Top 5 Myths About Weed

#5: Pot Makes People Apathetic

Also in:

Top 5 Myths About Sleep

The lazy stoner is a popular archetype, but you shouldn’t confuse correlation with causality. Which came first… the pot or the apathy? With its calming effects, marijuana has been widely embraced by slacker society. The problem however, is that this has resulted in unflattering stereotypes about weed smokers in general. But considering the fact that, according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 147 million people consume marijuana globally, including 16.2% of all Americans, this reputation can’t be applied universally. Long-term heavy marijuana use can affect motivation, but realistically, responsible recreational use isn’t going to make you a sloth.

Maybe this stems from the aforementioned apathy myth… but people have long warned that marijuana negatively impacts sexual performance. Let’s get the disappointing truths out of the way - prolonged marijuana use among males who smoke daily has shown an increased risk of erectile dysfunction. It can also significantly lower sperm count. So… food for thought. But neither of these considerations lends any credence to the belief that being stoned during intercourse takes away from the experience. In fact, some studies suggest that it results in increased sexual stamina in men, decreased stress and heightened sensitivity in men and women, and depending on who you ask, more intense orgasms for both partners!

Need another argument for legalizing marijuana? How about the fact that it will effectively kill synthetic marijuana - which, unlike the real stuff, has proven to be directly dangerous? Unfortunately, as a society, we tend to put blind faith in the legal system to protect us, operating under the assumption that illegal substances are bad, and, by extension, legal substances are safe. While quite a few countries have banned it, or at least put it on a list of “drugs of concern,” there are still quite a few places where it’s either legal or at least unregulated. The problem is, it takes time for a newly developed chemical to find its way on to the list of contraband substances, and until it does, it falls into a legal gray area. Synthetic cannabinoids bond with THC receptors to give a similar high, but these various chemical cocktails have resulted in hospitalization and death.

Pot makes you dumb. It’s arguably one of the most common arguments given against the drug. After a decades-long debate on the subject, a number of studies have been released since 2010 that seem to collectively put a definitive nail in the coffin of the argument. They’ve all concluded that no… marijuana does not kill brain cells. In fact, they found that marijuana may actually be of benefit to brain health. According to findings published in Neurochemistry International in 2013, marijuana may stimulate the growth of new brain cells that are already forming. A 2012 study found it may also help to combat stress-related disorders, such as PTSD.

Ah yes… the piece of marijuana propaganda that’s been peddled to children and parents alike for generations, preying on fears of degeneracy and debilitating dependency. Well, pot might be a gateway drug, but not in that way. People who consume harder drugs are likely to have smoked marijuana first, but again, it’s a case of causation versus correlation. Most cannabis users never move on to other substances. If anything, marijuana’s illegal status forces users into a criminal environment where more severe drug use is normalized. A 2014 National Institute on Drug Abuse study showed that while more students are smoking marijuana, hard drug use has declined overall. So, so much for the gateway theory.