For anyone who missed the worldwide corporate media's hysterical anti-pot headlines last week, here's a sampling:
Cannabis more damaging to adolescent brains than previously knownvia Emax Health
"New research shows that teens who consume cannabis daily can suffer anxiety and depression. Smoking marijuana can have long-term irreversible effects on adolescent brains, and is more harmful to teens than previously known."
Teen marijuana use affects brain permanently: study
via CBC News
"The findings suggest daily marijuana use by teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible effect on the brain."Pot damage on teens worse than thought
via UPI wire services
"Daily consumption of marijuana in teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have irreversible long-term effect on the brain, Canadian researchers say."Cannabis brain damage worse in teens than thought: study
via The Canadian Press
"The effects of daily cannabis use on teenage brains is worse than originally thought, and the long-term effects appear to be irreversible, new research from McGill University suggests."
Sounds scary, huh? It's meant to. Only there's three serious problems with the mainstream media's alarmist coverage.
1) No adolescents -- or for that matter, any human beings whatsoever -- actually participated in the study.
2) No actual cannabis was consumed in the study.
3) No permanent brain damage was reported in the study.
Don't believe me? Well then, check out the actual source of the headlines yourself.
Chronic exposure to cannabinoids during adolescence but not during adulthood impairs emotional behaviour and monoaminergic neurotransmission
via PubMed"We tested this hypothesis by administering the CB(1) receptor agonist WIN55,212-2, once daily for 20 days to adolescent and adult rats. ... Chronic adolescent exposure but not adult exposure to low (0.2 mg/kg) and high (1.0 mg/kg) doses led to depression-like behaviour in the forced swim and sucrose preference test, while the high dose also induced anxiety-like consequences in the novelty-suppressed feeding test. ... These (findings) suggest that long-term exposure to cannabinoids during adolescence induces anxiety-like and depression-like behaviours in adulthood and that this may be instigated by serotonergic hypoactivity and noradrenergic hyperactivity."
Yet somehow based on this speculative preclinical evidence, the mainstream media -- in unison -- proclaimed:
Reefer badness
via San Diego Tribune"A study of Canadian teenagers ... found that smoking the illicit drug is harder on young brains than originally thought. Writing in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, researchers at McGill University in Montreal said daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause significant depression and anxiety and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain."
In truth, the purported 'study' never said anything of the sort!
So why the does the MSM consistently get the story wrong when it comes to pot? You can check out my previous thoughts on the issue here.
This is typical of the "gutter science" used to demonize cannabis. It is a meta-analysis study, which means that the conclusions are based on guesswork, researcher bias and basic dishonesty. None of the hard sciences such as physics and chemistry accept meta-analysis as a means of proving a concept.
This study is so weak that does not offer any human examples of the effects they claim. Everything is extrapolated from a small number of rats. NO MARIJUANA was used in the study.
These claims are nothing more than fictions invented by the fevered brains of researchers (???) hoping to get grants from pharmaceutical companies to support their marketing of anti-psychotic drugs.
Our drug prisoners are political prisoners in the USA.
The USA has more political prisoners than any other country has total prisoners.
The MSM is just following Conservative strategy.
"Toxicity
Oral, mouse: LD50 = 250 mg/kg; Oral, rabbit: LD50 = 1010 mg/kg; Oral, rat: LD50 = 200 mg/kg. Effects of overdose include: tinnitus, abdominal pain, hypokalemia, hypoglycemia, pyrexia, hyperventilation, dysrhythmia, hypotension, hallucination, renal failure, confusion, seizure, coma, and death."
http://www.druglib.com/activeingredient/aspirin/
Here is the LD50 for Cannabis
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/mj_overdose.htm
That's a major double-standard here but one that's easy to correct. Just legalise cannabis and treat it as any other adult pleasure: Age-restricted to adults, licensed for sale and a ban on driving under the influence
Not in itself. I have known of a few people who got into traffic accidents because they were driving while high but that's a different thing.
Why? because Cannabis takes roughly 6 WEEKS to metabolize out of your system b/c THC is Not water soluble, it attaches to fat cells. The Eggects of Cannabis wear off in 2-3 Hours, yet one tests Postive for WEEKS!
The Only "thing" that Is Deadly one can connect to Cannabis Are the Laws, Rules and Policies that govern it's use!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Garon
http://www.mpp.org/victims/
"Cannabis has been known for its antidepressant and pain-relief effects for many years, but the addictive nature and general health concerns of cannabis use make this drug far from ideal as a medical treatment. The active ingredient in cannabis — THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) — stimulates cannabinoid receptors."
But now in 2009 pot causes depression. It's a miracle.
Here's the link to the news release http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=17777
It would seem that the good doctor's motives are anything but honest.
It is hard to think of what can be done. Journalists are human, and even thought they are supposed to maintain a non-biased stance, it rarely seems to happen. Maybe we will just have to be more vigilant as readers. That said, these articles, of people like this, that change the results of this study to support their position, are definitely not the type that I want tread.
You can bet the drug warriors are going to jump on this! Then, we will have another place to display their ignorance!
Big pharma needs it illegal to sell their own alternatives. The prison lobby needs to keep it illegal,. more people in jail means more profit and jobs. The lawyers need to keep it illegal, easy work for them. The textile and fashion industry needs to keep it illegal, hemp last longer than a fashion season. The timber and paper industry needs to keep it illegal or the need for wood and pulp will go down. The alcohol and tobacco industries need to keep it illegal, who wants competition? The employers associations need to keep it illegal, it lowers production profits. I can on. So can you.
Entrenched interests make money off the people by keeping it illegal. They pay off the politicians, who often also have a vested interests in keeping it illegal. Better to jail your sons and daughters than to loose such lucrative income streams.
Profit protection is the reason to keep it illegal. Screw democracy when profits are at stake.