UPI Outside View: Kicking grass
By Joyce Nalepka
A UPI Outside View commentary

SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 14 (UPI) --   A vigorous effort by a small band of
admitted marijuana users has, over the past 25 years, tried to convince the
public that their drug of choice, marijuana, is less harmful than the laws
that control it.

  They have it backwards. Marijuana is not harmful because it's illegal.
It's illegal because it's harmful.  The United States Drug Enforcement
Agency includes it on Schedule I, its list of the most dangerous drugs.

  Parents and teachers can provide firsthand accounts of its effects on
children and students.  In the beginning, the damage appeared subtle, taking
time to become obvious -- even to the user. Back then it was a low-potency
weed containing about 10 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC,
the so-called active ingredient that produces the narcotic effect.  The
marijuana being sold today has a THC content measuring as high as 150 mg.

  Because it does not cause deaths by overdose, like heroin and other
Schedule I drugs, there are many who continue to wink at its use.
Nevertheless, says parents and teachers, it is a gateway drug to those that
do.

  There is plenty of research showing the harm exposure to marijuana can
cause. The problem is that the "Just say 'No'" message is overpowered by
cultural pressures, messages from music and movies and others who give the
use of illegal drugs a "hipness" it does not deserve.

  There are also those, including many politicians, who have bought into the
argument that marijuana is "medicine," backed by millions of dollars and
intense lobbying efforts.

  Proponents of legalization have spent millions convincing the voters that
it is good for something, that so-called medical marijuana is akin to a new
kind of penicillin or some other wonder drug.

  A teacher from one of the most prestigious school systems in the country,
who did not want to be identified by name or district, recently told a
conference sponsored by America's Challenge that, "Every morning I face my
first period class where 20 percent of the students are high.  And then my
second period, my third period and the fourth and fifth!"

  The evidence shows that marijuana is a very complex, unstable, dangerous
drug.  We now know that marijuana:

     -- forces more teens into treatment than all other drugs combined

     -- adversely affects all body systems including the brain and lungs

     --¨contains 50 to 70 percent more cancer-causing hydrocarbons than
tobacco smoke.

     -- is fat soluble and collects in the fatty tissues of the brain,
lungs, and reproductive system.

  It is also an identified cause of motor vehicle accidents.  The state of
Maryland's shock trauma unit reports that more accident victims had
marijuana in their blood samples than had alcohol.

  At the end of the day, though, the science has been set aside in favor of
the desire to satisfy a teen culture that worships rebellion.  The drive to
legalize marijuana is not in the best interests of the American people
generally and America's children specifically.

  The children are our most precious natural resource.  We should not allow
that resource to go up in a puff of smoke.

  -- Joyce Nalepka is president of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, a
non-profit group.  She served as president of former First Lady Nancy
Reagan's National Federation of Parents and co-sponsored the legislation
that closed Maryland's drug paraphernalia shops.

  -- United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by
outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues.