A different sort of graduation story
TIM SULLIVAN is a third-year law
student and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist.
My younger brother Kevin and I are both
experiencing graduation of different types. Me
from law school, him from a residential treat
ment program for drug and alcohol addiction.
Talk about extremes. Me from a school of
law; my brother from a school of life.
His is the greater achievement by far.
Last week, I helped my younger brother
move out of Comhusker Place Detox.
Comhusker Place, you ask? You thought
only people arrested for public intoxication and
driving under the influence earned a visit to
detox, right?
Wrong. They also have a long-term residen
tial treatment program.
Kevin entered it last February, I think. I think
-it was February because in January of last year
he was arrested for suspicion of driving under
the influence. He refused the chemical test - the
police report said he was hallucinating and com
bative.
It wasn’t his first DUI. It was his second.
And it was far from his first run-in with the law.
You see, Kevin’s had a monkey on his back
for 20-plus years.
He has a particularly persistent problem with
his penchant for amphetamine-like substances.
I can’t say with any degree of certainty just
what it was that led Kevin down fee path of self
destruction he was trapped on for so long.
I have my hunches, but they’re just that -
hunches.
was marijuana use in his teen-age years a
contributing factor?
- Last fall, I wrote a column about the crimi
nalization of marijuana. I argued that criminal
ization of possession of small amounts of mari
juana is bad law. 4
I also said that I considered marijuana to be
virtually harmless.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John Minahan
read my column. I was taking his bankruptcy
course at the law school at the time.
At the conclusion of die class session follow
ing the publication of “Reefer Madness,” Judge
Minahan told me that he had read my column,
that there was something he wanted to give me
and that he wanted it back.
With that, he left die lectern and walked
across the room to where I was seated and placed
on the desk in front of me a copy of “Pot Safari:
A Visit to the Top Marijuana Researchers in the
U.S.” (Peggy Mann; Woodmere Press; 1982).
“Pot Safari” is Peggy Mann’s account of her
visits to the top marijuana researchers in the
United States. It details the harmful effects asso
ciated with marijuana that the top researchers
have uncovered.
After having read “Pot Safari,” I think I have
an obligation and a duty to my readers to present
a summary of the alleged harmful effects of mar
ijuana, I say “alleged” because I do not in any
way vouch for die reliability of any of the stud
ies, or suggest that any of the research was or
was not performed in accordance with generally
accepted scientific methods.
In other words, I’m not going to waste space
debating die accuracy or reliability of these stud
ies.
I’m just going to hit the high points (pun
intended).
So here they are: the alleged harmful effects
of marijuana.
The Hmbic area of the brains of marijua
na smokers is damaged.
Synaptic vesicles functioning is impaired,
slowing down the transmission of messages
from one synaptic cleft to another. The passing
on of messages from one nerve cell to another is
the basis of all brain activity. This affects the
reflexes you need to drive, or to do math, for
example.
Brain-wave abnormaUties persist even
after discontinuing marijuana use.
Even some weekend smokers had abnormal
ities in this study.
The only thing I would say about this study,
keeping in mind my own rule of not discussing
the study’s reliability or accuracy, is that the
author suggests a link between abnormal brain
waves and mental illness.
The problem I see with suggesting this con
nection is the lack of any research to support it,
other than a visit to a mental hospital.
Marijuana smokers are amotivational.
This the author terms “dropout syndrome.”
Marijuana smokers care less about everything
and everyone. They drop out of useful, produc
tive activities like sports, drama club or the swim
team.
Marijuana smokers harbor increased irri
tabiUty and hostiHty.
Abrupt mood swings, ranging from a laid
back flat effect to sudden fits of rage, without a
reasonable justification.
Marijuana smokers experience impaired
short-term memory.
People in this study had difficulty remem
bering die phone numbers of their best friends.
Marijuana users suffer from an increased
frequency of depression, suicidal feelings and
actual suicide attempts.
The researcher here talks about the accumu
lation effect - THC that collects in and affects
brain cells. This is all consistent with what the
researchers call the “pot personality,” meaning
flat affect, irritability, hostility and depression.
Marijuana users inhibit their ability to get
a “natural” high - in fact, they injure then
ability to do so.
The brain produces endorphins, which acti
vate neuro transmitters so that “pleasure mes
sages” can be passed from one cell to another.
THC irritates and damages the cells in the plea
sure center of the brain - and destroys the endor
phins.
Because endorphins are only stimulated by
natural things - such as jogging, a beautiful sun
set or music - the heavy marijuana user loses the
ability to experience natural pleasures.
Lung damage from pot smoke comes
about much faster and is much more severe
than lung damage from tobacco smoke.
Marijuana smoke changes the normal
arrangement of lung cells. The messed-up cells
die, become part of the debris clogging up the
tiny sacs in the small airways and block oxygen
from getting into the lungs from the blood
stream.
Marijuana smoking has hidden detrimen
tal effects to the lungs.
Marijuana smokers inhale deeply and hold it;
cigarette smokers expel the smoke quickly.
Cigarette smokers snub out die butt end of a
cigarette; marijuana smokers prize the “roach”
end of a joint, considering it to be the best part,
because the pot collects resins from the burnt
matter that is smoked when die pot it collects on
is burnt.
Holding in inhalations of marijuana smoke
and smoking roaches leads to chronic, persistent
cough and chronic bronchitis.,
Marijuana speeds up the heart.
Average hate rates of 70 beats per minute
increased to an average of 100 beats per minute
while under the influence of marijuana. Blood
pressure also increases significantly.
By increasing either the heart rate or the
blood pressure, the heart’s need for oxygen is
increased. The marijuana smoke increases car
bon dioxide in the blood, decreasing the avail
able supply of oxygen.
Melanie Falk/DN 1
Marijuana use disrupts men
strual cycles and increases the pos- 1
sibQity of a high-risk pregnancy or
no pregnacy at all.
v^uiieepuuii is uciaycu iui uucc iu i ivc
menstrual cycles for new users; at the time of
menstruation, prolonged vaginal bleeding occurs,
not followed by pregnancy.
The incidence of early spontaneous abortion,
in utero fetal deaths, still-births and infant death
just after birth is higher for pregnant marijuana
users.
Male marijuana users experience a
greater incidence of inhibited sperm matura
tion and infertility. ■
While most sperm looks plump and healthy
- under a microscope, the sperm of marijuana
users looks abnormal. They’re often misshapen,
and they lack essential proteins, affecting fertility.
Marijuana damages the immune system.
The T-lymphocytes, which comprise about 70
percent of the lymphocytes in the body necessary
to fight off invaders, are damaged. Their ability
to multiply is diminished by marijuana use.
Marijuana use induces cellular damage in
humans.
Humans with 46 chromosomes are normal.
Even occasional smokers had reduced numbers -
20 to 30..
Com has 20. Frogs have 25.
The researchers didn’t state definitively that
this chromosome damage would lead to obvious
birth defects, but suggested, rather, that the
defects may be subtle.
Well, now you have the other side of the argu
ment regarding the dangerousness of marijuana.
You have to decide for yourself if any of the
alleged dangers are risks you’re willing to take
for yourself.
If you’re a parent, you should recognize that
your children lack the maturity to make
informed, rational decisions and that it may be
necessary for you to shoulder the decision-mak
ing responsibility.
As a parent, you may even need to be hypo
critical - you may decide that the risks are
acceptable for you but that at least until your chil
dren are old enough and mature enough to make
such important decisions for themselves, you
have to protect them from things that could harm
them.
So what does all this have to do with Kevin?
Well, there are a few other dangers to be
aware of - not in regard to marijuana use - but
having to do with drug and alcohol addiction
generally. c
Relationships with friends and family suf
fer.
Kevin has been alienated from his mother,
father and all of his brothers and sisters for vari
ous amounts of time over the years. His drug
W addiction led to stealing, lying
. and behaving aggressively in
confrontational situations.
He was so bad two summers
ago that I wrote a paper on
whether or not he could be involuntarily commit
ted to a psychiatric hospital under the Nebraska
Mental Health Commitment Act as a drug-abus
ing person dangerous to himself or others.
I was afraid he would kill himself. He inject
ed himself with a crude form of bathtub crank -
resulting in several trips to the emergency room
and surgeries on the destroyed vein and muscles
of his hands and forearms.
Lots of other things made me think he was
sufficiently dangerous to himself or others to
warrant commitment - but none of that really
matters when you think in terms of the damage to
the family unit.
The stress on everyone - his mother, father,
brothers and sisters- was often so great that it
contributed to arguments flaring up between
everyone else about his problem.
A lot of blaming went on, and a lot of efforts
to try to answer the “why” questions that flow so
naturally from such horrific situations.
Kevin was in the residential treatment pro
gram at detox for around 14 months. That’s his
record for stating clean, at least in the past 20 or
so years.
I’ve noticed a lot less conflict in my family as
• a result of his drug use as the time he stays clean
increases.
So what am I saying? Did I go on so long that
my point got lost? •
Sorry.
Here it is: Consider the physical and the
social effects of drug and alcohol use.
I think a lot of people are able to drink social
ly and use marijuana recreationally with little to
no harmful effects on their lives.
If a person is able to be a social drinker cr
recreational drug user without detrimental effects
on the ability to function, then perhaps no real
harm is done.
But some people can’t do that. For them, sub
stance abuse is all-consuming; it controls every
aspect of their life and personality. For these peo
ple, drugs and alcohol are certain disaster.
Even assuming there were no physical
effects, the effects on social and family life
should be a sufficient deterrent for those whose
addictions permeate their lives.
I’ve thought a lot about drug and alcohol
addiction over the years, partially because of
Kevin, partially because of my work in the prison
system and in part because of my own experi
ences.
Regardless of what anyone else gets out of
this, I hope one message makes it.
Congratulations on your graduation, Kevin.
