Saturday, May 23, 2009
Cohen Chides FBI Head on "Gateway" Theory of Marijuana
Posted by Jackson Baker on Sat, May 23, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, never looked wearier or more at a loss than when he tangled last week with 9th District congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis on the issue of whether marijuana can be considered a "gateway" drug, leading to experimentation with harder drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamnes.
In this CNN video (below) of a Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Cohen presses his interrogation of Mueller on the issue of whether use of marijuana — the legalized medical use of which Cohen is a proponent of — leads to dependence on the more dangerous drugs. Mueller fumbled with the question, acknowledging at one point that he could cite no death attributable to marijuana use.
In the end, Cohen hazarded an answer in the negative to his own question, suggesting ironically that milk leads to beer which in turn leads to the use of bourbon.
Here's part of how it went:
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Fantastic! Cohen has obviously done his homework as opposed to just blindly believing whatever lie is fed to him about marijuana. He's 100% correct, the gateway drug theory has been disproved time and time again. It has been demonstrated that while it is true that a person is more likely to try marijuana before trying cocaine, trying marijuana does not make you any more likely to try cocaine.
It's just as Mr. Cohen suggested with his milk analogy. You are likely to try milk before whiskey, but the milk doesn't make you any more likely to try whiskey.
Lookup "Gateway Drug Theory" on wikipedia for the real details.
Absolutely one of the very finest hours in Steve's career.
Marijuana is less addictive than caffeine (according to a NIDA study), and tobacco is more addictive than heroin (according to a NIDA study). Marijuana has never killed anyone (Muller admits this) while tobacco kills over 400,000 people per year. So keeping one legal while the other isn't is sheer hypocrisy. What is wrong with our country? Keeping marijuana illegal is just job security for law enforcement and prison guards. Every time there is a debate, who do we have opposing it. Police. We'll always need police, just fewer of them, or else the same amount and they can concentrate on unsolved rapes and murders. Even if some lose their jobs, no one should want a job that destroys families. The most dangerous thing about marijuana is that a person can go to prison over it and their family suffers worse than them.
Also, I've created a web page that asks people to sign 8 petitions related to changing unjust marijuana laws, including ending marijuana prohibition, as well as ending raids, dismissing pending prosecutions, and pardoning federal defendants charged with the "crime" of following state medical marijuana law (the Obama administration hasn't made even the slightest "change" here yet). The whole process takes 15-20 minutes. Please see http://bestlodging.com/politics (this page isn't linked from my Best Lodging home page as I want to keep the hotel reservation site separate). While you're there you can check out my new diet/muscle gain web site that is really free, which is located at http://bestlodging.com/diet - Thanks, Bryan Epis
Way to stick it to 'em Steve.
Milk is indeed the gateway. My godfather died with a gin and milk in his hand--if only his mama had never given him that first glass.
Has Steve Cohen ever smoked marijuana? And, does he currently smoke marijuana as a Member of Congress?
He's 60 years old, which means he came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, he probably smoked pot. Didn't you, "Morris" Musurlian? I doubt if he smokes it now. You, on the other hand, blow smoke out your butt constantly.
Industrial hemp has the potential of lifting our state out of its budget shortfall with its excellent purported viabile use as an ethanol base along with its many co-products.
The irrational fear over problems created through legal but regulated marijuana use, now have the potential to bankrupt our state.
"Nothing is harder to explain than the glaringly obvious to those who have already decided they do not believe it." - Ayn Rand
I agree with Cohen and am proud he has the balls to say the obvious, even in spite of how politically polarizing this issue is. But isn't it the job of the legislative branch to make the laws, not question the FBI director about whether or not they make sense?
I do agree with the congressman, but let us not forget that smoking a joint is much the same as smoking a cigarette when it comes to all of the nasty, harmful chemicals.
Decriminalize it. Legalize it. Tax it. It just makes way too much sense.
Steve Cohen is such an idiot. Of course smoking marijuana leads to other drugs. Once your inhibitions are gone about trying it, a person will pretty much try other drugs and an addiction is that - something you then can't stop.
All the pot heads I know are blithering idiots precisely because they have fried their brain cells. Ok, so maybe none of them have DIED from it, but being dumber than a grade schooler is almost as bad when you're 40!
veritas, then let's outlaw alcohol. It causes far far more damage than marijuana ever has, or ever will. And far, far more people have been made blithering idiots by it than mj.
I am willing to bet that people you called "dumber than a grade schooler" at age 40 are pretty much dumb on their own right. It's a pretty safe bet that smoking a joint did NOT decrease their intellect.
Oh that's right, I forgot about "This is your brain on drugs" PSAs from the 80s.
veritas, how many brilliant alcoholics do you know?
it's like anything else you do too much of. except the other stuff is legal.
"its not what drugs you are strung out on. So much as whose"- Todd Snider.
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