[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 11, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1545]]



                        MARIJUANA MISINFORMATION

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 11, 2002

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of 
the House a recent editorial by John P. Walters, the Director of the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy.
  Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 1, 2002, Director 
Walters commented on the widespread campaign of misinformation being 
waged on the issue of medical marijuana by those who favor drug 
legalization. Far from being a harmless drug with potential medicinal 
use, John Walters argues that the marijuana available to teenagers 
today is far stronger than that consumed by the Woodstock generation.
  But rather than presenting a united front against the dangers of this 
drug, the debate over medicinal use is only sowing confusion among 
parents and adolescents alike. Meanwhile, emergency room admissions and 
treatment enrollments involving teenagers for marijuana use is rising 
sharply. In recent years, drug overdoses have overtaken homicides as 
the leading causes of death among teenagers.
  Regrettably, many in the media have bought into the ``compassionate'' 
argument that severely ill people need the option of smoking marijuana 
to alleviate their symptoms. While running counter to common sense, 
this argument has been strong enough to support ballot initiatives in 
several States.
  Adolescent use of marijuana is a serious problem with widespread 
ramifications. There needs to be more voices like Director Walters 
entering the debate to counteract the misguided, harmful, and 
misleading arguments being fostered and presented by groups preying on 
people's compassion as a way to open the door for wholesale drug 
legalization.
  For review by my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I request that Director 
Walter's editorial be inserted in full at this point in the 
Congressional Record:

      [lsqb]From the San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 1, 2002[rsqb]

              Marijuana Today--Setting The Record Straight

                          (By John P. Walters)

       The public debate over marijuana has been plagued by 
     difficulties, not the least of which is a lack of accurate 
     information. Any policy debate that draws activists promoting 
     their cause is likely to suffer from confusion. But the 
     debate over marijuana has been further muddled by careless or 
     gullible media reports. Too often, journalists are fed 
     misleading advocacy information that they swallow whole.
       For instance, one columnist recently charged that worry 
     about the increased potency of today's marijuana is wildly 
     overstated. In fact, he calls such claims ``whoppers,'' 
     because the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) 
     ``has only doubled to 4.2 percent from about 2 percent from 
     1980 to 1997.''
       No wonder the public has trouble getting a clear picture. 
     His source for this information is the Marijuana Policy 
     Project, a group of marijuana legalizers relying on a study 
     that covers just those years. Unfortunately, the columnist 
     did not check his facts with the Drug Enforcement 
     Administration, which monitors scientific studies of 
     marijuana.
       What does the DEA analysis show? In 1974, the average THC 
     content of marijuana was less than 1 percent. But by 1999, 
     potency averaged 7 percent. Further, unlike the old 
     ``ditchweed'' and bulk marijuana of the past, there are now 
     far more powerful products to entice youth. The THC of 
     today's sinsemilla averages 14 percent and ranges as high as 
     30 percent.
       Even stronger stuff is on the way. The point is that the 
     potency of available marijuana has not merely ``doubled,'' 
     but increased as much as 30 times.
       Some advocates argued that this increased potency is 
     actually good news, because kids will simply use less. But 
     the data don't support that interpretation. The number of 
     tons of marijuana sold in America is increasing, not 
     decreasing. The number of people seeking medical treatment 
     for marijuana abuse is increasing rapidly, not decreasing. In 
     fact, the number of adolescent marijuana admissions increased 
     260 percent between 1992 and 1999.
       The stakes in this debate are high, especially for young 
     people. So widespread is marijuana in today's schools that 
     nearly half of all high school seniors report having tried it 
     by graduation, while a smaller but still alarming number 
     report using it every month--even everyday. This is a drug 
     that, after all, produces withdrawal symptoms, is associated 
     with learning and memory disturbances and produces behavioral 
     problems for those who become dependent.
       It's time to face facts: Today's marijuana is a more 
     dangerous drug than the pot of the Woodstock era. It creates 
     tolerance (you need increasing doses to achieve the same 
     effect), and at high doses it induces paranoia or even 
     violence.
       The haze of misinformation grows even thicker when it comes 
     to the issue of ``medical'' marijuana. On the face of it, the 
     idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking 
     an intoxicating weed seems unlikely, even medieval. It is, in 
     fact, absurd.
       Smoking marijuana, even if it weren't psychotropic, hardly 
     seems healthy. The threat of lung damage, not to mention 
     exposure to carcinogens and more toxins than those found in 
     tobacco smoke, increases with every ``hit.'' But no less than 
     the New York Times editorialized recently in support of 
     medical marijuana. Amazingly, the paper termed it ``life-
     saving'' and claimed it represented ``mainstream medical 
     opinion.''
       Who have they been listening to? Perhaps the source was the 
     same Marijuana Policy Project, which paid for a full-page ad 
     in the Times on March 6, 2000. The MPP claimed scientific 
     support for medical marijuana from the prestigious National 
     Academy of Sciences, whose Institute of Medicine, MPP 
     claimed, ``urged the federal government to give seriously ill 
     people immediate access to medical marijuana on a case-by-
     case basis.''
       But nowhere in the IOM report can you find this ``urging.'' 
     Quite the contrary: the IOM throws cold water on smoked-
     marijuana enthusiasts, stating clearly, ``Marijuana is not a 
     modern medicine.''
       Does the IOM regard marijuana as a helpful ``medicine'' for 
     the afflicted? Not at all. ``In no way,'' the researchers 
     continued, ``do we wish to suggest that patients should, 
     under any circumstances, medicate themselves with 
     marijuana.'' In fact, they state that any experimental 
     subjects must be notified that they are using ``a harmful 
     drug delivery system,'' adding that short-term experiments 
     might be conducted only after the ``documented failure of all 
     approved medicines'' and only under strict medical 
     supervision.
       But while the IOM wishes to study the ingredients in 
     marijuana, the purpose of these clinical trials (now being 
     conducted through the University of California at San Diego) 
     is not to investigate the potential medical benefit of 
     smoking the stuff. As the researchers put it, their purpose 
     ``would not be to develop marijuana as a licensed drug.''
       These facts place us far away from efforts to justify the 
     distribution of marijuana cigarettes through cannabis buyers 
     clubs. Real and lasting damage can follow ``experimentation'' 
     with marijuana, as reflected in the fact that marijuana abuse 
     is today the major reason for young people to seek drug 
     treatment.
       Yet, listening to some in the media you are still likely to 
     hear that marijuana ``isn't such a big deal,'' and that even 
     the National Academy of Sciences endorses it ``for medicinal 
     purposes.'' Now you know better.

     

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