The 'Ol' "Gateway Theory"

"There is opposition from groups like Drug Free Pennsylvania, which say the bill encourages drug abuse and crime. Jeanne Troy is the spokeswoman for Drug Free Pennsylvania. Troy: We do not approve this. There is prescription marijuana available through doctors for patients who have chemo or other pain and nausea related conditions and that's called marinol." ~ Jeanne Troy & DFP

My response to some of the statements in this article.The website comment section doesn't allow multiple links, so I've posted them here.

"Drug Free America"? There has never been a drug free world! Cannabis specifically, has been used since the beginning of recorded history. Humans utilized the medicinal properties of cannabis for thousands and thousands of years before Harry J Anslinger declared "…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” and “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” "most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/

Maybe Jeanne Troy should read the Shaffer Report, the one that Nixon commissioned to launch his "War on Drugs". Unfortunately, Nixon didn't like the truth, so it was thrown in the trash and here we are 30+ years, 20 million arrests and a TRILLION dollars later and still the lies and propaganda continue in a war on people that will never, ever, be won.

"In sum, the weight of the evidence is that marihuana does not cause violent or aggressive behavior, if anything, marihuana generally serves to inhibit the expression of such behavior. Marihuana-induced relaxation of inhibitions is not ordinarily accompanied by an exaggeration of aggressive tendencies.

No evidence exists that marihuana use will cause or lead to the commission of violent or aggressive behavior by the large majority of psychologically and socially mature individuals in the general population."

"marihuana and social policy"

A Final Comment
"We have carefully considered the spectrum of social and legal policy alternatives. On the basis of our findings, discussed in previous Chapters, we have concluded that society should seek to discourage use, while concentrating its attention on the prevention and treatment of heavy and very heavy use. The Commission feels that the criminalization of possession of marihuana for personal is socially self-defeating as a means of achieving this objective. We have attempted to balance individual freedom on one hand and the obligation of the state to consider the wider social good on the other. We believe our recommended scheme will permit society to exercise its control and influence in ways most useful and efficient, meanwhile reserving to the individual American his sense of privacy, his sense of individuality, and, within the context of ail interacting and interdependent society, his options to select his own life style, values, goals and opportunities.

The Commission sincerely hopes that the tone of cautious restraint sounded in this Report will be perpetuated in the debate which will follow it. For those who feel we have not proceeded far enough, we are reminded of Thomas Jefferson's advice to George Washington that "Delay is preferable to error." For those who argue we have gone too far, we note Roscoe Pound's statement, "The law must be stable, but it must not stand still."

We have carefully analyzed the interrelationship between marihuana the drug, marihuana use as a behavior, and marihuana as a social problem. Recognizing the extensive degree of misinformation about marihuana as a drug, we have tried to demythologize it. Viewing the use of marihuana in its wider social context, we have tried to desymbolize it.

Considering the range of social concerns in contemporary America, marihuana does not, in our considered judgment, rank very high. We would deemphasize marihuana as a problem.

The existing social and legal policy is out of proportion to the individual and social harm engendered by the use of the drug. To replace it, we have attempted to design a suitable social policy, which we believe is fair, cautious and attuned to the social realities of our time." http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/Library/studies/nc/ncmenu.htm

The "Gateway Theory" is a lie, only 1 out of every 104 cannabis users try cocaine, and it's less than that for heroin. (from The Union: The Business Behind Getting High http://www.theunionmovie.com/)

Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen took FBI Director Robert Mueller to task on marijuana legalization and the "gateway theory" in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0TQ1uOn3k

Also, Zogby did a poll (found here on www.leap.cc) in 2007 asking "If hard drugs like heroin and cocaine were legalized, would you use them? 99% responded NO. Imagine that, people deciding for themselves that they don't want to use hard drugs, regardless of law.

And yes, while Marinol exists, (and very expensively at that) for people who have problems keeping pills down due to nausea it's not as effective. Medical cannabis users can also use a vaporizer or ingest it in cookies, etc. if they don't want to smoke it. If people like Greg Cooper find that using cannabis helps them, who are any of us to judge that decision made by him and his Doctor? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_5Ebsjk8I

It's also interesting to note that "Drug Free Pennsylvania" makes money off of drug testing. http://www.dli.state.pa.us/landi/cwp/view.asp?a=151&q=209800