Myth: Today's marijuana is more
potent and more harmful than it was many years ago.
Fact: There is no medical evidence that shows high-potency
marijuana is more harmful than low-potency marijuana. Marijuana is
literally one of the least toxic substances known. High-potency
marijuana is actually preferable because less is of it consumed to
obtain the desired effect; thereby reducing the amount of smoke that
enters the lungs and lowering the risk of any respiratory health
hazards. Claiming that high-potency marijuana is more harmful than
low-potency marijuana is like claiming wine is more harmful than beer.
Myth: Smoking marijuana can cause
cancer and serious lung damage.
Fact: There chance of contracting cancer from smoking marijuana is
minuscule. Tobacco smokers typically smoke 20+ cigarettes every day
for decades, but virtually nobody smokes marijuana in the quantity and
frequency required to cause cancer. A 1997 UCLA study (see page 9)
concluded that even prolonged and heavy marijuana smoking causes no
serious lung damage. Cancer risks from common foods (meat, salt,
dairy products) far exceed any cancer risk posed by smoking marijuana.
Respiratory health hazards and cancer risks can be totally
eliminated by ingesting marijuana in baked foods.
Myth: Marijuana contains over 400
chemicals, thus proving that marijuana is dangerous.
Fact: Coffee contains 1,500 chemicals. Rat poison contains only 30
chemicals. Many vegetables contain cancer-causing chemicals. There is
no correlation between the number of chemicals a substance contains
and its toxicity. Prohibitionists often cite this misleading statistic
to make marijuana appear dangerous.
Myth: Marijuana is a gateway
drug--it leads to harder drugs.
Fact: The U.S. government's own statistics show that over 75
percent of all Americans who use marijuana never use harder
drugs. The gateway-drug theory is derived by using
blatantly-flawed logic. Using such blatantly-flawed logic, alcohol
should be considered the gateway drug because most cocaine and heroin
addicts began their drug use with beer or wine--not marijuana.
Myth: Marijuana is addicting.
Fact: Marijuana is not physically addicting. Medical
studies rank marijuana as less habit forming than caffeine. The
legal drugs of tobacco (nicotine) and alcohol can be as addicting as
heroin or cocaine, but marijuana is one of the least habit
forming substances known.
Myth: Marijuana use impairs learning
ability.
Fact: A 1996 U.S. government study claims that heavy marijuana use
may impair learning ability. The key words are heavy use and may.
This claim is based on studying people who use marijuana daily--a
sample that represents less than 1 percent of all marijuana
users. This study concluded: 1) Learning impairments cited were
subtle, minimal, and may be temporary. In other
words, there is little evidence that such learning impairments even
exist. 2) Long-term memory was not affected by heavy
marijuana use. 3) Casual marijuana users showed no signs
of impaired learning. 4) Heavy alcohol use was cited as being
more detrimental to the thought and learning process than heavy
marijuana use.
Myth: Marijuana is a significant
cause of emergency room admissions.
Fact: The U.S. government reports that marijuana-related
emergency room episodes are increasing. The government counts an
emergency room admission as a marijuana-related episode if the
word marijuana appears anywhere in the medical record. If a
patient tests positive for marijuana because he/she used marijuana
several days before the incident occurred, if a drunk driver admits
he/she also smoked some marijuana, or if anyone involved in the
incident merely possessed marijuana, the government counts the
emergency room admission as a "marijuana-related
episode." Less than 0.2% of all emergency room
admissions are "marijuana related." This so-called marijuana-causes-emergencies
statistic was carefully crafted by the government to make marijuana
appear dangerous.