Marijuana Mommies

* Image stolen from Slate.

Over at Chikii there is an interesting interview with some "Marijuana Mommies". It was a fairly balanced discussion about the use of marijuana and the parenting issues associated with being a parent and a marijuana user. I was pleased that the host did not fall back on making judgmental statements about the parenting abilities of mothers that choose to use marijuana. It was not a re-run of the "Mommy Wars". It is apparent to me that the public is in desperate need of knowledge about drugs, especially marijuana. I found it interesting that a marijuana user would make the statement that marijuana should not be legal because "it isn't something that people should be doing." That was odd. Even the marijuana moms seemed to be unaware that smoking marijuana is not comparable to smoking cigarettes. At least they are aware that smoking marijuana is much safer than using alcohol. I really enjoyed the discussion about the practicalities of having an illegal habit and discussing it (or not) with your children. It was great stuff! I do find it unfortunate that the women were filmed in silhouette to conceal their identities. I hope to live to see the day when people will agree to publicly identify as marijuana users and it won't be a big deal. This interview is a nice counter to reefer madness propaganda.

But then Chikii decided to interview an organization called "Not My Kid". My opinion of this organization can be summed up thusly "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." The contrast between the interview with the marijuana mommies and the members of "Not My Kid" were profound.

They repeated many of John Walter's favorite reefer madness talking points. They state that today's marijuana is not the same marijuana that was smoked in the sixties. They don't bother to discuss why the potency of marijuana has increased over the years. The drug war has made producing and selling marijuana much more difficult and dangerous. They also don't mention that even if the marijuana was 100% THC it would still be impossible to have a fatal overdose. In fact, since THC does not cause cancer, smoking more potent marijuana could be arguably safer than smoking less potent marijuana. Marijuana users smoke until they get the desired effect and then they stop. Getting too high is a waste of good weed. You are exposed to less smoke by smoking more potent marijuana. These women should be congratulating the purveyors of fine BC Bud for making the marijuana safer!

They state that there are more twenty year olds in treatment for marijuana than any other drug. But they don't bother to mention that people that are arrested for possession or trafficking of marijuana are given two options. You can either go to re-hab or you can go to jail and get a criminal record which will have an impact on your future employment options. Shockingly, the majority of people choose re-hab. Who'da thunk-it eh? The statistics about marijuana users are over-inflated and do not reflect the number of users that actually need re-hab. The pearl-clutching about BC Bud was especially hysterical. I guess they didn't hear the news that Canada is not a significant supplier of marijuana to the United States.

They also mention the dangers of marijuana laced with stronger drugs such as heroin. "A young man got hooked on heroin without knowing it! He tested positive for heroin at a drug test!" First of all, drug tests have a high rate of false positives, so unless the positive result was confirmed at a lab, I would question the validity of the test. Second, I highly doubt that very many seasoned pot-smokers would be exposed to heroin without their knowledge. Finally, even if this story is true, these ladies fail to recognize that unregulated marijuana is the cause of laced weed. The best wayto insure the safety of marijuana is to legalize it.

Sometimes I wonder if these drug prohibitionists go to a secret camp where they learn all the appropriate strategies to terrify everybody into being afraid of marijuana and its' users. They always tell some meaningless anecdote about some kid that used marijuana and then went on to use hard drugs and ruin his life. They never bother to mention the millions of marijuana users that never go on to use hard drugs. I guess they wouldn't be drug prohibitionists if they didn't push the thoroughly debunked gateway theory. But the very best bit of stupid reefer madness propaganda was the following statement:

To think there is such a thing as responsible drug use is... it's just an oxy-moron.

Huh???? What about coffee-drinkers, beer-drinkers, prescription drug-users, users of over-the-counter drugs and medical marijuana patients? I suppose these are all irresponsible drug users?

Let me close with this: THE LEGAL STATUS OF A DRUG IS UNRELATED TO ITS' POTENTIAL TO CAUSE HARM. This could arguably be the most important message that drug policy reformers need to give to the public.

UPDATE: Fixed my stupid typos.