A new study clearly shows marijuana does not harm like alcohol: Study description, brief history of marijuana suppression, some uses, explanation of why the corporatocracy must suppress it—plus a bonus of Reefer Madness.

by Heidi Stevenson

The treatment of people as criminals for possession of marijuana has destroyed the lives of thousands, likely millions, of people—not because of any harm it produces, but because of its illegality. A new study of teens clearly documents that marijuana causes no harm to their brains, though alcohol clearly does.

Marijuana – cannabis – has not always been illegal, nor has the government made possession or sale a criminal act. The image above documents that fact. The FDA had no problem with it in 1906. Obviously, the pharmaceutical industry was happy with marijuana. But something happened along the way to bring us to the absurd laws we have today.

It has long been known that alcohol use results in brain damage, and it has been documented as reducing intelligence in teens who drink. However, studies attempting to demonstrate harm from marijuana use in teens have failed to document such an effect. Now, though, a study, which will be published in April 2013 in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, has compared brain functioning of teens who drink alcohol, use marijuana, or abstain.

The researchers did brain scans on adolescents before and after an 18-month period during which they used alcohol or marijuana, abstained, or consumed them minimally.

Those who drank five or more alcoholic drinks two or more times per week lost white matter brain tissue, which is required for memory, attention, and decision-making. This is a permanent loss. These results correlate with another study published in the same journal in 2009 that measured functional effects of drinking on teens. It showed that the more teens consumed alcohol, the poorer their cognitive functions became.

On the other hand, no changes in brain scans could be found in teens who used marijuana as much as nine times a week. Not even the heaviest users suffered any brain damage.

Imprisonment for Marijuana Use

Where’s the sense in laws making alcohol legal and marijuana illegal? Alternet recently outlined the stories of five men who have spent 16-23 years in prison for the simple act of possessing marijuana—and they are sentenced to stay there until they die. They could have, instead, rotted their brains with alcohol to the point of being unable to function. Instead, the people’s tax money is being spent to maintain them in prison for the rest of their lives for doing nothing that harms themselves or anyone else.

These five men aren’t even the tip of the iceberg of humans sentenced to inhumane and pointless years in prisons for possessing or using marijuana. In 2010, there were 853,838 arrests for marijuana “offenses” in the United States, and the vast majority, 88%, were associated solely with possession. In fact, it is marijuana-related arrests that fuel the drug wars. These arrests, and subsequent incarcerations, are predominantly of hispanics and blacks, though they are no more likely to use marijuana than whites.

The US is putting immense resources into finding, arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning massive numbers of people for marijuana possession and use, in spite of the fact that it has never been shown to be harmful or cause criminal acts, other than ones associated with its declared illegality. People’s lives are destroyed with criminal records, even when they don’t spend years or a lifetime behind bars, on the false claim that marijuana is a seriously dangerous drug—in spite of the fact that alcohol, which is legal, has clearly been demonstrated to produce far more harm and to induce violence, a claim that no rational person could possibly make of marijuana use.

A Brief History of Marijuana in America

Criminalization of marijuana is the real reefer madness. Interestingly, marijuana was fully legal in the United States until early in the 20^th century. It was first introduced into the US in 1545, when the Spanish introduced it to the New World. It was introduced in Jamestown in 1611 in the less psychoactive form of hemp and became a major crop. It wasn’t until 1890 that cotton superceded hemp as a cash crop.

From 1850 until 1942, marijuana was listed in the US Pharmacopeia, with uses that included labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism.  By 1850, it was a commonly-used intoxicant, along with the ever-popular alcohol. But it wasn’t until alcohol prohibition during the 1920s that its popularity took off.

In 1905, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared that marijuana is a poison. The declaration was not based on evidence, but rather on developing intentions to regulate many previously-unregulated products. That policy has been brought forward by the federal government to this day, with blatantly false declarations of marijuana as addictive and dangerous. No amount of real science has fazed federal officials’ false claims about it.

The US Federal Bureau of Narcotics was established in 1930. It immediately set about to assure as large a regulatory field as possible—primarily by going on the attack against marijuana. The bureau conducted an aggressive anti-marijuana campaign portraying it as dangerous, addictive, and a gateway to narcotics.

The first national prohibition of marijuana for recreational use happened in 1937 with the Bureau of Narcotics-pushed Marihuana Tax Act. It didn’t outright ban its use, but instead levied rules and fees for distribution and fines for running foul of distribution rules so onerous that marijuana was effectively made illegal. Notice, though, that this act came into place after alcohol prohibition had been repealed. As a result, alcohol again became transcendent and marijuana went into decline.

During the beatnik 50s and hippie 60s, marijuana enjoyed a new resurgence. Since that time, states have initiated a hodgepodge of regulations, with two states, Washington and Colorado, making personal use of marijuana legal in last month’s elections. However, this runs foul of US law and the US Justice Department. In 1951, the Boggs Act established mandatory minimum federal sentences for  marijuana distribution. As a result, and now with stunningly aggressive enforcement by the Justice Deparment under Obama, even state-legalized and operated medical dispensaries are raided and their operators are sentenced to eggregious and inhumane prison terms.

The true reefer madness is governmental regulation, not any effects of marijuana itself. It’s obvious from studies like the one discussed above that governmental policy has absolutely nothing to do with the protection or safety of citizens.

The Real Reefer Madness

Real reefer madness is what’s perpetuated by the government, not by effects of marijuana. As recreational activities go, using pot is one of the more civilized. It’s doesn’t promote violence, like alcohol, or the psychoactive drugs, like antidepressants and antipsychotics. It doesn’t pollute the earth, like automobile racing or Agribusiness or Big Pharma or Big Oil or fracking or arctic drilling or tar sands oil extraction.

As a crop, marijuana/hemp is one of the best uses of scarce agricultural land. It is a truly and rapidly renewable resource. In hemp, the form with minimal psychoactive constituents, it has a multitude of uses, including particularly strong rope, an exceptionally hard-wearing and wide range of fabrics, dense nutrition, omega-3 oil, cosmetic ingredients, fuel, paper, building materials, and who knows how many other products.

As a recreational drug, it’s safe, is not addictive, has never been shown to lead to use of stronger drugs, does not induce violence, and no legitimate reason has ever been documented for making it illegal.

As a health product, marijuana’s uses are enormous, including cancer treatment, pain treatment, anti-inflammatory applications, glaucoma (for many, the only effective treatment to prevent blindness), premenstrual symptoms, vomiting, and many others. Unlike nearly all pharmaceutical drugs, marijuana delivers these benefits with little downside.

Government’s Interest in Marijuana

Clearly, there must be a reason that the government works so hard to suppress use of marijuana, in spite of its recognized safety, lack of harm to people associated with its use, major health benefits, multitude of uses, and renewability as a crop.

Many people believe that marijuana is used as a for-profit product sold by at least one government agency. Surely a big reason for its suppression is a deep-seated desire to control the actions of others—to stand in judgement of others’ recreational choices.

However, at this point, Gaia Health suspects that the primary motivating factor in current marijuana suppression is simply the control of the populace. To induce the kinds of changes that are being instituted in a facist police state, it’s necessary to condition people to accept the control of all aspects of their lives by the controlling powers.

To that end, we have seen loss of many of our basic rights, including the right of assembly, the right of free speech, which is being impinged through regulation of claims on health products, the right to enter into contracts, as is seen in loss of ability to contract with farmers to purchase raw milk, and unenumerated, but obvious rights, such as the rights to freedom of choice in food and management of our own health.

Control of the means people use for recreation is another area that government is now moving to institute a lock-down police state. To that end, access to marijuana, which provides relaxation and easing of fear, along with a host of other benefits, must be removed from the people. It allows too much individual ability to remain autonomous and independent of the government. That, as we’re seeing in all other arenas of our lives, must be suppressed by any fascist government.

Reefer Madness, the Movie

On the off chance that you haven’t seen the classic 1938 antimarijuana propaganda film warning of the horrors of the dread reefer, you can watch it here.

WARNING:  Be sure that your belly is in good shape because you will find yourself doubled over in laughter …

 

Sources:

• Initiating Moderate to Heavy Alcohol Use Predicts Changes in Neuropsychological Functioning for Adolescent Girls and Boys, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, L. M. Squeglia, A. D. Spadoni, M. A. Infante, M. G. Myers, and S. F. Tapert, doi: 10.1037/a0016516
• Teen Marijuana Use May Show No Effect On Brain Tissue, Unlike Alcohol, Study Finds
• Teen Pot Use Shows No Effect On Brain Tissue – Unlike Alcohol
• No, Teen Marijuana Use Doesn’t Cause Brain Damage, But Alcohol Does
• 5 Senior Citizens Serving Life Without Parole for Pot
• History of marijuana>History of drug laws and restrictions in U.S.
• Marijuana-Arrests.com
• Marijuana Arrests Driving America’s So-Called ‘Drug War,’ Latest FBI Data Shows
• The Healing Properties Of Cannabis – An Index
• Accepted Medical Use: Clinical Research
• Marijuana, DrugWarFacts.org