A country like Mexico, where drug-gang violence is causing heads to roll (literally), has decided to decriminalize possession of small amounts of some drugs, including LSD and marijuana. Have they lost their minds? Or have they reached a conclusion that is escapes their neighbors to the north?
They have reached a conclusion that escapes their neighbors to the North. This won't do much to curb border violence stemming from competition over trafficking routes into the US but it will allow focus to be placed on the dealers and not the lowest hanging fruit. They took about half a step in the right direction on this one.
ReplyDeleteNow Mexican citizens enjoy more freedom than their neighbors to the North who claim to be the land of the free.
Tim, I believe your supposition to be the former, rather than the latter.
ReplyDeleteThere is a significant and growing scientific body of medical evidence that marijuana use contributes significantly to schizophrenia - a particularly debilitating mental health condition that strikes during the most productive years of one's life.
Of course, the elemental breakdown between reality and perception most characteristic of schizophrenia does seem to be present in this latest (and I believe ill-fated) and contradictory decision by the Mexican government.
While this recent decision allows "small amounts" for "personal use," apparently it doesn't allow manufacture, sale or distribution of large amounts. However, "small amounts" always come from "large amounts."
Complicating matters, their government has a long-time, well-known and rightfully-deserved reputation for corruption at all levels.
Mexico has continually been a "Third World" nation in the Western hemisphere. For years, in hopes for a better life abroad, their people have risked their lives, fleeing native homes in droves, and entered the United States illegally.
Now, Mexican governmental officials made the first blow on a stake into their own heart. Apparently, they don't understand that while "Everything is permissible"- not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" - but not everything is constructive." This move will neither help their international relations, nor benefit their own people.
And while marijuana's deleterious effects on the brain are damaging, even more damaging and rapid is crystal meth's effect, which produces Alzheimer's-like symptoms almost immediately.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392428
• Cannabis and schizophrenia. A longitudinal study. - Lancet, 1987 - 15 yr, 45, 570 subject study of Swedish soldiers demonstrated significant risk for schizophrenia when compared to non-users and controlled for other factors, increased the risk of suicide 400%
• A 35-year longitudinal study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that schizophrenia rates doubled among marijuana users in South London. 2003 Jan 1 ; 182():45-9
• Professor Jim van Os, Lead Researcher University of Maastricht, Netherlands followed 2437 people aged 14 - 24 four years. Findings published in the British Medical Journal revealed that controlled for other events, 51% of cannabis users experienced schizophrenic symptoms versus 26% of non-users.
• Robin Murray, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, found that cannabis smoking accounts for about 8% of serious cases of psychosis.
• New Zealand researchers found that those whom had smoked marijuana 3x by age 15 were 300x more likely to develop schizophrenia, and that cannabis consumption was a factor in 80% of schizophrenia cases
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