By Travis Charbeneau

The Bible says, "the truth shall make you free"; surely one of the "traditional values" most prized by U.S. citizens. We like "free." The truth, however, can also make you uncomfortable. The Bible hasn't much advice for dealing with this inconvenience, apart from excoriating hypocrites, who know the truth but apparently take greater comfort in lies. And when it comes to marijuana, alas, we're ferocious hypocrites. This particular truth hits hard in "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts," the new book by Drs. Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan (The Lindesmith Center, $16.95, (800) 444-2524). It's an encyclopedic, excruciatingly-footnoted summary of fatuous assertions vs. scientific investigation of marijuana dating back over a century, ruthlessly exposing our stubborn, downright embarrassing preference for lies over long-established and widely-known truths.

The book is neatly organized around 20 marijuana myths, one per chapter. For example, "Myth: Marijuana impairs memory and cognition." Several attributed quotes employing the myth ensue, propaganda like, "Marijuana savages short-term memory and the ability to concentrate." (Joseph A. Califano, 1996). We then get a single paragraph refutation, "Fact: Marijuana produces immediate temporary changes in thoughts, perceptions and information processing… This diminishment only lasts for the duration of intoxication. There is no convincing evidence that heavy long-term marijuana use permanently impairs memory or other cognitive functions." The rest is a detailed review of the best science. The sum comprises a tidy, single-volume annihilation of current (marijuana) policy.

Too many of us still applaud politicians preaching the intellectual equivalent of a flat Earth. Far, far worse, too many applaud as fellow citizens are led off to prison for knowing the repeatedly proven truth that marijuana use is, at the very worst, a frivolous vice. "Frivolous vice" is the essential conclusion of virtually every reputable study:

• Marijuana's effects have "apparently been greatly exaggerated," -Panama Canal Zone, 1925
• "Ills commonly attributed to marihuana have been… exaggerated," -La Guardia Commission Report, 1944
• "Once the myths were cleared, it became obvious that the case for and against was not evenly balanced… long-term consumption of cannabis… has no harmful effect." -British Wooten Report, 1969
• "Little proven danger of physical or psychological harm," -National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, 1972
• "Anti-social effects… have not been substantiated by scientific evidence," -National Academy of Science Report, 1982

All this and much more, and yet headlines were made recently when researchers injected anandamide, a cannabinoid-like compound that occurs naturally in humans, directly into petri dishes containing two-cell mouse embryos. Development stopped! Presto: "serious and harmful effect of marijuana" on pregnancy for mice who throw their embryos into the petri dishes of confused researchers. This is the caliber of "science" offered to refute over a century of clinical study and 5000 years of cultural experience with hemp.

This might be of only academic interest except for the fact that even as real crime has diminished for five years running, marijuana arrests have doubled over the same period. We now have 1,725,842 U.S. citizens in prison. Further, "drug offenses have accounted for more than a third of the growth in the incarcerated population, and since 1980 the incarceration rate for drug arrests has increased 1000 percent." (New York Times, 1/19/98). For "drug," read "marijuana." A 1995 study by Virginians Against Drug Violence found that more than half of all drug offenders are arrested for marijuana - 89.5 percent for simple possession. This is just one truth opposing the lie that pot-smoking today is winked at. "Myth: …lax treatment has allowed criminals to use and traffic in marijuana with impunity." (Washington Post, 9/9/96)

Any pot-smokers recently "winked at" can well appreciate the Shafer Commission's finding in 1970 that "marijuana policy had become more damaging to American society than marijuana." Marijuana use hasn't destroyed a single life in thousands of years of documented use, clinical observation, and medical study. Marijuana law, boasting all the sound legal footing of Paleolithic taboo, destroys thousands of lives every year. Since 1970, a staggering 10 million U.S. citizens have been arrested for consorting with a vegetable.

This superstitious nonsense persists despite examples like the Netherlands where prohibition has been essentially repealed and marijuana made freely available for over 20 years. Rather than study and heed such examples, U.S. leadership ha taken them as grist for more lies: "Myth: Marijuana policy in the Netherlands is a failure. Fact: …rates of marijuana use in the Netherlands are similar to those in the United States. However, for young adolescents, rates of marijuana use are lower."

Reading all the reputable studies in Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, what's most astounding isn't merely the preponderance of evidence overruling the many mythical objections to marijuana, but the devastating blast of refutation on nearly every count; a collective verdict of "innocent" so overwhelming that our persistence - indeed, our seeming preference for lies - becomes as perverse as any drug addiction. Resistance to truth is entrenched to the extent that honest debate is treated like criticism of the Emperor's New Clothes. Just ask former U.S. Surgeon General Jocylyn Elders.

"The truth shall make you free" only if you're willing to renounce your chains. The truth about marijuana has long been known. But, like junkies in denial, we prefer our chains, discrediting the law, creating crime from whole cloth, imprisoning the innocent, even persecuting the sick in our Inquisition-style zeal. With the publication of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts our addiction to lies has been exposed. Someday and soon, it must be as entirely rejected.

SOURCE: The author, Travis Charbeneau, is a regular contributor to Toward Freedom, and is a writer and commentator long-active with the World Futurist Society. Reprinted from Toward Freedom, May, 1998, Vol. 47, No. 2. Reprinted in the public service of the national interest of the American people.