More Proof That Marijuana Doesn't Make You Go Crazy
Paul Armentano at NORML breaks down the latest research. It really shouldn’t be necessary to keep going over this, but as Paul laments…
Honestly, I don't think the problem is necessarily that the press is fundamentally hostile to marijuana. But there exists a long and tragic history of the media courting readership with scare stories about drugs. Alarming accounts of the potential dangers of anything a lot of people put into their body are irresistible to the press regardless of accuracy or context, and that's just the way it is.
Maybe the problem is that the media hasn't been trained to sell the reverse version of the story. Given that marijuana is a topic of considerable public interest, it really shouldn’t that hard to market a story about the fact that it doesn't appear to cause schizophrenia. Just simplify the headline. Instead of "New Study Casts Doubt on Marijuana-Schizophrenia Link," how about, "New Study Suggests Marijuana is Safer Than We Thought." Yes, I think that headline would do well on the internet.
Of course, we really shouldn’t have to convince the press that reality is marketable in order to get it reported.
The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer madness,’ it generally goes unreported.
Honestly, I don't think the problem is necessarily that the press is fundamentally hostile to marijuana. But there exists a long and tragic history of the media courting readership with scare stories about drugs. Alarming accounts of the potential dangers of anything a lot of people put into their body are irresistible to the press regardless of accuracy or context, and that's just the way it is.
Maybe the problem is that the media hasn't been trained to sell the reverse version of the story. Given that marijuana is a topic of considerable public interest, it really shouldn’t that hard to market a story about the fact that it doesn't appear to cause schizophrenia. Just simplify the headline. Instead of "New Study Casts Doubt on Marijuana-Schizophrenia Link," how about, "New Study Suggests Marijuana is Safer Than We Thought." Yes, I think that headline would do well on the internet.
Of course, we really shouldn’t have to convince the press that reality is marketable in order to get it reported.
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