Marijuana is a herb with dried flowers which had many strains and strengths and which contains the chemical Tetrahydrocannibol (THC). It has been used for thousands of years for medical, religious, social and relaxation purposes and was widely accepted until the 1930's when the US & Canada started to work on the first laws to against people using it. This was an orchestrated campaign which led to disinformation and general public hysteria. Today, the Canadian Police Chief's Association are fighting for decriminalization and are urging lawmakers to re-legalize and tax users, introduce age limits and laws such as those used for the use of alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana, when smoked or eaten is produces a high effect which can last for a few …show more content…
While there is no denying the fact that marijuana does cost financial ruin, fuels a certain amount of drug-induced violence and play a role in marijuana-related turf wars between gangs and secret societies, there is also a lot of misinformation pandered about by governments and certain sectors of the medical community as real facts. Marijuana is a Gateway to Hardcore Drugs Contrary to most government claims, there is little proof to indicate that marijuana is a gateway to more hardcore drugs, such as cocaine and heroine. The rampant marijuana use in the 1960s led to claims that marijuana was actually a gateway drug, but the decline in marijuana use actually coincided with the rise of cocaine use in the 1980s, thus making the claim more bogus than it really was. The truth is, approximately 83% of marijuana users never used cocaine, and that cigarettes and alcohol, or a combination of both, plays a greater role as a gateway drug than marijuana. Marijuana Kills Brain Cells One of the most fraudulent claims is that marijuana kills brain cells. This claim was actually borne out of a scientific experiment carried out on monkeys by Dr. Robert G. Heath, which purported to find brain damage in three monkeys that had been heavily dosed with cannabis. This work was never replicated, though, and has since been discredited by a pair of better controlled, much larger monkey studies, one by Dr. William Slikker of the National Center for Toxicological Research and the other by Charles Rebert and Gordon Pryor of SRI International. Neither found any evidence of physical alteration in the brains of monkeys exposed to daily doses of pot for up to a year. Human studies of heavy users in Jamaica and Costa Rica found no evidence of abnormalities in brain physiology, although short term memory loss has been detected in heavy users