How to Pass a Drug Test 420.org» How to Pass a Drug Test – Practical Information and Advice

Scary Statistics About the Killer-Weed

Dee — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:13:14 +0000

Here’s an interesting list I found that puts the dangers of marijuana in perspective. The sources of these statistics are reports ranging from 2003-2006 from the American Medical Association, National Center for Health Statistics, and US Centers for Disease Control:

Annual Causes of Death in the United States:

Tobacco: 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity: 365,000
Alcohol: 85,000
Microbial Agents: 75,000
Toxic Agents: 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes: 26,374
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs: 32,000
Suicide: 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms: 29,000
Homicide: 20,308
Sexual Behaviors: 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect: 17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs such as Aspirin: 7,600
MARIJUANA: 0

This information could be used to make a case for outlawing couch potatoes who sit around watching porn, smoking cigarettes and eating Big Macs under the influence of aspirin. But, um, as a deterrent against smoking pot it didn’t exactly scare the pants off me. They’ll have to try harder.

Schizophrenic? Don’t Blame It On Marijuana

Dee — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:59:42 +0000

Remember those study results that came out some months back, about how smoking pot is linked to schizophrenia? Turns out the results were bogus. What a shocker, ‘eh?

You can read the entire article here, but basically what it says is that a new study was done in the UK to try to prove the earlier study’s results (common practice among researchers). The conclusion the second study came to was completely different from the first one, and the results were recently published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

The authors of this study were professional and polite in their wording, and they didn’t exactly come right out and say those other guys are idiots. But they didn’t need to, because based on the following excerpt from the news article it’s pretty damn obvious that weed can’t be linked to schizophrenia:

According to the study, cannabis use in the UK between 1972 and 2002 has increased four-fold in the general population, and 18-fold among under-18s.

Based on the literature supporting the link, the authors argue that this should be followed by an increase in schizophrenia incidence of 29% between 1990 and 2010.

But the researchers found no increase in the rates of schizophrenia and psychosis diagnosis during that period. In fact some of the data suggested the incidence of these conditions had decreased.

So in other words, in the UK there are four times as many people smoking marijuana today as there were in 1972. But not only has the incidence of schizophrenia not increased, it’s actually slightly decreased since 1972.

If the researchers that did the first study had any common sense, then they would see that it stands to reason that if smoking pot was linked to schizophrenia then there would have to be about four times as many schizophrenics today as there were in 1972. But it just ain’t so. Which has to make ya wonder – what were THEY smokin’ ?

200 Famous Friends of Marijuana (A letter to Michael Phelps)

Dee — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:06:16 +0000

This guy is sending a letter to Michael Phelps consisting of a list of over 200 celebrities, politicians, athletes and other successful people who all smoke dope. Cheer up, Michael! You’re not alone!

Read the full article here.

Medical Marijuana: Raids Continue, Policy Change in the Air

jeevan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:10:16 +0000

The message is clear, said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department official and an expert on crime and drug policy. “It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies.” ….

read the full article

Marijuana: Back in spotlight … but it never really left (Denver Post)

jeevan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:15:11 +0000

And so suddenly here’s marijuana, yep, marijuana hogging itself another heyday, bolting into the spotlight, all but sashaying back into dialogue and shouting, “Hey, look at me,” or maybe even, “Yes, We Cannabis!”

read the full article

Pot backers hit Kellogg’s over Phelps

jeevan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:27:28 +0000

There’s a “Phelps backlash” out there. Fans and sympathizers have issued a cheeky call to boycott Kellogg’s, the cereal and snack mega-manufacturer that dropped the Olympic swimmer’s lucrative endorsement contract after his experience with marijuana became public.

read the full article

NORML.ORG Needs your votes for a Pro-Marijuana Commercial!

jeevan — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:17:44 +0000

$10,000 in cash prizes are on the line and some of the winning videos are going to air in major TV markets all around the country—meaning these ads at a minimum need to be supportive of NORML and cannabis consumers’ longstanding advocacy efforts to effectively end the prohibition of marijuana for adults.

read the full article

Phelps’ marijuana use puts focus on debate over the drug

Dee — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:08:31 +0000

The Olympic champion’s use of pot is far from a novelty in the sports world and leads to a discussion of whether it is much ado about nothing. And so suddenly here’s marijuana — yep, marijuana — hogging itself another heyday, bolting into the spotlight, all but sashaying back into dialogue and shouting, “Hey, I’m still here.”

read the full article

Marijuana – Myths and Facts

Dee — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:49:50 +0000

As anyone who actually smokes pot can tell you, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about marijuana. But as more and more people get educated about its benefits as a medical treatment, the general public is slooowly starting to be more open to looking at pot in a rational way.

I wish I had a ton of money; I’d pay for an intense national advertising campaign, on TV, radio, billboards, you name it. It would just be about comparing pot to alcohol, and showing all the statistics about how each one effects the human body, and also the ’social costs’ of each one. Each of their effects on the crime rate, health care costs, vehicular homicide, the teen death rate, tax dollars spent, etc. That’s all. Just the facts. Over, and over, and over… the same way that the B.S. propaganda about marijuana is shoved down the public’s throat over, and over and over…

Personally, I think there’s some evidence that the general public is getting tired of the debate about pot and they don’t really care as much as they used to about whether or not it’s legal or illegal. Look at the whole Michael Phelps fiasco. Except for Kellogg’s none of Phelps’ other sponsors fired him, because it’s just getting to be not that big a deal anymore. Except for Kellogg’s, and maybe Fox News, nobody really seemed to give a damn that the guy had a few bong hits. Which is good.

But, I’m not stupid. I know it’s a long stretch between public opinion slowly changing and actual policy change in Washington. Politicians, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, are WAY too conservative to be early adopters in any area. But organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance Network are working on changing the government’s drug policies, by fighting the status quo with facts – not propaganda.