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Reefer Madness

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Singer Subject: Arizona's Top News

Friends/ Colleagues:

Please don't fall for the misinformation campaign being promoted by the NO on 205 people, whose principle funding source is an opioid manufacturer that is about to come out with a synthetic THC. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/fentanyl-maker-donates-big-to-campaign-opposing-pot-legalization?src=usn_tw
 

Fact: right now marijuana is easier for a teenager to get than a 6-pack of beer. It is the number one cash crop of the Mexican drug cartel. If it is legalized and regulated like alcohol, then its content, strength and purity will be regulated, known, transparent, and unavailable to those under 21. Purchasers will be "carded," just like they are today for alcohol, by licensed dealers.
 
Fact: during alcohol prohibition, alcohol consumption was more prevalent and more dangerous, since bootleggers sold alcohol that oftentimes was impure and adulterated. Some people would die from consumption of "wood alcohol."
 
Fact: The President of the AMA and the Surgeon General of the US both testified against marijuana prohibition when it was legislated in 1937--but Harry Anslinger, who had been in charge of prosecuting the War on Alcohol, needed a new bogeyman after repeal of prohibition.
 
Fact: Alcohol can cause cirrhosis, pancreatitis, cardiomyopathy, encephalopathy, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, and you can overdose on it and actually stop breathing and die. Marijuana has no proven cause or correlation with ANY disease and you cannot overdose on it. It is safer than alcohol.
 
Fact: Since legalization in Colorado, teen pot use has NOT gone up--despite the misinformation campaign: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/20/marijuana-use-colorado-teens-marijuana-no-increase/ and http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/22/colorados-good-news-on-teen-pot-use/

 
Fact: Since legalization in Colorado, tax revenues for schools have gone up despite claims by the NO campaign: http://www.azfamily.com/story/33275570/fact-check-marijuana-tax-claim-a-puff-of-smoke-in-prop-205-ad#.V-6wf4APqiE.facebook
 
http://www.5280.com/digital/2016/09/misinforming-public-about-pot

http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/dose-reality-effect-state-marijuana-legalizations
 
Fact: maintaining marijuana prohibition means our youth will continue to be able to get marijuana from black market dealers, like they do now. And this marijuana may be of varying degrees of purity--sometimes it might be laced with toxic substances. And our criminal justice system will continue to be stressed with arrests and trials for these perpetrators of "victimless crimes." The jails will continue to be overcrowded by them. And people of color who have limited financial resources will continue to be the ones more likely to be convicted, incarcerated, and have their lives ruined by a felony conviction.
 
PLEASE VOTE YES ON PROP. 205 THIS NOVEMBER 8. End this senseless and outdated prohibition.
 

Jeff Singer, MD


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