Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence [Paperback]

Some people who are against marijuana (including some reviewers of this book) cite the fact that marijuana smokers flock together and form their own social groups, seem unusually preoccupied with getting the drug, etc. What people fail to realize is that it's the criminal stigma created by the prohibitionist laws which is responsible. If people could go to 7-Eleven and buy a joint, people wouldn't need to spend precious time calling all over town, finding out which of their "hookups" has the stock that evening. You don't find this "preoccupation with scoring some" among alcohol drinkers. Nor do you find alcohol users sticking with other alcohol users. Why? Because in 1933 our government was smart enough to repeal alcohol Prohibition, after which time all the problems associated with prohibition vanished.

My second point concerns amotivational syndrome. I am a classical violinist, just finished 7 years of college: 5 undergraduate years and two years grad school. I play professionally with area orchestras. I used to be a 6-hour-a-day practicer. For the past three years, though, I have been burned out. Haven't practiced much, though I'm still in shape enough to play professionally. Coincidentally, these past 3 years have also been my first three years as a toker, and yes, I have been a regular, relatively "hard-core" user. Any government propagandist, if they knew, would gleefully point to my story as an example of why marijuana is life-destroying, evil, and justified in remaining illegal.

However, I looked into myself and decided that the REAL reason for my burnout has more to do with my life history. I started the violin at age 3, was pushed hard throughout childhood, and to make it short, I grew up rather sheltered, especially during adolescense. My entire life was the violin and schoolwork. Throughout my undergraduate years also, I was passionately driven to succeed in my chosen field of someday winning a job in an orchestra. Even in college I didn't start truly breaking out of my shell until about the fourth year or so. Not only that, but my goal as an undergraduate was to get accepted into the Cleveland Institute of Music for grad school, which I had gotten rejected from twice. I finally made it! So it stands to reason that after a half-decade of chasing that goal and winning it, not to mention a K-12 life of violin before that, that I would be burned out by the time it was time to actually *attend* CIM. A related note: The worst "sheltered" aspect of my life was musically. My parents raised me pretty much exclusively on classical music. By 2001, I was burned out with just listening to it.

I would say that in this context, perhaps the smoking of marijuana didn't do anything to *help* that burnout, but after some very serious reflection, I concluded that the amotivation to practice was destined to happen anyway, whether I ever tried marijuana or not.

And my conclusion has proven to be correct! For the past month now, I have gotten my fire for my profession back, I'm once again practicing six hours a day, and I'm STILL TOKING EVERY DAY! That's right, every day. No amotivational syndrome. So I believe that amotivational syndrome has its true roots in life circumstances.

P.S. Next time you're in a conversation where the Beatles come up as a topic, try the line, "That band never got anywhere because they smoked that dangerous marijuana."

This book is extremely biased, and every negative that is brought up is immediately qualified or discounted, rather than just presenting the facts in a neutral manner. In this respect, I feel that it fails to deliver its promise of objectivity and of being "a book for those who favor marijuana legislation reform as well as for those who oppose it."