109 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
109 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
MARIJUANA MYTHS
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by Paul Hager
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Chair, ICLU Drug Task Force
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1. Marijuana causes brain damage
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The most celebrated study that claims to show brain damage
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is the rhesus monkey study of Dr. Robert Heath, done in the late
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1970s. This study was reviewed by a distinguished panel of
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scientists sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the
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National Academy of Sciences. Their results were published under
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the title, Marijuana and Health in 1982. Heath's work was
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sharply criticized for its insufficient sample size (only four
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monkeys), its failure to control experimental bias, and the
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misidentification of normal monkey brain structure as "damaged".
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Actual studies of human populations of marijuana users have shown
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no evidence of brain damage. For example, two studies from 1977,
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published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
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(JAMA) showed no evidence of brain damage in heavy users of
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marijuana. That same year, the American Medical Association
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(AMA) officially came out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana.
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That's not the sort of thing you'd expect if the AMA thought
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marijuana damaged the brain.
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2. Marijuana damages the reproductive system
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This claim is based chiefly on the work of Dr. Gabriel
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Nahas, who experimented with tissue (cells) isolated in petri
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dishes, and with researchers who dosed animals with near-lethal
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amounts of cannabinoids (i.e., the intoxicating part of
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marijuana). Nahas' generalizations from his petri dishes to
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human beings have been rejected by the scientific community as
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being invalid. In the case of the animal experiments, the
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animals that survived their ordeal returned to normal within 30
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days of the end of the experiment. Studies of actual human
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populations have failed to demonstrate that marijuana adversely
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affects the reproductive system.
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3. Marijuana is a "gateway" drug -- it leads to hard drugs
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This is one of the more persistent myths. A real world
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example of what happens when marijuana is readily available can
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be found in Holland. The Dutch partially legalized marijuana in
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the 1970s. Since then, hard drug use -- heroin and cocaine --
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have DECLINED substantially. If marijuana really were a gateway
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drug, one would have expected use of hard drugs to have gone up,
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not down. This apparent "negative gateway" effect has also been
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observed in the United States. Studies done in the early 1970s
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showed a negative correlation between use of marijuana and use of
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alcohol. A 1993 Rand Corporation study that compared drug use in
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states that had decriminalized marijuana versus those that had
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not, found that where marijuana was more available -- the states
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that had decriminalized -- hard drug abuse as measured by
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emergency room episodes decreased. In short, what science and
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actual experience tell us is that marijuana tends to substitute
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for the much more dangerous hard drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and
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heroin.
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4. Marijuana suppresses the immune system
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Like the studies claiming to show damage to the reproductive
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system, this myth is based on studies where animals were given
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extremely high -- in many cases, near-lethal -- doses of
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cannabinoids. These results have never been duplicated in human
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beings. Interestingly, two studies done in 1978 and one done in
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1988 showed that hashish and marijuana may have actually
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stimulated the immune system in the people studied.
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5. Marijuana is much more dangerous than tobacco
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Smoked marijuana contains about the same amount of
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carcinogens as does an equivalent amount of tobacco. It should
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be remembered, however, that a heavy tobacco smoker consumes much
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more tobacco than a heavy marijuana smoker consumes marijuana.
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This is because smoked tobacco, with a 90% addiction rate, is the
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most addictive of all drugs while marijuana is less addictive
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than caffeine. Two other factors are important. The first is
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that paraphernalia laws directed against marijuana users make it
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difficult to smoke safely. These laws make water pipes and
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bongs, which filter some of the carcinogens out of the smoke,
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illegal and, hence, unavailable. The second is that, if
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marijuana were legal, it would be more economical to have
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cannabis drinks like bhang (a traditional drink in the Middle
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East) or tea which are totally non-carcinogenic. This is in
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stark contrast with "smokeless" tobacco products like snuff which
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can cause cancer of the mouth and throat. When all of these
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facts are taken together, it can be clearly seen that the reverse
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is true: marijuana is much SAFER than tobacco.
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6. Legal marijuana would cause carnage on the highways
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Although marijuana, when used to intoxication, does impair
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performance in a manner similar to alcohol, actual studies of the
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effect of marijuana on the automobile accident rate suggest that
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it poses LESS of a hazard than alcohol. When a random sample of
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fatal accident victims was studied, it was initially found that
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marijuana was associated with RELATIVELY as many accidents as
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alcohol. In other words, the number of accident victims
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intoxicated on marijuana relative to the number of marijuana
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users in society gave a ratio similar to that for accident
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victims intoxicated on alcohol relative to the total number of
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alcohol users. However, a closer examination of the victims
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revealed that around 85% of the people intoxicated on marijuana
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WERE ALSO INTOXICATED ON ALCOHOL.
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(Note, previous text was incomplete. I have not been able to locate the
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second, half. If anyone has a copy, please let me know.)
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