The Marijuana Business

It is your decision. Would you like a drug freely and legally available that, among other things, a) causes deterioration of short term memory; b) produces a 38 per cent drop in metabolism of the neurotransmitters in the brain; c) causes severe systemic damage; and d), according to extensive documentation, precipitates grave antisocial behavior. Well, you’ve got it and, of course, it’s booze.

It is estimated that there are between nine and twenty million alcoholics in the country and that alcoholism costs society every year roughly $20 billion. Even in the face of this, of course, no one seriously proposes controlling it— that idea having fallen on its face in the Twenties. So the question becomes, should society sanction yet another pleasure drug, which new and clear evidence indicates is biologically and psychologically damaging to mind and body, namely marijuana and hashish? It is a difficult question not only because the cultural imperative of the last few years has been to accept it freely, but also because of the deeper issue of private versus public controls on our private and personal habits. But let us examine the evidence against marijuana.

MG

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Michael Gazzaniga

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It is your decision. Would you like a drug freely and legally available that, among other things, a) causes deterioration of short term memory; b) produces a 38 per cent drop in metabolism of the neurotransmitters in the brain; c) causes severe systemic damage; and d), according to extensive documentation, precipitates grave antisocial behavior. Well, you’ve got it and, of course, it’s booze.

It is estimated that there are between nine and twenty million alcoholics in the country and that alcoholism costs society every year roughly $20 billion. Even in the face of this, of course, no one seriously proposes controlling it— that idea having fallen on its face in the Twenties. So the question becomes, should society sanction yet another pleasure drug, which new and clear evidence indicates is biologically and psychologically damaging to mind and body, namely marijuana and hashish? It is a difficult question not only because the cultural imperative of the last few years has been to accept it freely, but also because of the deeper issue of private versus public controls on our private and personal habits. But let us examine the evidence against marijuana.