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.
So then the drugs I mentioned in an earlier post are next for "decriminalization"?
Once we've had a good look at how pot relegalization has worked out, we can apply our learnings to other drugs. We might at that point have left ourselves with a War on Drugs we can actually win.
Many times alcohol is in the mix with pot.
We know limited use isn’t bad and I believe it is already illegal while driving and operating machinery.
I could live with it banned if it helped keep pot banned.
Or meth?
According to reports it’s sucking so far. And I knew you’d have other drugs in the line up after it. Can’t fix stupid.
I've never done that. The people you speak of are certainly hypocrites.
Do we really need yet another substance to be abused? And why stop there? Why not make all drugs legal?
After we've seen how pot relegalization works, we should consider it. The same questions to you in reverse: Don't we really need fewer substances to be abused? Why stop there - why not make all drugs illegal, including alcohol and tobacco?
We’ve had more states with larger populations have it legal. The fact is that for most of America’s history pot was legal, and for all but about 15 years it’s been at least partially legal in at least one state. The effects are there aren’t any.
I'm sorry, but that's pure fantasy...kids still get smokes and booze, regardless of the countless legal methods to prevent it...it won't be any different with dope.
Journal articles on the medical benefits from cannabinoids are listed here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3184089/posts?page=51#51. It's not a huge leap to say cannabis itself can offer these benefits.
Colleges don't tend to conduct illegal research, and the DEA does not tend to grant waivers for research into marijuana.
Oh?
Collectivist claptrap. March on, comrade.
“All I’m saying is that personally, I see no harm”
My point exactly.
You set yourself up as the only authority.
What have you done to come to your expert conclusion?
I’ll give you credit for being honest, but even going down that path is a complete non-starter for me.
I’ve listened to the proponents for MJ and I’ve not seen one thing they “promised” come to realization...
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the underlying sentiment there is that even legalizing it for “medicinal” purposes doesn’t reduce it’s usage...now, those who use get to do so under the guise of state medical resources by claiming some nebulous “disability” or find some quack doctor to write a “prescription” that the taxpayers end up paying for.
It’s all BS...and the rest of the drugs, if they are legalized, will cause even worse problems...those are most definitely and proven to be quite harmful to not only the users, but society as well. See China during their opium era for an example...
Marijuana prohibition died decades ago.
The problem is increased use.
Welcome to Obama’s transformed America.
It needs weed to run.
We know limited use isn’t bad and I believe it is already illegal while driving and operating machinery.
I could live with it banned if it helped keep pot banned.
I applaud your honesty - as opposed to the handwaving of many Drug Warriors on the subject of alcohol. But I bemoan the fact that you apparently don't know that alcohol Prohibition has been tried, over the opposition of the conservatives of the day, and proved to cause more ills than it cured.
Tell me the states where pot was legal within the last one hundred years.
It has some problems thanks to government overtaxing and overregulation - but it's definitely too early to consider anything further.
kids still get smokes and booze
And get pot even more easily. It appears that the most effective (although not 100% effective) way to reduce access to marijuana by young people is harnessing the power of the market by legalizing for adults, so sellers have the potential loss of their legal adult market to discourage them from selling to minors.
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