Patrick Kennedy on marijuana: ‘Destroys the brain and expedites psychosis’
For a generation of liberals, legalization of marijuana has become a harmless — if not inevitable — issue.
Not for Patrick Kennedy. The former Rhode Island congressman and scion of the famed Democratic dynasty has taken a surprising turn to the right in this debate.
“Marijuana destroys the brain and expedites psychosis,” he told us Tuesday. “It’s just overall a very dangerous drug.”
Kennedy’s public battles with alcohol and prescription drugs are well known. Was pot an issue for him? He’s used it but wouldn’t elaborate. Still, it’s all part of the same conversation for him: “In terms of neurobiology, there’s no distinction between the quality and types of drugs that people get addicted to. That’s why they call it a gateway drug. Addiction is addiction is addiction.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/patrick-kennedy-on-marijuana-destroys-the-brain-and-expedites-psychosis/2013/01/08/795a20ae-59e3-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_blog.html
launched Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) to shift the debate from legalization to prevention and treatment — despite what appears to be a growing social acceptance of the drug.
Former ONDCP Advisor Kevin Sabet is at it again.
I’ve warned readers before about the “kinder gentler drug war” ideas that Sabet has been peddling. Now with much fanfare and the bi-partisan additions of conservative David Frum and liberal Patrick Kennedy, Sabet has launched Project SAM, known as “Smart Approaches to Marijuana”.
This is Sabet’s latest attempt to paint criticism of War on Drugs, which is gaining traction with the voters, as a “false choice” between “lock ‘em up” and “legalize it”. It is his Goldilocks-and-the-Three-Bears triangulation of the War on Drugs as “too hard”, the legalization of marijuana as “too soft”, and the emphasis on treatment and prevention as “just right”.
It is, as Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance remarked, “a strategic retreat” in order to maintain the prohibition of marijuana. The racial arrest disparities, the denial of medicine to the truly ill, and the devastating consequences of a marijuana possession arrest are battles that he cannot win any more, so he cedes that territory, calling for an end to “stop and frisk”, restoration of civil rights for those who served marijuana sentences, and emergency approval of non-smoked marijuana medicines for the truly ill.
But Sabet’s SAM never addresses the root cause that leads to all of the devastating consequences in the first place: the arrest of a marijuana smoker for possession or use. Indeed, in SAM’s world, pot smokers would still be arrested, but the “kinder gentler drug war” would mandate rehab and supervised probation for those caught with weed. If you should choose not to go to rehab or you fail a pee test, well, then, the force of law still exists to throw you in a cage.
http://www.theweedblog.com/smart-approaches-to-marijuana-would-force-all-pot-smokers-into-prehab/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Lawford and Kennedy.
Of course, he didn't have anyone one to present an opposing viewpoint.
Yes, Patrick, THC is higher in the MJ today, but it can sometimes be lower .... in comparing it to something you know a little bit about ...alcohol ... there is beer with lets say 6% alcohol content, then there is wine with lets say 12% alcohol, and then there is spirits with 30+++ alcohol content ....
Now Patrick, MJ today has many different varieties and strains and levels of THC content ...
Please see this article to understand that marijuana does not always have high THC content ...
"This particular plant has 0.5 percent THC and 17 percent CBD -- or cannabidiol -- the non-psychoactive ingredient [in marijuana],
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/medical-marijuana-epilepsy_n_4378929.html
This is just one of the misstatements that were made in that interview ...
We're winning on all fronts!
... or reality 
I miss Ted Kennedy, but I really wish these fools would STFU
These control freaks just can't accept that the use of marijuana is harmless when used in moderation. Sure there are people that are going to abuse it, just like people that abuse alcohol and smoke too many cigarettes. But we don't put them in jail unless they harm someone else or are a public nuisance like drunk in public.
Do you know that there are 700,000+ marijuana possession arrests in the USA each year? If each arrests costs $1,000 for police, jail and courts that is that is a cost of about $700M. I would call that a waste of taxpayers money and the waste of police resources. IMHO YMMV! 
Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2014, 02:06 AM - Edit history (1)
For the record Mr. Rankin ....
Marijuana is safer than aspirin and every other drug known to mankind .... so put that in your peace pipe and smoke it ....
If you can prove the statement above is incorrect, I would like to see the research ...
...it most certainly is terribly safe.
People die from alcohol poisoning. People die from prescription drug abuse. I guess now I'll list here all the people who have died from cannabis abuse...
...
...
whenever he's on anything. he has a family history of mental illness. (ie, he thinks the govt has spiked all the weed with nanites, which are then activated by radio to control your mind. we thought he was joking, but after a while... we realized he really wasn't. he also thinks the CIA has giant machines under the place he works... 
)
however, I have never seen a non inflicted person descend into psychosis from ripping bongs.
Every sane person knows this it true. There appear to be a lot of mindless dirty druggie hippies on this board....
"just overall a very dangerous drug"
In which case, we better take the laughing gas away from the dentists too, because that drug really kills people.
