CNN's Sanjay Gupta: We've been misled about cannabis

[RainDog]

91. Lies from the National Institute on Drug Abuse

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends

After alcohol, marijuana has the highest rate of dependence or abuse among all drugs. In 2011, 4.2 million Americans met clinical criteria for dependence or abuse of marijuana in the past year—more than twice the number for dependence/abuse of prescription pain relievers (1.8 million) and four times the number for dependence/abuse of cocaine (821,000).

Hmmmm. The reality is that cannabis is one of the least addictive substances. Why lie, NIDA? Need to pump up the fear to milk the tax cash cow? Doing the work for the drug cartels to keep the U.S. safe for their product?

Below, the NIDA plays with numbers to state something that is statistically nothing, is a something.

Illicit drug use in America has been increasing. In 2011, an estimated 22.5 million Americans aged 12 or older—or 8.7 percent of the population—had used an illicit drug or abused a psychotherapeutic medication (such as a pain reliever, stimulant, or tranquilizer) in the past month. This is up from 8.3 percent in 2002. The increase mostly reflects a recent rise in the use of marijuana, the most commonly used illicit drug.

So, a .04% increase is meaningful in a time when more people can actually be open about their cannabis use because of the recent relaxation in laws regarding use? Really?

It seems the big news is that drug abuse is, in fact, fairly flat over time, while drug use may fluctuate somewhat - but it's not as though we suddenly have epidemics of addicts. But that didn't stop the NIDA from starting their page with this scare line:

"Illicit drug use in America has been increasing."

oh, but wait... there's more to that story...

Use of most drugs other than marijuana has not changed appreciably over the past decade or has declined. In 2011, 6.1 million Americans aged 12 or older (or 2.4 percent) had used psycho-therapeutic prescription drugs nonmedically (without a prescription or in a manner or for a purpose not prescribed) in the past month—a decrease from 2010. And 972,000 Americans (0.4 percent) had used hallucinogens (a category that includes Ecstasy and LSD) in the past month—a decline from 2010.

Cocaine use has gone down in the last few years; from 2006 to 2011, the number of current users aged 12 or older dropped from 2.4 million to 1.4 million. Methamphetamine use has also dropped, from 731,000 current users in 2006 to 439,000 in 2011.

So, the reality is that drug use has declined, overall. Drug addiction has remained steady for decades (i.e. this would indicate drug addiction is a medical issue, not a social one) and use of the least harmful of all recreational drugs, cannabis, has increased as states have modified their laws to remove some of the stigma for those who choose to use cannabis instead of alcohol, etc.