When it comes to spreading unfounded rumors, urban legends, and outright lies, the internet is definitely the "Ignorance Superhighway."  Obvious fallacies are allowed to breed and spread exponentially with just the click of a mouse.  As such, it's fertile ground for the pro-marijuana crowd to disseminate their lies to gullible people who can't seem to run a simple Google search in order to verify a claim.

Recently, I read a ridiculous meme that claimed that 1) marijuana cured cancer, and 2) the government is keeping it from us.  Of course, it had several "likes" and affirming comments about a drug with alleged curative powers that medical science hasn't been able to find.  This is what passes for informed debate now: agreeing with a dubious claim and then disagreeing with all dissenting opinions.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or, NORML, and the rest of the pro-pot stoners and liberals have wanted this for decades.  At first, they claimed they were for "decriminalization" and wailed and moaned about the mythical people who were thrown in prison to rot simply for possessing a seed of pot that was found by overzealous police officers.  Lawyer and author Ann Coulter researched this claim and, not surprisingly, found that exactly zero people have ever been sent to prison just for possession of marijuana seeds or a single joint.  In fact, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BLS) figure for possession of marijuana alone (not just a seed or similar small amount) is around 0.7 percent.  If they're in prison and it's related to marijuana, it's most likely because they were involved in selling or buying it, or they're connected to violent crimes.  Yet this inconvenient fact is routinely avoided because it doesn't fit the narrative that pot is safe and isn't linked to other criminal behaviors.

After the push for decriminalization, potheads switched tactics and coined the phrase "medical marijuana," which conjures up the image of people being helped with or cured of dreaded diseases with the aid of a joint or two.  As a result, we're supposed to embrace this scenario and rethink our mission on the "War on Drugs."  Leftists in the media (but I'm being redundant), whose primary goal is perverting everything decent in society, jumped on the bandwagon. 

Now, with the fraud of medical marijuana firmly entrenched in society, the pot lobby feels bold enough to reveal its true mission, which is "recreational marijuana use."  They look no farther than their own pleasure, no matter how harmful or wicked, and claim that we need to change society to accept their beliefs, just as they have with abortion and homosexuality.

To be fair, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, has been shown to be effective in reducing pain and nausea in some patients, but it has never been shown to cure anything.  Also, the THC administered is either an oil or a pill, which is a concentrated form of the substance and not the typical pot that's smoked.  Incidentally, marijuana that is smoked contains five times the carbon monoxide, and more tar, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, benzopyrene and benzanthracene tobacco smoke, which are known carcinogens.  That too, is another inconvenient truth that isn't advertised.

Even so, the pro-pot activists continue to bombard us with news that regular marijuana use is helpful for various ailments.  Recently, the New York Times ran an article about senior citizens using pot, claiming that it helps them manage their aches and pains.  While that is true on the surface, the detail that's carefully hidden in the article indicates that it's in pill form rather than marijuana ingested by smoking.  That creative phrasing wasn't by accident.

The goal of NORML and the rest of the pot lobby is for nothing less than unencumbered, legal "recreational use" of marijuana.  If enough people can be convinced that medical marijuana can assist someone somewhere, then it's a short step for advocates to claim that it cures some condition and then deem it safe for general consumption, which is exactly what's happened. 

We need to combat these lies with facts, beginning with the fact that marijuana cures absolutely nothing, regardless of its use by some as a temporary pain reliever.  The "War on Drugs" is being lost not by apathy, but by deliberate misinformation and opinion manipulation.  It's past time for us to correct and re-shape the narrative.