- For our purposes, hemp is the plant called `cannabis sativa.' There
are other plants that are called hemp, but cannabis hemp is the most
useful of these plants. In fact, `cannabis sativa' means `useful
(sativa) hemp (cannabis)'.
`Hemp' is any durable plant that has been used since pre-history for
many purposes. Fiber is the most well known product, and the word `hemp'
can mean the rope or twine which is made from the hemp plant, as well as
just the stalk of the plant which produced it.
- 2) What is cannabis?
- Cannabis is the most durable of the hemp plants, and it produces the
toughest cloth, called `canvass.' (Canvass was widely used as sails in
the early shipping industry, as it was the only cloth which would not
rot on contact with sea spray.) The cannabis plant also produces three
other very important products which the other hemp plants do not (in
usable form, that is): seed, pulp, and medicine.
The pulp is used as fuel, and to make paper. The seed is suitable for
both human and animal foods. The oil from the seed can be used in as a
base for paints and varnishes. The medicine is a tincture or admixture
of the sticky resin in the blossoms and leaves of the hemp plant, and is
used for a variety of purposes.
- 3) Where did the word `marijuana' come from?
- The word `marijuana' is a Mexican slang term which became popular in
the late 1930's in America, during a series of media and government
programs which we now refer to as the `Reefer Madness Movement.' It
refers specifically to the medicine part of cannabis, which Mexican
soldiers used to smoke.
Today in the U.S., hemp (meaning the roots, stalk, and stems of the
cannabis plant) is legal to possess. No one can arrest you for wearing a
hemp shirt, or using hemp paper. Marijuana (The flowers, buds, or leaves
of the cannabis plant) is not legal to possess, and there are stiff
fines and possible jail terms for having any marijuana in your
possession. The seeds are legal to possess and eat, but only if they are
sterilized (will not grow to maturity.)
Since it is not possible to grow the hemp plant without being in
possession of marijuana, the United States does not produce any
industrial hemp products, and must import them or, more often,
substitute others. (There is a way to grow hemp legally, but it involves
filing an application with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the
DEA very rarely ever gives its permission.) This does not seem to have
stopped people from producing and using marijuana, though. In many of
the United States, marijuana is the number one cash crop, mostly because
it fetches a very high price on the black market.
- 4) How can hemp be used as a food?
- Hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and essential
fatty oils. Many populations have grown hemp for its seed -- most of
them eat it as `gruel' which is a lot like oatmeal. The leaves can be
used as roughage, but not without slight psycho-active side-effects.
Hemp seeds do not contain any marijuana and they do not get you `high.'
Hemp seed protein closely resembles protein as it is found in the
human blood. It is fantastically easy to digest, and many patients who
have trouble digesting food are given hemp seed by their doctors. Hemp
seed was once called `edestine' and was used by scientists as the model
for vegetable protein.
Hemp seed oil provides the human body with essential fatty acids.
Hemp seed is the only seed which contains these oils with almost no
saturated fat. As a supplement to the diet, these oils can reduce the
risk of heart disease. It is because of these oils that birds will live
much longer if they eat hemp seed.
With hemp seed, a vegan or vegetarian can survive and eat virtually
no saturated fats. One handful of hemp seed per day will supply adequate
protein and essential oils for an adult.
- 5) What are the benefits of hemp compared to other
food crops?
- Hemp requires little fertilizer, and grows well almost everywhere.
It also resists pests, so it uses little pesticides. Hemp puts down deep
roots, which is good for the soil, and when the leaves drop off the hemp
plant, minerals and nitrogen are returned to the soil. Hemp has been
grown on the same soil for twenty years in a row without any noticeable
depletion of the soil.
Using less fertilizer and agricultural chemicals is good for two
reasons. First, it costs less and requires less effort. Second, many
agricultural chemicals are dangerous and contaminate the environment --
the less we have to use, the better.
- 6) How about soy?
- Is hemp competitive as a world source of protein?
Hemp does not produce quite as much protein as soy, but hemp seed
protein is of a higher quality than soy. Agricultural considerations may
make hemp the food crop of the future. In addition to the fact that hemp
is an easy crop to grow, it also resists UV-B light, which is a kind of
sunlight blocked by the ozone layer. Soy beans do not take UV-B light
very well. If the ozone layer were to deplete by 16%, which by some
estimates is very possible, soy production would fall by 25-30%.
We may have to grow hemp or starve -- and it won't be the first time
that this has happened. Hemp has been used to `bail out' many
populations in time of famine. Unfortunately, because of various
political factors, starving people in today's underdeveloped countries
are not taking advantage of this crop. In some places, this is because
government officials would call it `marijuana' and pull up the crop. In
other countries, it is because the farmers are busy growing coca and
poppies to produce cocaine and heroin for the local Drug Lord. This is
truly a sad state of affairs. Hopefully someday the Peace Corps will be
able to teach modern hemp seed farming techniques and end the world's
protein shortage.
- 7) How can hemp be used for cloth?
- The stalk of the hemp plant has two parts, called the bast and the
hurd. The fiber (bast) of the hemp plant can be woven into almost any
kind of cloth. It is very durable. In fact, the first Levi's blue jeans
were made out of hemp for just this reason. Compared to all the other
natural fibers available, hemp is more suitable for a large number of
applications.
Here is how hemp is harvested for fiber: A field of closely spaced
hemp is allowed to grow until the leaves fall off. The hemp is then cut
down and it lies in the field for some time washed by the rain. It is
turned over once to expose both sides of the stalk evenly. During this
time, the hurd softens up and many minerals are returned to the soil.
This is called `retting,' and after this step is complete, the stalks
are brought to a machine which separates the bast and the hurd. We are
lucky to have machines today -- men used to do this last part by hand
with hours of back-breaking labor.
- 8) Why is it better than cotton?
- The cloth that hemp makes may be a little less soft than cotton,
(though there are also special kinds of hemp, or ways to grow or treat
hemp, that can produce a soft cloth) but it is much stronger and longer
lasting. (It does not stretch out.) Environmentally, hemp is a better
crop to grow than cotton, especially the way cotton is grown nowadays.
In the United States, the cotton crop uses half of the total pesticides.
(Yes, you heard right, one half of the pesticides used in the entire
U.S. are used on cotton.) Cotton is a soil damaging crop and needs a lot
of fertilizer.
- 9) How can hemp be used to make paper?
- Both the fiber (bast) and pulp (hurd) of the hemp plant can be used
to make paper. Fiber paper was the first kind of paper, and the first
batch was made out of hemp in ancient China. Fiber paper is thin, tough,
brittle, and a bit rough. Pulp paper is not as strong as fiber paper,
but it is easier to make, softer, thicker, and preferable for most
everyday purposes. The paper we use most today is a `chemical pulp'
paper made from trees. Hemp pulp paper can be made without chemicals
from the hemp hurd. Most hemp paper made today uses the entire hemp
stalk, bast and hurd. High-strength fiber paper can be made from the
hemp baste, also without chemicals.
The problem with today's paper is that so many chemicals are used to
make it. High strength acids are needed to make quality (smooth, strong,
and white) paper out of trees. These acids produce chemicals which are
very dangerous to the environment. Paper companies do their best to
clean these chemicals up (we hope.) Hemp offers us an opportunity to
make affordable and environmentally safe paper for all of our needs,
since it does not need much chemical treatment. It is up to consumers,
though, to make the right choice -- these dangerous chemicals can also
be used on hemp to make a slightly more attractive product. Instead of
buying the whiter, brighter role of toilet paper, we will need to think
about what we are doing to the planet.
Because of the chemicals in today's paper, it will turn yellow and
fall apart as acids eat away at the pulp. This takes several decades,
but because of this publishers, libraries and archives have to order
specially processed acid free paper, which is much more expensive, in
order to keep records. Paper made naturally from hemp is acid free and
will last for centuries.
- 10) Why can't we just keep using trees?
- The chemicals used to make wood chemical pulp paper today could
cause us a lot of trouble tomorrow. Environmentalists have long been
concerned about the effects of dioxin and other compounds on wildlife
and even people. Beyond the chemical pollution, there are agricultural
reasons why we should use cannabis hemp instead. When trees are
harvested, minerals are taken with them. Hemp is much less damaging to
the land where it is grown because it leaves these minerals behind.
A simpler answer to the above question is:
Because we are running out! It was once said that a squirrel could
climb from New England to the banks of the Mississippi River without
touching the ground once. The European settler's appetite for firewood
and farmland put an end to this. When the first wood paper became a huge
industry, the United States Department of Agriculture began to worry
about the `tree supply.' That is why they went in search of plant pulp
to replace wood. Today some `conservatives' argue that there are more
forests now than there ever were. This is neither true, realistic nor
conservative: these statistics do not reflect the real world. Once trees
have been removed from a plot of land, it takes many decades before
biological diversity and natural cycles return to the forest, and
commercial tree farms simply do not count as forest -- they are farm
land.
As just mentioned, many plant fibers were investigated by the USDA --
some, like kenaf, were even better suited than cannabis hemp for making
some qualities of paper, but hemp had one huge advantage: robust
vitality. Hemp generates immense amounts of plant matter in a three
month growing season. When it came down to producing the deluge of paper
used by Americans, only hemp could compete with trees. In fact,
according to the 1916 calculations of the USDA, one acre of hemp would
replace an entire four acres of forest. And, at the same time, this acre
would be producing textiles and rope.
Today, only 4% of America's old-growth forest remains standing -- and
there is talk about building roads into that for logging purposes! Will
our policy makers realize in time how easy it would be to save them?
- 11) How can hemp be used as a fuel?
- The pulp (hurd) of the hemp plant can be burned as is or processed
into charcoal, methanol, methane, or gasoline. The process for doing
this is called destructive distillation, or `pyrolysis.' Fuels made out
of plants like this are called `biomass' fuels. This charcoal may be
burned in today's coal-powered electric generators. Methanol makes a
good automobile fuel, in fact it is used in professional automobile
races. It may someday replace gasoline.
Hemp may also be used to produce ethanol (grain alcohol.) The United
States government has developed a way to make this automobile fuel
additive from cellulosic biomass. Hemp is an excellent source of high
quality cellulosic biomass. One other way to use hemp as fuel is to use
the oil from the hemp seed -- some diesel engines can run on pure
pressed hemp seed oil. However, the oil is more useful for other
purposes, even if we could produce and press enough hemp seed to power
many millions of cars.
- 12) Why is it better than petroleum?
- Biomass fuels are clean and virtually free from metals and sulfur,
so they do not cause nearly as much air pollution as fossil fuels. Even
more importantly, burning biomass fuels does not increase the total
amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. When petroleum
products are burned, carbon that has been stored underground for
millions of years is added to the air; this may contribute to global
warming through the `Greenhouse Effect', (a popular theory which says
that certain gases will act like a wool blanket over the entire Earth,
preventing heat from escaping into space.) In order to make biomass
fuels, this carbon dioxide has to be taken out of the air to begin with
-- when they are burned it is just being put back where it started.
Another advantage over fossil fuels is that biomass fuels can be made
right here in the United States, instead of buying them from other
countries. Instead of paying oil drillers, super-tanker captains, and
soldiers to get our fuel to us, we could pay local farmers and delivery
drivers instead. Of course, it is possible to chop down trees and use
them as biomass. This would not be as beneficial to the environment as
using hemp, especially since trees that are cut down for burning are
`whole tree harvested.' This means the entire tree is ripped up and
burned, not just the wood. Since most of the minerals which trees use
are in the leaves, this practice could ruin the soil where the trees are
grown. In several places in the United States, power companies are
starting to do this -- burning the trees in order to produce
electricity, because that is cheaper than using coal. They should be
using hemp, like researchers in Australia started doing a few years ago.
(Besides, hemp provides a higher quality and quantity of biomass than
trees do.)
- 13) How can hemp be used as a medicine?
- Marijuana has thousands of possible uses in medicine. Marijuana
(actually cannabis extract) was available as a medicine legally in this
country until 1937, and was sold as a nerve tonic -- but mankind has
been using cannabis medicines much longer than that. Marijuana appears
in almost every known book of medicine written by ancient scholars and
wise men. It is usually ranked among the top medicines, called
`panaceas', a word which means `cure-all'. The list of diseases which
cannabis can be used for includes: multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment,
AIDS (and AIDS treatment), glaucoma, depression, epilepsy, migraine
headaches, asthma, pruritis, sclerodoma, severe pain, and dystonia. This
list does not even consider the other medicines which can be made out of
marijuana -- these are just some of the illnesses for which people smoke
or eat whole marijuana today.
There are over 60 chemicals in marijuana which may have medical uses.
It is relatively easy to extract these into food or beverage, or into
some sort of lotion, using butter, fat, oil, or alcohol. One chemical,
cannabinol, may be useful to help people who cannot sleep. Another is
taken from premature buds and is called cannabidiolic acid. It is a
powerful disinfectant. Marijuana dissolved in rubbing alcohol helps
people with the skin disease herpes control their sores, and a salve
like this was one of the earliest medical uses for cannabis. The leaves
were once used in bandages and a relaxing non-psychoactive herbal tea
can be made from small cannabis stems.
The most well known use of marijuana today is to control nausea and
vomiting. One of the most important things when treating cancer with
chemotherapy or when treating AIDS with AZT or Foscavir, being able to
eat well, makes the difference between life or death. Patients have
found marijuana to be extremely effective in fighting nausea; in fact so
many patients use it for this purpose even though it is illegal that
they have formed `buyers clubs' to help them find a steady supply. In
California, some city governments have decided to look the other way and
allow these clubs to operate openly.
Marijuana is also useful for fighting two other very serious and
wide-spread disabilities. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of
blindness, caused by uncontrollable eye pressure. Marijuana can control
the eye pressure and keep glaucoma from causing blindness. Multiple
Sclerosis is a disease where the body's immune system attacks nerve
cells. Spasms and many other problems result from this. Marijuana not
only helps stop these spasms, but it may also keep multiple sclerosis
from getting worse.
- 14) What's wrong with all the prescription drugs we
have?
- They cost money and are hard to make. In many cases, they do not
work as well, either. Some prescription drugs which marijuana can
replace have very bad, even downright dangerous, side-effects. Cannabis
medicines are cheap, safe, and easy to make.
Many people think that the drug dronabinol should be used instead of
marijuana. Dronabinol is an exact imitation of one of the chemicals
found in marijuana, and it may actually work on a lot of the above
diseases, but there are some big problems with dronabinol, and most
patients who have used both dronabinol and marijuana say that marijuana
works better.
The first problem with Dronabinol is that it is even harder to get
than marijuana. Many doctors do not like to prescribe dronabinol, and
many drug stores do not want to supply it, because a lot of paperwork
has to be filed with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Secondly,
dronabinol comes in pills which are virtually useless to anyone who is
throwing up, and it is hard to take just the right amount of dronabinol
since it cannot be smoked. Finally, because dronabinol is only one of
the many chemicals in cannabis, it just does not work for some diseases.
Many patients do not like the effects of dronabinol because it does not
contain some of the more calming chemicals which are present in
marijuana.
- 15) What other uses for hemp are there?
- One of the newest uses of hemp is in construction materials. Hemp
can be used in the manufacture of `press board' or `composite board.'
This involves gluing fibrous hemp stalks together under pressure to
produce a board which is many times more elastic and durable than
hardwood. Because hemp produces a long, tough fiber it is the perfect
source for press-board. Another interesting application of hemp in
industry is making plastic. Many plastics can be made from the
high-cellulose hemp hurd. Hemp seed oil has a multitude of uses in
products such as varnishes and lubricants.
Using hemp to build is by no means a new idea. French archeologists
have discovered bridges built with a process that mineralizes hemp
stalks into a long-lasting cement. The process involves no synthetic
chemicals and produces a material which works as a filler in building
construction. Called Isochanvre, it is gaining popularity in France.
Isochanvre can be used as drywall, insulates against heat and noise, and
is very long lasting.
`Bio-plastics' are not a new idea, either -- way back in the 1930's
Henry Ford had already made a whole car body out of them -- but the
processes for making them do need more research and development.
Bio-plastics can be made without much pollution. Unfortunately,
companies are not likely to explore bio-plastics if they have to either
import the raw materials or break the law. (Not to mention compete with
the already established petrochemical products.)
Part II: WELL WHY AREN'T WE USING HEMP, THEN?
- 1) How and why was hemp made illegal?
- Tough question! In order to explain why hemp, the most useful plant
known to mankind, became illegal, we have to understand the reasons why
marijuana, the drug, became illegal. In fact, it helps to go way back to
the beginning of the century and talk about two other drugs, opium (the
grandfather of heroin) and cocaine.
Opium, a very addictive drug (but relatively harmless by today's
standards) was once widely used by the Chinese. The reasons for this are
a whole other story, but suffice to say that when Chinese started to
immigrate to the United States, they brought opium with them. Chinese
workers used opium to induce a trance-like state which helped make
boring, repetitive tasks more interesting. It also numbs the mind to
pain and exhaustion. By using opium, the Chinese were able to pull very
long hours in the sweat shops of the Industrial Revolution. During this
period of time, there was no such thing as fair wages, and the only way
a worker could make a living was to produce as much as humanly possible.
Since they were such good workers, the Chinese held a lot of jobs in
the highly competitive industrial work-place. Even before the Great
Depression, when millions of jobs disappeared overnight, the White
Americans began to resent this, and Chinese became hated among the White
working class. Even more than today, White Americans had a very big
political advantage over the Chinese -- they spoke English and had a few
relatives in the government, so it was easy for them to come up with a
plan to force Chinese immigrants to leave the country (or at least keep
them from inviting all their relatives to come and live in America.)
This plan depended on stirring up racist feelings, and one of the
easiest things to focus these feelings on was the foreign and mysterious
practice of using opium.
We can see this pattern again with cocaine, except with cocaine it
was Black Americans who were the target. Cocaine probably was not
especially useful in the work-place, but the strategy against Chinese
immigrants (picking on their drug of choice) had been so successful that
it was used again. In the case of Blacks, though, the racist feelings
ran deeper, and the main thrust of the propaganda campaign was to
control the Black community and keep Blacks from becoming successful.
Articles appeared in newspapers which blamed cocaine for violent crime
by Blacks. Black Americans were painted as savage, uncontrollable beasts
when under the influence of cocaine -- it was said to make a single
Black man as strong as four or five police officers. (sound familiar?)
By capitalizing on racist sentiments, a powerful political lobby banned
opium and then cocaine.
Marijuana was next. It was well known that the Mexican soldiers who
fought America during the war with Spain smoked marijuana. Poncho Villa,
A Mexican general, was considered a nemesis for the behavior of his
troops, who were known to be especially rowdy. They were also known to
be heavy marijuana smokers, as the original lyrics to the song `la
cucaracha' show. (The song was originally about a Mexican soldier who
refused to march until he was provided with some marijuana.)
After the war had ended and Mexicans had begun to immigrate into the
South Eastern United States, there were relatively few race problems.
There were plenty of jobs in agriculture and industry and Mexicans were
willing to work cheap. Once the depression hit and jobs became scarce,
however, Mexicans suddenly became a public nuisance. It was said by
politicians (who were trying to please the White working class) that
Mexicans were responsible for a violent crime wave. Police statistics
showed nothing of the sort -- in fact Mexicans were involved in less
crime than Whites. Marijuana, of course, got the blame for this phony
outbreak of crime and health problems, and so many of these states made
laws against using cannabis. (In the Northern states, marijuana was also
associated with Black jazz musicians.)
Here is where things start to get complicated. Put aside, for a
moment, all the above, because there are a few other things involved in
this twisted tale. At the beginning of the Great Depression, there was a
very popular movement called Prohibition, which made alcohol illegal.
This was motivated mainly by a Puritan religious ethic left over from
the first European settlers. Today we have movies and television shows
such as the ``Untouchables'' which tell us what it was like to live
during this period. Since it is perhaps the world's most popular drug,
alcohol prohibition spawned a huge `black market' where illegal alcohol
was smuggled and traded at extremely high prices. Crime got out-of-hand
as criminals fought with each other over who could sell alcohol where.
Organized crime became an American institution, and hard liquor, which
was easy to smuggle, took the place of beer and wine.
In order to combat the crime wave, a large police force was formed.
The number of police grew rapidly until the end of Prohibition when the
government decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to
just give up and allow people to use alcohol legally. Under Prohibition
the American government had essentially (and unwittingly) provided the
military back-up for the take-over of the alcohol business by armed
thugs. Even today, the Mob still controls liquor sales in many areas.
After Prohibition the United States was left with nothing to show but a
decade of political turmoil -- and a lot of unemployed police officers.
During Prohibition, being a police officer was a very nice thing --
you got a relatively decent salary, respect, partial immunity to the
law, and the opportunity to take bribes (if you were that sort of
person.) Many of these officers were not about to let this life-style
slip away. Incidentally, it was about this time when the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was reformed, and a man named Harry J.
Anslinger was appointed as its head. (Anslinger was appointed by his
uncle-in-law, Andrew Mellon, who was the Secretary of the United States
Treasury.) Anslinger campaigned tirelessly for funding in order to hire
a large force of narcotics officers. After retiring, Anslinger once
mused that the FBNDD was a place where young men were given a license to
steal and rape.
The FBNDD is the organization which preceded what we now call the
DEA, and was responsible for enforcing the new Federal drug laws against
heroin, opium, and cocaine. One of Anslinger's biggest concerns as head
of the FBNDD was getting uniform drug laws passed in all States and the
Federal legislature. (Anslinger also had a personal dislike of jazz
music and the Black musicians who made it. He hated them so much that he
spent years tracking each of them and dreamed of arresting them all in
one huge, cross-country sweep.) Anslinger frequented parent's and
teacher's meetings giving scary speeches about the dangers of marijuana,
and this period of time became known as Reefer Madness. (The name comes
from the title of a silly movie produced by a public health group.)
- 2) OK, so what the heck does all this other stuff
have to do with hemp?
- To make a long story short, during the first decades of this
century, opium was made illegal to kick out the Chinese immigrants who
had flooded the work-force. Cocaine was made illegal to repress and
control the Black community. And, marijuana was made illegal in order to
control Mexicans in the Southeast (and Blacks.) All these laws were
based mainly on emotional racism, without much else to back them up --
you can easily tell this by reading the hearings held in state
legislatures. Also at this time, the end of Prohibition left us with a
large force of unemployed police officers, who looked for work enforcing
the new drug laws. Consequently, these same police officers needed to
convince the country that their jobs were important. They did so by
scaring parents about the dangers of drugs. All this set the stage for a
law passed in the Federal legislature which put a prohibitive tax on
marijuana. This is what killed the hemp industry in 1937, since it made
business in hemp impossible.
Before the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, the state of Kentucky was the
center of a relatively large American hemp industry which produced cloth
and tow (rope for use in shipping.) The industry would have been larger,
but hemp had one major disadvantage: processing it required a lot of
work. Men had to `brake' hemp stalks in order to separate the fiber from
the woody core. This was done on a small machine called a hand-brake,
and it was a job fit for Hercules. It was not until the 1930's that
machines to do this became widely available.
Today we use paper made by a process called `chemical pulping'.
Before this, trees were processed by `mechanical pulping' instead, which
was much more expensive. At about the same time as machines to brake
hemp appeared, the idea of using hemp hurds for making paper and plastic
was proposed. Hemp hurds were normally considered to be a worthless
waste product that was thrown away after it was stripped of fiber. New
research showed that these hurds could be used instead of wood in
mechanical pulping, and that this would drastically reduce the cost of
making paper. Popular Mechanics Magazine predicted that hemp would rise
to become the number one crop in America. In fact, the 1937 Marijuana
Tax Act was so unexpected that Popular Mechanics had already gone to
press with a cover story about hemp, published in 1938 just two months
after the Tax Act took effect.
- 3) Now wait, just hold on. You expect me to believe
that they wouldn't have thought to pass a better law, one that banned
marijuana and allowed commercial hemp, instead of throwing the baby out
with the bath water?
- There's more. `Chemical pulping' paper was invented at about this
time by Dupont Chemicals, as part of a multi-million dollar deal with a
timber holding company and newspaper chain owned by William Randolph
Hearst. This deal would provide the Hearst with a source of very cheap
paper, and he would go on to be known as the tycoon of `yellow
journalism' (so named because the new paper would turn yellow very
quickly as it got older.) Hearst knew that he could drive other papers
out of competition with this new advantage. Hemp paper threatened to
ruin this whole plan. It had to be stopped, and the Marijuana Tax Act of
1937 was the way they did it. As a drug law, the Tax Act really was not
a very big step -- it did not really accomplish much at all and many
historians have caught themselves wondering why the bill was even
written. Big business interests took advantage of the political climate
of racism and anti-drug rhetoric to close the free market to hemp
products, and _that_, my friend, is how hemp became illegal.
For the 1930's, this business venture was one very large transaction;
it included other timber companies and a few railroads. Dupont's entire
deal was backed by a banker named Andrew Mellon. Don't look up! That's
the same Andrew Mellon who appointed his nephew-in-law Harry Anslinger
to head up the FBNDD in 1931. The Marijuana Tax Act was passed in a very
unorthodox way, and nobody who would have objected was informed about
the bill. The American Medical Association found out about the bill only
two days before the hearings, and sent a representative to object to the
banning of cannabis medicines. A hemp bird seed salesman also showed up
and complained. However, the bill was passed, partially due to the
testimony of Harry J. Anslinger.
Not that Americans would have protested against this bill, even if
they had known it existed most Americans did not know that cannabis hemp
and marijuana is the same thing. The separate word `marijuana' was one
of the reasons for this. Nobody would associate the evil weed from
Mexico with the stuff they tied their shoes with. Also, this was the
time when synthetic fabrics were the latest fad -- nobody was interested
in natural fibers any more. To top this all off the word `hemp' was
often wrongly used to refer to other natural fabrics, specifically jute.
The ignorance of hemp continues today, but it is even more scary.
During the 1970's (Reefer Madness II) all mention of the word `hemp' was
removed from high school text books here in the United States. So much
for free speech! When Jack Herer, the world's most beloved hemp
activist, asked a curator at the Smithsonian Museum why this word had
been removed from all their exhibits, the answer he got was astounding:
``Children do not need to know about hemp anymore. It confuses them.''
Jack Herer went on to uncover a film made by the United States
government, a film which the government did not want to admit existed.
The film ``Hemp For Victory'' details how the United States government
bypassed the Tax Act during World War II, when they needed hemp for the
War Effort, and ran a large hemp-growing project in Kentucky and
California.
- 4) Is there a lesson to be learned from all
this?
- Several. The first is that hate does not pay. It is ironic that the
racism of the American people would end up hurting them this way -- a
sort of divine justice if you will. Because Americans were blinded by
fear, hatred, and intolerance of other races, they allowed a prosperous
future to slip between their fingers. Another thing this whole history
tells us is that Americans need to take Democracy more seriously. If
they had devoted more of their time to informing themselves about the
world around them, they would have known what the real issues were.
Instead they read the tabloids -- look where that has gotten us.
Finally, now that we have put marijuana prohibition into historical
context, we can see clearly that it had nothing to do with public
safety, or national security, or what have you. By all rights, marijuana
should not have been made illegal in the first place. If today
prohibition still has no rational basis to stand on, then let us repeal
it.
One point which bears emphasizing is this: the laws which are passed
in this country may not mean what they say on paper. Historically the
United States has a long record of passing laws with ulterior motives.
Even when there is no ulterior motive, though, passing laws which are
not specific enough leads to abuse. Most of our tough drug laws are like
this -- enacted to fight drug kingpins, but enforced against casual drug
users and small-time drug dealers. In fact, most of these laws never
even get used against a real drug kingpin, and the first people
prosecuted under the statutes are not what the legislators had in mind.
If this upsets you, you should pay more attention to what goes on in
your legislature.
Part III: DOES IT? DOESN'T IT? IS
IT TRUE THAT?
The
next question would normally be ``Why is it _still_ not legal,'' but
since we have uncovered an understanding of the history, it is time to
take a little detour. Politicians love to tell us that marijuana must
remain illegal for our own good. In the next section we will examine
some of the so-called facts about marijuana so that you can decide for
yourselves whether you agree or not. Is marijuana prohibition there to
protect the people, or is it just the result of decades of refusal to
admit our
mistakes?
- 1) Doesn't marijuana stay in your fat cells and keep
you high for months?
- No. The part of marijuana that gets you high is called
`Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.' Most people just call this THC, but this
is confusing: your body will change Delta-9-THC into more inert
molecules known as `metabolites,' which don't get you high.
Unfortunately, these chemicals also have the word `tetrahydrocannabinol'
in them and they are also called THC -- so many people think that the
metabolites get you high. Anti-drug pamphlets say that THC gets stored
in your fat cells and then leaks out later like one of those `time
release capsules' advertised on television. They say it can keep you
high all day or even longer. This is not true, marijuana only keeps you
high for a few hours, and it is not right to think that a person who
fails a drug test is always high on drugs, either.
Two of these metabolites are called `11-hydroxy-tetrahydrocannabinol'
and `11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol' but we will call
them 11-OH-THC and 11-nor instead. These are the chemicals which stay in
your fatty cells. There is almost no Delta-9-THC left over a few hours
after smoking marijuana, and scientific studies which measure the
effects of marijuana agree with this fact.
- 2) But ... isn't today's marijuana much more potent
than it was in the Sixties?
- Actually, this is not true, but if it were, it would mean that
marijuana is safer to smoke today than it was in the Sixties. (More
potent cannabis means less smoking means less lung damage.) People who
use this statistic just plain do not know what they are talking about.
Sometimes they will even claim that marijuana is now twenty to thirty
times stronger, which is physically impossible because it would have to
be *over* 100% Delta-9-THC. The truth is, marijuana has not really
changed potency all that much, if at all, in the last several hundred
years. Growing potent cannabis is an ancient art which has not improved
in centuries, despite all our modern technology. Before marijuana was
even made illegal, drug stores sold tinctures of cannabis which were
over 40% THC.
Even so, the point is moot because marijuana smokers engage in
something called `auto-titration.' This basically means smoking until
they are satisfied and then stopping, so it does not really matter if
the marijuana is more potent because they will smoke less of it.
Marijuana is not like pre-moistened towelettes or snow-cones. There is
nothing forcing marijuana smokers to smoke an entire joint.
Experienced marijuana users are accustomed to smoking marijuana from
many different suppliers, and they know that if they smoke a whole joint
of very potent bud they will get `TOO STONED'. Since being `too stoned'
is a rather unpleasant experience, smokers quickly learn to take their
time and `test the waters' when they do not know how strong their
marijuana is.
- 3) Doesn't Marijuana cause brain damage?
- The short answer: No.
The long answer: The reason why you ask this is because you probably
heard or read somewhere that marijuana damages brain cells, or makes you
stupid. These claims are untrue.
The first one -- marijuana kills brain cells -- is based on research
done during the second Reefer Madness Movement. A study attempted to
show that marijuana smoking damaged brain structures in monkeys.
However, the study was poorly performed and it was severely criticized
by a medical review board. Studies done afterwards failed to show any
brain damage, in fact a very recent study on Rhesus monkeys used
technology so sensitive that scientists could actually see the effect of
learning on brain cells, and it found no damage.
But this was Reefer Madness II, and the prohibitionists were looking
around for anything they could find to keep the marijuana legalization
movement in check, so this study was widely used in anti-marijuana
propaganda. It was recanted later.
(To this day, the radical anti-drug groups, like P.R.I.D.E. and Dr.
Gabriel Nahas, still use it -- In fact, America's most popular drug
education program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, claims that
marijuana ``can impair memory perception & judgement by destroying
brain cells.'' When police and teachers read this and believe it, our
job gets really tough, since it takes a long time to explain to children
how Ms. Jones and Officer Bob were wrong.)
The truth is, no study has ever demonstrated cellular damage,
stupidity, mental impairment, or insanity brought on specifically by
marijuana use -- even heavy marijuana use. This is not to say that it
cannot be abused, however.
- 4) If it doesn't kill brain cells, how does it get
you `high'?
- Killing brain cells is not a pre-requisite for getting `high.'
Marijuana contains a chemical which substitutes for a natural brain
chemical, with a few differences. This chemical touches special
`buttons' on brain cells called `receptors.' Essentially, marijuana
`tickles' brain cells. The legal drug alcohol also tickles brain cells,
but it will damage and kill them by producing toxins (poisons) and
sometimes mini-seizures. Also, some drugs will wear out the buttons
which they push, but marijuana does not.
- 5) Don't people die from smoking pot?
- Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance, there are bound
to be some people who have allergic reactions. With marijuana this is
extremely rare, but it could happen with anything from apples to
pop-tarts. Not one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana
itself. In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are alcohol, nicotine,
valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The biggest danger with marijuana is that
it is illegal, and someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.
Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to overdose
on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by measuring how much it
takes to kill a person (they call this the LD50) and comparing it to the
amount of the drug which is usually taken (ED50). This makes marijuana
hundreds of times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According to
a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance
known to mankind.''
- 6) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory
impairment?
- The effect of marijuana on memory is its most dramatic and the
easiest to notice. Many inexperienced marijuana users find that they
have very strange, sudden and unexpected memory lapses. These usually
take the form of completely forgetting what you were talking about when
you were right in the middle of saying something important. However,
these symptoms only occur while a person is `high'. They do not carry
over or become permanent, and examinations of extremely heavy users has
not shown any memory or thinking problems. More experienced marijuana
users seem to be able to remember about as well as they do when they are
not `high.'
Studies which have claimed to show short-term memory impairment have
not stood up to scrutiny and have not been duplicated. Newer studies
show that marijuana does not impair simple, real-world memory processes.
Marijuana does slow reaction time slightly, and this effect has
sometimes been misconstrued as a memory problem. To put things in
perspective, one group of researchers made a control group hold their
breath, like marijuana smokers do. Marijuana itself only produced about
twice as many effects on test scores as breath holding. Many people use
marijuana to study. Other people cannot, for some reason, use marijuana
and do anything that involves deep thought. Nobody knows what makes the
difference.
- 7) Is marijuana going to make my boyfriend go
psycho?
- Marijuana does not `cause' psychosis. Psychotic people can smoke
marijuana and have an episode, but there is nothing in marijuana that
actually initiates or increases these episodes. Of course, if any
mentally ill person is given marijuana for the first time or without
their knowledge, they might get scared and `freak.' Persons who suffer
from severe psychological disorders often use marijuana as a way of
coping. Because of this, some researchers have assumed that marijuana is
the cause of these problems, when it is actually a symptom. If you have
heard that marijuana makes people go crazy, this is probably why.
- 8) Don't users of marijuana withdraw from
society?
- To some extent, yes. That's probably just because they are afraid of
being arrested, though. The same situation exists with socially
maladjusted persons as does with the mentally ill. Emotionally troubled
individuals find marijuana to be soothing, and so they tend to use it
more than your average person. Treatment specialists see this, and
assume that the marijuana is causing the problem. This is a mistake
which hurts the patient, because their doctors will pay less attention
to their actual needs, and concentrate on ending their drug habit.
Sometimes the cannabis is even helping them to recover. Cannabis can be
abused, and it can make these situations worse, but psychologists should
approach marijuana use with an open mind or they risk hurting their
patient.
Marijuana itself does not make normal people anti-social. In fact, a
large psychological study of teenagers found that casual marijuana users
are more well adjusted than `drug free' people. This would be very
amusing, but it is a serious problem. There are children who have
emotional problems which keep them from participating in healthy,
explorative behavior. They need psychological help but instead they are
skipped over. Marijuana users who do not need help are having treatment
forced on them, and in the mean-time marijuana takes the blame for the
personality characteristics and problems of the people who like to use
it improperly.
- 9) Is it true that marijuana makes you lazy and
unmotivated?
- Not if you are a responsible adult, it doesn't. Ask the U.S. Army.
They did a study and showed no effect. If this were true, why would many
Eastern cultures, and Jamaicans, use marijuana to help them work harder?
`Amotivational syndrome' started as a media myth based on the racial
stereotype of a lazy Mexican borracho. The prohibitionists claimed that
marijuana made people worthless and sluggish. Since then, however, it
has been scientifically researched, and a symptom resembling
amotivational syndrome has actually been found. However, it only occurs
in adolescent teenagers -- adults are not affected.
When a person reaches adolescence, their willingness to work usually
increases, but this does not happen for teenagers using marijuana
regularly -- even just on the weekends. The actual studies involved
monkeys, not humans, and the results are not verified, but older studies
which tried to show `amotivational syndrome' usually only suceeded when
they studied adolescents. Adults are not effected.
The symptoms are not permanent, and motivation returns to normal
levels several months after marijuana smoking stops. However, a small
number of people may be unusually sensitive to this effect. One of the
monkeys in the experiment was severely amotivated and did not recover.
Doctors will need to study this more before they know why.
- 10) Isn't marijuana a gateway drug? Doesn't it lead
to use of harder drugs?
- This is totally untrue. In fact, researchers are looking into using
marijuana to help crack addicts to quit. There are 40 million people in
this country (U.S.) who have smoked marijuana for a period of their
lives -- why aren't there tens of millions of heroin users, then? In
Amsterdam, both marijuana use and heroin use went *down* after marijuana
was decriminalized -- even though there was a short rise in cannabis use
right after decriminalization. Unlike addictive drugs, marijuana causes
almost no tolerance. Some people even report a reverse tolerance. That
is, the longer they have used the less marijuana they need to get
`high.' So users of marijuana do not usually get bored and `look for
something more powerful'. If anything, marijuana keeps people from doing
harder drugs.
The idea that using marijuana will lead you to use heroin or speed is
called the `gateway theory' or the `stepping stone hypothesis.' It has
been a favorite trick of the anti-drug propaganda artists, because it
casts marijuana as something insidious with hidden dangers and pitfalls.
There have never been any real statistics to back this idea up, but
somehow it was the single biggest thing which the newspapers yelled
about during Reefer Madness II. (Perhaps this was because the CIA was
looking for someone to blame for the increase in heroin use after Viet
Nam.)
The gateway theory of drug use is no longer generally accepted by the
medical community. Prohibitionists used to point at numbers which showed
that a large percentage of the hard drug users `started with marijuana.'
They had it backwards -- many hard drug users also use marijuana. There
are two reasons for this. One is that marijuana can be used to `take the
edge off' the effects of some hard drugs. The other is a recently
discovered fact of adolescent psychology -- there is a personality type
which uses drugs, basically because drugs are exciting and dangerous, a
thrill.
On sociological grounds, another sort of gateway theory has been
argued which claims that marijuana is the source of the drug subculture
and leads to other drugs through that culture. By the same token this is
untrue -- marijuana does not create the drug subculture, the drug
subculture uses marijuana. There are many marijuana users who are not a
part of the subculture.
This brings up another example of how marijuana legalization could
actually reduce the use of illicit drugs. Even though there is no
magical `stepping stone' effect, people who choose to buy marijuana
often buy from dealers who deal in many different illegal drugs. This
means that they have access to illegal drugs, and might decide to try
them out. In this case it is the laws which lead to hard drug use. If
marijuana were legal, the drug markets would be separated, and less
people would start using the illegal drugs. Maybe this is why emergency
room admissions for hard drugs have gone down in the states that
decriminalized marijuana during the 70's.
- 11) I don't want children (minors) to be able to
smoke marijuana. How can I stop this?
- Legalize it. They can smoke it now; it is about as easy to get as
alcohol. There would be less marijuana being sold in schools,
playgrounds, and street corners, though, if it was sold legally through
pharmacies -- because the dealers would not be able to compete with the
prices. If you are a parent, the choice is really up to you: Do you want
your children to sneak off with their friends and use marijuana which
they bought off the street, or do you want to talk to them calmly and
explain to them why they should wait until they are older? Your children
are not going to walk up to you and tell you that they use an illegal
drug, but if it was not such a big deal they might give you a chance to
explain your feelings. Besides, would you rather children use speed,
cocaine, and alcohol?
Consider, also, that children have a natural urge to do things that
they aren't supposed to. It is called curiosity. By making such a fuss
over marijuana, you make it interesting (some call it the `forbidden
fruit' factor.) This is made worse when children are lied to about drugs
by teachers and police -- they lose respect for the school and the
government. In a lot of ways, it is the hysteria about drugs which
causes the most harm. When marijuana users do none of the horrible
things they are supposed to, children may think that other more harmful
drugs are OK, too. Your children will not respect you unless you are
calm and give good reasons for your rules. The first step is for you,
the parent, to learn the facts about drugs.
- 12) Won't children be able to steal marijuana plants
that people are growing?
- Well, if you are worried about them stealing the hemp plants from
the paper-pulp farm down the road, you should know that the commercial
grades of hemp do not contain much THC (the stuff that gets you high.)
If they were to smoke it, they would probably just get a headache.
Otherwise, it should be the responsibility of the grower to take
measures to prevent this. Most ``home-grown'' marijuana is cultivated
indoors anyway. If the children in your town have nothing better to do
than go around stealing marijuana to smoke, your town needs to buy a
library or something.
- 13) Hey, don't you know that marijuana drops
testosterone levels in teenage boys causing [various physical and
developmental problems]?
- Marijuana does not turn young healthy boys into lanky, girlish
looking wimps, no. This scare tactic (call it homo-phobic if you will)
was a common device used in early anti-drug literature. It attempts to
scare boys away from marijuana by telling them, essentially, that it
will turn them into a girl. Young men probably should not use marijuana
heavily (see the section on amotivational syndrome), but the risks are
not horrendous.
Anti-marijuana pamphlets used this claim often during Reefer Madness
II, but the studies which are cited are mostly faulty or misinterpreted.
This is not to say that marijuana use does not affect childhood
development at all, just that the effects are not as drastic as some
people would like them to sound. In fact they are pretty much unknown.
- 14) Doesn't heavy marijuana use lower the sperm
count in males?
- Not by much, (if at all) and this can be a good thing. It does not
make you impotent or sterile. (If it did -- there would be no
Rastafarians left!) Give those testicles a rest, already! Marijuana is
certainly _not_ birth control, please don't let your lover tell you it
is.
Many people think that marijuana enhances their sex lives. It is not
an aphrodisiac, that is, it does not make people want to have sex. What
it does do for some people is make everything more sensual -- it makes
food taste better and feelings and emotions more vivid.
- 15) I heard marijuana use by teenage girls may
impair hormone production, menstrual cycles, and fertility. Is this
true?
- Also unproven and unfounded, but there is no data available to tell
either way, (and it won't be coming from the U.S. -- current U.S. laws
prohibit research on women.) This is the female version of the boy's
``It'll turn you into a sissy'' tactic. As far as anyone knows, it is
only a scare tactic.
- 16) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory
impairment?
- Pardon?
- 17) Isn't smoking marijuana worse for you than
smoking cigarettes?
-
There are many reasons why it is not. You may have heard that ``one
joint is equal to ten cigarrettes'' but this is exagerrated and
misleading. Marijuana does contain more tar than tobacco -- but low tar
cigarettes cause just as much cancer, so what is that supposed to mean?
Scientists have shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs,
because it increases the number of `lesions' in your small airways. This
usually does not threaten your life, but there is a chance it will lead
to infections. Marijuana users who are worried about this can find less
harmful ways of taking marijuana like eating or vaporizing. (Be careful
-- marijuana is safe to eat -- but tobacco is not, you might overdose!)
Marijuana does not seem to cause cancer the way tobacco does, though.
Here is a list of interesting facts about marijuana smoking and
tobacco smoking:
- Marijuana smokers generally don't chain smoke, and so they smoke
less. (Marijuana is not physically addictive like tobacco.) The more
potent marijuana is, the less a smoker will use at a time.
- Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn't. Nicotine may
harden the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart
disease caused by tobacco. New research has found that it may also
cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and people who live or
work where tobacco is smoked. This is because it breaks down into a
cancer causing chemical called `N Nitrosamine' when it is burned (and
maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)
- Marijuana contains THC. THC is a bronchial dilator, which means it
works like a cough drop and opens up your lungs, which aids clearance
of smoke and dirt. Nicotine does just the opposite; it makes your
lungs bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.
- There are benefits from marijuana (besides bronchial dilation)
that you don't get from tobacco. Mainly, marijuana makes you relax,
which improves your health and well-being.
- Scientists do not really know what it is that causes malignant
lung cancer in tobacco. Many think it may be a substance known as Lead
210. Of course, there are many other theories as to what does cause
cancer, but if this is true, it is easy to see why NO CASE OF LUNG
CANCER RESULTING FROM MARIJUANA USE ALONE HAS EVER BEEN DOCUMENTED,
because tobacco contains much more of this substance than marijuana.
- Marijuana laws make it harder to use marijuana without damaging
your body. Water-pipes are illegal in many states. Filtered
cigarettes, vaporizers, and inhalers have to be mass produced, which
is hard to arrange `underground.' People don't eat marijuana often
because you need more to get as high that way, and it isn't cheap or
easy to get (which is the reason why some people will stoop to smoking
leaves.) This may sound funny to you -- but the more legal marijuana
gets, the safer it is.
It is pretty obvious to users that marijuana prohibition laws are
not ``for their own good.'' In addition to the above, legal marijuana
would be clean and free from adulturants. Some people add other drugs
to marijuana before they sell it. Some people spray room freshener on
it or soak in in chemicals like formaldehyde! A lot of the marijuana
is grown outdoors, where it may be sprayed with pesticides or
contaminated with dangerous fungi. If the government really cared
about our health, they would form an agency which would make sure only
quality marijuana was sold. This would be cheaper than keeping it
illegal, and it would keep people from getting hurt and going to the
emergency room.
-
18) Don't children born to pot-smoking mothers
suffer from ``Fetal Marijuana Syndrome?''
- If a fetal cannabis syndrome exists, cases are so rare that it
cannot be demonstrated. Many mothers use marijuana during pregnancy --
it controls the nausea called `morning sickness' and many say it
actually increases the appetite and reduces stress. This is especially
important in less developed countries, where modern medical care is
not as easily available, but even so, the benefits of responsible
marijuana use may outweigh the risks even under modern medicine.
Studies conducted in Jamiaca have shown that mothers who smoke
marijuana have healthier children, but this may be due to the extra
income generated by marijuana dealing and other factors. It has been a
common ploy in the War on Drugs to claim that marijuana, and
especially cocaine, causes birth defects or behavior problems like
alcohol does. This scares caring mothers into thinking drugs are
`evil.' The claims are not based on valid scientific research -- many
of them do not even consider the life-style or living conditions of
the mothers before pointing at drugs with the blame.
Obviously, pregnant mothers should not smoke as much pot as they
possibly can. If marijuana is abused, it may hurt the health of both
mother and child. Delta-9-THC does cross the placenta and enter the
fetus. Oddly, though, the marijuana metabolite,
11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-THC does not, and the fetus does not break
delta-9-THC down into 11-nor like the mother's body does, so unborn
children are not exposed to 11-nor. The third trimester is the time
when the child is most vulnerable. Parents should bear these facts in
mind when they make decisions about using cannabis.
- 19) Doesn't marijuana cause a lot of automobile
accidents?
- Not really. The marijuana using public has the same or lower rate
of automobile accidents as the general public. Studies of marijuana
smoking while driving showed that it does affect reaction time, but
not nearly as much as alcohol. Also, those who drive `stoned' have
been shown to be less foolish on the road (they demonstrate `increased
risk aversion'.) Recent studies have emphasized that alcohol is the
major problem on our highways, and that illicit drugs do not even come
close to being as dangerous.
As funny as it may seem, you may be safer driving `stoned', as long
as you aren't `totally blasted' and seeing things -- but few users are
irresponsible enough to drive in this state of mind, anyway. Still,
many people have reported making mistakes while driving because they
were stoned.
There are those who think that marijuana is a major problem on the
streets, because of a newspaper article or news story which they have
seen which said a large number of people who were killed in driving
accidents tested postive for marijuana use. For various reasons, these
studies are not reliable:
- Some studies use drug tests which can only tell whether a person
has used marijuana in the last month.
- Some studies were done near colleges or other areas where
drinking, marijuana use, and accidents are all very high, and they
did not correct for age or alcohol use.
- In many of the studies there were more stoned drivers killed --
but it was not their fault, and when the police ``culpability
scores'' were factored in marijuana was not to blame for the
accidents.
- 20) Aren't you afraid everyone will get
hooked?
- Marijuana produces no withdrawal symptoms no matter how heavy it
is used. It is habit forming (psychologically addictive), but not
physically addictive. The majority of people who quit marijuana don't
even have to think twice about it. Comparing marijuana to addictive
drugs is really quite silly.
For a drug to be physically addictive, it must be reinforcing,
produce withdrawal symptoms, and produce tolerance. Marijuana is
reinforcing, because it feels good, but it does not do the other two
things. Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are all physically addictive.
- 21) Is urine testing for marijuana use as a terms
of employment a good idea?I want to make sure my business is run
safely.
- No! Some of your most brilliant, hard working, and reliable
employees are marijuana users. When you drug test, you put all
marijuana users in the same place as the abusers -- the unemployment
line. Drug testing is bad for business. (Not to mention it is an
invasion of privacy.) If a worker has a drug problem, you can tell by
testing how well he does his job. Firing *all* the drug users who work
for you will hurt your business, costs money, and will get people very
mad at you -- and for what? There isn't even any hard evidence that
marijuana users have more accidents or health problems.
Your employees will probably resent being drug tested; drug testing
allows an employer to govern the actions of an employee in his off
time -- even when these actions do not effect his job performance. (As
told above, marijuana drug tests do not test whether a person is
`high'. They test whether or not they have used in the last few
weeks.) Asking employees to urinate in a plastic cup every month is
not a good way to make them feel like part of the business, or make
friends, either. There is growing concern about drug tests, sometimes
because they misfire and accuse the wrong person, but mostly because
they might be used to find out other confidential information about an
employee. Legal professionals are beginning to question whether they
are even constitutional.
- 22) Isn't all this worth the trouble, though, in
order to reduce accident risks and health care costs?
- Everyone knows that marijuana users are bad employees, right?
Wrong -- or at least someone forgot to tell the millions of hard
working marijuana smokers that. Drug testing companies will hand you
piles of statistics which they say prove marijuana use costs you
money. The truth is there are just as many studies which show that
marijuana users are more successful, use less health care, and produce
more than non-users. Before you buy into workplace drug testing, make
sure you get the other side of the story.
In the 1980's, the Bush administration went to great lengths to
promote drug testing. In fact, George Bush estimated the cost of drug
use at over 60 billion dollars a year, based on a study which
supposedly showed that persons who had used marijuana at some time
during their life were less successful. The very same study could be
used to show that current, heavy users of marijuana and other illegal
drugs were actually more successful. Something is a bit fishy here,
and when you add to that the fact that several former heads of the DEA
and former Drug Czars now own or work in the urinalysis industry, this
whole scene begins to smell a bit funny.
- 23) Wouldn't it be best to just lock the users all
up?
- How do you plan to pay for that? Already, well over five percent
of the people in this country (U.S) are in custody (including
probation, parole, bail, etc.) Murderers and rapists are being let out
of our penatentiaries right now to make room for a few more
`deadheads' -- there are about 2,500 Grateful Dead fans in our federal
prisons. Imprisoning one person for one year costs about $20,000. The
United States leads the world in imprisonment -- at any one time, 425
people out of every 100,000 are behind bars. In the Federal Prison
System, one fifth of the prisoners are drug offenders who have done
nothing violent. State laws are usually less strict, but state
mandatory minumum sentences for drugs are getting more popular.
Our prisons and our courtrooms are so crowded that the American Bar
Association's annual report on the state of the Justice System is
basically one long plea for an end to drug laws that imprison users.
Even the Clinton Administration recognizes that locking people up is
not the solution. This is especially true for the people who actually
have drug abuse problems -- they need treatment, not mistreatment. The
Drug War put mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug crimes on the
lawbooks. If we do not take those laws (at least) back off, we will be
in sorry shape come the end of the century. A retroactive policy of
marijuana legalization or decriminalization would go a long way in
helping to solve this crisis.
Also consider this -- Once a person gets put in jail, he becomes
angry with the world. He will probably be victimized while he is
there, and most likely will learn criminal behaviors from hard-core
violent offenders. There is also a very good chance that he will have
caught AIDS or tuberculosis by the time he gets let back out. By
locking up drug users, you are digging yourself a very big trench to
fall in -- is it worth it?
Besides, lots of these people don't deserve to be in jail. Why
should they serve time just because they like to get `high' on
marijuana? Especially when someone can drink alcohol without being
arrested... what kind of law is that? You have to think about what
kind of a world you are making for yourself before you act. How are
the police of the future going to treat the people? How far are you
willing to let the government go to get the drug users? How many of
your own rights will you sacrifice by trying to jail `the druggies'?
- 24) I heard that there are over 400 chemicals in
marijuana..?
- True, but so what? There are also over 400 chemicals in many
foods, (including coffee, which contains over 800 chemicals and many
rat carcinogens) and we don't see police arresting people in
McDonald's, or giving Driving while Eating citations. Only THC is very
psycho-active; a few other chemicals also have very small degrees of
psycho-activity. People who use marijuana do not get sick more, or die
earlier, or lose their jobs (except to drug tests), or have mutant
kids... so what's your point?
The fact that there are over 60 unique chemicals in cannabis,
called `cannabinoids,' is something that scientists find very
interesting. Many of these cannabinoids may have valuable effects as
medicine. For example, `cannabinol' is a cannabinoid which can help
people with insomnia. Doctors think that this chemical is why most
patients prefer to use marijuana rather than pure Delta-9-THC pills
(called dronabinol) -- the cannabinol takes the edge off being `high'
and calms the nerves. Another cannabinoid, `cannabidiolic acid', is a
very effective anti-biotic, like pennicillin. Many of these chemicals
can be extracted from marijuana without any fancy laboratory
equipment.
- 25) Doesn't that stuff mess up your immune system
and make it easier for you catch colds?
- Marijuana (Delta-nine-THC) does have an `immunosuppressive
effect.' It acts on certain cells in the liver, called macrophages, in
much the same way that it acts on brain cells. Instead of stimulating
the cells, though, it shuts them off. This effect is temporary (just
like the `high') and goes away quickly; people who suffer from
multiple sclerosis may actually find this effect useful in fighting
the disease.
Recent research has also found that marijuana metabolites are left
over in the lungs for up to seven months after the smoking has
stopped. While they are there, the immune system of the lungs may be
affected (but the macrophages do not get ``turned off'' like in the
liver.) The effects of smoking itself are probably worse than the
effects of the THC, and last just as long.
All this said, doctors still have not decided whether marijuana
users are at risk for colds or not. With the possible exception of
bronchitis, there are no numbers which suggest that marijuana users
catch more colds, but... this did not stop Carlton Turner, a United
States Drug Czar, from saying many times in his public addresses that
marijuana caused AIDS and homosexuality. His claims were so ridiculus
that the Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine made fun of him, and he
was forced to resign.
Today, AIDS patients use marijuana to treat their symptoms without
any aparrent problems. Some studies suggest that marijuana may
actually stimulate certain forms of immunity. Researchers have tried
to show major effects on the healthy human's immune system, but if
marijuana does have any substantial effects, good or bad, they are
either too subtle or too small to notice.
Part IV: WHY IS IT STILL ILLEGAL?
- 1) Why is it STILL illegal?:
- The official answer: Because you shouldn't use it. You can't use
it because it is illegal, and it is illegal so you can't use it. You
should not use it. It is illegal. It is illegal so you should not use
it.
The manic-depressive answer: It'll never happen. People are too
unorganized/stupid/disempowered. It's just futility. Try, but don't
expect to get anywhere. I won't get my hopes up.
The paranoid-schizophrenic answer: Don't you SEE?!?!? The guys at
the top have it SEWN!! They own everything. They'll never let it
happen. I shouldn't even be talking to you, but let me give you some
advice!! listen... you shouldn't mess with THEM, THEY know everything.
THEY are practically psychic, see? And the only way to get it to
happen is to become one of THEM. You'd better watch it, or THEY will
come and take you away -- THEY do that, you know. It's all a
CONSPIRACY!!!
The neurotic answer: Marijuana? Eeek! Don't you know that stuff is
dangerous? People don't make laws for no good reason, you know! Where
did you hear about marijuana? Wait! Don't tell me, I don't want to
know. If anybody even knew you thought it should be legal -- well --
they'd never talk to you again! Don't you know that marijuana this...
marijuana that... ... ... ...
THE REAL ANSWER: Marijuana is still illegal because enough people
have not yet stood up together and said:
Without large-scale grass roots support, marijuana will never be
legal. Every person that stands up for marijuana/hemp legalization
makes us that much stronger, and our voices that much louder. Believe
me, we appreciate all the support we get. Almost as importantly, it
makes it that much harder for people to say ``that's a stupid idea''
or ``nobody really believes that.''
If you aren't convinced yet, Or if you are having trouble
swallowing any of the answers given, I encourage you to learn more
about the issues. Try the sources listed at the end.
If you're with us, let us know! Let everybody know, unless it will
get you canned or arrested, but most importantly, keep an eye on
what's going on, and try to lend a hand when you can. Also, know your
stuff, so if you have to, you can convince a friend or loved one that
*you* are not nuts -- the rest of the world is.
- 2) What can I do to bring some sense into our
marijuana laws?
- There are many things you can do. Activists are working right now
at all levels to reform marijuana laws. If you cannot afford to be an
activist, there are many ways you can help -- activists find
themselves short of money, time, and occasionally even friendly
company. Get to know a hemp or marijuana legalization activists in
your area, and just keep up to date on what they are planning. Odds
are you will find something that you can easily do which will help
them out a whole lot. There is a list available called the Liberty
Activist's List which will give you the phone numbers or address of
groups near you. Also, you may call the National Office of NORML (The
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) at
1-202-483-5500. The most important thing you can do on your own,
though, is to keep tabs on your state and local legislators, and let
them know that this is an issue to be taken seriously.
Many activist groups offer `memberships.' These usually involve a
fee for joining the group, and a newsletter that keeps you up to date
on the group's activities. This way you know when and why to write
your legislators, and thought provoking information which you normally
would not get is delivered to you. If and when you need to, most
importantly, you will be able to contact the group and seek or give
advice.
- 3) Where can I get more information?
- Many places. One of the best is by using electronic
communications. The Information Superhighway has been a tremendous
leap forwards for our movement, and there is a lot of information
available. Start by sending e-mail to
VERDANT@TWAIN.UCS.UMASS.EDU. There is an e-mail
file-server set up at this address, and just about anyone with
Internet e-mail can use it. The server contains many files about
marijuana, and more importantly directories and pointers on how to get
more information by WWW, GOPHER, FTP, IRC, and TELNET. For a overview
list of these resources send mail to
VERDANT@TWAIN.UCS.UMASS.EDU. If you have trouble
making this work, send a note asking for help to "verdant@twain.ucs.umass.edu"
A copy of the Liberty Activist's List is also available through
this server, by mailing to
VERDANT@TWAIN.UCS.UMASS.EDU This will help you get
in touch with activists near you. If you are interested, there is an
excellent mailing list devoted to Drug War issues. It is called DRCnet
and you may send mail to "borden@netcom.com" for information on
becoming involved.
- 4) Umm, I'm computer illiterate, so that just went
way over my head.
Are there any good books I could go get
instead?
- Here is a list of some of the must-read
books and articles about marijuana and legalization. Check the
source section of this FAQ for more information about these and other
sources.
``The
Emperor Wears No Clothes'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs/HEMP,
1993/1994
``Hemp, Life-Line to the Future'' by Chris Conrad pub.
``Marihuana
Reconsidered'' by Lester Grinspoon pub. 1977. Harvard University
Press. pub. 1993 data pending.
``Marihuana the Forbidden Medicine'' by Lester Grinspoon pub. Yale
University Press 1993.
*** Journal Articles of General Interest ***
``Marijuana Laws: A Need for Reform'' by Roger Allan Glasgow in
``Arkansas Law Review'' Vol. 22(340) pp. 359-375.
*** Government commissions recommending legalization ***
The Panama Canal Zone Report of 1925, pub. United States
Government.
Mayor LaGuardia's Committee on Marijuana (New York) Report issued
1944. (Initiated 1938 -- an extensive study of marijuana) pub. New
York City Government
The Final Report of the Le Dain Commission on Marijuana
Legalization, pub. Canadian Gov't
Final Report if the National Commission on Marijuana, 1972, pub.
United States Government entitled ``Marijuana -- a Signal of
Misunderstanding''
*** Court Rulings ***
``In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition'' by Hon.
Francis L. Young Docket# 86-22 1989.
- 5) Do you have any advice for people who want to
organize their own group? There are some very good books that
will help new organizers hit the ground running. Here are two titles
you should try to locate:
Si Kahn ``Organizing: A Guide For Grassroots Leaders'' McGraw-Hill
1982 0-07-033215-0 (0-07-033199-5 paperback)
Ed Hedemann ``The War Resisters League Organizers Manual'' 1981
0-940862-00-X The War Resisters League 339 Lafayeyette St., New York,
NY
PART V: SOURCES BY QUESTION
NUMBER
(Sorry for the pathetic bibliography. As soon as time and software
permits it will be cleaned up, cross referenced, and expanded.)
- 1) What Is Hemp?
- ``Hemp'' by Lyster H. Dewey pp. 283-346. pub. United States
Department of Agriculture, 1913.
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical
Record of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp
Can Still Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP
Publishing, 1993.
- ``The Marijuana Farmers'' by Jack Frazier pub. Solar Age Press New
Orleans, 1972.
- 2) What is cannabis?
- ``Hemp, Life-line to the Future'' by Chris Conrad pub data
pending.
- (Mexican slang term)
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record
of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing,
1993.
- (hemp can be grown legally)
- ``Hemp, Life-line to the Future'' by Chris Conrad pub data
pending.
- John Birrenbach's legal hemp FAQ pub. Institute for Hemp 1993.
- (number one cash crop)
- ``Drugs, Crime and the Justice System'' pub. United States
Government Printing Office Washington, DC. December, 1992.
- ``Information Please Almanac'' pub. Simon and Schuster New York,
1993.
- 4) How can hemp be used as a food?
- (protien)
- A. J. St. Angelo, E. J. Conkerton, J. M. Dechary, A. M. Altschul
in ``Biochimica et Biophysica Acta'' Vol. 121 pp. 181. 1966.
- A. J. St. Angelo, L. Y. Yatsu, A. M. Altschul in ``Archives of
Biochemistry and Biophysics'' Vol. 124 pp. 199-205. 1966.
- ``Chromatography of Edestine at 50 Degrees'' by D. M. Stockwell,
J. M. Dechary, A. M. Altschul in ``Biochimica et Biophysica Acta''
Vol. 82 pp. 221. 1964.
- (essential fatty acid oils)
- ``Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill'' by Udo Erasmus pub.
- ``Hemp-seed Oil Compared with Other Common Vegetable Oils'' by
Gerald X. Diamond in ``Cannabis Hemp Information Kit'' pub.
- ``Therapeutic Hemp Oil'' by Andrew Weil M.D. in ``Natural Health''
March/April, 1993.
- 5) What are the benefits of hemp compared to other food crops?
- ``Hemp'' by Lyster H. Dewey pp. 283-346. pub. United States
Department of Agriculture, 1913.
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical
Record of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp
Can Still Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP
Publishing, 1993.
- 6) How about soy? Is hemp competitive as a world source of
protein?
- (hemp vs. soy)
- ``Hemp'' by Lyster H. Dewey pp. 283-346. pub. United States
Department of Agriculture, 1913.
- ``Chromatography of Edestine at 50 Degrees'' by D. M. Stockwell,
J. M. Dechary, A. M. Altschul in ``Biochimica et Biophysica Acta''
Vol. 82 pp. 221. ed. pub., 1964.
- (resistance to UV-B sunlight)
- ``UV-B Effects on Terrestrial Plants'' by Manfred Tevinie, Alan H.
Teremura in ``Photochemistry and Photobiology'' Vol. 50 Iss. 4 pp.
479-487. pub. Pergamon Press Oxford, New York, 1989.
- (agricultural consequences of drug policy in underdeveloped
nations)
- cites pending
- 7) How can hemp be used for cloth?
- ``Hemp, Flax, Jute, Ramie, Kenaf and Other Industrial Fibers a
Comparison of Properties and Applications '' by Gerald X. Diamond in
``Cannabis Hemp Information Kit'' pub Washington Citizens for Drug
Policy Reform.
- ``Hemp'' by Lyster H. Dewey pp. 283-346. pub. United States
Department of Agriculture, 1913.
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record
of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing,
1993.
- ``The Marijuana Farmers'' by Jack Frazier pub. Solar Age Press New
Orleans, 1972.
- 8) Why is it better than cotton?
- ``Hemp, Flax, Jute, Ramie, Kenaf and Other Industrial Fibers a
Comparison of Properties and Applications '' by Gerald X. Diamond in
``Cannabis Hemp Information Kit'' pub. Washington Citizens for Drug
Policy Reform.
- 9) How can hemp be used to make paper?
- ``It's Time to Reconsider Hemp'' by Jim Young in ``Pulp & Paper'' pp. 7. June, 1991.
- ``Hemp Variations as Pulp Source Researched in the Netherlands''
by E. P. M. de Meijer in ``Pulp & Paper'' pp. 41-42. July, 1993.
- ``The Manufacture of Paper from Hemp Hurds'' by Jason L. Merril in
``USDA Bulletin/Yearbook of the United States Department of
Agriculture'' Iss. 404 pp. 7-25. pub. United States Department of
Agriculture
- 10) Why can't we just keep using trees?
- ``The Production and Handling of Hemp Hurds'' by Lyster H. Dewey
in "USDA Bulletin" Iss. 404 pp. 1-6. pub. United States Department of
Agriculture.
- ``Hemp'' by Lyster H. Dewey pp. 283-346. pub. United States
Department of Agriculture, 1913.
- 11) How can hemp be used as a fuel?
- ``Farming For Fuel]'' by Folke Dovring pub data pending.
- ``Pretreatment Research Overview'' by K. Grohmann, R. Torget, M.
Himmel in ``The DOE SERI Ethanol From Biomass Program'' pub. The
United States Department of Energy.
- ``Overview: The DOE SERI Ethanol From Biomass Program '' by C. E.
Wyman pub. The United States Department of Energy.
- 12) Why is it better than petroleum?
- ``Towards a Green Economy'' by Lynn Osburn (pamphlet)
- other cites pending
- 13) How can hemp be used as a medicine?
- ``Marijuana, The Forbidden Medicine'' by Lester Grinspoon M.D. and
James B. Bakalar pub. Yale University Press New Haven, 1993.
- ``Therapeutic Issues of Marijuana and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol)''
by J. Thomas Ungerieder, Therese Andrysiak in ``The International
Journal of the Addictions'' Vol. 20 pp. 691-699. ed. pub. M. Dekker
New York, 1985.
- 14) What's wrong with all the prescription drugs we have?
- ``Marijuana, The Forbidden Medicine'' by Lester Grinspoon M.D. and
James B. Bakalar pub. Yale University Press New Haven, 1993.
- 15) What other uses for hemp are there?
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record
of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing,
1993.
- Note: 93/94 edition of the Emperor only. Part II: WELL WHY AREN'T
WE USING HEMP, THEN?
- 1) How and why was hemp made illegal?
- ``Drugs and minority oppression'' by John Helmer pub. Seabury
Press New York, 1975.
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record
of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing,
1993.
- 2) OK, so what the heck does all this other stuff...
- ``The Manufacture of Paper from Hemp Hurds'' by Jason L. Merril in
``USDA Bulletin/Yearbook of the United States Department of
Agriculture'' Iss. 404 pp. 7-25. pub. United States Department of
Agriculture
- ``New Billion-Dollar Crop'' in ``Popular Mechanics'' February,
1938.
- ``Flax and Hemp From the Seed to the Loom '' by George A. Lower in
``Mechanical Engineering'' February, 1937.
- 3) Now wait, just hold on. You expect me to believe....
- ``Hemp, Life-line to the Future'' by Chris Conrad pub data
pending.
- ``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record
of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing,
1993.
- ``New Billion-Dollar Crop'' in ``Popular Mechanics'' pub.
February, 1938.
- ``Flax and Hemp From the Seed to the Loom '' by George A. Lower in
``Mechanical Engineering'' February, 1937.
- 4) Is there a lesson to be learned from all this?
- ``Manufacturing Consent'' by Noam Chomsky pub data pending.
- ``Marijuana Laws: A Need for Reform'' by Roger Allan Glasgow in
``Arkansas Law review'' Vol. 22 Iss. 340 pp. 359-375. Part III:
DOES IT? DOESN'T IT? IS IT TRUE?
- 1) Doesn't marijuana stay in your fat cells and keep you high ...
- ``Marijuana Chemistry Genetics, Processing, and Potency'' by
Michael Starks pub. Ronin Inc., 1990.
- ``Marijuana Cannabinoids Neurobiology and Neurophysiology'' ed.
Laura Murphy, Andrzej Bartke ed. pub. CRC Press Boca Raton, FL, 1992.
- 2) But ... isn't today's marijuana much more potent than it was...
- ``Cannabis 1988. Old Drug, New Dangers The Potency Debate '' by
Todd H. Mikuriya M.D., Michael R. Aldrich Ph.D. in ``Journal of
Psychoactive Drugs'' Vol. 20 Iss. 1 pp. 47-55 pub. Haight-Ashbury
Publications in association with the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical
Clinic San Francisco, Calif. : January March, 1988.
- 3) Doesn't Marijuana cause brain damage?
- ``The Chronic Cerebral Effects of Cannabis Use I Methodological
Issues and Neurological Findings '' by Renee C. Wert Ph.D., Michael L.
Raulin Ph.D Vol. 21 Iss. 6 pp. 605-628. 1986.
- ``The Chronic Cerebral Effects of Cannabis Use II Psychological
Findings and Conclusions '' by Renee C. Wert Ph.D., Michael L. Raulin
Ph.D Vol. 21 Iss. 6 pp. 629-642. 1986.
- ``Neurotoxicity of Cannabis and THC A Review of Chronic Exposure
Studies in Animals '' by Andrew C. Scallet in ``Pharmacology,
Biochemistry & Behavior'' Vol. 40 pp. 671-676. 1991.
- ``Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Rhesus Monkey IV
Neurochemical Effects and Comparison to Acute and Chronic Exposure to
Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Rats'' by Syed F. Ali, Glenn D.
Newport, Andrew C. Scallet, Merle G. Paule, John R. Bailey, William
Slikker Jr in ``Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior'' Vol. 40
pp. 677-682. 1991.
- ``Behavioral, Neurochemical, and Neurohistological Effects of
Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Nonhuman Primate'' by William
Slikker Jr. et al. in ``Marijuana Cannabinoids Neurobiology and
Neurophysiology'' Laura Murphy, Andrzej Bartke ed. pub. CRC Press Boca
Raton, FL, 1992.
- (the following are the studies which were found to be flawed)
- ``Effects of Cannabis Sativa on Ultrastructure of the Synapse in
Monkey Brain'' by J. W. Harper, R. G. Heath, W. A. Myers in ``Journal
of Neuroscience Research'' Vol. 3 pp. 87-93. 1977.
- ``Chronic Marihuana Smoking Its Effects on Function and Structure
of the Primate Brain '' by R. G. Heath, A. T. Fitzjarrell, R. E.
Garey, W. A. Myers in ``Marihuana: Biological Effects Analysis,
Metabolism, Cellular Responses, Reproduction and Brain '' Gabriel G.
Nahas, W. D. M. Paton ed. pub. Pergamon Press Oxford, 1979.
- ``Cannabis Sativa Effects on Brain Function and Ultrastructure in
Rhesus Monkeys '' by R. G. Heath, A. T. Fitzjarrell, C. J. Fontana, R.
E. Garey in ``Biological Psychiatry'' Vol. 15 pp. 657-690. 1980.
- (D.A.R.E. says pot kills brain cells)
- DARE Officers training manual section T page 5.
- 4) If it doesn't kill brain cells....
- ``Structure of a Cannabinoid Receptor'' by L. A. Matsuda , S. J.
Lolait , M. J. Browstein, A. C. Young, T. I. Bonner in ``Nature'' Vol.
346 Iss. 6824 pp. 561-564. August, 1990.
- (marijuana does not wear out it's receptors)
- ``Chronic Exposure to Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Fails to
Irreversibly Alter Brain Cannabinoid Receptors'' by Tracy M. Westlake,
Allyn C. Howlett, Syed F. Ali, Merle G. Paule, Andrew C. Scallet,
William Slikker Jr. in ``Brain Research'' Vol. 544 pp. 145-149. 1991.
- 5) Don't people die from smoking pot?
- Bureau of Mortality Statistics, 1988.
- ``In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition: Opinion and
Recommended Ruling, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision
of Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young '' by Hon. Francis L.
Young September, 1988.
- (allerigic reaction is rare)
- ``Marijuana and Immunity'' by Leo E. Hollister M.D. in ``Journal
of Psychoactive Drugs'' Vol. 24 Iss. 2 pp. 159-164. pub.
Haight-Ashbury Publications in association with the Haight-Ashbury
Free Medical Clinic San Francisco, Calif. : April,June, 1992.
- 6) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory impairment?
- cites pending
- 7) Is marijuana going to make my boyfriend go psycho?
- ``A Brief, Critical Look at Cannabis Psychosis'' by Amit Basu in
``The International Journal on Drug Policy'' Vol. 3 pp. 126-127. 1992.
- 8) Don't users of marijuana withdraw from society?
- ``Adolescent Drug Use and Psychological Health'' by Jonathan
Shedler, Jack Block in ``American Psychologist'' Vol. 45 Iss. 5 pp.
612-630.
- ``Substance Use and Abuse Among Teenagers'' by Michael D. Newcomb,
Peter M. Bentler in ``American Psychologist'' Vol. 44 Iss. 2 pp.
242-248. 1989.
- ``Cognitive Motivations for Drug Use Among Adolescents
Longitudinal Tests of Gender Differences and Predictors of Change in
Drug Use '' by Michael D. Newcomb, Chih Ping Chou, P. M. Bentler, G.
J. Huba in ``Journal of Counseling Psychology'' Vol. 35 Iss. 4 pp.
426-438. pub. American Psychological Association Washington,DC, 1988.
- ``Personality Characteristics of Adolescent Marijuana Users'' by
John E. Mayer, Jeffrey D. Ligman in ``Adolescence'' Vol. 24 Iss. 96
pp. 965-976. 1989.
- ``Cannabis Use and Sensation Seeking Orientation'' by K. Paul
Satinder, Alexander Black in ``The Journal of Psychology'' Vol. 166
pp. 101-105. pub. Journal Press Provincetown, MA, 1984.
- 9) Is it true that marijuana makes you lazy and unmotivated?
- ``Behavioral and Biological Concomitants of Chronic Marijuana
Use'' by Dr. Jack H. Mendelson 1974. (US Army study)
- (adolescent amotivational-like syndrome)
- ``Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Rhesus Monkey II Effects
on Progressive Ratio and Conditioned Position Responding '' by Merle
G. Paule, Richard R. Allen, John R. Bailey, Andrew C. Scallet, Syed F.
Ali, Roger M. Brown, William Slikker Jr. in ``The Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.'' Vol. 260 pp. 210-222.
ed. pub.
- ``Up in Smoke Arkansas Study Raises Doubts About Marijuana Risks
'' by Mara Leveritt in ``Arkansas Times'' pp. 11-12. September 16,
1993.
- (use of marijuana and other drugs in a positive role in work)
- ``Working Men and Ganja Marijuana Use in Rural Jamaica Melanie
Creagan Dreher '' by Melanie Creagan Dreher pub. Institute for the
Study of Human Issues Philadelphia, 1982.
- ``The working addict David Caplovitz '' by David Caplovitz pub. M.
E. Sharpe, White Plains, NY, 1976.
- 10) Isn't marijuana a gateway drug? Doesn't it lead to use of ...
- ``Who Says Marijuana Use Leads to Heroin Addiction?'' by Jerry
Mandel in ``Journal of Secondary Education'' Vol. 43 Iss. 5 pp.
211-217. pub. California Association of Secondary School
Administrators Burlingame, CA May
- ``Marihuana reconsidered Lester Grinspoon. '' by Lester Grinspoon
M.D. 1928- pub. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1977.
- (emergency room admissions)
- cites pending
- 11) I don't want children (minors) to be able to smoke ...
- (a good book about drugs for parents and children)
- ``From Chocolate To Morphine'' by Andrew Weil pub. data pending (a
new edition will be coming out very soon!)
- 12) Won't children be able to steal marijuana plants that
people...
- (industrial hemp has very low THC content)
- ``Hemp Variations as Pulp Source Researched in the Netherlands''
by E. P. M. de Meijer in ``Pulp & Paper'' pp. 41-42. pub. July,
1993.
- 13) Hey, don't you know that marijuana drops testosterone
levels...
- ``Behavioral, Neurochemical, and Neurohistological Effects of
Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Nonhuman Primate'' by William
Slikker Jr. et al. in ``Marijuana Cannabinoids Neurobiology and
Neurophysiology'' pp. . Laura Murphy, Andrzej Bartke ed. pub. CRC
Press Boca Raton, FL, 1992.
- 14) Doesn't heavy marijuana use lower the sperm count in males?
- ``Marihuana A Signal of Misunderstanding '' pub. U.S. Government
Printing Office Washington, 1972.
- 15) I heard marijuana use by teenage girls may impair hormone...
- ``Marihuana A Signal of Misunderstanding '' pub. U.S. Government
Printing Office Washington, 1972.
- 16) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory impairment?
- Go away.
- 17) Isn't smoking marijuana worse for you than smoking cigarettes?
- (more tar in smoked marijuana, but claims exaggerated)
- ``Pulmonary Hazards of Smoking Marijuana as Compared with
Tobacco'' by Tzu Chin Wu, Donald P. Tashkin , Behnam Djahed , Jed E.
Rose in ``New England Journal of Medicine'' Vol. 318 Iss. 6 pp.
347-351. pub., 1988.
- (low-tar cigarettes just as carcinogenic)
- ``The Association of Lung Cancer with Tar Content of Cigarettes''
by Franz P. Reichsman pub., 1980. (Thesis)
- (lung damage from smoking)
- ``Marijuana Exposure and Pulmonary Alterations in Primates'' by
Suzanne E. G. Fligiel, Ted F. Beals, Donald P. Tashkin, Merle G.
Paule, Andrew C. Scallet, Syed F. Ali, John R. Bailey, William Slikker
Jr. in ``Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior'' Vol. 40 Iss. 3
pp. 637-642. ed. pub., 1991.
- ``Chronic Marijuana Smoke Alters Alveolar Macrophage Morphology
and Protein Expression'' by Guy A. Cabral, Amy L. Stinnet, John
Bailey, Syed F. Ali, Merle G. Paul, Andrew C. Scallet, William Slikker
Jr. in ``Physiology, Biochemistry and Behavior'' Vol. 40 pp. 643-649.
ed. pub., 1991.
- (Lead 210 and N Nitrosamines in tobacco)
- Joseph DiFranza in NEJM Vol. 306 Iss. 6 pub. February, 1982. and
responses in Vol. 307 Iss. 5 pub. July, 1982.
- 18) Don't children born to pot-smoking mothers suffer from Fetal
.....
- ``Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Cannabinoids'' by Ernest L. Abel
in ``CurrentReasearch on the Consequences of Maternal Drug Abuse''
Theodore M. Pinkert ed. NIDA Research monograph # 59
- ``The Effects of Early Marijuana Exposure'' by Ernest L. Abel,
Gary A. Rockwood, Edward P. Riley in ``Handbook of teratology'' pp.
267-288.
- (Jamaican studies)
- ``Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica An
Ethnographic Study '' by Melanie C. Dreher , Kevin Nugent, Rebekah
Hudgins in ``Pediatrics'' Vol. 93 Iss. 2 pp. 254-260. pub. February,
1994.
- (THC fetal exposure)
- ``Placental Transfer and Fetal Disposition of
Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) During Late Pregnancy in the Rhesus
Monkey'' by William Slikker Jr, H. C. Cunny, J. R. Bailey, M. G. Paule
in ``'' pp. 97-102.
- ``The Influence of Anesthesia, Pregnancy, and Sex on the Plasma
Disposition of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and
11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in the Rhesus Monkey''
by Merle G. Paule, John R. Bailey, William Slikker Jr. in ``'' pp.
315-320. ed. pub.
- 19) Doesn't marijuana cause a lot of automobile accidents?
- NHTSA statistical study pub. 1992, data pending
- NHTSA Amsterdam study pub. 1994, data pending
- Australian statistical survey pub 1993, data pending
- 20) Aren't you afraid everyone will get hooked?
- ``Behavioral, Neurochemical, and Neurohistological Effects of
Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Nonhuman Primate'' by William
Slikker Jr. et al. in ``Marijuana Cannabinoids Neurobiology and
Neurophysiology'' Laura Murphy, Andrzej Bartke ed. pub. CRC Press Boca
Raton, FL, 1992.
- ``Marihuana A Signal of Misunderstanding '' pub. U.S. Government
Printing Office Washington, 1972.
- ``The Marijuana Problem in the City of New York'' (Mayor
Laguardia's Commission on Marijuana. The text of the decision can be
found in a three volume set entitled ``The Marijuana Papers'') more
pub. data pending.
- ``Marihuana reconsidered Lester Grinspoon.'' by Lester Grinspoon
M.D. 1928- pub. Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA, 1977.
- 21) Is urine testing for marijuana use as a terms of employment...
- ``Applicant Testing For Drug Use A Policy and Legal Inquiry '' by
Jonathan V. Holtzman in ``William and Mary Law Review'' Vol. 33 pp.
47-93. pub., 1991.
- 22) Isn't all this worth the trouble, though, in order to
reduce...
- ``Social Behavior, Public Policy, and Non-harmful Drug Use'' by
Charles Winick in ``The Milbank Quarterly'' Vol. 69 Iss. 3 pp.
437-459. ed. published for the Milbank Memorial Fund Cambridge
University Press New York, NY, 1991.
- other cites pending (mail the faq maintainor)
- 23) Wouldn't it be best to just lock the users all up?
- ``Drugs, Crime and the Justice System'' pub. United States
Government Printing Office Washington, DC December, 1992.
- ``The State of Criminal Justice, an annual report'' by the
American Bar Association, 1993 pub. U.S. Government Printing office.
- ``Social Behavior, Public Policy, and Non-harmful Drug Use'' by
Charles Winick in ``The Milbank Quarterly'' Vol. 69 Iss. 3 pp.
437-459. pub. published for the Milbank Memorial Fund Cambridge
University Press New York, NY, 1991.
- 24) I heard that there are over 400 chemicals in marijuana...
- (800 chemicals in coffee)
- ``Too Many Rodent Carcinogens Mitogenesis Increases Mutagenesis ''
by B. N. Ames, L. S. Gold in ``Science'' Vol. 149 pp. 971. ed. pub.,
1990.
- (other cannabinoids)
- ``Marijuana Chemistry Genetics, Processing, and Potency '' by
Michael Starks pub. Ronin Inc., 1990.
- ``Marijuana, The Forbidden Medicine'' by Lester Grinspoon M.D. and
James B. Bakalar pub. Yale University Press New Haven, 1993.
- 25) Doesn't that stuff mess up your immune system...
- (liver macrophages)
- ``Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol A Novel Treatment for Experimental
Autoimmune Encephalitis '' by W. D. Lyman , J. R. Sonett , C. F.
Brosnan , R. Elkin , M. B. Bornstein in ``Journal of Neuroimmunology''
Vol. 23 pp. 73-81. 1989.
- (lung macrophages and other cells)
- ``Chronic Marijuana Smoke Alters Alveolar Macrophage Morphology
and Protein Expression'' by Guy A. Cabral, Amy L. Stinnet, John
Bailey, Syed F. Ali, Merle G. Paul, Andrew C. Scallet, William Slikker
Jr, 1991.
- (general overview)
- ``Marijuana and Immunity'' by Leo E. Hollister M.D. in ``Journal
of Psychoactive Drugs'' Vol. 24 Iss. 2 pp. 159-164. pub.
Haight-Ashbury Publications in association with the Haight-Ashbury
Free Medical Clinic San Francisco, Calif. : April,June, 1992.
- (Carlton Turner)
- ``Official Corruption Carton Turner'' by Jack HererJack Herer in
``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record of
the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still
Save the World'' pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing, 1993.
