THE NARCOCRACY
(THE PROHIBITIONIST ESTABLISHMENT)
AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE POTENT POT MYTH

Introductory Remarks by Richard Cowan
NORML National Director
At the National Press Club News Conference
February 18, 1994

In the real world, the average potency (THC -- delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol
-- content) of cannabis or hemp (marijuana) is not very important,
because --
1. It is impossible to overdose on cannabis, and someone who smokes too
much just goes to sleep and wakes up a few hours later -- without a
hangover.
2. The effects of smoking are almost immediate, so it is easy to control
the dosage, and most people find being "too stoned" unpleasant and easily
avoided.
3. In some ways, more potent pot is actually safer, in that a person can
smoke less to achieve the desired results. This reduces the respiratory
irritation that comes from smoking anything.

In short, higher average potency is something that sounds menacing but
would not be, even if it were real -- which it is not. However, in the
world of the narcocracy party-line propaganda the myth that "pot is X
times stronger than it was back in the sixties when we all thought it was
harmless" is a very successful component in the effort to justify the
arrests of over nine million Americans since 1965 -- and another every two
minutes -- on "marijuana" charges.

This line is used to discredit 100 years of studies of cannabis, starting
with the Indian Hemp Commission Report in 1894. All of these studies
arrived at essentially the same conclusion: that there is no reason to
criminalize cannabis users. It is also used to counter the personal
experiences of the tens of millions of Americans who tried pot in the
1960's and '70's and found it less than threatening.

The success of this line is obvious from how often it has found its way
into the leading publications in America, most recently in The New York
Times. It has indeed become the "conventional wisdom" in journalistic
reports on the recent increase in the use of pot, with heavy emphasis on
the use by young people.

I will leave it to Dr. Morgan to explain the technical data, but it should
be clearly understood that these false claims are not the product of some
fringe groups that are to be found embarrassing the responsible proponents
of every issue. As you can see from the quotations on the accompanying
pages, the principal propagators of these lies -- yes, lies -- are people
who should know better, and almost certainly do. While the numbers have
not been readily available to the public, either the Drug Enforcement
Administration knew what they were, or they are totally incompetent. But
then again they have never let mere facts influence their statements.

Ironically, the origins of this disinformation campaign can be traced back
to at least 1974, the time when pot was supposedly much weaker: "The shift
is clearly toward the abuse of stronger, more dangerous forms of the drug,
which renders much of what has been said in the 1960's about harmlessness
of its use obsolete." -- Andrew Tartaglino, Deputy Administrator, DEA,
testifying before the Eastland Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security
hearings on marijuana's supposed threat to the internal security of the
United States in 1974!!

Of course, the DEA, being as much a propaganda agency as a police force,
remains the center of this campaign. Consequently, we call on Attorney
General Reno, Drug Czar Lee Brown, and the newly appointed head of the DEA
to direct their subordinates to stop lying to the American people about the
"potent pot" myth and admit that there is no justification for arresting
people for using this plant which has been used for millennia without
directly having killed a single person.

We also call on the American media to investigate how they have been used
by the narcocracy and to ask themselves the simple question: "If the
narcocracy lied to us about something as simple and quantifiable as the
average THC content of contraband, why should they be believed about
anything?"



REMARKS OF
John P. Morgan, M.D.
Professor of Pharmacology
Feb. 18, 1994

In 1980 (May 21), 1986 (September 25) and now, 1994 (February
6), a New York Times reporter has discovered the "new highly-potent
marijuana." The narrative of the three reports is nearly identical: some
group of previous marijuana consumers (Beats; Hippies; Baby-Boomers)
recalling their days of inconsequential smoking misunderstand the current
dangers of the new potent marijuana. Jane Brody, Peter Kerr, and no
Melinda Henneberger, relying on "drug treatment experts and law
enforcement officials," present as fact that today's marijuana is 10 or
even 20 times more potent than the marijuana of the 60's and 70's.

This green miracle attributed to unspecified agronomic wisdom is
never documented. The "potent" drug is then linked to a number of harms
involving pulmonary, immune, and cognitive functions. This narrative is
now so fixed that it appears immune to research, data, fact and truth.
Marijuana potency is expressed as the percentage weight of the
sample contributed by delta-9-THC. This active chemical was not identified
until 1966 and potency was rarely measured before 1970. Reports from
street drug laboratories assessing anonymously submitted samples indicate
that from 1970 to 1975, commercial marijuana averaged 2-4 percent THC.

In 1975, a federally-funded marijuana potency monitoring project
was established at the University of Mississippi. Essentially all plant
samples tested have been seized by the DEA or state criminal agencies. The
summer 1993 quarterly report traces the project's entire experience.

Since 1974, approximately 20,000 samples of marijuana have been
analyzed. The averge THC content of all samples is 2.93%. Since the
laboratory first received more than 250 seizures annually in 1981, there
has been no discernible pattern of increased potency. The highest average
potency was 3.96 percent in 1984. The lowest was 1.9 percent recorded in
the last complete year tallied, 1992. These 1992 figures came from the
assessment of approximately 3500 seized samples with total weight exceeding
1.5 million pounds.

The new potent marijuana is a myth.

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