A devoted Stash listener forwarded me a response he received after contacting his congressman, Brad Ellsworth, of Indiana’s 8th District. What impresses me most is Ellsworth’s ability to fit so much reefer madness into so few sentences.

Thank you for contacting me to share your views on marijuana. I appreciate your comments, and I welcome this opportunity to share my thoughts.

According to a 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), marijuana remains the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States¹. While marijuana use is generally unhealthy² and has negative social repercussions³, it also serves as a gateway drug to more dangerous substance abuse⁴. For these reasons, I remain concerned by the prevalence of drug abuse⁵ in our culture and the harmful consequences that are the result of this behavior.

As a career law enforcement officer, I saw firsthand the devastating effects that illicit drug use can have on both individuals and communities⁶. While a member of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office, I initiated the Drug Abuse Resistance Effort (DARE)⁷ program to make children aware of the dangers posed by drug use. I made fighting drugs a top priority within the department and I will continue to do so in the United States Congress. Currently, no legislation regarding the legalization of non-medicinal marijuana has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives⁸. If such legislation is introduced, I will not support it.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your views with me. I need your input to make the best decisions possible, so please stay in touch!

Well, then, Congressman, here is some input:

1: This statistic is absolutely true. Cannabis is used at least once by about 25 million people each year. That by itself means nothing besides the qualifier “illicit” being used to denigrate cannabis. Over 162 million use alcohol each year and over 71 million use tobacco each year, the use of both being far more unhealthy and with far more negative social repercussions than cannabis.

2: While inhaling the smoke of burning vegetable matter is never “healthy” (and can be avoided by using edibles or vaporization), it’s a stretch to call cannabis smoking “unhealthy”. Smokers may develop more respiratory difficulty than non-smokers, but far less than tobacco smokers. It does not contribute to cancer. There are some studies showing anti-tumoral properties from cannabis. It does not lead to schizophrenia. It does not kill your brain cells. It does not harm the fetus. It does not affect fertility. And while your short term memory is affected while high, after it wears off there is no affect on thinking or memory.

3: Absolutely true. Social repercussions like losing your college aid, losing a job, losing your possessions, going to prison, losing your right to vote*, and more. But cannabis isn’t causing those social repercussions - laws prohibiting cannabis cause those repercussions.

4: Once and for all - THERE IS NO GATEWAY EFFECT FROM MARIJUANA! This logical fallacy is based on the idea that most heroin / coke / meth users first used marijuana, so if you smoke pot, you’ll naturally move on to those other drugs. But when you realize that there are 25 million annual pot smokers and only 6 million cocaine users, less than 2 million meth users, and less than half a million heroin users, you realize that most people who smoke weed only smoke weed. Less than 1 of 100 marijuana users ever tries cocaine or heroin. Alcohol and cigarette use are more prevalent precursors of illicit drug use than cannabis.  The only thing cannabis and heroin have in common is that they are both considered Schedule I drugs^†.  The only “gateway” is the black market drug dealer who sells all the illegal substances.

5 & 6: This is how most anti-cannabis screeds start by demonizing cannabis, but then go on to merge cannabis use with all other drug abuse - it’s the old leaf + line + needle graphic that highlights a drug bust on the evening news.  It’s why the “gateway” is so important in their argument - most people know that marijuana isn’t the demon weed it is made out to be, but most people also know of the true harms of cocaine, meth, or heroin abuse.  So it is very important that they all be “illicit drugs” and we erase the distinctions between them.

7: The DARE program has been shown time and again to be ineffective at preventing teen drug use, a waste of money, and perhaps counterproductive in that it may increase the prevalence of drug use by suburban kids.

8: I guess the congressman is unaware of Barney Frank’s HR5843, which legalize the possession of up to 100 grams of non-medical marijuana by adults.

Isn’t it nice to know that our elected officials make cannabis policy guided by facts and reason?

*if your cannabis “crime” was a felony in certain states that disenfranchise felons.

†Dangerous addictive drugs with no medical value. Cocaine and methamphetamine are actually Schedule II drugs, meaning they do have acceptable medical value and may be prescribed by a physician. In all 50 states, your doctor can prescribe coke or meth for you, but not cannabis.

Tags: Indiana, Rep. Brad Ellsworth

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 7:30 am and is filed under Commentary, Pot 'n' Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.