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Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfAleft podcast with clips today from HealthCareTriage,

the David Pakman show, the Jimmy Doar show, the Young Turks, Democracy Now, Let's Show,

the Majority Report, and Activism from the Drug Policy Alliance.

This is an episode I thought about bailing on many times.

There's just no way to talk about marijuana without somebody completely misinterpreting what

I say.

Some of you are going to call me a fascist for saying anything bad about potterdoll.

Others are going to attack me for not coming down or not hard enough.

So I'm going to cloak myself, as I always do, in the power of data.

Marijuana works by affecting the brain.

It's a drug like many others, with different effects on different people.

The active ingredient is called tetrahydrocanabinol, or THC.

THC bonds to protein-specific receptors in the brain to produce a number of results.

It can have a mild sedative effect, and it can also lower your inhibitions.

Marijuana can increase your pulse, lower your blood pressure, and increase your appetite.

You can also interfere with short-term memory, lower your reaction time, and make you unsteady

on your feet.

But soaking lots of other things that we like to eat, drink, or smoke, the real question

is whether it's dangerous enough to be made illegal.

And that's where the screaming usually starts.

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