Lit_Match

Media Marijuana Mania Part Duh
07-31-07|Huffington Post|By Maia Szalavitz

Ok, this is getting really tiresome. Earlier this week, I debunked media coverage that claimed that marijuana increases risk of schizophrenia by 40% -- but none of the media bothered to mention that despite massive increases in marijuana use, schizophrenia rates have not increased.

Comes now a new study claiming that one joint is as bad for your lungs as five cigarettes. Comes now another flood of "reporting " that fails, once again, to raise and answer the question readers are most likely to consider when they read the story.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that the vast majority of marijuana smokers don't even use one whole joint daily-- compared to an average 20-40 a day for cigarette smokers. Leave aside the fact that even most daily smokers of marijuana tend to do this for a few years-- not the 20-40 years seen with cigarette smokers.

Could the reporters at least mention that research looking explicitly for a conclusive link between marijuana and lung cancer HAS REPEATEDLY FAILED TO FIND ONE???

And that studies looking for an impact on mortality related to marijuana use also do not find that? Every time researchers have done studies using various forms of methodology looking for connections between tobacco smoking and lung cancer and tobacco smoking and death, the link has been there and been strong. The studies on this question on marijuana-- when it is smoked without tobacco-- do not find a positive correlation. In fact, one found a slight negative one-- suggesting that marijuana users could actually be *less likely* than non-users to get lung cancer.

Is it really too much to ask that reporters use PubMed-- or even Google, for goodness sake-- to look at the literature before they write their drug scare stories? Is it really too much to ask them to think-- hmm, what is this study reminding me of, but not mentioning that might be worth noting? Oh yeah, people think of "lung cancer" when they think of smoking-- wonder whether pot causes that. Might be a good idea to look it up. Nah, too busy. Let me read another press release from the government.

And people wonder why there is so much mistrust of the media!!!!

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

Hansje

NORML is putting together a long-overdue compliation of the positive cannabis research. I hear they are planning to send it to politicians. Maybe they should also send it to major media to give them the chance to challenge the government's lies rather just accepting the government press releases and spokespersons at their word. Every time a news reader or so-called investigative journalist in print or on air supports the prohibitionist lies, s/he should be sent a copy of the book of positive research, along with a letter of reproach. Common sense is that tobacco smokers take in far more tar from a pack a day habit than somebody who shares a joint of potent weed with a few friends. Count the puffs. This bit about cannabis increasing the likelihood of schizophrenia was also debunked, as mentioned, but the British and Australian prohibitionists have grown accustomed to using it a lot lately. It couldn't hurt the worldwide weed movement to send copies of the positive research to politicians and news organisations in other countries, too. Hopefully, that will embolden foreign politicians to stop kowtowing to the U.S prohibitionists when they see that there is considerable opposition to keeping cannabis illegal. Let's create the momentum that leads to the critical mass to legalise cannabis for medical, industrial and responsible adult recreational purposes.