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Topic: What about marijuana use?

Despite Decriminalization, Dutch Use Less Marijuana
Than Americans

A new study with sweeping implications for marijuana policy in the United States and abroad has found the number of marijuana users in the Netherlands to be substantially lower than previously estimated.

According to a study released today by the Centre for Drug Research (CEDRO) at the University of Amsterdam, only about 2 to 3 percent of the Dutch population (ages 12 years old and up) had used marijuana in the previous month. Earlier studies had put the rate at about 5.0 to 6.5 percent.

"Previous estimates were based on surveys in Amsterdam, which has a higher use rate than the rest of the country," said Peter Cohen, one of the authors of the study. "By including the cities of Tilberg and Utrecht in our survey, the results are more representative of the Dutch population as a whole."

These findings offer new insight into the relationship between marijuana use and marijuana policy. For the last twenty years, Dutch citizens over the age of 18 have been able to buy and use marijuana in government-regulated coffee shops. In the United States, where it is illegal under federal law to grow, purchase or use marijuana, U.S. government studies have found Americans use marijuana more often than the Dutch. According to a 1996 U.S. government study, between 4.2 and 5.3 percent of the U.S. population (ages 12 years old and up) had used marijuana in the past month. Despite fundamentally different marijuana policies, the Dutch use less marijuana than Americans.

"This study is further evidence that Dutch marijuana policy has not resulted in an explosion of marijuana use," said Dr. John P. Morgan, co-author of the book Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence (The Lindesmith Center, $12.95 U.S., paperback). "Despite an overly punitive policy toward marijuana in the U.S., Americans still use more marijuana." Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts co-author Lynn Zimmer asks, "If the Dutch are using less marijuana, what purpose was served by arresting 642,000 Americans for possessing marijuana last year?"

I suggest you get a copy of "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana
 
Facts," by Lynn Zimmer and Dr. John Morgan.  Another
useful book is "From Chocolate to Morphine," by Dr. Andrew
Weil, MD. There is a lot of information at the web site
www.druglibrary.org. One has to beware of web sites, of
course, but I think that one is pretty reliable. It has
copies of major drug studies online as well as opinion 
pieces by doctors, lawyers, politicians, police, etc.

As best I can tell, based on my own considerable reading:
Physically, marijuana doesn't do a whole lot to you. Even
long-term use seems to have few deleterious effects. The
primary negative effect seems to be bronchial irritation.
Although marijuana smoke contains carcinogens, there does
not seem to be a clear link to lung cancer.  There was a
series of letters in the New England Journal of Medicine
a few years ago postulating that cigarette smoke causes
cancer because of a radioactive isotope that is generally
present in cigarette smoke, but is generally absent in
mariujana smoke.  I never saw any kind of definite
conclusion about that theory, but it's interesting. In
any case, long-term studies haven't turned up much
evidence of serious harm from smoking marijuana. It
doesn't rot your brain, it doesn't make you stupid, it
doesn't do all those awful things that some anti-drug
evangelists claim.

As far as other effects, use of marijuana can certainly
be a huge waste of time.  Personally, I see that as its
major negative effect. Sitting around stoned all the time
staring at your left foot is no way to make something of
your life.  

It's certainly possible to become habituated to using it,
just as it's possible to become habituated to doing a
lot of other things.  A couple of independent rankings
of "relative addictiveness" put marijuana on a par with
or slighly below caffeine.  If one's life is messed up,
marijuana can become an escape, I suppose, and it may be
hard to stop using it.  Even so, I'd rank marijuna
dependence, in the grand scheme of things, as a relatively
minor problem.  More important, probably, is getting the
other problems in one's life straightened out that are
causing one to want to escape into stupification in the
first place.  
Generally, marijuana users try it for a while and stop,
almost always with little or no trouble.  If that were
not the case, we'd have a nation of over 50% pot addicts
by now, all relics of the '60s.
A few people *do* have a lot of trouble with marijuana,
I guess, but it's relatively uncommon.

Check out those books, investigate the web site, do a lot
of reading...be skeptical!