D.A.R.E. America Chairman Skip Miller writes in his Jan. 28 Times Op-Ed article, “Don’t legalize marijuana,” that his organization has been successful in its efforts to reduce illegal drug use in the U.S. by educating schoolchildren. Indeed, protecting young people has long been used to justify marijuana prohibition.

But in reality, our drug laws have failed to stop marijuana use among American youth but have succeeded in punishing them with damning criminal records, loss of financial aid for college and removal from after-school activities. As a graduate of D.A.R.E., I know all too well about the shortcomings of this program and of America’s war on marijuana.

The simple truth is that prohibition doesn’t work, and regulation and education do. Most young people will tell you that marijuana is easy to buy despite nearly a century of prohibition that has cost billions of tax dollars and put thousands of people behind bars.

Anti-drug groups such as D.A.R.E. refuse to acknowledge that today’s marijuana prohibition causes the same problems as alcohol prohibition did in the 1920s. It’s no wonder, then, that D.A.R.E. has been called ineffective by the National Academy of Sciences and, in 2001, was placed under the category of “ineffective programs” by the U.S. surgeon general. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that there are “no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received D.A.R.E. . . . and students who did not.”

The fact is that legalizing, taxing and regulating substances reduces the harm caused by those drugs. A University of Florida study provided statistically overwhelming evidence that raising taxes on alcohol reduces consumption.

The Tax and Regulate initiative on California’s November ballot would levy a tax of $50 per ounce on marijuana; the money raised would help fund drug-abuse and prevention programs.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet, yet thanks to aggressive taxation in many areas and education efforts, cigarette use in the U.S. has declined sharply over the last few decades. We didn’t have to arrest, incarcerate or impose prohibition to achieve those results; we merely had to tell the truth to young people about the very real harms caused by cigarette addiction while imposing taxes and age restrictions. The most recent Monitoring the Future Survey, which asks students about their drug use, shows that more 10th graders now use marijuana than cigarettes.

Legalizing and taxing marijuana won’t cure California’s chronic budget woes. But should we really be cutting from education while spending all the money it takes to enforce our failed prohibition policies? Furthermore, the Tax and Regulate initiative would not allow the use of marijuana by people under 21. I certainly don’t want more young people smoking marijuana. But some of the teens I helped as a substance-abuse counselor told me that it was easier to purchase marijuana inside their own schools than it was to buy beer or cigarettes from a convenience store. This is not what a successful policy looks like.

Many Americans are coming around to this view. Depending on the poll, either a majority or near-majority of Americans say that marijuana should be taxed and legalized. Even the American Medical Assn. has called for the federal government to review its absurd classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, which puts cannabis right alongside heroin and PCP.

D.A.R.E. can warn people all day about the harm associated with marijuana use. What it refuses to acknowledge is that these arguments only support ending prohibition. If marijuana is so dangerous, D.A.R.E. and its allies ought to support efforts to remove control over distribution from black-market drug dealers.

It’s time for D.A.R.E. to take a back seat to evidence-based drug prevention programs that don’t use scare tactics. It’s time to legalize marijuana.
By Jonathan Perri
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Marlboro, Camel, Parliament, American Spirit. All these recognizable cigarette brands can currently be purchased from the Hawk Shop in the Kansas Union. Today, the Board of Regents will consider banning the sale of tobacco products on university campuses.

Although all students have the right to choose whether to smoke, the University should not be profiting from a product that is damaging to the students it is here to serve. The Regents should vote in favor of banning tobacco sales from university campuses.

Removing cigarettes from campus will not take away the right to choose whether to smoke. It will simply show that the University does not profit from a choice that is a health risk to students.

The money from the Hawk Shop goes directly back into the Union, which is an affiliate of the University. Although it is separate, some of the Union’s profits are used for student activities and go back to the University for programs such as new student orientation.

In a Kansan editorial from February 2009, David Mucci, director of KU Memorial Unions, said the profits from tobacco sales did not represent a substantial sum.

“We’re not afraid to lose the money,” said Mucci.

Losing this small amount would not hurt the University financially which lends even greater support for the ban.

In an obvious paradox, not only can students buy cigarettes on campus, they can also receive assistance to quit smoking through a Student Health Services’ program called Kan-U-Quit at Watkins Health Center. The University has recognized the problem but is still selling the product causing it.

As a leader in education and progress, the University should not benefit from or support a product that is ultimately a heath risk for students. Having tobacco products behind the counter is condoning and enabling the habit. Though the choice to smoke remains in the hands of the student, the Regents will be making the right decision in removing Kansas universities from association with tobacco sales.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Two bills that would legalize the sale and possession of marijuana attracted a standing-room-only crowd to a Capitol hearing room Wednesday.

Most who testified, were in favor of the bills.

One bill would decriminalize possession of marijuana, the other would enable the state to sell and tax pot at state liquor stores.

Sponsors of the taxation bill said regulating the sale of marijuana could generate $150 million a year for the state.

Supporters also said decriminalization would save money in the state’s justice and prison systems.

“In these days of billion dollar deficits, we can no longer keep our heads in the sand,” said Representative Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.

State lawmakers are trying to balance a budget with a projected $2.6 billion deficit.

The Executive Director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs testified against the bills. Don Pierce does not believe the state would save or make any money by legalizing marijuana.

“It’s just nonsense,” said Pierce. “The biggest piece of science fiction I’ve read in the past 3 months is how much money we’d save if we decriminalize marijuana.”

No matter what happens to this legislation, voters could ahve a say on the issue this year.

A group called Sensible Washington is seeking signatures to ask voters if marijuana should be legalized.

Smoking tobacco is not like smoking marijuana. This difference is known especially by smokers from California. The one big difference is the effect that happens to the brain. While smoking tobacco products is addictive and harmful to people health, a tobacco smoker does not really feel much change in his outlook or behavior during or after smoking. That is, until they can not have any tobacco when they want it.

But unlike cigarettes, marijuana generates a euphoric feeling that is far more visible than with tobacco. It can make them feel relaxed and removed from normal feelings. These feelings are one of the big attractions of smoking more marijuana than regular cigarette.

Many people love that feeling they get when they have smoked marijuana. While some people believe that marijuana, like tobacco, is not really physically addictive in the same sensation as other stronger drugs.

For example California is a land of contradictions where cigarette smokers are followed with a lawfulness typically reinforced for terrorists, and marijuana smoking is permitted, if not completely encouraged.

Researchers think that soon California government will legalize marijuana use. Of course the “medical” marijuana has been legal here for some time, and commercialize pot growing has increased too. But today, as the state faces a budget debt, the legislature is excitedly eying the possibility of gathering considerable tax receipts from commercial marijuana sales.

Californian cigarette smokers, meanwhile, just can’t catch a smoke break. In 1998, California, the Golden State (was made the official State Nickname in 1968) became the first in the country to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. And also taxes on tobacco are very high, and the state legislature plan to raise them yet again. But in the city of Los Angeles, where the smog levels are legendary, the city council is planning on prohibiting cigarette smoking at outdoor dining areas.

At the same time marijuana smoking has been factual legalized in many California communities. For example in Santa Cruz cigarette smoking is banned within 25 feet of any public building. Cigarette smoking has even been prohibited on the main downtown street. Yet the smell of marijuana smoke is presented in all places at the same time, even on the same streets that have banned cigarettes.

However scientists concluded that chronic marijuana smoking can lead to a total host of health problems, from memory loss to lung cancer.

In general, if smokers believe that smoking tobacco or marijuana either one is physically addictive or not, they do produce physical withdrawal symptoms in a sense.

Marijuana use among teenagers increased this year after previous declines, while the use of other illicit drugs like cocaine mostly declined.

According to an annual National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded survey of nearly 47,000 students, almost one-third of 12th-graders and more than one-quarter of 10th-graders reported using marijuana in 2009. Almost 12% of eighth-graders reported marijuana use, an increase from about 11% in 2008.

The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, asked teenagers to report on the use of smoking, alcohol use and drug use, including non-medical uses of prescription painkillers and over-the-counter cold and cough products.

The report showed cigarette smoking was at the lowest point since the survey started in 1975, although the use of smokeless-tobacco products increased on some measures this year.

Daily cigarette use by 12th-graders was 11.2%, a slight drop from 11.4% in 2008, while any use during the past 30 days was 20.1%, also a slight decline from 2008. Smokeless-tobacco use during the past 30 days in 2009 was reported by 8.4% of students in 12th grade, up from 6.5% in 2008.

Researchers said one of the reasons smoking rates have declined is that the percentage of students who reported ever trying smoking has “fallen dramatically.” For example in 1996, 49% of eighth-graders reported trying cigarettes, compared with 20% this year.

Alcohol use stayed about the same last year, with more than half of 10th-graders and about two-thirds of seniors reporting alcohol use in the past year.

The survey showed past-year use of cocaine decreased to 3.4% from 4.4% in 2008 among 12th-graders, along with declines in the use of hallucinogens and methamphetamine.

The use of over-the-counter cold and cough medicines to get high, however, edged up among all age groups, with 6% of 10th-graders reporting non-medical use of the products last year.

The annual survey also found continuing high rates of prescription-drug abuse, with almost 10% of 12th-graders reporting non-medical use of the painkiller Vicodin last year, the same rate as 2008. Almost 5% of high-school seniors reported using OxyContin for a non-medical use in 2009, a slight uptick from 2008.

Researchers said 66% of teens reported obtaining the prescription drugs from a friend or relative, while 19% said they received the drugs with a doctor’s prescription, and 8% said they bought the drugs from a dealer.

Buenos Aires, – Argentina tops the list of countries that smoke the most in Latin America, consuming 1,014 cigarettes annually for every inhabitant over age 15, media reports said Sunday, citing a World Lung Foundation study.
Argentina is followed on the list by Paraguay, with annual consumption of 968 cigarettes, and Chile, with 909, while Peru has the lowest cigarette consumption in the region at 129 annually per inhabitant.

European countries, however, are the leaders in cigarette consumption, with Greece consuming 3,017 cigarettes annually for every inhabitant over age 15, followed by Slovenia, with 2,537, and Ukraine, with 2,526.

Argentina is the only Latin American country that did not sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control launched by the World Health Organization at the start of this decade, an agreement signed by only 16 countries around the world.

Signatories agreed to ban tobacco advertising, increase taxes on tobacco products and promote smoke-free environments.

Some 33 percent of the adult population, according to the health ministry study, smokes in Argentina, where 40,000 people die each year from smoking-related diseases.

Liquorice, sugars and even cocoa are being added to cigarettes to help smokers inhale a “lethal cocktail”, tobacco control experts say.

Bill King, from the VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, who has conducted extensive research into the make-up of cigarettes, said tobacco manufacturers added substances including sugars, cocoa and liquorice that made cigarettes more attractive and addictive.

“These additives make cigarettes more attractive to smokers, and that’s what’s wrong with them,” Mr King said. “They lull smokers into a false sense of security.

“They’re tricked into believing that a less harsh taste makes the cigarette less harmful for them. These additives ultimately help smokers swallow a lethal cocktail.”

Mr King helped the Cancer Council WA launch a new television advertisement today which shows a number of different smoking-related health conditions and is set to the well-known song “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies.

Make Smoking History campaign manager Susan Stewart said smokers needed to know that while the true flavour of tobacco could be masked with additives, the damage caused by smoking could not be hidden.

“In fact, many smokers are fascinated, unaware or shocked to discover cigarettes are made up of such ingredients,” said Ms Stewart.

Almost 300,000 WA adults still smoke and around 1200 Western Australians lose their lives to smoking every year. The new ad campaign aims to get smokers to quit before it’s too late.

Smokers can call the Quitline on 13 78 48 to talk to someone confidentially about quitting or enquire about the Cancer Council’s Fresh Start quit smoking course. Smokers can also talk to their local GP or pharmacist.

Make Smoking History is an initiative of the Cancer Council WA and is proudly supported by the Department of Health and Healthway.

Dude, the government lets cigarettes be legal even though they kill like thousands of people. But weed is illegal. And now, dude, cloves are illegal. Cloves! The taste proves they’re not killing you! Clove-smoking hippies are fighting back. With cloves!

See, the government outlawed flavored cigarettes, so Kretek, which makes all the cloves you smoke, is now selling clove cigars. Problem solved!

Lake Isabella, Calif., resident Terry Day, 42 years old, used to drive 240 miles round-trip to buy clove cigarettes when he lived in rural Valentine, Neb. He said he might try the cigars but was dubious about whether he would like them.

That is even farther than most heroin addicts are willing to drive. Fun fact(?) about the origin of the healing powers of cloves:

Studebacher Hoch, a resident of Kudus, Java, created kreteks in the early 1880s as a means to deliver the medicinal eugenol of cloves to the lungs, as it was thought to help asthma. It cured his chest pains and he started to market his invention to the village, but he died of lung cancer before he could mass market it.

The UAE has banned all electronic and smokeless cigarettes from being sold in the emirates. But that’s not stopping Swiss company Olig AG from promoting their new smokeless cigarettes.

On the heels of an order that no e-cigarettes be sold by retailers in the UAE, Olig AG said it has come up with a smoke-free cigarette that does not contain carcinogens that may lead to lung cancer.

The company said it has come up with a conventional cigarette that produces heat, contains tobacco and nicotine but does not give off any smoke and doesn’t require any external energy.

The company may introduce its new product around the globe.

In the UAE, meanwhile, health officials lauded the new ban on e-cigarettes and said that though they are smoke-free, the nicotine they contain is harmful.