Researchers have also demonstrated that heavy marijuana use can lead to increased tolerance and withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop. In addition, heavy use can contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular problems as well as impairments in short-term memory. Marijuana may also trigger certain disorders, such as schizophrenia, in vulnerable persons [see “A Mind in Danger,” by Victoria Costello], although researchers continue to debate the evidence on this issue. Finally, because marijuana is still illegal in most states and under federal law, people who possess or sell marijuana may face legal consequences.
On the other hand, marijuana has significant upsides for individuals with certain illnesses. In glaucoma patients, it can reduce the dangerously high eye pressure that can lead to vision loss. In addition, pot can provide relief from chronic pain, reduce nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy, and limit the severe weight loss that results from AIDS and other diseases.
When a person does become addicted, several types of psychotherapy can help him or her kick the habit. One of the more effective types is a form of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) tailored to the addictive mind-set. Using CBT, therapists teach patients practical coping skills that lead to a change in behavior. They also try to modify the thoughts that contribute to a person’s addiction. Two faster treatments are motivational interviewing and the closely related motivational-enhancement therapy. The goal of these methods is to boost a person’s drive to stop or reduce their use of pot.
Unfortunately, relapse rates remain high for all addiction psychotherapies. In a study published in 2003 psychologist Brent A. Moore, now at Yale University, and his colleagues found that 41 percent of successfully treated marijuana addicts had relapsed within six months. Scientists are searching for ways to bring about long-term abstinence more consistently.
The public needs to be aware of the facts about marijuana so that it can dismiss fictions about the drug’s effects. Only by knowing when marijuana presents a real threat and when the risk is minimal can people properly weigh its dangers and benefits in specific situations. Both our health and sound social policy depend on it.
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69 Comments
Add CommentYet the moralists, cops and other idiots continue to press for the status quo. Decriminalize it, ticket users and tax production. Next problem please ...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSure, and then we can register coffee drinkers and alcohol drinkers and ticket them too. You will never solve the drug "problem" because you are dealing with homo sapiens, a very curious bunch, who WILL experiment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou will never institute sanity in an insane world, especially an insane country like United States - therapy is a growth industry when crazy is the rule and the lords are all fools. What you need to legalize is common sense.
Thanks for an excellent article.
Amen for once we hear the truth
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy trade, I am a medical herbalist. I have worked with medical herbs for over 30 years and questions about what do I think about marijuana is usually the first words out of the mouth of people under 30. In my nearly 55 years of dealing with medical plant, marijuana included since it is listed as a medical plant, and people who use it, I have never come across one person who has ever been addicted to it. Marijuana is no more addictive than peppermint or clove, and marijuana is not the cause of people moving on to higher herbs or chemical addictions; that is the persons choice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlavix, a blood thinner given to heart patients can cause fatal bleeding in the stomach, brain, and eyes, yet the allopathy practitioners and the law consider that an acceptable risk. Marijuana has no risky side effects, yet it is against the law to use it. Who can understand these vodka soaked brains of the law makers.
Actually, much of this information isn't all that new, and really no amount of facts will make any difference, as long as we continue to make public policy based on fear (especially the "politically cultivated" kind).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGateway drug: Fast food
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGateway drug: Alcohol
Gateway drug: Nicotine
Now, let's just stop with the other silliness...please.
Alcohol = Giant big $ lobby
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTobacco = Giant big $ lobby
Fast food = Giant big $ lobby
Pot = minuscule tiny $, part time lobby
Beer is a gateway drug and is, in some cases, addictive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNicotine is a gateway drug and is, in some cases, addictive.
Both are legal.
I don't care. I don't do drugs, period.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's amusing how folks look for reasons to justify their drug use. Go ahead and use 'whatever'. I don't care.
I'm proud not to be a positive role model for the grand kids and not have stories about using drugs when I was a long haired freaky hippie. We got our high out of science.
My first hand experience would be the exact opposite of your statement.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a reason that every stoner from the east to west coast uses the word "Jonsin" to describe the 3 days of agitation upon quitting pot. Maybe addiction requires more than the following symptoms upon quitting: Agitation, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and nausea. But to me, if these are the reliable symptoms of cold turkey quitting pot, then the substance is at least a little addictive.
That said, clearly the minor withdrawal period is shorter and effects are less pronounced than that of other addictive substances.
decriminalize, ticket and tax - that should be their slogan.
Just a bit smug and self-satisfied, aren't we there grandpa...?!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a good article that goes over many of the issues surrounding marijuana. I don't think that we are talking about the most important issue though. When people use alcohol, a drug that we have a lot of information about, we have legal guidelines concerning how intoxicated a user is. We have test equipment and police officers trained to use it to keep the public safe from abusers. The problem with marijuana is that it is very difficult to know how intoxicated or affected someone is who smokes pot. The users only have a relative sense of the effects. There is no rating system concerning the potency of the drug and the residual effects can last for days. When a train engineer crashes his locomotive into an oncoming passenger train, will we be able to say how much his use of marijuana two days prior to the accident affected his performance? Until these types of issues are resolved, public sentiment concerning the moral or medical efficacy of the drug is irrelevant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a heavy user of both, I found it much harder to quit coffee than pot, with withdrawal including excessive sweating, terrible headaches and sleeplesness. I miss smoking pot simply because it provides insight, creativity and joy. Using a vaporizer cuts out most if not all of the negative effects of smoking as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile I would like to agree with everything you say in your comment, I am a 55 year old man that has been smoking pot for over 40 years but recently quit. I was quite surprised when after 3 days, I began exhibiting symptoms of a low grade flu, racing thoughts and heart beat,anxiety, hyper active sex drive, etc... Whenm I checked with my physician, he suggested that I google Marijuana withdrawal as he wasn't very familiar with it. I found that most of my symptoms were listed in the many sites I found dedicated to it. My case is most likely an extreme one as I tend to over do things . But your assertion that Marijuana isn't 100% correct.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPot is exactly what you need to getter a better grip on your evident narcissistic and judgemental tendencies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this*get
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have to laugh at this article. "those who were successfully treated relapsed.." How can they be successful if they relapsed? Also the article does not point out the dangers of driving while under the influence of this drug. The logic that just because one harmful substance is legal it also should be is flawed reasoning. It's like reasoning: just because x is then y should be.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHear, hear. Legalize common sense. What a novel idea. Harvard did a study on the 10 most addictive drugs. What were the top 2...even above heroin? Alcohol and nicotine. What was at the bottom of the list? Marijuana. Geez, humans, evolve already! Distractions abound to keep us off track of what is really going on. No wonder so many self medicate in this insane culture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou can can addicted to anything that creates a pleasure response in the brain. I've had lots of clients over the years who were addicted to pot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne thing that I find ALWAYS missing from these drugs studies is the effect of drug/alcohol use/abuse on relationships. I would guess that about half the couples I see for marriage counselings are experiencing adverse impacts of drugs and alcohol on their marriage. Many times the chronic pot user seems to have puer eternis or arrested development and still relates to world like a teenager.
Ive never used pot, or any illegal drug. Not because they are illegal, but because i dont want to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIve tried smoking and its stupid, makes you smell like crap, and tastles like crap, so i dont smoke. Ive tried alochol but it tastles like shit, and makes you stupid, so i dont drink.
While ive never tried pot, it smells like crap, and all the people i have encountered who are obviously high on it, act like fools. That's enough for me to never want to try it.
Do you see a pattern? Drugs make you act stupid, i dont want to act stupid, so i dont use them.
That said, im completely for the legal use of it. Tax and regulate it and stop putting millions of people in jail for nothing more then non violent possession.
Legalize it......Tax it..............sell it like alcohol..... Some one wake up! We lost the war on drugs.....!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLets make Clinics which distribute drugs to those who use! We'd know who is using, give support counseling. This would cut the knees out from under DRUG CRIMES!
To simple right!
This is an honest article, and there are a couple of others out there. But I haven't read anywhere about people with experiences with pot like mine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a 76 year old man who has used pot for about 53 years. I do have dependency issues, but I control my use by freezing my stash (manicured) in a large block of ice. It's a hassle to get at it, so that effectively discourages impulsive use; I end up smoking every couple of weeks or so. This works for me, but it might not for others, of course.
Pot definitely has the potential to stimulate the imagination. Sometimes I have terrific ideas when I write under pot, although proofreading when straight is definitely necessary. I find that my writing can ramble much more under pot than otherwise. I'm sure my spoken thoughts do too.
It's a great party drug, if other people are doing it also. But you've got to be careful with it in social situations where other people are not high. It would be a terrible idea to try to teach a class stoned, for example. You can say really silly things that you don't catch yourself for. Also, you tend to laugh at things you wouldn't find funny straight.
You cannot overdose on pot! If you smoke too much, you get sleepy, you don't die like with alcohol or cocaine. Of course, driving under the influence is dangerous, because it does effect your judgment. It is a harmless drug for home or party use. But it has to be used in moderation, because there are times (a lot of the time) when it's wise to have your mind as sharp as possible.
We're with you. Brains work better on science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe it's the type of person that smokes, that brings out the extra stupid in them.
No, he's just smarter than you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy did you quit?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVaporizer? Right.. and OH18 and the like, not a problem. Are you vacuous?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo poisonous that it kills lung cells before they can become cancer.
Not smart! What about other issues?
All you stoners, are in the with the we don't have a pollution problem to clean up.
As a child with asthma in the thirties I had pot to relieve the symptons, at this time it was still avaiable from chemists with caution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI used to have rather strange delusions that I thought was due to feverishness but know realise they were pot induced but it certainly helped the asthma.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJellyroll shouldn't smoke because his brail doesn't work well enough in critical thinking that he has anny to spare ;^P
I've been smoking for 45 ys now without any problem with no addiction in the many times I've stopped for a while. It helps a lot with creative thinking and is far better for my back pain than taking Vicodan or other actually dangerous drugs.
Pot can be a very excellent medicine with far fewer side effects and you wake up refreshed instead of sedated using other narcotics.
This article misses a huge problem regarding marijuana addiction. Many young people experimenting with this drug unknowingly damage their brains wiring architecture during the crucial building stages. MRI studies seem to confirm that the brain matures at age 25. Drug abuse alters this wiring process during an extremely important period in a person's life. Also unknown is the potential for genetic damage for future generations.... The perception that marijuana is completely harmless is ridiculous. I wish people would do their homework before writing articles like this...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBelieve it or not I know a few people who at the top of everything who smoke pot occasionally. It's not about justifying reasons. The reality is it isn't harmful enough for people to take such a strong position on it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've never heard the term "Jonsin", (actually Jonesin) used in relationship to anything other than regular old tobacco cigarettes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've never seen anyone have "real" symptoms of quitting pot.
If Tetrahydrocannabinol leads to an eternal mindset of youth, then for God's sake let's put it in the water!!! I'll take that any day over the pessimistic state I've turned to in the past 20 years dealing with all the dingbats that insist marijuanna will lead us to the end of mankind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll take puer eternis any day.
I've been an addictions counselor for nearly 40 years and have some experience, both personal and professional, with the effects of psychoactive drugs and behaviors that are capable of creating dependence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn short, some people can become dependent on virtually anything that makes them feel very good (i.e. over stimulates the reward circuit in the brain). Others seem almost imune by nature.
Sometimes this dependence can destroy lives. Sometimes it is more or less benign.
Probably most people who use alcohol and marijuana will not become dependent. We know less about most other drugs.
Every person has a unique reaction to every psychoactive drug and a given person's reaction will change unpredictably suddenly and/or over time. Your experience is unique. It does not reliably predict others' experience.
There is massive misinformation about this subject in the public sphere; among both proponents and opponents of legalization.
Still, I would personally prefer to see us treat these issues as matters of public health rather than in the legal system. Prohibition does not serve us well.
Still, those who harm others as a result of inappropriate drug use (DUI for example) should be criminally liable for their actions.
As it has been pretty well demonstrated that psychoactive drugs can interfere with brain development it might be wise to discourage use by anyone under age 25 or so. I don't know how to accomplish that.
I seriously doubt that we will come to a national agreement or accommodation on how to deal with these problems very soon but we are making progress. I've seen a LOT of shifting of attitudes in the last four decades.
Please, keep pushing for a better way to approach these problems.
You may want to try a little pot. I've read it can lead to capital letters, punctuation, and grammar. And who says there's no medical uses?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as the comments about withdrawal, maybe it exists for the alleged 9% who can form dependence. But neither I nor anyone I have ever known has gone through any form of withdrawal, other than wishing they had some more. No matter what, pot is an incredibly mild form of intoxicant. And unless you are against any form of intoxicant, be it pot or alcohol or tobacco or caffeine or sugar or whatever, there's no reason to criminalize or even regulate it. Regulate dangerous behaviors like driving under the influence, but not the actual use.
Alcohol, cocaine, the opioids and most of the rest leave the body within 72 hours, more or less, after use. The addict's body then goes into withdrawal. Acute detox treatment frequently includes the use of the same or a similar drug whose dose is slowly lowered in order to minimize the effects of withdrawal. Methadone for heroin, diazepams for alcohol might be used.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTHC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is readily absorbed by the fatty tissue of the body and is released slowly over several days or weeks. It provides its own "withdrawal treatment". So the heavy user may not appear to suffer from withdrawal. That's because the slow release THC masks the effects.
Like geojellyroll (#9), I don't do drugs--but that's no reason not to care because we all are affected by other peoples' drug use. In particular, alcohol makes some users aggressive and violent, while marijuana has the opposite effect, and alcohol severely impairs driving ability, while marijuana does so to a much lesser extent [see British Medical Journal article from Dec 2005 (I think)]. And I used to be bothered terribly by tobacco smoke but we solved that problem by prohibiting smoking in public areas, not by criminalizing tobacco use generally.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think marijuana can be considered a 'gateway drug' primarily because of the means by which you have to obtain it. If it was in a 7-11 or Wawa there would be no other narcotic alternatives, but because you have to 'deal' with a situation in which exposure to harder narcotics increases dramatically.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAddictive? That really is a stretch. Pot may be habit forming and a very small number of people may form a psychological dependency on it, but it's not in any way addictive in the sense that opiates or nicotine are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm always open to new information and evidence, but don't see it in this assertion. Not everyone who tries heroin will become addicted to it, but everyone who uses it long enough will become so because it IS physically addictive. That's a very different thing from a habit or psychological dependence.
Tell that to Carl Sagan, Steve Jobs, Louis Armstrong and reams of others who used it with regularity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThose people really behaved stupidly and like fools, didn't they?
Don't just decriminalize, LEAGALIZE! There's a reason that a majority of intelligent people use pot. Some people can't handle it so should we ticket and tax them due to their incapacity?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's incorrect to assume that marijuana use increases the likelihood of dangerous driving. One of the largest studies was done in Great Britain in conjunction with a proposal to criminalize driving while under the influence of pot. To their amazement they discovered that experienced pot users were safer drivers than those who had consumed no drugs or alcohol. Users demonstrated an exemplary amount of caution, most absent in the drinkers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgain, as an addictions counselor I worked with a number of people whose drug use was limited to marijuana and who suffered many of the same resulting problems that alcoholics do; loss of jobs, marriages, a stable life, etc. Granted, the percent of marijuana users who develop these serious problems may be relatively small but if it's you it's 100%.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my longer that average lifetime I've heard every definition of alcoholic that includes everybody with the problem except the author of the definition. Likewise, everyone that uses pot professes the benefits to society attributable to this noxious weed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMontana fell for the "medicine" BS and in 2-3 years we discovered we had 36,000 young people with chronic & severe pain, "doctors" with stacks of signed, blank prescription forms for the weed and "providers" on every main street in every little town in the state.
I can't say for sure if it is addictive but the symptoms of it's use seem consistent; unemployed, listless, pants worn around their butts with pantlegs on the street. Often seen in groups carrying six-paks down the street to another victim's (of chronic pain) place of residence early in the afternoon. The malady also seems to be highly contagious to others in the community.
So, addictive or not, I see little redeeming value to this herb or to its effect on its users. In my younger day a judge would give these young people the choice of incarceration or enlistment in the military and they would come back as productive, patriotic Americans. That was one beneficial aspect of universal military service that most pot users need but will never get to experience in this era.
As a chemical engineering major I found marijuana to be very helpful when dealing with stress. Most days my school work doesn't end until 9pm (if I'm lucky) by this time I am completely stressed out and mentally drained. I look forward to taking a few hits of pot before I hit the pillow. Have my grades declined...NO. My GPA is still well above average. Whats wrong with this? Am I harming anyone? To be honest I can attribute some of my higher test scores to marijuana because I was able to get a good nights sleep before the test without suffering from a hangover or the side effects of diphenhydramine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have to add the third page to this article for approved comments. If you read comments; Asthma is immune system; but it certainly helped the asthma.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany young people experimenting with this drug unknowingly damage their brains wiring architecture during the crucial building stages. MRI studies seem to confirm that the brain matures at age 25.As it has been pretty well demonstrated that psychoactive drugs can interfere with brain development it might be wise to discourage use by anyone under age 25 or so. I think even brain vulnerable for older ages.
It is like spectroscopy, a very large science. It is even like pharmacy, needs case study.
THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is readily absorbed by the fatty tissue of the body and is released slowly over several days or weeks. It provides its own "withdrawal treatment". So the heavy user may not appear to suffer from withdrawal. That's because the slow release THC masks the effects.
Our leaders represent not us but only money, in fact they worship it. The reason marijuana is not legal is that anyone can grow it for free as opposed to a huge pharma company obtaining a patent and manufacturing the drug for immense profit. Additionally marijuana's cousin hemp which contains little to no THC and which used to be an extremely valuable crop used for many products has been made illegal in this country because the oil companies have been using oil by-products as a substitute for hemp products and don't want hemp farmers to compete with them. Finally, law enforcement and private prison companies are making a fortune by arresting and imprisoning pot smoker and dealers. How many trillions in tax payer dollars have we spent on the war on drugs? Prohibition was finally ended when intelligent people acknowledged some of the exact same facts mentioned above regarding this drug and we as a country realized instead of spending money trying to keep people from trying to do something they're going to do anyway. We should tax people for that privilege and allow farmers to profit off an exceptional cash crop.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom this article:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Marijuana use will undoubtedly grow in the near future because 16 states have already legalized it for medical use, and many more are considering legislation that would make it legal."
Just thought I'd note that this is a bald assertion. Legalization and the end of medical prohibition don't necessarily increase usage. In fact, they might even lead to the opposite. In Nordic countries that went the legalisation route, they found that over time the general supply of previously illicit narcotics like heroine decreased and with it the usage rates.
They have found the same in Portugal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been a heavy pot user for most of the past 35 years. Since the age of 7 or 8, I would read until 2 or 3 a.m., unable to sleep. Since discovering pot, I can actually get a good night's sleep. For this insomniac it is a Godsend.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for addiction, for 2 or 3 days after I have run out, I can be slightly agitated.
The article fails to mention studies showing pot shrinks tumors and can fight cancer (a rather huge upside in my opinion). It also fails to mention another study (published years ago in Sci Am) that pot users tend to be slightly better employees than those who are not.
It is far past time to put an end to the war drugs; it has resulted in more Americans rotting in jail than in any other country, as a percent of the population and in raw numbers, and given police an excuse to hyper-militarize. All those resources could and should be put to much better use. It was a bad idea when Nixon came up with it, and it is a bad idea today. Legalize and tax.
Some might say I, like many others, am addicted to sugar. I don't actually see the harm it does, but people say it's bad and I still use it, therefore it must be an addiction. Where's the line between addiction and enjoyment?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course pot is a "gateway" drug. If one tries it with no noticeable bad effects, maybe other illegal drugs are okay too.
Excuse me, but isn't tobacco the first gateway "drug"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisre: "gateway drugs" - the law may be the most significant factor. Recreational use of marijuana ushers one into the underground world of illicit drugs and dealers, and into contact with other drugs and users.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt was known that the people having a drive or curiosity for taking hallucinogenic drugs is just the type of personality more probably suffering from bad effects of this kind of drugs. It was proposed also that those "Prone to schyzophrenia" should never use Cannabis -Marihuana - products. Now the people at highest danger when using cannabis has got a DSM name: "Subclinical psychosis or schyzophrenia".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually I heard that the "legalize pot lobby" is substancial and has held several large national meetings to get organized but every time they get together they sort of get side tracked and can't remember, or don't really care why they are there. Then they send out for something to eat.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, i understand that they have collected millions of signatures on petitions demanding the legalization of pot but that they forgot where they put them.
Cannabis indeed treats the listed problems but it also treats more common problems (depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, OCD & autism too) with higher efficacy than many synthetic & more easily market-controlled alternatives. It also has some anti-cancer properties & neuronal protective qualities, so it is a health product (the non-drug uses of cannabis are also phenomenal; food, industrial products etc.).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe media hype around Cannabis being a gentle safe drug which millions of people enjoy with no harm are deluded. I work on a drug line and was dependent on Cannabis for 20 years therefore I am able to see both sides. Studies canvassing opinion on whether or not Cannabis is addictive are flawed. People who regularly use Cannabis do not think they are dependent on it and think it is perfectly normal to search for days for it when their regular supply runs dry and spend all their time thinking they cannot relax without it. The difference between addiction and dependence is one is physical and the other is psychological. Cannabis masks problems, stops you thinking and creates a bubble which suspends time. Regular smokers are different from recreational users in the sense that recreational users will smoke it sometimes but are not bothered whether they have any. Regular users believe they cannot sleep, relax or function without and will get into debt, avoid paying bills, stop being a fully functional partner in a relationship and may become withdrawn prefering instead to be "stoned". This is a hallucinogenic drug with over 150 different varieties all with different effects. People, especially young people need to be educated properly in the differing effects of Cannabis rather than continually being fed this media driven hype that Cannabis is a gentle relaxing experience for all. Some people have immediate adverse reactions which can spark panic attacks and agitation lasting weeks. There is no doubting there are millions of recreational drug users who do not at any time become addicted, they are experienced and know how a drug affects them adversely or not. However there is a fear if we educate young people on the effects of drugs they will ruch out and try them all. Instead we have them trying things based on stupid media portrayal or what there friends say, this is not informed choice and that is dangerous. There is also no long term studies on the effect on the young developing brain. Most Cannabis users I have spoken to ( rate of 50 - 60 a week) have started around 13 - 15 years old so are we advocating without knowledge that this is a preferable. Finally Alcohol is legal and look at the problems it causes do we really need to add more substances....... legal to young people means safe. So if we want to see a rapid increase in drug use lets legalise them all but the question is who is going to clear up the mess? So lets get off our high horse about Cannabis and start being more honest.......
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot true
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGeojellyroll, maybe you should try some pot as it might make you smarter by making you question things more instead of you normal blasts of misinformation.
Pot especially one breed for it can make one very creative and look more deeply into things, something you can obviously use.
It's also the least dangerous drug as if I don't have it I have to take Vicodin which is a far more deadly drug for bone pain and effects wear off needing an ver increasing doses. About the best for improving the life of muscle cramps, etc problems at least bad side effects.
But it's people like you who never want anyone to feel better or grow to new things that make this world a harder place to live.
Of course pot is a gateway drug, as long as it's illegal. If you try it and you don't see any harm, then you figure that others may be okay also.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd of course it's addictive. In fact anything that I like is addictive, and yes, I sometimes give up other things to have it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery good article - thanks!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegarding the gateway drug issue (users of more dangerous illegal drugs often used marijuana first), at least in the past virtually anyone buying marijuana purchased it from someone who was trading in illegal drugs for profit and often did not limit themselves to marijuana. In this way marijuana purchasers were often offered more dangerous drugs. Fortunately, the legal sales of (medical) marijuana eliminates this exposure.
Of course marijuana is a "gateway drug" because it's illegal and sold by dealers who also sell other illegal and more dangerous drugs. How many times do you go to the store and impulsively buy something not on your list? I can't believe how often this "gateway" argument keeps appearing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo many people have little motivation when they use marijuana. Addicted or not, their lives are stuck. And some people really do have a high risk of sparking a permanent psychotic process when using it. There are numerous well done studies on this, many from Scandinavia. All people lose some hippocampal (memory) cells when they use. While I think legalization would undercut a dangerous black market, marijuana use still carries significant risks and it is important that people know about these risks and that we continue to study them whether or not society decides to decriminalize it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou just have to be sure you have your flashers on while driving 5 mph in a 55 mph zone. :-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFunniest thing I've read in a while! Thanks for the chuckle. Now, what was I commenting on?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut how many more use it as a gateway drug and go on to use other more harmful, addictive drugs?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBlaming marijuana for arrested development shows a lack of understanding of the medical effects of cannabis. If you want to know more about the medical use of marijuana go to http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/index_se_cmu.htm
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany emotional and psychiatric conditions are effectively treated with marijuana.
Perhaps, if the "reefer madness" were to subside we could begin to answer these questions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCorrelation does not mean causation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this