{"id":2106,"date":"2013-08-22T02:10:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T02:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=21281"},"modified":"2013-08-22T02:10:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T02:10:36","slug":"federal-authorities-refuse-to-admit-marijuana-less-dangerous-than-alcohol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/federal-authorities-refuse-to-admit-marijuana-less-dangerous-than-alcohol\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Authorities Refuse to Admit Marijuana less Dangerous than Alcohol"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/federal-authorities-refuse-to-admit-marijuana-less-dangerous-than-alcohol\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/federal-government.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"federal government\" title=\"federal government\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-21283\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/federal-authorities-refuse-to-admit-marijuana-less-dangerous-than-alcohol\/attachment\/federal-government\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-21283\" title=\"federal government\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/federal-government-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Last week, we at <a href=\"www.marijuana.net\" target=\"_blank\">marijuana.net<\/a> were pleased to report on Attorney General Holder&#8217;s decision to alter the way federal minimum drug sentences would be handled.\u00a0 This week we found out it may have been a case of the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.<\/p>\n<p>The momentum for marijuana reform has been rising steady so it was right on cue that federal authorities needed to fight back with false and ridiculous propaganda. \u00a0On Monday, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) <\/a>released a statement that not only calls into question their grasp of the facts, \u00a0but also questions whether or not the agency is operating in 2013 and not 1933. \u00a0On Monday decision makers at the NIDA thought the following statement was a well thought out idea: &#8220;Claiming that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol cannot be substantiated since each possess their own unique set of risks and consequences for a given individual.&#8221; \u00a0The statement seems to be a response to the group <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mpp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marijuana Policy Project&#8217;s <\/a>(MPP) recent ads that describe marijuana as less dangerous than alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>Mason Tvert of MPP commented on the odd NIDA statement by telling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/08\/19\/marijuana-less-toxic-alcohol_n_3782100.html\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a> &#8220;Our federal government has been exaggerating the harms of marijuana for decades, but at this point it has gone off the deep end&#8230;NIDA&#8217;s statement that marijuana can be just as toxic as alcohol would be on par with the FDA announcing sushi is as fattening as fried chicken.&#8221; \u00a0The Huffington Post article also pointed out that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">PolitiFact<\/a> was unable to identify a single marijuana related death in 2010 but found 41,682 linked to alcohol during the same year.<\/p>\n<p>The public trust in federal drug policy has been declining for decades. \u00a0However, the feds have learned to smile, dress nice, and say little when questioned on these issues. \u00a0NIDA&#8217;s mission statement is &#8220;to lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction .&#8221; \u00a0Their actions indicate that perhaps the NIDA does not hold its mission statement in any sort of high regard. \u00a0As we said last week with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/08\/08\/health\/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Sanjay Gupta&#8217;s reversal<\/a> on medical marijuana, how do we trust those who have policy making influence when they are the last to be educated?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/federal-government.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"federal government\" title=\"federal government\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-21283\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/federal-authorities-refuse-to-admit-marijuana-less-dangerous-than-alcohol\/attachment\/federal-government\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-21283\" title=\"federal government\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/federal-government-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Last week, we at <a href=\"www.marijuana.net\" target=\"_blank\">marijuana.net<\/a> were pleased to report on Attorney General Holder&#8217;s decision to alter the way federal minimum drug sentences would be handled.\u00a0 This week we found out it may have been a case of the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.<\/p>\n<p>The momentum for marijuana reform has been rising steady so it was right on cue that federal authorities needed to fight back with false and ridiculous propaganda. \u00a0On Monday, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) <\/a>released a statement that not only calls into question their grasp of the facts, \u00a0but also questions whether or not the agency is operating in 2013 and not 1933. \u00a0On Monday decision makers at the NIDA thought the following statement was a well thought out idea: &#8220;Claiming that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol cannot be substantiated since each possess their own unique set of risks and consequences for a given individual.&#8221; \u00a0The statement seems to be a response to the group <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mpp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marijuana Policy Project&#8217;s <\/a>(MPP) recent ads that describe marijuana as less dangerous than alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>Mason Tvert of MPP commented on the odd NIDA statement by telling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/08\/19\/marijuana-less-toxic-alcohol_n_3782100.html\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a> &#8220;Our federal government has been exaggerating the harms of marijuana for decades, but at this point it has gone off the deep end&#8230;NIDA&#8217;s statement that marijuana can be just as toxic as alcohol would be on par with the FDA announcing sushi is as fattening as fried chicken.&#8221; \u00a0The Huffington Post article also pointed out that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">PolitiFact<\/a> was unable to identify a single marijuana related death in 2010 but found 41,682 linked to alcohol during the same year.<\/p>\n<p>The public trust in federal drug policy has been declining for decades. \u00a0However, the feds have learned to smile, dress nice, and say little when questioned on these issues. \u00a0NIDA&#8217;s mission statement is &#8220;to lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction .&#8221; \u00a0Their actions indicate that perhaps the NIDA does not hold its mission statement in any sort of high regard. \u00a0As we said last week with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/08\/08\/health\/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Sanjay Gupta&#8217;s reversal<\/a> on medical marijuana, how do we trust those who have policy making influence when they are the last to be educated?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,52,2048,65,999,457,56,9,404,51,2070,70,1,3,61],"tags":[3066,2632,4616,2644,3570,3031,2636,2982,2631,4638,5,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}