Obama: Marijuana No More Dangerous Than Alcohol

"Marijuana is one of the least toxic substances in the whole pharmacopoeia"
Professor Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, USA

Obama: Marijuana No More Dangerous Than Alcohol

With a majority of Americans now in favor marijuana legalization, President Barack Obama is now saying weed is no more dangerous to individuals' health than alcohol.

In an interview with the New Yorker's David Remnick published Sunday, Obama said while he believes marijuana is "not very healthy," the drug isn't as harmful as some insist.

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama told Remnick.

When asked if he believes marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, Obama said it is less damaging "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer."

"It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," he added.

Marijuana is currently classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 substance, which the DEA considers "the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence." Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, ecstasy and LSD.

Obama said his focus on reforming laws that punish drug users, noting the racial disparity in drug arrests.

"We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing," he said.

In August, the Obama administration announced it would not stop Washington and Colorado from legalizing recreational marijuana use, marking a major step away from the administration's war on drugs.

In the New Yorker interview, Obama said he believes these new laws are "important."

“It's important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished," he said.

Source: Huffington Post (NY)
Author: Mollie Reilly, The Huffington Post
Published: January 19, 2014
Copyright: 2014 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC
Contact: scoop@huffingtonpost.com
Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
URL: http://drugsense.org/url/MOlI0cb8
CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archives



The President talks about drugs dwr

Here’s the section on marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs in the extensive New Yorker interview by David Remnick with President Obama:

Although the President has been extremely disappointing in terms of his actual actions in reforming drug policy, this is a really incredible message for a sitting President to be making (again showing how far we’ve come). Publicly admitting that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol? Obviously true, but not something we expect to hear from the administration.

And while it was presented in the context of ‘slippery slope,’ we actually just heard the President of the United States say that there might be a legitimate argument some day for legal, regulated cocaine or meth.



This is the Brain of Incremental Retardation...

It Is Immoral to Cage Humans for Smoking Marijuana

As the Last Denialist' Cling to the Stinking Sinking WoD Bullship.

Possibly the most-studied substance on the planet

58% of Americans favor legalizing marijuana

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Kill Cancer Cells

Cannabis Users Are Safer Drivers Than Non-Users

Ganja safer than not toking..

Cannabis less harmful than aspirin

Cannabis Less Risky Than Alcohol/Tobacco, Says Report

One of marijuana's greatest advantages is remarkable safety

 

Yes, we have a new precedent. Exciting times:2thumbsup:

 

Alcohol Is More Than Twice As Harmful As Marijuana: Study
By Steve Elliott On September 7, 2013

Alcohol causes far more damage to users and to society than does the use of marijuana, according to a 2011 study published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.

Researchers at the Imperial College of London looked at “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol,” reports Paul Armentano at AlterNet. They determined that marijuana smoking, particularly longterm, does some harm to the lungs and circulatory system, and increases certain mental-health risks (which is debatable).

But in contrast, the authors described alcohol as “a toxic substance” responsible for almost five percent “of the total global disease burden.”



“A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered to be more than twice as harmful as cannabis to users, and five times more harmful as cannabis to others (society),” investigators determined. “As there are few areas of harm that each drug can produce where cannabis scores more [dangerous to health] than alcohol, we suggest that even if there were no legal impediment on cannabis use, it would be unlikely to be more harmful than alcohol.”

“The findings underline the need for a coherent, evidence-based drugs policy that enables individuals to make informed decisions about the consequences of their drug use,” the researchers concluded.

The findings are underlined by a 2011 study, almost completely ignored by mainstream media, showing alcohol use increases lung cancer risk by 30 percent.



Alcohol use causes an incredible four percent of all deaths worldwide — more than AIDS, tuberculosis, or violence — according to a February 2011 report from the World Health Organization.

And a 2011 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that in the U.S. alone, an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to “excessive” drinking. The study estimates that the overall cost of excessive drinking by Americans is $223.5 billion each year.

Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for those who drink alcohol when compared to those who use marijuana, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a 2009 review published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.

“In terms of [health-related] costs per user: tobacco-related health costs are over $800 per user, alcohol-related health costs are much lower at $165 per user, and cannabis-related health costs are the lowest at $20 per user [italics added],” the investigators concluded.

Much of the evidence showing that the risks of marijuana are small compared to those associated with alcohol is covered in the excellent book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People To Drink?, coauthored by Armentano with Steve Fox and Mason Tvert.

Given all the evidence of the enormously higher cost of alcohol use than cannabis use to society, you may be wondering why it’s considered socially acceptable for everyone from the President on down to be seen drinking a beer, yet smoking a joint is considered a big deal.

And guess which one is against federal law?



Here Are All The People Who Have DIED From A MARIJUANA OVERDOSE

Just how deadly a killer is marijuana? Here’s a GIF showing all of the people who have died after overdosing on pot:



Yeah, not a single person has ever died from a weed overdose. We don’t have numbers on pandas, but we’re guessing it’s about the same. According to one frequently cited study, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying.

 

The police groups also make a number of additional controversial claims that marijuana use itself leads to violent behavior, suicidal thoughts and interest in harder drugs. Scientific studies have not been able to prove this causation conclusively, however, and research has also suggested that THC has significant therapeutic value to patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or glaucoma.

Colorado's dangerous experiment
Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Depending on who you ask, marijuana in Colorado seems to be a big success. To the stores that are nearly or already completely sold out, legal pot is the greatest thing since ... well, actually, I can't think of anything. To the state, salivating over its estimated tax receipts, it's a triumph to be savored! And to the people who wander curiously into the pot stores—most of whom have probably never smoked pot before—it is no doubt strange exciting and exotic! However, for those of us who know better, it's the sad slow start of a slow-motion train-wreck, where the engineer driving the train is asleep at the controls and the passengers are having the time of their lives.

 

It's good to see Obama finally said something truthful.

 

I suppose he figured when cutting welfare programs, "ya niggas got weed what you crying about ? "...

 

Glad to see Obama say what he did. Mainly that he was going to leave Colorado and WA alone. I would like to see it on my state's ballot next. Knowing that it could be law, and be left alone by the fucking feds, would be like Christmas every day of the week.

It'll be another ten years for the rest of us.

 

I wonder what it would take to put legalization on the next national election ballot? Is it even possible to do it that way? Could it be as simple as putting it up for a vote? I could just type my vote into notepad and the NSA could pick it up and process it during their routine sweep. As long as they're in there they might as well do some chores, eh?

 

* Petitioning President Barack Obama
This petition will be delivered to: President Barack Obama
If marijuana is safer than alcohol, remove it from the DEA’s schedule of drugs

Dear No,
In a profile published this week by The New Yorker magazine, President Barack Obama acknowledged the fact that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol for the consumer. Yet federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, a category the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers “the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules.” It’s time for that to change.

The Controlled Substances Act gives the executive branch, led by President Obama, the legal authority to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. That authority should be exercised immediately.

Please sign our Change.org petition calling on President Obama to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. Then share it widely with your friends and relatives, and encourage them to sign and share it, too.

The president clearly recognizes that marijuana is safer than alcohol — which is not a scheduled drug — so he should do everything he can to ensure our federal laws reflect that fact. Actions speak louder than words, and it’s time for the president to take action.

Sign our petition now and tell President Obama to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. Marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and it is time for our government to start treating it that way.

Sincerely,
Dan Riffle, Director of Federal Policies
Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C.

This is the Brain of Incremental Retardation…