Ed Feulner, the former president of the Heritage Foundation, writes about our culture’s double standards for tobacco cigarettes and for marijuana. Here’s an excerpt:
An article by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, documents many negative effects of marijuana use. And the research continues to pile up, showing how it can harm the developing teenage brain, increase the risk of heart attack, and diminish IQ.
“More than smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana can damage the heart, lungs and brain,” write William J. Bennett and Robert A. White in the new book “Going to Pot.” “Moreover, it immediately impairs cognitive abilities and motor coordination, interfering with the smoker’s judgment, driving skills, and other basic abilities.” It delivers more tar to the lungs than tobacco does, along with cancer-causing chemicals. Many long-term or heavy users develop symptoms of chronic bronchitis. In high doses, paranoia and psychosis result.
Many older adults who remember “smoking a little grass” back in school may scoff. Hey, they used it, and they’re just fine, right? What many of them don’t realize is that today’s marijuana is very different from the allegedly harmless joint passed around a party back in the ’70s or ’80s. Today’s pot is much more potent.
“More than smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana can damage the heart, lungs and brain,” write William J. Bennett and Robert A. White in the new book “Going to Pot.” “Moreover, it immediately impairs cognitive abilities and motor coordination, interfering with the smoker’s judgment, driving skills, and other basic abilities.” It delivers more tar to the lungs than tobacco does, along with cancer-causing chemicals. Many long-term or heavy users develop symptoms of chronic bronchitis. In high doses, paranoia and psychosis result.
Many older adults who remember “smoking a little grass” back in school may scoff. Hey, they used it, and they’re just fine, right? What many of them don’t realize is that today’s marijuana is very different from the allegedly harmless joint passed around a party back in the ’70s or ’80s. Today’s pot is much more potent.
Read the whole thing here.
