Section 4) History and current pattern of abuse.

It has long been recognized that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine, other drugs whose use is far more prevalent in the United States than marijuana.

Marijuana use remains a widespread, persistent, and unregulated social practice among all age groups in the United States. Nearly 80% of marijuana users do not use other illegal drugs.

There is no evidence that this widespread use indicates equally widespread abuse of marijuana.

The credibility of government provided information about marijuana and health decreases as age and education increases, discrediting the hypotheses that marijuana use is inversely dependent on risk perception.

Marijuana's schedule I status has failed to keep marijuana away from school-age children.

The prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use by school-age youths exceeds and precedes marijuana use. Targeting marijuana use as a convenient battleground for the prevention of "drug abuse" is like closing the barn door after the horses have already left the barn.

Marijuana use alone results in less emergency room visits per 100,000 population than common household painkillers or benzodiazepines.

Marijuana law enforcement efforts persist as the dominant supportive force in the supply and distribution of marijuana in the United States.

Marijuana's schedule I status instigates international competition to supply illicit marijuana to American users.

Marijuana arrests continue to consume law enforcement resources; arrests continue on the level of several hundred thousand per year.

The efforts to legitimize marijuana's schedule I status at all costs results in several errors in reasoning popular in anti-marijuana warnings. Examples include: 1) National surveys do not support the assertion that people must be scared of marijuana not to use it, 2) Marijuana users are portrayed as polydrug users, when in fact a majority do not use other illegal drugs, 3) Unfounded and inaccurate comparisons are used to defend the erroneous assertion that marijuana is now more potent that the marijuana available in the 1970's, and 4) research hypotheses are presented to the public as findings of fact, such as claims that marijuana harms every biological system to which it is exposed.

References Cited in Section 4.

Almadori, G., Paludetti, G., et al., "Marijuana smoking as a possible cause of tongue carcinoma in young patients." J Laryngol Otol. 104(11):896-9, Nov. 1990.

Bonnie, R., Whitebread, C., The Marihuana Conviction; a history of marihuana prohibition in the United States. (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia,) 1974.

Brownstein & Goldstein. "Research and the Development of Public Policy: The Case of Drugs and Violent Crime" Journal of Applied Sociology, 7:77-92, 1990

Christie, M., Chesher, G., "The human toxicity of marijuana: a critique of a review by Nahas and Latour" Drug and Alcohol Review (1994) 13: 209-216, 1994.

ElSohly, M.A. and Ross, S.A., "Quarterly Report, Potency Monitoring Project, Report #50" (Washington, D.C.: NIDA,) 1994.

Goldstein, P. "The Relationship Between Drugs and Violence" Paper presented at the United States Sentencing Commission Inaugural Symposium on Crime and Punishment in the United States, "Drugs & Violence in America," June 16-18, 1993.

Gould, S.J. The Mismeasure of Man. (New York: Norton & Co,) 1981.

Herkenham, M., Lynn, A.B., et al., "Cannabinoid Receptor Localization in Brain," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 87:1932-1936, 1990.

Hollister, L.E., "Health Aspects of Cannabis", Pharmacological Reviews, 38(1):1-20, 1986.

Johnston, L.D., O'Malley, P.M., Bachman, J.G. Drug Use Among American High School Seniors, College Students and Young Adults, 1975-1990. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.,) 1991.

Kuhn, T., "The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science" In The Essential Tension, (Chicago: University of Chicago,) pg. 178-224, 1977.

Langer, J., "Drugs of Abuse." Drug Enforcement Magazine. 2(2):8-33, Spring, 1975.

Manatt, M., Parents, peers, and pot II: parents in action. Rockville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, (Washington, D.C.:National Institute on Drug Abuse,) 1983.

Mikuriya, T., Aldrich, M., "Cannabis 1988, Old Drug, New Dangers. The Potency Question." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Vol. 20(1):47-55, Mar. 1988.

Morgan, J., "American Marijuana Potency: Data Versus Conventional Wisdom" NORML Reports. (Washington, D.C.:National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,) 1993. Pre-publication extract of data from work in progress.

Nahas, G., Marihuana-Deceptive Weed. (New York: Raven Press, )1973.

President's Commission on Organized Crime. America's Habit: Drug Abuse, Drug Trafficking, and Organized Crime. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.,) 1986.

PRIDE, Inc., "Marijuana and Cocaine." (Atlanta, GA):PRIDE, 1990.

Robison, LL; Buckley, JD; et al "Maternal drug use and risk of childhood nonlymphoblastic leukemia among offspring. An epidemiological investigation implicating marijuana (a report from the Children's Cancer Study Group)." Cancer. 63(10):1904-11, May 15, 1989.

Shalala, D. "Remarks by Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Drug Abuse Surveys Press Conference" (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Sec., HHS,) December 12, 1994.

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Technologies for Understanding and Preventing Substance Abuse and Addiction, OTA-EHR-597 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office,) September 1994.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institute of Health, "A Synopsis of the Key Points In the 1994 Monitoring the Future Results," (Rockville, MD: December 1994)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institute of Health, "Monitoring the Future Study, 1975-1994: National High School Senior Drug Abuse Survey," (Rockville, MD: Nov. 1994).

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institute of Health, Smoking, Drinking, and Illicit Drug Use Among American Secondary School Students, College Students, and Young Adults, 1975-1991, Pub. No. (NIH) 93-3480, (Rockville, MD: 1992).

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. Advance Report Number 8. Preliminary Estimates From the Drug Abuse Warning Network. Rockville, MD: SAMSHA. December, 1994.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Preliminary Estimates from the 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, Advance Report #7 (Rockville, MD: July 1994).

U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, Cannabis Investigation Section. 1991 Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program. (Washington, D.C.:DEA,) December 1991.

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Drugs, Crime, and the Justice System, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.,) December 1992.

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics matters. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. (Washington D.C.: Bureau of International Narcotic Matters,) April, 1994.

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics matters. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. (Washington D.C.: Bureau of International Narcotic Matters,) April 1993.