Tornado Alley (PROG)

[wall_rus]

Good article. It's another aspect of the ridiculous, unsuccessful and costly "War on Drugs".

Adding a note on marijuana, this in spite of the LaGuardia Report:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm

"Marihuana users accustomed to daily smoking for a period of from two and a half to sixteen years showed no abnormal system functioning which would differentiate them from the non-users.

There is definite evidence in this study that the marihuana users were not inferior in intelligence to the general population and that they had suffered no mental or physical deterioration as a result of their use of the drug."

and the Nixon study:

Findings of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse include:
- “No significant physical, biochemical, or mental abnormalities could be attributed solely to their
marihuana smoking.” (National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, “Marihuana: A Signal of
Misunderstanding; First Report, Washington, DC, U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1972, p. 61)
- “No valid stereotype of a marihuana user or non-user can be drawn.” (p. 36)
- “Young people who choose to experiment with marihuana are fundamentally the same people, socially
and psychologically, as those who use alcohol and tobacco.” (p. 42)
- “No verification is found of a causal relationship between marihuana use and subsequent heroin use.”
(p. 88)
- “Most users, young and old, demonstrate an average or above-average degree of social functioning,
academic achievement, and job performance.” (p. 96)
- “In sum, the weight of the evidence is that marihuana does not cause violent or aggressive behavior; if
anything marihuana serves to inhibit the expression of such behavior.” (p. 73)
- “In short marihuana is not generally viewed by participants in the criminal justice community as a major
contributing influence in the commission of delinquent or criminal acts.” (p. 75)
- “Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety.” (p. 78)
- “Recent research has not yet proven that marihuana use significantly impairs driving ability or
performance.” (p. 79)
- “No reliable evidence exists indicating that marihuana causes genetic defects in man.” (p. 84)
- “Marihuana's relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on
society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.” (p. 130)


http://www.csdp.org/research/shafernixon.pdf

Nixon tapes:

"from the Nixon tapes it is evident that the President
believed many of the myths about marijuana and tied it
very closely to the blacks, Jews and the counterculture.
Nixon wasn’t as concerned with correcting
misinformation. His view regarding educating the public
on marijuana was: “Enforce the law, you’ve got to scare
them.”