How many of these myths have you heard of?
1. One joint equals a pack of cigarettes.
This hoary old favorite comes back again and again, seemingly impervious to the onslaught of the real world.
Prohibitionists earnestly tell us that smoking just one joint “equals a pack of cigarettes.” Or maybe it’s 16, or maybe just four cigarettes; they seem a little unclear on the exact number.
This fallacious conclusion is derived from a study by Dr. Donald Tashkin in which the UCLA researcher examined airflow resistance in the lungs of tobacco smokers compared to that in the lungs of marijuana smokers. Dr. Tashkin did find that daily pot smokers experience a “mild but significant” increase in airflow resistance in the large airways, greater than that seen in persons smoking 16 cigarettes per day.
But what they don’t tell you is that, ironically, Dr. Tashkin also found – in the largest study ever of its kind – other, more important markers of lung health, in which marijuana smokers did much better than tobacco smokers. In the four years since Dr. Tashkin’s latest study results were announced, I’ve never heard a single anti-marijuana speaker mention this.
They also never seem to have time to mention that Dr. Tashkin’s study unexpectedly found that smoking marijuana – even regularly and heavily! – does not lead to lung cancer.
Dr. Tashkin said these results “were against our expectations.”
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” Dr. Tashkin said. “What we found instead was no assication at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
2. Medical marijuana has been a huge problem in states where it is legalized.
The mass media narrative seems to be “Maybe there are a few patients who need medical marijuana, but legalizing cannabis for medicinal use has led to huge problems in California. Do we really want those here?”
When pressed on exactly what those “huge problems” are, anti-marijuana zealots will usually offer up the “more pot dispensaries than Starbucks in Los Angeles” argument, saying something about dispensary proliferation being “out of control.”
What they don’t mention is that the situation in Los Angeles is entirely due to a lackadaisical city council that took more than two years to draw up an ordinance regulating the dispensaries, thus opening the door to their uncontrolled proliferation.
Neither to they mention that in cities such as San Francisco and Oakland, where city governments have been on top of the developing marijuana dispensary scene for years, there haven’t been any such problems.
Not only do these cities have orderly, well-run, reputable marijuana dispensaries, but in the case of Oakland at least, the city is now reaping millions of tax dollars from the shops – which, in what may be a first for American business, asked to be taxed.
Remember, there are 13 other states besides California that have legalized medical marijuana. Have you heard about nightmare scenarios occurring in those?
States such as New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Maine have set up systems of state-authorized marijuana dispensaries to carry out the will of the voters in giving patients safe and legal access to medical marijuana. The system hasn’t produced major problems, and is working as intended.
The other favorite argument of pot prohibitionists is that marijuana dispensaries are supposed to somehow “attract crime.
This one seems to be particularly near and dear to the hearts of small town police chiefs, as evidenced over and over by their apparently earnest (but completely inaccurate) testimony at city council meetings.
Dispensaries, in fact, have lower crime rates than either banks or liquor stores, according to the Denver Police Department, which certainly should know, since they have 300 of them in town.
The police chief of Los Angeles agrees. “Banks are more likely to get robbed than medical marijuana dispensaries,” L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Daily News.
A look at the facts quickly tells us that all types of crime are, in fact, down in states with marijuana dispensaries.
3. Legalization is a slippery slope. If we legalize pot, what’s next? Cocaine? Heroin? Meth?
The evergreen popularity of this baseless bugaboo is a bit puzzling.
The answer is easy and obvious. While the legalization of marijuana now enjoys majority support, according to recent polls, support drops precipitously for relaxing the laws around any other drugs.
Pot’s closest competitors, ecstasy and cocaine, each have only 8 percent support for legalization. Heroin and meth are even lower at 6 percent each, according to Angus Reid Public Opinion.
Legalizing pot won’t open the floodgates; in fact, the increased visibility of marijuana in American society only serves to highlight the stark differences between cannabis and most other illicit substances.
The American people know the difference between marijuana and hard drugs. Most Americans know someone who uses marijuana without it destroying their life. It’s not hard to see the chasm that separates pot, and its users, from the desperately addicted scenario that goes with substances like heroin and methamphetamine.
4. If we legalize pot, there will be carnage on our highways. Look at what we’re already facing with alcohol. Do we really want MORE impaired drivers?
The simple truth of it is, there are already millions of marijuana smokers using our roads and highways every day.
With estimates of current marijuana users in the United States running between 40 and 100 million, you can bet that if weed really caused wrecks, it would be a national tragedy on the level of drunk driving.
If marijuana resulted in motor impairment anywhere near the level produced by alcohol, those gory findings would have made banner headlines across the land – as has been the case with alcohol.
Many of us have, hopefully in our younger years, discovered on a very personal level that driving under the influence of alcohol is an extremely bad idea. But think about it: How many in your circle of friends have a “I was so high I totaled my car” story?
While I’m not encouraging anyone to take bong hits then rush out onto the freeway, a growing body of evidence indicates that marijuana is, on balance, far less a road hazard than is alcohol.
The tendency for stoners to overcompensate for whatever slight impairment occurs is one reason that marijuana-related car crashes aren’t in the headlines every day.
Even the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which in its understandable quest for respectability is very cautious around the stoned driving issue, grants: “…Emerging scientific research indicates that cannabis actually has far less impact on the psychomotor skills needed for driving than alcohol does, and is seldom a causal factor in automobile accidents.”
5. If we legalize it, everybody and his brother will become a flaming pothead.
Some of the pot prohibitionists have an interesting view of human nature. They think that as humans we are mostly seething cauldrons of pent-up desires just waiting to express themselves, if only legal repercussions weren’t in the way.
Now, I’m willing to grant this may be a reasonably accurate self-assessment for some of these guys, but for the rest of us, it’s just not so, when it comes to the pot laws.
The laws against marijuana been a spectacular failure in preventing its use. Since pot was made illegal more than 70 years ago, its popularity has risen almost every single year – even as the laws against it became more and more draconian in many locales.
The most extensive study ever taken on U.S. marijuana arrests and penalties, released last November, found that marijuana arrests have no impact on usage rates.
Meanwhile, another approach has been tried in places like the Netherlands, which relaxed its pot laws in the 1970s and has since seen teen and overall marijuana use at a level half that of the United States.
Those of us who make marijuana policy reform our work welcome an open, serious debate on the issues surrounding cannabis re-legalization.
All we ask is that in that debate, everyone should at least stick to the facts and not cling to outdated, shop-worn superstitions from the 20th Century.
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thats funny but also for a lot of religious reasons a lot of people wont smoke weed and a lot of people just do it because they think that they are cool because they are breaking the law so maybe if we legalize people wont want to do it as much. and when you are high i think people drive better. it also better than alcohol because weed kinda just mellows you out and alcohol makes you violent
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5 things you know about #marijuana that ARE NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/a8QQXc #pot #weed #420 #legalizemarijuana #NORML
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RT @JOShYlOftY: 5 things you know about #marijuana that ARE NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/a8QQXc #pot #weed #420 #legalizemarijuana #NORML
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As long as we’re really going to tell the truth about pot, lets do it. You should know that I’m totally in favor of legalizing marijuana and I smoked plenty of it myself when I was in high school. Then I got wise and quit. One problem we overlook on the lung damage argument of pot vs cigs is that every single pot smoker I ever met also smokes cigarettes so the argument is mute. Together they are really screwing up your lungs. Talk to my father about his 23 years of emphysema and the agony he lives with every day while waiting to die. He can’t breathe, can’t go anywhere and his inhalers alone cost over $1,000 every month. I listened to his excuses for smoking for years. Cigarettes presently kill 10 times more people in America than AIDS does. Something to think about if you plan to tell the truth. I also have 2 brothers in their late 40′s who have smoked pot their entire lives. One lives in my moms basement and the other in a friends garage. They do nothing, have nothing and don’t care. My little brother asked me to toke up with him last week and I countered with, “How are you gonna pass a drug test and get a job if you’re smoking pot??” He said, “This stuff is so good you won’t care.” Nuff said… I’m not hating on anybody but I’ve seen what happens with my own eyes. Every choice has it’s consequences my friend. Everybody laughs when you point out the risks. My father laughed for a long time too and called me an idiot but I haven’t seen him smile in years. He hates every day of his life. I will still vote yes to legalize pot so you can smoke it legally if you want… and you can spend the rest of your life pretending it’s an intelligent choice. We all know it isn’t.
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“One problem we overlook on the lung damage argument of pot vs cigs is that every single pot smoker I ever met also smokes cigarettes so the argument is mute. ”
Moot, not mute.
It’s not being overlooked, the argument is that the pot does not *add* to the damage caused to the lungs.
“Something to think about if you plan to tell the truth. I also have 2 brothers in their late 40′s who have smoked pot their entire lives. One lives in my moms basement and the other in a friends garage.”
While your anecdotal evidence is totally convincing, *I* know people who smoke pot who are successful business people and teachers. Perhaps the fact that your brothers are failures says more about your brothers than about pot?
Your entire argument is based around your own experiences. Not everyone else will have the same experiences and, additionally, they don’t counter the argument that pot is no more dangerous than regular tobacco.
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To justin pierce… I also used to smoke marijuana almost on a daily basis until I became a parent and realized it was time to make more intelligent decisions and set better examples for my children. But I must argue a couple of points with you. Its been 10 years since my last time smoking pot. First of all… I was an almost daily smoker, NEVER have I had a cigarette! NEVER! Also, I know a few people who are very intelligent, upstanding members of society, who indulge in this extra curricular activity almost daily. One in particular teaches molecular biology at a college! Not every pot head is an insignificant piece of crap (no offense) on the other hand I totally agree with what you are saying mostly. I too voted to legalize marijuana and will continue to do so. Not just marijuana for the stoners but marijuana for medicinal purposes- have you seen the effects of pot on a person with MS? It gives me chills, but also for the legalization of hemp. Check out the facts, hemp is an incredibly “green” crop (no pun intended) but its because of peoples misguided beliefs and untrue theories that we as a country still depend on foreign oil, and continue to destroy forests, continue depleting our o-zone, did you know that if just 6% of the continental US were to grow hemp it would provide for ALL of our national energy needs? NOW there’s some food for thought… So on 4-20 this year I support “going green”
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Both of you bring up great points, I just have one thing to say.
Vaporizer.
It’s true, smoking ANYTHING is bad for you. But you can cook the cannabis into food, or use the almighty vaporizer.
Get’s you high, without the harming effects of lung damage by inhaling a type of smoke.
But I agree, probably about 75% of the weed smokers I know smoke cigs, so there’s not much to do about that. Although I know some people that are ‘no smoke tokers’ (that’s what I call them). It’s awesome though, they get stoned all the time, but can breathe again (most were former cig/weed smokers)
It’s up to the user to make the right decisions. We shall not ban something because certain people choose to use something in an unhealthy method.
Sure I can drink gasoline, but that’s not the healthy way to use it.
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boring,
sing a new song
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I am a marijuana smoker, I work a regular job 8-4 I have a 4 bedroom brick home, and I CARE!!! I pay all my bills on time, but I just enjoy being able to relax and sleep at night and relieve my stress. I own a vaporizer, I DONT SMOKE CIGARETTES and never have. I am 41 years old, and I really wish that people would realize that legalizing marijuana would not mess up this country,but help it. If you’re concerned about people abusing it, look at alcohol and cigarrettes, both legal, both kill more than weed ever has, both lead to severe health problems while weed does not. I think hemp is a very good example of how it would help us, and also to better the environment, which with the oil situation REALLY needs our help right now.
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Regarding smoking cigarettes and Marijuana…Why don’t we make cigarettes illegal? Then we can have a “war on tobacco”. Send the DEA to bust some tobacco smokers,throw them in prison and ruin there lives forever…maybe even shoot a few who resist.
After all, tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, as far as anyone can tell no one has ever died from pot. So why is tobacco (and alcohol) legal while pot remains in the same classification as heroin?
Can you say hypocrisy? Our civilization apparently thrives on it…
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Really, I don’t support the use of Marijuana. Whatever. Different strokes, really. Whenever I tell people about my stance, or just say “yeah, no thanks” when I’m offered a joint, I get all this about “it’s healthier than [insert substance]” and a whole bunch of crap I don’t care about.
Yeah, Pot is healthier than cigarettes, alcohol, and any other drug you can buy illegally. I don’t care about the health effects. Plus, [surprisingly] with no exceptions, every person I know who smoked cigarettes in college or high school does pot (including my brother, and in his youth, my father). The point is moot, because a lot of the people who are willing to smoke cigarettes for the social experience (seriously, that’s the only reason people start anymore,) despite all the health risks are sure as hell willing to smoke pot for the same reason.
Whatever. Not everyone is a burn-out. I know a bunch, but I’m willing to acknowledge that it doesn’t ruin EVERYONE, if the person puts the effort in to make their life meaningful without the herb.
Really, my issue with pot is the effect on the mind. Not that any accidents can occur on the road. Just, I personally never liked the feeling of my body going on auto-pilot sans intelligence. I am disgusted by it, even. People smoke pot to make movies better, to make this or that better: if it wasn’t good without pot, it’s not good at all, and if you think it’s being made better, it is not–your mind is being altered to create non-authentic emotion.
That’s what bothers me: I am very realist person. If something is fake or an illusion, I am not a big fan, especially with euphoria. I could ramble on, but I’m losing interest in it. Long story short, I like the world to be real, with real emotion and no need to alter their minds. I encourage people to find that level of relaxation without the need to alter their brain chemistry, create a false sense of relaxation, and engage the euphoria. Meditation isn’t hard, I mastered it in middle school, which is a common argument I get.
I don’t support medical marijuana, mainly because people are only trying to get it to use it to abuse the system. A prescription is SO easy to get, even if you don’t need it, and most of the people fighting it don’t have cancer! Also, a bunch of people fighting smoke cigarettes; maybe we should be putting more effort into stopping cigarette use, or JUST CURING CANCER instead of legalizing something that really only holds your hand as you die and makes it easier. Marijuana doesn’t cure, it merely slows the process and numbs the pain. I HATE it when people talk about pot as if it’s some miracle cure. I’d rather try to stop the disease!
So fuck it. Smoke your pot. Whatever. It won’t make your lives better, it won’t cure the cancer some people have, but it won’t destroy society either, and (in the cases you’re responsible,) won’t make your life worse (unless the cops catch you). Just leave me out and stop sending me these articles, Stumble Upon.
So can we stop fighting and just agree to disagree?