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Under Drugs
I guess it began the mo-
ment medical-marijuana
advocates began equat-
ing pot with something
healthful and people
W
Making it “healthy” has made
hen a star promotes a product in a pot seem no more dangerous
“than a bottle of spirulina,” says
film, it’s called an “advertorial.” So is Healy, who complains that pot is
the film It’s Complicated an adver- now so widespread, it’s no longer
cool.
torial for smoking marijuana? Jason How widespread? Silva crows,
Silva notes in his review of this movie at the Huff- “There are now more marijuana
dispensaries in L.A. than there are
ington Post that it shows “successful, cosmopolitan Starbucks.” And to date, fifteen
adults enjoying a marijuana joint with no conse- states and the District of Columbia
have legalized “medical” mari-
quences.”1 Upset that the film received an “R” rat- juana.
ing merely because of its potheads, Silva protests, More states are likely on the
way. A 2010 Franklin & Marshall
“We should all be proud of director Nancy Meyers, poll “found that 81 percent of
and actors Meryl Streep and Steve Martin for help- Pennsylvanians supported making
medical marijuana legal—up from
ing solidify marijuana’s entry into acceptable pop 76 percent in 2006,” noted Mack-
culture status.” enzie Carpenter in the Pittsburgh-
Post Gazette:
40 SALVO Issue 17
SEX
drug.” She quotes Lynn Abraham,
Philadelphia’s former district attor-
ney:
Yemen’s Woes
What might a society with wide- vated and used qat (pronounced gaged in all this qat chewing was
spread drug use over a few gen- “khat”), a so-called “mild” narcotic described as a lethargic population
erations look like? leaf, considered less addictive and that endured widespread malnour-
My interest in this question be- less harmful than marijuana. The ishment, impoverishment, and in-
gan in 1978, when I read an article researchers reported that Yemenis fant mortality.
called “Qat’s Cradle” in Human of all ages used qat: A World Bank report issued
Behavior. It recounted how the in 2007 corroborates the picture
U.S. Department of Health, Edu- Students chew [the leaves] painted by the UCLA research-
cation and Welfare had paid two liberally. . . . Children chew ers. Titled “Yemen: Towards Qat
UCLA researchers to spend two qat starting at seven or Demand Reduction,” this report
years in Yemen to ascertain what eight years of age . . . states that “until the 1960s, qat
life would be like “in a total drug women . . . have their own chewing was an occasional pas-
culture.” Yemen was a good place qat parties . . . taxi drivers time, mainly for the rich,” but
for such a study because a large chew. . . . Politicians chew that in the last half-century, it has
proportion of its population culti- with politicians; religious become much more widespread,
leaders and schol- with “trend” data showing increas-
ars chew with their ing use by children as young as
groups. Qat chewing five years old. The report shows
even plays a role in how qat use has been “linked
the highest govern- to widespread child malnutrition
ment circles.8 and household food insecurity”
and numerous other problems. It
This habit of qat states:
chewing in Yemen is
some 400 years old, the The adverse health effects
researchers reported, cit- of qat . . . include high
ing a 19th-century trav- blood-pressure, under-
eler to Yemen who tried weight children (when
it and commented, “The pregnant women chew
Yamini can go for several qat), cancer (from consum-
days without food, but ing pesticide residues),
not a single day without and dental diseases. Con-
qat. Men and women sumers spend, on average,
and children, they all use nearly 10 percent of their
it.” 9 The society that en- income [on qat]. . . . [Qat
42 SALVO Issue 17