Ralph E. Tarter, Ph.D. is Director of the NIDA-funded Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR) and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. His research interests focus on the neurobehavioral antecedents and consequences of substance abuse.
Q: What is the most important thing for Americans to know as medical marijuana becomes legal in state after state across the nation?
A: The most important thing for people to know is that when any drug shifts from illegal to legal, the threshold for consumption reduces. For people who would not normally be prone to violating the law their propensity of using increases. Take a look at tobacco, for example. We've made it harder for kids to get tobacco. The kids who will do so have now been marginalized to 'socially deviant.' As the attribution of a drug becomes more favorable - individuals who are not deviant are more inclined to consume it.
Dr. Tarter and his team at The Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR) have been following 775 families since 1990. "There are factors that lead certain kids to use certain drugs and develop addictions. Somewhere along the developmental pathway from childhood to adulthood a certain percent of kids develop an addiction."
In the case of marijuana, the addiction is not as high as in other drugs. According to Dr. Tarter's data, 50% of high school graduates have used marijuana but only 4% have developed a disorder from it. However 10 - 15 percent of the kids who use marijuana are at risk of developing a psychosis.
"The earlier onset, the greater the risk of developed concepts. The danger is what the consumption does in terms of your development. Once you formed a social network you are on a trajectory (what’s happening within the framework of the developing person.)"
Q: Will Pennsylvania pass HB 1393?
A: Tobacco kills 400,000/year and it is legal. Compare marijuana to another drug or alcohol to another drug. Look at what the issues are. One important step forward to making marijuana legal is that the states need money. Marijuana is a source of money.
Q: Do you think marijuana should be legalized?
A: I have no opinion. We have a big buffet in our society. People will eat up to their level of tolerance. Lettuce is like alcohol (normative). Hot peppers are less normative. There is a spectrum of what society considers normative. Crack cocaine is at the other end of that spectrum.
Q: Will medical marijuana be lead to more teenage users?
A: There will be prescribing guidelines. And Physicians who prescribe would be aware of how old the patient is. Doctors will use their medical judgment the same way that they do with any other medicine. What happens in marketplace? What kids do without supervision in the marketplace is not the same as with kids who are receiving perscriptions.
Pennsylvania Health and Human Services decides medical marijuana has merit
Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell will support a well crafted medical marijuana bill
Cannabis can affect neuropathic pain medical marijuana and multiple sclerosis
American Medical Association House of Delegates - text of medical marijuana proposal 11/10/09
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