From: tuco@frontiernet.net

Making Sense of Weed
Speakers tout the benefits of medicinal marijuana

By C J Patton
Contributor to The Shorthorn

Clayton Jones appeared before an audience Wednesday in Lone Star Auditorium
and unapologetically admitted to using marijuana on a daily basis.

Jones was one of five speakers discussing the benefits of the legalization
of marijuana for medicinal uses. The forum was sponsored by the UTA chapter
of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a national organization pushing for
the decriminalization of marijuana. About half of the 30 students in
attendance were members of the organization.

Jones, an activist in favor of decriminalization, was injured in a
metallurgy plant in 1985 and lost both legs above the knees. His neck was
broken in three places and his back in seven.

"When I got out of the hospital, they had me on every drug you could ever
want," he said.

Jones eventually developed an allergy to doctor-prescribed painkillers. He
began to use marijuana for pain relief and said he agrees with the policy of
decriminalization. There are numerous proven benefits and studies have not
revealed negative effects.

"There isn't any reason people shouldn't have the knowledge that one of the
most effective medications is a weed," he said.

Jones said the government-sponsored anti-drug programs distort scientific
findings that marijuana is a proven benefit when used medicinally.

"It was medicine before H. W. Bush; how is it not medicine now?" he said.

Bryon Adinoff, a psychiatry professor at UT-Southwestern, disagreed. He said
that although he thinks the benefits of medicinal marijuana outweigh the
detriments, there are scientifically proven damaging effects of the drug.

"I hear somebody say, 'It has no danger at all.' I tend to tune them out
because I know that it is potentially dangerous," he said.

Marijuana usage increases risk of heart attack, cancer to the head and neck,
psychosis and schizophrenia, Adinoff said.

He said in spite of these findings, marijuana still has potentially
beneficial uses when applied in moderation.

"It's not an all-or-nothing kind of thing," he said. "It's a balance, like
alcohol or nicotine."

James Quinn, an addictions correction and criminology professor at the
University of North Texas, said he approves the legalization of marijuana
because the costs of prosecuting users are far too high. He said
imprisonment of marijuana users costs between $13,000 per year at the state
level and $25,000 per year at the federal level.

"You thought the war in Iraq was expensive? That's expensive," he said.

Speaking from his criminology background, Quinn said the arguments against
marijuana as a violent drug were lies and most likely political in nature.
He said the government keeps marijuana illegal to aid the drug companies and
that societal studies disprove misconceptions about the drug.

"Marijuana does not cause violence," he said. "A lot of people out there
have messed up minds, messed up lives and they also happen to smoke
marijuana. They commit crimes while on marijuana, but that's true of any
other drug."

_____________

The government lies?  Who woulda thunk it?

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