SCIENTISTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST FALSE CANNABIS CLAIMS

Leading international scientific body reviews thirteen oft-repeated claims on cannabis use and regulation, finds that none are strongly supported by scientific evidence

Toronto, Canada – Many scientists are increasingly frustrated by the disregard of scientific evidence on cannabis use and regulation. To set the record straight, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), a global network of scientists working on drug policy issues, released two groundbreaking reports today evaluating the strength of commonly heard cannabis claims.

“State of the Evidence: Cannabis Use and Regulation,” is a comprehensive overview of the scientific research on major claims made about cannabis. It is paired with a summary report, “Using Evidence to Talk About Cannabis,” which equips readers with evidence-based responses to the claims.

The regulation of recreational cannabis markets has become an increasingly important policy issue in a number of jurisdictions. Colorado and Washington State made headlines in 2012, and Uruguay in 2013, when they became the first jurisdictions in the world to legalize and regulate the adult use and sale of cannabis for non-medical purposes. Momentum towards regulation continued in the United States in 2014 with successful ballot initiatives in Alaska, Oregon, and the District of Columbia. Globally, the issue of cannabis regulation is front and center in a growing number of jurisdictions, including Canada, Jamaica, Italy, Spain, Latin America, as well as several U.S. states set to vote on legalization initiatives in 2016.

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It’s worth reading the Full Report

Go mythbusters.

from the first link

The majority of cannabis use claims outlined in the reports tend to either misinterpret or overstate the existing scientific evidence. Dr. Carl Hart, Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, explained, “The claim that cannabis is a ‘gateway’ drug, for example, confuses correlation and causation. Worse still is the fact that a false claim like ‘cannabis is as addictive as heroin’ is reported as front page news. The evidence tells us that less than 1 in 10 people who use cannabis across their lifetime become dependent, whereas the lifetime probability of becoming heroin-dependent is closer to 1 in 4. False claims like these hamper public understanding of these issues and ultimately lead to harmful policies.”

its time the scaremongers went away