Myths about Marijuana

The most common myth is that "Marijuana Leads to Harder Drugs." Critics say the medical marijuana movement promotes drug abuse and criminal behavior by ushering young people into what one judge has called "the kindergarten of the drug industry". They call Pot the "gateway drug" and say that once you do Pot that you will need to move on to harder drugs like LSD, Heroine, and Cocaine to get the same "thrill". Sounds good, but it just isn't so.

Marijuana does not lead to harder drugs!

Actually, if there is anything that's a gateway drug, it's nicotine. Tobacco is the first drug that kids use. It's illegal for kids and, unlike Pot, it's addictive. Once a kid is hooked on nicotine they have joined the ranks of drug addicts. As an addict already it's easier for them to move on to other addictive drugs like Alcohol, Cocaine, Crack, Meth, and Heroine.

Marijuana on the other hand is the choice of the responsible drug user. A person who wants to get high on something that isn't addictive and doesn't have any long term health effects for the moderate user would likely choose to smoke Pot. This is the drug of choice for those who don't want to be on the path of drug addiction.

Another common myth is, "there is no official proof to back the contention that marijuana can help ease symptoms of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other serious diseases." But the reason there is no proof is that the government is actively avoiding the funding of medical research into medical uses of Marijuana because they are afraid that they will indeed discover what doctors already know and it would undermine the laws criminalizing Marijuana and lead to legalization. If you want to read something amusing, read the study from National Institute of Health. Here's pages and pages documenting the results of doing nothing to research the medical benefits of smoking Pot. I've never seen such a long paper documenting what the government hasn't investigated or tested. If the government weren't afraid of legalizing Pot they would test it. The fact that the government won't do medical tests on Pot proves that they don't want to know the truth.

What's more outrageous is the claims that the government makes about Marijuana when they refuse to make any medical or scientific tests. They claim that smoked Marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs and immune system, but they don't know that. There have been some tests done indicating that Marijuana can cause lung cancer, even more so than cigarettes. But those test don't take into account that the usage isn't 100th as much as cigarette smokers. If the government wants to make medical claims about Pot they should test it and look at the scientific data. I challenge the government to do the research and then we'll talk about reality.