Action Committee Responds to Marijuana Proposal

The following press release was received from the Family Council Action Committee based in Little Rock.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 4, 2013

On Thursday afternoon Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified a group trying to legalize so-called “medical” marijuana to begin gathering petition signatures to place their measure on the November 2014 ballot. On Friday Family Council Action Committee President Jerry Cox released a statement.

“Ultimately, this is about legalizing marijuana,” Cox said. “This proposal is very similar to the one Arkansans voted down last November, and it still has a lot of the same problems: It’s vaguely-worded; marijuana stores will open in Arkansas; and people will still be allowed to grow their own marijuana.”

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MO, OK Schools and Parents Concerned about Marijuana-Laced Candy

Marijuana CandyThe Southwest Missouri Drug Task Force intercepted bags of marijuana-laced candy mailed from Colorado to a Pineville, Missouri address.

The candy resembled lemon drops, gummy bears, and mints. According to Missouri news, John Luckey with the Task Force said that they found no one living at the Pineville address. The bags of candy show how much THC is in each piece, and Luckey says the marijuana-candy so closely resembles regular candy it would be easy for a child to put it in a Ziploc bag and carry it to school without anyone knowing the difference.

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Scientists Link Marijuana-Use to Schizophrenia

It isn’t just “reefer madness.” Multiple scientific studies and reviews conducted over the past decade–particularly in the past couple of years–are showing a clear connection between marijuana-use during adolescence and the development of schizophrenia in adulthood.

A 2002 study published in the British Medical Journal followed up research showing a connection between adolescent cannabis-use and schizophrenia. The study examined whether marijuana causes schizophrenia in adulthood or people who choose to use marijuana as adolescents are already predisposed toward developing schizophrenia later in life. The study concluded, “cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of experiencing schizophrenia symptoms, even after psychotic symptoms preceding the onset of cannabis use are controlled for, indicating that cannabis use is not secondary to a pre-existing psychosis….early cannabis use (by age 15) confers greater risk for schizophrenia outcomes than later cannabis use (by age 18).”1

The study conceded researchers needed to examine the topic more thoroughly, and in the 11 years since that is exactly what scientists have done.

In 2010, research published in the British Journal of Pharmacology stated, (more…)