Day’s marijuana legalization editorial was correct
A sabra in physician( psychiatrist) for over 42 years, the only difference of opinion I had with The Day’s April 15 editorial — “A prudent step toward marijuana legalization” — was its sentence about a “strong argument can be made that alcohol is far more dangerous.” I might have said “an overwhelmingly powerful argument.”
That is a trivial difference and the rest of the editorial is on target. Alcohol contributes to the deaths of 80,000 to 100,000 Americans via car accidents, murder, suicide, and many diseases, especially of the liver, but also pancreas, kidneys, and the brain. Alcohol worsens depression, increases resistance to depression’s treatment, and shrinks the testicles. I’ve never heard of a murder occurring or a fight breaking out among marijuana users. They usually get more quiet and passive. That’s obviously vastly different with alcohol.
As recent history and the experiment with Prohibition show, marijuana use will continue. As an intern in 1972, I asked a former San Quentin inmate what drugs he could get there. His answer: “any ones you wanted.” If drug use couldn’t be controlled there, it will not be eliminated in open society.
A key point in the editorial that was ignored in the opposing op-ed — “Retract editorial that backed pot legalization” — was that legalization would decrease the chance of adulterated drugs. (It has always seemed a curious business model for drug pushers to overdose customers with fentanyl, but they do.)
The end of the editorial noted the “nonsensical policy” of placing marijuana in the same category (schedule 1) as heroin. That was done by President Richard Nixon, who ignored the recommendations of his own drug commission that he had stacked with antidrug personnel because he was opposed to racial minorities, hippies, and those who were opposing him on the Vietnam War.
Turning to the opposing oped, Dr. Frank Maletz, a retired orthopedic surgeon, is correct that there is a daily scourge of drug use. However, it is not marijuana. It is alcohol and drug overdoses, largely of opioids, but also of opioids used with cocaine and prescription drugs.
Unbelievably, it is estimated that in 2016, 64,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, 9,000 more Americans than died in the entire Vietnam War. Maletz notes the long-term consequences for “classroom performance in preadolescence and adolescence.” Marijuana is a well-known risk for the developing brain and no one in their right mind would condone it. Some of the worst cases I have seen of treatment resistant depression and a lack of motivation were in those who began marijuana use as adolescents.
Sensibly, the editorial calls for legalization of those over 21 years old. Ideally, whenever a teenager starts to use marijuana, the family would have a consultation with their pediatrician and then a mental health professional to see why the almost certainly troubled teenager is self-medicating.
In the same sentence about
classroom performance, Maletz makes a host of assertions that are far from unequivocally proven. He talks about drug adulteration, ignoring that the editorial pointed out that adulteration would be less likely with legalization. Towards the end of his essay he says “once this marijuana genie is released, it will be much harder to contain or re-cork.” Marijuana use has varied over time, but it will never go away.
The primary problem with the op-ed was its shrill, overanxious tone, reminiscent of the 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda movie “Reefer Madness,” and its many unproven assertions. The far more important substance use problems we face are alcohol, cigarettes, opioids, cocaine and prescription drugs (not only opioids but also the Valium Librium Klonopin family known as benzodiazepines). Combined, they are probably responsible for over 600,000 American deaths in 2016.
I think we’d do well to follow the European model of viewing addiction as a disease, not a crime. Destigmatization would probably increase the number of people coming for treatment.
Finally, we could make methadone more available. It’s a long studied and remarkably inexpensive medicine which decreases heroin use by blocking cravings for heroin thus markedly stabilizing a person’s life.
While marijuana can have very destructive effects on developing brains, overall it’s much less risky than many other drugs.
These opinions are purely my own, not those of the academic department with which I’m affiliated.