George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 5 July 2013.]
For years I straddled the fence on the legalization of drug use, especially seemingly benign versions like marijuana. Then I finally got off the fence in favor of making the whole catalog of drugs legal since the war on drugs was not being won, and the collateral damage from the conflict took a horrendous toll on lives and freedoms (more here). I cast my lot with those who counseled legalizing drugs, controlling their distribution at prices that made no one rich, and mopping up the human detritus pretty much as we already do with alcohol and illegal drug use.
The idea is to get the criminal element out of the business, and thereby greatly reduce the layers of well-funded law enforcement agencies that benefitted from the other side of that sorry business. But that’s easier said than done since both the drug cartels and dealers agree with the feds that narcotics should remain on the wrong side of the law. Today the promoters of marijuana use have made contentious inroads in several states to legalize both recreational and medicinal use of that dear little weed. The resulting dust-ups have even reached the local levels such as we are witnessing here in Nevada County where one jurisdiction gives their approval for smoking pot under certain conditions, and another jurisdiction is adamant in saying ‘no way Jose’.
So far the main point of pot proponents has been that smoking it gives rise to no significant health risks and does serve to ease certain aches and pains in addition to soothing the savage breast. But now reports have appeared in prestigious medical journals like Lancet and the Journal of Psychiatry announcing that “medical research shows a clear link between marijuana and mental illness.” Well, I didn’t know that.
Moreover, the most apparent causal link is between smoking pot and schizophrenia, a widespread and most pernicious and debilitating form of mental illness that affects several times more people than are afflicted with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and even HIV/AIDS. We learn that “less than one third of the people with schizophrenia can hold a steady job or live independently”, and that about the same fraction of homeless people suffer from the disease.
The really bad part of the evidence is that this effect is greatest after young people imbibe during their teens and early twenties. Psychiatry says that all of us are predisposed to live near the edge of the “cliff of sanity”, and some come into the world closer to the cliff than others. The evidence on marijuana consumption is that it pushes people even more toward the edge. And those who started out closer to that precipice of insanity often get pushed over.
So this news is taking us into a new area in the legalization debate. Dr Samuel Wilkinson of Yale’s Department of Psychiatry reports (here) on the connection between marijuana and mental illness. He advises that we owe it to the mentally ill among us “and to society in general to consider all the facts, risks, and potential benefits before we embark on this drastic social experiment” of legalizing marijuana. “If the end of Prohibition offers any historical precedence, once marijuana is legalized it will be all but impossible to undo.”
In this context we should consider the already tenuous cognitive state of our under-educated and uninformed electorate and workforce. I believe that this research should be taken seriously and followed to wherever it might lead. It should not be dismissed by marijuana proponents in a manner similar to how true believers in man-made global warming today have dismissed the new findings that dispute the long promoted yet scientifically contended views of the International Panel on Climate Change.
As I consider these findings, the response of Lord Keynes comes to mind. When a reporter pointed out that the famous economist had flipped on a long held thesis. He said, “When new information conflicts with a previous belief, I change my mind. What do you do?”
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
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