A Viewpoint from the U$A

Paul13 · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:11 pm

I need to share the following -

Legalizing Marijuana a Dangerous Prospect
Posted by CN Staff on December 17, 2007 at 06:32:53 PT
By Jonathan Troutman, Guest Commentary
Source: Hickory Daily Record

North Carolina -- Legalizing marijuana for individuals over the age of 18 is not right for America. Illicit drug use already causes serious problems in society: Health issues, accidents, lost productivity in the workplace, and wrecked families.
Legalizing marijuana would only further intensify these problems. Marijuana is a risk to our society morally and physically. Its use leads to use of harder illicit drugs which pose an even greater threat to society. Our government has a duty to its citizens to protect us from harmful drugs such as marijuana. I urge you to consider the deteriorating effects of marijuana on individuals and their surroundings.

Marijuana is a plant that grows in a variety of climates and consists of 66 different cannabinoids. Marijuana has a variety of effect on the user such as euphoria, a feeling of well-being, distortions in time, deficits in short term memory, paranoia, mood enhancement, mild sedation and an increased desire to eat.

Unfortunately, some users experience adverse mood reactions which are characterized by period of increased anxiety and paranoia, sometimes to the point of hysteria.

The legalization of marijuana debate has been controversial, especially in the past decade.

Legalization of marijuana will create more drug-dependent users and increase accessibility to the youth. Before the United States rushes to legalize marijuana, we should learn from our past mistakes. Increased access to marijuana results in increased marijuana use. Legalization of marijuana in Alaska in the 1970s led to a tripling of marijuana use among 18- to 20-year-olds. Alaska’s marijuana use among teens was nearly twice that of the continental United States.

Even though this issue only pertains to legalizing marijuana to those over the age of 18, whenever you legalize an illicit substance, you increase it’s accessibility to children. This is especially dangerous because developing brains and bodies are more vulnerable to the negative effects of smoking marijuana.

No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. As a result, proponents of legalizing marijuana often say that marijuana is a “victimless crime” - meaning that the only one that is harmed is the user. However, this is not true. Marijuana has been a factor in many workplace accidents and car accidents.

Driving under the influence of marijuana presents police officers with a new problem. It is much more difficult to detect marijuana intoxication than it is to detect alcohol use. Individuals under the influence of marijuana can often pass a field sobriety test even though their driving is impaired.

We must consider the collateral damage that legalizing marijuana would cause to those who do not use the drug.

The current debate over medical marijuana is not whether marijuana has medical use, but the relative degree of harm inflicted by the negative side affects. Marijuana has been implicated to play a role in cancer development, immune system depression and psychosis as well as a variety of less significant ailments. It is essential that we consider the psychological and physical harms caused by marijuana use.

Many supporters of legalizing marijuana claim that it only makes sense to legalize marijuana because other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol are more dangerous.

While it is nearly certain that alcohol has more detrimental effects on the user, this does not mean we should legalize marijuana. American use of tobacco and alcohol places a significant burden on society in terms of crime, tragedies, lost productivity and deaths. It makes no sense to add another drug to this list and further weaken American society.

It is the government’s duty to protect Americans against harmful drugs, not to promote their use.

We must stand firm against this potentially government-sponsored vice and “just say no” to legalizing marijuana.

Jonathan Troutman lives in Hickory and is a junior at Elon University.
Source: Hickory Daily Record (NC)
Author: Jonathan Troutman, Guest Commentary
Published: Sunday, December 16, 2007
Copyright: 2007 Hickory Daily Record
Contact: lclark@hickoryrecord.com
Website: http://www.hickoryrecord.com/

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Paul13 · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:35 pm

The previous article was reprinted on a cannabisnews.com forum and generated some response. One article sent was the following -

From the LA Daily News 16 December 2007

David Fleming, left, a powerful Republican businessman who chairs the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and gives millions to charity and his wife, Jean, produced "Smoke Screen," a 90-minute docudrama promoting the medical marijuana movement. Todd Nelson, center, stars in the film.«

As a friend of presidents and hobnobber with governors, David Fleming makes an unlikely insurgent against the War on Drugs.
He's been dubbed by a local business weekly as "The Valley's Most Powerful Person," chairs the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and doles out dollars to charity by the millions.

He works for one of the world's largest law firms. He can preach for hours about business tax, government reform and transportation.
With his immaculate white shirts, slicked-back hair and easy familiarity with powerful people, Fleming embodies The Man.
"I smoked marijuana once, 25 years ago," he said. "I got high for three hours and decided: `Yecch. This is not for me."'

Although it was not for him, he doesn't begrudge those who opt for comfort with a bong or a needle. The Man, a registered Republican and consummate insider, thinks the drug war is "stupid."
And he's putting his money - and his reputation - on the line to try to win more recruits to his cause.

Fleming and his wife, Jean, put thousands of dollars of their considerable personal fortune into producing "Smoke Screen," a 90-minute docudrama promoting the medical marijuana movement.
They've previewed it for local politicians and powerbrokers and are looking for film festivals.

Jean Fleming co-wrote the script and produced the film. David Fleming narrates it. After years of research, he effortlessly tosses off statistics used in the film in his deep, even voice.
"The War on Drugs has cost the American taxpayer $1 trillion since 1972," he said. "We're paying $69 billion a year to make a health problem into a criminal one."

That's the libertarian side of him talking - he's also a board member of the Reason Foundation. But while Fleming can go on at length about drug stats from a policy standpoint, he's also got a personal stake.
His wife, a former Miss Illinois turned actress, suffers debilitating pain from post-polio syndrome. Several months ago, she obtained a prescription for medical marijuana. At night, she takes a few drops of liquid THC or snacks on a pot brownie to ease the pain.

"Here's Jeannie, well-to-do and a pillar of society, using marijuana," Fleming said.
"And I could be thrown in prison by Bush," she interjected.

That's Bush as in President George W. - the one who named her husband as a trustee for the James Madison Foundation, a group of politicians, jurists and two private citizens that hands out scholarships for teachers. Fleming has a photo of him and the president in his office.

The couple have an unusual marriage. He hangs with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She wears a Barack Obama T-shirt. The two disagree on many political issues, but they vehemently agree about the need for drug-policy reform.
"Look, I'm an old lady, so I can say what I want to," she said. "In the '60s, I used to go to parties where cocaine was passed around and snorted. Nothing ever went up my nose, but I smoked marijuana."

At the same time, Fleming was practicing law and building his life in the establishment. When Nixon made the drug war a priority in 1972, Fleming didn't give it a second thought. "I just went along with it: Sure, drugs are bad," he said. "The government says so. I'll agree with that."

Back then, Fleming says, 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to drugs, which sounded alarming. He looked into it some more and found that in 1915, 1.3 percent of the population was also addicted. In 2007, he says 1.3 percent is still hooked.
"This War on Drugs is a disaster, and it has been for years," he said. "It's financed gangs for years. If a thinking person washes their mind of all the things they've been brainwashed with, they'd have to come to the same conclusion."

But that's a conclusion that neither Fleming would have reached on his or her own. It took a personal tragedy for each to get their minds to change.
For Jean Fleming, it came in the late 1980s, long after she'd given up recreational smoking and settled into writing screenplays.
"My son got in trouble with drugs again," she said. "I got very upset and couldn't function very well - as families do when someone who wouldn't hurt a fly gets thrown in prison."

Her son got busted with coke in a duffle bag in New Zealand. He got some prison time and then somehow managed to escape, only to get busted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and extradited back to New Zealand.
A decade later, David Fleming saw tragedy of his own, when he lost a son to a cocaine overdose. "It turned out to be pure, and he didn't know it," he said. "That's what happens with illegal drugs. If they were regulated and controlled, that wouldn't be an issue. By doing what we've done, we've turned the whole drug business over to the bad guys."

He began reading up on the subject and arrived at his present position: The government should not only legalize drugs, it should license and sell them. The tax money generated from sales could then fund medical and educational initiatives to help people kick unwanted addictions.
As he refined his point of view, Jean Fleming decided to write a movie and her husband put his money to work. She met up with Todd Nelson, an actor she'd met in a vacuum-repair shop, and the two wrote "Smoke Screen" together.

As firmly rooted in the establishment as the Flemings seem, Nelson is their polar opposite. He wears a crystal necklace and his hair long.
"I've always had an interest in legalizing drugs because I've had friends who've been arrested," Nelson said. "At the time we started writing, I didn't even smoke marijuana, but I thought it was unfair for me to advocate something I hadn't experienced. So I sacrificed myself."

That drew a chuckle from David Fleming, who does not get high, smoke cigarettes or drink anything harder than club soda, but Nelson continued.
"Changing the drug laws would be the single best thing we could do for society," he said.

Not so, Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Michel Moore said. While he noted state law allows for medical marijuana use - and that federal law does not - Moore disagreed that giving people access to whatever drugs they want would be such a panacea.
"Legalization of drugs would bring higher property crime rates and more people using drugs because the social stigma would be removed," Moore said. "The consequences of that use can lead to them losing their jobs, losing their families and resorting to more crime."

Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired police officer who still serves as an LAPD reserve, agreed that legalizing harder drugs would be a problem. But he's OK with medical marijuana - and believes more people will come around as a result of Fleming's advocacy.
"He's at Latham and Watkins, he's a Fernando Award winner, one of the buildings at Valley Presbyterian Hospital is named for them," Zine said. "They're honorable people in this community. There are lots of people like them who are in the shadows - and I respect their desire for privacy - but the Flemings have actually stepped forward."

Drug reform is nothing new, nor is the medical marijuana movement. But the chorus normally comes from college campuses and guys sporting Grateful Dead T-shirts, not directors of the Los Angeles Police Foundation and former fire commissioners.

"He didn't come to this position because he's got hippie roots or he'd like to do some cocaine and not have anybody bother him," said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation. "But certain things get him really worked up - transportation, the budget, things like that.
"And one of the things he sees as really screwed up is the War on Drugs."

Maybe the movie will get people to change their minds, Fleming said. He doesn't care if it makes any money, just that the politicians whose home numbers he keeps in his Rolodex will be willing to take up the issue.
If necessary, he'll distribute it on the Internet, trading revenue for the educational benefit.
"It's taken a long time, and we've still got a big hill to climb," he said. "People have been literally brainwashed for years about this. But they're starting to open their eyes."

steveoh · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:13 pm

It seems our master Jonathan Troutman has had his head squashed by one too many wrestlers tight thighs

It goes to prove, the more vocal we get, we see the prohibitionists rolling out their defence which gets weaker every outing.

Crap like master Troutmans touting shouldn't silence us, but confirm that we are making head way. When they think they are winning they remain silent, it's not until we're making sense do they wheel the old "Frankenstine's monster story from the closet.

My advice to master Troutman is to cut down on the sniffing of "jock-straps" and get a life

_________________
Regulation will set cannabis free

GassRoots is you

Tony · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 5:35 am

I was wondering if Fleming would share the doco , might be worth getting a copy if possible. does any have a direct email or contact address.

tony


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