Re: Six lies about cannabis smoking

I saw an article on your site called Six lies about cannabis smoking by Mixey Blob

I know you say on your site that “The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com"; however, his “article” is unsupported across almost everything he's asserted, as it is simply wrong in 4 of his 6 “lies”. Given that we have spent over $US 2 Trillion dollars worldwide on effectively ruining lives, due to ignorant racist agendas at the core of Marijuana Prohibition, it makes his assertions both ignorant and poorly researched.

While I do not use marijuana recreationally, I have researched the subject extensively for about a year as part of a study-- reading many books, as well as DEA, FDA, US Government and various other studies (Harvard Medical, UCLA Med and many others). The reality is that Mixey Blob should have done some research on the subject before making such assertions. With the exception of the following 2 items, he is completely wrong. Also, the support criteria he uses are not valid, and shows that he didn't do any actual further research behind his article.

Unfortunately, instead of doing any actual research, he (or she, as the name is not clear as to sex, although it is derived from the concept of a plagiaristic mixing of content), instead has parroted myths taken substantially verbatim from NIDA and related sources.

I hope you have not paid for this piece, as he has posted it all over the web verbatim, where he has been shot down by a wide range of people, including medical researchers, LEAP law enforcement and DEA agents and a wide range of others.

5. About cannabis being addictive. Partially correct, as it is in fact addictive. However, the actual addiction potential inherent to Marijuana is not physiological in any significant way. It is actually less addictive than caffeine, chocolate and most foods. Also, almost all people in rehab for marijuana are there because they are given the option of going to jail or treatment. Given that the US alone spends over $US 32 billion each year federally, 22 Billion at the state level, and over 14 Billion each year on their overseas marijuana fights and other programs, as well as the fact that treatment centers make over $US 11 Billion on legally-mandated marijuana treatment, one has to be careful on taking any information from those who have such vested interests. At the very least, one should actually read a diverse set of studies, books and other information from well-respected sources, before coming to conclusions like his.

3. About Cannabis as a sexual enhancer/inhibitor.
“Cannabis can enhance sexual arousal in many people – to begin with. But research has proven that frequent smoking of cannabis will reduce the ability to maintain erection and enjoy sexual intercourse.”

This is another one that is at least partially correct and partially-supported. Obviously, bio and brain chemistry vary from person to person, and as such, play a role in whether it helps or hinders sexual response over time. However, as far as causing impotence, that assertion is based on a ONDEA myth, which has been debunked by a wide range of medical studies by well-respected medical research centers in the US and elsewhere. It was asserted by the ONDEA that about 1 out of 4 men become impotent due to long term marijuana smoking. However, this didn't take into account that 25% (1 in 4) of men suffer from impotence due to all sources. Based on this, researchers have found that Marijuana use did not interfere with sexual function in men to any statistically significant extent. Less study has been done with women, but the big longitudinal studies did not pick up on any statistically significant impotence factors or causality among men and women collectively.

Unfortunately, impotence is a fairly complex phenomenon with a wide range of emotional, psychological and other factors that people often blame incorrectly on a wide range of things. It takes some serious time and focused medical exploration to determine the actual source of a person's impotence or other sexual dysfunction— especially in younger people. To the present day, the conservative Christian Right in the US have blamed Women's Liberation for problems leading to impotence. That too has been debunked as being any sort of a statistically significant cause.

So, the fact that Mixey asserts that “frequent smoking of marijuana WILL result in impotence” is just not correct, based on longitudinal and clinical studies over dozens of studies including thousands of people. The accurate statement is not that it WILL, but that in a very small percentage of people (under 1% with P<0.01) that it can. To assert that it will is simply an ignorant scare tactic, like it causes brain damage, based on Regan study that used monkeys (put a gas mask on them, and effectively asphyxiated them for 15 minutes at a time, causing not only brain damage, but death in about 1/2 of the cases within a year). However, doing the same thing without any marijuana in the oxygen-depleted mix fed into the monkeys gas mask also caused the same brain damage and death potentials (this was something that took many years to get the information from the government to find out the specifics of how the study was run, and once this was uncovered, the study that asserted “Marijuana Causes Brain Damage” has been completely discredited across all major medical/scientific researchers who have studied it. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that even the government;s own statistics shows that marijuana has never lead to a single cancer or other type of death, the brain damage myth lives on.

Simply stated, his statements are just parroting of myths spread by a few sources with their own agendas, who have been debunked by a multitude of scientific and medical studies (as well as the government and DEA's own studies, who they have chosen to play down and mostly ignore).

If so many people's lives had not been ruined by this type of willful ignorance, and so much money had not been wasted to no end, such ignorant assertions would not be such an issue. However, to date over 20 million people in the US alone, have had a major derailment in being able to pursue and take advantage of opportunities and services that most of us take for granted) Add this to the trillions of US dollars spent, and we could have cured world hunger, and been most of the way towards full, worldwide implementation of alternative energy. Further, the average damage done to one's life due to a marijuana conviction averages to a net present value of about 850,000 per person over their life. Given that about 20 million people have been convicted to date, this amounts to over $US 16 Trillion dollars lost in human productivity. Any way you look at this it is sad.

All My Best,
Andy