Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Reefer Madness
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008We reported in March on Iowa’s Senator Tom Harkin’s reefer madness, where he believes that using marijuana will harm “the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix.” Well, there must be some special hallucinogen in the water because Iowa’s other senator, Chuck Grassley, has a severe case of reefer madness, too, as evidenced by this letter received from Grassley by a fan of the Stash:
Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your thoughts on marijuana. I always enjoy hearing from people back home.
I must, however, disagree with your views on this topic. You see, marijuana is illegal because it is dangerous. When you smoke marijuana, or use any other drug, it changes your brain. It changes the way you think, your ability to learn, and how well you can remember. Making marijuana a legal drug will not change any of this.
Oh, so now we criminalize dangerous intoxicants that affect your brain? When we ended alcohol prohibition, did that change how it makes you think, learn, and remember when you’re drunk?
What Grassley is alluding to is the notion that marijuana smoking permanently changes your brain, which isn’t true at all. Marijuana doesn’t kill brain cells, affect your intelligence, or alter your long-term or short-term memory. (Yes, you get short-term memory loss while you’re high, but once you’re sober again, your memory is fine.)
Some drug users believe that their drug use only affects themselves and that they pose no threat to society. This belief is misguided. People who use drugs do so to alter their perceptions of reality. When someone is high, they cannot be as alert to dangers that are always around us, dangers such as a boiling pot on the stove, a burning candle, or even something as simple as an open window.
Watch out! Smoke that reefer and you’ll burn yourself and fall out a window! Again, you have to wonder if Senator Grassley realizes that there are thousands of Iowans “altering their perceptions of reality” with a six-pack, getting drunk (high) and failing to notice boiling pots, burning candles, and open windows.
We know that drug-using workers are 3 to 4 times as likely to have on-the-job accidents, 4 to 6 time more likely to have off-the-job accidents, 2 to 3 times more likely to file medical claims, 5 times more likely to file workman’s compensation, and 25 percent to 35 percent less productive on the job. To claim that drug use affects only the user is to deny the reality that whatever we do effects those around us.
It’s always fun to debunk someone who throws out statistics with no citation. My first thought is, “Hmm, wonder what those stats are for alcohol-using workers?” My second thought is, “You wanna talk medical claims and productivity; let’s go talk to the tobacco smokers huddled outside for their fourth fifteen minute smoke break of the day.” My third thought is, “Drug-using workers - including meth, coke, smack? - or just potheads?” My fourth thought is, “Any stat you can find for lost productivity, accidents, workman’s comp, and medical claims are trumped in those categories by workers who drink, smoke, are too tired, are injured, or are on certain prescription medications.”
