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.
And i've seen that statement from libertarians about a billion times, and it is utter crap as well. It's just another one of their pieces of propaganda that they throw out there and cannot really prove, but repetition makes it believable in their mind.
Alcohol is even more popular among criminals - should we ban that drug too?
And here we go with another false comparison to Alcohol.
"WAAAAAAAAAH!!!! They get Alcohol! I want my WEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD!!!!!"
Sigh..... pot and alcohol and not comparative. It’s a weak argument to say “Well if alcohol is ok, so is pot” Good Lord man, don’t we have enough effin problems with the culture without contributing to it, strictly for the sake of personal pleasure no matter the consequences to you and to others?
Try being a parent who’s kids are effed up on this crap. Walk a mile in someone’s shoes.
And this is so naive it's stupid.
If you will notice China, the LEGAL drug importers (Formerly Criminals) were making money hand over fists. The Criminals were getting rich. They will still get rich if drugs are legalized in this country. Who do you think already has the transport and distribution systems set up?
And i've seen that statement from libertarians about a billion times, and it is utter crap as well.
Wrong as usual: http://www.casacolumbia.org/download/file/fid/640.
Just like the mob continued to get rich from alcohol after Prohibition ended? ROTFL!
Yeah I read your post. Sorry but dope wasn’t around in the 60s . . unless you were hangin out at Haight Asbury. It was the post 60s when kids thought they were truly smarter than their elders, and I can pinpoint specifically when dope hit my part of the country.
Ok so let’s do it your way. Legalize it and let’s create another addiction, another host of problems. Genius. As if we don’t have enough crap to deal with nowadays. And then when you and others realize your mistake, how do you propose to undo it? That I’d like to hear.
Nobody's saying that. The point about the drug alcohol is to learn about other drugs, like how banning them causes more problems than it cures.
Because we don't have to be consistent just to please you. As pointed out before, Alcohol has been around for several thousand years. Many cultures have a long history with it and will not give it up willingly despite it killing about 70,000 people per year. Some Religions use it in their religious ceremonies and have since the beginning.
Your yammering on about consistency is just another one of your dodges to rationalize what you want, and like a little child, you keep making up childish excuses in a whiny effort to get it.
I will let Ralph Waldo Emerson finish up my point: "A Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
Aug 11, 2014
Two consequences that pot prohibitionists attribute to marijuana legalization— more underage consumption and more traffic fatalities—so far do not seem to be materializing in Colorado, which has allowed medical use since 2001 and recreational use since the end of 2012.
Survey data released last week by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) indicate that marijuana use among high school students continues to decline, despite warnings that legalization would make pot more appealing to teenagers.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/08/11/as-colorado-loosened-its-marijuana-laws-underage-consumption-and-traffic-fatalities-fell/
Stupid, left leaning California, and Stupid left leaning Washington, have now been joined by increasingly stupid and left leaning Colorado. Do you know why Colorado has become increasingly stupid and left leaning? It's because those people who shat the bed in California have decided to come shat the bed in Colorado after moving there.
You aren't getting that Left wing nutjobs leave a trail of wreckage behind, and your "victory" in Colorado is just another manifestation of the wrecking ball.
I understand what you're asserting, but is this because they'd actually be unable to do jobs or because employers would continue drug testing and tossing out able employees who test positive for THC metabolites from their Saturday night bong hits? Drinkers would be unemployable, too, if employers took up a practice of bouncing employees not for showing up drunk to work, but for having had a few drinks on Saturday night, as would tobacco smokers if employers broadly adopted the policy some hospitals have of firing anyone who smokes tobacco even off the job.
Again, in considering this question, not all harms associated with illegal drugs are caused by the use of the drug, some are cause by the fact that is has been made illegal. One must distinguish between the harms inherent in use of the drug and the harms created by keeping it illegal.
What's your opinion on Gay Marriage? Are you for or against?
Thanks for the kind words
But hey, it’s all about you anyway. It’s your selfish, dare I use your word “childish” attitude that has effed one hell of a lot of people and their families. But hey that’s their problem, as long as you still get your buzz on and groove out to Hendrix and hear the triangle in the background of rock music, what’s a little pain and suffering to others?
I care about the topic, I don’t care if the Nanny Staters can’t handle the end of Marijuana Prohibition. See the difference?
If you can’t make a point without insults you don’t have one. Which you prove once again. The country as a whole got to the 20th century without drug laws, and then slowly phased them in, and now seems to be realizing that was a bad idea. You’re on the wrong side of history, enjoy the ash heap.
I think you are living in some confused fantasy to where you can’t see pot legalization which leads to other drug usage becoming a fight to legalize.( I see your comments as a very selfish explanation and confusion to freedom because you want it legal). This is why we have much intrusions in our lives. Everyone has a freebie behavior/ action they want from the other guy, if the action is even bad. I have issues, hey, Christie, you pay for my mistakes / but they were your choices.
Nobody, with your ideas, wants a standard. That’s a issue for me. Call me old-fashioned. It’s me.
Liberals see that and take advantage to move their agenda. Right is a gray area. Gay marriage has been forced on society through abuse of the courts. Now, we are into the madness of drug use.
With freedom comes responsibilities to one’s self and to the other citizens who make up that society. Liberalism decides what the standard is; if any. I see you’ve joined that belief. What gives you the sole decision/ authority with your brethren to tell someone else that their underage kid has a right to smoke it while protesting you can’t be left alone to smoke it.
This and gay marriage will destroy society as we know it.
I have seen too many of my friends waste their lives on this stuff. Not me saying they did. It was them saying to their friends; that they were addicted and went onto more complicated drugs. One of my friends died last year from drug abuse. Pot was their introduction.
I am against it for being legal nationwide.
What you do in your own private domain; that action doesn’t involve another citizen being injured or abused, it’s your business to carry on your life. But make sure, you have funds to pay for your care, if it comes up.
Because we don't have to be consistent just to please you.
Not the issue. Abuse is bad - why not fight it by banning alcohol and tobacco?
You really don't know your history. The Temperance/Anti-Saloon league was made up of "progressives" who we would nowadays call women's libbers. Indeed, it was their massive network that created both the 18th and 19th amendments. Mostly socially upscale wives of wealthy men leading the thing, just as with other socialist movements throughout history.
and proved to cause more ills than it cured.
Yeah, because were losing a LOT MORE THAN 90,000 PEOPLE PER YEAR BACK THEN, WEREN'T We?
Thank God we got rid of it, else the population would have never survived all the dead people caused by prohibition.
You are either naively ignorant, or just outright lying about stuff.
Against.
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