10b) Doesn't heavy marijuana use lower the sperm count in males?
Not by much, (if at all) and this can be a good thing.
It does not make you impotent or sterile. (If it did --
there would be no Rastafarians left!) Give those testicles
a rest, already! Marijuana is certainly _not_ birth
control, please don't let your lover tell you it is.
Many people think that marijuana enhances their sex lives.
It is not an aphrodisiac, that is, it does not make people
want to have sex. What it does do for some people is make
everything more sensual -- it makes food taste better and
feelings and emotions more vivid.
10c) I heard marijuana use by teenage girls may impair hormone
production, menstrual cycles, and fertility. Is this true?
Also unproven and unfounded, but there is no data
available to tell either way, (and it won't be coming from
the U.S. -- current U.S. laws prohibit research on women.)
This is the female version of the boy's ``It'll turn you
into a sissy'' tactic. As far as anyone knows, it is only a scare tactic.
11) I forgot, does marijuana cause short-term memory impairment?
Go away.
12) Isn't smoking marijuana worse for you than smoking cigarettes?
There are many reasons why it is not. You may have heard
that ``one joint is equal to ten cigarettes'' but this is
exaggerated and misleading. Marijuana does contain more tar
than tobacco -- but low tar cigarettes cause just as much
cancer, so what is that supposed to mean? Scientists have
shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because
it increases the number of `lesions' in your small airways.
This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a
chance it will lead to infections. Marijuana users who are
worried about this can find less harmful ways of taking
marijuana like eating or vaporizing. (Be careful --
marijuana is safe to eat -- but tobacco is not, you might overdose!)
Marijuana does not cause cancer the way tobacco does, though.
Here is a list of interesting facts about marijuana smoking and tobacco smoking:
o Marijuana smokers generally don't chain smoke, and
so they smoke less. (Marijuana is not physically
addictive like tobacco.) The more potent marijuana
is, the less a smoker will use at a time.
o Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn't.
Nicotine may harden the arteries and may be
responsible for much of the heart disease caused by
tobacco. New research has found that it may also
cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and
people who live or work where tobacco is smoked.
This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing
chemical called `N Nitrosamine' when it is burned
(and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)
o Marijuana contains THC. THC is a bronchial dilator,
which means it works like a cough drop and opens up
your lungs, which aids clearance of smoke and dirt.
Nicotine does just the opposite; it makes your lungs
bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.
o There are benefits from marijuana (besides bronchial
dilation) that you don't get from tobacco. Mainly,
marijuana makes you relax, which improves your health
and well-being.
o Scientists do not really know what it is that causes
malignant lung cancer in tobacco. Many think it may
be a substance known as Lead 210. Of course, there
are many other theories as to what does cause cancer,
but if this is true, it is easy to see why NO CASE OF
LUNG CANCER RESULTING FROM MARIJUANA USE ALONE HAS
EVER BEEN DOCUMENTED, because tobacco contains much
more of this substance than marijuana.
o Marijuana laws make it harder to use marijuana
without damaging your body. Water-pipes are illegal
in many states. Filtered cigarettes, vaporizers, and
inhalers have to be mass produced, which is hard to
arrange `underground.' People don't eat marijuana
often because you need more to get as high that way,
and it isn't cheap or easy to get (which is the
reason why some people will stoop to smoking leaves.)
This may sound funny to you -- but the more legal
marijuana gets, the safer it is.
-------------------------
It is pretty obvious to users that marijuana prohibition
laws are not ``for their own good.'' In addition to the
above, legal marijuana would be clean and free from
adulterants. Some people add other drugs to marijuana
before they sell it. Some people spray room freshener on it
or soak in in chemicals like formaldehyde! A lot of the
marijuana is grown outdoors, where it may be sprayed with
pesticides or contaminated with dangerous fungi. If the
government really cared about our health, they would form an
agency which would make sure only quality marijuana was
sold. This would be cheaper than keeping it illegal, and it
would keep people from getting hurt and going to the emergency room.
13) Don't children born to pot-smoking mothers suffer from
``Fetal Marijuana Syndrome?''
If a fetal cannabis syndrome exists, cases are so rare
that it cannot be demonstrated. Many mothers use marijuana
during pregnancy -- it controls the nausea called `morning
sickness' and many say it actually increases the appetite
and reduces stress. This is especially important in less
developed countries, where modern medical care is not as
easily available, but even so, the benefits of responsible
marijuana use may outweigh the risks even under modern medicine.
Studies conducted in Jamaica have shown that mothers who
smoke marijuana have healthier children, but this may be due
to the extra income generated by marijuana dealing and other
factors. It has been a common ploy in the War on Drugs to
claim that marijuana, and especially cocaine, causes birth
defects or behavior problems like alcohol does. This scares
caring mothers into thinking drugs are `evil.' The claims
are not based on valid scientific research -- many of them
do not even consider the life-style or living conditions of
the mothers before pointing at drugs with the blame.
Obviously, pregnant mothers should not smoke as much pot as
they possibly can. If marijuana is abused, it may hurt the
health of both mother and child. Delta-9-THC does cross the
placenta and enter the fetus. Oddly, though, the marijuana
metabolite, 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-THC does not, and the
fetus does not break delta-9-THC down into 11-nor like the
mother's body does, so unborn children are not exposed to
11-nor. The third trimester is the time when the child is
most vulnerable. Parents should bear these facts in mind
when they make decisions about using cannabis.
14) Doesn't marijuana cause a lot of automobile accidents?
Not really. The marijuana using public has the same or
lower rate of automobile accidents as the general public.
Studies of marijuana smoking while driving showed that it
does affect reaction time, but not nearly as much as
alcohol. Also, those who drive `stoned' have been shown to
be less foolish on the road (they demonstrate `increased
risk aversion'.) Recent studies have emphasized that
alcohol is the major problem on our highways, and that
illicit drugs do not even come close to being as dangerous.
As funny as it may seem, you may be safer driving `stoned',
as long as you aren't `totally blasted' and seeing things --
but few users are irresponsible enough to drive in this
state of mind, anyway. Still, many people have reported
making mistakes while driving because they were stoned.
There are those who think that marijuana is a major problem
on the streets, because of a newspaper article or news story
which they have seen which said a large number of people who
were killed in driving accidents tested positive for marijuana
use. For various reasons, these studies are not reliable:
o Some studies use drug tests which can only tell
whether a person has used marijuana in the last month.
o Some studies were done near colleges or other areas
where drinking, marijuana use, and accidents are all
very high, and they did not correct for age or alcohol use.
o In many of the studies there were more stoned drivers
killed -- but it was not their fault, and when the
police ``culpability scores'' were factored in
marijuana was not to blame for the accidents.
15) Aren't you afraid everyone will get hooked?
Marijuana produces no withdrawal symptoms no matter how
heavy it is used. It is habit forming (psychologically
addictive), but not physically addictive. The majority of
people who quit marijuana don't even have to think twice
about it. Comparing marijuana to addictive drugs is really quite silly.
For a drug to be physically addictive, it must be
reinforcing, produce withdrawal symptoms, and produce
tolerance. Marijuana is reinforcing, because it feels good,
but it does not do the other two things. Caffeine, nicotine
and alcohol are all physically addictive.
16a) Is urine testing for marijuana use as a terms of employment a good idea?
I want to make sure my business is run safely.
No! Some of your most brilliant, hard working, and
reliable employees are marijuana users. When you drug test,
you put all marijuana users in the same place as the abusers
-- the unemployment line. Drug testing is bad for business.
(Not to mention it is an invasion of privacy.) If a worker
has a drug problem, you can tell by testing how well he does
his job. Firing *all* the drug users who work for you will
hurt your business, costs money, and will get people very
mad at you -- and for what? There isn't even any hard
evidence that marijuana users have more accidents or health problems.
Your employees will probably resent being drug tested; drug
testing allows an employer to govern the actions of an
employee in his off time -- even when these actions do not
affect his job performance. (As told above, marijuana drug
tests do not test whether a person is `high'. They test
whether or not they have used in the last few weeks.)
Asking employees to urinate in a plastic cup every month is
not a good way to make them feel like part of the business,
or make friends, either. There is growing concern about
drug tests, sometimes because they misfire and accuse the
wrong person, but mostly because they might be used to find
out other confidential information about an employee. Legal
professionals are beginning to question whether they are
even constitutional.
16b) Isn't all this worth the trouble, though, in order to
reduce accident risks and health care costs?
Everyone knows that marijuana users are bad employees,
right? Wrong -- or at least someone forgot to tell the
millions of hard working marijuana smokers that. Drug
testing companies will hand you piles of statistics which
they say prove marijuana use costs you money. The truth is
there are just as many studies which show that marijuana
users are more successful, use less health care, and produce
more than non-users. Before you buy into workplace drug
testing, make sure you get the other side of the story.
In the 1980's, the Bush administration went to great lengths
to promote drug testing. In fact, George Bush estimated the
cost of drug use at over 60 billion dollars a year, based on
a study which supposedly showed that persons who had used
marijuana at some time during their life were less
successful. The very same study could be used to show that
current, heavy users of marijuana and other illegal drugs
were actually more successful. Something is a bit fishy
here, and when you add to that the fact that several former
heads of the DEA and former Drug Czars now own or work in
the urinalysis industry, this whole scene begins to smell a bit funny.
17) Wouldn't it be best to just lock the users all up?
How do you plan to pay for that? Already, well over five
percent of the people in this country (U.S) are in custody
(including probation, parole, bail, etc.) Murderers and
rapists are being let out of our penitentiaries right now to
make room for a few more `deadheads' -- there are about
2,500 Grateful Dead fans in our federal prisons.
Imprisoning one person for one year costs about $20,000.
The United States leads the world in imprisonment -- at any
one time, 425 people out of every 100,000 are behind bars.
In the Federal Prison System, one fifth of the prisoners are
drug offenders who have done nothing violent. State laws
are usually less strict, but state mandatory minimum
sentences for drugs are getting more popular.
Our prisons and our courtrooms are so crowded that the
American Bar Association's annual report on the state of the
Justice System is basically one long plea for an end to drug
laws that imprison users. Even the Clinton Administration
recognizes that locking people up is not the solution. This
is especially true for the people who actually have drug
abuse problems -- they need treatment, not mistreatment.
The Drug War put mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug
crimes on the law books. If we do not take those laws (at
least) back off, we will be in sorry shape come the end of
the century. A retroactive policy of marijuana legalization
or decriminalization would go a long way in helping to solve
this crisis.
Also consider this -- Once a person gets put in jail, he
becomes angry with the world. He will probably be
victimized while he is there, and most likely will learn
criminal behaviors from hard-core violent offenders. There
is also a very good chance that he will have caught AIDS or
tuberculosis by the time he gets let back out. By locking
up drug users, you are digging yourself a very big trench to
fall in -- is it worth it?
Besides, lots of these people don't deserve to be in jail.
Why should they serve time just because they like to get
`high' on marijuana? Especially when someone can drink
alcohol without being arrested... what kind of law is that?
You have to think about what kind of a world you are making
for yourself before you act. How are the police of the
future going to treat the people? How far are you willing
to let the government go to get the drug users? How many of
your own rights will you sacrifice by trying to jail `the druggies'?
18) I heard that there are over 400 chemicals in marijuana...
Wellllll...?
True, but so what? There are also over 400 chemicals in
many foods, (including coffee, which contains over 800
chemicals and many rat carcinogens) and we don't see police
arresting people in McDonald's, or giving Driving while
Eating citations. Only THC is very psychoactive; a few
other chemicals also have very small degrees of
psycho-activity. People who use marijuana do not get sick
more, or die earlier, or lose their jobs (except to drug
tests), or have mutant kids... so what's your point?
The fact that there are over 60 unique chemicals in
cannabis, called `cannabinoids,' is something that
scientists find very interesting. Many of these
cannabinoids may have valuable effects as medicine. For
example, `cannabinol' is a cannabinoid which can help people
with insomnia. Doctors think that this chemical is why most
patients prefer to use marijuana rather than pure
Delta-9-THC pills (called dronabinol) -- the cannabinol
takes the edge off being `high' and calms the nerves.
Another cannabinoid, `cannabidiolic acid', is a very
effective antibiotics, like penicillin. Many of these
chemicals can be extracted from marijuana without any fancy
laboratory equipment.
19) Doesn't that stuff mess up your immune system and make
it easier for you catch colds?
Marijuana (Delta-nine-THC) does have an `immunosuppressive
effect.' It acts on certain cells in the liver, called
macrophages, in much the same way that it acts on brain
cells. Instead of stimulating the cells, though, it shuts
them off. This effect is temporary (just like the `high')
and goes away quickly; people who suffer from multiple
sclerosis may actually find this effect useful in fighting the disease.
Recent research has also found that marijuana metabolites
are left over in the lungs for up to seven months after the
smoking has stopped. While they are there, the immune
system of the lungs may be affected (but the macrophages do
not get ``turned off'' like in the liver.) The effects of
smoking itself are probably worse than the effects of the
THC, and last just as long.
All this said, doctors still have not decided whether
marijuana users are at risk for colds or not. With the
possible exception of bronchitis, there are no numbers which
suggest that marijuana users catch more colds, but... this
did not stop Carlton Turner, a United States Drug Czar, from
saying many times in his public addresses that marijuana
caused AIDS and homosexuality. His claims were so ridiculous
that the Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine made fun of
him, and he was forced to resign.
Today, AIDS patients use marijuana to treat their symptoms
without any apparent problems. Some studies suggest that
marijuana may actually stimulate certain forms of immunity.
Researchers have tried to show major effects on the healthy
human's immune system, but if marijuana does have any
substantial effects, good or bad, they are either too
subtle or too small to notice.
