Law Enforcement Against (Marijuana) Prohibition - Announcement:

[MikeK]

This past Wednesday, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) joined the National Latino Officers Association (NLOA) and the Drug Policy Alliance at a press conference held to announce the NLOA’s endorsement of California’s Proposition 19 and the release of DPA's new report, “Arresting Latinos in California for Marijuana.” LEAP speaker Diane Goldstein, a retired Lieutenant Commander with the Redondo Beach Police Department, spoke at this press conference explaining that LEAP represents Supreme Court Justices, police, prosecutors and judges at every level – Federal, State and Local – who endorse Prop 19. LEAP played a pivotal role in the NLOA’s decision to endorse Prop 19.

Recently, LEAP also was central to bringing about endorsements of Prop 19 by the California NAACP and the National Black Police Association. LEAP will have made more than 300 presentations in California this year to raise awareness of the need for new policies around marijuana and other drugs. LEAP is also a partner in the Just Say Now campaign – please sign the petition if you haven’t had the chance yet.

If you live in California, please make sure to vote on Tuesday. If you can participate in a phone bank this weekend encouraging people to vote, please click here. As you may have seen, the last surveyusa automated poll shows us trailing by 2 points. Help us push it back over the top!

As always, we appreciate your support.

https://uwc.webmail.optimum.net/en/mail.html?lang=en&laurel=on&cal=0

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "All ye young'uns lissen up or ya gonna end up goofy...

Youth marijuana use linked to psychosis in later life
Mar 06, 2011 - Researchers found that those who started smoking pot had double the risk of developing psychotic symptoms.

Smoking marijuana as a teenager or young adult raises your risk of having psychotic symptoms later in life, a new Dutch study shows. "This cements much more firmly the reality that marijuana use in adolescence is a risk factor, along with the other genetic, environmental and socioeconomic risk factors, for developing psychosis," said Dr. Kathryn Kotrla, associate dean and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock. The findings, reported in the March 1 issue of the BMJ, come just weeks after Australian researchers reported on a connection between smoking marijuana and an onset of psychosis 2.7 years earlier than those who hadn't used the drug.

This latest study, led by Jim van Os from Maastricht University, seems to go one step further by showing that marijuana use actually precedes the onset of symptoms, suggesting a possible cause-and-effect relationship. Some 16 million people in the United States alone use marijuana regularly, and most started smoking in their teens. It is the third most widely used addictive substance after tobacco and alcohol. The new findings are based on data on about 2,000 individuals in Germany who were 14 to 24 years old when they enrolled in the study, and who were then followed for 10 years.

None of the participants had ever tried marijuana before entering the study, nor had any experienced psychotic symptoms. The researchers found that those who started smoking pot during the 10 years of the trial had double the risk of developing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, other drug use and other psychiatric diagnoses. And the more persistent the use, the more persistent the symptoms. The researchers did caution about several possible limitations, however, including self-reported data and the lack of direct adjustment for a family history of psychosis.

Michael Rice, a professor and psychiatric nurse practitioner at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing in Omaha, noted that the participants were not actually diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, only symptoms. "This is not schizophrenia, but psychotic symptoms (but) it does determine that this is potent stuff that has the effect of eventually creating hallucinatory or psychotic experiences," he said. But, Rice added, "it's still psychosis and it's totally preventable."

Dr. Kathryn Kotrla, associate dean and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock, likened this to a "perfect storm," given that people are more likely to use pot when they're young, which is precisely when their brains are most vulnerable. "We are identifying so many risk factors, the genetics, the child abuse, the complexity of an urban environment, when this adds up you can move towards thinking about particularly vulnerable individuals and thinking about targeted interventions," she said. "If you have a family history of mental illness, using marijuana is not such a great idea."

Source

 

[whitehall]

Are you sh-tting me? The pot heads are now playing the race card? It ain't about "legalization", marijuana junkies can get a couple of seeds and grow a plant and smoke the stuff until they become idiots. It's about making money for organized crime and gangs and not having to look over their shoulders while they sell the noxious stuff to school kids.

 

[MikeK]

Smoking marijuana as a teenager or young adult raises your risk of having psychotic symptoms later in life, a new Dutch study shows. "This cements much more firmly the reality that marijuana use in adolescence is a risk factor, along with the other genetic, environmental and socioeconomic risk factors, for developing psychosis," said Dr. Kathryn Kotrla, associate dean and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock. The findings, reported in the March 1 issue of the BMJ, come just weeks after Australian researchers reported on a connection between smoking marijuana and an onset of psychosis 2.7 years earlier than those who hadn't used the drug.

[...]

For the same reason proper nutrition is critically important for the developing adolescent body the intake of substances which are capable of affecting neurochemistry can have a detrimental effect on the developing brain. So this information, while entirely true, is not new and it purposefully omits the equally important fact that consumption of beverage alcohol and fatty junk foods will have an even more damaging effect on the developing brain than will THC (from marijuana).

The bottom line is don't allow your kids to use any recreational substances and tell them why. Explain it to them. Tell them that the most prominent effect that marijuana has on the brain is decreased short-term memory. This effect is particularly pronounced in adolescents and it will affect their ability to learn.

Whether or not your kids will be guided by your warning depends on two things; how intelligent they are and how much respect they have for your advice.

 

[whitehall]

You pot heads ain't content to puff your own sick degenerate brains out, you want to "legally" dangle the stuff in front of grade school kids and blame parents when the kids spend their lunch money on the crap.

 

[MikeK]

Are you sh-tting me? The pot heads are now playing the race card? It ain't about "legalization", marijuana junkies can get a couple of seeds and grow a plant and smoke the stuff until they become idiots. It's about making money for organized crime and gangs and not having to look over their shoulders while they sell the noxious stuff to school kids.

The L.E.A.P. members aren't "pot-heads." Their organization consists of law enforcement officials ranging in category from ordinary police patrol officers to high-ranking federal judges. These people have come to realize that the use of marijuana by adults is significantly less harmful than beverage alcohol and that enforcing the irrational marijuana prohibition is counterproductive in many ways.

It probably will come as a surprise to you that while drinking alcohol and using tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year and makes millions seriously sick, there is no record anywhere in medical science of anyone dying from or being made sick from the use of marijuana.

Do you believe that? If not you can test your intelligence by doing some simple research and learning the facts. Discover how capable you are of finding the facts.

 

[whitehall]

It's pretty sick to get a lecture about alcohol consumption and tobacco use from an organization that wants to make money from the sale of marijuana but I will try to make the point again. Marijuana is a weed. You can get a couple of seeds and grow a tree with a lot of leaves and nobody will bother you within reason. The issue is about making money off the manufacture and distribution of the noxious stuff. The cigarette industry has been attacked by government regulations and civil litigation to the point of bankruptcy and you can't smoke a cigar within human habitation these days and yet we have a faction of crazies who aren't content to smoke noxious weeds in the privacy of their own homes but want to sell the stuff to citizens who are up to their ears in legal and illegal drugs.

 

[BlindBoo]

You pot heads ain't content to puff your own sick degenerate brains out, you want to "legally" dangle the stuff in front of grade school kids and blame parents when the kids spend their lunch money on the crap.

Sorry sport but the problem with it being illegal is that it is easy for school aged kids to get it. Legalize, tax and regulate it like the more dangerous recreational drugs that already have the Governement stamp of approval.

 

[BlindBoo]

It's pretty sick to get a lecture about alcohol consumption and tobacco use from an organization that wants to make money from the sale of marijuana but I will try to make the point again. Marijuana is a weed. You can get a couple of seeds and grow a tree with a lot of leaves and nobody will bother you within reason. The issue is about making money off the manufacture and distribution of the noxious stuff. The cigarette industry has been attacked by government regulations and civil litigation to the point of bankruptcy and you can't smoke a cigar within human habitation these days and yet we have a faction of crazies who aren't content to smoke noxious weeds in the privacy of their own homes but want to sell the stuff to citizens who are up to their ears in legal and illegal drugs.

Marijuana is the slang name mostly for the female flowers of the Hemp plant. Hemp has been a cultivated crop throughout human history. It is not a weed any more than a tobacco plant is a weed.


The hearing in Congress were a shame. If you've never been privy to the process, enjoy.

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 - History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs

Commissioner Anslinger told the Congressmen at the hearings, and I quote, "Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death." That was the Government testimony to support the marijuana prohibition from the Commissioner.

 

[Wingsofwind]

It's pretty sick to get a lecture about alcohol consumption and tobacco use from an organization that wants to make money from the sale of marijuana but I will try to make the point again. Marijuana is a weed. You can get a couple of seeds and grow a tree with a lot of leaves and nobody will bother you within reason. The issue is about making money off the manufacture and distribution of the noxious stuff. The cigarette industry has been attacked by government regulations and civil litigation to the point of bankruptcy and you can't smoke a cigar within human habitation these days and yet we have a faction of crazies who aren't content to smoke noxious weeds in the privacy of their own homes but want to sell the stuff to citizens who are up to their ears in legal and illegal drugs.

Crazies??

You do know that many Collage students who have very high GPA averages smoke Hemp for recreation? There are a lot of very intelligent individuals who use Hemp.

One of the main problems with it being illegal is that if a very smart and productive individual gets caught with just a 'blunt' it can ruin their lives. NOT because of the affects the plant has on the individual, but because of the laws we have on the plant. Our prison system is overcrowded because of people being put there due to their use of Hemp.

Also, for the same effect that Hemp has, we have prescription manufactured drugs. These drugs have a lot of very bad side effects that Hemp does not have. People overdose on these prescription drugs all the time. However, there has been NO case where someone has overdosed on Hemp.

Here is a video of Joe Rogan who supports the legalization of Hemp. (Warning: Adult Language) ....