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Time to cry...and then laugh at the absolute stupidity of pretty much every
statement made in this.
Hello all,
After 69 years of a misguided public policy, the new and official boogeyman
re cannabis is now non-psychoactive lollipops?!
OK...We really are in Shopenhauer's second 'stage' of truth.
-Allen
NORML
Note: Michael C. Barnes is a Washington lawyer who formerly served as
counsel in the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
DON'T GET SUCKED IN BY HEMP-LACED FOODS
Kudos to Georgia state senators who voted in favor of a bill to prevent the
sale of marijuana-flavored candy. Members of the Agriculture and Consumer
Affairs Committee realized that the availability of hemp candy on store
shelves is harmful to our children and undermines Georgia's anti-drug laws.
Senate Bill 511, which did not win final legislative approval this year,
only scratched the surface. Next session's bill must be more protective.
(http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/0404edpot.html# Hemp is
low-potency cannabis, i.e., marijuana. Hemp products are being freely sold
to anyone who walks into certain specialty food stores. These stores carry
items such as cereals, salad dressings, protein powers and dietary
supplements that contain small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a
hallucinogenic substance. Anyone with a credit card can go online to
purchase these same products.
True. So low of a potency you'd have to smoke a half an acre to get a lousy
buzz and a headache!
The sale -- and marketing -- of hemp food products raises several concerns.
First, medical research tells us that even low levels of THC can build up in
the body's tissues, posing particular health risks, including nerve
impairment and hormone disruption, to developing fetuses, young children and
teenagers.
ABSOLUTE LIE! Medical research, at least that which is sound research, says
just the opposite. The only studies that support this statement are
commissioned and totally controlled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA), a strong ally of ONDCP.
Second, any drug prevention message could easily get lost on young people if
they think it is OK to buy cannabis products at a grocery store or online.
Children are already experimenting with marijuana at a young age. According
to a 2004 University of Michigan study, 16 percent of eighth-graders, 35
percent of 10th-graders and 46 percent of 12th-graders have admitted to
using marijuana at least once during their lifetimes.
While children shouldn't smoke anything, reports of any damage from this are
extremely rare. I think most kids can understand the difference between
Cannabis used for food and Cannabis used for medicine or recreational use.
They are different varieties.
Third, efforts at random drug testing can be circumvented. High school
students who undergo drug tests, for instance, or the nation's 12 million
safety-sensitive transportation employees who likewise undergo drug
screenings, can defend a positive drug test by claiming ingestion of one of
these hemp products. Several scientific studies (one of which is published
in the Journal of Toxicology,) have shown that eating hemp foods can cause
positive results in urine specimens.
ANOTHER ABSOLUTE LIE. Hemp contains no THC. And random drug testing is a
violation of several rights supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
The article this bozo refers to was written by ONDCP several years ago and
has more holes than Indiana highways.
Fourth, permitting foods that contain hemp to be marketed, sold and consumed
in the United States creates a slippery slope to the dissolution of our
nation's anti-drug laws. The Congressional Research Service has reported
that the pro-hemp movement is spurred by drug legalization advocates,
including Jack Herrer and High Times magazine. These advocates argue that if
hemp can be marketed, sold and consumed in the United States, it should be
cultivated in the United States. Where low-potency cannabis may be grown as
hemp, high-potency cannabis can also be grown as a drug of abuse.
The next thing to a lie. Hemp would replace petrochemicals, wood pulp paper,
and many of the trees we are cutting at an alarming rate. People can choose
to enjoy psychoactive Cannabis as well as support a cleaner environment.
Public officials at all levels of government play a role in reducing the
availability of cannabis in the United States. At the national level, the
Food and Drug Administration must strictly enforce the current laws on the
books; companies that include hemp in their food products are in direct
violation of FDA regulations. At the state and local levels, willing
legislative bodies, like the Georgia Senate, should adopt more thoroughly
protective bills that ban all cannabis plant derivatives from grocery store
shelves.
Another set of absolute lies. Hemp is the leader in omega 3 fatty acids and
has been shown to reduce cholesterol.
If no action is taken, we as a society, it seems, are implicitly endorsing
the sale of cannabis and effectively rendering our nation's drug laws
obsolete. This is not the way to protect our children from the harms of drug
use.
Again, absolute crap. The only things protected by anti-Cannabis laws are
the petrochemical industry and ignorant, unintelligent government
bureaucrats trying to save their own useless jobs.
Skywolf.
Pubdate: Tue, 04 Apr 2006
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Feedback: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html
Address: 72 Marietta Street, NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303
Copyright: 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Author: Michael C. Barnes
Note: Michael C. Barnes is a Washington lawyer who formerly served as
counsel in the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n408.a07.html
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