ABC News: Is Pot Addictive? Treat it with Marinol!

NORML’s Paul Armentano has already done a stellar job taking on the latest reefer madess on ABC News.  This is another one of what seem to be an increasing number of stories (NY Times, Dr. Drew, The Tenneseean, CNN, TransWorldNews, Christian Science Monitor)  that bring up the idea of “marijuana addiction” by telling the personal stories of people whose lives became full of turmoil and regret when they just couldn’t give up the doobies.

Many years ago the former head of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Alan Leshner made this statement when forced to confront the fact that tens of thousands of patients were successfully using cannabis as a medicine:“The plural of anecdote is not evidence.”

Someone ought to pass on Lesnher’s cop out to ABC News, whose recent feature, “Reefer Madness Redux: Is Pot Addictive?“, is little more than a series of anecdotes from folks claiming that it’s becoming harder and harder for some individuals to quit weed.

Yes, if 10,000 people say that using marijuana helped them medicinally, that’s just anecdotes and no basis for medicine.  But if a dozen people say that they were daily tokers, it ruined their lives, and they had a hard time quitting the bong, that’s enough for the mainstream media to question “Is Pot Addictive?”.  Which, by the way, is one of those sneaky ways the media tries to push a narrative by just asking the question and not declaring the fact.  “Is President Obama a Kenyan-born Illegal President?” or “Has Former President Bush Returned to His Hard Drinking Ways?” would be similar examples of the technique.

It’s the old “some people say” trick where media presents an issue as if it has two sides when the facts are all on one side.  “Some people say pot is addictive,” they’ll intone, and bring on three anecdotes of wasted lives, “and some people say it isn’t,” they’ll continue by presenting three doctors who tell the truth and present the evidence that it isn’t addictive in the potential-death-from-withdrawal sense.  See?  Three pot smokers who blame marijuana for their life’s failures vs. three well-educated doctors with studies of thousands of pot smokers whose lives turned out just fine.  Fair and Balanced!

Let me pick this apart a little.  In the piece, we meet “Vicky”, a 53-year-old who started smoking pot at age 13.  Well, there’s a clue!  We know marijuana use before age 18 can have detrimental effects and we here at NORML have been very forthright about explaining that.

Since the 1970s, when marijuana was the symbol of political protest, the risks of marijuana dependency have been clouded by the legalization debate and long-held beliefs that the illicit drug is harmless.

You’re not finding those beliefs here.  I’ll be the first to tell you marijuana is not harmless.  Neither is water.  But it is far less harmful than other drugs we allow even our teenagers to consume, like a Starbucks Frappacino loaded with caffeine, for instance.

Today, there are no FDA-approved drugs to counteract withdrawal symptoms, although the synthetic cancer drug Marinol shows some promise.

So, the treatment for the new “Pot 2.0: Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed™”, the deadly addictive skunkweed that can be up to (gasp!) 25% THC, is a synthetic THC pill that’s 100% THC?  Sheesh, next they’ll tell us that lithium is a good treatment for marijuana “addiction”!  Whoops, too late.

The reclassification of marijuana is important, according to the APA because its omission as an addictive substance then professionals might not see treatment regimens for dependence as necessary.

Ah, so the association representing psychiatrists is telling us that if we don’t classify marijuana as addictive, psychiatrists might not declare people marijuana addicts in need of expensive treatment from psychiatrists.  Got it.

As the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, marijuana produces dependence and relapse rates comparable to other drugs some researchers believe.

About 9 percent of all those who used marijuana became dependent, compared to rates of 32 percent for tobacco, 23 percent for opiates and 15 percent for alcohol, according to the 1994 National Comorbidity Survey.

In what branch of math are values 255% greater, 155% greater, and 66% greater considered “comparable”?  This is like saying my one minute eight second time in a 200 meter dash is comparable to Usain Bolt’s 19.3 second world record time.

For daily smokers, that dependency rate soars to between 33 and 50 percent, say more recent studies.

And what is the dependency rate for daily tobacco smokers, 100%?  Or daily beer drinkers?  Doesn’t it seem a good thing to you that half to two-thirds of daily marijuana smokers can quit cold turkey without any negative withdrawal effects?

With stronger pot, emergency rooms have reported more associated accidents. Just this week, seven people were killed when the driver — drove the wrong way on a New York highway and collided head on with a pickup truck. Although the drivers family has disputed the results, toxicology tests showed high levels of alcohol and marijuana.

Yes, high levels of alcohol, as in a .19 BAC!  So naturally this is the perfect example to show how stronger pot is causing accidents.

All addictive drugs have a “common signature,” according to NIDA director Nora D. Volkow. “They increase dopamine levels in the brain’s pleasure center and produce repetitive behavior. Marijuana appears do both, though at intermediate levels compared to other drugs.

Absolutely untrue, according to a new study published this June in NeuroImage, which concluded, “In the largest study of its kind so far, we have shown that recreational cannabis users do not release significant amounts of dopamine from an oral THC dose equivalent to a standard cannabis cigarette.”

Roger A. Roffman, a professor of social work at University of Washington… argues that the reform movement makes a “tragic mistake” to convince the public that marijuana is relatively harmless.

We’ve never claimed marijuana is harmless!  We’ve always claimed it is less harmful than alcohol.  Quit putting your words in our mouths!