An organization pushing for looser marijuana laws released a "Truth Report" in late July in an attempt to dispel the federal government's claims against the drug.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, wrote "Your Government Is Lying To You (Again) About Marijuana" as an updated response to a letter sent by a White House official in 2002 to every prosecutor in America to convince them to become more harsh on marijuana cases, NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano said.
"This is a policy on ideology," Armentano said about the government's attacks on marijuana. "Not on public health or safety.
"We felt it was time to revisit a lot of these arguments."
NORML is an advocacy group lobbying to decriminalize marijuana. It was started in 1970 and has more than 100 chapters - with representation in almost every state, Armentano said.
Leah Young, spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, said she believed there is a marijuana problem in the country.
In 1993, treatment centers reported 111,418 patients, 6.9 percent of all admissions, to be there solely for marijuana addiction.
In 2003, those numbers rose to 284,532 and 15.5 percent, Young said.
"Something is obviously going on here," she said.
According to the NORML report, this rise is due to increased marijuana-related arrests and the growing trend of judges sending marijuana offenders to addiction rehabilitation instead of jail.
The arrests for marijuana has more than doubled from 288,000 in 1991 to 750,000 in 2003, according to FBI records, suggesting a higher priority to arrest marijuana users, Armentano said.
Another argument from the government that the report touches on is that marijuana is much more potent with THC, a chemical that affects the brain, than it was in the past.
According to the report, the increase in THC levels during the past few decades has been exaggerated.
It also shows higher THC content might be healthier because users will smoke less marijuana to attain the same high.
Young said because users will adjust their smoking to get the same high, it suggests there is indeed an addiction to marijuana.
She added that marijuana also has more carcinogens than it did in the past, and more than tobacco.
"It's breathing smoke into your lungs, only this smoke has more carcinogens and other junk than tobacco," she said.
New research has shown there might be a correlation between marijuana usage and schizophrenia among people with a predisposition for the disease, Armentano said.
He said this is a real concern and it should be discussed scientifically to find the exact correlation, but the current government policy would not allow it.
The report and the letter that originally inspired it can both be found at norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5513.
