Many “facts” about marijuana have already proven to be false
This goes out to all those individuals who have been trying to prevent marijuana from being legalized, but who have been too lazy to learn the truth. Here is a quick rundown of some of the myths regarding marijuana and the proven scientific fact that refute them.
Some have tried to argue that cannabis causes cancer. In fact, besides not having a shred of scientific evidence to support the claim, the opposite has already proven to be true. The National Academy of Science published a report two years ago in which it stated that it had not found any “statistically significant association between smoking cannabis and cancer.” Contrary to the myth, CBD (cannabidiol) oil has already been proven to be effective in fighting cancer.
There’s a myth that marijuana is dangerous. However, many of the same effects seen from marijuana consumption are found in legal alcohol and alcohol is known to be more habit-forming than marijuana. Additionally, it is possible to overdose on alcohol – not so with marijuana. The World Health Organization (WHO) points out, “The acute toxicity of cannabis is very low. There are no confirmed cases of human deaths from cannabis poisoning in the world medical literature.”
The belief that medical marijuana consumption is just an excuse to “get high” is an extreme myth. Consuming CBD for pain or inflammation provides no means of getting high. In fact, as the National Institute on Drug Abuse asserts, “THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] can increase appetite, reduce nausea, decrease pain, inflammation and muscle control problems. CBD [cannabidiol—a cannabis component that doesn’t make people ‘high’] may be useful in reducing pain and inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures and possibly even treating mental illness and addictions.”
Someone, somewhere decided to try and convince the world that marijuana consumption can damage the lungs. However, as the WHO shows, claims that cannabis use causes lung damage “fall short of providing convincing evidence because they were uncontrolled, and many of the cases concurrently used alcohol and tobacco.” This doesn’t even consider the fact that marijuana use through edibles, pills, oils and rubs has no possible way to impact the lungs.
The most commonly used excuse in trying to prevent marijuana legalization is the claim that it simply doesn’t have practical uses in medicine. The 2.5 million medical marijuana patients in the U.S. would argue against this point and even the Food and Drug Administration, when it approved Epidiolex, recognized the medical benefits of marijuana.
