1. Marijuana is a "gateway" drug; it leads to harder drugs.
2. Marijuana is an addictive drug.
3. Marijuana is worse than cigarettes; 1 joint equals 5 cigarettes.
4. Today's
marijuana is much more potent than it was in the Sixties. 
new
5. Marijuana causes brain damage.
coming
soon, more to come...
This is one of the most widely believed myths, and is still used today. But is this statement true? Prohibitionists argue that even if marijuana itself doesn't do much damage, it should be considered dangerous because it leads to harder drugs such as cocaine. This statement is untrue. Take a look at the facts:
In 1994, less than 16% of high school seniors who had ever tried marijuana had ever tried cocaine.
While it is true that most users of heroin, LSD and cocaine have used marijuana,
it is also true that most marijuana users never use other illegal drugs.
Marijuana tends to substitute for the much more dangerous hard drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.
People smoke marijuana instead of snorting cocaine or dropping acid.
As marijuana use increased in the 1960s and 1970s, heroin use declined.
This proves that marijuana is not a gateway drug, because if it was, then heroin
use would have increased when marijuana use increased.
In Holland, marijuana is legal. This means that you don't have to pay a
visit to the local drug dealer in order to buy a few grams of marijuana.
Marijuana can be bought in coffee shops, which separates marijuana from harder
drugs. Whereas approximately 16% of youthful marijuana users in the U.S. have tried cocaine, the comparable figure for
Dutch youth is 1.8 percent. This proves that by separating marijuana users
from illegal markets, less harder drugs will be used.
You
can claim that anything has a gateway effect. Most hard drug users ate
chocolate before they tried hard drugs, therefore chocolate is a gateway to hard
drugs. This is obviously incorrect. A lot of people think that if
the gateway theory is going to be used, then marijuana should not be the
gateway. Other drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc. should be
considered gateway drugs because hard drug users are more likely to try those
before they try marijuana.
There are 40 million people in the United States who have smoked marijuana
before. The number of hard drug users combined is way less than that.
Another sort of gateway theory has been argued is that marijuana is the source of the
drug subculture and leads to other drugs through that culture. This is untrue.
Marijuana doesn't create the drug subculture, the drug subculture uses
marijuana. There are many marijuana users who are not a part of the subculture.
Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have
used harder drugs which are less popular are likely to have also tried marijuana.
After reviewing the facts, I would consider you ignorant if you still think that marijuana is a gateway drug. There has never been any evidence to prove that marijuana use leads to the use of harder drugs. If any drug should be blamed, it should be alcohol or cigarettes, not marijuana.
Sources: 1, 2, 4.
This myth is another one of the most widely believed myths. But before classifying marijuana as an addictive substance, we must first understand that there are two classes of addictiveness: physical addiction and psychological addiction. In order for a drug to be defined as physically addictive, it must be reinforcing, produce withdrawal symptoms, and produce tolerance.
Reinforcement: A measure of a substance's ability in human and animal tests, to get users to take it again and again, and in preference to other substances.
Withdrawal: Presence and severity of characteristic withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, depression, pain, etc.
Tolerance: How much of the substance is needed to satisfy increasing cravings for it, and the level of stable, high need that is eventually reached.
An example of a physically addictive drug is alcohol. A psychologically addictive drug is a drug that makes the user want to use the drug. In other words, a psychologically addictive drug is a drug that is habit forming. Many things are psychologically addictive, including: coffee, eating, shopping, and marijuana. Obviously, psychological addictiveness is not very serious, since many things can be defined as psychologically addictive, and in order to stop using a psychologically addictive substance, one must merely break their habit of using it. Indeed, marijuana is psychologically addictive, but is it physically addictive? Take a look at the facts:
In 1993, among Americans age 12 and over, about 34% had used marijuana sometime in their life, but only 9% had used it in the past year, 4.3% in the past month, and 2.8% in the past week.
There are 40 million people in the United States who have smoked marijuana
before. Yet
only 1 percent of
Americans smoke marijuana on a daily basis. Most people who smoke marijuana smoke it
only occasionally. If marijuana were addictive, then there would be
millions of regular users, but there isn't.
On a relative scale, marijuana is less habit forming than either sugar or chocolate, but more so than anchovies.
Sociologists report that marijuana use peaks in the early adult years,
but then levels off and gradually reduces in use as the person gets older.
The only evidence that proves that marijuana produces physical dependence and withdrawal in
humans is a bit misleading. When human subjects were administered daily oral doses of 180-210 mg of THC,
(the equivalent of 15-20 joints per day) abrupt cessation produced adverse symptoms, including disturbed sleep, restlessness, nausea, decreased appetite, and sweating. The authors interpreted these symptoms as evidence of physical dependence.
They also noted that these symptoms were very mild, and would not occur if
normal amounts of marijuana were consumed. Virtually no one smokes 15-20
joints per day, so these symptoms are not likely to occur. Even if they did
occur, they are very mild, and are not dangerous to the user.
When humans are allowed to control consumption, even high doses of
marijuana are not followed by adverse withdrawal symptoms. The only way marijuana can be deemed physically addictive is if it is used for a
long period of time, and then all of a sudden discontinued. Withdrawal
from coffee causes more symptoms than withdrawal from marijuana.
Unlike many other addictive drugs, marijuana wears off gradually. There is
no "up" and "down" sequence as there is for drugs such as
crack or heroin. Upon ceasing use, marijuana smokers experience a very gradual removal of THC from
their brain receptors, which means that there is no sudden withdrawal, as there
is for nicotine, etc.
THC can be compared to nicotine patches for cigarette smokers: the patch
gradually decreases the nicotine being administered to the person. THC
gradually decreases its effectiveness, so the person comes down from the high
slowly. When you get high off of marijuana, you are not high one minute,
and then completely sober the next. Since the wearing off of THC
is slow, withdrawal symptoms never occur. The THC gradually
withdrawals.
Marijuana is psychologically addictive, but so are a lot of things.
Chocolate, gambling, video games, sex, massages, sports, shopping, soft drinks,
nail biting, and watching television are all psychologically addictive.
They don't create withdrawal symptoms when they are stopped, but they make the
person want to keep doing it. Basically, something that is psychologically
addictive is a habit. In order to cease psychological dependence, one must
find other things to do instead of doing whatever their habit consists of.
So if a marijuana smoker wanted to quit, they would just have to stop thinking
about marijuana and find another activity to do.
A lot of people claim that psychological addictiveness to marijuana is strong,
so strong that it is hard to quit. This is due to the simple fact that
these people are not addicted to marijuana, they are addicted to the high.
Marijuana smokers obviously enjoy getting high; this is why they smoke
marijuana. But some people want to be high all the time. Of course,
this is not healthy.
There are many people out there who can't control their marijuana-smoking
habits. There are many people out there who can't control their eating
habits or their shopping habits either. An estimated 10% of the population
has "addictive" personalities, which means that they don't have very
much control over themselves. These people should seek counseling, because
it is not healthy if you are a person who can't stop using marijuana.
I hope that now you understand that marijuana is not addictive. If you still think that it is addictive, then go ask the 40 million people in the States who have smoked marijuana before, and you'll see that they all say the same thing: "Marijuana is not addictive; if it was, wouldn't I still be a pot-smoker right now?"
Sources: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
A lot of people say that smoking marijuana is worse for you than smoking
cigarettes. This is untrue. A lot of people claim that smoking one
joint is like smoking five cigarettes, yet this "fact" is very
misleading. There are many facts to show that marijuana IS NOT worse than
cigarettes. Take a look at the facts:
You may have heard that one joint is equal to five cigarettes, but this is
exaggerated and misleading. Marijuana does contain more tar than tobacco, but
tar isn't the ingredient that leads to cancer and other diseases. Low tar cigarettes cause just as much
cancer as normal cigarettes.
Scientists have shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because
it increases the number of `lesions' in your small airways. This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a
chance it will lead to infections. Marijuana users who are worried about this can
eliminate the chances of infections by eating or vaporizing marijuana. Marijuana
is completely safe to eat, yet tobacco is not.
More research must be done, but as of now, there is no evidence to prove
that marijuana causes cancer the way cigarettes do. No case of lung cancer resulting from marijuana use alone
has ever been documented. Current research has
proved that there are much more benefits to smoking marijuana than there
are harms.
Marijuana smokers generally don't chain smoke, and so they smoke less.
Whereas a cigarette smoker would smoke a pack a day, a marijuana smoker might
have one or two joints a day. Even if marijuana was just as dangerous as
tobacco, most smokers still would not be smoking as much as the tobacco smokers
would be.
Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn't. Nicotine is
addictive. Nicotine may harden the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart disease caused by
tobacco. New research has found that it may also cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and
people who live or work where tobacco is smoked. This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing
chemical called `N Nitrosamine' when it is burned (and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)
Marijuana contains THC, the chemical that gets you high. THC is a bronchial dilator,
which means it works like a cough drop and opens up your lungs, which aids in
the clearance of smoke and dirt.
This is why many people who suffer from asthma find marijuana as an effective
treatment to control their coughing and wheezing. Nicotine does the
opposite to your lungs; it makes them bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.
If someone with asthma smoked a cigarette, their asthma would get worse.
There are many benefits from marijuana that you don't get from tobacco.
Tobacco isn't really good for anything. People smoke mainly because they
are addicted. Some say that cigarettes calm them down, and help them
relax. They become relaxed and calm after smoking because they have just
satisfied their craving for nicotine. They would never feel relaxed after
smoking if cigarettes were not addictive. Marijuana makes you relax, but
not in the same way as tobacco does. The THC is what calms you down, not
some addictive substance like nicotine.
Even if marijuana had the same health risks as cigarettes, a lot of those risks
could be reduced, or even eliminated, if marijuana was made legal. There
is no way to tell if you are getting "safe" marijuana from a
dealer. It could have been sprayed with all kinds of harmful
chemicals. Maybe the grower wasn't very experienced and they added way to
much fertilizer, therefore making the soil toxic. By making
marijuana legal, better marijuana can be grown.
Paraphernalia laws directed against marijuana users make it difficult to smoke safely.
These laws make water pipes and bongs, which filter some of the carcinogens out of the smoke, illegal.
This means that these filters are hard to get, so many people aren't smoking
marijuana in the safest way possible.
Marijuana can be eaten, thereby reducing ALL health risks associated with
smoking it. The main reason why many people don't eat marijuana is
because: a) you need to consume more marijuana to get high when you eat
it. Many users don't have enough money to use marijuana in this way.
They smoke it because they can get more out of it this way. If marijuana
were legal, people could grow there own "unlimited" amount of marijuana,
and could eat it instead of smoke it. b) When you smoke marijuana, you
feel the effects almost instantaneously. When you eat marijuana, you need
to wait 15-30 minutes before you start feeling anything. Many people would
prefer not to wait.
The next time you hear some uninformed person trying to tell people that smoking a joint is like smoking 5 cigarettes, I hope that you will prove them wrong by letting them know the facts. Tell them that their "facts" are true, but misleading. Tell them that there are health benefits from marijuana, and that cigarettes are way worse for you than marijuana. Marijuana should not and cannot be compared to cigarettes.
Sources: 1, 2, 4.
This myth is used a lot to "scare" people into thinking that today's pot is much more dangerous than it used to be. A lot of times you'll here that marijuana is ten times stronger than it used to be. Sometimes people even claim that marijuana is now twenty to thirty times stronger, which would mean that there is over 100% THC in marijuana, which is obviously impossible. Even if today's marijuana was more potent than it used to be, this would be a good thing. Why? Because the more potent marijuana is, the less you need to smoke to get high. And the less you need to smoke, the less harm you do to your lungs. Claiming that today's marijuana is much more stronger than it used to be is a way for the prohibitionists to "scare" people into thinking that marijuana is dangerous. The truth is, marijuana's potency hasn't changed much over the years. Take a look at the facts:
The researchers who made the claim of increased potency used as their baseline the THC content of marijuana seized by police in the early
1970s. Poor storage of this marijuana in un-air conditioned evidence rooms caused it to
deteriorate and decline in potency before any chemical assay was performed.
Independent assays of un-seized "street" marijuana from the early 1970s showed a potency equivalent to that of modern "street" marijuana.
Marijuana's potency hasn't changed for a while; bad data makes it seem like it
has though.
Most marijuana smokers engage in something called auto-titration. This means smoking until they are satisfied and then
stopping. It does not matter if marijuana is more potent nowadays than it
used to be because users will just smoke less of it.
The average THC content in today's marijuana is around 3.5%.
If today's marijuana is ten times more potent than it was in the Sixties, then
the marijuana being smoked back then would have had hardly any THC in it at
all. In order for someone to get high back then, they would have had to
smoke ten times as much marijuana than someone today would have to smoke.
Obviously, people didn't do that; they smoked almost exactly the same amount of
marijuana as people today smoke. This proves that marijuana potency hasn't
changed much.
This myth is still being used today, even though there is no evidence to prove that it is true. Marijuana potency has gone up in the last 2000 years, but not in the last fifty. The marijuana plant has reached its full potential. For now, that is. And even if marijuana potency has gone up, that is a good thing! The less people have to smoke in order to get high, the less dangerous and harmful marijuana becomes. It is obvious that anyone who uses this "fact" in their defense doesn't know what they are talking about.
Sources: 1, 2, 4.
1) http://www.cannabis.com/faqs/ - CANNABIS/HEMP FAQ by Brian S. Julin © 1994.
2) http://www.drugtext.org/sub/marmyt1.html - MARIJUANA MYTHS by Paul Hager Chair, ICLU Drug Task Force.
3) http://naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html - HEMP AND MARIJUANA: MYTHS AND REALITIES by David P. West, Ph.D. for the North American Industrial Hemp Council.
4) http://www.drugtext.org/articles/marijuan.html - EXPOSING MARIJUANA MYTHS: A REVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE by Lynn Zimmer, Associate Professor of Sociology Queens College and John P. Morgan, Professor of Pharmacology, City University Medical School © The Lindesmith Center.
5) http://www.marijuanamagazine.com/toc/addictiv.htm
- THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA MAGAZINE Compiled &
Published by Steven C. Markoff.
6) http://www.peele.net/lib/marijuana.html - IS MARIJUANA ADDICTIVE? IT DEPENDS ON WHAT ADDICTION IS by Stanton Peele Morristown, NJ (Newsletter of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Sept.-Nov. 2000, p. 4)
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