This article was first published on IllegallyHealed.com.
We sat down with founder of Healer.com, Dr. Dustin Sulak, a licensed osteopathic physician, about the most common myths about cannabis, many of which have been sponsored by industries that benefit from the prohibition of cannabis, along with the facts.
Here’s the most common cannabis myths — destroyed:
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Cannabis Kills Brain Cells And Lowers IQ
Interestingly, numerous studies have proven cannabis does just the opposite — it promotes the growth and development of new brain cells [1]. No other class of compounds has demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of cannabis. Very promising animal studies show that treating brain injuries, including newborn babies lacking oxygen [2], victims of stroke, and head trauma, all sustain less damage and heal faster if they are given cannabinoids, the substances found in cannabis, or their synthetic counterparts [3]. Cannabinoids also protect the brain from slower forms of injury, like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis [4], especially when used in the correct dosage.
While cannabis can cause some temporary cognitive changes, such as a decrease in short term memory, these changes are reversible when an adult stops using cannabis [5].
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Cannabis Makes You “Stoned” Or “High”
Smoking or ingesting marijuana can cause a psychoactive effect, which most people describe as a pleasant euphoria and enhancement of the senses, but it can include less desirable features like sedation and paranoia. Pleasant or uncomfortable, a growing number of patients want the medical benefits of cannabis without any intoxication or impairment in function — they want to use it while working, safely driving, and more. This is both possible, and practical.
After decades of selective breeding to produce the most intoxicating strains of cannabis, sought after by recreational users and dealers in the underground market, medical cannabis breeders are now producing strains that emphasize the health benefits and reduce or eliminate the psychoactivity [6].
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Smoking Cannabis Causes Cancer
A large study in 2006 showed that heavy cannabis users have an equal or lower rate of lung and respiratory tract cancers than non-users [7], even though cannabis smoke has been proven to contain cancer-causing products of combustion. How is this possible? The therapeutic substances in cannabis actually have strong anti-cancer properties. This has been known since the 1970s [8], but more recently cannabinoids have become a major focus of the pharmaceutical industry’s anti-cancer drug development [9].
While smoking cannabis is unlikely to cause cancer, it can irritate the respiratory tract, especially in sensitive individuals. Most patients and responsible adult cannabis users are turning to non-smokable delivery methods: vaporizers allow users to inhale the medicinal component of the herb without any smoke; tinctures and liquid extracts are safe and convenient, and topically applied cannabis salves are reported to reduce pain and inflammation.
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Cannabis Is Addictive And Is A Gateway To Other Drugs
Marijuana dependence does exist, but is not common. One study found that only 9 percent of those who try marijuana develop dependence compared to, for example, 24 percent of those who try heroin [10]. Furthermore, marijuana dependence is much safer [11] — the withdrawal effects are mild and similar in intensity to caffeine withdrawal. Most people don’t have any trouble stopping using cannabis, when and if they need to.
Recent research demonstrates that cannabis actually serves as an exit drug, not a gateway drug. One study of 350 medical cannabis users in California found 40 percent of the subjects used cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 26 percent as a substitute for illicit drugs, and 66 percent as a substitute for prescription drugs [12]. Any time a person can replace a more harmful substance, such as alcohol, with a safer substance, like cannabis, it is a step in the right direction.
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Cannabis Makes People Hungry And Fat
We’ve all heard that marijuana causes “the munchies,” and it’s widely known that cannabis can help AIDS and cancer patients reduce nausea and promote appetite, to their great benefit. Most users report enhanced taste and pleasure while eating under the influence of cannabis. Surprisingly, a 2011 study of 52,000 participants in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed people who smoke cannabis at least three times a week, compared with those who don’t use it at all, are one third less likely to be obese [13].
While cannabis affects brain centers related to pleasure and eating, it also affects the hormones of metabolism, and if used correctly, can potentially restore balance to individuals who are both underweight and overweight [14,15].
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Cannabis Makes People Mentally Unstable
Some evidence points to marijuana use being associated with the onset of psychosis or schizophrenia, with the highest risk group being young men. However statistics show that to prevent one case of psychosis, 2,000 young men would need to stop using marijuana [16]. While scientists debate whether or not cannabis can actually cause or trigger the onset of mental illness, if it does, it’s extremely rare.
It is much more common for cannabis to actually help mental illness such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar, and even schizophrenia, especially when used appropriately under the guidance of a healthcare professional.
Via: Illegally Healed
So, Is it Cannabis Or Marijuana?
Over all, marijuana has gotten a bad name due to decades of prohibition and reefer madness-like thinking — in fact, the word “marijuana” was first used in U.S. policy during an effort to marginalize Mexican immigrants in the early 1900s.
As our society works to help this misunderstood plant find its appropriate place in our laws, I recommend using its real name that dispels the myths about this incredible plant and invokes the truth made available by thousands of scientists and researchers: cannabis. Cannabis has a lot to offer humanity, and you deserve to know the truth.
Dr. Sulak is the founder of Healer.com and a renowned cannabis expert. He is the medical director of Integr8 Health which cares for over 18,000 patients and is a board member and research chair of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. Dr. Sulak educates medical providers and patients on the clinical use of cannabis while continuing to explore the therapeutic potential of this ancient yet emerging medicine.
Sources
1 Reviewed in Galve-Roperh, Ismael, et al. “The endocannabinoid system and neurogenesis in health and disease.” The Neuroscientist 13.2 (2007): 109-114.
2 Alvarez, Francisco J., et al. “Neuroprotective effects of the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol in hypoxic-ischemic newborn piglets.” Pediatric Research 64.6 (2008): 653-658
3 Baker D, Pryce G, Giovannoni G, Thompson AJ. The therapeutic potential of cannabis. Lancet Neurol. 2003; 2:291 -298
4 Ramírez, Belén G., et al. “Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease pathology by cannabinoids: neuroprotection mediated by blockade of microglial activation.” The Journal of Neuroscience 25.8 (2005): 1904-1913.
5 Tait, Robert J., Andrew Mackinnon, and Helen Christensen. “Cannabis use and cognitive function: 8‐year trajectory in a young adult cohort.” Addiction 106.12 (2011): 2195-2203.
7 Hashibe, Mia, et al. “Marijuana use and the risk of lung and upper aerodigestive tract cancers: results of a population-based case-control study.” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 15.10 (2006): 1829-1834.
8 Munson, A. E., et al. “Antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 55.3 (1975): 597-602.
9 Velasco, Guillermo, Cristina Sánchez, and Manuel Guzmán. “Towards the use of cannabinoids as antitumour agents.” Nature Reviews Cancer 12.6 (2012): 436-444.
10 Anthony JC, Warner L, Kessler R. Comparative epidemiology of dependence on tobacco, alcohol, controlled substances and inhalants: basic findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 1994; 2: 244–68.
11 Reviewed in Budney, Alan J., et al. “Review of the validity and significance of cannabis withdrawal syndrome.” American Journal of Psychiatry 161.11 (2004): 1967-1977.
12 Reiman, Amanda. “Cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs.” Harm Reduction Journal 6.1 (2009): 35.
13 Le Strat, Yann, and Bernard Le Foll. “Obesity and cannabis use: results from 2 representative national surveys.” American Journal of Epidemiology (2011): kwr200.
14 Harrold, Joanne A., and Gareth Williams. “The cannabinoid system: a role in both the homeostatic and hedonic control of eating?.” British Journal of Nutrition 90.04 (2003): 729-734.
15 Osei-Hyiaman, D., et al. “The role of the endocannabinoid system in the control of energy homeostasis.” International Journal of Obesity 30 (2006): S33-S38.
16 Hickman, et al. If cannabis caused schizophrenia—how many cannabis users may need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia? England and Wales calculations. Addiction, 104, 1856– 1861. 2009
I live in Chicago and there is so much ingrained ignorance here about marijuana it’s depressing. I’ve literally gone over each of these points with so many people it’s starting to annoy. The good thing about the truth is that it can’t be repressed and it’s finally coming out. Good riddance, prohibition.
Alcohol is the most destructive drug consumed, second would be many of the prescribed pharmaceuticals.
Big Pharmaceutical is the #1 financial source to the ongoing an to marijuana propaganda, second is the private prison corporations.
Marijuana has been proved to reverse numerous types of cancer and is the only remedy that prevents children from dying from epilepsy.
Those are facts.
Legalized medical marajuana. Save lives instantly. And just like alcohol, if you object to the substance, refrain from it.
The hypocrisy of placing & keeping marijuana a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance is ridiculous.
Great piece, but I humbly suggest one small-but-important modification.
“Any time a person can replace a more harmful substance, such as alcohol,
with a safer substance, like cannabis, it is a step in the right
direction.”
That’s true, but it can (and logically should) be clearer.
Cannabis is a safe product, not a less harmful one (as too often expressed), so please take out the “r” in safer.
The fact (yes, fact) is there’s no experimental science concluding (not weakly suggesting) that moderate use (not “heavy use” or abuse) does (not may/can) cause any harm. Moderate simply means any use without objectively proven harm.
Cannabis use is a skill (harmlessly learned by many people for thousands of years), but once that skill is learned (reasonably easy to do), so too is the responsibility allowing cannabis to be safely (not less harmfully) consumed, based upon the fullest application of the scientific method.
Risk is then on par with basically any other activity (e.g. playing sports, being at a movie theater with your cell phone turned off, going on a cruise, etc.)
At least to the best of my knowledge, all cannabis science pertaining to psychological impact is junk science, because at least one of three key factors is unscientifically assessed or outright left out.
Intake method differential is one of them. If your study only focuses upon smoking (for prime example), then your research cannot decouple the effects of smoking from cannabis (i.e. if harm is truly concluded in your research, then smoking, not necessarily cannabis, could scientifically be the cause of that harm).
Precise intake amount is critical, so measuring that amount in “joints” (or such) is unscientifically ridiculous. If your study cannot bring strictest scientific discipline (as always effectively mandated by the scientific method) to this key factor, then your study isn’t science (and is publicly useless, if not publicly destructive).
Finally, we have the “elephant being ignored” factor of strain differential. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of cannabis strains. Therefore, available strain effects (especially when including strain “salading” of two or more strains for more experiential depth and other texture strengtheners) form literally an oceanic set of ‘neurological lens’ possibilities with differences so dramatically serious, you could sometimes by easily convinced that you’re using completely different drugs for each session.
Imagine a music study regarding the pros/cons of music listening. That study lumped all styles of music (e.g. classical and death metal) together, as if there’s no impactful issue from style differential. That’s precisely the same serious scientifically problematic result as ignoring strain differential.
What is scientifically proven to be harmful is drug prohibition addiction — which has ruined millions (if not billions) of non-violent (so sanely innocent) lives for several decades and strongly counting, because science abuse, reason abuse, and law abuse (all on behalf of money abuse) dominates on behalf of the Great Hypocrisy discriminatingly dictating where liberty is unalienable “to protect the children”.
When cannabis is used right, that plant becomes a modern marvel of a stress management tool — so not even slightly “dope” as continuingly proclaimed by sanctioned thugs in the “land of the free” after turning weak/junk science immorally into tough-talking affirmations to justify mass harm for selfish “benefit”.
I’ve had Chronic Headache Syndrome for more then 10 years now & have been using Cannabis (Legally) for the last 3 & 1/2 Years & must say I’ve been able to do things I haven’t done in years. I stopped taking at least 3 prescriptions adding “Grass” into my life & still have my “rough” days, but as a whole Marijuana has turned my life completely around.& Yes I can even Drive a Car & it doesn’t imped my driving whatsoever! I think It’s a Godsend myself & recommend it for anybody in Pain.