{"id":146,"date":"2008-06-23T14:10:20","date_gmt":"2008-06-23T20:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=146"},"modified":"2008-06-23T14:10:20","modified_gmt":"2008-06-23T20:10:20","slug":"sociologist-weighs-in-on-the-latest-round-of-marijuana-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2008\/06\/23\/sociologist-weighs-in-on-the-latest-round-of-marijuana-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"sociologist weighs in on the latest round of marijuana debates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/files\/2008\/06\/2580409428_2c658615c5_m.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-147\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/files\/2008\/06\/2580409428_2c658615c5_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/health\/articles\/2008\/06\/23\/marijuanas_rising_potency_sparks_debate\/\">Boston Globe<\/a> reports on how the increasing potency of marijuana fuels the fires of partisan marijuana debates.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;The polarized debate about [marijuana&#8217;s] safety has been rekindled by two reports released separately this month by the federal government and a leading drug prohibition group. Both studies conclude that marijuana&#8217;s potency has increased, which they link to reports of more addiction, mental health problems, and emergency room admissions related to marijuana use among teenagers.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And the sociologist weighs in&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a field with limited research, partisans tend to create paper thin arguments, as easily made as they are countered, said Roger Roffman, professor of sociology at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think [both sides] do a disservice to the general public,&#8221; said Roffman, who has written papers and edited books on marijuana use and dependence. On websites of drug policy reform advocates, &#8220;you&#8217;ll find lots of information about the very adverse consequences of criminalizing marijuana and very little mention of the very real harm associated with marijuana among some people in some circumstances,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, on government and prohibitionist websites, he said, &#8220;you&#8217;ll find plenty of information on the harmful consequences of marijuana abuse and very little information, perhaps, on the harmful consequences of criminalizing marijuana.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/health\/articles\/2008\/06\/23\/marijuanas_rising_potency_sparks_debate\/\">Read on.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Globe reports on how the increasing potency of marijuana fuels the fires of partisan marijuana debates. &#8220;&#8230;The polarized debate about [marijuana&#8217;s] safety has been rekindled by two reports released separately this month by the federal government and a leading drug prohibition group. Both studies conclude that marijuana&#8217;s potency has increased, which they link [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[39112,39113,118,129,152,117,100],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-culture","tag-health","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-medical","tag-trends","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}