Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 Source: Dayton Daily News (OH) Copyright: 2015 Dayton Daily News Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120 Author: Thomas R. Keihl SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT MARIJUANA It's hard to change people's mind when they have been given misinformation as a truth: Marijuana is such a topic. In the 1930s, government and private interest groups wanted to make marijuana appear to be a menace to society. Law enforcement had lost many jobs with the repeal of prohibition. Private interest saw that it posed a threat to the cotton and lumber industries because the plant used for textile and paper would last longer, was stronger and relatively easy to grow. Once the propaganda films were produced, people would see the films and think that the government wouldn't steer them wrong. The government had everyone fooled until the mid-60s when Vietnam happened. The troops came home with a different outlook: No matter how much they smoked, they could stop without the cravings/ addiction that happens with both tobacco and alcohol. "There is no evidence that marijuana causes violent crimes or aggressive antisocial behavior or is producing in otherwise normal people conditions of dependence or psychosis requiring medical treatment." - report by the Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence, Great Britain 1968. Thomas R. Keihl Riverside - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom