THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Listen Up
SOURCE: Karan Baranski and Vorando Mack
LENGTH: 29 lines
DEAR KAREN AND VORANDO: My clique and I smoke marijuana four times a week and see nothing wrong with it. It's intoxicating to a degree but it feels like it expands the imagination and broadens the mind. None of us has become ill or infected with any disease linked to the drug and we want to know if it is as deadly as it is portrayed to be. - Lifted in Norfolk
Dear L.N.: Foremost, understand that you and your clique are breaking the law by possessing and smoking marijuana. (Hemp, sess, weed, pot and reefer are some of its nicknames.)
Research shows that people use marijuana for the first time between the ages of 12 and 18. In a 1995 study by the New York City-based Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, researchers found that teen-agers who use marijuana are overwhelmingly more likely to go on and use harder drugs like cocaine or heroin as opposed to teen-agers who don't smoke marijuana.
Pot-smoking kids are much more likely to have sex and to have it without a condom, putting them at risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. Marijuana impairs short-term memory, judgment and motor skills.
This drug is intoxicating and health risks can be heightened if it is mixed with chemicals or laced with substances such as cocaine or angel dust. by CNB