We Need to Get the Facts Right on Cannabis Addiction

A contribution from the New Zealand Drug Foundation

In 2013, Professor Wayne Hall presented a paper at an International Cannabis Policy Symposium hosted by the New Zealand Drug Foundation in Auckland. It was a review into 20 years of existing research into cannabis titled "What has research over the past two decades revealed about the adverse health effects of recreational cannabis use?".

So far, so uncontroversial. 

But then the paper was published online in late 2014, and all of a sudden newspapers ran with alarmist headlines saying that cannabis "makes you stupid" and is "as addictive as heroin." These headlines, though, are simply not supported by the scientific evidence. 

So what did the paper actually say? Among other things, it found that cannabis use may be harmful to health, and that the risk of developing dependence among those who have used cannabis across their lifetimes was slightly less...

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