You won't F'ing believe what my son brought home from school.

[garybeck]

My son has graduated from highschool and in college now. A few years ago, in 8th or 9th grade or so, he came home with this flyer which was given to him from the school. I believe it was in health class. It is a public school. Because I believe it is filled with inacurate information and propaganda, at the time I wanted to go bursting into the school's principal's office and give him a piece of my mind. Rather than drawing public attention to my beliefs about marijuana rights, I just held on to it. Well I was just cleaning out a drawer and found it. I still can't believe the school was giving this out. I should have said something to them back then. I wanted to share it with others and see what you think. There is contact information for the publisher at the bottom. I wonder what other kind of propaganda they are giving out to school children all over the country, through our publicly funded schools. If anyone wants to call this company and chew on their ear for a bit, let me know what you find out.

In case you're wondering, I did not make this up. It is 100% real. All I did was scan it. It's not from the 1950's, ala the "refer madness" movies. It was post 2000.

[WindRavenX]

1. It's sad we lie to our children

There hasn't been a single case of lung cancer caused by smoking the good herb. THC has been shown to actually be a tumor supressor.

Instead of lying, tell the kids the objective, scientific facts about marijuana.

[garybeck]

2. yeah, I can see this being handed out at the shopping malls, but in school?

I mean, there is free speech, and there's no law against lying on paper and giving it away.

But to have our public schools handing it out????

WTF?

[WindRavenX]

4. To me, it's less of an issue of free speech...it's an issue of deliberately spreading false info

There's a reason why young people (I'm only 22) distrust authority. They lied to me.

[petunia.here]

5. No shit.

Growing up in the Just Say No and DARE era did it for me.

[WindRavenX]

7. same here

Great job they did-- made me love the good herb even more :smoke:

And yet, despite *everything* I was brainwashed with, I'm a responsible, succesful, productive member of society. Haven't killed anyone, didn't eat a baby sandwich coz of the muncies. I did, however, do better in school and have had much less anxiety.

[garybeck]

6. yup,

I've always thought that when they lie once, people assume they lie all the time. so if they say marijuana will kill you and you find out they're lying, well, they must be lying when they say cocaine is bad too, or PCP. Once you realize they're lying, why not do them all? So in effect they are causing some people to do the opposite of what they intend. I think anyone with half a brain could see that... I tried to explain it to my son as he grew up. I think he "got it." The bottom line is, he doesn't have a need to rebel against me, he doesn't "binge," and he realizes there are some very nasty drugs to stay away from. others are not so bad in moderation. not exactly what the school told him.

[WindRavenX]

8. Health issues should not be moral issues, you know?

It's pretty well established now that THC<<<<<<<<<<<alcohol in terms of damage to the body. Instead, we see mj as being a bad thing; the very fact that it's illegal makes it, to most people, inherently bad.

It's my hope that more people become educated on this. I hope to see mj legalized in my lifetime.

[garybeck]

11. well the facts are pretty clear...

there is no toxicity level from smoking marijuana. You could smoke it for hours and you might fall asleep but you won't die.

alcohol is another story. if you drink enough you can die from alcohol in one night.

comparing marijuana to alcohol is very revealing, makes you wonder why one is legal and the other isn't.

[WindRavenX]

12. Oh, when it comes down to it, mj was criminalized for one reason: racism

Watch the History channel show "The History of Drugs". Very revealing.

[DCKit]

15. "Illegal drugs and How They Got That Way"

Great series. But it wasn't just racism. William Randolf Hearst had interest in tens of thousands of acres of timber. Those wacky Mexicans were an easy target for his yellow journalism and just think of all the jobs criminalization of MJ has brought: the DEA, private prisons, the bloated FBI, extra law enforcement, more lawyers, judges and support staff. It's a HUGE business.

[WindRavenX]

20. True

Forgot that part ;)

Yeah, the DEA and all the "tough on drugs!1111" crap made (makes) mj such an easy target.Bust a few pot heads, politicians can claim they're tough on something...

Do you think mj will be legalized, or at the very least, decriminalized, in my lifetime?

[zonmoy]

28. believe me there are people much older than you who

have had people who claimed authority that told them bullshit that now no longer trust authority.

[TomInTib]

3. Forty-two years later

And I can still do everything that I have ever done.

I was going to go into detail, but I will just leave it...

[silverweb]

9. I love the disclaimer.

Signal Press's disclaimer says:

All materials posted on this site are subject to copyrights owned by Mentalhealth Internet Resources, Inc., (hereafter, MIR) and other individuals or entities.

<snip>

This publication is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

<snip>

MIR does not verify the credentials of individuals representing themselves as mental health professionals or the facts as they are presented in personal statements.

<snip>

Listing in this Web site does not imply that MIR endorses the persons or products. Although the site includes links providing direct access to other Internet sites, MIR takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, and does not exert any editorial or other control over those other sites.

===================================

In other words, they know damn full well it's all lies and they don't care, as long as it suits their agenda.

[garybeck]

10. link?

I honestly haven't even tried to look them up, website or otherwise. I just found it the drawer and I was so PO'd, the first thing I thought of was to get some DU'ers (and some UseNet folks) riled up about it.

It would be interesting to call them and see what they say, although I'm more pissed at the school than I am at them. I expect shit like this to be out there but I don't expect my school to be doling it out. Especially in "progressive" vermont?

Maybe a little public outrage is in order. a few Recs, this could be on the Greatest page, and that Signal Press company might get a few phone calls.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

14. They apparently don't have a link.

And I looked.

If they don't have a site, then they probably don't want discussion and criticism.

[garybeck]

17. i think silverweb was looking at this

http://www.communityresources.net/signalpress.html

there's a disclaimer at the bottom...

but I think this is a directory, not the website of Signal Press.

[silverweb]

25. They do.

See post #23.

[silverweb]

23. Here you go:

Signal Press website:
http://www.communityresources.net/signalpress.html

Disclaimer page:
http://www.communityresources.net/help/disclaimer.html

[garybeck]

26. I believe that is not their website

that disclaimer is for communityresources.net, not signal press, it appears to me.

[DCKit]

13. My family has some land in the country, so I bought some books on plants

Many plants are medicinal, some are merely useful and some are poisonous. However, after several books stating that many of the plants, especially the mushrooms we had were either medicinal, edible or even mildly hallucinogenic, one book stated they were all, in fact, deadly poisonous. In fact, nearly everything in nature is, apparently, toxic.

Well, I was a little disturbed, but then I got to the short article about Marijuana. It seems it was written by William Randolf Hearst in cahoots with Harry Anslinger, J. Edgar, Nancy Reagan and the screenwriter for the original "Reefer Madness." Not only is it toxic, but it is addictive, leads to psychosis and a certain, early death.

Need I mention we burned the book that evening in the campfire?

[jbnow]

16. Except for the part about cancer

A lot of it is close to true.

That's why there was such surprise from the researcher
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

Tashkin's group at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA had hypothesized that marijuana would raise the risk of cancer on the basis of earlier small human studies, lab studies of animals, and the fact that marijuana users inhale more deeply and generally hold smoke in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers-- exposing them to the dangerous chemicals for a longer time. In addition, Tashkin said, previous studies found that marijuana tar has 50 percent higher concentrations of chemicals linked to cancer than tobacco cigarette tar.

That's not the best article on the sudy but explains some of the reasons they assumed there would be an increased cancer rate. Instead the findings showed a weakly protective. Tashkin suspects THC has antitumor properties.

[garybeck]

18. Ummm, I believe the title is "Marijuana and cancer."

and you're saying "except for the part about cancer??"

the whole thing is about cancer!!

the very first paragraph is a bald face lie, saying there are more carcinogens in marijuana than any other substance known to man?!?!

Give me a break! I think you're being a little overly apologetic for some very bald face lies. They're not even exaggerations, they are not even close to the truth.

[jbnow]

19. But that was several years ago

The major study that surprised science was just last year, before that the accepted belief was that it would increase lung cancer.

"more carcinogens in marijuana than any other substance known to man" is obviously a crazy statement and there are other dumb things too.

I didn't phrase my post well. The handout was in essence based on something science thought was true. Marijuana is bad for your health, more bad things than tobacco, it can give you cancer. I know they overstated everything but the essence of the warning was accepted as truth.

I thought the bigger thing I offered was the study that refutes it and that the researcher had the same beliefs about the danger, a negative comparison to tobacco and the number of carcinogens.
But surprise...facts came before bias when they saw the results.

Today that handout would be an intentional complete lie.
Back then it was an overblown warning based on something thought to be true.

[WindRavenX]

21. Oh yeah

The part about levels of tar/carcinogens is probably higher in a joint than a ciggy...but THC itself is absolutely non-carcinogenic and if you smoke out of a bong or vaporizer, there's almost no burned material (which is the source of carcinogens to begin with).

Smoking blunts all the time probably isn't good for you. Thankfully, that's why god in her infinite wisdom invented the bong :smoke:

[jbnow]

24. Even heavy marijuana

with the burned materials was found safe-that was what surprised them. From the article
Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied

And they weren't all bong users! The three cancers were head, lung and neck.
But bongs still make the smoke less irritating and you'r right, THC is anything but carcinogenic. They think it is protective instead.

I'm so glad the big study was done

[garybeck]

22. It's filled with lies, period. They were lies back then and they are lies today.

"more carcinogens than any substance known to man"

how can you be making any kind of excuses for this? it's filled with lies. read some of the other posts above, where students testify to the fact that when they are lied to once they throw the baby out with the bathwater and figure everything these people say is a lie?

they should just tell the truth.

[Lord Helmet]

27. this says marijuana causes cancer

people use medical marijuana to treat cancer symptoms

WTF?

[otherlander]

29. Give the principle a copy of The Doors of Perception. nt