The Addictive Risks of Cannabis
Published August 09, 2005
I don't have the Anthony, Warner, and Kessler study handy, but if memory serves they found that those 9% averaged 44 consecutive months of daily heavy use before quitting or cutting back for the first time. That's not, in my view, a small problem, especially if those 44 months are from, say, the fall of the ninth grade to the spring of the 12th grade. So the widespread belief that the opiates and stimulants are addictive but cannabis isn't simply doesn't fit the facts.
Still, cannabis has a lower addiction potential, and in general a less fearsome pattern of addictive behavior, than any other widely used recreational intoxicant. In particular, drinking creates a much higher risk of a much nastier addiction, and parents in general should be much more worried about their children's drinking behavior than about their children's pot-smoking. Those are facts not in legitimate dispute, and I wish I didn't have to pay people in Washington to try to pretend to dispute them.
- The Addictive Risks of Cannabis
- Published: August 09, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Mark Kleiman
- Mark Kleiman's BC Writer page
- Mark Kleiman's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
If booze was illegal, it would be the gateway drug. The problem with booze is that it leads you down the spiral of doom. At least people who smoke dope reflect on themselves. Smoking can be extremely constructive, while drinking takes you down the one way alley of self destruction ?
Really, the arguement about dope being the gateway drug is as convincing as the argument that america has nothing to gain from making marijuana illegal !!!!@! American government is really threatened by this weed because they know that their bum chums will loose their market once dope becomes a industrial and medical standard.
I guess parents really have to worry about lawsuits after THEIR kids fuck up on dope.
The parents are on the hook until Junior turns 18. That could get ugly when the attorneys get on a roll, with the eyeball's turned towards the assets and a settlement.
Ugly business and probably not a laughing matter.
Oh, and the IRS will definately make sure the government gets paid.
by legalizing dope and closing down revenue that keeps the illicit drug trade open, including the lawlessness and political assasinations at the mexican border, we would be in an infinitely better position even if there is some small effect on use.
a few more dopeheads, but no drug lords and killers sounds fine to me.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/33917)
Frank Zappa once famously said, in response to people going on about marijuana leading on to other drugs that even more people started off taking Milk.
Got Milk, Man?