War on Drugs | Always Question Authority

Myths about marijuana convince people that alcohol is safer, but science shows pot is the healthier choice.

Alcohol kills approximately 70,000 people per year. Prescription pills, which have helped overdose become the leading cause of accidental death in America, result in more than 20,000 deaths per year. Marijuana has never killed anybody.

1. Marijuana is not a gateway drug.

[T]he truth is that marijuana is not a gateway drug, and the vast majority of people who smoke pot will never move onto harder drugs.

2. Pot smoke is relatively benign and does not cause lung cancer.

Researchers studied the effects of marijuana smoke on lung function, and found that smoking pot does not cause the same irreversible breathing problems as cigarettes.

3. Pot does not cause schizophrenia.

These mental health issues are generally as baseless and misleading as past prohibitionist claims . . . the rates of schizophrenia in society have not increased as marijuana use has become widespread.

4. Driving high is not very dangerous.

A study by the Institute for the Study of Labor, a research center for science, politics, and business in Bonn, Germany, showed that in states where medical marijuana is legal, adults were smoking more marijuana and drinking less alcohol, and the result was a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.

5. Pot does not make you lazy.

The technical name for marijuana-induced laziness is “amotivational syndrome,” and research suggests it has a lot more to do with other factors than with pot. A study on marijuana use and amotivational syndrome shows circumstances unique to a person, or some underlying problem, are more to blame for amotivational syndrome than the drug itself.

6. You get this one for free.

More than 30,000 Americans die every year from the health effects of alcohol. The comparable number for marijuana is zero.

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Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.

. . . Between 1998 and 2008, opiate use increased by more than 34 per cent, even as prison populations swelled and profits for drug traffickers soared.

Many political leaders and public figures acknowledge privately that repressive strategies have only made the drug problem worse. It took 14 years for America’s leaders to repeal Prohibition. After 50 years of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find the courage to speak out.

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