Hi I’m Elliott. This is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today I’m going to talk about some
misconceptions about illegal drugs…and marijuana. Which may or may not be illegal depending
on where you’re watching this video.
Misconception #1: Everyone was a stoner in the sixties.
Nowadays, when we talk about the U.S. in the sixties, we act as if everyone was a stoned
hippie, but that wasn’t really the case. Gallup conducted a poll in 1969 and found
that only 4% of American adults had tried marijuana. 34% said they didn’t even know
its effects, although 43% believed that many or some high school kids were smoking it.
Those darn high school kids.
Misconception #2: People who have taken LSD over seven times are considered legally insane.
According to Snopes, this myth has been around since the eighties, although the number seven
isn’t alway consistent -- sometimes it’s two, three, four, five...you get it. It’s
worth noting that insanity is a legal term that broadly speaking means you can’t tell
what you’re doing is wrong. There are a few different tests that can be used to determine
whether a criminal can use the insanity defence in court. But none of these are related to
LSD, so any drug user attempting to plead insanity would have to go through the same
process as anyone else.
A lot of people also think this myth means that the state can commit you to a psychiatric
facility. But that’s not necessarily true either. Although the laws vary state to state,
involuntary commitment is generally for people who pose imminent threats to themselves or
others. So if you did some LSD and became violent, some states might send you to a psychiatric
hospital, but not because of drugs from the distant past.
Misconception #3: Blue star tattoos are used to distribute LSD to kids.
This urban legend has been going strong since the seventies, despite there being no evidence
that it’s true. The story goes that some anonymous person is distributing temporary
tattoos of blue stars to little kids. They contain LSD, so when the child licks a tattoo
to apply it, they’ll trip on LSD and become “addicted.” There have been zero documented
cases of this happening. Also, experts consider LSD non-addictive.
Misconception #4: LSD stays in your spinal fluid and causes flashbacks.
It doesn’t stay in your spine. LSD gets metabolized by the liver. Its half-life is
between 2 and a half and 4 hours. That said, there’s something known as “hallucinogen
persisting perception disorder,” or HPPD. As the name suggests, this is when someone
experiences a change in perception after doing a hallucinogen, like LSD, but experts don’t
consider them actual “flashbacks.” Often, someone will just experience stuff like halos
around objects or see movement where there is none. And it’s not that common. One study
from UC Berkeley found that 4.1% of people who had used hallucinogens presented HPPD-like
symptoms.
Misconception #5: Some people are born as “crack babies” and will experience major
health problems. Let me start by saying I’m obviously not
telling you that it’s cool to do cocaine while you’re pregnant. Crack is whack. But,
for a long time, people believed in “crack babies.” In 2013, a 25 year study concluded
about babies who had been exposed to cocaine while they were in the uterus. The researchers
found that there was no statistically significant difference in those babies and babies who
weren’t exposed to cocaine in terms of long term health problems. According to the study’s
lead researcher, “Poverty is a more powerful influence on the outcome of inner-city children
than gestational exposure to cocaine.”
Misconception #6: Most people who do crack get addicted.
Actually, addiction rates for crack are similar to other drugs, like alcohol. Only 10-20%
of people who try crack become addicted. That means that 80-90% of people who have tried
it do not struggle with crack addiction.
Speaking of addiction... Misconception #7: It’s nearly impossible
to recover from meth addiction. With the proper combination of medication
and behavior therapy, recovery is possible. Meth destroys the dopamine receptors in a
person’s brain, so it takes about a year for those to regrow. Luckily, we now have
anti-depressants that can help addicts cope while that happens.
According to a study conducted at the Matrix Institute, an addiction research organization,
their treatment for meth addiction was about equally effective as treatment for cocaine
addiction. 50-60% of people were clean after a year. So, it’s more effective than treatment
for heroin addicts and less effective than treatment for alcoholics.
Misconception #8: George Washington smoked weed.
In a few letters and his diary, Washington wrote about “India hemp,” a plant that
he grew and knew a lot about. This was a reference to Cannabis, but Washington wasn’t growing
it to smoke it. He primarily used it to produce hemp, which was used to make clothes. We know
that he wasn’t smoking it because modern weed has around 5-20% THC, the important chemical.
The hemp that Washington was growing had less than .3%, so would have had no effect at all.
He would have been doing it for no reason. And he had a lot to do, he was not gunna waste
time.
Misconception #9: Super Mario Bros. is about drugs.
According to creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the mushrooms that make Mario grow and shrink
aren’t drug references. He claims he was influenced by the role of the mushroom in
ancient folklore.
Misconception #10: Trick-or-treaters are frequently given candy laced with drugs.
Every Halloween, it seems that we hear about the danger of candy containing heroin or some
other drug. It turns out that every time something like this has been observed, the child who
ingested drugs had actually gotten ahold of them some other way. Then, the family conveniently
blamed poisoned Halloween candy. It must have been the Twix, oh no.
Thanks for watching Misconceptions on Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help
of all these nice people. If you have a topic for an upcoming Misconceptions episode that
you’d like to see, leave it in comments. See you next week!