5 BIGGEST Â LIES ABOUT MARY
Marijuana kills brain cells and lowers IQ. Interestingly, a 2007 review article in The Neuroscientist reveals that cannabis does just the opposite; it promotes the growth and development of new brain cells. No other class of compounds has demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of cannabis. Very promising animal studies show that treating brain injuries, including newborn babies lacking oxygen and victims of stroke and head trauma, all sustain less damage and heal faster if they are given cannabinoids, the substances found in cannabis, or their synthetic counterparts. Cannabinoids also protect the brain from slower forms of injury, like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, especially when used in the correct dosage. While cannabis can cause some temporary cognitive changes, such as a decrease in short term memory, these changes are reversible when an adult stops using cannabis.
Smoking marijuana causes cancer.A large study in 2006 cited in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention showed that heavy cannabis users have an equal or lower rate of lung and respiratory tract cancers than non-users, even though cannabis smoke has been proven to contain cancer-causing products of combustion. How is this possible? Cannabinoids possess potent anti-cancer properties. This has been known since the 1970s, but more recently cannabinoids have become a major focus of the pharmaceutical industry’s anti-cancer drug development.While smoking cannabis is unlikely to cause cancer, it can irritate the respiratory tract, especially in sensitive individuals. Most patients and responsible adult cannabis users are turning to non-smokable delivery methods: vaporizers allow users to inhale the medicinal component of the herb without any smoke, tinctures and liquid extracts are safe and convenient, and topically applied cannabis salves are reported to reduce pain and inflammation.
Marijuana is addictive and is a gateway to other drugs. Marijuana dependence does exist, but is not common. A study reported in Experimental Clinical Psychopharmacology found that only 9 percent of those that try marijuana develop dependence compared to, for example, 24 percent of those that try heroin. Furthermore, marijuana dependence is much safer; the withdrawal effects are mild and similar in intensity to caffeine withdrawal. Most people don’t have any trouble stopping using cannabis, when and if they need to.Recent research demonstrates that cannabis actually serves as an exit drug, rather than a gateway drug. In 2009, Harm Reduction Journal reported that of 350 medical cannabis users in California, 40 percent of the subjects used cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 26 percent as a substitute for illicit drugs and 66 percent as a substitute for prescription drugs. Any time a person can replace a safer substance, like cannabis, for a more harmful substance, such as alcohol, it is a step in the right direction.
Marijuana makes people mentally unstable. While scientists debate whether or not cannabis can actually cause or trigger the onset of mental illness, if it can, it’s extremely rare, according to a 2009 article in the journal Addiction. It is much more common for cannabis to actually help mental illness such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar, and even schizophrenia, especially when used appropriately under the guidance of a healthcare professional.Over all, marijuana has gotten a bad name due to decades of prohibition and reefer madness-like thinking—in fact, the word “marijuana” was first used in U.S. policy to marginalize mexican immigrants in the early 1900s. As our society works to help this misunderstood plant find its appropriate place in our laws, using its botanical name, cannabis, helps dispel the myths and invokes the truth made available by thousands of scientists and researchers: cannabis has a lot to offer humanity.
Pot makes you stupid. Marijuana use crosses all sorts of cultural gradients: like alcohol, it is used by adults of every age, tax bracket and personality type. Yet we still hear the echoes of the cultural stereotype of the stoner: likes video games and junk food, dislikes jobs and bathing. Furthermore, this stereotype is mentally slow, unambitious and a leech on the upstanding, hard working people who tried pot once and weren’t into it. The Hall study provided some limited fodder for this idea with the finding that marijuana smoking that starts in adolescence is correlated with lesser academic achievement. Again, the key word is correlated. Perhaps teenage pot smokers are more likely to be bored in school, disaffected by the dominant cultural standards of achievement. This attitude may veer them off course whether or not they get into marijuana.But let’s assume for a moment that there is a causal relationship between smoking pot and reduced academic success. In fact, let’s throw in the other correlative factors that opponents like to bring up: cognitive issues, a relationship of some sort with psychosis and links to health problems, like chronic bronchitis. Taken in total, and given more credit than they are likely worth, those reasons still don’t add up to a worthy case to keep cannabis illegal. Put alongside the well-established issues related to alcohol consumption, cannabis looks about as harmful as aspirin. The plant is a medicine for some people, a vice for others, and not much of either for a majority of users. With mass incarceration, well-funded drug cartels and police diverted from more important work, the greatest maladies related to cannabis are those that result from keeping it illegal.
