The use of marijuana is becoming more and more popular these days. It is also becoming legalized in many countries around the world and for a good reason. Cannabis has a lot of medical properties that people can benefit from. It can also be used recreationally for its psychoactive effects. Unfortunately, the process of acceptance and legalization of the marijuana plant is being hindered by the fear of its addiction. I do have to mention that marijuana may cause addiction, but it is not as severe as other drugs or even alcohol.
There is a lot of misconception when it comes to cannabis including the fear of addiction. There are some positive and negative myths made up about this plant and I would like to clear those things up a bit. To do that, I took the most popular myths about marijuana addiction and I will try to debunk them with real and scientific facts.
It is a gateway drug
One of the most popular myths in the United States and across Europe is the made-up information that using marijuana can lead to the use of other more dangerous drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and even heroin. No matter how much you want to believe this, this is entirely not true. It is like saying that drinking beer or wine might lead people to use cocaine. That just doesn’t make any kind of sense, right? Well, it doesn’t make any sense when talking about weed too.
Smoking weed or ingesting its oils is not something that was discovered in the modern world. In fact, there is evidence that cannabis has been used for all kinds of benefits several millennia ago. Many cultures around the planet have kept the tradition of using cannabis to help with chronic pain or other medical problems. Cultures in Africa, Asia, and South America who still have the tradition of using cannabis on a daily basis, show no statistics about the use of any other drugs. Even if there are some signs of use of other drugs, it isn’t any different than different parts of the world such as the US or the UK.
This myth was made up in the 50s and 60s when older generations of the United States of America tried to prevent their kids from smoking weed. It was the time when marijuana started to get popularized, so they had to think of something that will deter kids and adults away from it. But, just 10 or 20 years later, it was scientifically proven that the gateway theory was made up and that no such thing existed.
What is even more interesting is the fact that countries that have prohibited the use of cannabis, have experienced an increase in the use of other drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin.
It stays in your body forever
Another way the government of the USA would scare people away from cannabis was through sharing misinformation that cannabis stays in the body forever. This is not true at all because the maximum time traces of weed can be found in the system is 90 days. 90 days is not a short period of time at all, but it is nowhere near forever.
How long traces of weed stay in your system completely depend on your use. If you have smoked or ingested marijuana just once in a 30 day period, there won’t be any traces of weed after about a week. Of course, this heavily depends on the type of body we are talking about. Finding traces of cannabis in heavier people will be more difficult while lighter body types have a much higher chance of showing traces of THC.
However, there are several ways you can clean your body from this evidence. Some claim that drinking a lot of water, cranberry juice, and apple cider vinegar may clear up your system, but without a proper marijuana detox kit, you won’t be able to get rid of the traces of THC in your system. For those that want to learn more about properly detoxing their body from THC, there are tons of guides online that could be of use.
Addiction to marijuana can cause damage to the brain
One of the most ridiculous myths regarding the use of this plant is the one where people claim that using it on a daily basis can cause serious brain damage. To be more precise, people would claim that smoking weed kills brain cells. This does not make any kind of sense. This piece of information was made up just to scare people away from cannabis.
Of course, the overuse of any kind of substance can start to cause physical damage to the body and may have a mental impact on the mind. We cannot ignore the fact that even marijuana can cause addiction and may induce symptoms of withdrawals and so on. But, this does not mean that it should be completely prohibited. We also shouldn’t make up lies and myths about it either. This kind of false information may lead to creating a much bigger problem than it already is.
It is more dangerous than alcohol
I believe that this is one of the worst myths because not only it deters people from cannabis, but it also pushes them towards the consumption of alcohol. While alcohol might be completely legal in almost every country on this planet that does not mean that it is healthy to consume it in large quantities. In fact, many studies have proven that alcohol may be more addictive and it is definitely much more damaging to the brain and the body.
Studies of people that have an alcohol addiction show that the deterioration of some organs such as the liver and kidneys is uncontrollably faster. Smoking cannabis may have an impact on the lungs, but it is nowhere near as damaging as drinking alcohol every single day.
I do not deny the fact that marijuana is addictive, but we cannot lead people astray with fake information and made-up facts. To help people avoid this addiction, we need to tell them the truth instead of lies.
