Marijuana Myths

[Slizzard]

as a child I was not allowed to drink the soft drink Coke. I would make money mowing lawns and buy it though.

Haha, this is a good analogy for one reason legalization is a good idea. It isn't much harder than this for a kid to do the same thing but with MJ not a coke. With legalization there would be an age restriction preventing this. I just can't understand why its so hard for ppl to realize the overwhelming number of positive reasons to legalize. I guess for many it is just hard to overcome the lies they've been taught since the beginning.

 

[Jim Finnel]

DEBUNKING "AMOTIVATIONAL SYNDROME"

"There is no such thing as laziness. Laziness is only lack of incentive."

Norman Reider, MD

A graduate student in the psychology department at the University of Southern California, Sara Smucker Barnwell, has conducted a survey to assess whether or not cannabis use undermines motivation. She emailed a questionnaire to 200 undergraduates who had taken a course on drugs and human behavior, and to 100 acquaintances of a co-author, Mitch Earleywine, PhD, who in turn were asked to forward it to others. She got responses from some 1,300 people. She then analyzed the responses of everyday users ( 244 ) and those who had never used ( 243 ).

Barnwell's questionnaire comprised an "Apathy Evaluation Scale" and a "Satisfaction with Life Scale." Apathy was measured by 12 statements such as "I don't follow through on my plans" to which respondents gave their level of agreement ( "Not At All, Slightly, Somewhat, Very Much" ). Satisfaction was measured by agreement with five statements, including "If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing." The mean age of the participants was 33. They were mostly Caucasian ( 79% ), with a preponderance of them students. One in three frequent cannabis users described their use as medical.

Much of Barnwell et al's paper consists of statistical methodology involving "T-distribution," "heteroscedasticity," "controlling for unequal variances," "outliers ( e.g. data points above/below three standard deviations )," "standard transformations ( e.g. square roots )," "trimmed means," "alternative measures of effect size ( the estimated measure of the degree of separations between two distributions )," "Cohen's delta calculations," "Pearson's correlations," "Welch's heteroscedastic means comparison," "Yuen's comparison of 20% trimmed means," etc. etc ...

The jargon is almost impenetrable, but it appears that statisticians allow themselves to discount "outlier" responses that don't jibe with the "central tendency" of the data. Barnwell et al's "robust statistical analysis" certainly makes their somewhat fuzzy survey seem supremely precise and worthy of publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

But why quibble when they're "good on our issue?" Barnwell et al conclude: "Participants who used cannabis seven days a week demonstrated no difference from non-cannabis users on indices of motivation. These findings refute hypothesized associations between heavy cannabis use and low motivation ... Daily users reported slightly lower median subjective well-being scores ( 2 points less on a 28-point scale ) ... Post-hoc tests find that some portion of the differences in subjective wellbeing arose from medical users, whose illnesses may contribute to low subjective wellbeing more than their cannabis use."

The authors acknowledge that their results may have been skewed by not taking into account respondents' use of alcohol and other drugs. They list some other realistic caveats and counter-caveats: "Participant reactivity to questions of motivation may pose an additional confound. Despite a lack of empirical evidence supporting amotivational syndrome, the popular concept is well known among cannabis users. Perhaps cannabis users demonstrate sensitivity to questions regarding motivation, exaggerating their own motivation in an effort to defy stereotypes. In contrast, users tend to attribute low energy and motivation to cannabis even when they use alcohol problematically, so there may also be a bias for cannabis users to report lower motivation. Further, collecting data via the internet may prevent some low education or low income individuals from participating. Others may feel uncomfortable reporting drug use online. Simultaneously, individuals experiencing low motivation may be more likely to participate in internet-based research rather than traveling to a laboratory."

Common sense tells us that the main motivator in this society is the prospect of remuneration. Millions of Americans, young and old, are destined to do unfulfilling work for wages that won't enable them to support a family let alone own a home and retire with a sense of security. To define our condition in terms of amotivational syndrome or apathy is to conflate symptom and cause, to individualize a social phenomenon, to medicalize the political. Anti-prohibitionists should turn the meaning of amotivational syndrome around and peg it for what it obviously is: a manifestation of socioeconomic hopelessness.

MapInc

 

[Slizzard]

"Participants who used cannabis seven days a week demonstrated no difference from non-cannabis users on indices of motivation. These findings refute hypothesized associations between heavy cannabis use and low motivation ...

This is interesting

 

[MissxXxKush]

Sometimes I feel like weed does affect my motivation, but I guess it could just be in my head. Interesting.

 

[Jim Finnel]

I think it could depend on strains. If your smoking couch lock you might get couch locked. It probably depends on quantity used also. If a person knows they need to be motivated and get things done I think it can be done buzzed and in my experience done better but only when I know where to draw the line. If I were to keeping saying to myself 'just one more hit', 'ok, one more and then I'm gonna do it', chances are I won't. Its more about self-control than it is about the Cannabis.

 

[G-Dog]

I think it could depend on strains. If your smoking couch lock you might get couch locked. It probably depends on quantity used also. If a person knows they need to be motivated and get things done I think it can be done buzzed and in my experience done better but only when I know where to draw the line. If I were to keeping saying to myself 'just one more hit', 'ok, one more and then I'm gonna do it', chances are I won't. Its more about self-control than it is about the Cannabis.

Indeed.


I Love Sativas. I was recently exposed to some Mexican's that would make me get up and clean my house or something. Most of the Mexicans that I got down there were so bad I literally couldn't smoke them. Most of the good weed that is available now leans more towards indicas. I would love to have a supply of sativas to draw from when I needed.

I will say this... I have always been able to get something done that needed to be done regardless of what I was smoking. But when I drink 2 beers I am shot until the next day. I am not going to do anything but hang around and drink once that has started.

 

[MissxXxKush]

Yeah it definitely depends on how much weed is smoked, I agree. Whether or not its a Sative or Indica plays a big roll too - which I just recently learned.

Ive been smoking weed for years and NEVER knew which weeds were what until now haha - especially because I get to go to dispensaries and try ALL KINDS of different buds- LOVE IT.

 

[emilyblunt]

Why do others tell all these lies about Marijuana? People should be informed of its medical uses.

 

[Babybud29]

Im so glad you posted this!! I had read most of this before, but its nice to see someone else is finding the same facts to be true. Smoke on brotha!

 

[WillyBudz]

wut about too much of heathly living?

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson

I like that so much it is going to have to go in my sig for awhile.


WillyB

 

[michaelkaer]

I am glad you said uneducated woman, not a stupid woman. She was thinking clearly enough, but she did not have the facts and proper drug education to make this life choice. This just shows how much harm can be done with dis-information or not enough education.

 

[Purple Goose]

I am glad you said uneducated woman, not a stupid woman. She was thinking clearly enough, but she did not have the facts and proper drug education to make this life choice. This just shows how much harm can be done with dis-information or not enough education.

How could the woman even consider that all strains of cannabis cause the same effects anyways considering the number of strains out there that have effects bordering on viagra in potency.

 

[420]

The poster you are referring to was banned for constant negative energy postings, please disregard and move on. Thanks guys.

 

[cali4niadream]

I learned a good amount by reading this, great job backed by facts!

 

[budboy7]

finally a good article with listed sources!!

 

[Pekkala]

Last night while looking for a better recipe to make weed oil i managed to stumble onto this site. After reading a few cooking threads and this one i had to make an account to say THANK YOU!!
Going up and down with depression for a long time ended with my complete withdrawal from any outside and social activities, its only been in the last year that i started to smoke now and then, it started just for fun but it wasn't until i found myself being more comfortable around people and actually talking that i began to smoke a couple times a week, now i have begun to be more active with small chores that i never used to do! It wasn't until tonight after reading this thread that it hit me how much this little plant has helped me, I still have some ways to go but this is a great start <3

 

[Jim Finnel]

Last night while looking for a better recipe to make weed oil i managed to stumble onto this site. After reading a few cooking threads and this one i had to make an account to say THANK YOU!!
Going up and down with depression for a long time ended with my complete withdrawal from any outside and social activities, its only been in the last year that i started to smoke now and then, it started just for fun but it wasn't until i found myself being more comfortable around people and actually talking that i began to smoke a couple times a week, now i have begun to be more active with small chores that i never used to do! It wasn't until tonight after reading this thread that it hit me how much this little plant has helped me, I still have some ways to go but this is a great start <3

I'm glad you found your way here. Welcome! Its always good to hear when someone finds some help.

 

[michaelkaer]

ditto, what Jim said.Welcome, get to know us...

 

[THsea]

Thank you for the post and especially for siting your references! I really wanted some studies to send my brother.

My eldest brother just found out today that I use cannabis medicinally. First two things he asked... "does it work or do you just like it?" and "have you smoked yourself retarded yet?"

He doesn't believe me that it doesn't degrade your brain, claims he knew people who were fine until they started "smoking their life away"...

I told him that I'm not going to discuss it if he has a preconceived notion that isn't based on any real information or research... Because its probably the only thing that will keep me from losing more of my GI tract.

But after he said something that really touched me, he said he knows that I go through hell with my disease, and that whatever it was that helped... If I needed it, he would be out there trying to get it for me if I needed him to.

He has been the most understanding out of my family yet. It really made me realize how much it hurts to get so little support for the one thing that really has given me my life back.

Now I'm getting emotional. Thank you again, all the information and news on this site mean a lot to me. This community has become very near and dear to me.

 

[Deege420]