It's a Cat in a Box, not a Bong... It's the Media's Marijuana Ignorance!

(SALEM, Ore.) - The world is reeling with stories about marijuana these days and each one seems to have major contrast from the next.

One day an athlete's career is impacted by a photo showing him taking a hit from a bong.

Then pharmaceutical company influence leads to a story about marijuana causing testicular cancer.

Now we have a stoner placing his cat in a box and getting it rip roaringly wasted. He got caught, it made headlines. The dude was stupid, but they say there won't be any lasting damage to the cat.

The athlete and the cat in the box are actual events, but the one about pot causing testicular cancer is probably just more rx propaganda.

Our writer, Dr. Phillip Leveque, a forensic toxicologist, professor of pharmacology and retired osteopathic physician, has researched the relationship between marijuana and healthcare for fifty years and he says that notion about cancer is a stretch at best.

Now, let's talk about bongs for a second. I don't think there is much of a question; a bong is a water device that allows the smoke to pass through the H2o and thus be cooled and filtered as it is inhaled.

A bong is what the federal government busted Tommy Chong for selling to a customer in one of the only states where they are illegal to sell. According to the documentary on Chong, the DEA tried for months to talk Chong's company into selling the bongs in Pennsylvania. The DEA spent hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to take down an American icon; finally tricking the company into a situation where it made sense to go ahead and make the shipment to PA. What a mistake that was.

A bong is smoked from the top, or neck. If one or more tubes are used to inhale rather than a single point, then it is a water pipe. They are all water pipes; but all water pipes are not bongs.

Of the various devices used to smoke marijuana, the bong is probably the best for a person healthwise, most experts agree, as the smoke is filtered.

Dr. Leveque says no medical marijuana users should smoke the herb though; he says they should use a vaporizer that does not actually burn the marijuana. It heats it and releases the medical properties without any tar.

The media is having a heyday with the word "bong" right now and the truth is that the cat wasn't in a bong; it was in a smoke filled box. This misuse of proper terminology is typical of the vague and often dishonest information that is presented about marijuana.

Michael Phelps' photo that appeared recently in a British tabloid launched "bong" into the conversation. Most reporters I've known in my life are not pot smokers, and they generally only know what they read or are told.

The word has always been one people couldn't use in a head shop; instead "water pipe" was the proper term that kept everybody legal.

In Portland, Oregon, a medical marijuana cardholder can enter certain head shops, show their card, and get a 10% discount. The people who work in these stores are generally somewhat aware of the laws and trends though not always.

In Salem, Oregon, don't even think let alone say the words "medical marijuana" in a head shop or you'll have girls in their early 20's with lots of piercings basically run you out of the store. That happened to Dr. Leveque and I the other day when we attempted to intruduce him to the folks at a Salem head shop. Small town attitudes prevail even in a capitol city, so it's no wonder that ignorance about this subject is so widespread.

The President has spoken and the DEA raids of California Medical Marijuana Dispersaries will stop. But it is important to remember that there are still plenty of people who were raised to believe cannabis is the devil's weed and older generations were actually raised during the "Reefer Madness" period when marijuana users were portrayed as murderous, crazed villains.

I think many people pay attention to the facts and they are coming around in their attitide toward the legal use of medical marijuana.

When it comes to the history of cannabis, there is a great deal to the story and the best overall source is Jack Herer's "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" which recounts all of the moves made by the government and corporations that led to the marijuana plant being made illegal and placed in a class with heroin.

People who have kept a wall between themselves and marijuana are slowly becoming more curious about this controversial herb.

I remember my dad's developing interest in marijuana during the years before he died. He was solidly raised to believe the propaganda about marijuana and yet changed his tune in a large way after a local physician he and my mom knew was arrested and prosecuted for supplying patients with marijuana.

Marijuana comes in numerous varieties and different strains have different affects on people. Some pot stimulates conversation, some makes a person very tired, some makes a person laugh a bit more. It has names like "White Widow", "Bubblegum", "Northern Lights", "B-52" and "California Skunk". There are dozens more.

Even more interestingly, THC, (tetrahydracannibonol) the active ingredient in marijuana that gets a person "high", is only one aspect of cannabis that is useful medically.

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.

Kevin Goodall April 26, 2011 4:18 am (Pacific time)

I guess marijuana be banned but bongs should be left out. There are people like me who use bongs only for smoking tobacco. -Kevin http://www.marketplace-brighton.co.uk

hunter October 22, 2009 7:24 am (Pacific time)

marijuana should be leagal for use of anyone

JakeHilfter June 8, 2009 4:35 am (Pacific time)

Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!

TomKzinti March 4, 2009 9:54 pm (Pacific time)

http://www.shorttext.com/17n0u6r

Editor's note: this is worth looking at.

ChrisJones March 4, 2009 10:32 am (Pacific time)

Even if pot did cause cancer I'd still might wanna toke anyway. The government doesn't need to tell me what medicines or substances I can or can't put into my body. The information should be out there for people to decide for themselves what they are going to do. Why don't they take the entire budget for the drug war into education oriented preventative treatments? Why don't we just promote well informed personal responsibility? Back when pot, heroin, and cocaine were legal, we had much lower incidences of abuse. But alas, that wouldn't fit into the progressive government cradel to grave neutering (I mean "nurturing") policy would it?

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It's a Cat in a Box, not a Bong... It's the Media's Marijuana Ignorance!

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