Salem's Mayor wrongly believes marijuana kills brain cells

Often it's frustrating to live in Salem, Oregon.

Nestled in an Uncool Zone between the more with-it towns of Portland and Eugene, our city officials are prone to archaic attitudes that belong more to 1955 than 2015. 

Case in point: Salem Mayor Anna Peterson believes that marijuana kills brain cells.

If this were true it would be bad news for Oregonians, given that medical marijuana has been legal here since 1998, and adult/recreational use was legalized in 2014. 

This is what Mayor Peterson said on a local conservative talk show.

I'm frankly fed up. It's against the law federally. The science proves that it kills your brain cells. Why would we be saying that it's a good thing to distribute and encourage people in fact, just because it's so readily available, to encourage people to use a product, a drug, that's really detrimental to them?

Mayor Peterson on KYKN 9-30-15

But Peterson is wrong. Marijuana doesn't kill brain cells. In fact, cannabis has many health benefits, both physical and mental. 

Those opposed to marijuana sometimes argue that the substance fries your brain, but new research published earlier this year in the Journal of Neuroscience found that marijuana does not kill brain cells. In fact, marijuana can actually have a positive impact on a person’s mental health, as ATTN: has noted before.

A few days ago a Salem City Councilor, Warren Bednarz, made a less dramatic, but also highly questionable, statement about marijuana grow sites. During a discussion of where adult/recreational sites should be located, Bednarz said:

I know that NE Salem has had its problems with crime … I’m not trying to deny [imply?] that there may be a direct link between the manufacture — the growing of marijuana — and crime, but again, being cautious, I think the more conservative approach would be not to include the IC zone at this point …

 

For those not in the know, "IC zone" means Industrial Commercial. That sure sounds like an appropriate area for marijuana grow sites, since the City of Salem description of this zoning says that agricultural uses are permitted (as is "tobacco products manufacturing").

But Bednarz appears to think that, directly or indirectly, marijuana = crime. Which, given the experience of Colorado after adult marijuana use was legalized there, isn't true. After a year of retail sales: 

Since the first retail marijuana stores opened on January 1st, 2014, the state of Colorado has benefitted from a decrease in crime rates, a decrease in traffic fatalities, an increase in tax revenue and economic output from retail marijuana sales, and an increase in jobs.

Well, like I said, Salem and Marion County are behind the times.

Our clueless county commissioners have banned the production of marijuana in unincorporated areas (Marion is the only county in the Willamette Valley to do this), leaving other parts of Western Oregon with the jobs and economic activity that comes with the burgeoning marijuana industry in this state.

And Salem's Mayor, along with several city councilors, also don't understand that marijuana legalization is a powerful train that isn't going to be stopped by a few public officials. Putting roadblocks in the way of marijuana production and sales just means that money and jobs will go elsewhere.

Like Portland and Eugene.

Comments

[T]

I was there last night. I had much laughter for the story about the neighbor with the cannabis flag over his "compound".

[Jim Scheppke]

Mayor Peterson — Republican
Warren Bednarz — Republican
Marion County Commissioners — Republican

Until we work harder to elect Democrats to local office in Salem we are just going to get more of the same nonsense.

[siouxiep]

Anna Taylor=Janet Peterson...interchangeable and indistinguishable

[Jack Holloway]

I have heard some of the programming on that radio station. It is directed toward those who already are short on brain cells, and if you're not when you dial in that station, you will be after you've listened to it for a while.

Appropriate outlet, though, for our clueless, mercifully outgoing excuse for a mayor

[Yothisismicah]

I laughed out loud as well when Councilor Benjamin used the example of a grower flying a Marijuana flag above the US flag to argue against approving the commissions recommendations.

Also, his response to the comments about youth homelessness were awful. I couldn't tell if he was sarcastically telling the person commenting to "start a non-profit" or if he seriously was trying to shirk responsibility.

[yo]

This study found that heavy use of strong modern cannabis can be harmful..

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-11-white-skunk-like-cannabis.html

Still, for some the benefits may outweigh the negatives.

[yo]

Follow up to the above cannabis article:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2015/feb/16/does-smoking-skunk-cause-psychosis-but-milder-cannabis-doesnt

[Salemander]

It's amazing how much contempt she has for so many people she's supposed to represent and work for.

[M]

Apparently medical science does back up Mayor Peterson's statement

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/27/smoking-high-strength-cannabis-skunk-may-damage-nerves-brain

[Brian Hines]

M, the piece you linked to didn't say that marijuana kills brain cells. It found a 2% change in how some cells communicated with each other. And cause & effect wasn't demonstrated, just a correlation. Excerpt:

"The study cannot confirm that high levels of THC in cannabis cause changes to white matter. As Dazzan notes, it is may be that people with damaged white matter are more likely to smoke skunk in the first place."

So this doesn't back up Mayor Peterson's statement that marijuana kills brain cells.