Myth-busting: the Devil's Lettuce is Highly Addictive and Will Ruin Your Life

Since you were little, they were probably telling you marijuana is bad. It will make you addicted and ruin your life. That smoking marijuana causes you to lose volume of your brain, or that it will make you unable to perform any daily job, or you name the threat parents, teachers and other preachers with high morale were propagating. 

If not all of them, at least some of them were probably telling you all of this while they were approving of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, both of which, it turns, are much more harmful to human health than smoking dope. So, we've picked some favorites, and here they are to be grilled.

1. It Will Make You Addicted and Ruin Your Life

True that. Marijuana is so super addictive that the moment you hit a shot, you become a slave to it. And it's just because it's so super addictive that a fraction of users doesn't have any reaction to it the first time they smoke, with some reporting they didn't feel anything on the second time either. Plenty of people also try marijuana and they decide it's not for them, so they hardly ever ask for a smoke again.

According to research presented in Scientific American, only a small fraction of people who try marijuana—roughly 9 percent, "eventually fit a diagnosis of cannabis dependence." Compared to 15% for alcohol, 17% for cocaine, 23 percent for heroin, and 32 percent for nicotine, it's pretty safe to say "marijuana is less addictive than many other legal and illegal drugs."

2. Because of It, You'll Try Other Drugs

On another coin of the addiction debate, a lot of opponents claim that even though marijuana might not be as addictive, it can act as a getaway drug to using other drugs. In other words, the moment you finish a joint, you'll want to snort a line of cocaine. While many studies have found that most people who used other illicit drugs had, in fact, smoked pot first, they do not prove that using pot causes the use of other substances. Those who are drawn to cannabis may simply be predisposed to the use of drugs in general, so it's irrelevant if they were exposed to marijuana or not prior to taking the hard drugs. As Hal Arkowitz and Scott O. Lilienfeld further note in the Scientific American, "in addition, individuals often smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol before they latch on to marijuana. Should we also be asking whether nicotine and alcohol are gateway drugs?"

3. Smoking Pot Makes You Stupid

Yeah, every pothead has hit a wall with a friend who means well to you but who has prejudices about your smoking pot habits. This person may also think that the only thing that matters to you is to smoke on every occasion possible, and they acknowledge to other friends in the circle that the only thing you care to do is go to great lengths when you need to refill your stash once you run out of weed.

The assumption you are worse off will linger on even if it's thanks to marijuana that you got the higher scores at university exams or that you nabbed a well-paid job with which you can quickly pay for a holiday in a luxury resort overseas. Truth be told, some of the most brilliant persons on Earth have smoked pot, and they went on to be what they went on to be. From Carl Sagan to Bill Gates and Lady Gaga, judging their success, it doesn't seem weed made them less brain or prevented them be number one in their profession.

According to some research, a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in January 2016 claimed that there is no link between cumulative marijuana exposure at age 15 and IQ or educational performance at age 16. The research encompassed 2,235 British teenagers, about a quarter of whom had tried pot at least once by age 15. While an occasional puff will not have any detrimental effect, a cumulative use throughout middle age may lead to some slight decline in memory and cognitive function, according to more research. That is why there exists a T break, that once users feel that weed impairs their intelligence, they can go on a break and recalibrate their minds and bodies.

While all you may need is a couple of days or weeks to conduct a weed detox, it may take you up to a year to conduct something like, say, a nicotine detox.

4. Marijuana Destroys Your Libido

It's less heard, but it's out there. A rumor hunting the imagination of high morale folks how smoking weed might even make you sterile. In fact, it's too much alcohol that may harm your fertility. 

Marijuana can actually be very beneficial for your libido. It can help you relax when you are about to have sex for the first time with a new partner, and it can help you build your confidence and how you perform. There are also specific strains that you can take to boost your libido and enjoy the best sex of your life.  Marijuana intensifies orgasms and can lead people to have multiple orgasms at once. 

5. It Has No Medicinal Value Whatsoever

No, medical cannabis does not help patients with cancer treat symptoms of their disease. It doesn't help people struggling with HIV either. Certainly not young patients with brutal forms of epilepsy from all around the world for whom the only comfort is CBD-based medicine. No, cannabis is not helpful for any medical condition, except that it improves the health and wellbeing of approximately 3.6 million Americans.

6. Marijuana Makes You a Violent Person, a Criminal

Yeah, it does. Smoking pot makes you about the biggest criminal ever roaming the planet. It's the same as robbing a bank, a sexual predator, a person who counterfeits documents. Judging the number of people in the U.S. who have in the past been tried because of possession of marijuana and the astounding amount of time people have been jailed for possessions or sale, it's no surprise why some opponents see users as no different than criminals. 

Fortunately, newly introduced legislation in states that regulate adult use almost certainly encompasses the expungement of victims from the state justice system. Legalization has also shown that in states where there are regulations, violent crime rates slightly begin to decrease. 

So, next time someone wants to vilify you for your use of marijuana, poke them back about their alcohol or smoking cigarette habits. Show them the numbers and shut their mouths. One-time use or habitual use of marijuana is harmless. And while heavy smoking for a longer period of time might be problematic, it could be managed by combining breaks and other healthy lifestyle choices such as doing sports and taking healthy meals. Weed is good enough to conquer the world and not be sorry for rolling another one when you feel like it.