The Mainstream Media's 5 Favorite Marijuana Myths

[tridim]

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opiniion-the-mainstream-media-s-5-favorite-marijuana-myths-r-1254094668

Writing in the journal Science nearly four decades ago, New York State University sociologist Erich Goode documented the media's complicity in maintaining cannabis prohibition.

He observed: "Tests and experiments purporting to demonstrate the ravages of marijuana consumption receive enormous attention from the media, and their findings become accepted as fact by the public. But when careful refutations of such research are published, or when later findings contradict the original pathological findings, they tend to be ignored or dismissed."

A glimpse of today's mainstream media landscape indicates that little has changed -- with news outlets continuing to, at best, underreport the publication of scientific studies that undermine the federal government's longstanding pot propaganda and, at worst, ignore them all together.

Here are five recent stories the mainstream media doesn't want you to know about pot:

1. Marijuana Use Is Not Associated With a Rise in Incidences of Schizophrenia
Over the past few years, the worldwide media, as well as federal officials in the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. have earnestly promoted the notion that smoking pot induces mental illness.

Perhaps most notably, in 2007 the MSM reported that cannabis "could boost the risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life by about 40 percent" -- a talking point that was also actively promoted by U.S. anti-drug officials. So, is there any truth to the claim that pot smoking is sparking a dramatic rise in mental illness? Not at all, according to the findings of a study published in July in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

More: http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opiniion-the-mainstream-media-s-5-favorite-marijuana-myths-r-1254094668

[JuniperLea]

1. Pot smokers aren't lazy and dull witted either...

Unless they already were:)

There's a long list of famous and accomplished pot heads... including Carl Sagan, who no doubt smoked billions and billions of bong hits;)

[imdjh]

2. They say there are no old junkies, just old winos.

The idea is that junkies are either dead by a certain point or they have switched to wine because it's cheap and easy to get.

I'm not big on pot, but if those winos ended up being homeless potheads instead, it's difficult to imagine that it wouldn't be an improvement.

[bbinacan]

3. I don't know,

if you see the SPECT images of an habitual marijuana smoker, you may reconsider the schizophrenic angle.

[ki83760]

4. True.