Why can the [US] government lie on their websites about marijuana?

1veedo · 10-09-2007

I was just looking at some government websites about marijuana and noticed how many "myths" are propagated there. Not everything they say is technically a lie but lots of times they're trying to mislead readers.

There are several sites out there but just for reference,
InfoFacts - Marijuana
Facts& Figures: Marijuana - Drug Facts, ONDCP
NIDA for Teens: Facts on Drugs - Marijuana

I'm not going to like make a critique of everything I think is wrong about these sites but just some examples --

*Marijuana may or may not cause cancer. Although it contains something like 60 carcinogens it appears to have cancer fighting properties as well. Long term studies indicate that there is no increased incidence of cancer among people who smoke marijuana verses people who don't.
*Marijuana is roughly as addictive as caffeine. Any physical addiction seems to be limited.
*Using marijuana while pregnant will not hurt your children.
*Marijuana is not a gateway drug. These statistics come from studies indicating a correlation between users of "hard" drugs verses users of marijuana. Because marijuana is the most popular illicit drug it's only natural that users of these hard drugs also use marijuana. However, statistics also indicate that most people who use marijuana do not use other drugs.
*Another thing I noticed was that these sites referenced some of the effects of actually being high -- short term memory loss, difficulty doing complicated tasks etc and not distinguishing that these are only short-term side-effects, not long-term. So yes technically marijuana messes up short term memory, but it only does this while you're high (and sometimes if you get "burnt out," but the effects are far from permanent). The teen page for instance tries to insinuate that if you smoke weed you wont be able to catch a baseball at a ball game.
*Smoking marijuana isn't really worse than smoking tobacco. Marijuana resin tends to accumulate on the larger airways as opposed to smaller airways so emphysema is far less likely in heavy marijuana smokers compared to tobacco.

Just because it's the government doesn't mean they should be able to get away with this does it? I'm not saying that smoking marijuana isn't bad for you, just that the government shouldn't be exaggerating or making it seem worse than it actually is. My favorite anti-marijuana commercial is the one where they're like "I smoked weed and nobody died. I didn't get into a car wrech, I didn't OD on herorin the next day. We set on pets couch for 11 hours..." Just because they're actually being strait with you and not lying or trying to distort things to seem like something else (lol of course 11 hours?).

10-09-2007	#1 (permalink)
1veedo Eligible for a custom title Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 190	Why can the [US] government lie on their websites about marijuana? I was just looking at some government websites about marijuana and noticed how many "myths" are propagated there. Not everything they say is technically a lie but lots of times they're trying to mislead readers. There are several sites out there but just for reference, InfoFacts - Marijuana Facts& Figures: Marijuana - Drug Facts, ONDCP NIDA for Teens: Facts on Drugs - Marijuana I'm not going to like make a critique of everything I think is wrong about these sites but just some examples -- Marijuana may or may not cause cancer. Although it contains something like 60 carcinogens it appears to have cancer fighting properties as well. Long term studies indicate that there is no increased incidence of cancer among people who smoke marijuana verses people who don't. Marijuana is roughly as addictive as caffeine. Any physical addiction seems to be limited. Using marijuana while pregnant will not hurt your children. Marijuana is not a gateway drug. These statistics come from studies indicating a correlation between users of "hard" drugs verses users of marijuana. Because marijuana is the most popular illicit drug it's only natural that users of these hard drugs also use marijuana. However, statistics also indicate that most people who use marijuana do not use other drugs. Another thing I noticed was that these sites referenced some of the effects of actually being high -- short term memory loss, difficulty doing complicated tasks etc and not distinguishing that these are only short-term side-effects, not long-term. So yes technically marijuana messes up short term memory, but it only does this while you're high (and sometimes if you get "burnt out," but the effects are far from permanent). The teen page for instance tries to insinuate that if you smoke weed you wont be able to catch a baseball at a ball game. Smoking marijuana isn't really worse than smoking tobacco. Marijuana resin tends to accumulate on the larger airways as opposed to smaller airways so emphysema is far less likely in heavy marijuana smokers compared to tobacco. Just because it's the government doesn't mean they should be able to get away with this does it? I'm not saying that smoking marijuana isn't bad for you, just that the government shouldn't be exaggerating or making it seem worse than it actually is. My favorite anti-marijuana commercial is the one where they're like "I smoked weed and nobody died. I didn't get into a car wrech, I didn't OD on herorin the next day. We set on pets couch for 11 hours..." Just because they're actually being strait with you and not lying or trying to distort things to seem like something else (lol of course 11 hours?).