ON CAPITOL HILL, by David YEPSEN

Just Say ... What?

        Colleague Jon Roos reports that Congressman Greg Ganske, a physician, has found a good argument to use to convince young men not to smoke pot.  Ganske told an audience recently "about how marijuana has gotten stronger, how it leads to crack.  ... And I wasn't sure I was getting through to some of the kids, so I said, 'By the way, you know when I was a physician, I used to take care of a fair number of young men who had breast enlargement.'"
        Although that can occur naturally during puberty, Ganske explained, frequent use of marijuana also can have that effect because it contains a feminizing type of hormone.
        "And furthermore, if you really smoke a lot of that I would always examine the boys' testicles because the testicles can get smaller.  So if any of you are concerned about getting larger breasts or smaller testicles, don't smoke marijuana."

DAVID YEPSEN is The Register's political editor.  His e-mail address is: dyepsen@dmreg.com.

The Des Moines Register, Monday, November 4, 1996, Page 11A.