The Hidden "Hook"
Some few smoke marijuana the way others use alcohol. After a time, they may quit and never smoke it again. For others, it's not that simple.
". . . Dr. Edward Bloomquist of the University of Southern California School of Medicine . . . described the chronic marijuana user as NO LONGER IN CONTROL OF HIS USE OF THE DRUG because the psychological factors which drew him to the drug precipitate a pattern of chronic compulsive abuse. At this point the user Is JUST AS HOOKED AS ARE THOSE WE USED TO CALL ADDICTS. The absence of physical dependence is immaterial." (Shearer, The Mystique of Marijuana, p. 8)
These users are hooked on escape! They — like the addict — are running from life and all it holds. They don't want to face reality, facts, life or whatever responsibilities may be theirs. They turn to "pot," hoping to be secure in their own little world.
Dr. James H. Wall of New York Hospital warns about such an approach to life:
"I don't look with any favor on a society where everybody just floats around in his own tub of butter. A certain amount of tension and alertness is essential to keep things straight in life.
"This reaction is quite understandable. It is obviously possible to tranquilize a man to the point at which he loses not only his anxieties but also his ambitions, ideals, creative urges, everything, in short, that distinguishes him from a contented cow. That this is undesirable goes without saying". (DeRopp, Drugs and the Mind, p. 285)
Users don't become addicted to marijuana — they become addicted to the idea of a life of ease, pleasure and lack of responsibility. Marijuana merely makes this exodus from reality possible. Kids who get "high" continually don't want to do anything else. Their world is one which seemingly has no problems, and they want no part with any other kind of world.
Marijuana Dulls Senses
Marijuana causes a person to lose his coordination. Paradoxically, it instills a feeling of omnipotence. A person high on marijuana is inherently more dangerous than a narcotics addict. The reason? His judgment is impaired but his desire for physical activity often remains at a high level. His poor perspective, lack of judgment and desire for activity combine to make him extremely dangerous.
Those nations with a larger incidence of use have found the marijuana user a great danger on the highway. In a statement before the United Nations Commission of Narcotic Drugs in 1963, the French delegation expressed its concern over the high rate of road accidents attributable to drug abuse, especially the abuse of marijuana or cannabis (United Nations Document E / cn. 7/L. 268, Statement by the French Delegation, May 14, 1963).
Meanwhile, there is alarming new evidence that marijuana might be VERY DAMAGING physically. The unscientific statement of marijuana buffs that; "A little pot never hurt anybody" isn't exactly true.
Jess Steam, in his recent book, The Seekers, catalogued some of the frightening new evidence.
As to the potheads' cry that marijuana is no more dangerous physically than alcohol — some medical authorities disagreed. Alcohol, unless excessively used, breaks down into natural compounds and leaves the system.
Marijuana lodges toxically in the liver.
Further, Jess Steam commented on the researches of Constandinos Miras, a highly respected Greek biochemist. "Miras, experimenting with chronic users, had reported in 1967 that marijuana was another form of hashish, weaker, to be certain, but with a similar propensity for damaging brain, liver, eyes, and the respiratory tract." (Jess Steam, The Seekers, page 61)
But more HORRIFYING than this — some researchers "were now beginning to introduce evidence of lasting damage to some marijuana users, genetic damage that might be PASSED from one generation to another" (ibid. page 175).
Dr. Luis Souza of St. Dismas Hospital in New Jersey "reported that after the FIRST FEW EXPERIENCES WITH MARIJUANA, there was a complete destruction of the DNA component of the genes" (page 176). A report of the American Medical Association pointed out that after prolonged usage physical problems became obvious — bronchitis, asthma, problems with sleep, upset coordination. "The AMA report was based on evidence accumulating all over the country that marijuana was definitely a medical problem" (ibid. page 177).
Why has such knowledge not been known sooner?
The answer is very simple.
The activating element in marijuana was not even IDENTIFIED until 1964! And not until 1967 was THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — precisely synthesized. Laboratory work previous to this time was virtually impossible.
Jess Steam, who analyzed the whole marijuana scene for his 1969 book made this penetrating analysis:
"In my own research, more pragmatic than scientific, I had discovered a telltale LACK OF AMBITION among constant pot-smokers accompanied by a bristling resentment of any suggestion that their lethargy was induced by their habit" (The Seekers, page 180).
In an analysis of a personal case, he mused, "it had taken only three months with pot to reduce a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed youngster, to a blob of inertia" (ibid. page 185).
Probably the damage is physiological as well as psychological.
Of course, proponents of pot will claim, "Don't confuse me with the facts." Those who insist on going to pot — will go IN SPITE of what is said. But those others who have wise ears to hear sage advice will stay away from pot — no matter how deceptively glamorous it may appear. That is why, after serious study, the American Medical Association reached the conclusion: "Cannabis (marijuana) is a DANGEROUS DRUG and as such is a public health concern." The AMA also declared, "Legalization of marijuana would create a serious abuse problem in the United States."
Warned Police Chief Thomas Reddin of Los Angeles, "Society is presently witnessing a phenomenal growth in the use of marijuana." Legalization would make it far WORSE!
A Dangerous Drug
What are the effects of marijuana?
They usually last from 3 to 5 hours. There is a lack of muscular coordination, hallucinations, sometimes delirium and nausea. A person's motor control, perception, judgment are decreased, altered. Marijuana releases inhibitions which normally regulate behavior. A person "high" on the drug becomes giddy, irresponsible, and very open to suggestion.
Marijuana also provides a person with a false sense of bravado or courage, to the point he is likely to do dangerous things. His behavior becomes impulsive. He has increased self-confidence while his perception and judgment are hindered. There is less self-criticism.
As an example of marijuana's potent power, in the 11th century it influenced a Shi'a Ismailite sect in northern Persia. Members of this sect, high on hashish, obtained courage and confidence from the weed to murder, pillage, kill, and assassinate officials and government leaders. Their most notable leader was Hasan Sabah. His hashish-taking followers were known as hashshashin, from which comes the English word "assassin"
Other effects of marijuana include inertia, lethargy, self-neglect. It can and has precipitated psychotic episodes. Since it relaxes inhibitions, it has led to VIOLENCE, feelings of aggression, and dropping of moral barriers.
One of the worst features of marijuana is that influences surrounding it may easily lead to experimentation with other drugs even more dangerous, such as LSD. The most dangerous aspect of its use is that it often leads to experimentation with HEROIN. In many surveys, it has been shown that a very large percentage of heroin addicts — in some cases approaching 100 percent — began on marijuana.
Said Dr. Edward R. Bloomquist, "Kids who get high repeatedly don't want to come down. They find a WORLD in which they believe that they have no problems, and they become social bums. They turn the whole experience into a protest tool, which they use to mock the middle-class culture that they disdain. Used in this way, marijuana leads persons into a DRUG-CULTURE SHADOWED WORLD which is disturbing to society."
What about Crime?
Marijuana use is directly connected with anti-social, criminal behavior. The numbers of marijuana users among major criminals is very high. In countries where higher grades of marijuana are available there is an alarming incidence of use among the criminally INSANE. From a group of 379 hashish-using criminals (hashish is a form of marijuana), 117 of them became criminally inclined only AFTER becoming addicted or dependent on the drug.
The relationship of crime to marijuana is one of the most hotly contested aspects of the question in the United States. Proponents of its use claim there is no connection between the two. Law enforcement agencies disagree. (Donald E. Miller, Chief Counsel, U.S. Bureau of Narcotics, Narcotic Drug and Marijuana Controls. Paper presented at National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Drug Education Conference, Washington, D.C., November 7-8, 1966, p. 8)
There is, further, the direct connection between the increasingly high use of marijuana by teenagers and the fantastic rise in teenage crime!
Other far-reaching truths about drugs will be examined in the next issue.