Marijuana Debunked is a recently-published book by an addictions psychiatrist, Dr. Ed Gogek. The pro-legalization community pretends that the only policy choices are legalization and jail. However, if the legalization advocates told us that truth, they would lose their talking points. Gogek exposes the flaws of their arguments.
Here’s a sample of some quotes from the book, each one an important issue for parents who are faced with the challenge of educating our children about drugs.
Debunking Marijuana Myth #1: Pot is not Safer than Alcohol
“There is no way to say one drug of abuse is safer than another. Each drug has at least one way in which it’s worse than all the rest.”
Marijuana is worse than all the others in TWO Ways. It “causes the most permanent damage to the adolescent brain; it causes the most students to drop out.”
Debunking Marijuana Myth #2 If pot is legal, people will drink less
“Legalizing marijuana won’t curb alcohol abuse. It would just create more people who abuse alcohol and marijuana together.”
“Problem drinkers don’t switch, they just abuse marijuana along with alcohol.” (How true!)
Debunking Marijuana Myth #3: Keeping marijuana illegal is just like Prohibition
“If everyone used alcohol the way they use marijuana —that is, drank only to get wasted – we’d probably still have Prohibition.”
The driver in a six-vehicle accident in Denver on the morning of August 3 was stoned and drunk. One man died; the driver is charged with manslaughter. Photo: CBS
Debunking Marijuana Myth #4: Using pot a victimless crime
“A lot of people think drug abuse is a victimless crime. But medical marijuana laws cause three serious problems that outweigh the help they offer: traffic fatalities, teenage use and cynicism.”
Debunking Marijuana Myth #5: Pot is illegal because of racism
“The marijuana lobby is using the plight of African-Americans to promote legalization, but legalization would make their plight worse.” (Based on how early drug use leads to students dropping out and makes it hard to get a job, this point is very important if we are looking for the best outcomes for the most people.)
Debunking Marijuana Myth #6: People are in jail for pot alone
“Incarceration for possession is rare, but marijuana advocates want us to believe it’s common and could happen to anyone.” A study explained in the book shows that ½ of 1/10th of 1% of those in state and federal prisons are in their for pot alone.
Debunking Marijuana Myth #7: If it’s legal, youth would use less
“In a survey published in 2014 in the International Journal of Drug Policy, 10% of high school students said they did not use marijuana but would use if it were legal.”
Debunking Marijuana Myth #8: Driving stoned is safe
“For the marijuana lobby, the debate over driving is just politics, so they repeating claim that driving while stoned is safe and ignore the most comprehensive study to date that says it can be deadly. This might help them win political campaigns but it’s terrible for the teenagers who believe them.”
Debunking Marijuana Myth #9: Marijuana is Harmless
“Marijuana does damage quietly and insidiously. Marijuana users don’t know they have subtle brain damage.”
“This belief among users that marijuana doesn’t affect them at all when it clearly does is marijuana denial. We see it in adolescents who think they drive better stoned.”
Drug Courts help people who commit crimes while on drugs by getting them into addiction treatment. Dr. Gogek has treated more than 10,000 addicts and alcoholics in jails, prisons, homeless clinics, mental health centers and treatment programs.
Dr. Gogek, like Kevin Sabet and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, co-founders of Project SAM, supports recovery-based solutions.
In short, Marijuana Debunked is highly recommended.
Source:
http://www.poppot.org/2015/10/02/marijuana-legalization-debunked/
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