Five myths about cannabis that just don't seem to go away

"The actual experience of the smoked herb has been clouded by a fog of dirty language perpetrated by a crowd of fakers who have not had the experience and yet insist on downgrading it" Allen Ginsberg.
The above is a quote dating from 1965. They were right on the money back then and unfortunately they hold true nearly half a century on.

“The actual experience of the smoked herb has been clouded by a fog of dirty language perpetrated by a crowd of fakers who have not had the experience and yet insist on downgrading it” Allen Ginsberg.

The above is a quote dating from 1965. They were right on the money back then and unfortunately they hold true nearly half a century on.

Over the past four or five years, we have seen a sharp increase of publications in the scientific and medical journals presenting the results of research that seem to generally concur on one particular point regarding cannabis. What the point isn’t is that cannabis is a wholly benevolent substance that will make users better people and the world in general a better place (hold your horses on that one, bro’!); however, the point is that cannabis, far from “not having a currently accepted medical use in treatment” is increasingly being regarded as a potential wonder drug, effective in treating a whole range of health issues, physical and mental, some obvious but many less so. 

Naturally, there is the usual opposition to all of this from the usual sources, and in order to give some sort of credibility to their objections, they trot out the usual range of – frankly - old hat nonsense we’ve all heard many, many times over the years (actually, some of this stuff is getting on for 100 years old and is still being touted as “a reason not to...” in spite of being of questionable veracity the first time around). 

But here’s the thing: so much of this daft claptrap is swallowed wholesale by so many different people. For instance, we have the constantly fearful parental groups, and to a degree it’s understandable that they take the view that they do. However, what’s less clear is why parents who were themselves stoners back in the mists of time think that these very myths that didn’t apply to them do, for some mysterious reason, apply to their progeny. Dope really hasn’t changed all that much (synthetic cannabinoids aside). And then of course there are that big chunk of the anti dope population who have never done it themselves and are just gullible, susceptible to misinformation or simply stupid (you decide which it is).

And so, for your amusement and edification, we would like to present five of the most prevailing, “refusing to die or go away” myths about cannabis. It’s difficult to put these in a specific order as they’re all equally ridiculous.

Let’s start off with the hoary old chestnut of “Cannabis Amotivational Syndrome”. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with it, the idea goes something like this: smoking weed makes you disinclined to do anything very much, certainly nothing productive. It makes you lazy. If you’ve got a job, you lose it and if you don’t have a job you can’t be bothered going to find one. Short term result is that your fecklessness means your dependents go hungry. Longer term result is that the economic fabric of society falls into a state of entropy and all because of indolent stoners. 

What is known is that this myth has been so pervasive that it now provides an inbuilt excuse for tokers to not do things. It justifies it, if you like. It’s just a stereotype, but it’s one that lazy people will use to excuse their laziness. However the fact is that motivated people will “do stuff” whether they’ve smoked weed or not, but the best idea is probably to treat weed the same as one would alcohol in this respect, and wait until everything that needs to be done has been done. It’s not rocket science.

“Cannabis causes cognitive impairment”. This translates to cannabis affects the memory and longer term use affects the intelligence. So dope makes you stupid. 

Now, as any regular reader of Soft Secrets will be aware, I’ve written quite a lot in recent years about research looking at the effects of cannabis on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and so on. It seems as though cannabis might be a protector against the onset of this disease, so from a medical point of view, cannabis can prevent cognitive impairment.

There have been a number of studies indicating that smoking weed at an early age results in a drop in IQ, and that this loss is never regained. There was a study carried out recently in New Zealand that indicated this might be the case. However, even the researchers on this study pointed out that this is just an association, and as such should not be assumed to be the cause as there are too many other factors (known and unknown) at play to be able to point the finger at weed.

There is probably a case to be made for cannabis making the not-so-intelligent even less intelligent, and there is a better case to be made for people blaming their cannabis use for their general lack of intelligence. Perhaps they spent too much time getting caned when they should have been paying attention at school. And that is the bottom line here: try to stay away from dope (and other psychoactives) until you’re into your late teens as there really are more important things to be doing.

“Cannabis use is completely safe” and “Cannabis use causes cancer” I’m giving you two for the price of one here, readers, as both of these belong in the same ball park and both are – so to speak – polar opposites of the same basic myth.

The fact is that cannabis is not completely safe and only an idiot would believe otherwise. At a most obvious level, it’s an intoxicant and therefore when you’re under the influence your judgement will be impaired to an extent and so you really shouldn’t do things like drive, fart about with guns, all the obvious stuff. 

However, the flip side of the above is that even hard core tokers tend to smoke less weed than tobacco smokers smoke cigarettes.  The waters are muddied somewhat by research that indicates that weed alone may inhibit the growth of tumours.

However, we’re quite aware that the British Lung Foundation have recently warned that the UK public seriously underestimates and are seriously ignorant of the effects of smoking cannabis. However, what’s often ignored is that in the UK there is still this ingrained cultural habit of smoking dope mixed with tobacco, and this is the real problem. The risks that exist involve smoking and let’s face it, there are other ways to enjoy dope. If you must smoke, give up the fags and just smoke weed, people. Or at least keep them separate.

“Cannabis prohibition is an effective policy in the War Against Drugs” 

We don’t really know what to say about this one. It’s just such an obvious and absurd lie. My granny could have scored weed these days if she’d wanted to. Just as many people smoke dope now as thirty years ago; more if we consider the proliferation of “legal” synthetic cannabinoids currently flooding the market. It’s become an uber commodity, worth gazillions, and precisely because it’s illegal there are no rules around who can buy it: all that’s needed is the money.

This may seem perverse to some, but a great way to limit the sale of weed to minors (and that’s what this bullshit is really all about) is to legalise and strictly regulate. Focus on busting unscrupulous vendors who sell to kids. 

The fact of the matter is that prohibition didn’t work 100 years ago, it didn’t work 50 years ago and damn tootin’ it doesn’t work now.

And lastly, there’s the granddaddy of them all; yes, let’s hear it for “The Gateway Theory”. Really, this one is as old as the hills. There cannot be anyone out there unfamiliar with this, but just in case: when one has one’s first toke of weed, the effects are so pleasurable that this hedonistic gateway blasts open rendering the hapless user completely open to the effects of all of the other pleasures in the garden of illicit chemical delights. One day you’re smoking a joint, next thing you know you’re living in a burned out car and doing hand jobs so you can buy heroin. 

Okay. We have to concede at this point that it’s highly likely that people who use heroin have almost certainly used cannabis in the past. But honestly, even a cursory glance at the numbers of dope users (millions) compared to the numbers of problem drug users (relatively few, in spite of what one might think) would suggest that any link is pretty spurious. Here’s the thing: most problem drug users are where they are because they’ve a load of problems in their lives, and these don’t usually involve having had a toke when they were teenagers.

I recently read something where cannabis was described as a “terminus” drug. This is a pretty good description, in my book. People “discover” weed, find it’s all they need and stick with it through thick and thin. Over the years I’ve interviewed thousands of people about their drug use and for the majority of them, MDMA, speed, cocaine and the rest of it are substances they dip in and out of on occasion and according to the situation; weed, though, is a constant in their lives, often in place of booze.

And there you have it. What we would very much like to do is, given that the above are as old as the hills, to document and explore any new cannabis scare stories. The problem we have with this is that, as this article makes clear, it seems to be the same old myths either presented “as is” or repackaged somewhat for a 21st Century audience. If anyone out there knows of any contemporary cannabis scare stories, we would be delighted to hear from you at the usual email address:

dimethyltryptamine777@hotmail.com

To the memory of Mandy Young 
(1963-2013)