New Study Demonstrates Withdrawal Symptoms of Marijuana

In a recent study publicized on Reuters it was determined that withdrawal symptoms from marijuana were as strong as tobacco. This study is interesting as previous studies have always demonstrated that marijuana held such a small hold on users.

As a marijuana activist, what I find most interesting is the absolute bias of this study. First off the study looks at only 12 users, and claims they were all heavy users of both tobacco and marijuana. They used marijuana four times a day, and smoked 20 tobacco cigarettes per day. Heavy users is an understatement with these folks, they have serious addiction issues and aren’t exactly average marijuana users. Why use such a small study, with such specific usage patterns unless you are attempting to get very specific results. A true study would have looked at a variety of users from the light occasional user up to the heavy multiple uses per day user and also had marijuana only users not marijuana and tobacco users only.

What is most telling of the reasoning behind this study is the following statement by one of the researchers, "Marijuana is not as innocuous as some people would lead you to believe.” Obviously this study started out with an assumption and set out to prove themselves right regardless of the actual facts. This study is nothing more then a propaganda piece for the government, the study group is ridiculously small and select, and the science is shaky at best. To look at the withdrawal symptoms and declare a drug as dangerous is silly. Morphine, Oxycotin, Ativan, Demerol, Ritalin, Xanax, and many more drugs all have withdrawal symptoms that make tobacco withdrawal look like a cake walk, does that mean that these drugs should not be given to those who need it?

Is marijuana a perfectly harmless wonder drug with no downside and only benefits, certainly not. However in comparison to so many other recreational and prescription drugs the positives far outweigh the negatives.