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GETTING IT STRAIGHT:
BOOK DISPELS MARIJUANA MYTHS
by Alexandra Eyle
MARIJUANA MYTHS, MARIJUANA FACTS
A REVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
By Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D., and John P. Morgan, M.D.
Lindesmith Center, 1998
New York
241 pp.
Over the years, marijuana information, some of it true, but much of it not, has been publicized and taken to heart by the public. When talking to children, adults often unwittingly perpetuate mis-information. When children learn that what they’ve been taught about marijuana isn’t necessarily true, they often don’t believe anything else they’re told about drugs. And their teachers and parents lose influence over them.
Lynn Zimmer, a professor of sociology at Queens College, and John P. Morgan, a physician and professor of pharmacology at the City University of New York Medical School, have produced an excellent overview of 30 years of marijuana research that clears up the confusion. Their book, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, is sure to become a useful handbook to anyone wishing to sort out the myths from the reality.
Some common questions that parents and teachers must answer when educating children about marijuana are:
Is today’s marijuana more potent than marijuana smoked in 1960?
2. Is marijuana more damaging to the lungs than tobacco?
3. Is marijuana a gateway drug to heroin and cocaine?
4. Is marijuana an effective medication?
5. Does marijuana kill brain cells?
6. Is marijuana addictive?
If adults are to establish and maintain trust with children, they must answer questions like these accurately. Now, thanks to Zimmer and Morgan, who are leading authorities in drug use, drug abuse, and pharmacology, these questions and more are answered clearly, honestly, and effectively.
The answers may come as a surprise. After reviewing the scientific studies of marijuana, the authors conclude that marijuana’s harms are greatly overstated.
"Our findings," says Morgan, "are consistent with those of every independent blue-ribbon commission that has examined this issue: while no drug is completely risk-free, marijuana has been shown to have an extremely wide margin of safety."
"Concern over marijuana use," explains co-author Zimmer, "particularly by adolescents, has led many people to exaggerate or distort marijuana’s dangers. As citizens and parents, we have the same concerns about drugs as other Americans. Yet we believe strongly that solutions to drug problems need to be based on facts, not fear."
Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Factspresents the scientific facts in language
that is easily understood. The authors begin each chapter with a commonly held belief about marijuana’s dangers, then review the relevant studies. For individuals interested in reading the studies, full documentation is included.
The book is endorsed by leading scientists and physicians, including Richard Bonnie, author of President Nixon’s National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse report, and Louis Lasagna, author of the 1982 Academy of Sciences report on marijuana. It is also endorsed by the physician and radio talk-show host Dean S. Edell, who calls it a "must-read for anyone who wants an objective analysis of current research on marijuana."
It is certainly a must-read for anyone wanting answers to the six common questions listed above. Zimmer and Morgan found that:
Marijuana today is not much stronger than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. A small number of low-THC samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the early 1970s are used to calculate a dramatic increase in potency in an effort to give the impression that today’s marijuana is stronger.
There is no evidence of serious lung damage among marijuana-only smokers. Marijuana can damage lungs, but the primary risk is among high-dose, long-term users, particularly those who also smoke tobacco.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug to heroin or cocaine. Most marijuana users never use another illegal drug, and for every hundred people who try marijuana, only one is a current regular user of cocaine. Most teens who try marijuana never even become regular users of marijuana.
Marijuana has medical uses. It reduces nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy, stimulates appetite in AIDS patients, and reduces intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma. There is evidence that marijuana also reduces muscle spasticity in patients with neurological disorders. Synthetic THC is available by prescription, but for many patients it is not as effective as marijuana that is smoked. Synthetic THC can produce unpleasant psychoactive side effects in some people.
Marijuana does not kill brain cells. In the few hours after smoking marijuana, short-term memory is temporarily impaired. There is no evidence of permanent damage.
Unlike alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, marijuana is not physically addicting and creates no withdrawal symptoms.
For anyone wishing to understand just what marijuana does – and doesn’t do – to the human body, this book is a must. It is also essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how studies and information about marijuana were manipulated to perpetuate myths and mis-information in the first place.
Alexandra Eyle is a member of ReconsiDer and a free-lance journalist based in Syracuse, New York.
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