CALLING B.S. ON THE IDEA OF 'MARIJUANA ADDICTION'

The U.S. government believes that America is going to pot --
literally. Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug
Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation's
first-ever "Center on Cannabis Addiction," which will be based in La
Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA's press
release, is to "develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of marijuana addiction."

Not familiar with the notion of "marijuana addiction"? You're not
alone. In fact, aside from the handful of researchers who have
discovered that there are gobs of federal grant money to be had
hunting for the government's latest pot boogeyman, there's little
consensus that such a syndrome is clinically relevant -- if it even
exists at all.

But don't try telling that to the mainstream press -- which recently
published headlines worldwide alleging, "Marijuana withdrawal rivals
that of nicotine." The alleged "study" behind the headlines involved
all of 12 participants, each of whom were longtime users of pot and
tobacco, and assessed the self-reported moods of folks after they were
randomly chosen to abstain from both substances. Big surprise: they
weren't happy.

And don't try telling Big Pharma -- which hopes to cash in on the
much-hyped "pot and addiction" craze by touting psychoactive
prescription drugs like Lithium to help hardcore smokers kick the
marijuana habit.

And certainly don't try telling the drug "treatment" industry, whose
spokespeople are quick to warn that marijuana "treatment" admissions
have risen dramatically in recent years, but neglect to explain that
this increase is due entirely to the advent of drug courts sentencing
minor pot offenders to rehab in lieu of jail. According to state and
national statistics, up to 70 percent of all individuals in drug
treatment for marijuana are placed there by the criminal justice
system. Of those in treatment, some 36 percent had not even used
marijuana in the 30 days prior to their admission. These are the "addicts"?

Indeed, the concept of pot addiction is big business -- even if the
evidence in support of the pseudosyndrome is flimsy at best.

And what does the science say? Well, according to the nonpartisan
National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine -- which published
a multiyear, million-dollar federal study assessing marijuana and
health in 1999 -- "millions of Americans have tried marijuana, but
most are not regular users [and] few marijuana users become dependent
on it." The investigator added, "[A]though [some] marijuana users
develop dependence, they appear to be less likely to do so than users
of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine), and marijuana
dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs."

Just how less likely? According to the Institute of Medicine's
267-page report, fewer than 10 percent of those who try cannabis ever
meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of "drug dependence" (based
on DSM-III-R criteria). By contrast, the IOM reported that 32 percent
of tobacco users, 23 percent of heroin users, 17 percent of cocaine
users and 15 percent of alcohol users meet the criteria for "drug
dependence."

In short, it's the legal drugs that have Americans hooked -- not
pot.

But what about the claims that ceasing marijuana smoking can trigger
withdrawal symptoms similar to those associated with quitting tobacco?
Once again, it's a matter of degree. According to the Institute of
Medicine, pot's withdrawal symptoms, when identified, are "mild and
subtle" compared with the profound physical syndromes associated with
ceasing chronic alcohol use -- which can be fatal -- or those
abstinence symptoms associated with daily tobacco use, which are
typically severe enough to persuade individuals to reinitiate their
drug-taking behavior.

The IOM report further explained, "[U]nder normal cannabis use, the
long half-life and slow elimination from the body of THC prevent[s]
substantial abstinence symptoms" from occurring. As a result,
cannabis' withdrawal symptoms are typically limited to feelings of
mild anxiety, irritability, agitation and insomnia.

Most importantly, unlike the withdrawal symptoms associated with the
cessation of most other intoxicants, pot's mild after-effects do not
appear to be either severe or long-lasting enough to perpetuate
marijuana use in individuals who have decided to quit. This is why
most marijuana smokers report voluntarily ceasing their cannabis use
by age 30 with little physical or psychological difficulty. By
comparison, many cigarette smokers who pick up the habit early in life
continue to smoke for the rest of their lives, despite making numerous
efforts to quit.

So let's review.

Marijuana is widely accepted by the National Academy of Sciences, the
Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, the British
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and others to lack the severe
physical and psychological dependence liability associated with most
other intoxicants, including alcohol and tobacco. Further, pot lacks
the profound abstinence symptoms associated with most legal
intoxicants, including caffeine.

That's not to say that some marijuana smokers don't find quitting
difficult. Naturally, a handful of folks do, though this subpopulation
is hardly large enough to warrant pot's legal classification (along
with heroin) as an illicit substance with a "high potential for
abuse." Nor does this fact justify the continued arrest of more than
800,000 Americans annually for pot violations any more than such
concerns would warrant the criminalization of booze or nicotine.

Now if I can only get NIDA to fork me over that $4 million check.