Sometimes the Salem Statesman Journal's editorial positions are so poorly thought-out, they end up making the case for an opposing view. Such happened with yesterday's abysmally illogical "Legalizing marijuana would fuel failure."
Download Legalizing marijuana would fuel failure
So thank you, editorial page editor Dick Hughes. Likely you've convinced more people to vote for Measure 91, than to oppose it.
Let's start with the title of the editorial, which is explained in its first sentence.
The War on Drugs is a failure.
Bingo! This would have been a great two sentence opinion piece if the editorial had gone on to say, "So vote for Measure 91."
Which it should have, since nowhere in the editorial is there any explanation of why attempts to partially fix the failure through legalization of an herb with proven medicinal properties, happily used by a substantial percentage of the adult population, that is much less addictive that tobacco, alcohol, and prescription pain-killers, should be kept illegal, thereby turning many millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals, with all of the needless social, law enforcement, and judicial costs this entails.
Instead, the Statesman Journal editorial tries to argue that (1) marijuana is a gateway drug to more harmful substances, and (2) legalizing marijuana for adults in Oregon would increase use by minors.
The first contention is demonstrably false, something Hughes would have recognized if he had done more factual Googling of "marijuana gateway drug myth" and less subjective moralizing. Inaccurately, the editorial says:
Marijuana can be addictive. And marijuana can be a gateway drug.
Drug abuse experts tend to say "dependence" rather than "addiction." Yes, some people do become dependent on marijuana, about 9% according to one study. This is much less than the dependence rate for alcohol (15%) and nicotine (32%), which are both legal.
Further, people become dependent on all kinds of things.
Last night HBO's John Oliver show had a lengthy segment about sugar being as addictive as cocaine in certain ways. People also become dependent on/addicted to shopping, jogging, golfing, sex, making money, watching sports, and all kinds of other stuff.
A Forbes article, "Research shows cocaine and heroin are less addictive than Oreos," casts more light on how simplistic and misleading the Statesman Journal's contention, Marijuana can be addictive, is.
It would be easy to mock Schroeder and Honohan’s discovery that cookies are addictive, especially since they started out knowing that Oreos are “highly palatable to rats” and then concluded, based on the maze experiment and biochemical analysis, that Oreos are highly palatable to rats.
But the study inadvertently highlights an important truth: Anything that provides pleasure (or relieves stress) can be the focus of an addiction, the strength of which depends not on the inherent power of the stimulus but on the individual’s relationship with it, which in turn depends on various factors, including his personality, circumstances, values, tastes, and preferences.
Which brings us to the even more untrue editorial contention, Marijuana can be a gateway drug.
This is part of the long-discredited "Reefer Madness" attitude toward marijuana. Modern research provides a much different understanding than Dick Hughes' reliance on unsubstantiated anecdotal references to a few local law enforcement officials who aren't experts in this area.
Circuit Judge Dennis Graves, who presides over the Marion County Drug Court, sees that often. So do Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau and Sheriff Jason Myers.
Voters should trust solid research regarding the "gateway" hypothesis rather than biased statements from local opponents of marijuana legalization. Check out these links:
Another Marijuana Myth Bites the Dust — The Real Gateway Drug is Alcohol
Marijuana: The Gateway Drug Myth
Risk of Marijuana's 'Gateway Effect' Overblown, New Research Shows
I found these easily. So could Dick Hughes and other Statesman Journal editors, if they had chosen to base the newspaper's editorial on objective facts rather than subjective feelings. Here's a few excerpts from the above-linked articles.
A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate, but shifts the blame for escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American life: alcohol.
…Marijuana is not a gateway drug. People who have tried marijuana may eventually go on to try harder drugs in search of a stronger high, and experimentation may lead them down a dangerous path toward addiction. However, the science shows overwhelmingly that for most people marijuana is not a gateway drug.
…New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the "gateway effect" of marijuana — that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults — is overblown. Whether teenagers who smoked pot will use other illicit drugs as young adults has more to do with life factors such as employment status and stress, according to the new research. In fact, the strongest predictor of whether someone will use other illicit drugs is their race/ethnicity, not whether they ever used marijuana.
This fits with recent research from Colorado showing that teen use in that state, which legalized recreational marijuana for adults in 2012, is down, not up.
Teen Use Down, not up: Survey data released in early August 2014, indicate that marijuana use among high school students continues to decline, despite warnings that legalization would make pot more appealing to teenagers. 37% of high school students reported that they had ever tried marijuana, down from 39 percent in 2011. The percentage who reported using marijuana in the previous month (a.k.a. “current” use) also fell, from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent in 2013.
So the concluding words of the Statesman Journal editorial are utterly without support.
The drug war has failed. But Measure 91 is an even worse "solution."
Ooh! Scare quotes around "solution"!
Don't worry, though. There's nothing to fear from legalizing marijuana in Oregon via Measure 91. This is made even more clear in the cogent comments on the Statesman Journal editorial, which I'll include as a continuation to this post.
Regulating and taxing marijuana will make it less available to minors, as is the case with alcohol. As I said in one of my comments, sellers on the black market don't ask for ID. Purveyors of alcoholic beverages do. Other commenters had equally wise things to say, in sharp contrast to the unintelligent editorial.
Vote Yes on Measure 91.
The Statesman Journal acknowledges the War on Drugs has failed. Yet its editorial didn't give a single reason why Measure 91 isn't a big step in the right direction toward a coherent drug policy.
Evidence from Colorado and Washington shows that marijuana legalization is working in these states. Oregon needs to join them.
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