MarijuanaNews.com : Old Lies in A New Package. Drug Czar’s “2008 National Drug Control Strategy” Again Demonstrates the Drug War Is Really A War on Cannabis Users. Part One “Potency”

Posted March 3, 2008

Analysis by Richard Cowan

(MarijuanaNews note: Last week, the Drug Czar’s office’s issued a 57 page (plus appendices) screed, the 2008 National Drug Control Strategy, that proved two things. First, the Drug War really is a war on cannabis users, especially medical patients, and, second, they are terrible liars, who lie terribly. It is so long and convoluted that I am going to do my analysis in at least three installments this week. Arrggh!)
See

The Seemingly Inexhaustible Torrent Of Prohibitionist Propaganda Reminds Me Of The Greek Myth About Hercules And The Stables Of King Augeas. Analysis By Richard Cowan

“Marijuana and Mental Health”

From a side bar block on page 28

Although marijuana use is declining among teens, it is still the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. New research indicates that marijuana use is associated with an increased risk of mental health problems such as depression, suicidal tendencies, and schizophrenia. One in four people may have genes that could make marijuana five times more likely to trigger psychotic disorders.

(MarijuanaNews note: A few points here.
First, there has been no change in the incidence of schizophrenia over the years as marijuana use has gone up and down.

Second, most of the acts of the recent mass murders have been committed by young men who had been taking “anti-depressants,” not marijuana.

See

Prescriptions For Anti-Depressants Increase 17 Percent In One Year,

But What Works Better and Faster? The Context For Medical Marijuana. – An Article and A Letter

Third, these claims are contradicted by other studies.

See

Annotated NORML Weekly News November 8, 2007. Cannabis Helps Schizophrenics and Teens? — “Change Things” In Denver?
and
“Cannabis May Help Combat Schizophrenia” Or “Marijuana-Like Chemical Found In Schizophrenics” – Is Schizophrenia A Journalistic Disorder? — 2 Articles
and
Parents The Pro-Drug? Are Nagging Parents Driving Their Kids to Drink? Driving Schizophrenics Paranoid? Can We Drive the Media to Think?
and
Classic Reefer Madness At London Times: “Woman who killed father ‘driven mad by cannabis.’” Quacks and Hacks and Schizophrenia. Is It Paranoid to Distrust Politicized Science?
And from NORML, see
Pot Use Associated With Enhanced Cognitive Performance In Schizophrenics

Finally, Even if all the Czar’s claims were true, shouldn’t they do some research to see if being arrested causes depression?)

See
Prophylactic State Violence: The Arrogance and Ignorance of Psychiatric Quackery. Bad Science, Worse Ethics — Analysis by Richard Cowan

A long-term analysis of marijuana potency conducted by NIDA has also revealed that the strength of marijuana has increased substantially over the past two decades. According to the latest data from marijuana samples, the average amount of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in seized samples has more than doubled since 1983.

(MarijuanaNews note: The premise here is that doubling the average THC levels would somehow greatly increase the mental problems supposedly resulting from cannabis use. It is not clear why that is so, inasmuch as it has always been possible to smoke more of whatever was around.

However, the key point is that the increase happened under prohibition, and prohibition keeps users from being able to get a standardized product. Moreover, prohibition creates incentives to increase potency of any contraband. In other words, they are blaming cannabis for supposed problems that were aggravated by prohibition.)
See

The Iron Law of Prohibition: Potent Pot, New Data and the Old Prohibitionist Party Line and Another Lie.

The increase in potency may be leading to an increase in marijuana treatment admissions and may worsen the mental health implications of marijuana use. The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) reports a 164 percent increase in marijuana admissions since 1992, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) has found that emergency room mentions of marijuana increased nationally from 45,000 in 1995 to 119,000 in 2002.

(MarijuanaNews note: Up until this paragraph one might charitably dismiss their arguments as merely tendentious interpretations of speculative data. Not here, however. The correct term for what this report does is “lying” – a deliberate effort to deceive.

On page 3, figure 5 is the same graph rising emergency room episodes with different colors that was used in a New York Times column last November, by the ONDCP’s Charles Murray.
See
Oh, Joy! New Lies From the Czar’s Little Helper, In The New York Times, Appropriately.

Both charts have the heading: “Marijuana Potency and DAWN Emergency Department Visits.

Notice that there are now four different terms used here, “admissions”, “mentions”, “episodes”, and “visits”.

The correct term is actually “mentions.” As I explain in the November posting on Murray’s NY Times column, that data has nothing to do with the reason for the ER visits, episodes, or hospital admissions. As the links from that posting demonstrate, this is an old lie that they are making more difficult to discover.

From 2003, see
“Marijuana Isn’t Harmless.” Okay, But Why Isn’t It Sold Over the Counter? Or Would You Ban Something That Causes 300,000 ER Visits Every Year, And Kills A Child Every Month? (Trick Question) and from 2002, see
Cannabis Prohibition Prostitutes Science In New Emergency Dept. Data. Hiding the Truth Behind A Cloud of Lies.

Scientists, doctors, educators, counselors, prevention and treatment experts, and others are working to expose the harmful physical, mental, and behavioral changes associated with marijuana use.

See
Institute of Medicine Report on Medical Marijuana Contradicts Assumptions for NIDA Monkeyshines. Special to MarijuanaNews

and

How the Prohibitionist Funding Racket Really Works Shown As Califano Shills for DEA and NIDA.