WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told a constituent in favor of legalizing marijuana that he doesn't support the idea because drugs like pot lead to death.
In a Feb. 14 letter to his constituent, McConnell said he has "serious concerns" about legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, a topic that the constituent had written to him about. He pointed out that the main ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, is already available in pill form for the treatment of certain illnesses.
He is also "troubled" by the fact that many legalization proposals would make marijuana available to the public "without following the scientific processes" of the Food and Drug Administration, McConnell said.
McConnell then cites a medical marijuana bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and raises concerns about what could happen if it became law -- death.
"Because of the harm that substances like marijuana and other narcotics pose to our society, I have concerns about this legislation. The detrimental effects of drugs have been well documented: short-term memory loss, loss of core motor functions, heightened risk of lung disease, and even death," McConnell wrote.
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said McConnell was just making the case that drugs in general have detrimental effects.
"Everyone from the Obama administration on down agrees that drug use has had serious consequences, including deaths. The letter makes that clear," Stewart said.
The constituent who corresponded with McConnell posted the letter on a counterculture blog, grasscity.com, and wrote a response to what McConnell had to say:
"Hi Blades, got a letter back from Mitch McConnell about legalizing marijuana. I'll let the letter speak for itself. WOWZA."
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According to which US Government authority you want to believe, the lethal dose of marijuana is either about one-third your body weight, or about 1,500 pounds, consumed all at once.In summary, enormous doses of Delta 9 THC, All THC and concentrated marihuana extract ingested by mouth were unable to produce death or organ pathology in large mammals but did produce fatalities in Read More... smaller rodents due to profound central nervous system depression.
The non-fatal consumption of 3000 mg/kg A THC by the dog and monkey would be comparable to a 154-pound human eating approximately 46 pounds (21 kilograms) of 1%-marihuana or 10 pounds of 5% hashish at one time. In addition, 92 mg/kg THC intravenously produced no fatalities in monkeys. These doses would be comparable to a 154-pound human smoking at one time almost three pounds (1.28 kg) of 1%-marihuana or 250,000 times the usual smoked dose and over a million times the minimal effective dose assuming 50% destruction of the THC by smoking.
Thus, evidence from animal studies and human case reports appears to indicate that the ratio of lethal dose to effective dose is quite large. This ratio is much more favorable than that of many other common psychoactive agents including alcohol and barbiturates (Phillips et al. 1971, Brill et al. 1970).
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Posted: 03/14/2012 11:20 am Updated: 03/14/2012 11:25 am