If you have been paying attention lately, there is a strong and well-financed campaign out there to legalize marijuana. This coming November residents of both Colorado and Washington will head to the polls to vote on an initiative seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Most certainly you have an opinion on this, right? As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes I can say with certainty that I do not want these initiatives to pass.  

In Colorado they have billboards stating “for many reasons, I prefer… marijuana over alcohol. Does that make me a bad person?” One the ad is the photo of a 40-something slim, attractive female. What do you think of this ad sponsored by regulatemarijuana.org?

This is total nonsense. Why not have a photo of some blurry-eyed college student the caption “A marijuana buzz is better than getting drunk?” Really the only segment of the population that wants marijuana legalized are the stoners.

Image courtesy: http://www.facebook.com/mmjphotography

As a rational human being I do not see how legalizing marijuana for any reason will not increase the need for drug classes and drug counseling. Both California and Colorado have seen huge increases in the use of marijuana since the drug has proliferated through “medical” dispensaries.

It was back in 1979 that Keith Stroup, the head of the National Organization of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told the Emory University school newspaper, The Emory Wheel, that "We are trying to get marijuana reclassified medically. If we do that, (we'll do it in at least 20 states this year for chemotherapy patients) we'll be using the issue as a red herring to give marijuana a good name."

Seriously, unless you have AIDS or glaucoma there would appear to be no way to give marijuana a good name.

Keep in mind, the American Medical Association has found ZERO medical value in marijuana.

Is it really any surprise that NORML -- the nation's oldest marijuana legalization organization -- published in their weekly newsletter the sweeping assertion that "medical marijuana has no discernible impact on marijuana use."

The NORML studies miss the mark, by failing to take into account the actual implementation of medical marijuana laws. For example, California did not have "dispensaries" until 2003, seven years after the law was enacted. And Rhode Island, the state used in the Brown study, had about 1,500 people in the entire program, so it's not a revelation that the state would not see any significant effect on teens.

My guess is that medical marijuana will significantly increase all forms of drug use in this country.

Time will tell, with further study and analysis, how medical marijuana is affecting attitudes and use rates in the long term.

Why Do You Need Weed?

What of course is never talked about is how medical marijuana programs in states that have gone full steam ahead actually work. Rarely mentioned is the fact that, for example, according to a 2011 study in the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis that examined 1,655 applicants in California who sought a physician's recommendation for medical marijuana, very few of those who sought a recommendation had cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis.

One study, analyzing over 3,000 "medical marijuana users in California, found that an overwhelming majority (87.9%) of those queried about the details of their marijuana initiation had tried it before the age of 19, and the average user was a 32-year-old white male. 74% of the Caucasians in the sample had used cocaine, and over 50% had used methamphetamine in their lifetime. Hardly any had life-threatening illnesses.

It's time to get the legalization lobby out of the business of medical marijuana and instead focus our attention on scientists developing non-smoked marijuana-based medications for the truly ill. That would make this issue no longer the sick joke that it is today.

In the meantime drug classes will see a sharp rise in the number of students and marijuana will become even more prevalent than it already is.

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

The recent craze to legalize marijuana, and by recent I mean the past 15 years generally and last 5 specifically, has spawned any number of reasons why the drug has medicinal value.

From chronic pain to stomach trouble, to insomnia to anxiety, to just the stress of worrying about running out of weed, recommendations have been written for its use in a medicinal way. How about this?

The Obama administration calls prescription drug abuse the nation’s most pressing drug problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drug deaths are at an all-time high and account for more deaths and hospitalizations in the U.S. than any other drug. Advocates of affordable health care are decrying the exorbitant price of prescriptions and the toll such costs take on them and their families.

Well, guess what non-toxic and inexpensive medicine patients use as a substitute for those expensive, dangerous pharmaceutical drugs? If you said marijuana, you are correct!

A recent survey conducted by the Berkeley Patients Group and reported in the American Psychiatric Association’s Institute on Psychiatric Services found that 66% of their medical marijuana patient clients reported using marijuana as a prescription drug substitute. Most patients said they used marijuana because it was more effective than their prescribed drugs and was accompanied with fewer, and less severe, side effects.

Unfortunately, the federal government insists that marijuana is a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use. Perhaps if it came in a pill, cost a fortune, and had debilitating side effects, it would sail right through the FDA approval process.

The statistics show that marijuana consumption is on the rise. Logic dictates that legalizing the drug for “medicinal” purpose has made it that much easier for stoners to get high.

Some local anti-medical-marijuana officials believe an increase in marijuana use in California is the result of relaxed state laws toward medical marijuana.

In evaluating the statistics, it shows states that have a medical-marijuana program have a significant increase in use of those who are using marijuana.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released its 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health last month. It details substance-use patterns and consequences for people ages 12 and older.

From the survey, the rate of marijuana use statewide and nationally increased significantly, driving up overall rates of illicit drug use.

The Statistics

The 2010 survey reported 17.4 million people who said they had used marijuana in the past month. That compares to 14.4 million in 2007.

Between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of people who used marijuana increased from 5.8 percent to 6.9 percent.

The percentage of youths ages 12 to 17 who used marijuana also increased, from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 7.4 percent in 2010.

Why Has Weed Become Acceptable?

It is disturbing to see an increase among kids. Society is getting to the point where marijuana is more and more acceptable. It's why we're so adamant not to allow it. We want to keep it out of the hands of kids.

In 2010, then-Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Senate Bill 1449, which downgraded possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction, with a $100 fine but no jail time.

Lanny Swerdlow, a Riverside County marijuana activist and radio host, said the increase in usage "probably" is from states legalizing the drug for certain uses.

Swerdlow said in his quick read of the national survey he found there was an increase in marijuana use along with a decrease in alcohol use. Unlike alcohol, Swerdlow said, marijuana does not make someone mad, angry, fight, vomit or black out.

The Medical Argument

Jan Werner, vice president of The Clearview Lake Corp., which runs marijuana collectives in Bloomington and Corona, said marijuana usage was up because baby boomers have found medical marijuana to be an alternative to other drugs for their ailments.

With no valid recommendation by the FDA or the AMA, making this drug legal has been a total fiasco. California is now in the process of shuttering their dispensaries. Colorado banks no longer accept deposits from dispensaries. It is only a matter of time before the pendulum swings the other way. You heard it here first – medical marijuana is on its way out.

Colorado is one of 14 states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Like every other state, Colorado is wrestling with legalizing a drug in the state the remains illegal under federal law.

For some Colorado residents, the divisive debate about medical marijuana goes beyond hazy public policy questions; it's personal.

Mary Hesterman is an outspoken supporter of Question 300 on the Nov. 1 election ballot that would ban medical marijuana businesses from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Hesterman said the presence of marijuana dispensaries sends a message to the community's youths that drug abuse - which nearly led her 16-year-old daughter to suicide - is acceptable.

But for Jim Dunlap, who has battled increasingly severe neurological symptoms for years, medical marijuana has provided relief from pain and nausea where prescription medications failed.

Having a reliable dispensary in town that can supply the strains of marijuana he needs has given him great comfort, he said. Instead of being bedridden with pain, he can interact with his family and friends and lead a better life.

A mother's worry

Hesterman's work with Concerned Fort Collins Citizens, which put the proposed ban on the ballot through a petition drive, stems from her daughter, Becky's, experience with drug use.

Becky began experimenting with marijuana as a student at Fossil Ridge High School. She went from being an engaged, happy student to one who frequently skipped classes and fell in with a new crowd of friends her family didn't know.

Her grades fell and she became increasingly detached and depressed. Counseling and the imposition of more rules did no good. Becky snuck out of the house at night and got into trouble at school. She dabbled in a variety of illegal drugs, including heroin.

Her mother said drugs turned her into a pathological liar with absolutely no conscience.

Becky sunk so low she posted a suicide note on Facebook that was noticed by "somebody's mother - I still don't know who," Hesterman said.

When police arrived, Becky was headed to her room and a large stash of pills.

After receiving mental-health treatment in Fort Collins, Becky was sent to a residential program in Utah, where she has flourished and remained sober. The treatment program is not covered by insurance, so the family took out a second mortgage on its house to help cover the $5,000-a-month bill.

Hesterman does not link medical marijuana dispensaries to Becky's drug problem, but she does believe the businesses give youth the impression marijuana is safe when "nothing could be further from the truth," she said.

The Other Side of the Medical Marijuana Story

Shutting down dispensaries won't curtail marijuana use any more than Prohibition stopped alcohol use, Dunlap said.

How’s this for logic? If medical marijuana shops are bad for the city's image, he said, so are its many tattoo parlors and liquor stores.

Dunlap, 51, is a former Realtor and a competitive cyclist. Around 2000, he began to experience disturbing symptoms, including numbness, flashes of phantom pain in his chest and extremities and nausea.

Doctors told him the neurological symptoms might be attributable to multiple sclerosis, but tests have not come up with a clear diagnosis.

He continued to suffer a variety of ailments, including weakness, searing pain and intestinal disorders. He can walk short distances, but often uses a wheelchair.

A friend suggested trying medical marijuana. First, he had success using a marijuana-infused cream to ease pain in his arm. Then, he tried edibles.

A recovering alcoholic, he was hesitant to smoke marijuana out of fear it would lead to another addiction. But working with a local dispensary, he found a strain of marijuana that gives him energy while keeping his head clear. Another strain helps him sleep.

Question 300 from both sides

If voters approve Question 300, the city's 20 existing businesses would have to shut down within 90 days. Many other cities in Northern Colorado recently have banned dispensaries, and every bank in the state will no longer accept their money.

Supporters say the dispensary model that has flourished across the city and state since 2009 was not what voters intended when they approved a constitutional amendment allowing the use of marijuana to treat certain debilitating medical conditions.