Coalition against Cannabis

Cannabis - The LIES & the TRUTH

The LIE: It is claimed that smoking cannabis is a harmless activity, posing little or no danger.
The TRUTH: Cannabis is a toxic substance, dangerous to health and society.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis has no long-term effects.
The TRUTH:Cancers on the lung, head and neck have been reported in young individuals. Schizophrenia can be triggered and permanent brain damage is a distinct possibility.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis is no more dangerous than tobacco.
The TRUTH: Cannabis contains more carcinogens than tobacco, and deposits four times as much tar in the airways and lungs. Smoking 3-4 joints causes as much damage as 20 cigarettes.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis smoking does not lead to the use of other drugs.
The TRUTH: Using cannabis just once a week can make a person sixty times more likely to progress to other drugs.

The LIE: It is claimed that the effects of cannabis wear off quickly.
The TRUTH: Cannabis is fat-soluble, so stays in the body for several weeks, unlike alcohol. Driving is affected for at least twenty - four hours. On just one joint a month, learning and memory are constantly impaired.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis is helpful to those who are tense, exhausted or depressed.
The TRUTH: Recent research has again confirmed that cannabis can cause anxiety, depression, suicidal behaviour and psychosis including schizophrenia.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis is not really harmful to young people.
The TRUTH: Concentration, attention span, learning and memory are all severely affected. Few children, using cannabis even occasionally, will achieve their full potential.

The LIE: It is claimed that people should be allowed to experiment with drugs, it is their own personal affair.
The TRUTH: No drug is victimless. Cannabis is implicated in an increasing number of road accidents. Addicts and those suffering from psychosis and schizophrenia need NHS treatment at the taxpayer' s expense. Harm from passive smoking does occur.

The LIE: It is claimed that people who used it in the 1960s are absolutely fine.
The TRUTH: Cannabis now is at least ten times stronger than in the sixties. Today's cannabis is a very different drug to cannabis in the 1960s.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis use is a harmless pastime of the young, they get it from friends and siblings.
The TRUTH: It is an industry, totally controlled by violent criminal gangs operating a nationwide network of distribution, selling other drugs.

The LIE: It is claimed that cannabis is desperately needed for medicine.
The TRUTH: Medicines have to be pure single substances. Cannabis contains four hundred chemicals. Pure THC from cannabis is not so effective as current medicines for many conditions.