byrned

Ok so I recently realized that I was very angry about hearing that marijuana is the devil's spawn and that smoking it will kill you and your family, and other such propaganda sponsored by our dearest government (yay America).

So I wrote this essay thingy. Hope you like it, and I would love feedback, constructive helps me constuct. So here:

The belief that marijuana is bad for the body is based on reality, yet the commonly spread myth than marijuana is worse for your body than some common, legal, substances is pure fiction. It’s true that smoking marijuana is unhealthy; burning organic compounds releases carbon monoxide, tar, and other harmful substances, which are indeed potentially harmful in large doses. It is, however, the myth spread by anti-drug organizations that smoking marijuana is more harmful than tobacco that simply isn’t true. Sources such as “Above the Influence” say that “smoking one joint can deliver 4 times as much cancer-causing tar as one tobacco cigarette”[1] This isn’t true: it is propaganda to spread fear of a comparatively harmless herb. The truth is that tobacco is a much more harmful inhalant that marijuana, and is both more addictive and more damaging to the body. Tobacco, in all forms, has in it what is called a “tobacco-specific nitrosamines”, a known, and dangerous, carcinogen. Marijuana doesn’t contain the tobacco-specific carcinogens, but rather different, less damaging carcinogens within the THC (tetrahydrocannabanol), the chemical responsible for the psychoactive “high”. A report put together by the Beckley Foundation stated, “Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco”[2]. Studies have also found NO correlation between smoking marijuana and lung cancer, unlike tobacco witch is known to increase the risk of lung cancer, or even directly cause cancer throughout the body.
The belief that Marijuana is deadly when used in large doses is nothing but a fable. Scientists around the world have established that the LD50 (the value of fatality where 50% of subjects died at the “LD50” indicated dose) of the THC in marijuana is much higher than that of tobacco. Tested on lab rats, the LD50 of THC is 1,270 mg of THC per kg of body mass, where as the LD50 of nicotine in tobacco is a startling 50 mg/kg. It takes more than 25 times as much THC as Nicotine to kill a lab rat; astonishing considering sources such as “Above the Influence” continue to state that marijuana is more harmful than tobacco.
For those who believe that marijuana is responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for countless deaths across the nation, this is simply not true. Though it is true that impaired motor skills and reduced cognitive thinking are both side-effects of marijuana which may lead indirectly to death, the number of deaths by marijuana is far outdone by the deaths caused by alcohol and tobacco. In 2000, tobacco lead the crowd with 435,000[3] annual deaths, followed by alcohol with 85,0003 deaths. DrugWarFacts.org states “An exhaustive search of the literature finds no credible reports of deaths induced by marijuana”[4]. The fact is that there is no physical way to overdose on marijuana, or cause death through consuming or smoking marijuana, at least for a human.
The simple truth is that marijuana is made out to be a killer and the cause of the degradation of society. Lies spread by anti-drug organizations have criminalized the use of marijuana since the beginning of its prohibition decades ago. And yet when one stops to consider the actual disadvantages of marijuana use, it really isn’t that bad.

[1] “Mythbusters: Some Myths You’ve Heard Before, And Maybe Even Believed, Until Now.” AboveTheInfluence. 2008. National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. 10/9/08 <http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/facts/mythbusters-printable.aspx>

[2] “Drug War Chronicle, Issue #554”, Stopthedrugwar.org, 10/3/2008. Beckley Foundation. 10/9/08, <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/554/marijuana_safer_than_alcohol_or_tobacco_says_Beckl ey_Foundation>

[3]Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association, March 10, 2004, Vol. 291, No. 10, pp. 1238, 1241.

[4] “Annual Causes of Deaths in the United States”, Drug War Facts.org, 2005. Common Sense for Drug Policy. 8th May 2007, <http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm>