The Feds Are Incapable of Telling Truth About Pot

[madokie]

The country’s marijuana policies continue to be divorced from science.

In her latest blog post, US National Institute on Drug Abuse director Nora Volkow claims that “science should guide marijuana policy.” But if the nation’s top anti-drug doc truly believes that facts, not ideological rhetoric, ought to shape America’s drug policies, why does she feel the need to keep distorting the truth about pot?

Writes Volkow: “Besides being addictive, marijuana is cognitively impairing even beyond the phase of acute intoxication and regular use during adolescence may cause a significant, possibly permanent IQ loss.”

Or, more than likely, it may not. In fact, the very study Volkow relies on to make this questionable claim was publically repudiated in a 2012 review published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That review suggests that socioeconomic differences, not pot use, are responsible for dissimilarities found among former teen marijuana users and non-users. In fact, once economic variables were factored into the assessment, the analysis reported that cannabis’ actual effect on IQ was likely to be “zero.”

As for Nora Volkow’s allegation that pot is addictive, well, a bit of context is necessary. Do a minority of people who experiment with cannabis at some point in their lives exhibit symptoms of drug dependence? Yes, about nine percent do so, according to the National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine. But this percentage is similar to that of anxiolytics and is far lower than the dependence liability associated with other substances like alcohol (15 percent) and tobacco (32 percent). So concludes the Institute in its report "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base": “[A]lthough few marijuana users develop dependence, some do. But they appear to be less likely to do so than users of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine), and marijuana dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/feds-are-incapable-telling-truth-about-pot?page=0%2C1&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

[GeorgeGist]

1. What is the dependence metric for government workers and lying?

[LuvNewcastle]

2. Do they tell the truth about anything?

The government is out of control. It doesn't respond to the will of the people. I'm not sure who it serves at this point. I know the wealthy have plenty of influence, but if there's a grander method to this madness, it eludes me. Things have gotten so out of hand that I'm not even sure it could be taken back, if it was ever ours to begin with.

[merrily]

3. Any adult who thinks govt--any govt--tells the public the truth, the whole truth and nothing

but the truth about any subject is just too adorable for words.

It's funny. They operate on our money. However, we are the ones obligated to tell govt the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth (in court, on our tax returns, in our allegations to police, etc.), while they are free to keep secrets from us and "propagandize" us. Yet, the word "sheeple" is highly controversial.

[eridani]

4. Thanks for taking up Rain Dog's cause

Every time I see one of these posts I miss her.

[madokie]

6. What a compliment

thanks for that
I miss Rain Dog too

[hobbit709]

5. governments lie, it's inherent in their nature.