Reefer Madness invades Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Loyolan - Marijuana revisited
LMU’s Division of Student Affairs’ recently released newsletter, “Cannabis Conundrum,” showcases an increased level of drug use on campus, raising issues of social and cultural dimensions behind the use of marijuana.The newsletter cites marijuana as one of the most used drugs on campus, analyzing its increasing consumption on campus and the reasons why a student would begin using marijuana.
The “Cannabis Conundrum” claims the short-term side effects of marijuana include “impairments in learning, memory, comprehension, concentration, intense anxiety, paranoia and immediate increased risk of heart attack.” The newsletter further states that in the long term, marijuana usage may also cause “psychosis, schizophrenia, and other mental, physical and social problems.”
Once again, we have overzealous college administrators leaping on the reefer madness bandwagon, spouting such nonsense about marijuana leading to psychosis, schizophrenia, amotivational syndromes, and heart attacks. (For a minute, I thought Loyola Marymount must be in the UK!)
However, it is refreshing to read that many of the students at Loyola are better informed about the facts regarding marijuana use and enforcement than are the administrators trying to protect them from the “devil weed”.
One student remarked, “To say marijuana causes schizophrenia is ridiculous. It’s a latent psychological disorder and smoking more weed does not make you more likely to experience it.”
Another student observed, “It makes no sense to me that a girl coming home from a party who throws up into a bush has nothing to worry about, while a kid sitting in his dorm with a bong and a towel under the door gets hunted down like a criminal.”
Regarding so-called amotivation, another student said, “I believe in the power of self-determination. I feel like some people have the ability to make [marijuana] part of their lives and others don’t.”
The pamphlet tries to scare students by showing an graph of the increase in marijuana busts on campus alongside a decrease in overall GPA during the same four year stretch. Even one of the faculty weighed in on that argument, saying, “I don’t feel like [the graph] is reflective of an increasing use of pot on campus; rather, I feel like it’s reflective of enforcement being increased.”
The only conundrum about cannabis on campus is why we continue to steer our young people toward socializing and relaxing with alcohol and not cannabis, which is proven to be far safer.
Tags: California, Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount
