Latest Drug War News

GoodShop: You Shop...We Give!

Shop online at GoodShop.com and a percentage of each purchase will be donated to our cause! More than 600 top stores are participating!

Google
The Internet Our Website

Global and National Events Calendar

Bottoms Up: Guide to Grassroots Activism

NoNewPrisons.org

Prisons and Poisons

November Coalition Projects

Get on the Soapbox! with Soap for Change

November Coalition: We Have Issues!

November Coalition Local Scenes

November Coalition Multimedia Archive

The Razor Wire
Bring Back Federal Parole!
November Coalition: Our House

Stories from Behind The WALL

November Coalition: Nora's Blog

November 18, 2005 - Times Union (NY)

Is Pot A Real Bummer? Study Doesn't Think So

UAlbany Professor Part Of Research Linking Drug To Being Less Depressed; Feds Blast Findings

By Kenneth Aaron, staff writer

Return to Drug War News: Don't Miss Archive

ALBANY -- Why the long face?

Not smoking pot, perhaps?

University at Albany psychology professor Mitchell Earleywine and Thomas F. Denson, of the University of Southern California, recently completed a study finding that people who smoke marijuana are less depressed than those who never smoke.

The respondents were in three categories: those who have never smoked, daily smokers and weekly smokers. Both daily and regular uses said they were less depressed.

The online study, which involved 4,400 people, was supported by a grant from the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that supports legalizing and regulating the drug.

The findings are to be published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

The findings surprised Earleywine.

"I expected that depression would be even, that the groups wouldn't differ at all," Earleywine said. "I never thought the users would be less depressed."

Federal drug officials said Earleywine's work was biased.

A policy analyst for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy said the UAlbany professor is a committed pot-advocacy researcher whose survey was suspect because too many hard-core users responded to it.

Earleywine co-authored a study in September showing that marijuana use among teenagers falls in states that allow medical marijuana. And, indeed, his latest work flies in the face of other work that has linked marijuana to depression.

He cautioned that his research doesn't mean that weed will make troubles go away. Chances are, the type of person who smokes marijuana just happens to be the type of person who doesn't depress easily.

"They may just have a more mellow attitude about everything," Earleywine said. "So if they're less concerned about cannabis, they're probably less concerned about other things."

The study did find that people who use marijuana for medical reasons are more likely to be depressed than other smokers -- not surprising, perhaps, given that they're smoking because they're sick.

They were less depressed overall than nonsmokers, though.

While Earleywine said his research is clear evidence that marijuana doesn't lead to depression, government officials said he was wrong.

"I'm not at all surprised that people who are daily smokers self-report that they feel pretty good," said David Murray, a policy analyst with the White House drug office.

Marijuana alters users' body chemistry so they get miserable after they stop, he said.

For anybody out there still tempted to light up to stave off depression, though, Earleywine suggested they shouldn't.

"I don't think that's a good idea," he said. "We've got good cognitive therapies that will treat depression in three months."

For the latest drug war news, visit our friends and allies below

We are careful not to duplicate the efforts of other organizations, and as a grassroots coalition of prisoners and social reformers, our resources (time and money) are limited. The vast expertise and scope of the various drug reform organizations will enable you to stay informed on the ever-changing, many-faceted aspects of the movement. Our colleagues in reform also give the latest drug war news. Please check their websites often.

The Drug Policy Alliance
Drug Reform Coordination Network
Drug Sense and The Media Awareness Project

Working to end drug war injustice

Meet the People Behind The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines

Questions or problems? Contact webmaster@november.org