The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
The Cash:
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link.
The Story:
‘Marijuana is the gateway drug’, they say. Maybe and perhaps in some unique cases. Let’s briefly review why this may be believed. In most epidemiological marijuana studies the findings show that early use of marijuana leads to increased vulnerability for drug abuse and addiction to other substances later in life. However, these findings are generalised, which decreases scientific merit, so it has never been proven conclusively.
Personally, I doubt very much that marijuana consumption would lead someone to want or to need to use a more addictive and dangerous drug, such as cocaine or heroin. Firstly, there is no proof and secondly, it’s known amongst marijuana connoisseurs to be false. One may ask, where did this idea originate? Let me remind you of that old and long running propaganda campaign for the prohibition of drugs, formally know as ‘The War on Drugs’. This was the name given by the mass media and initiated by United States President Richard Nixon in June of 1971.
Propaganda fuelled by fear and scare tactics was their weapon of choice. The public never had a chance. Marijuana is a drug and drugs are bad, drugs kill and ruin lives. Your loved ones are in danger. The Global Commission on Drug Policy in 2011 released a critical report on the War on Drugs, declaring:
“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world”.
The effects and devastation continue today, U.S. jails are overflowing with victims, communities are being strangled by the trafficking of cartels, corruption has only been on the rise – infiltrating all levels of government and all in the grace of the parallel economies which prohibition creates.
Alternative studies were conducted illustrating that most people who use marijuana do not go on to use other harder substances. Furthermore, the critical priming for vulnerability to addictions and abuse of other substances is not unique just to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs. However alcohol and nicotine were not being targeted in the war of freedoms and choice. Actually, we witness the bias of substances, as alcohol and nicotine were publicly promoted during the Nixon era and the marketing for alcohol still stands active today. We can see how the alcohol prohibition of the 1920’s was an attempt of control and a display of the force of government.
Short story time, I remember returning home from school terrified. I would have been 10 years old. From class, I gathered that your brain is a bag of brain cells and when you run of out, it’s game over. Mr. Teacher covered many aspects of brain health, how we can not repair cells, we can not create or grow more and that we are born with all that we need. Brain cells are important for smarts, memory, motor skills and basically quality of life. We were exposed to examples of brain damage and the after affects as well as an array of causes. The following loud words were printed into my mind, ‘drinking alcohol kills brain cells’. Being 10 years old I didn’t need to be contemplating my own death due to lack of brain cells. That night I did do my homework: what do people consume that contains alcohol?
The scars of that class had tattooed my being, throughout my 20’s knowing that if “harmless” old alcohol causes so much brain damage, there is no way I am going partake in drugs. Now I see that the joke was on me, most of what I had learnt in school wasn’t entirely correct. Carrying out light research online I find that perhaps marijuana is not as harmful as alcohol and that it may actually have benefits (depending on application). Marijuana, cannabis is good for your brain, it promotes new brain cell growth, it prevents Alzheimer’s, it cannabis prevents brain damage after strokes and trauma and cannabis extracts have been used to treat brain cancer.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has published ‘evidence from one animal study suggests that extracts from whole-plant marijuana can shrink one of the most serious types of brain tumors’. Marijuana and its extracts can be prescribed to treat numerous diseases and conditions, such as; autoimmune diseases (HIV/AIDS), life boredom, multiple sclerosis (MS – which causes gradual loss of muscle control), Alzheimer’s disease (which causes loss of brain function, affecting memory, thinking, and behaviour), inflammation, pain, seizures, substance use disorders and mental disorders.
In this episode we discuss a real world perspective of marijuana being the gateway drug, as well as many other fun topics, please enjoy another crazy adventure we call, The Paradise Paradox.
The Links:
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition
Marijuana kills cancer cells, confirms US government
NIDA Research on the Therapeutic Benefits of Cannabis and Cannabinoids
Boy, two, with brain cancer is ‘cured’ after secretly being fed medical marijuana by his father
