Reefer madness II

[medicinal]

The Purple Brain: America's New Reefer Madness
By Marsha Rosenbaum and Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted June 23, 2007.

A new film designed to frighten Americans about pot, The Purple Brain, makes absurd and unsubstantiated claims of "brain damage."
More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the notorious 1936 film, Reefer Madness has arrived. It's called The Purple Brain, and just like its unintentionally campy predecessor, its purpose is to frighten Americans about marijuana.

The particular target audience for the Feds' new production is the millions of parents who may have, without incident, experimented with marijuana in the 1970s, when they were about the same age as their children are today.

The plot is as follows: Sure, the pot you and your 40-something peers once enjoyed may have been innocuous, but that's only because it bears no resemblance to the super-potent weed of today-- strains with such foreboding names as "Train wreck," "AK-47," and "The Purple." As proclaimed by Drug Czar John Walters recently, "[W]e are no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s -- this is [in computer parlance] Pot 2.0."

To top off this frightening message, unsubstantiated claims of "brain damage" resulting from the use of this super-pot are new buzzwords in today's Prevention circles.

If ever there was an attention-getting script for scaring the hell out of parents, this is it.

Fortunately, while the headlines are grabbing, the story lacks credibility.

Growers in the business of selling marijuana have always attached pet names to selected strains of pot. In the 1970s, popular varieties included "Acapulco Gold" and "Maui Wowie." Today, as in the past, most of these labels are little more than clever marketing gimmicks devised by producers and sellers to distinguish their particular product in a highly competitive marketplace.

While a handful of potent strains may be available in limited quantities today, these varieties compose only a minute percentage of the overall marketplace -- at a price tag that is cost-prohibitive to anyone but the most wealthy of aficionados. For others, marijuana remains essentially the same plant it has always been, with its relatively mild rise in average potency akin to the difference between beer and wine.

Unlike alcohol -- or even aspirin, -- today's marijuana still poses no risk of fatal overdose, regardless of the strength of its primary psychoactive ingredient, THC. Moreover, cannabis consumers readily distinguish between low and high potency marijuana and moderate their use accordingly.

Finally, despite claims that marijuana alters the brain, it is important to note that THC -- regardless of its potency -- is surprisingly non-toxic to the adult as well as the teenage brain. Recently scientists at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research reported that they could find "no ... evidence of cerebral atrophy or loss of white matter integrity" attributable to cannabis use in the brains of frequent adolescent marijuana users (compared to non-using controls) after performing MRI scans and other advanced imaging technology. Separate studies assessing the cognitive skills of long-term marijuana smokers have also reported no demonstrable deficits.

Of course, marijuana is an intoxicant that should be avoided until and unless an individual has reached an age of mental and physical maturity, and this might be well into his or her twenties.

But as we urge adolescents to abstain or at least delay, let's not forget the lessons we've learned after two decades of drug education that has failed to convince students to "just say no." When teens ultimately learn the truth, exaggerated campaigns like "The Purple Brain" do little more than create skepticism about anything adults tell them about drugs, not to mention fueling their natural curiosity.

What's really frightening is that when teens realize they've been deceived about marijuana, they tend to disregard warnings about the very real dangers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. It's this latter scenario that ultimately trumps The Purple Brain as the real horror show.

medicinal Reviewed by medicinal on 06-26-2007. Reefer madness II The Purple Brain: America's New Reefer Madness By Marsha Rosenbaum and Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted June 23, 2007. A new film designed to frighten Americans about pot, The Purple Brain, makes absurd and unsubstantiated claims of "brain damage." More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the notorious 1936 film, Reefer Madness has arrived. It's called The Purple Brain, and just like its unintentionally campy predecessor, its purpose is to frighten Americans about Rating: 5

[Oil_Man]

Hahah that reffer madness movie was the funniest thing ive seen.. i watched it in drug class an lit up a bowl at the back ahha...

my drug teacher was tellin how how stupid the shit was.. it even said that herion is better than weed.. nothin like the cazy-30's lol

[Markass]

the government is so stupid...

[TheBlazeofGlory]

What's really frightening is that when teens realize they've been deceived about marijuana, they tend to disregard warnings about the very real dangers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. It's this latter scenario that ultimately trumps The Purple Brain as the real horror show.

And that's what scares me.

Growing up in the 90s, having D.A.R.E. screaming bullshit down my throat the entire ride through public education.. And then having said "Okay. I'll give it MY fair evaluation.".. Then I tried pot.. Saw how amazing of a plant it is, how beneficial it is to the human psyche.

It really, really, really made me question the warnings about other, harder drugs.

If Marijuana is to be considered a 'gateway drug', it's not because it is actually a 'gateway drug', but because the propaganda surrounding it is easily warded off and discarded, holding no water at all. And when you realize the propaganda was written for financial reasons, personal gain, and greed.. Then you begin to quesion if other drugs are the same way, alot of smoke and mirrors. I've seen far too many guys I've graduate with fall to cocaine, meth, and prescription pills. Not because they smoked pot, but because someone told them pot was bad, and they said "Well, if pot ISN'T bad, coke can't be bad either."

The system breeds ignorance, and the ignorance breeds loss. The loss breeds profits for those in power, breeds problems for the weak underclass. Allows those with money to override the poor. It's a spiral that NEEDS to end with our generation, the 20 year olds now. We're a violent generation, you can look at the years we came into maturity. Many school-violence tragedies, many murders by teenagers. Hell, if you add it up, the VT shootings a while back was done by someone in their mid-twenties. The generation of teenagers who grew up in the 90s are violent.

But for every part violent we are, we are equally smart. We are the generation that brought the internet into mainstream society, brough video games and high-tech gadgets.

We have to be the generation to stand up, raise our hands and say "This is all wrong. Not because I disagree, but because I see your flaws."

We have to.