Marijuana FAQ Part 2: Facts and Fictions

"Our national drug strategies are based on unsubstantiated and insufficient information," charged Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) after reviewing a 1993 G.A.O. report. "It is impossible to determine [from these surveys] whether ... high school student drug use has been decreasing, increasing, or remaining stable."

As President Jimmy Carter acknowledged: "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."

Who smokes marijuana?

Marijuana remains the third most popular recreational drug of choice in the United States (behind tobacco and alcohol) despite 60 years of criminal prohibition. According to government figures, nearly 70 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some time in their lives. Of these, 18 million have smoked marijuana within the last year, and ten million are regular marijuana smokers. The vast majority of these individuals are otherwise law-abiding citizens who work hard, raise families, and contribute to their communities. They are not part of the crime problem and should not be treated as criminals. A recent national survey of voters conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that 34% - one third of the voting adults in the country - acknowledged having smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. Many successful business and professional leaders, including many state and federal elected officials from both political parties, admit they used marijuana. Presumptive presidential potentate Obama Barack just recently had the courage and honesty to admit he used it in his youth. These otherwise law-abiding citizens live in fear of arrest and imprisonment solely because they choose to smoke marijuana for relaxation instead of drinking alcohol. Marijuana prohibition undermines respect for the law in general (since it is so widely disregarded) and extends government interference into inappropriate areas of private life. Millions of Americans use marijuana; few abuse it.

Is smoking marijuana bad for your lungs?

Unlike tobacco smoke, cannabis smoke does not alter the small airways in any way. Small airway damage is where cigarette smoking causes its most long-term and permanent damage. In total, cigarettes are responsible for the deaths of 430,000 Americans each year. A 1976 report by Dr. Tashkin, M.D. of UCLA found that cannabis was more of an irritant than cigarette tobacco in just one of the twenty-nine areas of the human lung under study. In the large air passageway marijuana smoke is fifteen times more irritating than cigarette smoke. Often glossed over is the fact that tobacco causes only minimal disruption to this area; hence the improper statistic that one joint causes lung damage equivalent to several cigarettes. On a hugely ironic note, the US government followed up this finding by limiting cannabis pulmonary studies to only the large air passageway, the very next year. Water pipe technology, such as bongs or vaporizers, has been proven to remove many of the toxins that do occur in marijuana smoke.

A 1997 UCLA School of Medicine study (Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine) conducted on 243 marijuana smokers over an 8-year period reported the following: "Findings from the long-term study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic lung disease." "Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in lung function as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana." The study concluded: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and nonsmoking of marijuana."

Another popular myth often told by prohibitionists is that marijuana smoke causes cancer. There has yet to be a study that conclusively points to this. A federal study left on the shelf for two-and-a-half years showed the main active ingredient in marijuana did not cause cancer when fed in huge doses to laboratory animals over long periods, and may even have protected against malignancies. The 126-page draft study, which undercuts federal officials' contention that marijuana is carcinogenic, has never been published, though a panel of expert reviewers found in June 1994 that its scientific methods and conclusions were sound.

Can smoking marijuana kill you?

Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. It fails to inflict the types of serious health consequences these two legal drugs cause. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 American deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. Even a ubiquitously prescribed drug such as Aspirin causes upwards of 500 deaths per year in the U.S. alone. By comparison, marijuana is non-toxic and cannot cause death by overdose. Despite the fact that tens of millions of Americans smoke pot regularly, there was still not one death attributed to the drug as of 1997. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat than alcohol or tobacco." In May of this year, research findings from a comprehensive, long term study performed by Kaiser Permanente concluded that no link existed between regular marijuana smoking and mortality and emphasized that marijuana prohibition posed the only significant health hazard to the user. The report advocated that "medical guidelines regarding [marijuana's] prudent use be established, akin to the common-sense guidelines that apply to alcohol use."

Is marijuana a "gateway" drug?

There is no conclusive evidence that the effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent use of other illicit drugs. Preliminary animal studies alleging that marijuana "primed" the brain for other drug-taking behavior have not been replicated, nor are they supported by epidemiological human data. Statistically, for every 104 Americans who have tried marijuana, there is only one regular user of cocaine, and less than one user of heroin. Marijuana is clearly an "endpoint" rather than a gateway for the overwhelming majority of marijuana smokers. For those minority of marijuana smokers who do graduate to harder substances, it is marijuana prohibition - which forces users to associate with the illicit drug black market - rather than the use of marijuana itself, that often serves as a doorway to the world of hard drugs. The more users become integrated into an environment where hard drugs can also be obtained, the greater the chances they will experiment with these vastly more dangerous drugs. In Holland, where politicians decided over 25 years ago to separate marijuana from the illicit hard drug market by permitting coffee shops all over the country to sell small amounts of marijuana to adults, individuals use marijuana and other drugs at rates less than half of their American counterparts.

Is marijuana addictive?

There are three physiological components to addiction: pleasure production, tolerance creation, and withdrawal symptoms. While marijuana certainly provokes a pleasurable physical reaction, years of research, while not unanimous, generally has found that the reinforcing properties of marijuana in humans is low in comparison to other drugs of abuse, including alcohol and nicotine. According to the U.S. Institute of Medicine(IOM), fewer than one in 10 marijuana smokers become regular users of the drug, and most voluntarily cease their use after 34 years of age. By comparison, 15 percent of alcohol consumers and 32 percent of tobacco smokers exhibit symptoms of drug dependence.

According to the IOM, observable cannabis withdrawal symptoms are rare and have only been identified under unique patient settings. These remain limited to adolescents in treatment facilities for substance abuse problems, and in a research setting where subjects were given marijuana or THC daily. Compared with the profound physical syndrome of alcohol or heroin withdrawal, marijuana-related withdrawal symptoms are mild and virtually innocuous, indistinguishable from any number of other common maladies. Symptoms may include restlessness, irritability, mild agitation and sleep disruption.

The architects of marijuana prohibition have long maintained that tolerance to cannabis meant the same thing as tolerance to addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin - that users need more and more to get high, driving them to crime and desperation. Now, the federal government's own research indicates that precisely the opposite is true. Science has finally confirmed what many of us already knew: with marijuana tolerance, you have to smoke less to get high. Jon Gettman in the July 1995 issue of High Times explains why the latest findings discredit the government's drug policy. A breakthrough came in 1988 research leading to the discovery of THC-receptor sites in the brain, and the subsequent studies showing why marijuana is not addictive and is not a drug of abuse. The magazine's original table of contents says, "All of marijuana prohibition rests on the premise that marijuana is potentially addictive. But the 1988 discovery of receptors for THC in the human brain is forcing the scientific community to rethink its position and may ultimately lead to cannabis legalization." So far we have yet to reap any significant change in our government's stance towards marijuana, despite the definite conclusions reached by medical science.

Does marijuana make you lazy and unproductive?

The popular conception of the unmotivated stoned slacker originates with the lazy Mexican "borracho" sterotype - many immigrants brought with them their habit of smoking cannabis, but predictably, when racial tensions flared over employment issues, media and politicians seized upon their innocent habit as a method to condemn the entire ethnic group. The prohibitionists claimed that marijuana made people worthless and sluggish. While it is certainly true that smoking does mellow one out and induce a state of relative calm and tranquility, this attitude or personality affectation does not persist after the effects of the marijuana have worn off. In studies, an effect known as the "amotivational symptom" has been observed in some rare instances, but only in early/mid teenage adolescent users - never in adults. This is further proof of the need to properly regulate the marijuana commerce; not to prohibit it to the entire population, but to prevent it from falling into the hands of those too young and immature to safely use it.

Frequently misunderstood is the fact that certain chemicals in marijuana stay in your fat cells for up to a month. The part of marijuana that gets one high is called `Delta-9-TetraHydroCannabinol.' The body will change Delta-9-THC into more inert molecules known as `metabolites,' which do not have the effect of causing a high. Unfortunately, these chemicals contain the much maligned THC word in them - so many people assume that the metabolites get people high. Anti-drug pamphlets say that THC gets stored in your fat cells and then leaks out later. They claim it can keep people high all day or even longer. This is completely untrue, marijuana is psycho-active for a few hours at maximum. A very short time after smoking marijuana, there is almost no Delta-9-THC left over, and scientific studies which measure the effects of marijuana agree with this fact. In reality, marijuana is linked by many to enhanced creativity. Authors such as Lewis Carroll, and jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are all said to have used cannabis for creative stimulation. In the most complete study of "reefer" consumption in its natural setting, Vera Rubin and Lambros Comita confirmed that, aside from marijuana busts, there is no real link between cannabis and crime. They also found that the heavy use of ganja is unlikely to curtail one's motivation to work.

In fact, workers who tested positive for marijuana: 1) cost less in health insurance benefits; 2) had a higher than average rate of promotion; 3) exhibited less absenteeism; and 4) were fired for cause less often than workers who did not test positive. Since marijuana is the most common illicit drug used by adults, and the one detected in up to 90 percent of all "positive" urine tests, this article still has profound implications for current public and employer policies.

Does marijuana kill brain cells?

Another popular falsehood is that marijuana causes permanent brain damage. After multiple Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, mainly by cutting edge periodicals, the government was forced to release the methods it used in its brain damage studies. The main referenced study was poorly performed and a medical review board severely criticized it. Dr. Heath of Tulane University forced a group of Rhesus monkeys to inhale the equivalent of thirty joints per day. He concluded that the monkeys began to atrophy and die after ninety days. Heath then killed off the dying monkeys, then opened their brains counting the dead brain cells, to compare his findings with the control group. Any marijuana knows this borders on the laughable, as no sane human being could contemplate smoking thirty joints in one day. It's important to note Dr. Tashkin considers that smoking sixteen or more "large" blunts in a day could lead to hypoxia, or a condition where the lungs are over saturated with smoke, and become deprived of the oxygen necessary to remain healthy. Meanwhile, a 1981 UCLA study of the Coptic religion in Florida, whose worshipers are some of the heaviest pot smokers in the US, measured absolutely no brain differences between smokers and non-smokers. A very recent study on Rhesus monkeys used technology so sensitive that scientists could actually see the effect of learning on brain cells. No damage was found. In fact, middle age, not marijuana, is more likely to be the cause of memory lapses, found the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, in their Aug. 8, 1994 issue. Alcohol, on the other hand, can easily cause brain damage.