The 8 Biggest Misconceptions About Weed

1. Smoking weed makes you stupid.

Years of portraying marijuana in pop culture and the media has led to a pervasive and fallacious belief that smoking makes you stupid. When in fact, research on this claim has found that the drug doesn’t cause any profound changes in a person’s mental ability. It’s odd that others don’t see this glaring misconception, and especially when people are doing drugs that are far worse for overall brain function.

2. It’s a gateway drug.

Part of me feels like the term “gateway drug” was thought up by the same people who made Valentine’s Day a thing. It’s become such a widely-used term, used blindly by so many health teachers, that people have stopped contemplating its meaning. Though I have no scientific evidence that marijuana isn’t a gateway drug, I have watched hundreds of friends smoke weed without being coerced by another, worse drug.

The term gateway drug also implies illicitness. It suggests that, since this drug is illicit, it will ultimately lead to you doing more and different types of illicit drugs. And yet in reality, marijuana has moved farther away from the “illicit” drugs and closer to a socially accepted one.

3. Marijuana is deadly.

To proclaim that weed is a deadly drug is to proclaim that every other drug is even deadlier. It’s been proven that the long-term effects of marijuana on our bodies is far less detrimental than all other drugs, including alcohol. To claim that marijuana is deadly is deceptive; in order to make this claim and give it the veracity it deserves, one must also mention that, while perhaps deadly, weed pales in comparison to every other drug in the world.

4. It makes you lazy.

Much like the claim that it makes you stupid, the claim that weed makes you lazy is equally contrived by our culture and media, and also blatantly unfounded. From personal experience I can say that some strains of marijuana can make you lazy (indigo), but then there are others that are energizing (setiva). Smoking is actually when I get my best writing done.

5. It makes you fat.

Weed munchies isn’t actually a thing so much as a side effect of weed calming down your stomach. I feel the whole weed munchies thing is a product of the self-fulfilling prophecy; people believe that when they smoke, they’re supposed to get an insatiable appetite and, as a result, convince themselves that they do. Having smoked weed for over 5 years now, I can confidently say that the weed munchies phase will subside after about your first year of smoking. Now when I smoke, I sometimes lose my appetite

6. Smoking makes you unmotivated.

The claim that pot smokers are severely lacking in motivation is another baseless claim. It’s also worth noting that pot doesn’t make one lose motivation more than any other drug in the world. And equally important to mention is a study that showed marijuana users have higher-paying jobs that non-users.

7. It gives you memory loss.

As has been stated over and over again, weed causes short-term memory loss, and not even a truly significant amount. This means that it will be hard to recall things that you were told while you were in the process of smoking, and only during that time. Furthermore, there is no scientific evidence anywhere that suggests marijuana will have a long-term and permanent effect on your memory when sober.

8. Using it leads to crime and delinquency.

Perhaps the most detrimental misconception out there, this one is particularly fallacious for many reasons. The effects that smoking weed has on our behavior generally fall under the category of a lethargic, relaxed temperament. It does not give way to violence or random outbursts like countless other drugs. It is not psychotropic and it will not cause rash or deviant behavior. On the contrary, weed’s illegal nature has only led to a tremendous amount of minorities in our country’s prison—minorities who are there for no real crime other than wanting to smoke weed like the rest of us.