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In reply to the discussion: Casual marijuana use linked to brain changes [View all]RainDog
(28,784 posts)to do "reality checks" as far as studies, etc. go - first examine your own bias as you look at any work. When I first see such things, I say to myself - maybe they have demonstrated x or y. But, so far, they haven't.
Read the actual study, etc.
I agree with you about the harm such propaganda has done as far as assessing risk, etc. When I was in school long ago I took a course that looked at licit and illicit drugs and discussed all much more dispassionately - without the propaganda.
I think that's a much better way for people to make informed decisions. But when people talk to teenagers, they mostly just want to make them averse to something, not informed about various things, unfortunately. The approach to marijuana is most like "abstinence only" education - don't talk about realities - just put horror stories out there and expect respect - but, as most of us know - that's not what happens in either situation - and the sort of education employed does harm to people, rather than help them take personal responsibility.
I also agree that harm reduction approaches are better for societies. In the U.S., the drug war is a variation on the long, long history of denying African-Americans full citizenship - and controlling African-Americans (often men) through bondage. In the U.S. we saw this with slavery, then with chain gangs in the south for almost another century, and now with arrest and imprisonment stats. The unequal application of the law is yet another way to express racism in this nation.
btw - do you speak Afrikaans? if so, dag! (I don't speak Afrikaans, but studied Dutch in the past and can understand some Afrikaans b/c of the similarities.)
an interesting aside - one of the earliest known writings about the use of cannabis related to the U.S. was from a Dutch slave trader in South Africa who wrote about its use among people who were brought to the U.S. in bondage. It was used in religious ceremonies. Back then, slaves were allowed to continue their religious practices b/c the slave traders had an us/them view. That was in the 1600s, before the U.S. even had the draconian laws that were aimed specifically at one group of people held in slavery in the Americas - but not those held in debt bondage (with lighter skin.) At that time, any person brought to the Americas could purchase freedom.
Strange way of thinking... purchasing freedom.