Cannabis is a gateway drug, leading the user to harder drugs like aspirin and cough syrup.
Just kidding, no such link has ever been found.
Actually this is the most in depth web site I have found on illegal drugs, including cannabis. If you seriously take the time to compare cannabis to any of the other drug listed on that web site you'll realize it should not even be listed among them.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Marijuana#sthash.OKwAVXcw.dpbs
I have a
suspicion that many of the health benefits of cannabis are exaggerated, or at best, inconclusive. But I know
for a fact that the harmful effects of cannabis have been greatly exaggerated and misaligned way out of proportion to comparable "drugs" (eg. alcohol, tobacco). In fact I hate to consider these drugs comparable because both those products have a long well documented history of serious health effects and death, and yet cannabis use has relatively no conclusive data showing long term detrimental health effects.
If you research the reason cannabis became an illicit drug, you'll see that it was purely a political one, and had nothing to do with protecting people's health. Unfortunately once it became an illegal drug it's sales and distribution went underground and criminals and drug dealers have benefited ever since, and since the sales and revenue of cannabis continue to increase every year, so does this huge underground business. If you want to continue to see these criminals and drug dealers benefit from this huge flow of cash, by all means continue to support keeping cannabis an illegal drug. Personally I'd like to pull the rug out from under them, see cannabis made legal, and change the direction of that flow of money. But that's just me. :dunno: