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Dec-10-2014 23:35printcomments

Marijuana Legalization Questions Answered by Dr. Phil Leveque

A high school student interviews Dr. Leveque about his experience with marijuana/cannabis and legalization.

oregon marijuana
Photo by Bonnie King, Salem-News.com

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Dear Dr. Leveque, I am a sophomore at Lee's Summit North High School. I have contacted you today because we need to "interview" someone over our topic (my topic being the legalization of medicinal Marijuana) and my first choice was to talk to you.

The best way to start is at the beginning, so here is some background on Dr. Leveque, direct from the source.

From Dr. Leveque:

My first exposure to marijuana was in 1928. I was a newspaper boy in southern Oregon and there were about 40 newspaper boys. I happened to be the youngest one. White, American boys were smoking cigarette butts that they picked up on the street.

Mexican boys were smoking loco weed that was rolled up like a cigarette. I didn’t know what loco meant at first, I actually thought it had to do with a locomotive! It took me about 10 years to catch up.

My next exposure was in 1949 when I started at the University of Oregon medical school.

My professor told me to go straighten out the stock room so we could find stuff we were looking for. The first thing I found was a gallon jug of marijuana/cannabis cough medicine. This was 12 years after any marijuana/cannabis substance was legal in the United States. And there it was, in the U of O medical school!

I took a pint bottle of it myself, and the first cold I had I took a teaspoon of it and it worked very well.

From that day in 1949 to this day, in 2014, I have spent much of my time reading about the pharmacology and medical uses of the drug. About 65 years. Nobody else in the United States has studied marijuana as medicine as long as this.

My next exposure was about 1996. I was one of the lead petitioners to legalize marijuana for medical use in Oregon in 1998.

It became medically legal on May 1, 1999. My first patients were about May 5th, 1999; their permits were #13 & #14. Today, there are over 50,000 legal medical marijuana patients in Oregon. In my experience, believe it or not, there were thousands of people who were already using it for medical reasons! This was not unusual. It has been used in Asian medicine for at least 4000 years very successfully with minimal adverse side effects.

Even today, we have minimal side effects. Approximately 10% of marijuana/cannabis users become dependent (the word is not ‘addicted’), and only about 10% of that amount of users does it become a problem for. That’s about 1% of all marijuana users that may eventually have an “addiction” issue.

A student from Lee's Summit North High School in MO has asked for an interview about my experience with marijuana/cannabis.

His first question is:

1) Do you believe Marijuana should be legalized in all 50 states? Why or why not?

The federal government itself estimates that it is being used in all 50 states, and to substantiate this statement, every state has a marijuana statistic, numbering the individuals arrested for marijuana possession across the nation.

In view of the fed government statistics, it should not be surprising that many people in every state use it, and there are people arrested in every state for the use of it. And in most cases, that I’m aware of, they are mostly using it for medicinal qualities.

I had 5,000 patients with medical marijuana permits that legally allowed them to grow, carry and use marijuana in the state of Oregon.

Marijuana is illegal according to the federal government, and what this does is cause a huge black market which is mostly run by the Mexican drug lords. Between local and international sales drug cartels in Mexico, they bring in $25–30 billion a year, profit

At the same time, keeping it illegal restricts the availability to sick people, who actually need marijuana as medicine.

So, YES, I do believe that marijuana should be legalized in all 50 states. If it were legalized, and made available in retail storefronts to adults, it would put the Mexican mafia out of business.

2) What are your main points for or against Marijuana legalization?

I believe that I have indicated ‘for and against’ marijuana legalization in question 1.

3) Do you believe Marijuana has an effect on people beginning other drugs?

To restate the question, “Is marijuana a gateway drug?” No, this has been proved to be false. I have written about this in many articles. (Search “marijuana benefits and adverse effects”)

The black market drug dealers that sell marijuana also will sell other stuff, but marijuana is not what drives people to those other drugs.

I would like to compare this with alcohol. Even high school kids can find alcohol in their parents’ home, right there in the kitchen, and the same goes for tobacco. In both cases, alcohol and tobacco are much worse and more dangerous than marijuana. People die as a result of both of them every single day, whereas no deaths have ever been attributed to marijuana.

If anything is a “gateway drug”, it is beer and cigarettes – not marijuana.

4) Should Marijuana be legalized for medical or recreational use?

People are smoking marijuana currently, even in places like North Lee’s Summit High School, regardless of whether or not it is legal. If they’re using it, they know the side effects, and the pros and cons that they encounter.

Anybody, high school students or not, that is already doing it has the knowledge that it is not dangerous and has a very small addiction liability. The worst, biggest problem that users of marijuana have is the punitive attitude of the police departments, the District Attorneys and the judges.

Over 700,000 people were arrested last year in the United States for marijuana-related offenses - proof in itself that the harm to self is legal, not physiological. Since the legalization in Washington and Colorado last year, arrests have decreased across the board.

Property crime in the city of Denver is down by more than 11 percent from the same six-month period of 2013, and Emergency room visits decreased or leveled off and I believe will continue to decrease. The other cities and counties throughout the state of Colorado have experienced the same positive trends.

23 states have medical marijuana laws in place, and as of November 4, 2014, there are now 5 states that have passed full legalization bills (Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, DC.)

The great hazards proposed by the anti-marijuana individuals have been proved to be truly False. The experience in CO right now is that approximately 200,000 or more have had marijuana available to them and all of these “bad” reports have been found to be mostly fictitious.

A new user will most likely have some problems, and it takes a few times of use before they know the right amount of marijuana/cannabis needed to eliminate the symptoms of the medical problem they have. A new user should keep in mind that being under the influence of marijuana can have adverse effects on driving and should be very careful with their testing dosage.

In conclusion, I will bet many Lee's Summit North High School students are using marijuana and not experiencing adverse side effects, while at the same time, there are people that are using it that do have some problems. It’s not for everyone, to be sure. But in comparison to alcohol or tobacco, these adverse effects are absolutely minimal.

So, YES; I do believe marijuana should be legalized for (adult) recreational and medical use in all 50 states, and around the world. It is a senseless prohibition.

Thank you for asking.

Sincerely,
Dr. Phil Leveque




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