Pushing Back : ONDCP Releases 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook

Pushing Back : ONDCP Releases 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released its largest-ever compilation of data relating to marijuana. The 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook contains important data on marijuana in the United States including the latest use patterns and trends, health effects, criminal justice aspects, supply sources, and information regarding so-called “medical marijuana.” The publication draws from a wide variety of national scientific and research-based data sources.

The Sourcebook also contains data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that reveals that less than one half of one percent of inmates in state prisons are serving time for marijuana possession only. Additionally, the Sourcebook contains the latest analysis from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which reveals that levels of THC – the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana – have reached the highest-ever amounts since scientific analysis of the drug began in the late 1970s. The average amount of THC in the most recently seized samples of marijuana has reached a new high of 9.6 percent. This compares to an average of just under 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug since that time.

It’s no surprise that this latest propaganda salvo from the Drug Czar would be released one day in advance of a press conference announcing the first rational federal marijuana policy proposal in thirty years.

Don’t be fooled by the sleight-of-hand.  Since Barney Frank’s HR5843 would end federal penalties for personal marijuana possession, the Drug Czar wants you to think that there really isn’t a problem to be solved.

…less than one half of one percent of inmates in state prisons are serving time for marijuana possession only…

First off, I’d say that if even ONE of our world-record 2.1 million citizens are in prison simply for marijuana possession, that’s one too many.  Second, I’d point out that it’s not necessarily the incarceration that harms the marijuana consumer, it’s the arrest.  They arrested over 730,000 for marijuana possession alone last year and we’re approaching the 20 millionth arrest for marijuana in this nation sometime this October.

But the real slimy thing behind that sound bite is that most marijuana incarcerations happen in state and local jails, not state and federal prisons.  It’s a bit like saying that only .001% of America’s prisoners are serving time for kangaroo poaching.

After dismissing the problem HR5843 seeks to alleviate, they then need you to believe that there is a valid reason to continue arresting people for possessing cannabis, and that would be the dreaded new “Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed” scare tactic:

The average amount of THC in… marijuana has reached a new high of 9.6 percent… more than a doubling in the potency of the drug…

Gosh, it makes you long for the good old days when marijuana was “seven times more potent” or “twenty times more potent” or “twenty-five times more potent” or “400 times more potent”.

Now the original reasoning for banning cannabis was that it was a dangerous drug with no medical efficacy.  That was the so-called “Woodstock Weed” that they like to tell you was 1%-4% THC.  At that potency, it was dangerous enough to be in the schedule with the most dangerous drugs.

So if today’s “Pot 2.0″ at 9.6% is dangerous enough to be Schedule I, wouldn’t the pot of yesterday be half as dangerous?  Would the feds consider changing low-THC weed to Schedule II?  Of course not, because their position is that ANY THC is a dangerous Schedule I drug.

Except when it’s synthesized artificially and made into a pill.  The government placed Marinol (dronabinol), on Schedule III as a drug that has moderate risks and can be prescribed by doctors.  It’s 100% THC.

So tell me again how pot’s increased potency is supposed to be such a danger when it is one-tenth as potent as a government-approved Marinol pill?

Another thing: the US government currently mails 300 marijuana joints of low-potency marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi’s government pot farm to four remaining patients in the Investigative New Drug program.  So, in their view, they are willingly and knowingly poisoning four citizens with a harmful and dangerous drug.  (Lucky for Irv, Elvy, and the two others that the government’s pot sucks and is probably close to the old “Woodstock Weed” potency, if that.)