the risks of cannabis itself.
According to the federal Potency Monitoring Project, the average potency
of marijuana has increased very little since the 1980s. The Project reports
that in 1985, the average THC content of commercial-grade marijuana was
2.84%, and the average for high-grade sinsemilla in 1985 was 7.17%. In
1995, the potency of commercial-grade marijuana averaged 3.73%, while
the potency of sinsemilla in 1995 averaged 7.51%. In 2001, commercial-grade
marijuana averaged 4.72% THC, and the potency of sinsemilla in 2001 averaged
9.03%.
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