NORML Responds To Media Claim: “Pot As Addictive As Tobacco”

The results of a recent study from Johns Hopkins University suggesting that quitting cannabis can trigger withdrawal symptoms as severe as those associated with quitting cigarettes are based on subjective reports from only twelve individuals, and are in sharp contrast to findings reported previously by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM).

The widely reported study, published last week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, evaluated the behavior patterns of twelve participants selected at random to cease their use of marijuana and tobacco for five days. Participants reported their symptoms using a checklist that indicated scores for anger, aggression, anxiety, appetite change, irritability, restlessness, sleep difficulty, and other common withdrawal symptoms. Investigators found that subjects reported experiencing withdrawal symptoms of a similar nature and magnitude regardless of whether they were abstaining from tobacco or cannabis. "These results … suggest [that] cannabis withdrawal is clinically important," researchers concluded.

By contrast, previous studies published by the Institute of Medicine and others have consistently reported that cannabis lacks the severe physical and psychological dependence liability associated with other common intoxicants, such as alcohol, cocaine, and tobacco. According to the IOM, among those individuals who use tobacco, 32 percent at some point in their lives meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of "drug dependence." By comparison, 23 percent of heroin users, 17 percent of cocaine users, and 15 percent of alcohol users meet the criteria for drug dependence.

Fewer than ten percent of cannabis users ever meet these criteria, the IOM found.

"Millions of Americans have tried marijuana, but most are not regular users … [and] few marijuana users become dependent on it," the IOM concluded. "[A]though [some] marijuana users [do] 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."

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that symptoms of so-called ‘marijuana withdrawal’ are typically infrequent, mild, and short-lived. "These are not the sort of symptoms that threaten one’s physical health, such as those associated with alcohol, nor are they the sort of symptoms that are severe enough to persuade most individuals to reinitiate their behavior, such as those commonly associated with nicotine," he said. "Furthermore, according to the federal government, most cannabis consumers voluntarily cease their pot use by age thirty. Compare this pattern of use to that of cigarette smokers, who typically begin their habit in adolescence and continue it unabated for the rest of their lives."

Continue reading here: How to deal with law enforcement officer or police to prevent getting busted for marijuana

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