s; on the basis of animal models, the ratio of an effective to lethal dose is estimated as 40,000 to 1”(Postrel 175). Society heard in the 1970s that marijuana destroyed brain cells, caused psychosis, lowered testosterone levels and sperm count, led to breast development in adolescent males, damaged memory and intellectual functions, compromised the immune system, and caused chromosome breakage, genetic damage, and birth defects. The publications of these findings followed a typical pattern. The findings became a front-page report with alarmist commentary; then when investigators would report the findings could not be replicated; the report then appeared as a short story in the back pages. The public often kept the idea that the existence of the latest hazard had been scientifically proven. So far, not a single case of emphysema, lung cancer, or any other significant pulmonary pathology has been found attributable to cannabis (Grispoon 139). Research funded by the American government in Jamaica and Greece found no physical or mental problems among men who had used marijuana, even heavily for many years. Many studies showed no physical dependence or withdrawal had been induced by even high dose, long-term marijuana use. Over the past 25 years, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has funded research into nearly every anti-marijuana claim established during the Eastland hearings of 1974. Researchers compared sex hormone levels and brain-wave patterns in marijuana users verses nonusers. Scientists have looked for abnormalities in sperm of men who smoke marijuana and have looked for damage in children of women who used marijuana during pregnancy. Medical scientists have examined lung cells taken from long-term marijuana smokers, and have given the repeated tests of pulmonary functions. Social scientists have administered personality, social adjustments, and intelligence tests to both marijuana users and nonusers. T...
