Increased Pot Potency Just Proves That Marijuana Laws Have Failed
Everyday I read the Drug Czar's blog hoping that one afternoon I might happen upon something vaguely resembling an actual response to the reform movement's detailed and ongoing critiques of his work. Yet it never comes. Instead, I read that marijuana makes people sad, medical marijuana makes people sick, and school children love having their urine collected.
Then today it happened. Overcome, perhaps, by excitement over the newest data on marijuana potency, the Drug Czar's blog linked editorials by MPP's Bruce Mirken and NORML's Paul Armentano. The post even contains quotes by Armentano and attempts to refute them:
Claim 1: "...even by the University of Mississippi's own admission, the average THC in domestically grown marijuana -- which comprises the bulk of the US market -- is less than five percent, a figure that's remained unchanged for nearly a decade." (via the HuffingtonPost)
Not exactly. The "domestic" samples analyzed in the University of Mississippi's report do not represent what's found in the U.S. market. "Domestic" samples refer to marijuana plants that were found in the process of being grown and were then eradicated by law enforcement in the U.S. The potency of these "domestic" specimens is far lower because those specimens are most often taken from immature plants that never reached full cultivation (maturity) for distribution and consumption in the illegal market.
The "non-domestic" specimens in the report are from actual DEA street or border seizures, which are a different set of specimens from the "domestic" eradications. These samples more accurately represent the quality of marijuana that's smoked in the U.S. (The "non-domestic" label has been misinterpreted because the origin of the seized marijuana is not known.)
It's just a jaw-dropping lecture to receive from the Drug Czar, who previously claimed that marijuana potency had increased "as much as 30 times" precisely by using weak domestic samples as his baseline. Well thanks for clarifying that, finally. Maybe ONDCP should send a press release to 2002 to warn everyone how full of crap they are.
Moreover, if I understand this correctly, the Drug Czar is saying that all cultivated marijuana was labeled as "non-domestic" for the purposes of the latest report. It's true that police can't determine where the finished product originated, but calling it all "non-domestic" ignores the reality that most U.S. marijuana is grown here by Americans and not some terrorist overseas. The study thus implies wrongly that all domestic marijuana was seized before cultivation and that our entire market is dominated by imported foreign pot. And remember, they brought all this up in order to assure us that we don’t know what we're talking about.
The Drug Czar's second point is similarly problematic:
It's just not true. As "Understanding Marijuana" author Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D. explains via email:Claim 2: "If and when consumers encounter unusually strong varieties of marijuana, they adjust their use accordingly and smoke less."
The research cited in this argument undermines the author's own claim. The almost 20-year old study found that the effects of the marijuana were greater for the high THC doses of marijuana. Even though the 12 experienced users in the study were titrating, they ended up more intoxicated, and that was with marijuana that only had 1.3 percent versus 2.7 percent THC.
…the Pushing Back website says "Even though the 12 experienced users in the study were titrating, they ended up more intoxicated," while the abstract of the article they are mentioning says "Active marijuana also increased subjective reports of drug effect over placebo, but not dose dependently" That is, the folks smoking real pot got higher than folks smoking placebo, but the folks with the stronger dose didn't get higher than the folks with the weaker dose.As always, it is just impossible to overstate the factual vacuum from which the Drug Czar's claims emerge before being tossed into the public debate like a turd into a hot sauna. These reflexive, involuntary fabrications are all the more galling when one considers that marijuana potency actually has increased and could theoretically be demonstrated without lying at all.
We'd just as soon let them have their day if these recent reports didn’t contradict numerous hysterical prior claims by these very same people, and if they didn’t give rise to all sorts of nonsense about the fictitious risks of marijuana with more THC in it. Anyone struggling with that concept need look no further than the fact that FDA has approved a 100% THC pill called Marinol and the Drug Czar doesn't even pretend to worry about that.
Increasing potency is not an argument against reforming marijuana laws; it's a symptom of marijuana prohibition as well as a towering exhibit of its failure.
Note: For more on this, visit Marijuana Evolves Faster Than Human Beings, which I'm proud to say generated quite a bit of traffic to this site.
Regulate the market or else shut up about potency, Mr. Walters.
Most parents don't want their kids having unrestricted access to tobacco, alcohol or marijuana, regardless of their potency.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
IT'S TIME TO REMOVE ALL THE POLITICIANS THAT PROMOTE PROHIBITION.
HOW MANY MORE LIVES HAVE TO BE NEEDLESSLY DEVASTATED OR LOST?
PROHIBITED DRUGS ARE WAY EASIER FOR KIDS TO GET THAN REGULATED DRUGS!
PROHIBITION never works it just CAUSES CRIME & VIOLENCE.
The USA spends $69 billion a year on the drug war, builds 900 new prison beds and hires 150 more correction officers every two weeks, arrests someone on a drug charge every 17 seconds, jails more people than any nation and has killed over 100,000 citizens in the drug war.
In 1914 when there were NO PROHIBITED DRUGS 1.3% of our population was addicted to drugs, TODAY 1.3% of our population is STILL ADDICTED TO DRUGS BUT THERE’S WAY MORE CRIME AND VIOLENCE BECAUSE OF THE HUGE PROFITS PROHIBITION GENERATES. DRUGS TODAY ARE MORE POTENT, MORE READILY AVAILABLE AND LESS EXPENSIVE THAN THEY WERE IN THE EARLY 70’S WHEN RICHARD NIXON STARTED THE WAR ON DRUGS.
There’s only been one drug success story in history, tobacco, BY FAR THE MOST DEADLY and one of the MOST ADDICTIVE drugs. Almost half the users quit because of REGULATION, ACCURATE INFORMATION AND MEDICAL TREATMENT. No one went to jail and no one got killed.
DEMAND your Constitutional rights. The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and many others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
TAKE ACTION. JOIN THE EMAIL LIST, WATCH THE VIDEOS:
Internet Explorer: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
Earleywine is quoting selectively
Hi Scott,
Judging from the abstract of the referenced article, Earleywine is being misleading. (All I have to go by is the abstract, so it's possible I'm missing something.)
Here's Earleywine, from your own post:
…the Pushing Back website says "Even though the 12 experienced users in the study were titrating, they ended up more intoxicated," while the abstract of the article they are mentioning says "Active marijuana also increased subjective reports of drug effect over placebo, but not dose dependently" That is, the folks smoking real pot got higher than folks smoking placebo, but the folks with the stronger dose didn't get higher than the folks with the weaker dose.
He's quoting the abstract correctly, and makes a reasonable interpretation: the subjects smoking the stronger pot "didn't get higher" than those smoking the weaker pot. Of course "getting higher" is not a well-defined clinical term, and if by that one means "reporting increased subjective drug effects," then he's absolutely right.
The difficulty is that the Pushing Back website doesn't say the smokers of the stronger pot got "higher"; the website said they were "more intoxicated," which is indeed a clinical term. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), one of the criteria for substance intoxication is "clinically significant maladaptive behavioral or psychological changes that are due to the effect of the substance on the central nervous system." One of the examples of such behavior is "cognitive impairment."
So there's a difference between Pushing Back's "more intoxicated" and Earleywine's "higher."
Let's go back to the abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2560548?dopt=Abstract
Heart rate was increased dose dependently over placebo levels.
"Dose dependent" means, of course that those smoking the stronger pot had a greater increase in heart rate than those smoking the weaker pot. This is one of the physiological effects of cannabis intoxication, and it's stronger when the pot is stronger.
Active marijuana also increased subjective reports of drug effect over placebo, but not dose dependently.
Not dose dependent. This is what Earleywine quoted, suggesting that the subjects smoking the stronger pot didn't get any "higher" than those smoking the weaker pot.
Significant memory impairment was observed on a forward and reverse digit span task, and performance was impaired on the digit symbol substitution task by the high, but not low, dose of marijuana.
This is the key paragraph. The subjects were given a test, and the subjects who smoked the strong pot showed cognitive impairment, which is mentioned in the DSM-IV, cited above, as a symptom of intoxication.
Thus, although subjects adjusted their smoking of cigarettes varying in THC content, dose-related effects of marijuana were obtained on several measures.
What did Pushing Back say? Here's Earleywine:
…the Pushing Back website says "Even though the 12 experienced users in the study were titrating, they ended up more intoxicated,"
Yes, they (apparently the strong-pot smokers) did titrate ("adjust their smoking of cigarettes") and ended up more intoxicated (i.e., with greater cognitive impairment) than those smoking the weaker pot. Pushing Back seem to be reporting things reasonably accurately. They don't always do that, but here they seem to be Earleywine is selectively quoting, leaving out those pieces that don't fit his political agenda.
I believe that cannabis should be taxed and regulated, but I also believe that to argue that we don't need to distort the scientific record. Guys like Earleywine do more harm than good, weakening the credibility of all those who favor meaningful drug policy reform.
"Maybe ONDCP should send a
"Maybe ONDCP should send a press release to 2002 to warn everyone how full of crap they are."
oh snap!
Political Trends
“…the curious contradiction between the totalitarian movements’ avowed cynical ‘realism’ and their conspicuous disdain for the whole texture of reality.”
From Hannah Arendt's, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Summer, 1950
Debunked already
[email protected],Vancouver,B.C.Canada There has already been a rebuttal posted in an American on line medical journal.It's posted on digg in the health section.
Pot Potency? Drug Czar blissfully unfazed by facts.
Pot Potency? Drug Czar blissfully unfazed by facts.
The Scythians creep under the cloths and put the (seeded buds)
on the red hot stones, transported by the vapour, shout aloud.
-Herodotus 450 B.C.
from the Scythians - High Plains Drifters by Chris Bennet
Vietnam Tea, Thai-stick, Sinsemilla, Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, Hash-oil, Meshmacon, Kona, Maiwi, Colombian Gold...
KKKKKathmandu, Turkish Hash Parlors, Extractums since the 1800's
Chicago green, talkin' 'bout Black Lebanese
Black Napalese, it's got you weak in your knees
Just seeds and dust that you got bust' on
You know you're jailhouse-bound... 30 days in the hole.
The D.E.A.th Merchants selling their Ganjawar to Taxpayers.
Higher potency has always been available. at least since 450 B.C.
Higher price along with it.
Red herring since you smoke less,
except it's a link in the Czar's chain of lies.
More potent, must be more addictive.
More hospital visits by DAWN's bogus statistic collectors.
Must be the potent pot.
More plea bargain treatment,
Must be the more potent pot.
Remove a card and the D.E.A.th House of cards colapses...
"Addiction is a sideline in outlawing drugs,
a label applied conveniently by authorities
and cooperating scientists in support of prior policy biases.
The Stanton Peele Addiction Website, January 7, 2006
Ganjawar: Prison Slave Labor, Rape & Pillage Deterrent
Drug Czar says the sky is yellow.
Truth says the sky is blue.
Politicians say let's compromise,
the sky is green...
Ganja is or Ganja ain't. No Compromise...
Remove the stupid illegal, immoral, unethical schedule#1 status.
Hemp is a non-psychoactive Ganja cousin, the same as hops.
Neither belong in a drug classification, any more than corn.
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