Posted on 08/20/2014 10:40:32 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Like it or not, marijuana use has increased exponentially since President Nixon declared a war no drugs in 1971. Today, marijuana — or weed, pot, cannabis, Mary Jane — is the third most popular recreational drug in the United States, behind only alcohol and tobacco. Upward of 24 million people have used it, based on the latest estimates, with 14 million using it regularly. But despite a growing warmth toward the drug, and two states (Washington and Colorado) legalizing its recreational use, there are still some people on the fence about its safety and usefulness. So, to educate you nonbelievers out there, here are five marijuana myths debunked.
This may be the biggest farce cooked up by marijuana opponents, but it makes sense. People who have tried marijuana may eventually go on to try harder drugs in search of a stronger high, and their experimentation leads them down a dangerous path toward addiction. But the science behind whether or not this is true overwhelmingly shows that it’s not.
“Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter,” a report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) said. “In the sense that marijuana use typically precedes rather than follows initiation of other illicit drug use, it is indeed a ‘gateway’ drug. But because underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, marijuana is not the most common and is rarely the first ‘gateway’ to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”
So what is the cause of other illicit drug use? As the IOM report suggested, other studies have also implicated alcohol and tobacco use as gateway drugs. But an alternative gateway may just be the trials and tribulations some kids face while growing up. “Whether marijuana smokers go on to use other illicit drugs depends more on social factors like being exposed to stress and being unemployed — not so much whether they smoked a joint in the eighth grade,” Dr. Karen Van Gundy, an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, told CBS News.
Although smoking weed won’t mess with a person’s body too much, it can cause a couple of the same issues that tobacco smokers experience, with the most likely one being respiratory problems. Ailments like bronchitis may sometimes develop as users inhale the tars from the rolling papers in joints and blunts. Because of this, eating marijuana-infused foods or smoking from a vaporizer, which heats the weed up just enough to release the THC (its active ingredient), may be healthier.
Smoking weed and getting behind the wheel is also relatively dangerous, with a number of studies this year finding that teens who drove while high were likely to get in crashes. One of the studies found that the number of people who crashed their cars while high tripled over the past 10 years. A person who drives while high can be up to two times more likely to crash. When accounting for teens only, another study concluded that a teen’s lack of driving experience paired with marijuana’s (or alcohol’s) effects led many teens to drive recklessly, even when not impaired, thus increasing their risk of a crash.
When it comes to more serious illnesses, marijuana may have more benefits than harms (we’ll get into that later). Despite a controversial study earlier this year suggesting it causes brain damage, other studies have shown no correlation, let alone cause. “Results indicated no significant effect of cannabis use on global neurocognitive performance,” one 2012 study said. Other opponents argue it can cause lung cancer, a condition not one study has found a link to yet.
With the majority of drugs being addicting — alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine, etc — it’s easy to go ahead and say that marijuana’s addicting, too. But it’s a little more complex than that, and no, it’s not addicting. But users can develop a dependence, or a bad habit of lighting up. According to a 1994 study on the topic, however, only four percent of users develop this dependence. Compared to weed, alcohol and tobacco dependence was found among 14 and 24 percent of study participants. In a more recent study from 2007, only about nine percent of users developed dependency to the drug, whereas 15 and 24 percent of cocaine and heroin users went back again and again.
Breaking any habit can be really difficult, a recent study showed, but it’s possible with some dedication.
The stereotypical stoner is all too real, unfortunately. At 30 years old, he still lies in his parents’ home, unemployed, smoking weed in his room while playing video games. Although marijuana users may never get rid of the reputation of being lazy, some evidence points to it not affecting a person’s motivation at all.
But first, supporting evidence that it does get people lazy. A study from July looked at the brains of 19 users and measured concentrations of dopamine, the chemical linked to reward, pleasure, and motivation. They found that longtime and frequent users, who tended to have more THC in their bodies were also the ones who had lower levels of dopamine in their brains. The researchers suggested that marijuana could cause a controversial — and not entirely official condition — called “amotivational syndrome,” characterized by laziness.
But amotivational syndrome may affect other non-marijuana users just as much. One study published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors found that the syndrome affected about five to six percent of the population, both users and nonusers. These findings were later supported by another study, which also found there was no difference in motivation.
What it comes down to is, if you’re lazy when you smoke weed, you were probably lazy before, too.
To say marijuana has no possible health benefits is to deny hundreds, if not thousands, of pages' worth of proof. Simply looking at this Collective Evolution article will point you in the direction of 20 studies proving its cancer-fighting benefits. According to the National Cancer Institute, cannabinoids may inhibit tumor growth by causing cell death, blocking its growth, and blocking the development of blood vessels that aid in metastasis. These marijuana ingredients may also help reduce inflammation in the colon, reducing colon cancer risk, as well as killing some kinds of breast cancer cells. And that’s only cancer.
Marijuana has also been implicated in treating glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, PTSD, anxiety, and a host of other conditions. Its medical use has already been approved in 23 states, even as leading politicians begrudgingly admit its benefits.
As more states sign on for medical marijuana and local governments notice the revenue pulled from recreational weed — sales in Colorado are expected to reach $1 billion during this fiscal year — it’s likely to become a slippery slope toward the end of prohibition.
Boy what a load of crap! I could bring several examples to him to prove many of those statements are ridiculously false. It is a gateway drug. It is addictive. And boy does it sure make the people I know that are on it apathetic and lazy. Was the author of this piece a blogger for a Soros’s funded community group by chance?
We already did this experiment. Pot criminalization phased in pretty slowly, with Alaska keeping it legal until the 90s. There were no effects on the general populace.
Not so - I read and debunk the Reefer Madness articles.
Because there is a faction of anti-MJ types that have their opinions based entirely on propaganda and false information. These types still believe "Reefer Madness" was a documentary.
This is useless.
Advocacy dressed up as objectivity.
It’s pathetic.
It doesn’t know what is solid and tangible (addictive) vs purely subjective (lazy).
This is not a serious defense of marijuana nor serious review.
I hate these amateur polemics.
So you correctly predicted I'd rebut your mischaracterization of my posting habits. You must be so proud.
You probably think “Reefer Madness” was a documentary, too, right? Lol. C’mon! You’re on FR! There has to be a bit of common sense in you somewhere. Quit basing your unrealistic fear of MJ on propaganda and lies!
The fallacy of the end of criminalization by legalization is being demonstrated on Colorado, right now. The Black market for marijuana is still thriving . Maybe the profit is lower, but the Black market is not slowing down a bit. In CA, where just about anyone can get what they call, medical marijuana, a young man, whose mother is an administrator at Western WA University ( where pot is legal) , is facing life in prison as the mastermind of a the robbery of a medical marijuana facility, that resulted in a murder.
You have to wonder why the young man didn’t just go to WA to get his supply.
Another good argument for relegalization - sellers of the legal drug alcohol don't doctor their product because legal products can be regulated.
How many street corner dealers are checking ID's? The legal shops here in CO are doing a MUCH better job of keeping pot out of kids' hands than any prohibitive measure does.
You are not a conservative.
Not because you say you’d vote to legalize marijuana. No, your reason.
” I have seen no...”
It’s all about you.
Marijuana is not something someone should make a habit of, neither is tobacco, alcohol or other mood altering substances, and marijuana use should be publicly discouraged with both formal and public education campaigns.
But, outright prohibition has created the same problems that alcohol prohibition did - actual crime (violence, murder, ect. over the drug trade), as well as creating virtual criminals out of everyone who partakes of it.
It is right that government help to deter marijuana use, through education, but criminalizing it and all who partake of it has not been worth the cost of the effort and its horrendous results.
The problem with the war on drugs use of the term “gateway” is that it is used with the intention of implying that if someone uses marijuana, particularly as a teen, they are likely to become a user of “harder” drugs later on.
But gateway cannot be used or understood in that fashion, because among the millions who try marijuana as a teenager or very young adult - college, or military - MOST neither become regular long term marijuana users or hard drug users.
The real “gateway” is not merely a drug, but an entire set of circumstances in someone’s life, of which the drug use is one part.
Feel free.
Cinematic evidence that pot makes you smarter:
“Dave’s not here”
“Dude, where’s my car?”
” All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine.”
“That was my skull! I’m so wasted! “
Alaska has a very small population. More states with larger populations will give a better idea of the effects of pot legalization on the country.
Tell that to jsanders2001, who claims in post #21 that pot does make users lazy.
Lowering criminal profits sounds like a good thing to me.
Everyone knows it makes people lazy.
People who deny it are idiots.
People that think it is a scientific criterion that can be quantified are dopes.
You know a pot smoker, you can see the effects. Not much analysis required.
I actually found this article to be (seemingly) well balanced. It admits smoking weed is harmful, as harmful as smoking tobacco. This is something most libertarians who smoke pot won’t admit.
I’d at least like to see someone post something that refutes the studies cited in the OP.
Going back and forth from “tolitarians” to “stoners” and every ad hom inbetween doesn’t get us very far.
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