I AM reading the magazine, Vail Health (2015/2016 annual), specifically an article by Kimberly Nicoletti, The Aging Brain.
She interviews Vail psychologist Henry Goetze, PhD., who lists a number of causes of dementia and a number of ways to prevent or inhibit it. He suggests refraining from alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, especially when young.
Young men and women should refrain from both alcohol and marijuana abuse. Both of these substances negatively effect the developing brain and interfere with memory.
Exactly why the legality of alcohol logically dictated the necessity of the legality of another harmful substance, marijuana, is a logic I never understood. Be that as it may, marijuana is legal now and the consequences are upon us.
To which it will no doubt be objected that the new tax revenue from marijuana sales will, in part, increase the programs for educating young people about marijuana use. If anything, it is argued, the legality of marijuana augments the efforts to cut its use among the young.
Exactly why it made sense to legalize marijuana in order to raise money for cutting the interest in marijuana that its legalization would boost is a logic I never understood.
Its a perfect circularity: Legalize marijuana to increase its use, then direct marijuana sales tax to cut its use among the young.
Be that as it may, will increased educational programs directed toward youth cut marijuana use by youth?
Leaving aside the issue of how one accurately measures the use by youth of what for them is an illegal substance, the argument that more programs will lower usage is another case of throwing money at the problem. It failed in the War on Poverty; it will fail here too. The idea that educational programs can compete with overwhelming messages from the culture is naive.
In all other areas we assume the irresistible lure of the electronic/ sports/entertainment/obsessively messaging culture.
We speak of sports heroes as role models for youth.
We speak of the impossibility of separating youth from their electronic devices.
We know that everything from movies to immodesty of dress by stars directly influence the way youth behave. Suddenly, with marijuana, its different. It wont be cool for youth to use marijuana and increase their chances of dementia when its cool everywhere else in the culture to use marijuana because, well, you know, there are now more educational programs about marijuana.
Forget that more and more states are legalizing marijuana and soon the holdouts will drop like flies. Wont make a difference against those powerful educational programs!
TO WHICH it will be objected, no doubt, that marijuana can heal. How dare I lump together recreational use of marijuana and medical use of marijuana among youth!
There is a common reservation about the use of any medicine not heard about medical marijuana. With any other medicine, its benefits are balanced against its risks. Who hasnt at some point adjusted the dose or rejected the use of a medicine recommended by a doctor because its risks or side effects seemed to outweigh its benefits?
Why do I read mountains of articles about the benefits of medical marijuana but cannot recall a single one about the potential risks of medical marijuana? If it is a medicine, why is its use not treated with the same caution as any other medicine?
Why is it that tucked away in an article in Vail Health on the etiology of dementia we read that marijuana can, in the long term, cause or increase the likelihood of dementia, but not see the point made in a noticeable way in the relentless drive to legalize marijuana for anyone, any time, any place, except the drivers seat?
And even driving under the influence elicits a relentless chipping away at the definition of an unsafe dosage. Which, come to think of it, turns out to be next to impossible to measure, or so say its advocates.
If medical marijuana is really a medicine, why is it granted an elasticity that other medicines are not, especially when, it also turns out, it can have a serious long-term side effect, dementia?
Hillel Goldberg may be reached at hillel@ijn.com.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
