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Ok, it's a weak argument if you really force the issue. But, my point is that pot is not a dangerous substance, especially compared to other legal substances available in America.
It is definitely more sound to argue from this direction than the "it is natural" argument.
Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.
COURT: TRACE OF POT IS ENOUGH
by Patrick Sullivan, (Source:Traverse City Record-Eagle)
Regional News
22 Jun 2006
Michigan
-------
Motorists Can Be Charged Even If Not Intoxicated
TRAVERSE CITY -- Any trace of marijuana in a driver's blood could mean stiff penalties after a crash if someone is injured and killed, even if the driver was not impaired, a sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled.
The decision came after the court considered two cases, including a Grand Traverse County case of a woman who lost control of her sport utility vehicle in snowy conditions on M-72 and crashed into a car. The crash killed a passenger in the car and left two girls, then 10 and 11 years old, paralyzed.
Delores Marie Derror faces charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs causing death and three charges of causing serious injury.
In a reversal of a Court of Appeals decision that came last year, the Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision found that a metabolite of THC -- the psychoactive substance in marijuana -- found in a driver's blood is enough to support the charges, even though the THC metabolite does not indicate intoxication.
In a decision written by Justice Maura D. Corrigan and signed by justices Clifford W. Taylor, Robert P. Young, Jr., and Stephen J. Markman, the court found that the Legislature's intent was to criminalize driving with any amount of a schedule 1 controlled substance in a person's body.
"It is irrelevant that a person who is no longer 'under the influence' of marijuana could be prosecuted under the statute," Corrigan wrote. "If the Legislature had intended to prosecute only people who were under the influence while driving, it could have written the statute accordingly."
Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider said he was pleased the issue has been finally resolved.
"The THC metabolite was an ... issue that had not been addressed before, so our obligation was to litigate it fully and take it to the highest court and let them make a decision," he said.
"Now we will go back to where we were and it will be set for a trial."
The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Michael F. Cavanagh and signed by justices Elizabeth A. Weaver and Marilyn Kelly, called the majority's interpretation unconstitutional.
"This means that weeks, months, and even years after marijuana was ingested, and long after any risk of impairment has passed, a person cannot drive a car without breaking the law if a test can detect the presence of 11-carboxy-THC," Cavanagh wrote.
So, you should beware if you go to a rock concert where there may be (GASP!!) people smoking pot. That passive intake will land a non-user behind bars. There is no fighting it. You are guilty.
How many of you non-users have been around when people are smoking? The slightest trace in your system and it is off to jail you go. You have no defence. Drunk drivers have a better chance of getting off than a non-user of mj with trace amount of a non-psychoactive metabolite. What it really boils down to is the "Reefer Madness" mentality of an overzealous government that spends 3/4 of its "Drug War" budget directly on mj.
If a person is, in fact, intoxicated, charge them accordingly.
HOW DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA
COMPARED WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES?
Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.
TOBACCO 340,000 to 450,000
ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+
ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+
CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000
"LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200
MARIJUANA 0
(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Drug Enforcement Administration
In The Matter Of MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION
Docket No. 86-22
OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge
DATED: SEPTEMBER 6, 1988
Section 8 of Judge Young's "Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision."
Page 56 & 57 http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young
3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?
4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.
This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.
6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.
7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.
8. At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.
9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.
by Patrick Sullivan, (Source:Traverse City Record-Eagle)
Regional News
22 Jun 2006
Michigan
-------
Motorists Can Be Charged Even If Not Intoxicated
TRAVERSE CITY -- Any trace of marijuana in a driver's blood could mean stiff penalties after a crash if someone is injured and killed, even if the driver was not impaired, a sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled.
The decision came after the court considered two cases, including a Grand Traverse County case of a woman who lost control of her sport utility vehicle in snowy conditions on M-72 and crashed into a car. The crash killed a passenger in the car and left two girls, then 10 and 11 years old, paralyzed.
Delores Marie Derror faces charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs causing death and three charges of causing serious injury.
In a reversal of a Court of Appeals decision that came last year, the Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision found that a metabolite of THC -- the psychoactive substance in marijuana -- found in a driver's blood is enough to support the charges, even though the THC metabolite does not indicate intoxication.
In a decision written by Justice Maura D. Corrigan and signed by justices Clifford W. Taylor, Robert P. Young, Jr., and Stephen J. Markman, the court found that the Legislature's intent was to criminalize driving with any amount of a schedule 1 controlled substance in a person's body.
"It is irrelevant that a person who is no longer 'under the influence' of marijuana could be prosecuted under the statute," Corrigan wrote. "If the Legislature had intended to prosecute only people who were under the influence while driving, it could have written the statute accordingly."
Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider said he was pleased the issue has been finally resolved.
"The THC metabolite was an ... issue that had not been addressed before, so our obligation was to litigate it fully and take it to the highest court and let them make a decision," he said.
"Now we will go back to where we were and it will be set for a trial."
The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Michael F. Cavanagh and signed by justices Elizabeth A. Weaver and Marilyn Kelly, called the majority's interpretation unconstitutional.
"This means that weeks, months, and even years after marijuana was ingested, and long after any risk of impairment has passed, a person cannot drive a car without breaking the law if a test can detect the presence of 11-carboxy-THC," Cavanagh wrote.
So, you should beware if you go to a rock concert where there may be (GASP!!) people smoking pot. That passive intake will land a non-user behind bars. There is no fighting it. You are guilty.
How many of you non-users have been around when people are smoking? The slightest trace in your system and it is off to jail you go. You have no defence. Drunk drivers have a better chance of getting off than a non-user of mj with trace amount of a non-psychoactive metabolite. What it really boils down to is the "Reefer Madness" mentality of an overzealous government that spends 3/4 of its "Drug War" budget directly on mj.
If a person is, in fact, intoxicated, charge them accordingly.
HOW DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA
COMPARED WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES?
Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.
TOBACCO 340,000 to 450,000
ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+
ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+
CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000
"LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200
MARIJUANA 0
(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Drug Enforcement Administration
In The Matter Of MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION
Docket No. 86-22
OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge
DATED: SEPTEMBER 6, 1988
Section 8 of Judge Young's "Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision."
Page 56 & 57 http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young
3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?
4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.
This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.
6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.
7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.
8. At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.
9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.
"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young
Ok, it's a weak argument if you really force the issue. But, my point is that pot is not a dangerous substance, especially compared to other legal substances available in America.
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