Pubdate: Fri, 4 Dec 2009
Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW)
Section: Feature Article
Webpage: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
Website: http://www.drugsense.org
Author: Nicolas Eyle
Note: Nicolas Eyle is Executive Director or ReconsiDer. This piece
first appeared at the organization's web site: http://www.reconsider.org/

HOW TO CREATE A PROBLEM WHERE NONE EXISTS

How do you create a problem where none exists? Not a commonly asked
question, true, but our government has been touting the dangers of
marijuana for decades and that is getting harder and harder in the
face of growing mountains of evidence to the contrary. Here's one
tact they've taken recently.

AllTranz, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company based in
Lexington, KY.  The National Institute of Health (NIH) and National
Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA) just have given AllTranz a $4
million grant to develop a way to administer marijuana through the
skin, something akin to a nicotine patch to aid the growing number of
marijuana addicts trying to get off the stuff. "What growing number
of marijuana addicts?" you ask.  If you are the federal government
trying desperately to perpetuate their ill-conceived prohibition of
marijuana you can point to the rapidly-growing number of marijuana
users seeking treatment for their problem.

NIDA director Nora Volkow says the agency "is interested in exploring
the role of transdermal THC delivery as an innovative way to treat
marijuana withdrawal symptoms and dependence.  This is especially
relevant to our efforts to fill a critical gap in available
treatments for the many Americans struggling with marijuana-related
disorders and their detrimental medical and social consequences." So
how many marijuana addicted Americans are there? According the NIH
there are about a million of them! According to the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Applied Studies,
Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there
are actually 287,933. A considerably smaller number but still not
insignificant. were it true.

The standard definition of addiction in the DSM IV is "the state of
being psychologically and physiologically dependent on a drug". Well
according to SAMHSA of that 287,933 who listed marijuana dependence
as the primary reason for admission to treatment 37% hadn't used
marijuana in the 30 days prior to their admission. Another 16 percent
of those admitted said they'd only used three times or less in the
month prior to their admission. Doesn't really sound like these folks
were particularly psychologically and physiologically dependent on marijuana.

So once again we ask "where are these marijuana addicts coming from?"
SAMHSA statistics show 6 out of 10 people admitted to treatment for
marijuana are referred to through the criminal justice system.  They
are given a choice . go to treatment or go to jail. SAMHSA's report
says "In 2007, the criminal justice system was the largest single
source of referrals to the substance abuse treatment system.  [T]he
majority of these referrals were from parole and probation offices."

So your tax dollars were spent, elected officials from Kentucky can
get credit for creating jobs at AllTranz, (and probably contributions
from AllTranz's executives), NIDA gets credit for working to solve a
growing problem which is, after all, what the National Institute of
Health is supposed to do, so where is the harm?

For starters several thousand people have been forced to waste a
substantial part of their lives going through "treatment" for a non-
existent addiction.  Most will also get criminal drug possession
charges on their records following them for life, impeding their
chances of finding jobs or money to go to school. The myth of
marijuana addiction is reinforced as these inflated numbers go
unquestioned by the media...  so much for the President's promise...
"I'll change the posture of our federal government from being one of
the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that
embraces science and technology." The lies being propagated to
preserve marijuana prohibition now rival those told to introduce it.