Message-ID: <100310Z24041994@anon.penet.fi>
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: an40496@anon.penet.fi (Holden Caulfield)
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 1994 09:59:38 UTC
Subject: ARTICLE: Pot is bad (moronic)


The following article appeared in the "Insight" page, i.e. the opinion page, 
of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Thurs. April 21.  The author is described
as a participant of the Tough Love support group.  It figures.  It appears to
be a bad rehashing of WOSD propaganda.  In fact, it sounds like she is 
regurgitating a pamphlet.  


         *                          *                       *


               Legalizing marijuana would devastate our youth

                                by Pat Boult

     In response to the April 6 Second Opinion column by William Kennedy, as 
a parent of teenagers and a Canadian citizen, I am horrified at any attempts
by anyone to legalize marijuana.
     Kennedy says "education, not criminalization, is the key to lowering 
drug-use rates among young people."  Perhaps he needs to be educated.   
Marijuana is a drug, not a recreational pastime.  Marijuana contains more than
400 chemicals, among them 60 canabanoids [sic], unique to the cannabis plant.
Most prominent among these is the chemical called Delta 9 tetrahydracanabonal
[sic; that one hurt. What is she on?  "tetrahydra"? Yeah, it has four little 
multi-headed classical mythical monsters attached to it - HC] or THC for 
short.  One 10,000th of a gram of THC is enough to make you high.
     Hashish is an extract from the THC-rich resin of the hemp or marijuana
plant.  Hashish oil has the highest concentration of THC.  One to two drops
equal one marijuana cigarette.  Cigarette smoking is a losing battle with our
young people and marijuana has twice as much tar as tobacco, plus all the 
other irritants that cause chronic sinus inflammation.  One marijuana joint is
equal to one whole pack of tobacco cigarettes.  
     Street pot is often cut with such things as oregano, hay and even animal
manure, but of course only people in a drug-induced haze would ingest manure
in any form.  
     Chemicals in cannabis are fat-soluble and, unlike water-soluble alcohol
which leaves the blood stream in 24 hours, leak back into the blood slowly. 
Even if you smoked one joint every three weeks, canabanoids [sic] collect in 
your body.  A chronic pot smoker is never drug free.  THC impairs the ability
of the brain cells to transmit messages.  Brain circuits become disorganized 
from smoking two joints a week for six months.  
     Memory and clear thinking are impaired.  There is a slowing of          
comprehension, reaction and evaluation -- all skills which are critical when
driving a vehicle or operating heavy machinery.  
     Regular pot smokers in their teens and early 20s were found to have brain
atrophy equal to 70- to 90-year-olds.  Dark fatty granules invade the nucleus
of brain cells, a condition usually found in old people and a sign of senility.
Adolescent brains are vulnerable to THC.  No other drug creates these old age
symptoms in the young brain.  
     THC causes a great deal of damage to the brain cells and when brain cells
die they are gone forever.  THC affects the hypothalamus and pituitary gland.
Teen girls often have menstrual irregularities.  As adults, they can end up 
with pot damaged ova.  Pregant pot smokers are five times more likely to have 
babies with fetal alcohol-like symptoms, behavioral and physical abnormalities.
     For males, THC inhibits sperm from using fructose, from which they get 
their energy.  As a result the spermatazoa suffer from a lack of strength and
become less mobile and may be deformed and underdeveloped.  THC destroys the 
protein in the head of the sperm, making the sperm too weak to penetrate the
egg.  
     In adolescent males pot can retard development of masculine body          
characteristics.  No other drug has such devastating effects on male hormones
as THC.
     THC can break and deform chromosomes, which alters the genetic information
passed on to offspring.  Smoking pot three times a week for one year can     
produce the kind of chromosome damage equal to 2,000 chest X-rays.  No other
illegal drug is known to ravage cell division to the extent marijuana does.  
Cannabis damages some white blood cells by deforming their nuclei.  As a 
result, the body is unable to fight off infection and such things as genital
herpes.  Macrophages are cells which ingest bacteria and dirt.  THC            
disintegrates many of these.  
     As Kennedy quotes, "An enlightened society that cherishes its young        
citizens."  I cherish my children and my world enough to do my part to fight
the legalization of marijuana, pot, weed, grass, hemp, cannabis.  This stuff
only means disaster for the 20th century.

             *                        *                         *

                            End of article.


So, it's pretty much a list of outrageous claims about the health risks of 
marijuana, pretty standard WOSD fare.  There's a picture of her, she looks 
kind of psycho.  In case anyone cares enough to reply, letters to the K-W 
Record can be addressed to The Editor, The Record, 225 Fairway Road, Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada, N2G 4E5; fax (519) 894-3829.  Longer articles could presumably
be addressed to the Insight Editor.  Submissions must include full name, 
signature, address and phone number.  I'm almost tempted to break my apathy 
and non-involvement and do something myself, this article was pretty 
spectacularly incorrect.

~
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