\t10 Marijuana Myths ExposedBY RUSS BELVILLE · TUE JAN 21, 2014 RSS <div style="margin:0px;"> </div>The next time you're in that conversation with the person who's dissing marijuana legalization, you can deliver these knockout statistics to shut them up. “Legal pot will target kids!†The fastest growing demographic of marijuana smokers in the 21st century is people over the age of 50. Barely one percent of the AARP-eligible smoked pot monthly at the start of the 2000s. That figure is over three percent today and in raw numbers, monthly silver tokers have tripled since 2000. “Kids will think pot is OK!†In the beginning of the 2000s, there were 3.9 million kids aged 17 or younger who smoked pot that year. In 2012, that figure dropped to 3.3 million. Meanwhile, annual tokers over age 50 more than doubled from 1.7 million to 4.7 million “Teen use will skyrocket!†The greatest teen use was in 1979, when 31 percent of high school seniors had tried illegal-in-all-50-states pot. Today, with 20 medical marijuana states and two legal states, only 17 percent of 12th graders have tried pot. “Productivity will suffer!†Fifty-five percent of people who have never smoked marijuana work full or part time. But 70.6 percent of people who have smoked pot are working. Even monthly pot smokers are more likely to be employed (64.4 percent) than people who didn't smoke pot this month (61.7 percent). “Roads full of stoned drivers!†During the annual two-week national DUI crackdown between mid-August and Labor Day, police in Washington State nabbed fewer people for DUI than the year before legalization and more drivers they caught were under the state's new legal limit. In Colorado, just 13 out of 359 DUI cases in the Denver metro area were for marijuana. Accident fatality rates are down in Washington and Colorado at a greater rate than the national average. “Today's pot is seven-times stronger!†There's always been great weed. Today it's just easier to come by. Average potency of marijuana seized has increased by about double, but why are we supposed to fear a 10 percent-30 percent THC bud when a 100 percent THC pill (Marinol) has been legal since the 1980s? â€Marijuana addicts are filling rehabs!†Well, people caught smoking pot are filling rehabs because a judge forces them there. Over half (53 percent) of people in rehab for marijuana alone were sent there by the criminal justice system, while only one-in-seven (14 percent) chose to enroll themselves in rehab. As for these “addicts,†well over half of them (56 percent) smoked pot less than once a week, with well over a third (37 percent) who smoked no pot the month before admission to rehab. “Legal pot will target minorities!†Really, more than law enforcement? There are twice as many white monthly marijuana smokers (12.7 million) than all other races and ethnicities combined (6.3 million). “What's next, legalized meth?†Doubtful. While the latest CNN Opinion poll showed 88 percent support for medical marijuana, 84 percent for decriminalized marijuana, and 55 percent for legalized marijuana, it showed only four percent support for legalized meth and cocaine and three percent support for legalized heroin. “Legal pot will drive up social costs!†A 2002 Canadian study found that a smoker costs $822/year in social costs, a drinker costs $165/year, and a pot smoker costs $20/year. That pot cost is under prohibition, so we take in no taxes to offset it. Do you think we can collect $20 in taxes per year from a legal pot smoker? "Radical" Russ Belville is the host of The Russ Belville Show, which airs live at 3pm Pacific.
I hate that statistics are what's required of us to partake in arguments over sensible policy. If statistics are what is needed then my favorite statistic is, that since 150,000 years ago, no human being has reached the LD-50 required to die from marijuana. Thats the only number that cant be skewed by bias, region, etc. etc. My points on why marijuana should be legal almost never include numbers, but truly, you require numbers to speak to politicians and economists.
In my opinion, there is a need for more studies to support marijuana's being safe and legal. Hopefully more researchers dare to take up the challenge.
i lol'd at the title. Although it's a bit of an icky connotation, since i so abhor theist/creationist apologetics... they constantly employ intellectual dishonesty and unethical tactics in order to make it seem, to an uneducated or biased audience, that they have successfully gained the upper hand, when in fact, any intellectually honest critical thinker will easily identify their fallacies. But then, when you try to reason with them and explain things logically, they resort to disruption, disallowing the conversation or debate to progress naturally... And why? Because they already know, they've already lost! They're so afraid their untenable position will become clearly revealed to potential fence-sitters, they would rather stop or avoid the debate entirely, than to risk losing their last shred of undeserved credibility. Honesty, integrity, truth, and demanding justice and fairness, is "the right way" to win the cannabis debate. There is simply no sufficient grounds to authorize violence or any other kind of punishment, against any person, just for growing or using cannabis. None. And i think all we really need to do, is "win the hearts and minds" of the fence sitters, by getting all the pro-cannabis people on the right page, and equipping them with the proper "rhetoric" to enable them to "pay forward" the "each one teach one" protocol, until critical mass is reached, and the truth can no longer be disregarded.
Also: "Kids will think pot is OK!" Well of course they will! It IS OK! Weed is Okay! That's why we're going through all this hassle trying to make changes! (and no, don't try to twist that into meaning anyone is doing it for the kids... but kids don't need to be lied to and told that cannabis is "bad," when it really isn't. They just need parents who care enough to let them develop into functional adults prior to becoming super-stoners)
It's best to educate your kids young about the dangers of trusting things that authority figures tell them. My kids are very aware that they cant trust their teachers or their govt and when they hear anything that is considered propaganda at school they always come home and ask me to translate. Ive taught them trust is something you give sparingly in this life and there are no second chances with trust. At the same time ive taught them to respect authority. They have learned young there is a gray area to life. Its the only way we can have an impact, to get into our kids heads before "they" do.
I've always found this argument so dumb. It would seem to me that more potent weed is better because you achieve the same high whilst consuming less combusted plant matter.
Very true when most parents don't think twice about slamming some shots or cracking a beer in front of kids. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum..grabba dabba goo
Does this article cite the actual studies the info was found? I just am interested in the actual studies and how they were done and who did them. Thanks for the post! Itty Bitty Canna Committee - "Our Cup Runneth Over"
No it does nor cite the actual studes. I guess one would have to contact Russ Belville for that information. Thanks for your reply.
The numbers on race are always dumb. Of course whites are going to have higher raw number, duh. But if 13% of the population (blacks) makes up that other 50% of the 100% of smokers then they are disproportionately represented and the logic fails to make a valid point. At the end of the day I think we should start serious research on THC. I advocate capitalizing on the revenue aspect as well. I would oppose those who want to deny the home grower for personal use. I would not mind local guys selling to compete with Mosanto.
Without stats of a social topic, anything can be said or claimed without basis. Without evidence there can be no conclusion that can be considered scientific. I can shout on the hill that pot will turn you into a lizard if there is no evidence to support or refute this, it will be believed by more than you would want to realize. Even with a mountain of evidence many will refute, look how long it took to get lead banned from use in gasoline, just because of greedy jerks. Take into account that you have alcohol manufactures, pharmaceutical companies and the puritan cranks all wanting to keep the status quo on weed, yea its a lot to overcome.
I would never fly in the face of science. Simply what I'm saying is that the intangibles of marijuana, the nuances, the... Immediate understanding for anyone who actually subjects them-self to the substance that it is NOT foul or reprehensible, to our world view of "good", is reason enough why it should NOT be ostracized from society. I find that anyone who smokes marijuana has done a great deal more in they way of science than someone who applies the statistics of other legal substances, like alcohol and tobacco, and show how they are much more negative in comparison to marijuana. Those statistics are good reason for making alcohol and tobacco illegal, if we so wished to try so. Thats how it should be. You should have to amount of mass of evidence, statistics, scientific observation, of many terrible effects to make something illegal. It should be harder to make something illegal, and limit a freedom of people, than the inverse. So I just think the nuances of marijuana experience and the lack of the should-be requirements to make something illegal, is more than enough to change our policies, if we consider ourselves rational thinking minds. The question should be so so so simply. "Are we being rational for eradicating the existence of a plant that is not toxic, in any manner, in recorded history." What you choose to do with the plant is subjective and shouldn't be in discussion at all in consideration of eradicating some thing's existence.
â€Marijuana addicts are filling rehabs!†Well, people caught smoking pot are filling rehabs because a judge forces them there. Over half (53 percent) of people in rehab for marijuana alone were sent there by the criminal justice system, while only one-in-seven (14 percent) chose to enroll themselves in rehab. As for these “addicts,†well over half of them (56 percent) smoked pot less than once a week, with well over a third (37 percent) who smoked no pot the month before admission to rehab. I'm not positive but I think most of these "addicts" are in treatment because its an easier way out than doing time. Marijuana is less addictive than caffeine. I think its screwed up to put these innocent people through this rollercoaster ride of bullshit when our president stated in the book he wrote that he used marijuana and maybe a little blow. I guarantee he didn't have to go through treatment, now he is running our country not giving 2 fucks about the people that were once in his shoes.