re: Marijauna's first overdose?

This was already posted. But nonetheless, I wanted to add to this post.

I have something to add to this discussion....

As I see the discussion about legalizing marijuana heating up, I am concerned for the future of our young people. I hear a lot of discussion emphasizing the benefits of marijuana, which drove the medical benefits discussion, and a lot of misinformation about the effects of marijuana, and now even our president has compared it to the social use of alcohol. In reality, there is no comparison to alcohol at all. Let me tell you why I learned to hate marijuana.

I'm not a user or even or former user of marijuana. I was a counselor of troubled youth back in the 1960s and 1970s and I saw the lives of hundreds of young people ruined by marijuana during that time, and today's drug is said to be 10 times more potent than it was then. I saw the lives of families torn apart as formerly happy children became distant and angry, failing in school and uninterested in school activities. Parents who came to me for answers were desperate to stop this destruction as they saw their family relationships destroyed and their children's' future being stolen. That's when I began to hate marijuana.

Marijuana is not like alcohol in any way. The person next to you may have a highball at a party. If you drink a Coke, his highball has no effect on you. On the other hand, if any person in the room has a joint, everyone in the room is affected. Let me go on to other differences. Alcohol is a food product and the human body recognizes it as such and immediately begins to break it down and digest it. Marijuana is a drug foreign to the human physical system. Alcohol will be digested and disappear from the body within hours of drinking. Marijuana will stay in the system for long periods of time, causing distortions of time and space. Let me illustrate:

If a social drinker has two glasses of wine with dinner every night, he or she might feel relaxed for the rest of the evening, but soon the effect diminishes and goes away. If a social marijuana user has a joint every night, he or she gets the euphoria he or she is looking for, but the drug remains in the body long into the next few days. If they continue on a daily basis, the drug never leaves the system and they function every day under its influence. I learned in my work that the effect can last as long as 30 days from the last joint. Think of the consequences. Drivers on our highways with distorted time and space problems. Does anyone really believe children will not get a message from us that it's OK for them, too? Laws do not stop teenage drinking.

I could go on, but I leave you with this challenge. Where is the pushback from all you who know the truth about marijuana, whose lives were changed, who are recovering even today? Where are the other experts who can speak up? Am I the only person?