Marijuana Myths and Misconceptions

[Smoking Gun]

Hey folks, as I was reading a book on marijuana earlier I came across several myths and misconceptions the author was perpetuating. I can't necessarily blame the author for continuing myths as some of them really do seem reasonable and have been told for so long even people within the cannabis community believe them. I am trying to compile a list here of all the myths and misconceptions that are common. If you folks know any please feel free to post them here.

 

[markscastle]

If you pee on your plants it makes them grow faster! LOL! not a chance!

 

[Blaze]

The biggest one I always see is the assertion that environment affects the sex of the plant when starting seedlings. Unless cannabis somehow violates the basic laws of genetics that dictate all life on earth, it simply isn't possible, unless you are dealing with a hermi plant.

 

[dextr0]

I think theres alot of Misconceptions about alot of Myths and Misconceptions. For instance the whole stressing a plant to produce more resin. This has been proven to be true, but many still acertain that it is not a fact. Countless products have been produced aiming to take advantage of these effects (GH CHI, AN SCORPION JUICE, Employ aka Messenger, Yea!; those interested look up: systemic acquired resistance (SAR)) and still its refused to be believed.
Lights off at end of grow is another example. Alot of people consider it a myth. But you cant quantify trichomes, so u have a person with mixed emotions on a subject having a final say so on something that just cannot be proved or disproved in the way people are setting up there "experiments".

 

[Smoking Gun]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am not only looking for myths and misconceptions in growing, but ones the general public would know also. Like smoking marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs. Lets keep the myths rolling in.

 

[dextr0]

Myth: Marijuana is a gateway drug–it leads to harder drugs.


Fact: The U.S. government’s own statistics show that over 75 percent of all Americans who use marijuana never use harder drugs. The gateway-drug theory is derived by using blatantly-flawed logic. Using such blatantly-flawed logic, alcohol should be considered the gateway drug because most cocaine and heroin addicts began their drug use with beer or wine–not marijuana.

 

[Lost]

Marijuana impares short-term memory. I think its interesting to note, but I don't remember why..

 

[dextr0]

^^^lol.

I was told by a friend the other day that he was watching on a documentary that they were saying that Cannabis users use more chemicals then any other crop, and that destruction of land and waters were one of the top reasons Cannabis is "bad".

Yet this is what farming has done to the US coasts and around the world.

Ocean pollution. Sea "dead zones", oxygen-deprived, fishless: 1st recorded in 1970, 417 in 2008, largest covers 70,000 sq km
http://www.worldculturepictorial.co...ead-zones-oxygen-deprived-fishless-1st-record

 

[Lost]

^^^lol.

I was told by a friend the other day that he was watching on a documentary that they were saying that Cannabis users use more chemicals then any other crop, and that destruction of land and waters were one of the top reasons Cannabis is "bad".

Yea, shes a hungry beast! Its also the most lucerative crop, even compaed to poppy. I forget where I read it but it was an article about moving crops in Afganistan from poppy to mj.

Now here is a real world solution to problems worldwide. HAVE THE AFGANS PRODUCE HASH FOR THE US MEDICAL MARKET! Some huge pharma corp could go and put processing plants in and buy from the farmers and provide seeds. That way it can be processed in such a way to make it standardized. Hell, they had it standardized 100 years ago when you could buy it at the pharmacy. From there, paper mills can pop up processing the hurds, hempcrete factories, etc... Say bye bye to the taliban after the whole place has modernized. The people would be like, " If the crazies want to live in the hills, eff em" lol...


Now if you want to talk about hurting MJ's genetic makeup, have companies like Monsanto cranking out GM seeds for these operations. Thats a whole other issue, but one I would rather deal with than country wide famine, poverty, and terrorism in Pakistan. Even if its not in my back yard, because im a global citazen like that! LOLOL! :)

 

[ibTheMan]

Myth= smoken and driven is like drinkn and driven.

That ^ myth is made up by dumb ass's that have no idea and never smoke in there life.

 

[Smoking Gun]

Some huge pharma corp could go and put processing plants in and buy from the farmers and provide seeds. That way it can be processed in such a way to make it standardized. Hell, they had it standardized 100 years ago when you could buy it at the pharmacy. From there, paper mills can pop up processing the hurds, hempcrete factories, etc...

Now if you want to talk about hurting MJ's genetic makeup, have companies like Monsanto cranking out GM seeds for these operations. Thats a whole other issue, but one I would rather deal with than country wide famine, poverty, and terrorism in Pakistan. Even if its not in my back yard, because im a global citazen like that! LOLOL! :)

Lost, careful there, this is about dispelling myths not creating new ones. While at the end of the 19th century hash and cannabis were used in medical tinctures and readily available, they were by no means controlled or standardized. There was no FDA or overseeing body to control the products the snake-oil salesmen made and sold. So they all would have different sources of cannabis at differing levels of standards, so nothing would be uniform.

Now while Monsanto would standardize its cannabis crops, this would bring its own set of issues, for one we could end up with one variety of cannabis world wide. But lets please keep this thread to the myths not solving the worlds problems with cannabis.

Dextro, those are exactly the kinds of myths I am looking for; thanks.

 

[Lost]

Sorry was a lost rant. I remember seeing pictures of the extract bottles from the pharma and they looked pretty legit for even 100 years ago. I wondered about it tho..

 

[CynicalOptimist]

Claim: According to the United States government marijuana currently has no accepted medical use.

Fact: United States Patent: 6630507 (Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants) "Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia." [full text here]

 

[Smoking Gun]

Sorry was a lost rant. I remember seeing pictures of the extract bottles from the pharma and they looked pretty legit for even 100 years ago. I wondered about it tho..

They were as legit as most any medicine of the time. While snake-oil salesmen sold cannabis infused tinctures trained doctors also prescribed it. The thing was there was no governing body controlling amounts and quality of cannabis used so there were no standards that had to be met. And the only reason those tinctures fell out of favor is because of William Randolph Hearst and company's influence on laws and policies in the USA.

 

[Seamaiden]

The biggest one I always see is the assertion that environment affects the sex of the plant when starting seedlings. Unless cannabis somehow violates the basic laws of genetics that dictate all life on earth, it simply isn't possible, unless you are dealing with a hermi plant.

Unfortunately, I'm going to stir up your notions. If you happen to know anyone who's into reptiles and breeding, then they can talk to you about how one very simple environmental factor can affect sex of hatchlings--temperature.

And then we have fishes like clownfishes and sheepheads that can actually completely change sex, which isn't to say that they're hermaphrodites, IIRC they're something else.

Not all animals (organisms?) have sex chromosomes.


So, if this can be true of higher organisms, vertebrates even! Then why not plants?

Googlecached "how is sex determined in plants."

References

1. ^ Warren, W.C. (2008). "How did the platypus get its sex chromosome chain? A comparison of meiotic multiples and sex chromosomes in plants and animals". Nature 453: 175–U1.

<snipped>

Sex determination in plants

• Matsunaga, S (Aug 2006). "Sex chromosome-linked genes in plants" (Free full text). Genes & genetic systems 81 (4): 219–26. doi:10.1266/ggs.81.219. ISSN 1341-7568. PMID 17038793. http://joi.jlc.jst.go.jp/JST.JSTAGE/ggs/81.219?from=PubMed. edit
• Matsunaga, S. (Jun 2009). "Junk DNA promotes sex chromosome evolution". Heredity 102 (6): 525–526. doi:10.1038/hdy.2009.36. ISSN 0018-067X. PMID 19337304. edit

Marijuana impares short-term memory. I think its interesting to note, but I don't remember why..

Fucking smartass.

I use urine to feed my girls, especially if they're looking for nitrogen.


Myth: Shape of the seed determine sex.

Fact? Not that I've been able to determine!

Myth: Curled or straight first shoot from seed will tell you which sex the seedling will be.

Fact? Not that I've been able to see for myself!

 

[johnursery]

i think part of the confusion is when some people think that hermi pollen is the same as when a plant is chemically altered to produce pollen, then you have people giving out "S1's" that are realy just hermi seeds

 

[EACH1TEACH1]

1 joint of herb equal to 1 pack pf smokes(health class freshman year)

 

[mintz]

that weed today is 30 times stronger than back in the day(20+)