Calling B.S. on the Idea of ‘Marijuana Addiction’
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm | By: Radical Russ
Calling B.S. on the Idea of ‘Marijuana Addiction’ | DrugReporter | AlterNet
The U.S. government believes that America is going to pot — literally.Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation’s first-ever “Center on Cannabis Addiction,” which will be based in La Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA’s press release, is to “develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of marijuana addiction.”
And what does the science say? Well, according to the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine — which published a multiyear, million-dollar federal study assessing marijuana and health in 1999 — “millions of Americans have tried marijuana, but most are not regular users [and] few marijuana users become dependent on it.” The investigator added, “[A]though [some] marijuana users develop dependence, they appear to be less likely to do so than users of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine), and marijuana dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs.”
Most importantly, unlike the withdrawal symptoms associated with the cessation of most other intoxicants, pot’s mild after-effects do not appear to be either severe or long-lasting enough to perpetuate marijuana use in individuals who have decided to quit. This is why most marijuana smokers report voluntarily ceasing their cannabis use by age 30 with little physical or psychological difficulty. By comparison, many cigarette smokers who pick up the habit early in life continue to smoke for the rest of their lives, despite making numerous efforts to quit.
Further, pot lacks the profound abstinence symptoms associated with most legal intoxicants, including caffeine.
As always, it’s worth clicking the link to read the full story. You only have to follow the money to understand why there is a push for creating in the public’s mind a false stereotype about “marijuana addiction” – that creates jobs for “marijuana rehab” and “marijuana drug testing” and prescriptions for drugs like lithium to relieve the “addict’s” craving for the ganja!
