Now that I got a lil time on my hands, it's time to dispell these myths that are floating around as "fact".
First of all, my research covers Federal and State government funded tests... I can't cite them, because they are actual physical pieces of paper without reference points.
Visit your local state funded substance abuse, treatment and education facility if you wish to locate these materials. Should be readily available if you are genuinely inclined to learn more about substance abuse and addiction.
The Marijuana "addiction" is a fallacy. It is impossible to become addicted to the substance because there is not a chemical in marijuana which replaces naturally occuring chemicals through chemical synthesis. Therefore, the body does not require a constant intake of a drug to produce these synthetic chemicals which block out the body's natural chemicals at receptor sites in the mind and/or body. This makes it impossible to become addicted to marijuana physically. Caffiene, Nicotine, Cocaine (and derivitives), Heroin(and derivitives), PCP/Speed, Ecstasy (combination of speed and/or heroin, and MDM/MDMA), and even Alcohol are addictive because of the way they interact with the body and replace naturally occuring chemicals and proteins.
As Raub pointed out, however, it is extremely easy to abuse the drug if your personality is already predestined to abuse.
Whether it be video games, sweets, TV, or whatever else- it's very easy to abuse it to the point of appearing to be an addiction.
However, when you take away TV, video games, sweets, or marijuana, your body will not go through a withdrawal period as it runs low on the synthesized proteins and chemicals.
"Gateway drug": These studies are something recent, begun in 1983 when the War on Drugs officially began. Drugs no longer meant anything from Asprin to Zylex, but meant illicit drugs because the government had to redefine what "drugs" meant. So when asking someone, "What drug did you first start on?" Alcohol and/or Cigarettes (Nicotine is a drug) get nixed from the response sheet. You got your choice of illicit drugs that you started on, and of course it's always going to be marijuana. Reason being: Drug dealers don't make a whole lotta money off marijuana, but it's the easy sell to middle/high schoolers which are the target of every drug peddlar. It's easy to sell to little kids, something the tobacco industry realised long ago- and parents only recently caught on. So after a couple months of marijuana, drug dealer pushes something new on the kids: Cocaine, ecstasy, you name it- it's gonna be offered.
The only people who were really looking for a new high were born to be burnouts/abuse cases from the start. Give 'em alcohol, see what happens. They'll be alcoholics in a few months.
For the permanent brain damage deal: The excerpt that Bodhi posted in fact does not indicate an amazing loss of brain tissue which he first posted, and only indicates the following:
This may be the basis for the well-known memory deficits that are present in chronic marijuana users.
So really, all that this has proven is that marijuana may (no may about it though) cause memory deficiency in CHRONIC marijuana users. Chronic means everyday use, atleast 3 times a day.
In alcohol terms, they'd be labelled "alcoholics".
Now, lets put this into perspective: Since they have no indication that they studied after marijuana users quit the substance for an extended period of time, there is no proof of any permanent brain damage. There is only proof of altered memory retention during the use of marijuana and in the time span followed by the use of marijuana: Which is only 30 days if you smoke 1 joint.
It's an exponential graph, naturally, you smoke 3 times a day, every day, damn right your brain is going to be so resonated you can't remember what you ate during your munchy abuse 5 minutes ago... you smoke once a month and by the end of the month all traces of THC will be out of your system _AND_ the effects it had on your brain will have long since expired (since they tend to last a little shorter time period than the marijuana is in your system).
And about "overdosing" on marijuana, it's one of the few things that you simply can not overdose on. At some point, the only thing you are doing is filling your lungs with tar.
Oh, yeah... quit cold turkey too, cigarettes after 2 years and marijuana after 5 (I would of been classified a "chronic" abuser)... haven't even had the slightest desire to go back to smoking it.
That whole addiction thing is BS.
-SW
