WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.280 We started to use the term marijuana 2 00:00:03.280 --> 00:00:06.770 mainly to associate it with Mexican Americans, 3 00:00:06.770 --> 00:00:09.210 in an effort to vilify the drug 4 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:11.680 because cannabis had been around forever 5 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:13.770 and many Americans were familiar 6 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:15.500 with the effects of cannabis. 7 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:18.510 And so you couldn't make these incredible stories up 8 00:00:18.510 --> 00:00:22.678 about cannabis itself, but really they're the same thing. 9 00:00:22.678 --> 00:00:25.845 [intense jumpy music] 10 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:30.680 line:15% I'm Carl Hart, professor in the departments 11 00:00:30.680 --> 00:00:33.800 line:15% of psychiatry and psychology at Columbia university. 12 00:00:33.800 --> 00:00:36.735 I study the effects of drugs in people. 13 00:00:36.735 --> 00:00:39.310 There's so much misunderstanding about drugs, 14 00:00:39.310 --> 00:00:41.410 particularly recreational drugs. 15 00:00:41.410 --> 00:00:45.050 And today I'd like to clear up some of the information 16 00:00:45.050 --> 00:00:49.250 and to bunk many of the myths that many people hold. 17 00:00:49.250 --> 00:00:50.270 [intense jumpy music] 18 00:00:50.270 --> 00:00:52.163 Marijuana is a gateway drug. 19 00:00:53.815 --> 00:00:55.060 When we say gateway drug, 20 00:00:55.060 --> 00:00:59.130 we mean that using marijuana will cause someone 21 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:01.900 to go on to use so-called harder drugs, 22 00:01:01.900 --> 00:01:04.000 like cocaine or heroin. 23 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.940 When we think about the people who use heroin, 24 00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:11.130 more of those people have used marijuana beforehand. 25 00:01:11.130 --> 00:01:12.230 That's certainly true. 26 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:16.320 But when we look at marijuana users in total, 27 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:20.020 the vast majority of marijuana users do not 28 00:01:20.020 --> 00:01:24.600 go on to use cocaine or heroin or any other drug. 29 00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:29.160 So this notion that marijuana is a gateway drug confuses 30 00:01:29.160 --> 00:01:31.790 correlation with causation. 31 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:34.920 Correlation are just variables that may go together. 32 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:36.040 If it's raining outside, 33 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.560 you might see more umbrellas that go up 34 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:39.690 than when it's not raining. 35 00:01:39.690 --> 00:01:44.300 And that's a correlation between umbrellas and rain fall. 36 00:01:44.300 --> 00:01:48.030 But no one would say the umbrellas are causing the rain. 37 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:49.560 That's correlation. 38 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:53.070 Causation is when you have a variable 39 00:01:53.070 --> 00:01:55.070 that causes another variable. 40 00:01:55.070 --> 00:01:58.900 For example, the last three presidents of the United States, 41 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:00.800 Bill Clinton, George Bush, 42 00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:04.420 and Barack Obama all smoked marijuana 43 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:06.210 when they were young men. 44 00:02:06.210 --> 00:02:10.620 It would be like saying that marijuana is a gateway drug 45 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:12.490 to the White House. 46 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:13.860 It's not true. 47 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.890 That's the difference between correlation and causation. 48 00:02:16.890 --> 00:02:20.150 We know for sure that marijuana is not a gateway drug 49 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:24.630 because the vast majority of marijuana smokers 50 00:02:24.630 --> 00:02:28.260 never go on to using any other drugs. 51 00:02:28.260 --> 00:02:30.000 If it was a gateway drug, 52 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.430 then we would have the majority, if not all, 53 00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:37.589 going on to try harder drugs. 54 00:02:37.589 --> 00:02:38.450 [intense jumpy music] 55 00:02:38.450 --> 00:02:40.793 PCP gives superhuman strength. 56 00:02:42.070 --> 00:02:44.930 One of the ways PCP acts on the brain 57 00:02:44.930 --> 00:02:47.810 is that it interacts with a neurotransmitter 58 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:49.280 called glutamate. 59 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.260 Glutamate is the brain's sort of major, 60 00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:54.220 excitatory neurotransmitter. 61 00:02:54.220 --> 00:02:58.600 It causes actions and PCP blocks one 62 00:02:58.600 --> 00:03:01.000 of the glutamate receptors. 63 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.310 So it prevents glutamate from acting at that receptor. 64 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:08.200 When people actually give PCP to research participants 65 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:09.460 in the lab, 66 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:14.030 you have never seen anything remotely resembling superhuman 67 00:03:14.030 --> 00:03:17.350 strength or any of the other sort of effects 68 00:03:17.350 --> 00:03:19.570 that have been attributed to PCP, 69 00:03:19.570 --> 00:03:21.660 like aggression or violence. 70 00:03:21.660 --> 00:03:25.030 This notion that PCP causes superhuman strength 71 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:28.090 comes largely from police reports 72 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:30.560 or police stories, police anecdotes, 73 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:34.330 where you may have heard them say that they have to shoot 74 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:38.210 someone 28 times in order to bring them under control. 75 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:40.780 There is absolutely no evidence of that. 76 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.200 Can any of these illegal drugs induce violence? 77 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:45.610 And the answer is emphatically, yes, 78 00:03:45.610 --> 00:03:47.440 in people who were already violent. 79 00:03:47.440 --> 00:03:49.390 But in general, the drugs themselves 80 00:03:49.390 --> 00:03:51.479 are not producing violence. 81 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:52.312 [intense jumpy music] 82 00:03:52.312 --> 00:03:54.850 Drugs are more addictive than alcohol. 83 00:03:54.850 --> 00:03:57.690 To be clear, alcohol itself is a drug. 84 00:03:57.690 --> 00:04:01.410 Many of the criteria that determine whether or not 85 00:04:01.410 --> 00:04:06.410 someone is addicted, depend upon the legality of the drug. 86 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:09.460 You have to hide cocaine use 87 00:04:09.460 --> 00:04:13.460 because that's not as socially acceptable as alcohol. 88 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:17.500 So all of that impacts whether or not someone 89 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:19.440 becomes addicted to a drug. 90 00:04:19.440 --> 00:04:22.730 Once people become addicted to alcohol 91 00:04:22.730 --> 00:04:25.410 versus something like cocaine or something like heroin, 92 00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:28.770 if they stop abruptly taking alcohol, 93 00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:31.650 they can experience alcohol withdrawal 94 00:04:31.650 --> 00:04:35.680 and alcohol withdrawal can lead to seizures, 95 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:37.600 which can cause convulsions, 96 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.820 brain damage and ultimately death. 97 00:04:40.820 --> 00:04:44.040 When they withdrawal from something like cocaine, 98 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.640 you don't get any of these physical effects 99 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:48.750 that can cause deaths. 100 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:50.790 The same is true with something like heroin. 101 00:04:50.790 --> 00:04:54.240 Heroin doesn't cause death upon withdrawal. 102 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.240 Only alcohol, of these drugs, 103 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:00.080 can cause death upon withdrawal 104 00:05:00.080 --> 00:05:03.700 if withdrawal is not done in a medical setting, 105 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:07.497 that is, with someone who is heavily dependent on alcohol. 106 00:05:07.497 --> 00:05:08.330 [intense jumpy music] 107 00:05:08.330 --> 00:05:10.593 The opioid crisis is getting worse. 108 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:13.190 Well, that's not true. 109 00:05:13.190 --> 00:05:15.880 And in fact, I would even suggest 110 00:05:15.880 --> 00:05:19.860 that we were not experiencing a crisis of opioids. 111 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:23.160 Instead, we were experiencing a crisis of ignorance. 112 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.190 Whenever we talk about the opioid crisis, 113 00:05:25.190 --> 00:05:28.870 we have to differentiate what we mean. 114 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:31.500 Are we talking about deaths related to opioids 115 00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:34.830 or are we talking about addiction related to opioids? 116 00:05:34.830 --> 00:05:37.290 If we think about addiction, 117 00:05:37.290 --> 00:05:40.270 the vast majority of people who use opioids, 118 00:05:40.270 --> 00:05:42.950 particularly say prescription opioids, 119 00:05:42.950 --> 00:05:45.930 a very low percentage of people become addicted. 120 00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:46.990 Something like heroin, 121 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:49.620 where you have the higher sort of addiction rates 122 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:51.900 and that's about a third at most, 123 00:05:51.900 --> 00:05:54.820 that's not necessarily a crisis 124 00:05:54.820 --> 00:05:57.150 because very low number of people use heroin. 125 00:05:57.150 --> 00:05:59.920 When we think about the overdose crisis, 126 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:01.490 that we want to call it that, 127 00:06:01.490 --> 00:06:04.090 we've seen numbers in the United States as high 128 00:06:04.090 --> 00:06:07.660 as 70,000 people dying from opioids every year. 129 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:09.170 And that's just not true. 130 00:06:09.170 --> 00:06:12.330 The largest amount of people who die 131 00:06:12.330 --> 00:06:17.330 from an opioid related drug is maybe 45,000 per year. 132 00:06:17.990 --> 00:06:19.890 That's at it's peak. 133 00:06:19.890 --> 00:06:23.270 But when you even go into that number, 134 00:06:23.270 --> 00:06:26.300 what you discover is that the vast majority 135 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:30.920 of those people had another drug on board 136 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:32.470 in addition to an opioid, 137 00:06:32.470 --> 00:06:34.698 some other drug like a benzodiazepine, 138 00:06:34.698 --> 00:06:38.060 alcohol, or an anti-histamines or something else 139 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:38.960 was on board. 140 00:06:38.960 --> 00:06:42.890 So whether or not the opioid actually caused the death, 141 00:06:42.890 --> 00:06:44.346 we don't know. 142 00:06:44.346 --> 00:06:45.179 [intense jumpy music] 143 00:06:45.179 --> 00:06:47.803 Marijuana doesn't have any medicinal use. 144 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:53.700 The federal government has a medical marijuana program 145 00:06:53.700 --> 00:06:57.100 in which small numbers of people are enrolled, 146 00:06:57.100 --> 00:06:59.190 such that they receive marijuana 147 00:06:59.190 --> 00:07:01.920 from the federal government for free every month 148 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.890 in order to deal with some medical element, 149 00:07:04.890 --> 00:07:08.130 ranging from things like glaucoma or some pain. 150 00:07:08.130 --> 00:07:11.430 So marijuana has been shown in a number of studies 151 00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:14.310 to increase food intake, to decrease pain, 152 00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:17.930 and a growing number of other medical elements 153 00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:19.520 are being tested. 154 00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:22.770 For example, components of marijuana have been shown 155 00:07:22.770 --> 00:07:25.890 to be effective for decreasing seizures. 156 00:07:25.890 --> 00:07:29.230 CBD recently has become one of the most talked about 157 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:31.230 compounds in marijuana. 158 00:07:31.230 --> 00:07:36.230 We have known marijuana's effects for at least 70 159 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:38.450 something years or so. 160 00:07:38.450 --> 00:07:42.230 In 1944, Mayor LaGuardia in New York City 161 00:07:42.230 --> 00:07:45.580 released an extensive study of marijuana's effects 162 00:07:45.580 --> 00:07:48.850 and basically conclude what we know now. 163 00:07:48.850 --> 00:07:53.360 Marijuana doesn't lead to these long term negative effects 164 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.730 that people said. 165 00:07:54.730 --> 00:07:56.090 It doesn't lead to violence. 166 00:07:56.090 --> 00:08:00.240 The LaGuardia Report at 1944 drew that conclusion. 167 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:04.330 And it's the same conclusion that research today draws. 168 00:08:04.330 --> 00:08:08.910 The federal government, the Bureau of Narcotics in 1937, 169 00:08:08.910 --> 00:08:11.630 push for the ban of marijuana in part, 170 00:08:11.630 --> 00:08:14.630 because it was associated with groups 171 00:08:14.630 --> 00:08:16.810 that we don't like in the United States, 172 00:08:16.810 --> 00:08:18.750 Mexican and black folks. 173 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:21.970 It had nothing to do with marijuana's pharmacology 174 00:08:21.970 --> 00:08:25.000 and by pushing for marijuana to be illegal 175 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.840 or banned or outlawed, what happened too, 176 00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:31.410 was that the Bureau of Narcotics budget increased. 177 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:36.140 Marijuana is illegal today at the federal level 178 00:08:36.140 --> 00:08:40.900 for political reasons, not pharmacological reasons. 179 00:08:40.900 --> 00:08:43.560 There are so many drug myths out there 180 00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:47.770 and the myths themselves do more harm than the drugs. 181 00:08:47.770 --> 00:08:51.450 Most people don't use drugs, 182 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:55.440 therefore they don't know about drugs. 183 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:59.850 And ignorance is determining how many people 184 00:08:59.850 --> 00:09:02.320 think about these drugs in part 185 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:07.320 because these myths lead to bad policies 186 00:09:07.430 --> 00:09:10.630 and these policies cause increased rates 187 00:09:10.630 --> 00:09:13.950 of incarceration and deaths, not from the drugs, 188 00:09:13.950 --> 00:09:16.310 but from the policies. 189 00:09:16.310 --> 00:09:18.700 Can lead to the dehumanization 190 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:20.617 and the stigmatization of people.