Cannabis is probably the world’s most popular casual use drug that is illegal in most nations. It has become so widespread that many people wouldn’t think twice about asking to light up at a friend’s or to smoke in public places. It is an ancient drug that has been used throughout history for medical, magical, and pleasurable purposes. Thanks to the scare-tactics of propaganda in the 1960s and 1970s, there are many myths surrounding the drug – this list intends to put things straight once and for all.
1 .Fat Storage
Myth: Cannabis’ active ingredient THC gets stored in body fat and its effects can last days or even weeks
Fact: It is true that cannabis (like many other drugs) enters the body’s fat stores, and it is for this reason that it can be detected long after use, but that is the only part of this myth which is true. The fact is, the psychoactive aspects of the stored cannabis are used up quickly and while the residue of the drug remains, it no longer has any effect on the person. Furthermore, the presence of THC in body fat is not harmful to the fat, the brain, or any other part of the body.
2. Memory Loss
Myth: Cannabis use causes memory loss and a general reduction in logic and intelligence
Fact: This is another myth which has elements of truth to it – no doubt the reason it is believed by so many. Laboratory tests have shown that cannabis diminishes the short term memory – but only when a person is intoxicated with it. A person who has taken cannabis will be able to remember things learned before they took it but may have trouble learning new information during intoxication. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to suggest that this can become a long-term or permanent problem when sober.
3. Scientific Proof
Myth: Cannabis has been scientifically proven to be harmful
Fact: Let us start with a quote: “the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.” This quote comes from the peer-reviewed British medical journal The Lancet (founded in 1823). There is certainly no scientific consensus on cannabis use, and certainly no scientific proof that casual use is dangerous to health.
4. Loss of Motivation
Myth: Cannabis use causes apathy and a lack of motivation
Fact: In fact, studies done on test subjects in which they were given a high dose of cannabis regularly over a period of days or weeks found that there was no loss in motivation or ability to perform. Of course, abuse of any intoxicating substance over long periods will reduce a person’s ability to function normally, but cannabis is no better or worse. Furthermore, studies indicate that cannabis users tend to have higher paid jobs than non-users.
5. Crime Statistics
Myth: Cannabis causes crime
Fact: Some people believe that cannabis use leads to violence and aggression, and that this, in turn, leads to crime. But the facts just don’t stack up. Serious research into this area has found that cannabis users are often less likely to commit crimes because of its effect in reducing aggression. Having said that, because of the number of nations that have outlawed cannabis, most users in the world are technically classified as criminals merely for possessing the drug.
6. Braindead
Myth: Cannabis kills brain cells
Fact: Cannabis does not cause any profound changes in a person’s mental ability. It is true that after taking the drug some people can experience panic, paranoia, and fright, these effects pass and certainly don’t become permanent. It is possible for a person to consume so much of the drug that they suffer from toxic psychosis, but again this is not unique to cannabis and is very rare.
7. Gateway to Other Drugs
Myth: Cannabis is a gateway drug – in other words, it leads to abuse of more potent drugs
Fact: For most people, cannabis is a terminus drug, not a gateway drug. Users of high strength drugs such as heroin or LSD are also statistically more likely to have used cannabis in the past, but this is just toying with statistics; when comparing the number of cannabis users with hard-drug users, the numbers are extremely small – suggesting that there is no link at all.
8. Modern Potency
Myth: Cannabis is more potent now than in the past
Fact: The reason that this myth has come about is that samples taken by drug enforcement agencies are used to test for potency but they are a tiny sample of the cannabis on the market. The vast majority of cannabis taken today is the same potency as it has been for decades. In fact, even if the potency were greatly higher, it would make little difference to the user as cannabis of varying potency produces very similar effects. Furthermore, there is statistical data on cannabis potency dating back to the 1980s which is more reliable than present methods of detection, and that shows little or no increase.
9. Lung Damage
Myth: Cannabis is more damaging to the lungs than cigarettes
Fact: First of all, people who smoke cannabis but not cigarettes tend to smoke far less frequently – thereby limiting their exposure to the dangers in the smoke. Furthermore, smokers of cannabis are not inhaling the many additives that go into commercial cigarettes to make them burn down faster or to stay alight. There has even been some evidence that marijuana smoke does not have the same effect on the bronchial tubes as cigarette smoke, so even heavy use may not lead to emphysema.
10. Cannabis and Addiction
Myth: Cannabis is highly addictive
Fact: Less than one percent of Americans smoke cannabis more than once per day. Of the heavy users, a tiny minority develop what appears to be a dependence and rely on the assistance of drug rehabilitation services to stop smoking but there is nothing in cannabis which causes physical dependence and the most likely explanation for those who need assistance is that they are having difficulty breaking the habit – not the “addiction”.
SOURCE
6 comments
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April 30, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Indicaman
Hi.
These are all good myth busting points. However, in respect to point 6:
Myth: Cannabis kills brain cells
Fact: Cannabis does not cause any profound changes in a person’s mental ability. It is true that after taking the drug some people can experience panic, paranoia, and fright, these effects pass and certainly don’t become permanent. It is possible for a person to consume so much of the drug that they suffer from toxic psychosis, but again this is not unique to cannabis and is very rare.
Cannabis is ‘believed’ to be associated with psychosis due to a hypothesis of a group of scientists in New Zealand. They have found a gene pair that acts as a control for Dopamine flow to the midbrain area. Apparently, if you have a faulty gene pair, which constitutes about 2% of the population, you are adolescent, and you smoke cannabis, THC can lock on to the receptors that open the dopamine flow, but due to the faulty gene pair, the flow isn’t controlled. That is what leads to the psychotic episodes.
However, as previously stated, it is a hypothesis. It is what the scientists *think* happens. They can’t test for the faulty gene pair yet.
Given that a third of the Australian population has smoked pot, yet only 1% of the population suffers from schizophrenia or psychosis, the risk is less than that taken by consuming commercial anti-depressants.
Another bit of recent scientific research shows that cannabis compounds actually kill GBH brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
Reference:
Disclaimer: The bias expressed in the transcript below is not necessarily the view of this commenter.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2402434.htm
THC Kills Brain Cancer Cells
http://www.sethgroup.org/
April 30, 2009 at 4:20 pm
homelessonthehighdesert
It is this “witch doctor’s” daily experience that the application of Black Cohosh “acts as a control for Dopamine flow to the midbrain area” in the matter of my wife’s mid-life need to tell her body to stop producing estrogen.
And having smoked marijuana for over forty years and can remember the day I was born…
April 30, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Indicaman
I agree. I have smoked since the late seventies and have never suffered a ‘psychotic episode’ as the supposed scientists say. Cannabis is my chosen medicine.
Scientists and pharmaceutical companies that attempt to sell anti-psychotic and anti-depressant drugs based on research are only acting on theories. At this point in our time, there is no way to test changes in brain chemical levels on a living human. In reality, it means that all those people out there taking commercial anti-depressant drugs have been sold an idea that Prozac/Cymbalta (insert your chosen antidepressant here) ‘might’ work as a Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitor.
Of course, they try very hard to ensure you don’t become fully aware of the plethora of possible/probable side effects, including worsening of depression symptoms, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, lethergy etc etc.
Pharmaceutical companies are still basing the usefulness of these drugs from research conducted in the late fifties on how a particular drug caused depression in rats. Autopsies found lowered seratonin levels in the rats, so they hypothesised that they might be able to create a drug that helps raise these levels and therefore ‘cure’ depression.
One day cannabis will regain its stature as an important medicine and the poisons these companies force down peoples’ throats will become the contraband.
May 1, 2009 at 10:12 am
homelessonthehighdesert
Weird in retrospect, but in our lifetimes we will see both the criminalization of tobacco and the de-criminalization of marijuana.
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November 30, 2009 at 11:20 am
Eco Green
Politicians are 10 years behind the times, when it comes to hemp use. People have been fighting for along time against pot and hemp prohibition with some movement going on now. Still too slow for those caught up in the jail system. Our freedoms have been trampled on by folks who know nothing about how beautiful cannabis can be for someones life. Keep up the good work.