Obama's Drug Czar Blames YOU for Increased Teen Marijuana Use
One out of every 15 high school students smokes marijuana on a near daily basis, a figure that has reached a 30-year peak even as use of alcohol, cigarettes and cocaine among teenagers continues a slow decline, according to a new government report.
…
R. Gil Kerlikowske, the federal drug czar, said he believed the increasing prevalence of medicinal marijuana was a factor in the uptick. “These last couple years, the amount of attention that’s been given to medical marijuana has been huge,” he said. [NYT]
If you're one of the 4 out of 5 Americans who supports medical marijuana, then he's talking about you. Something teens have been doing for decades suddenly became your fault the instant you expressed sympathy for people who use marijuana to treat illnesses. Your efforts to provide friends and neighbors with fact-based information about marijuana have made the Drug Czar's job very difficult indeed.
“And when I’ve done focus groups with high school students in states where medical marijuana is legal, they say, ‘Well, if its called medicine and it’s given to patients by caregivers, then that’s really the wrong message for us as high school students.’”
That's priceless. I'm sure that's exactly what they said to him. Well yes, Mr. Kerlikowske, sir, ever since Proposition 215 passed when I was 11 months old, I've been struggling to understand the concept of the patient-caregiver relationship in the context of medical cannabis. How can a drug be medicine? Confusion about the matter has forced myself and several classmates to smoke joints after school each day behind the dumpster at Jack-in-the-Box. I can feel it impairing my motor skills, but I'm too addicted to stop.
Seriously, if there's anything confusing young people about this, it's probably the fact that there's a government stooge called the Drug Czar whose job it is to go around refuting common knowledge about marijuana and replacing it with a bunch of dumb propaganda. Ironically, it's the Drug Czar himself who's been telling everyone that marijuana is for partying instead of medical use, so maybe it's his fault when teenagers use pot at parties.
In all likelihood, the situation would improve dramatically if the Drug Czar would shut up and let young people think for themselves. Remember when Bush's Drug Czar was making anti-drug ads that were so bad they caused more teens to try marijuana? Congress pulled the funding for the program and probably saved some people's lives from the sort of dangerous idiocy that anti-drug fanatics will engage in when they think they can do no wrong.
In any case, blaming the medical marijuana debate for anything at all is supremely absurd considering that this debate wouldn’t even exist if the federal government had never waged war on medical marijuana in the first place. Yes, this debate is hot right now. Yes, young people are likely aware of it. But that isn't the fault of patients who need marijuana or the 80% of Americans who support those patients. It's the fault of the lying, intransigent imbeciles who pretended marijuana wasn't medicine and forced the nation to spend decades arguing about one simple irrefutable fact, when we could have spent that time on any number of other things, including designing better drug education for our kids.
Dumb F*ck's
Ever thought of regulating and taxing along with education(The Truth) this just like with alcohol and tobacco will curb teen use. Quit telling Lies and supporting terrorism and ruining young peoples lives. LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!!
Only in retard America would
Only in retard America would this been seen as a "bad" article. Its a good thing everyone is getting into marijuana and not cigarettes and alcohol. There is no bad move, but the stupid moves the American government is doing, by letting products like cigarettes and alcohol kill millions (along with killing more in drunken accidents) and making marijuana illegal (which has yet to kill or harm anyone). This is one of the many reasons i can't wait to get out of this country. You stay here long enough and you can see how narrow minded and stupid some people are. Smarten up USA.
Drug Czar=Ignorance
I totally agree. Obama was one of the worst things to happen to America ever. He is a complete liar and came off to Americans as a more liberal presidential candidate pursuing to protect medical marijuana. Now, he is threatening Californian dispensaries and having this "Drug Czar" do and say dumb shit that is all lies. Never have I ever felt "addicted" to marijuana. I could stop if I wanted to I just see no need to since it helps me with anxiety. I feel more talkative and able to express myself after using this herb. & think this is the only so-called drug not humanly altered. With alcohol and any other drug, a person has to put something in it to result with the drug, but with marijuana you simply grow and harvest it. Also, this says every 4 in 5 Americans support medical marijuana. So, is it a schedule one drug, which states that marijuana has no medical usage, because of these 1 in 5 Americans? These are most likely all the people working or supporting the War on Drugs...... or should I just refer to it as the War on Marijuana. I believe having marijuana as a schedule one drug and be illegal under federal law is pretty unjust and unconstitutional. There is a overwhelming amount of medical marijuana supporters. We need to listen to the people here not the government. Back in the colonial period, people would stand up to this bull just like they did with the prohibition of alcohol. People nowadays are just so afraid of what the government will do and feel as if we have no other options other than to listen to every thing they say. There is possibility for change. We just have to make the change. I feel one day Americans can reach this necessary change; it will happen once the older generations die down. Some of the older generations will never be able to be convinced due to propaganda and such. So, hopefully and eventually the right people will come to power and this herb will become at least a schedule II drug. We just need the men in charge to come to their senses or we need for forced change to come about from the people.
Even if by some miracle Ron
Even if by some miracle Ron Paul were made President, nothing would change because the same morons would still be in congress. They would just stop him at every turn. Everyone in DC should be thrown out and not allowed to run again.
So true the foul toilet that is washinton D.C. needs flushed!!!!
We are at the end of a take over aganda!!!
Captain Gil is towing the company line...
Everybody needs to give Captain Gil a break. He's towing the company line right now. Who knows if he even believes the stuff that comes out of his own mouth.
Big Pharma controls the show people.
"it's the Drug Czar himself
"it's the Drug Czar himself who's been telling everyone that marijuana is for partying instead of medical use, so maybe it's his fault when teenagers use pot at parties." I agree!
I work at a medical cannabis clinic, where our doctors specialize in recommending cannabis to patients with verifiable medical conditions. A very small percentage of our patients are teens under 18, who come in with a parent to see if marijuana is a suitable therapy for conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and juvenile rhemathuid arthiritis. All of our patients who are under 18 have already tried other drugs like adderall, opiates, or SSRIs, but have found them either ineffective or not worth taking because of harsh side effects. They come to speak with a doctor and see if marijuana can help control their symptoms without causing debilitating side effects.
It's pretty wonderful to see the parent, doctor, and teen sit down together and discuss how marijuana can have a positive impact on their lives. There's something to be said for the self-fulfilling prophecy, and how our teens are in a far better situation than the teen who who faces stigmatization from their family and law enforcement suspecting they are a drug addicted screw up because they self-medicate with marijuana.
Reality
OBAMA, get rid of the "Drug
OBAMA, get rid of the "Drug Czar" position. It's wasting my and my family's tax money that we've poured into the Federal government over the years. This Gil guy is nothing more than a propagandist! And you and your administration are proving your puppetry-to-big-pharma by badmouthing (and worse, making illegal) the medical marijuana milestones we've made. Not to mention killing an industry right when the US needs more jobs...
Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back
OBAMA, get rid of the "Drug Czar" position. It's wasting my and my family's tax money that we've poured into the Federal government over the years. This Gil guy is nothing more than a propagandist! And you and your administration are proving your puppetry-to-big-pharma by badmouthing (and worse, making illegal) the medical marijuana milestones we've made. Not to mention killing an industry right when the US needs more jobs...
This is not about teens
This war on cannabis is fueled by Big Pharma and Big Oil. If everyone realized all the amazing things cannabis can do for your health, the profits would diminish from the pharmaceuticals. Big Oil doesn't want you to know that hempseed oil can be converted into biodiesel, therefore immediately being able to run any existing diesel engine. Think about how many diesel trucks are out there polluting OUR air. Biodiesel is much cleaner than conventional diesel and gives a higher MPG. One executive order is all it would take to convert the existing diesel infrastructure into biodiesel.
Your Surprised?
Gil's middle name is "Puppet" , and Obama's middle name is " In Way Over My Head" or as better known "I Couldn't Have Screwed This Up More".
This is not about drugs, it's about fuel. Really cheap gasoline. All grown on American soil. No need for foreign fuel.
The Keystone pipe line would be a big waste of money, if Hemp was legal.
You can't keep Hemp illegal, if you legalize cannabis.
VOTE Dr. Ron Paul
I was disappointed with Gil.
I was disappointed with Gil. I thought he came from a state with enlightened views about marijuana and I even thought he had at least talked about decriminalization in his own state before he was the drug Czar. Next thing you know he sounds just like Barry McCaffrey. Who's got him on his puppet strings? Why the Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde routine?
This is where the democratic
This is where the democratic process becomes a poison unto itself. We hold elections to put people in positions of power to make all these decisions. It's like handing our own power to decide over to someone else so they can decide on our behalf. In this day and age, most people can get access to a computer, whether at home, at work, or at a library. We should stop electing people to decide for us and we can just decide for ourselves. Someone should just set up a website that has all kinds of issues you can read about and vote on. I see that as the only way out because it seems like so many politicians always vote in a way that satisfies no one but for a scant few.
And concerning marijuana, it really shouldn't be up to anyone else but me to decide that. Arrest people for robbery, assault, murder. Marijuana smoking doesn't even fit with the other three. Even kids who watch Sesame Street understand that.
On electing people to decide for us
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question." — Thomas Jefferson
History has answered that question and the answer is NO!
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial ... the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." — Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1928
Virtually all reasonable laws are obeyed, not because they are the law, but because reasonable people would do that anyway. If you obey a law simply because it is the law, that's a pretty likely sign that it shouldn't be a law.
"Probably all laws are useless; for good men do not want laws at all, and bad men are made no better by them." — Demonax - (Roman philosopher, circa 150 A.D.)
Pot prohibition creates supply & demand for pot.
Pot prohibition creates supply & demand for pot . So, prohibitionists must have the ills that prohibition creates laid squarely at their feet. Minors are told how dangerous pot is. But, nothing deadly or addictive transpires. So, many minors conclude they've been lied to about heroin, too. After all, cannabis is classified as a class I deadly drug, alongside heroin. How many heroin overdoses are prohibitionists to blame for? Most of them. Who do cannabis seekers have to purchase cannabis from? Due to prohibition, usually from drug pushers, & they'll gladly sell heroin to anyone with the green to afford it. In fact, the focus on cannabis eradication has made it cheaper to purchase heroin than cannabis. Unemployed prohibitionists were simply looking to outlaw some substance to justify their existence in 1937. So, they picked on the low hanging fruit called cannabis. They changed the well known & non-problem substance called cannabis into the alien & scary 'MARIHUANA'. 75 years later we see every civil right trampled by the justification of prohibitionists trying to eradicate a weed. Folly & madness. Every year the war on cannabis users causes more harm to the world in every way. Pot prohibition is to blame for increased cannabis use by minors. How can we stop drug pushers out amongst the public, when we can't even stop cannabis use in our prisons & jails? Licensed merchants reduce access to alcohol & tobacco products by minors. The same reduction in use by minors will be true when cannabis is sold under license by merchants.
You dont hink...
and you believe that this could lead more harmful and rest to the rest of the people espeacially the teens (no period) ,,, Well it obviously hasn't hurt you any!!! But maybe the day they were trying to teach your retard ass to write, you shouldve went too class instead of winding up behind the dumpster at Jack in the Box !!!! VOTE RON PAUL RE-LEGALIZE !!!!!!
Hemp Oil cancer CURE !!!!
Never mind THC KILLS cancer cells!!!! Cancer is off the charts and 100% of the people will have it soon enough!!! Poisons in the food,,, water,,, air (CHEMTRAILS) ,,, even the genetic makeup of most food is tampered with by design too give us cancer!!!! They want cancer to be a manageable cash cow for the medical industry!!!! They wouldnt like it, if we could prevent and cure cancer ourselves.... If you f__king care for our health so much mr. drugged czar ,,, then why dont you concentrate on the corporate drug industry and the FDA that works overtime too soft kill us,,, and approves deadly poisons everyday, AND oppresses natural cures that dont generate obscene profits!!!! DEA regulates who profits from the drug industry and keeps the prisons full!!! $30-40,000 a year per inmate,,, Whens the last time they went after a drug giant for killing thousands???
And look at all the cartel violence they are encouraging buy keeping a plant illegal,,,,that they cant put a patent on!$$$$ You know those boys behind the dumpster at Jack in the box, must be supporting terrorism by smoking that chronic!!! Too Gitmo with them!!!
Post new comment