Since the early 1900’s Cannabis Opponents have built a strong stigma against Marijuana. They have invented a number of lies about the effects of the plant that we have all heard. Despite evidence that marijuana has a greater medicinal value than the majority of the prescription drugs on the market its still a top priority within the “war on drugs”.
These are marijuana myths still persist to some degree today, and the facts that debunk them.
#1
The Myth
Marijuana is a gateway drug
The Fact
For every 104 people who have used marijuana, there is only one regular user of cocaine and less than one heroin addict.
Anyone remember the Dare program at school? You know where McGruff the crime dog shows up and spends the week telling us about the hazards of drug use and warn us all that if we smoked pot we would be shooting heroin within a week. If we didn’t abstain we will become an unrecognizable shell. We would dropout of school and become a dirty scab covered heroin addict living in a crowded abandoned building with a bunch of other dirty scab coved heroin addicts…..This was actually very disillusioning by the time I got to high school, and realized everyone adult I knew including my own parents smoked pot.
It is true that almost everyone who tries those hard, often disastrous drugs did smoke marijuana first. They also probably got drunk at least a few times in their lives before trying heroin, yet no one calls alcohol a gateway drug. The fact that people who have never used drugs start by using Cannabis isn’t that alarming. Its like saying
In a recent survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A study found that marijuana use had increased in recent years among adolescents, but heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine use has all dropped.
#2
The Myth
There is no medicinal use for Marijuana
The Fact
Cannabis is something of a wonder drug.
With half the states in the U.S. embracing medical marijuana you would think this wouldn’t still be an argument. Yet some opponents still take solace in the federal government’s continuing refusal to acknowledge any medicinal use of cannabis.The reality has proven to alleviate symptoms from chemotherapy, AIDS, certain cancers and glaucoma to Migraines, PMS, Multiple sclerosis, and prevent Alzheimer’s. Marijuana’s ability to help people with certain debilitating seizure disorders inspired a number of mostly conservative states to adopt (highly restrictive) medical cannabis laws. Cannabis is effective medicine for millions of people, and legalizing it would provide more of them access to it.
#3
The Myth
Marijuana Leads to Crime
The Fact
The association with cannabis and crime comes from the fact that cannabis itself is illegal.
This one is easily debunked, but the desire of some people and groups to demonize marijuana has kept this idea around longer than it deserves. It is easy enough to find statistics that seem to tie marijuana use with crime, but these rely on a roundabout spin of an analysis. A Norwegian study found that the laws, not the drug, were to blame:
“The study suggests that cannabis use in adolescence and early adulthood may be associated with subsequent involvement in criminal activity. However, the bulk of this involvement seems to be related to various types of drug-specific crime. Thus the association seems to rest on the fact that use, possession and distribution of drugs such as cannabis is illegal. The study strengthens concerns about the laws related to the use, possession and distribution of cannabis.”
Other research backs up this basic conclusion. A borough in London depenalized pot for a year, and a subsequent study found that crime rates dropped during this period. Really, this shouldn’t seem too profound. Stoned people are more likely to stay home and watch a movie than suddenly decide to rob a store. As with alcohol in the first half of the 20th century, it is prohibition itself that leads to crime, not the substance that is prohibited.
Barrack Obama
#4
The Myth
It makes you lazy
The Fact
There is plenty of evidence, including thousands of years of human experience, to show that pot makes you creative, active and influential rather than lazy.
A popular refrain among weed opponents these days is something along the lines of, “everyone knows that marijuana makes you lazy, do we really want to encourage that?” Studies have not been able to separate out cannabis-induced laziness from general “amotivational syndrome.” About 5-6% of the population seems to have identifiable difficulties with motivation, but research has not successfully tied this to marijuana use. So yes, there are lazy potheads out there, but there are also lazy people and ambitious potheads.
#5
The Myth
Smoking Marijuana is worse than cigarettes
The Fact
There is little research on the subject and its a lot more difficult to get clear data from any study that has been done.
The results from the Research that has been done shows that smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn’t harm the lungs, a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn’t do the kind of damage tobacco does. One of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users – those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often might cause a decline in lung function, Another studies findings echo results in some smaller studies that showed while marijuana contains some of the same toxic chemicals as tobacco, it does not carry the same risks for lung disease.
#6
The Myth
It wont stop the cartels
The Fact
Legalizing marijuana will defiantly put a strain on their business.
The most obvious and direct way that legalizing marijuana in the United States would save lives is through weakening drug cartels. While the United States is mostly insulated from the horrors of Sinaloa, Los Zetas and the other powerful and violent cartels, they are a scourge on Mexico and much of Central and South America. The cartels don’t just trade in marijuana, they are essentially armed gangs that will make money in any way they can, including extortion, human trafficking, and selling other drugs and contraband. But estimates put marijuana at 30-50% of cartel revenue. Were legal sellers in the United States to effectively steal their largest market, the cartels would continue to exist, but they would be able to fund fewer soldiers and bribe fewer politicians. The bloodshed they visit on each other and on countless civilians would be similarly reduced.
#7
The Myth
Pot is addictive
The Fact
A very small number of people actually become addicted
According to the National drug institute Long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction; that is, people have difficulty controlling their drug use and cannot stop even though it interferes with many aspects of their lives. It is estimated that 9% of people who use marijuana will become dependent on it This would still put marijuana dependence risk comfortably below alcohol (14%) and tobacco (24%) according to the same study. Additionally, the 9% figure was likely inflated because the study did not account for marijuana’s criminalization. Certain measures of dependence, such as whether someone had spent “a great deal of time” acquiring the substance, could be the result of criminalization, not addiction, but the study authors ignored this. Regardless of what percent of cannabis users can be considered dependent, it’s clear that heavy cannabis use is far less damaging than heavy use of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or alcohol.
#9
The Myth
Marijuana causes brain damage
The Fact
Our understanding of marijuana’s long-term brain effects is limited. Research findings on how chronic cannabis use affects brain structure, for example, have been inconsistent. It may be that the effects are too subtle for reliable detection by current techniques.
This one resurfaced lately, based largely on one recent study in France. The study looked at the brains of 20 heavy cannabis users and compared them to 20 non-smokers (all participants were 18-25). Their brains showed differences in areas related to cognitive and emotional processing. The media ran with those results, claiming that marijuana reorganizes your brain. As the study authors explain, their results do not show this. Rather, they show a correlation, with no clear indication whether cannabis changes brain structure or if people with certain brain structures are more likely to enjoy marijuana. It should also be noted that the sample size of the study is very small, and that the study does not examine long-term effects of cannabis use. And, even if cannabis use does cause changes in the brain over time, there is no evidence to show whether those changes are positive or negative.
# 10 The Fact
Stoned driving is the same as drunk driving
The Myth
There is no evidence that marijuana increases the number of traffic accidents
According to MADD Drunk driving kills 28 people a day in America. Studies have not found similar results for driving while high, and it’s not even clear that marijuana even increases the number of traffic accidents. That’s not to say that marijuana doesn’t affect driving ability—for many people it does. However, marijuana use is as likely as anything to make people more cautious than usual, which is an asset while driving. This same cautiousness makes some high people opt not to drive at all.
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