
Subject: MARIJUANA MYTHS
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                        MARIJUANA MYTHS - Pt.1
                         by Paul Hager
          Hoosier Cannabis Relegalization Coalition


  1. Marijuana causes brain damage

   The most celebrated study that claims to show brain damage is the rhesus 
monkey study of Dr. Robert Heath, done in the late 1970s. This study was 
reviewed by a distinguished panel of scientists sponsored by the Institute 
of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Their results were 
published under the title, Marijuana and Health in 1982. Heath's work was 
sharply criticized for its insufficient sample size (only four monkeys), its 
failure to control experimental bias, and the misidentification of normal 
monkey brain structure as "damaged". Actual studies of human populations of 
marijuana users have shown no evidence of brain damage. For example, two 
studies from 1977, published in the Journal of the American Medical 
Association (JAMA) showed no evidence of brain damage in heavy users of 
marijuana. That same year, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially 
came out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. That's not the sort of thing 
you'd expect if the AMA thought marijuana damaged the brain.

  2. Marijuana damages the reproductive system

   This claim is based chiefly on the work of Dr. Gabriel Nahas, who 
experimented with tissue (cells) isolated in petri dishes, and with 
researchers who dosed animals with near-lethal amounts of cannabinoids 
(i.e., the intoxicating part of marijuana). Nahas' generalizations from his 
petri dishes to human beings have been rejected by the scientific community 
as being invalid. In the case of the animal experiments, the animals that 
survived their ordeal returned to normal within 30 days of the end of the 
experiment. Studies of actual human populations have failed to demonstrate 
that marijuana adversely affects the reproductive system.

  3. Marijuana is a "gateway" drug -- it leads to hard drugs

   This is one of the more persistent myths. A real world example of what 
happens when marijuana is readily available can be found in Holland. The 
Dutch functionally decriminalized marijuana in the 1970s. Since then, hard 
drug use -- heroin and cocaine -- have DECLINED substantially. Even use of 
marijuana has declined. If marijuana really were a gateway drug, one would 
have expected use of hard drugs to have gone up. Actual studies of hard drug 
"addicts" reveal that they start with alcohol or tobacco more frequently 
than marijuana.

  4. Marijuana suppresses the immune system

   Like the studies claiming to show damage to the reproductive system, this 
myth is based on studies where animals were givenextremely high dos es of 
cannabinoids. These results have never been duplicated in human beings. 
Interestingly, two studies done in 1978 and one done in 1988 showed that 
hashish and marijuana may have actually stimulated the immune system in the 
people studied.

  5. Marijuana is much more dangerous than tobacco

   Smoked marijuana contains more carcinogens than does an equivalent amount 
of tobacco (1.5 to 3 times). Marijuana, however, unlike tobacco, actually 
dilates (enlarges) the air passages in the lungs which promotes 
self-cleaning. This is one reason why cannabis has been found useful in the 
past in treating asthmatics. It should be remembered that a heavy tobacco 
smoker consumes much more tobacco than a heavy marijuana smoker consumes 
marijuana. Two other factors are important. The first is that paraphernalia 
laws directed against marijuana users make it difficult to smoke safely. 
These laws make water pipes and bongs, which filter some of the carcinogens 
out of the smoke, illegal and, hence, unavailable. The second is that, if 
marijuana were legal, it would be more economical to have cannabis drinks 
like bhang (a traditional drink in the Middle East) or tea which are totally 
non-carcinogenic. This is in stark contrast with "smokeless" tobacco 
products like snuff which can cause cancer of the mouth and throat. Nicotine 
itself is very toxic in even small quantities. In contrast, the cannabinoids 
are relatively non-toxic. When all of these facts are taken together, it can 
be clearly seen that the reverse is true: marijuana is much SAFER than 
tobacco.

  6. Legal marijuana would cause carnage on the highways

   Although marijuana, when used to intoxication, does impair performance in 
a manner similar to alcohol, actual studies of the effect of marijuana on 
the automobile accident rate suggest that it poses LESS of a hazard than 
alcohol. When a random sample of fatal accident victims was studied, it was 
initially found that marijuana was associated with RELATIVELY as many 
accidents as alcohol. In other words, the number of accident victims 
intoxicated on marijuana relative to the number of marijuana users in 
society gave a ratio similar to that for accident victims intoxicated on 
alcohol relative to the total number of alcohol users. However, a closer 
examination of the victims revealed that around 85% of the people 
intoxicated on marijuana WERE ALSO INTOXICATED ON ALCOHOL. For people only 
intoxicated on marijuana, the rate was much lower than for alcohol alone. 
This would suggest that legal marijuana would not pose as serious a hazard 
as legal alcohol.

   NOTE: We of the HCRC believe that DUI laws pertaining to driving under 
the influence of alcohol should apply to driving under the influence of 
marijuana. We believe in the RESPONSIBLE USE of marijuana, NOT IRRESPONSIBLE 
ABUSE.

  7. Marijuana "flattens" human brainwaves

   This is an out-and-out lie perpetrated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free 
America. A few years ago, they ran a TV ad that purported to show, first, a 
normal human brainwave, and second, a flat brainwave from a 14-year-old "on 
marijuana". When researchers called up the TV networks to complain about 
this commercial, the Partnership had to pull it from the air. It seems that 
the Partnership faked the flat "marijuana brainwave". In reality, marijuana 
has the effect of slightly INCREASING alpha wave activity. Alpha waves are 
associated with meditative and relaxed states which are, in turn, often 
associated with human creativity.

  8. Marijuana impairs short-term memory

   This is true but misleading. When one is intoxicated on alcohol, one's 
motor control is affected. When one is intoxicated on marijuana, one's 
concentration is affected. Any impairment of short-term memory disappears 
when one is no longer intoxicated. Often, the short-term memory effect is 
paired with a reference to Dr. Heath's poor rhesus monkeys to imply that the 
condition is permanent.

  9. Marijuana lingers in the body like DDT

   This is also true but misleading. Cannabinoids are fat soluble as are 
innumerable nutrients and, yes, some poisons like DDT. For example, the 
essential nutrient, Vitamin A, is fat soluble but one never hears people who 
favor marijuana prohibition making this comparison.

  10. There are over a thousand chemicals in marijuana smoke

   Again, true but misleading. The 31 August 1990 issue of the magazine 
Science notes that of the over 800 volatile chemicals present in roasted 
COFFEE, only 21 have actually been tested on animals and 16 of these cause 
cancer in rodents. Yet, coffee remains legal and is generally considered 
fairly safe.

  11. No one has ever died of a marijuana overdose

   This is true. It was put in to see if you are paying attention. Animal 
tests have revealed that extremely high doses of cannabinoids are needed to 
have lethal effect. This has led scientists to conclude that the ratio of 
the amount of cannabinoids necessary to get a person intoxicated (i.e., 
stoned) relative to the amount necessary to kill them is 1 to 40,000. In 
other words, to overdose, you would have to consume 40,000 times as much 
marijuana as you needed to get stoned. In contrast, the ratio for alcohol 
varies between 1 to 4 and 1 to 10. It is easy to see how upwards of 5000 
people die from alcohol overdoses every year and no one EVER dies of 
marijuana overdoses.

  Check us out

   We believe that the truth is our strongest weapon. To date, the 
prohibitionists have refused to meet us in public debate: they fear the 
truth and know that they stand to lose in any direct confrontation. They 
cower behind a wall of myths, lies, and half truths. In the battles that lie 
ahead we will try to flush the prohibitionists into the open. In order to be 
successful in this goal, we will need to batter down the myths and lies by 
giving our message the widest possible distribution. 

   Check us out. Listen to our Truth Squad, check our sources, and ask us 
the tough questions. Examine our claims with a skeptical, but open, mind. We 
feel that after looking at the facts you will find it very hard to side with 
the prohibitionists ever again.

   We're looking for allies, declared or undeclared. Getting the message out 
costs money. Our opponents dispose of literally hundreds-of-millions of 
dollars. If you'd like to quietly donate to the cause, send your 
contributions to the Hoosier Cannabis Relegalization Coalition at P.O. Box 
5325, Bloomington, IN. If you'd like to help in a more direct way contact 
me, Paul Hager, at (812) 333-1384. Our meetings are open to the public and 
we welcome new members. Contact us for more information.

  Sources

  1) Marijuana and Health, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of 
Sciences, 1982. Note: the Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior 
of the "Marijuana and Health" study had its part of the final report 
suppressed when it reviewed the evidence and recommended that possession of 
small amounts of marijuana should no longer be a crime (TIME magazine, July 
19, 1982). The two JAMA studies are: Co, B.T., Goodwin, D.W., Gado, M., 
Mikhael, M., and Hill, S.Y.: "Absence of cerebral atrophy in chronic 
cannabis users", JAMA, 237:1229-1230, 1977; and, Kuehnle, J., Mendelson, 
J.H., Davis, K.R., and New, P.F.J.: "Computed tomographic examination of 
heavy marijuana smokers", JAMA, 237:1231- 1232, 1977.

  2) See Marijuana and Health, ibid., for information on this research. See 
also, Marijuana Reconsidered (1978) by Dr. Lester Grinspoon.

  3) See "A Comparison of Marijuana Users and Non-users" by Norman Zinberg 
and Andrew Weil (1971). This showed a negative correlation between use of 
marijuana and use of alcohol. A recent article about the Dutch experience is 
written up in "The Economics of Legalizing Drugs", by Richard J. Dennis, The 
Atlantic Monthly, Vol 266, No. 5, Nov 1990, p. 130.

  4) See a review of studies and their methodology in "Marijuana and 
Immunity", Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol 20(1), Jan-Mar 1988. Studies 
showing stimulation of the immune system: Kaklamani, et al., "Hashish 
smoking and T- lymphocytes", 1978; Kalofoutis et al., "The significance of 
lymphocyte lipid changes after smoking hashish", 1978. The 1988 study: 
Wallace, J.M., Tashkin, D.P., Oishi, J.S., Barbers, R.G., "Peripheral Blood 
Lymphocyte Subpopulations and Mitogen Responsiveness in Tobacco and 
Marijuana Smokers", 1988, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, ibid.

  5) For current information on cannabis drinks see Working Men and Ganja: 
Marijuana Use in Rural Jamaica by M. C. Dreher, Institute for the Study of 
Human Issues, 1982, ISBN 0-89727- 025-8. For information on cannabis and 
actual cancer risk, see Marijuana and Health, ibid.

  6) For a survey of studies relating to cannabis and highway accidents see 
"Marijuana, Driving and Accident Safety", by Dale Gieringer, Journal of 
Psychoactive Drugs, ibid.

  7) For information about the Partnership ad, see Jack Herer's book, The 
Emperor Wears No Clothes, 1990, p. 74. For information on memory and the 
alpha brainwave enhancement effect, see "Marijuana, Memory, and Perception", 
by R. L. Dornbush, M.D., M. Fink, M.D., and A. M. Freedman, M.D., presented 
at the 124th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, May 
3-7, 1971.

  8) See Marijuana and Health, ibid.

  9) The fat solubility of cannabinoids and certain vitamins is well known. 
See Marijuana and Health, ibid. For some information on vitamin A, see "The 
A Team" in Scientific American, Vol 264, No. 2, February 1991, p. 16.

  10) See "Too Many Rodent Carcinogens: Mitogenesis Increases Mutagenesis", 
Bruce N. Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold, Science, Vol 249, 31 August 1990, p. 
971.

  11) Cannabis and alcohol toxicity is compared in Marijuana Reconsidered, 
ibid., p. 227. Yearly alcohol overdoses was taken from "Drug Prohibition in 
the United States: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives" by Ethan A. 
Nadelmann, Science, Vol 245, 1 September 1989, p. 943.

  -- paul hager hagerp@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu

  "The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason." -- 
Thomas Paine, _The Age of Reason_

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