Don’t Legalize Marijuana
Kids who overdose on hard drugs all started with pot.
![Marijuana plant. Photo by Jennifer Martin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marijuana_Plant_03.JPG)
Marijuana plant. Photo by Jennifer Martin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
I am a clinical pharmacist who has watched and studied drug use for 50 years, and this idea scares me to death.
The FBI predicts 65,000 overdoses for our kids this year, and tolerance of marijuana and recreational drugs is putting them in morgues. A Wall Street Journal article this fall wrote about morgues filling up with so many victims they have to rent refrigerator trucks to store our dead kids.
Here in Wisconsin? A headline in the Kenosha News, “Ten overdose deaths last month in Kenosha.” Front page stories in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about fathers losing their kids to overdose deaths. Or the personal stories I’ve heard from friends about relatives and kids they knew who overdosed. They all had been using pot to start.
And if that’s not enough, drug-impaired driving is way up, with Colorado leading the way. You may have seen the video of Tiger Woods, arrested for a drug DUI.
The fact is that among those who use recreational drugs to get high, a certain number will then experiment with harder drugs and some will eventually go to the morgue. Media coverage blames prescription drugs, but the overwhelming research shows that most started on pot, from curiosity and peer pressure. Does everyone really think that prescription drugs in grade and high school are causing the problem, or is it pot?
But addiction is something that comes from something you take because you like it: alcohol, cigarettes or pot.
Pot by itself, for those who can control it, does not lead to heroin deaths. But those starting out looking for a high start looking for a bigger high and peer pressure pushes many kids who are way too immature to handle this to try other drugs. Check out the HBO special “Addiction,” or the classic Frank Sinatra film, The Man with the Golden Arm, or musicians like Chet Baker and Ray Charles.
It’s simple logic: Kids try pot due to peer pressure or curiosity, get excited about the high, then go on to a bigger drug, get hooked, and eventually overdose. Who knows what’s in the dose they’re injecting? How about those pills? Quality control is nonexistent.
Do people really think they can inhale something into their lungs, and it is not going to adversely affect their lungs and brains? The high you get is because something in your brain has changed, so why would you think this is not going to cause long-term changes? And don’t forget girls and young women are more vulnerable because of smaller size and weight. Women digest drugs differently.
And now Rep. Melissa Sargent wants to legalize pot, then tax it so we have more money for the state to spend. Maybe dead kids don’t bother her.
Why would we want to do this? To fill up our morgues, like Colorado, where they have seen giant increases in overdose deaths and DUIs?
The last few years have seen an explosion of drug-related deaths because of tolerance for recreational drug use. I’m sick of watching people die in rehab, from drug-destroyed bodies. I think we can all agree we don’t want to lose 71,000 kids to opioids. The question is how is this happening, and what we can do about it?
Bob Dohnal, RPh, is the Publisher of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest and has worked as a Clinical Pharmacist in nursing homes and rehab for 50 years.
More about the Legalizing of Marijuana
- How Delta-8 Impacts Marijuana Debate in Wisconsin - Richelle Wilson - Jun 18th, 2024
- Milwaukee Officials Praise Rescheduling of Cannabis by Biden - Isiah Holmes - May 20th, 2024
- What Will Wisconsin Do Now That Feds Are Moving to Ease Marijuana Restrictions? - Rich Kremer - May 2nd, 2024
- A Better Wisconsin Together Renews Call for Cannabis Legalization - A Better Wisconsin Together - Apr 20th, 2024
- Republicans’ Medical Marijuana Bill Is Likely Dead - Baylor Spears - Feb 18th, 2024
- The State of Politics: Why GOP Divided on Medical Marijuana - Steven Walters - Jan 15th, 2024
- Bill Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession Under 14 Grams - Rich Kremer - Jan 15th, 2024
- GOP Proposal Supports Small, State-Run Medical Marijuana Program - Anya van Wagtendonk - Jan 8th, 2024
- Senate Democratic Leader Reacts to Republican Medical Marijuana Proposal - Dianne Hesselbein - Jan 8th, 2024
- Democrats Push Again to Legalize Marijuana - Erik Gunn - Sep 25th, 2023
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob, do everyone a favor and never write another op-ed again. You must be the Wisconsin Conservative Digest poster thta always comments here. My goodness you are crazy.
The author of this amazing article has a conflict of interest. Head Pharmacist at Dohnal Drug Company.
Is this a serious article? Why would UM even publish something like this, its laughable.
Bob Dohnal’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bob.dohnal.7
More lies, fear mongering, propoganda and misinformation from the prohibitionists. It’s getting sad. The “gateway theory” has been debunked time and time again. Didn’t the kids start by drinking beer anyways? So beer is the real “gateway drug”. Perhaps we should bring back alcohol prohibition and turn all the craft brewers in the state back into criminals? Do we want the beer barons and gangsters running the black market for alcohol again? NO! Do we want the gangsters and cartels running the billion dollar cannabis industry industry in Wisconsin anymore? Answer: No! A strong bipartisan majority of Wisconsinites want cannabis to be safe, tested, taxed, regulated and legalized for Responsible Adult Use, just like alcohol. We know that the vast majority, meaning many millions of Americans who use cannabis responsibly, never, ever turn into heroin junkies!?
This fear mongering must end. We cannot remove all risk from a free society anyways and we should not try. Prohibition has been an abject undeniable FAILURE! We have wasted billions of dollars and millions of lives by fighting the war on cannabis. Have we win yet? NO! We the People of Wisconsin are sick and tired of the prohibitionists’ lies and fear mongering. 80 years of cannabis prohibition have proven it to be a total failure. All it has accomplished is enriching black market purveyors at civil society’s expense, wasted billions of dollars, ruined many good, loving, caring, hardworking people’s lives and yet cannabis is in every school, in every neighborhood and in every city in Wisconsin! The prohibitionists can’t even keep it out of prisons in the state how are they going to keep it off the street? Answer: They aren’t! Let’s regulate this billion dollar industry so we can better keep it away from kids, so sick people can get their medicine and responsible adults can choose the safer, healthier alternative of cannabis and enjoy their basic civil rights. Let’s use the tax dollars to reinvest in our schools, education and our infrastructure, Lord knows we need it after Walker has divested and defunded them.
Just because cannabis is legal dies not mean you have to do it if you don’t want. For example, alcohol is legal but I don’t drink. Cigarettes are legal but I don’t smoke. Gambling is legal but I don’t gamble. Abortion is legal but I wouldn’t get one. Junk food is legal but I don’t eat it. Shouldn’t responsible adults decide what they do with their lives and bodies not the Big Government? It’s time to end the abject undeniable failure of cannabis prohibition and the draconian laws that underpin it including ending the racist, Jim Crow style enforcement in Wisconsin! Write or call your representatives and tell them to support Melissa Sargent’s legalization bill and to support Rep. Jarchow’s decriminalization bill. Then, next year, vote out the career politician and #1 Prohibitionist in the state, Scott Walker.
Enough lives have been ruined needlessly, not by cannabis but by the failed prohibition of it.
Call and write your representatives.
Dump Walker 2018. Legalize cannabis!
Hey Bob,
Would you agree that marijuana use has resulted in fewer deaths than alcohol or tobacco use?
Would you agree that if marijuana was legalized, it could be regulated. This would solve the problem you stated, “Who knows what’s in the dose they’re injecting? How about those pills? Quality control is nonexistent.” Quality control is non-existent because it’s illegal.
Please link proof of increased overdoses and DUI’s in Colorado. In fact, opponents of Marijuana legalization have been saying this for awhile and it is just not the case. see here: https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/dose-reality-effect-state-marijuana-legalizations
Please help me understand your statement here: “Do people really think they can inhale something into their lungs, and it is not going to adversely affect their lungs and brains?” This is the same with tobacco, but you are ok with this being legal for 18 year olds?
Of course, people don’t want children to die. I encourage you to look up the fallacy that is the backbone of your post: the gateway drug fallacy. I urge you to understand that Marijuana is safer than Alcohol and Tobacco, surely your Pharmaceutical experience would lead you to believe the evidence.
Marijuana is currently listed as a schedule 1 drug by the DEA, right next to heroin, and meth. It is obvious to anyone who has looked at the numbers that heroin and meth cause many more deaths than marijuana, I’m certain you’d agree. If a drug that has never resulted in one single overdose (marijuana) stays as schedule 1, don’t you think the cities youth will doubt the danger of other schedule 1 drugs? It is dangerous to group marijuana with actual deadly drugs. We don’t want our children thinking heroin is as safe as marijuana. This leads to more heroin use.
Your argument would keep marijuana illegal. It would keep the quality control of marijuana in the hands of drug dealers who don’t have to get FDA approval for the substances they sell. If we don’t legalize, ignorance about marijuana will continue, and so will misuse. Government regulation is the safest option.
Is this guy one of those guys that’s been pushing poison opioids for decades and now that everyone is hooked he’s blaming marijuana? Talk about reefer madness, this is NUTS! How about talking to your kids honestly for once instead of fear mongering? When you lie to kids, once they find out you were lying they don’t believe you anymore and bad things can happen. Implying Melissa Sargent doesn’t care about dead kids is just dispicable. Perhaps there is, what in psychology is called “projection” going on here? Deep in this sad, old disturbed man’s subconscious perhaps he feels guilt from his decades of doling out addictive, deadly, poison opioids so he needs to project that on others. Who knows? One things for sure, this is the dumbest most specious nonsense I have ever read online and that’s saying a lot.
Legalize it Wisconsin!
Wow. Just wow. All anecdotal examples to support a simply false premise.
Bob, your time would be better spent trying to reinstate Prohibition for all your same reasons.
I fear that, having read this opinion, I will start dabbling in even dumber opinions. Then, I will become addicted to toilet-brain stupidity and my mind will end up in the morgue.
Bob, shame on you.
You do know you can’t overdose on weed right? And all this does is boost the economy for Wi and give more options for medical treatment.
Let’s see, no links to any evidence, just vague references and claims. Evidence-free rambling based upon the author’s beliefs.
What a joke of an article by a clearly biased pharmacist. If you want to end the over-dosing on opiates, how about we establish rehabilitation centers for the addicts? Instead of shaming them for “making bad decisions” and blaming drug after drug as the “gateway”, how about we make an attempt to improve their lives, not just cast them off.
Besides that point, there is a clear difference between marijuana and “other” hard drugs. Marijuana has no history of deaths or overdose while these hard drugs do. There are tens of millions of pot smokers all over this country, but you don’t see the same millions using heroin or meth to satisfy themselves.
Lastly, to drive a stake through your article, you provide no sourcing whatsoever. Am I just to believe Colorado has greater number of overdoses and DUIs following the legalization of marijuana over there when you provide no facts or data? Am I to believe marijuana is a gateway drug when you provide no evidence of heroin or meth addicts saying that marijuana was the reason they started to use?
To me, this article is just conservative fan fiction.
Dohnal gets thrown a bone! Quite a marvel to see him hash out one of his screeds into something intelligible. Despite the lack of errors and run-on wild gibberish typical of this guy, it’s the same buzzword drivel from the same self proclaimed “expert.”
It sure seems convienient that he spent his life peddling prescription drugs and assigns none of the blame for the opioid problems we have on himself or that industry. Beyond that, there’s nothing about opening up a new revenue stream when conservatives have choked off so many others. Nothing either about reforming drug policy, prisons, and how that’ll give thousands of people their lives back. Just kids ending up in the morgue because of, I don’t know, some hardly qualified link between using weed recreationally and overdosing on opiates.
Bob to Bob, it’s prescription drugs that are over proscribed, misprescribed, or otherwise available that that put kids in morgues. Save the hyperbole, make a conclusive link between marijuana use and heroin deaths, and in general, go back to the drawing board. Maybe Urban MKE will let you take another crack.
Should we dumb down this debate with fear mongering?
Isn’t publishing an Op Ed based upon “simple logic” from a person scared to death, just that?
Fact:
Since 1982, drunk driving fatalities on our nation’s roadways have decreased 51%, while total traffic fatalities have declined nearly 20%. Among persons under 21, drunk driving fatalities have decreased 80%. https://goo.gl/RtYKTC
Has it been “simple logic” to get that death decrease of 51% and 80%?
Fear Opinion from Op Ed:
“It’s simple logic: Kids try pot due to peer pressure or curiosity, get excited about the high, then go on to a bigger drug, get hooked, and eventually overdose. Who knows what’s in the dose they’re injecting? How about those pills? Quality control is nonexistent.”
Is there “simple logic” to any complex issue, as he urges?
How has “Quality control” of alcohol caused the more than halving of drunk driving fatalities over the past 3.5 decades. Why is Colorado the only state referenced in the article that’s legalized pot? And finally, is the word “giant” now acceptable as a statistical measure?
Legalizing pot is a complex issue in our society and should be analyzed through pro and con lenses not fear!
Thoughts?
Dohnal is not a uniformly libertarian conservative. He will argue for pot control but against gun control. But pot will no more lead to a heroin death than gun ownership leads to murder. Abusers who start on pot will start whether it’s legal or not.
Reefer madness! Is this pharma pusher for real?
Hear all the Pot heads. Kids seldom get Rx’s fro Opioids. The kids are from 14-30. Mostly women, they have tracked them, seldom start with Rx’s but peer tried Pot.
Deaths the last decade have gone up almost 1000 percent, to 71,000 FBI sts, this year, while Rxs for Opioids have decreased.
As a Pain Mgt. Specialist in Nursing homes, rehab, we worked on this daily. People here mostly Potheads or their apologists have no knowledge or experience so they happily will kill more kids till the eventual crackdown comes.
Bob Dohnal, RPh
Bob Donhal aka Wisconsin Conservative Digest is just a whacky Wisconsin Conservative. But we all knew that from the comments on certain articles he posts.
HAHAHAHAHAHA thanks for the laugh, Bobby.
Bruce wonders why I won’t become a paid member. Exhibit A. Why in the hell would UM publish this? No reputable organization would publish something that begins with “Kids who overdose on hard drugs all started with pot.” What won’t UM publish? Are there any standards? This is embarrassing.
I am unable to substantiate a single fact this author stated. A search for refrigerated trucks used as morgues led me only to the sale of such trucks. I could find no headline in Kenosha News about the ten overdoses. When I search to substantiate the increase of overdoses in Colorado I find just the opposite is true. Is “Urban Milwaukee” attempting to give us some humor this morning?
[citation needed]
Articles about overflowing morgues was in WSJournal.. Incompetetent researchers cannot find their own butts.
All the hysterics and calamity found in this article, coupled with the rambling writing and poor grammar, leads the reader to assume that the author himself was on a bad trip of some kind. Was Urban Milwaukee desperate for contributing writers or something?
Really Bob? (and thank you to all of you who tried to drum some common sense into Bob’s head.) Your thinking as many have pointed out is completely false. Let’s ban cigarettes if you want to get at a gateway drug. If marijuana was decriminalized, it could be regulated just like alcohol–with far fewer disastrous effects. As someone who smoked marijuana for over 15 years, –and do not at this time probably due to my busy schedule–I have to say that it was far healthier than anything else that you might do to relax. I am a senior executive, great grandmother with two degrees and over 50 years in the workforce. Please stop these ridiculous scare tactics about marijuana. There are many reasons why people do harmful drugs that require intervention and counseling. Marijuana is not the issue.
This is the most ridiculous article I think I have ever read from a “credible “ source. I would love to see these stats Bob, please include them next time. Have actual facts to back up your statement and not “ I’ve heard from friends and family”. UrbanMilwaukee should take this down for how non-factual this is. Bob, get facts and don’t come back.
Thank you Urban Milwaukee for printing this goofy article. We deserve a good laugh.
Ok…everyone put your marijuana cigarettes down so Grandpa Repub stops being so scared to death. Don’t worry though, he’ll write you a prescription for some nice opioids.
Why would UM give a platform to a proven moron like him and wcd? Are there studies done that link the people who overdose to alcohol use. I would bet that a higher percentage of overdose cases started with alcohol before even trying pot. As a pharmacist he doesn’t want legal pot to compete with him handing out prescriptions. Protecting his livelihood. What an ass.
As I have found out over the years. You cannot expect to get any intelligent discussions about problems from addicts, Potheads or drunks. Having worked with these people for 50 years, watch them die from cigs, drugs, booze, I can assure you all that if we want to solve this problem of exploding deaths from recreational drugs, the biggest being Pot is to expect any answers from drunks, Potheads and abusers of these products.
Those people care little about anyone but themselves and there drugs, their Pot. Look at the numbers, all of you that are not in the drunks, addicts, Potheads category must look at these and decide. Do we want to write off some of our youth, more than killed in Nam, every year, or do we wish to face this problem before it kills more of our young ladies.
Just like alcohol. We do not get answers from drunks, but the Potheads here want us to ignore the obvious problem of our youth smoking Pot, in peer situations, then many of them trying heroin/fentanyl in situations where the doses, purity, ingredients, are unknown then cart them off to the morgue. There are hundreds of articles, research on this the last year in a ll the major news media,front page in Journal last few days, that prove what is happening but the people here have little knowledge, experience or ability to judge these things cause their brains are already burned out from drugs. Drunkards, Potheads defend their disastrous decisions all the time proving how the fact that the drugs have addled their brains. People who get high regularly want us to believe that their brains, that they misuse daily, are not affected by their abuses.
@ Wisconsin Conservative Digest, that was the most nonsensical comment I have ever seen. I cannot discern a single coherent point. Is it possible you are drunk? It’s a little early…
Do yourself a favor and read this article, https://www.vice.com/sv/article/9bgn7a/why-marijuana-is-not-a-gateway-drug-1013
Julia I cannot help it if you are ignorant and stupid.
This guy is a class act ^
Funny how their only defense of this crappy fact-devoid opinion is that all opposing opinions MUST be coming from drunks, potheads, and addicts. So, here’s one from someone who isn’t a drunk, pothead, or addict. Dear Bob and the WCD – you are wrong. “I can assure you” is not a good argument. The biggest problem is prescription drugs. That is a fact, which you can see here in a actual citation (notice how they provide nothing to back up their opinions – cause they are lying and thing ‘feeling it is wrong’ i good enough): http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/prescription/abuse-international-statistics.html and https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/drug_data_sheets/Marijuana.pdf and http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/health/drug-overdose-rates-2016-study/index.html
“But what about the children!!!??” Bob screams with froth at the mouth. News flash – in states with legalized marijuana, FEWER people die of opioid addiction. MORE money goes to education, and addiction services, and the state. Further, there is NO increase in traffic deaths or teen use. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/21/from-colorado-glimpse-life-after-marijuana-legalization/rcccuzhMDWV74UC4IxXIYJ/story.html and https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-marijuana-traffic-death/after-states-legalized-medical-marijuana-traffic-deaths-fell-idUSKBN14H1LQ and https://drugabuse.com/legalizing-marijuana-decreases-fatal-opiate-overdoses/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-is-saving-lives-in-colorado-study-finds/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/21/colorado-survey-shows-what-marijuana-legalization-will-do-to-your-kids/
Conclusion: the most dangerous drugs are passed out by pharmacists, and pushed by people like Bob. The least dangerous drug is Marijuana, which has never killed anyone. There is no such thing as a gateway drug – that’s a lie made up by people like Bob, who would rather you pay them to kill yourself, than grow a plant.
You are intellectually dishonest, Bob. You are part of a dying generation that got lied to for years, and were never able to claw themselves out of that pit. Think of the children Bob, think of the increase state revenues, think of the additional jobs, think of the decreased use of opiods. Think of the fact that you can’t back up your side, but we can back up ours, with research and studies, showing legalization is a good thing. Think Bob, think. Support legalization.
Do your self a favor and do not read Propaganda from crap sources. Go to NY Times, Economist and hundreds of articles from medical sources, peer reviewed that point to Pot. I do not listen to the Potheads in this program.
If you wish to be stupid, that is fine but to use a crap article like that to back up your idea, defend Potheads just proves you are ignorant.
@ Wisconsin Conservative Digest, I cannot help it that you write at the level of a 3rd grader.
Dismissing arguments because they are ‘potheads’ just shows you are intellectually dishonest about what answers you want to hear.
This guy seems like a real professional! Hahahahaha!!! Let me guess, he is a 50+ year old conservative? Haha! Sorry your beliefs or faith do not coincide with facts. I know it’s hard to swallow the truth for you conservative folks. It’s ok, they will die out soon!
@SoberTruth Thank you!!
WCD dismisses all arguments that oppose their opinion because ‘potheads’. Sorry, not good enough WCD. Come back with some actual supporting evidence for your side rather than putting your fingers in your ears, then maybe we’ll take you seriously.
Actually, kids who overdose all started with juice. We gonna ban juice now? Can’t have them tasting that sweet, sweet nectar. Next they’ll be trying out soda pop, and that caffeine really gets them going. They’ll get addicted to it. Before you know it, they’re onto the hard stuff called, and I’m not sure if I’m spelling this right, coffee? Now it’s onto Monster energy drink, that makes your heart PUMP baby. Monster to alcohol, alcohol to weed, weed to coke, coke to heroin, heroin to death. Is that what you think Bob? So, I guess you’re right, we need to ban juice. If we’re gonna go, might as well go all out, right? Why only stop at weed? We have to think of the children bob. Ban coffee too. Ban milk. Ban water. Can’t drink booze if you can’t drink, right? Ban mouths. Let’s ban needles too. Can’t do heroin if you can’t inject it!
Oh, damn, it seems taking your argument ad absurdum makes it totally absurd. Surprise!
Also worth noting how literally the only thing I mentioned above that you couldn’t kill yourself with by ingesting too much, is weed. Funny how weed is in direct competition with the pharmaceutical industry for use as a literal home grown pain medication, essentially free. Funny how Bob is a pharmacist. Makes you wonder his motivations here. Except not really, no wondering required. Bob = pharma shill.
While I am not a grammarian that can type well, this article was peer reviewed by experts.. This article was edited by a former Journal writer, editor of various papers, Asst. Prof at a college.
It has been gone over by those that work daily in this area.
I have been a pain mgt. specialist in nursing homes, Rehab, counseling, legislative area fro decades. treated by governors, legislative leaders as one of the states experts in this area.
Those people not Potheads, addicts and their apologists need to find out the truth. Do your work. Look at articles from reliable medical sources: NY times, Economist, Wall street Journal, Atlantic, Vanity fair and others, including all those in the professional journals, peer reviewed.
Their are billions involved. So much crap is written, but the facts are there.
Since Pot has been legalized in Colorado, DUIs are way up as is crime. So is heroin/fentanyl overdoses all started on Pot. Mostly young women, filling our morgues.
if those of you not Pot smokers wish to save our young, immature, women, who want to experiment with hard drugs you will do your job, Ignore the Potheads on this site. Their brains are already scrambled and find the truth. It is there..
We must depend on the smarter heads, not those addled by drugs in this country that do not want 100,000 of our kids in the morgues. Read WSJournal article.
You would hope the doddering Dohnal would attempt to cling to any shred of dignity and lay low for a day or two following his rambling rant of an “article,” but noooooo. He pipes up again in the comments with his run on sentences, random capitalizations, misspellings, and grammatical errors. Not to mention quaint labels that no one has used for 40 years, such as “Pothead.”
I sure hope Dohnal is no longer a practicing pharmacist. He certainly exhibits the symptoms a compromised thought process, aka, an addled mind. Too many Rx meds, perhaps?
Bob, Bob, Bob …. Is the world also flat? Does the Sun revolve around the Earth? Is Donald Duck president of the USA (well, maybe yes on that one)? I do appreciate your concerns with the health and welfare of people, but, you managed to include just about every falsehood perpetrated about Marijuana since Harry Anslinger was slinging BS around 90 years ago.
By the way, did you know that the medicinal effects of THC have been increasingly well researched and documented: treatment of glaucoma, of seizures, of various forms of cancer,of anxiety, of Alzheimers, of MS, of Hepatitis C, of arthritis, and many others, e.g., you may be interested to know it’s effectively used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases!
I searched “Wall Street Journal Marijuana” and found a recent article about how the devil’s lettuce (The Pot) could actually help abate the opioid epidemic. Is that the article I should read?
dear wisconsin conservative indigestion. stories of overflowing morgues WERE/ not Was in wsj. Morgues were in foreign countries with eco-disasters and in the heart of the middle class opioid “epidemic” in Ohio. and some were back before legalization, but yes “stories WAS in wsj”
As for overdoses, Colo father SUSPECTS l, that’s certainly conclusive! And then there’s dumbed down kids, yes there are. had a conversation on f.b. kid does not smoke maryjane, just “pot” Further investigation revealed that his “pot” was potpourri, aka Spice, aka illegal substance known and well warned against in the real toker world. please educate your kids, please by all means. but educate yourselves first!
@WCD: I Literally provided links to in my previous comment of perfectly reputable sources contradicting everything you just said. Reuters, the washing post, the DEA. Yet, you don’t provide links. You don’t get to pick and choose your info to fit your dishonest narrative. You don’t get to say, “your sources don’t count because I don’t agree with them”. If you want to have an actual, honest discussion, then post your links, like I posted mine. If you want to have an actual, honest discussion, then stop dismissing opinions because ‘their brains are already scrambled’ – which, I point out, you also have no proof of both in terms of the scrambling, or that they did in the first place. You so assume much here so that you can keep the wool well over your eyes, with fingers in ear and head in sand while humming. You are imposing your ill-informed biases before even hearing the discussion when you do that. How can you call yourself a ‘smarter head’ and pull that crap? For shame.
You want to stop filling the morgues? Stop lying to yourself and look at what is causing the actual issue. Over prescription of opioids is the issue. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/22/565697494/questioning-a-doctors-prescription-for-a-sore-knee-90-percocets
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-hopes-ride-on-marijuana-amid-opioid-crisis/
Why. Why is it you are so hard pushed to prevent marijuana legalization when it is the opioids prescribed by doctors and handed out by people like Bob that literally are killing people. You have lost the argument years ago, but apparently are so dishonest that you still shunt the blame to pot on a discredited ‘gateway’ theory, and stick to it over and over pretending it has merit.
If banning a plant that literally can not kill you will prevent people from becoming addicted to opioids and killing themselves, then surely banning guns which DO kill will prevent people from using them and killing themselves, correct? Let me guess, you are all for guns though? “It’s muh second amendment right!” If you were honest about your position about not filling up the morgues, then you’d be consistent in wanting to ban anything that does. And that’s not even getting into the whole issue regarding American ‘freedom’ and what you can and can’t do to your own body, or what the nanny state tells me I can.
Bob – I moved from WI to CO, but it had nothing to do with legal MJ. Do you have these stats about DUIs, etc. increasing in CO? Are you aware the population in CO is booming? What’s the per capita increase (if there is one)?
I know you like to say “google it” because you’re a lazy and stupid person. But because you wrote this silly column, the onus is on you to provide the support to your claims. If you can’t do that, then Urban Milwaukee should never allow you to write a column for its site again. Your usual commentary is childish, but if you’re getting a byline, you really ought to be able to 1) write a coherent column that could get a passing grade from a high school English teacher, and 2) provide support for the “facts” you spout.
Dear indigestion, part 2
“reliable medical sources: NY times, Economist, Wall street Journal, Atlantic, Vanity fair and others,”
OMG!
DUI for booze versus Dui for Cannabis. Alcohol is out if the system in hours. Cannabinoids are DETECTABLE for days. there has been an ongoing issue with mere detection as a proof of imparement since before the laws were enacted.
Hey, Bob (a/k/a Wisconsin Conservative Digest, a/k/a Big Pharma shill, a/k/a bad grammarian/speller/writer):
On the official website of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health, I found these three factoids:
The majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances.
Studies suggest that only 9% percent of people who use marijuana will become dependent on it.
Legally protected access to medical marijuana dispensaries is associated with lower levels of opioid prescribing, lower treatment admissions for prescription opioid use disorders, and reduction in prescription opioid overdose deaths.
Is that an acceptable source for information on marijuana use?
Where do you get your information?
Ironically, Bob actually doesn’t realize he is for drug legalization. Not pot, but heroin.
“Who knows what’s in the dose they’re injecting? How about those pills? Quality control is nonexistent.”
You know how you get quality control? You legalize and regulate. Like alcohol. You know how the argument goes, if X becomes outlawed, only outlaws will have X? Prohibition on heroin obviously doesn’t work, since thousands are overdosing a year. So do you agree Bob, that perhaps a better approach would be decriminalize or legalize, then regulate? Like the Netherlands, where drug addiction rates and overdoses are DOWN? Nah, of course you don’t, because you are intellectually dishonest about your position on this, or don’t actually understand it, or are just so stubborn that changing your mind physically hurts you. Don’t worry, we’re here to support you.
This article is complete and total idiocy. Wisconsin CONservative Digest aka Archie Bunker is cracking up, bigtime. This rambling unintellible screed is complete drivel. The man losing it and it would be funny IF republicans like him weren’t in complete and total control in Wisconsin thanks to their corrupt gerrymandering and big.money out of state
donors. Write and call your representatives today and tell them to end cannabis prohibition in Wisconsin. Then in 2018, Dump career politician Scott Walker and all republicans once and for all! It’s time to clean out the closet and take our state back Wisconsin!
Every child who has overdosed has also consumed large quantities of dihydrohenmonoxide over their tragically short lifetimes. Are we going to talk about banning this deadly chemical? No, I didn’t think so.
Logical fallacies abound in this article.
Bob you are clearly very uneducated and or are being paid off to write this completely idiotic article.
I will never read another piece of your work or urbanmilwaukees work again.
Close-minded conservative that probably still wears his Dare shirt under his pharmacy jacket. Seriously though, I would rather have a smarter discussion about what Portugal has done with legalizating all drugs and work on rehabilitation, proper pain management, and focus on individuals than directing all the focus on the actual drugs. Regulate drugs and focus on people, I know it is a strange concept Bobby…but either way, you are still handing out opiods and have a job. And that doesnt mean I would agree to implement, just that my time was better spent then reading this garbage.
You say all I have to do is google seach and pages of research will appear in your favor, when it is quite the opposite sir.
And no, I am not a pothead or an opiod user looking for my next hit. I happen to want to learn the best path forward to deal with all of this and you sir are close-minded and unfortunately using the same failed methods.
P.S. you are definitely not a libertarian
PPS. #metoo It isnt baloney when 9 seperate women say you are a perv. Imagine how many women are not coming forward!!
Your mind is corroded and you have stopped growing. Sad.
Trash article. Do some research on how marijuana legalization effects opiod abuse across the country before spreading this FUD.
I gotta hand it to you, Urban Milwaukee. You have finally published an article that will garner more that a dozen comments. Well done! Excellent trolling! You have mastered the art of click-baiting!
Is wcd a fake news blog run by Russians?
Why do we have an opioid crisis? Because guys like this are in charge of handing out drugs.
We legalized medical cannabis waaay back in 1998 in my homestate of Washington. No big deal. That was 20 years ago Wisconsin! The sky did not fall, in fact most people other than the sick in need of medicine much noticed. We ended cannabis prohibition completely and legalized the responsible adult use in the state back in 2012. That was 6 years ago Wisconsin. I can assure you that a safe, legal, regulated, taxed system is far better than the violent wild west black market free for all you have in Wisconsin.
Wow, when do options become facts? Did you do any research?
“tolerance of marijuana and recreational drugs is putting them in morgues”… really?!?? REALLY!!!! The real fact is there have been ZERO deaths directly related to Marijuana EVER. The drugs putting kids in morgues are actually legally prescribed. Alcohol is also a leading cause of teen deaths (don’t mention that fact because it doesn’t fit your bias here). MJ is actually helping people get off opioids and helping people with medical conditions.
Do you advocate bringing back Alcohol Prohibition? When is it appropriate for the gov’t to tell us how to live if it doesn’t affect anybody else? If the gov’t said no more guns because they kill people would you go for it? What about sugar? What about KFC or McDonalds? Where do you draw the line?
Robert Dohnal’s license to practice in the State of Wisconsin has been expired since 5/31/2014 and their website indicates that he is not eligible to practice. You decide how much you value this republican’s opinion.
Anyone else notice that every comment except the ones from the author himself completely disagree with him?
Furthermore, anyone else notice that Mr. WCD himself consistently dehumanizes people by calling them “drunks” “potheads” etc…Dehumanization is a very scary thing. Every single genocide and civil war in history began with dehumanization. When people stop being people and become “democrats” “republicans” “stoners” “drunks” etc. nothing good ever happens. Consider this man’s consistent dehumanization as you read this wildly flawed article.
Presumably such kids also drank water. Many of them probably ate ice cream at some point as well. I think we really need to be exploring the link between ice cream consumption and taking up heroin. I mean ice cream makes you feel pretty darn good, whose to say that isn’t the first stepping stone on the path to shooting up?
Ate you sure you are a pharmacist? I believe that requires higher education, and you have the writing level of a 6th grader, and a 6th grader in the dumb class not the smart class.
Was guided here from 414 Brew City Dom on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/milwaukee. Now i am fully confused about how the brains thier visitors work. I imagine they can’t image anything outside thier posh little apartments or other peoples lifestyles. It is fully discussing how the Alt-Left thinks they should be able to make up somebody else’s mind. I always thought it was a free country.
On topic comment. More actual research is needed in this area from unbiased sources. The author here is biased by means of being in the big pharma industry and has skin in the game.
Also legalization is not in the best interest of the public at this time. The Alt-Left is labeling users of pot mentally ill and is revocating rights of 2a of the Constitution.
The highest office of the land had just hinted at taking on legal opiod companies with legalization of Marijuana. I think that this is the where the author coming from by using an unsupported standpoint and making a political issue.
Terry: The drunkards, alcoholics, addicts, Potheads are pox on society. They’re responsible for all the DUI’s, most of road deaths, broken families, destroyed businesses, busy employees.
Why do employers test for drugs? Potheads, addicts do not make good employees.
Look at the rise in crime in Milwaukee. Any ADA will tell you that 90% is caused by drugs. Kids getting shot on porches as thugs fight for territory.
In places where Pot legalized the thugs are still there, pushing horse(heroin) and more. DUI’s, crime, overdoses up in Colorado.
Now the Pot sellers in Colorado push to get more kids on Pot.
Simple way to stop. ticket users, hang sellers, like they do in Nam.
Hi Bob. A few questions.
“While I am not a grammarian that can type well, this article was peer reviewed by experts.”
Please name these experts and elaborate on your use of the term “peer reviewed.”
“This article was edited by a former Journal writer, editor of various papers, Asst. Prof at a college.”
What do you mean by “edited”?
Who is this Assistant Professor and former Journal writer?
What subject does he or she teach, and at what college?
“It has been gone over by those that work daily in this area.”
What do you mean by “gone over”?
Who do you mean by “those that work daily in this area”?
“I have been a pain mgt. specialist in nursing homes, Rehab, counseling, legislative area fro decades. treated by governors, legislative leaders as one of the states experts in this area.”
You have administered pain medication to nursing home residents for decades–what do you mean by “Rehab, counseling, legislative area”?
What do you mean by “treated by governors, legislative leaders as one of the states experts in this area”–which governors and legislative leaders?
The unwillingness of the author to provide any actual evidence makes all of the claims suspect. Specifically which articles in the WSJ, NYT, MJS, etc (title, date published, etc)? Link to the FBI report on overdoses, or at the very least provide the title and when it was released. (A quick search suggests that no such report exists because it is the CDC, not the FBI, which compiles such statistics.)
Lets do stats:
1. FBI sez 71,000 overdose deaths this year. Add to that all those DUI deaths under influence of drugs, the other people that were killed, add to that those that die from usage but not overdosing Rehab, hospitals etc.
You have 100,000 per year of sad stories of our youth, mostly women dying. Twice as many as Korea and Nam.
How did they start on drugs?
Best estimates is that 40,000 or so started on Rx drugs from prescriptions.
I have worked with thousands of patients we put on pain med. Get them off easily. Addictions start from people that like the drugs. Dependence can be fixed quite easily.
How did the others start? How many started from peer pressure smoking Pot? How many got hold of some drugs through friends? How many had Heroin the first time. These have been broken down but the
Hey Bob,
Who at Urban Milwaukee approved this article? Who is your contact at Urban Milwaukee? I think we all want to know to whom we should direct our complaints. You have provided ZERO documentation for all of these claims.
Page broke down.
I am the expert. All the figures are there. FBI. Do some research. Opinions, Anecdotes do not count. People here have opinions without any knowledge or experience. I have all those things.
I have not seen one thing here that tells us how to stop the rampant crime, theft, shootings, DUI’s, deaths of young women, kids, long term deaths of our kids. Most here are too stupid or lazy to do the necessary research. Just google Overdose deaths in Colorado.
In the 1990’s there was widespread pressure for MD’s, hospitals to treat pain patients more aggressively so we saw the start of the increases in usage of Opioids. then Oxycontin came along and the use became widespread . Since then in late 2006 the pressure started the other way.
Since 2010 Rxs for opioids have stabilized and gone down marginally but Overdoses, deaths, DUi’s have exploded. Most of our crime revolves around drugs.
Pain mgt. Clinics started and are now closing down, cause the believe that you can use them long term is not good.
Though the bad cancer patients still need morphine as it is the perfect pain drug as you can increase the doses forever to help dying cancer patients. We treated many in the Nursing homes.
The people here are not central to the fight against Opioid overdoses cause they are the proof that there brains are already fried. They care little about the dead and dying, DUI’s, only their drugs.
Why anyone in society believes we need to add drugs to the already hideous problem we have with alcohol and double the deaths, destroyed families is beyond me.
The experience from Colorado and Pot heaven on the coast is good to watch cause it is going to stop the rest of us from seeing it explode more in wis.
This is not new problem but stretches back into history for hundreds of years. I wrote paper on this in college and lots of columns, articles since then, published widely. Opium is old plant product as is Pot.
Countries in the world that have seen heavy drug use have changed dramatically. Do not get caught in those countries with drugs. Muslim, China, Japan, Nam executes sellers. We need to do same here.
Bob Dohnal believes drug dealers deserve the death penalty.
“Muslim, China, Japan, Nam executes sellers. We need to do same here.” -Bob Dohnal
@Bob, you really, really need to stop dehumanizing people. This is a really important life lesson you need to learn. Love, respect and empathy for others always trump hate, disrespect and selfishness. Your childish name calling does not engender you or your cause to anyone. It would behoove you to stop dehumanizing people. Your lies must stop as well. I am originally from Seattle and I know hundreds of very successful good, hardworking, honest, loving, caring human beings, doctors, lawyers, CEO’s, computer programmers, entrepreneurs etc that are responsible adult users of cannabis and they get up everyday, work hard, they all make a lot of money, contribute to their communities and love their lives and families. You say cannabis users don’t make goid employees?
That’s a flat out lie. There is a reason Google, Microsoft and most other tech companies DO NOT TEST for cannabis. They know all too well that they would LOSE their best employess Bob. Please educate yourself. Seattle has legal xannabis and at least HALF the violent crime of Milwaukee. Check the FBI stats on their website. So I have exposed yet another blatant lie of yours. You dehumanizing good people is DISGUSTING and it must STOP, STOP STOP! For your own sake. You have toi much darkness and hate in your heart. It is terrible for your health and soul.
PS
“Pot” is short for “potaçion” which was a brandy cannabis mash drunk in South America in the 1800’s. I don’t see anyone drinking that in Wisconsin these days, other brandy drinks yes but not potaçion. So if you are going to continue to slander and dehumanize good people at lwast use the correct term, cannabis.
PSS
Dump Walker and the GOP in 2018!!
LEGALIZE CANNABIS WISCONSIN!!
Bob Bob Bob … aka WCD. You have a right, at least for the time being in the USA, to voice your opinion, as does Urban Milwaukee have a right to publish your opinion.
But neither of you have a right to:
Disparage those with illnesses. name call, belittle, dehumanize them. Addictions are a terrible affliction, ask Rep Nygren, it can happen to any family, persons of any soci-economic class, persons of any faith or no faith. We’ve known that for a long time. Your attitude and the language in your piece only makes the problem worse, dehumanizing and insulting.
Bloviate in a fact free way, spreading lies and polluting the public dialogue on a very important issues. You obviously know this as you make a feeble attempt at masking your strongly held opinion with research and evidence, but you’re left with nothing but opinion. That’s all it is, and that’s ok, an opinion, you don’t have to twist yourself into knots. Just say “I don’t think any of the Cannabis plant, which is a complex plant with over 400 chemical entities of which more than 60 of them are cannabinoid compounds, some of them with opposing effects, should be legal”. There I wrote your piece for you in one brief run on sentence.
For Bob from another Bob:
Let them pass all their dirty remarks
There’s only one question I really have to ask
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner?
Who have hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?
One Love
WCD, I didn’t know Muslim was a country, you learn something new everyday!
Crime in Milwaukee is in the top ten in country cause the left: Barrett/Chisholm/Flynn/Kremers have “catch and release as out lined by Clarke and Frankovis, past leaders of the Police dept. Seattle has capable people. Milwaukee is top ten worst run city in country, top ten worst crime.
Bruce do you have any people that have any idea on how to stem the explosion of overdoses deaths, DUI deaths, long term deaths in this country. The use of Opioid Rizxs have gone down and overdoses have exploded ten times the last decade.
There are illnesses and there diseases but addiction, drunks, Potheads are pretty much voluntary problems with which I have worked for 50 years, while the rest of you have done little, except smoke Pot, destroying your brain cells..
Those that continually excuse these people as if they are some sort of robots that are wrecking society are just as guilty as they are of wrecking our society.
They are responsible for most of our crime and people here, max, terry want to multiply.
This philosophy permeates Milwaukee and that is why we are top ten worst crime. No one is responsible for their actions it is society that is to blame. No the addicts, drunks, Potheads are to blame.
Bob Bob Bob … aka WCD. You finally got to the rub. You have an opinion about the value of some people, who have an addiction or otherwise use a plant that has proliferated on this planet for eons, you have judgments, shallow as they are, not any evidence in your arguments of even a basic understanding of causal relationships, medical science, the pharmocological effects of certain chemicals and compounds, nor of sociology or pyschology for that matter.
Urban Milwaukee … I’ll suggest you have a new category for Bob’s work called “Fact and Evidence Free Polemics” as it is the custom in publications of veracity to require even opinion pieces to reflect a modicum of rational argument, logic, and evidence.
Btw Bob, who appointed you judge, jury, and executioner?
not one article here with evidence that Pot does not lead to further heroin use. Anyone know what they are talking about Bruce??,
Google Drug overdoses in Colorado?
That’s not how it works, Bob. If you say that marijuana is a gateway drug you have to provide documentation to support that statement. You can’t state something as fact and then demand that someone provide evidence to disprove your statement. You lack critical thinking skills.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health:
The majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances.
Studies suggest that only 9% percent of people who use marijuana will become dependent on it.
Legally protected access to medical marijuana dispensaries is associated with lower levels of opioid prescribing, lower treatment admissions for prescription opioid use disorders, and reduction in prescription opioid overdose deaths.
It’s pretty much everyone vs Bob, and in the end he’s an old man with ridiculous prejudices that are not based in reality who thinks his opinions should be taken as gospel. I know many men just like him. We’re not likely to change his mind, and there’s little point in arguing with someone who ignores facts and thinks anyone who disagrees with him must be a “Pothead”.
Urban Milwaukee shouldn’t be giving guys like Bob a platform unless he can present real facts and make a logical argument without throwing a temper tantrum and calling people names. I’m all for presenting alternate opinions, but there is no substance to any of this, I feel like I’m listening to my Grandpa rant about “the liberals” at Thanksgiving. Let him blog about his views or publish his articles in the “Wisconsin Conservative Digest” or whatever. I’m sure my Grandpa would love it.
I just went for a ten mile run through the beautiful snowy northwoods of Wisconsin and I got to thinking. I think Bob “Wisconsin Conservative Digest” Dohnal might actually be a pro-legalization of cannabis advocate. Perhaps he is a Democrat or even a socialist. His “op-ed” is so asinine and unfounded in reality or even simple common sense as are all of his extreme right wing blather on other articles that all it has done is point out with glaring proficiency all the errors and ridiculous nonsense that the far right wing republicans and prohibitionists stuck in the 1980’s still spew about cannabis. Nobody is buying it obviously but I think the absurdity of his op-ed and his WCD persona might be a front for his true intentions, legalizing cannabis. If so, all I can say is “well played crazy Bob Dohnal, well played!”
Dear Bob, enough with the Reefer Madness nonsense already!
I am 61 and have been consuming cannabis off and on for over 43 years. I am a husband, father, electrical engineer, successful business owner, musician, community volunteer and marathon runner. I never use alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. My health is excellent, and my memory is intact. I vaporize cannabis, no smoke, no smell, no problems. I finished my third marathon at Big Sur Marathon in April 1st place in my division (TYVM) with a finish time of 3 hours, 25 minutes and 8 seconds. I’m just one of Millions of health conscious Americans seeking the healthiest pathways forward in all aspects of my life. How long before the government quits lying to us and admits that cannabis is far safer than alcoholic beverages or tobacco?
Legalize, regulate and tax!
I am glad The Urban Milwaukee published this article. The article has little to do with the legalization of marijuana but does illustrate how our news is disseminated today. Sadly, a great part of our country does not have the luxury of alternative news sources. Conglomerates like Clear Channel and Gannet control much of the news today. Articles such as this one can go unchallenged and worse, repeated and used as a source for future articles.
I am of the age when we had to defend our sources, prove the veracity, and provide multiple verifiable sources. Today it appears we simply divide into sides and call each other liars, whoever yells the loudest claims the truth.
Thank-you The Urban Milwaukee for giving us the opportunity to see this sad development in action.
Fools. Bob is a guerilla poet who hides his work inside internet inane postings. Peep this:
“Page broke down.
I am the expert.
All the figures are there.
FBI.
Do some research.
Opinions, Anecdotes do not count.”
Want proof? Why would he claim his article to be peer-reviewed and academic and then berate a reader for not “googling” the articles he supposedly cited? Why would he say “all the figures are there” while using almost none in his article? Why would he say opinions and anecdotes don’t count, but use numerous opinions and anecdotes in his article? Why mention Tiger Woods and a 60-year-old Frank Sinatra film as evidence for his argument other than to highlight the fragility of popular culture? Why would he keep capitalizing the names of drugs as though they were proper nouns?
You’ve all been played, UM readers. Excellent work, “Bob.”
Exactly Matt! This guy is actually brilliant. By using this phony far right wing persona he has done more to help end cannabis prohibition than a million pro-legalization advocates ever could. He’s like Andy Kaufman, genius. Thank you Bob!
But wait, then there is this:
https://www.jsonline.com/picture-gallery/news/2017/08/27/photos-conservatives-gather-at-chicken-burn-with-senate-candidates/105036166/
It’s “Bob” and his wife at a far right ring republican rally draped in the American flag and ol’ “Bob” is sporting a fancy red Trump hat. So if he is a mole, a double agent or performance artist he has gone very, very deep undercover. That said, I can still picture ol’ “Bob” (if that’s his real name) kicking back at home right now burning one. You can’t trick the trickster, “Bob!”
Ben, anecdotes are meaningless. My mother in law is 95, has smoked all her life, still smokes and is fine while her husband died 10 years ago from cancer who smoke.
At the same time i have have lost some of my best friends to cancer. Some to booze.
Fact: 71,000 dead from overdoses up from 10,000 dozen years back. DUI deaths away up. Long term deaths way up.
Total dead from drugs over 100,000 twice as man as lots in Nam, Korea. What is your plan to fix that.? Rxs for opioids stabilized and down slight since 2010 yet heroin deaths exploding.
What are your plans to fix that?
Bob, why do you keep ignoring my data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health:
(1) The majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances.
(2) Studies suggest that only 9% percent of people who use marijuana will become dependent on it.
(3) Legally protected access to medical marijuana dispensaries is associated with lower levels of opioid prescribing, lower treatment admissions for prescription opioid use disorders, and reduction in prescription opioid overdose deaths.
Marijuana is clearly the safer alternative.
“Bob” enough! You have been EXPOSED for the pro-legalization left wing mole you are! You don’t need to pretend anymore. The jig is up “Bob!” Thank you for your services and your help in ending the abject failure of cannabis prohibition in Wisconsin. Your fake “crazy old angry far right wing white male republican” persona was a brilliant ruse and an excellent tactic in exposing the complete idiocy and nonsense spewed by the actual far right wing republicans in the state but you have been EXPOSED! Power to the People “Bob” aka Che Guevarra!
This guy is delusional and at this point and it’s getting sad, UM needs to put a stop to this. He literally made a statement in gist and hours later is stating it as a FACT. He’s sighting zero sources and making up stats and facts. This is irresponsible to let this continue.
Jo, those are probably close but that is the problem. That is why we have the heroin overdosing as millions use it. it is actually much higher, but less than the majority go on is very big number. You made my case.
If 9% get dependent on Pot that is big number.
@Q, no, no, this guy is doing more to help end cannabis prohibition and more for the pro-legalization of cannabis movement in Wisconsin than thousands of activists have accomplished in decades. We gotta ride this gravy train all the way to the top! And by top, I mean one thing, complete legalization of marijuana for Responsible Adult Use in Wisconsin! Don’t get mad and respond to “Bob.” He has been EXPOSED as the left wing pro-legalization double agent he is. No, instead, WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and tell them to legalize, tax and regulate the responsible adult use of cannabis.
Bob:
You are out of your league here. Your lack of reading comprehension and critical thinking skills are on full display, and you still have provided zero documentation to support your assertions.
Jo, I have no interest in convincing the addicts, Pot heads they are lost. we want to save the next generation of kids by working with the professionals in medicine, the parents who have lost kids, the responsible people in Wisconsin to block and reduce the use of pot and other recreational drugs.
For laughs i listen to you that are Potheads and their apologists without any answers.
Enough “Bob.” The jig really is up. You have achieved your goal in championing the basic civil rights of responsible adult’s use of cannabis. Your efforts are very much appreciated by legalization advocates all across the state! Thank you but now it’a time to hang up the hat. See ya at Hemp Fest “Bob!”
Holy crap! I love Urban Milwaukee… what the HELL IS THIS??? Bob, you are a fool! GO AWAY!!! Guys, why did you publish this???
The most dangerous aspect of cannabis consumption is running into lazy cops looking for soft targets instead of fighting real crime. Data from the Center for Disease Control makes it absolutely clear that cannabis is far safer to consume than booze or tobacco. It is about time for our government to get over “Reefer Madness” and remove cannabis from the DEA drug schedule. “Medical“ Cannabis has been legal throughout the state of California since 1996. Cannabis is now COMPLETELY LEGAL in California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Washington DC! 29 US states have legalized cannabis for “medical use”. Uruguay, Peru and Jamaica are now completely legal, Canada will go fully legal in 2018 and Mexico is moving toward full legalization. Cannabis prohibition criminalizes people for selecting a product that is much safer than alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. Cannabis prohibition is a ridiculous waste of police, court resources and taxpayer funds!! According to FBI statistics:
100 BILLION a year is currently being spent on “black market” recreational cannabis in the USA and all that money goes to “criminals”. 30 BILLION is lost annually in potential tax revenue. 15 BILLION a year is spent enforcing draconian cannabis laws that make no sense and destroy people’s lives daily. Data from the Center for Disease Control shows that cannabis is much safer than booze or tobacco!! Legalize, regulate and TAX!
About half of the U.S. population has tried cannabis, at least 15% use it regularly, over 80% of high school seniors have reported cannabis “easy to get” for decades. Those who really want to use cannabis heavily already are. Prohibition does little or nothing to prevent problematic use. In many cases prohibition makes cannabis usage problematic where it would not have been otherwise, be it light, moderate, or heavy usage. The main thing that cannabis prohibition successfully prohibits is effective regulation.
A few issues created by prohibition: there are no quality controls to reduce contaminants (harmful pesticides, molds, fungus, other drugs), there is no practical way to prevent underage sales, billions in tax revenue are lost which can be used for all substance abuse treatment, underground markets for all drugs are empowered as a far more popular substance is placed within them expanding their reach and increasing their profits, criminal records make pursuing many decent careers difficult, public mistrust and disrespect for our legal system, police, and government is increased, which can be devastating.
Prohibition is also very expensive, though, a cash cow for a number of powerful groups such as those related to law enforcement and the prison industry. These organizations have powerful lobbies and influence that perpetuate a failed drug policy through ignorance, fear, disinformation and misinformation. This ensures an endless supply of lucrative contracts and grants from the government and its taxpayers to support their salaries, tools of the trade, and other expenses. Cash, property and other assets from civil forfeiture laws also significantly fatten their coffers while often violating civil rights.
Those who wish to live in a free society must accept that this means freedom for all people of that society, not only for certain groups and the activities they happen to enjoy. Obviously in some cases there are extreme circumstances that warrant intervention with criminal law. In the case of mind-altering drugs we have already set this precedent with alcohol. Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol to the consumer and especially to others. If we are to have justice, then the penalties for using, possessing and selling cannabis should be no worse than those of alcohol.
Considering the many issues created by cannabis prohibition, coupled with little, if any, reduction in problematic use, its continued support is irrational and harmful. Please help bring end to this irrational, costly and unjust prohibition. The organizations listed below fight every day to bring us sensible cannabis policies. Help them fight by joining their mailing lists, signing their petitions and writing your legislators when they call for it:
NORML – National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws – http://norml.org/
DPA – Drug Policy Alliance – http://www.drugpolicy.org/
MPP – The Marijuana Policy Project – http://www.mpp.org/
LEAP – Law Enforcement Action Partnership – http://www.leap.cc/
You read this and now you know why overdose deaths have gone from 12,000 or so during the last decades to over 71,000 plus the 50,000 or so that are killed by drug DUI’s and the long term deaths. Double what we lost in Nam,
The flower of our youth, mostly young women ar dying cause of these nuts that push adding pot on top of the problems we have with drunks. When the pot use goes up so does the heroin use and the things that kill.
Notice Devon Wallace and the other Pot nuts say nothing, care nothing about the deaths, the full morgues of our kids,the pain of their parents.
Folks it is all money and get me my drugs, the hell with these young girls piling up in the morgue. Reference the Wall street Journal articles and the daily ones of the parents losing their kids.
Notice all the studies that Wallace and those show are those of the ones sponsored by those paid for by the cartels, the Pot groups, the advocates of drug use for our kids and those of use without any skin in the games that have watched kids, peoel dying in rehab, their brains fried by drugs. For them it is money, the drugs to get high, hell with our young girls. yes terry you and those others that care little for the deaths of our kids are stupid irresponsible and those that sell the drugs should be executed as they do in Nam.
I posted this same comment on another post but thought I’d share it hear as well.
Okay, so WCD wants to fight the nuts on this site. Here’s a nice tidbit from a guest blog he wrote about a year ago.
“Many women I have known also talk that way. We wired a recorder into Frat house bathroom and listened to women talk during parties. No different.”
For context, Bob is defending Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ while admitting he recorded women in the bathroom of his frat house. He does seem to be fixated on ‘young girls’ when talking about drugs…
Here’s the full blog that I took the quote from:
https://thisjustinfromfranklinwi.com/2016/10/12/the-latest-form-the-wi-conservative-digest-trump-nailed-it/
Since Devon Wallace, one of the biggest Pothead apologist in country has posted a bunch of highly questionable, Pot fueled, paid for studies it is only right to advance those by the reliable, professional studies in the country.
Those with not blown minds on Pot take the time to study the real problems with recreational drugs. Ignore those really dopey studies sowing that Pot is Gift from God.
DEA: Pot Gateway drug.
DEA: “Pot far more potent with 400 various active ingredients.
In 1999 before legalization 225,000 had to enter treatment for Marijuana Dependence. It is much higher now. smoking one Pot joint introduces 4 times as many tars as cigs. Ever look at pictures of your lungs before and after? Short term effects: memory loss, distorted perception, heart rate increase, trouble with thinking and problem solving and more, look them up.
Wonder why so many, more than 50% now, of employers want drug testing??? We are demanding testing of welfare recipients for drug use. Use Pot no jobs. Pot affects young peoples mental development so why are the pot sellers using Joe camel tactics to get new customers?
Dr, Howard Samuels Fact; psychoactive substances produce mentally crippled adults”.
Read the entries on this page from the Potheads and you can see that quickly.
Pot no worse than booze? Do we need to double the number of crippled minds and problems in this state?
Lots more but worse.
Anyone notice that none of the Potheads care one wit about all t he kids, mostly young women that are dying every year?
The people on this site just need their pot and then they tell us that they are not addicted.
The people that settled this country worked hard, raised families ran businesses, they did not sit around toking all day. Becoming wards of the state, ending up the Rehab/Nursing homes where I worked at $10,000/month.
Two points from years of experience with Bob commenting on my own blog posts.
1: he loves to demand citations when I write something that he opposes.
2: ignoring the content of the original post, but comparing the complete sentences and decent spelling to the unintelligible rants in his comments and replies to other comments, you have to wonder who ghost wrote the post for him.
I have no idea who you are and what you are, except either a Pothead or an apologist for that reason you do not exist and your opinion is worthless..
This just in!
Yet another federal study proves, Teen Drug Use Rates Are Down in Colorado Following Legalization! That’s right, DOWN!
Sorry lying old Prohibitionists like Bob “Dumb as bricks” Dohnal! So sorry to spoil your propaganda filled freedom trampling Big Government Narco-Police State loving hatefest!
Read it and weep loser!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/11/following-marijuana-legalization-teen-drug-use-is-down-in-colorado/#ampshare=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/11/following-marijuana-legalization-teen-drug-use-is-down-in-colorado/
A Nonpartisan Federal Study just issued clearly indicates that teen drug use rates in Colorado are down following legalization. Bob “dumb as bricks” Dohnal’s interpretation? “That’s just a biased pothead that wrote that.” You can’t fix stupid people and Bob “WCD” Dohnal is as stupid as they come!
Don’t waste your time on stupid losers like Bob.
Write your representatives instead!
Dump Walker! Dump the GOP (Gross Old Pedophiles)
Legalize Cannabis in Wisconsin!
Hey stupid Bob “dumb as bricks” Dohnal! Newsflash! Nobody smokes anything anymore out west in legal cannabis states idiot. They vaporize it, use edibles or oil droppers or even apply oil transdermally. So, there’s no need to cry and lie anymore about smoking, you stupid ignorant old moron!
Legalize it!
Hey Bob,
A lot of these comments are insulting and not the most constructive. I hope you can see your way to reading my comment despite this.
The man you quote (Dr. Howard Samuels) has a doctorate in clinical psychology, who specializes in addiction. These credentials are fairly impressive and, perhaps you’d agree, acceptable as a kind of authority.
Allow me to mention that he is actually well known to be heavily supportive of the legalization of marijuana.
If you would consider he position, if none of these comments, at least consider his.
Thanks.
“I have no idea who you are and what you are, except either a Pothead or an apologist for that reason you do not exist and your opinion is worthless..”
Bob, if that is how you really feel about the folks commenting here perhaps it would be best to take some time off of the internet. To view someone as worthless and non-existent simply due to a differing belief is actually quite concerning.
It’s useless with him Old Man Yells at Cloud. We have all tried, literally for years trying to be decent, constructive and respectful towards him. You are 100% correct but hate, anger name calling, insults etc. is all this man knows and all he engages in. I hate to stoop to.his level but after being called an “idiot” and “stupid” and a “pothead” and a “loser” by him for over a year now, I quit being decent to him in return. I.have tried and tried but no.more. My gloves are off with childish, insulting, lying ignorant old Bob “WCD” Dohnal. I am not pulling any more punches with this pathetic half-wit. He wants to keep ruining good people’s lives well I am getting down in the trenches to make sure that does not happen!
Dr. Howard Samuels, Medical expert in the field of addiction asks this simple question we all need to answer except for the Looney Pothead on this site. Those of you that have not fried your brains, we must solve this problem.
Samuels:
“Do we really want to create a culture that is full to bursting with adults who have no coping or self soothing skills.”
Those that cannot get jobs cause they cannot pass a drug test?
If pot was harmless why are employers so opposed to hiring those that use Pot and go on to use stronger drugs.
Bob Dohnal RPh
Hi Bob!
Don’t know who I am? Want me to pull up the hundreds of irrational comments you made at Blogging Blue? And the efforts you made to circumvent being put on moderation there? Just sayin’.
WCD – BobD …. in debating, one quickly learns that when your predicate has multiple valid interpretations, the logic of your conclusions quickly falls apart, and you are kicked from the debating team. In your case, the first predicate is severly ambiguous as to raise multiple plausible interpretations:
“Do we really want to create a culture that is full to bursting with adults who have no coping or self soothing skills.”
Is the author talking about neo-nazi’s, the KKK, the alt-right, today’s version of the GOP, politicians in general? All fall within the plausible alternative to whatever interpretation you made.
Your second predicate is even more problemmatic:
“Those that cannot get jobs cause they cannot pass a drug test?”
Did you consider the possibility that person A doesn’t get job B because s/he lacks the credentials, wants a higer salary than that offerred, or wore the wrong clothing when interviewed?
You affirm the consequent of your predicate with the conclusion:
“If pot was harmless why are employers so opposed to hiring those that use Pot and go on to use stronger drugs.” Wow, a marvelously inept “sine ratione conclusioni” aka “non sequiter”, that neither flows from the two stated predicates, nor available evidence.
Btw, have seen your posts for years, once you were a PhD economist teaching at a prestiguous University, another time a financial wiz hob nobbing with the Wall Street billionaires, and now I see you are a pharmacist, all with a myriad of nom de plume’s necessiated after being banned under nom1, nom2, etc, Try one name, one occupation, and if you want to argue, and join a debate club.
Idiot it is quote. Buzz off, nothing to add.
Shut the hell up Bob! Nobody wants your stinky old dumb as hell comments around here anymore. You are nothing more than a big bucket of puss! So take a hike and don’t come back you ignorant, hateful, lying pathetic idiot!
LEGALIZE CANNABIS!
CALL, AND WRITEBYOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!
LEGALIZE CANNABIS!
CALL, AND WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!
Everyone that does not use pot, recreational drugs watch the reaction of the junkies to our discussion. Do you want your kids to end up like that?
Remember the Nancy Reagan ad with the egg frying in the pan and saying: “his is your brain on drugs” “Do you want that”? Nancy and Bill Bennett reduced drug use by 50% saving millions of our kids, mostly young ladies/girls/women.
Altered consciousness.
1. Spinning around in circles until we are dizzy and can’t walk. 2.Sampling whatever our parents altered their consciousness from, usually alcohol in the USA. 3.Experimentation with different chemically induced altered states of consciousness. 4. Conservative news sites lacking in journalism. This is actually the progression to WCD’s unfortunate attitude about reality.
Non Potheads, non Apologists. Notice the gobbledegook crap that the Potheads, addicts put out here.
Not one person has any idea of how we stem this National emergency on drug deaths, total over 100,000 this year when you add everything up.
This is disaster for our youth. Too many immature kids succumb to peer pressure, experiment with pot, then a bunch go on to harder drugs and a bunch fill out morgues.
We need to find answers or build bigger morgues, and hire more coroners. Check the article in Wall Street Journal the last 6 months.
Ignore the chronic liar Bob “Wisconsin CONservative Indigestion” instead write your representatives and tell them to end the abject failure of cannabis Prohibition!
LEGALIZE IT!
Bob “dumb as bricks” Dohnal says “his is your brain on drugs” Whatbon God’s earth are you blathering about?
Dump Walker 2018! Legalize, tax and regulate cannabis!
Bob’s the most dangerous, legal drug dealer in society. He sells so many dangerous drugs on this planet, with very negative side effects. These types of people do not believe in natural remedies, only money making, synthetic ones. I had a doctor once say to me, now if natural remedies work, I would be out of a job. It baffles me that Bob stoops so low, engaging name calling. Sounds like mabey he has some anxiety, or anger issues. Have you tried any of those drugs you peddle to help you out with that Bob? Do not judge something Bob, that appearantly you know nothing about. Do you call all of your customers dumb and stupid as well, because they are taking the drugs you give them? Mabey your in the wrong business, take a break Bob, sounds like you need a little vacay.
Nice, debate is about Pot. I am retired, not selling anything .
That wasn’t a debate bob, that was a roast of bob burnal
The author, from his soapbox, is quick to label “potheads”. Okay, have an opinion about recreational use, which I have never tried. BUT, considering this commenator is affiliated with health care by virtue of dispensing precriptions, where is the commentary about the potential use of MEDICAL marijuana, carefully controlled and monitored and prescribed by physicians who are trained in the field of pain management and cannibis usage? I commented elsewhere:
I have never ever been a “single issue voter” … about ANYTHING. But then again, there has never been an issue that totally dominates life like my 70+ year old wife’s struggles with a central nervous system disorder and chronic/incessant/intractable pain. It stems from an horrendous accidental fall 10 years ago, followed by 5 spine surgeries and has gotten progressively worse. I’m her 24/7/365 caregiver. I coordinate everything related to the “management” of her pain and we have done and tried every med (opioids and others), procedure, surgery, therapy (etc) that has been suggested, or prescribed, or ordered by her several physicians. The trip to Mayo Clinic didn’t do it, either.
What have we NOT been able to try, because we live in Wisconsin? Prescribed medical marijuana, despite the advocacy of numerous research physicians specializing in chronic pain. Going forward, I will vote only for advocates of (carefully regulated and monitored) medical marijuana; I’m not talking about laws like Michigan’s which has been characterized by the leading chronic pain researcher at U of Michigan as “for potheads, written by pothead interests”.
Other states are seeing the light. We are tempted to a “medical marijuana allowed” state, away from friends and family. That might not turn out to be the answer, but it very possibly could be significantly beneficial; how would we know without trying it?. Prescribed medical marijuana, from trained and licensed physicans, could possibly be the last resort for many, short of suicide. And if you think suicide is not a considered option for chronic pain sufferers, check out the increasing rate of older Americans taking their own lives.