Advocates promised decriminalizing marijuana would cure all our problems, write William P. Barr and John P. Walters. Instead, we’re a nation of addicts.
This article focuses on the dramatic side effects and risks associated with smoking weed. These should be taken seriously, but I think it actually misses what makes weed truly dangerous. It makes the user ok with being bored. They are made comfortably numb.
It also messes with your sense of time. Years go by in a blink of an eye because the user is never really present. They don’t decompress at the end of a long day, take a moment to take a deep breath and watch the sunset, enjoy a casual walk, what have you. I would compare sobriety vs. being high to actually doing something - having a lived experience - vs. watching a movie - distracting yourself for a couple hours without really experiencing anything or growing in any way.
So many young people are not just wasting their youth with weed. They’re also creating a future for themselves where they’ll have little to no real memories or experiences, nothing that helps one grow as a person and motivates continued growth.
I could do so much better on THC products, starting with ending the use of the word cannabis in the debate. High octane weed is all kinds of things.
And yes, one of the things the plant is very good at is pulling heavy metals out of soil.
There's a truckload of lies that the lobby sold the public on. Every single claim by that lobby, every "point" made on NPR was a lie. I know. I tracked the lies and answered them. Not one journalist would listen. Not one.
I was concerned mostly with youth psychosis when legalization happened here in Canada, and events have borne out that concern: teen psychosis is way up. And that, by the way, is not just a "well stop using it and you'll be fine" kind of thing: permanent damage is done by every episode of psychosis, leading eventually to the shambling shell of someone with all the "negative" symptoms of chronic schizophrenia.
I am totally unsurprised that the smoke from burning plant matter causes the same cardiovascular injuries as tobacco, and who will take my bet that in a few years we will have the epidemiological evidence it causes the same cancers as tobacco?
I don't intend to be a downer here, but people should know what they are using, be it tobacco or marijuana, and once they know if they choose to use it that's fine with me. When my leukemia comes back, as it will one day, I fully intend to take as much advantage of legal weed as I can! But at that stage, what have I got to lose? Definitely not the same calculation for a young person.
Okay so calling marijuana a “pipe dream” was funny. I don’t advocate marijuana use but I do advocate criticisms with validity. There is a fair amount of research done on marijuana. For the last time it doesn’t cause psychosis in regular people. Savodnik wrote a piece of flaming garbage, citing sources that didn’t support his argument saying the same thing awhile back.
Marijuana only causes psychosis in people with a genetic predisposition to Bipolar Disorder(s) and Schizophrenia. As indicated by a family history of the disorders. In those select people it has a well documented link to an earlier onset of the illness and a more severe progression of the disorder. The everyday person is not going to go crazy from Marijuana.
I don’t advocate Marijuana use. But that nonsense criticism remains a constant source of irritation for me. There are plenty of valid reasons not to smoke Marijuana without misrepresenting well established research.
Legalized "medical" marijuana in other states is also a repeated history lesson that we haven't learned yet. I live in Louisiana where medical marijuana was just legalized, and the "medical" part is a total joke. Gas stations are handing out medical cards, and dispensaries are popping up everywhere. It's the same business strategy as the oxycodone pill mills in FL, and I am afraid it will be just as effective.
My brother who is 62 years old, has been an active marijuana user since the age of 11 years old. While all of us experimented with smoking pot in our teens and 20’s, my brother was an intense, habitual user. And it really destroyed him. He went from a happy, smart kid who was kind and fun to be with to someone whose main focus in life was smoking weed. When I left home at 18 to forge my own path, my brother never seemed to mature and he lived at home with my mother till the age of 28. He could barely hold down a job and so my mother often supported him financially. And over the years he developed paranoia and anxiety, and became a conspiracy theorist. I have tried to encourage him to put the bong down and get proper help but it’s a lost cause. Marijuana destroyed my brother, and with it, our relationship.
Some people seem to tolerate marajuana better than others. I found it made me very anxious. Unbeknownst to him, my son was given some and he ended up in the hospital that night suffering from anxiety. I am convinced it is much more dangerous than people believe. Words are powerful. Calling it a “recreational “ drug is doing the country a disservice.
Should recreational marijuana be legal? A thousand times, No. States have jumped on the bus to legalize because it’s a revenue cow, and have closed their eyes to its dangers to mental and physical health - especially true of the newer, more potent iterations of the drug.
It’s been obvious for a long time that most chronic marijuana users lose mental acuity and productivity, and that it becomes a gateway to opioids for some; and stronger versions of the drug have ramped up the problems for individuals and for society. To this article, I’ll add the reporting of Alex Berenson on the dramatic increase in psychoses among weed users.
Spare me the argument that liquor is worse overall for society but is legal. Perhaps, but so what? Why make legal anything else that is broadly harmful?
People who argue for legalization tend to fall into three camps: Either they benefit financially, or they want to keep on getting wasted without fear of arrest, or they’re libertarians who oppose government regulation of almost anything. Not even the libertarian’s perspective is enough for me. Public health is too important, an appropriate realm for regulations. It’s why we require thoroughly tested polio and MMR vaccines for kids entering kindergarten, and seat belts in cars.
To be clear: I’m not against marijuana usage for legitimate medical reasons, including CBD products to relieve pain, which is different from what’s smoked or eaten.
A compelling argument against is that the cartels historically responsible for production and distribution see opportunity in legalization and are aiming to profit.
These are the same people who have devastating impact on the communities of origin, contribute to the immigration crisis, contribute to significant violent crime in key American cities that act as distribution centers including Baltimore and Chicago, are waging a murderous war on our southern border, build adjacent disturbing businesses that include human trafficking, and use the same channels for sale of illegal fentanyl and other drugs.
Comments from Sinaloa per a Business Insider story in 2022:
"This is a business that belongs here, to Sinaloa," a Sinaloa Cartel operative who works as a regional manager for marijuana operations in Culiacán told Insider. "We lost a share of the business, but in no time we will take it back by producing the best weed in the world."
"This is by far not the final product. We are buying seeds from all over the world to create our own strain, to produce top-notch Sinaloa weed and to develop a strong brand even better than the gringos," the producer said, referring to growers in the US.
I have never used recreational drugs not because I have a huge moral issue with substances themselves but because I've seen the damage they have done to families and communities including children here and abroad. It's seriously sad - why would any caring person want to contribute to profiting people who are absolutely evil and corrupt?
I find that these articles touting either the "Weed is Great" narrative, or the "Weed is Terrible" narrative, are both missing the point. Even if weed does have potential drawbacks in terms of ones physical or mental health (it does), the real question is whether we are prepared to criminalize every single thing that is potentially harmful in some way. As a very young man, I heavily abused both alcohol and marijuana, and to me there is simply no comparison between the destructive power of alcohol, vs the destructive power of marijuana. Alcohol is far worse in every single category I can imagine, and it's not even close. But who is talking about whether society should tolerate alcohol legalization? Adults should be left to make these decisions on their own, for good or ill, without being harassed. Want to ruin your physical health with junk food and cigarettes? It's tragic, but you should have that right. You want to ruin your family by being addicted to gambling or porn? Again, a tragedy, but all these things are legal. Some people seem to be able to handle weed just fine, while others would probably be better off not indulging, but let people make their own decisions.
What is legalized will be advertised. Legalization of pot, sports betting and online gambling were all promoted using the same lies: no harm to people and government revenue.
After reading this I understand why Barr could not find evidence of election fraud in 2020. In this article sweeping conclusions are drawn such as increases in crime stemming from legalization of marijuana and relies in part on Oregon as proof thereof. But Oregon decriminalized everything. And the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas state for crime statistics is telling. IMO it reveals the true motive - protection of the almighty dollar. That is not my altar.
This article, like many anti-legalization articles, mentions that today's weed is many times more potent than in the past. It leaves out the obvious corollary, that users use less today.
Consider beer vs. hard liquor. Most adults can drink a 12oz can of beer with no ill effects. Yet we can't chug 12oz of hard liquor the way we can beer. So we drink less of it. No different with weed.
A young doctor friend told me about his experience about a decade ago in gross anatomy lab during medical school. One of their cadavers was a 70+ year old smoker who died of lung cancer. Another of the cadavers was a man in his 30's who died in a traffic accident but had a history of marijuana use. The lungs of the marijuana user looked as bad, if not worse, than the elderly smoker. As he told me, a lot of those med students left the lab "scared straight" and their attitude about marijuana use was forever changed. Nothing like irrefutable evidence to change someone's mind.
This article focuses on the dramatic side effects and risks associated with smoking weed. These should be taken seriously, but I think it actually misses what makes weed truly dangerous. It makes the user ok with being bored. They are made comfortably numb.
It also messes with your sense of time. Years go by in a blink of an eye because the user is never really present. They don’t decompress at the end of a long day, take a moment to take a deep breath and watch the sunset, enjoy a casual walk, what have you. I would compare sobriety vs. being high to actually doing something - having a lived experience - vs. watching a movie - distracting yourself for a couple hours without really experiencing anything or growing in any way.
So many young people are not just wasting their youth with weed. They’re also creating a future for themselves where they’ll have little to no real memories or experiences, nothing that helps one grow as a person and motivates continued growth.
I could do so much better on THC products, starting with ending the use of the word cannabis in the debate. High octane weed is all kinds of things.
And yes, one of the things the plant is very good at is pulling heavy metals out of soil.
There's a truckload of lies that the lobby sold the public on. Every single claim by that lobby, every "point" made on NPR was a lie. I know. I tracked the lies and answered them. Not one journalist would listen. Not one.
I was concerned mostly with youth psychosis when legalization happened here in Canada, and events have borne out that concern: teen psychosis is way up. And that, by the way, is not just a "well stop using it and you'll be fine" kind of thing: permanent damage is done by every episode of psychosis, leading eventually to the shambling shell of someone with all the "negative" symptoms of chronic schizophrenia.
I am totally unsurprised that the smoke from burning plant matter causes the same cardiovascular injuries as tobacco, and who will take my bet that in a few years we will have the epidemiological evidence it causes the same cancers as tobacco?
I don't intend to be a downer here, but people should know what they are using, be it tobacco or marijuana, and once they know if they choose to use it that's fine with me. When my leukemia comes back, as it will one day, I fully intend to take as much advantage of legal weed as I can! But at that stage, what have I got to lose? Definitely not the same calculation for a young person.
Okay so calling marijuana a “pipe dream” was funny. I don’t advocate marijuana use but I do advocate criticisms with validity. There is a fair amount of research done on marijuana. For the last time it doesn’t cause psychosis in regular people. Savodnik wrote a piece of flaming garbage, citing sources that didn’t support his argument saying the same thing awhile back.
Marijuana only causes psychosis in people with a genetic predisposition to Bipolar Disorder(s) and Schizophrenia. As indicated by a family history of the disorders. In those select people it has a well documented link to an earlier onset of the illness and a more severe progression of the disorder. The everyday person is not going to go crazy from Marijuana.
I don’t advocate Marijuana use. But that nonsense criticism remains a constant source of irritation for me. There are plenty of valid reasons not to smoke Marijuana without misrepresenting well established research.
Legalized "medical" marijuana in other states is also a repeated history lesson that we haven't learned yet. I live in Louisiana where medical marijuana was just legalized, and the "medical" part is a total joke. Gas stations are handing out medical cards, and dispensaries are popping up everywhere. It's the same business strategy as the oxycodone pill mills in FL, and I am afraid it will be just as effective.
One point missed is there are no FDA studies because of the insane DEA prohibitions.
My brother who is 62 years old, has been an active marijuana user since the age of 11 years old. While all of us experimented with smoking pot in our teens and 20’s, my brother was an intense, habitual user. And it really destroyed him. He went from a happy, smart kid who was kind and fun to be with to someone whose main focus in life was smoking weed. When I left home at 18 to forge my own path, my brother never seemed to mature and he lived at home with my mother till the age of 28. He could barely hold down a job and so my mother often supported him financially. And over the years he developed paranoia and anxiety, and became a conspiracy theorist. I have tried to encourage him to put the bong down and get proper help but it’s a lost cause. Marijuana destroyed my brother, and with it, our relationship.
Some people seem to tolerate marajuana better than others. I found it made me very anxious. Unbeknownst to him, my son was given some and he ended up in the hospital that night suffering from anxiety. I am convinced it is much more dangerous than people believe. Words are powerful. Calling it a “recreational “ drug is doing the country a disservice.
Should recreational marijuana be legal? A thousand times, No. States have jumped on the bus to legalize because it’s a revenue cow, and have closed their eyes to its dangers to mental and physical health - especially true of the newer, more potent iterations of the drug.
It’s been obvious for a long time that most chronic marijuana users lose mental acuity and productivity, and that it becomes a gateway to opioids for some; and stronger versions of the drug have ramped up the problems for individuals and for society. To this article, I’ll add the reporting of Alex Berenson on the dramatic increase in psychoses among weed users.
Spare me the argument that liquor is worse overall for society but is legal. Perhaps, but so what? Why make legal anything else that is broadly harmful?
People who argue for legalization tend to fall into three camps: Either they benefit financially, or they want to keep on getting wasted without fear of arrest, or they’re libertarians who oppose government regulation of almost anything. Not even the libertarian’s perspective is enough for me. Public health is too important, an appropriate realm for regulations. It’s why we require thoroughly tested polio and MMR vaccines for kids entering kindergarten, and seat belts in cars.
To be clear: I’m not against marijuana usage for legitimate medical reasons, including CBD products to relieve pain, which is different from what’s smoked or eaten.
A compelling argument against is that the cartels historically responsible for production and distribution see opportunity in legalization and are aiming to profit.
These are the same people who have devastating impact on the communities of origin, contribute to the immigration crisis, contribute to significant violent crime in key American cities that act as distribution centers including Baltimore and Chicago, are waging a murderous war on our southern border, build adjacent disturbing businesses that include human trafficking, and use the same channels for sale of illegal fentanyl and other drugs.
Comments from Sinaloa per a Business Insider story in 2022:
"This is a business that belongs here, to Sinaloa," a Sinaloa Cartel operative who works as a regional manager for marijuana operations in Culiacán told Insider. "We lost a share of the business, but in no time we will take it back by producing the best weed in the world."
"This is by far not the final product. We are buying seeds from all over the world to create our own strain, to produce top-notch Sinaloa weed and to develop a strong brand even better than the gringos," the producer said, referring to growers in the US.
I have never used recreational drugs not because I have a huge moral issue with substances themselves but because I've seen the damage they have done to families and communities including children here and abroad. It's seriously sad - why would any caring person want to contribute to profiting people who are absolutely evil and corrupt?
I find that these articles touting either the "Weed is Great" narrative, or the "Weed is Terrible" narrative, are both missing the point. Even if weed does have potential drawbacks in terms of ones physical or mental health (it does), the real question is whether we are prepared to criminalize every single thing that is potentially harmful in some way. As a very young man, I heavily abused both alcohol and marijuana, and to me there is simply no comparison between the destructive power of alcohol, vs the destructive power of marijuana. Alcohol is far worse in every single category I can imagine, and it's not even close. But who is talking about whether society should tolerate alcohol legalization? Adults should be left to make these decisions on their own, for good or ill, without being harassed. Want to ruin your physical health with junk food and cigarettes? It's tragic, but you should have that right. You want to ruin your family by being addicted to gambling or porn? Again, a tragedy, but all these things are legal. Some people seem to be able to handle weed just fine, while others would probably be better off not indulging, but let people make their own decisions.
What is legalized will be advertised. Legalization of pot, sports betting and online gambling were all promoted using the same lies: no harm to people and government revenue.
After reading this I understand why Barr could not find evidence of election fraud in 2020. In this article sweeping conclusions are drawn such as increases in crime stemming from legalization of marijuana and relies in part on Oregon as proof thereof. But Oregon decriminalized everything. And the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas state for crime statistics is telling. IMO it reveals the true motive - protection of the almighty dollar. That is not my altar.
This article, like many anti-legalization articles, mentions that today's weed is many times more potent than in the past. It leaves out the obvious corollary, that users use less today.
Consider beer vs. hard liquor. Most adults can drink a 12oz can of beer with no ill effects. Yet we can't chug 12oz of hard liquor the way we can beer. So we drink less of it. No different with weed.
A young doctor friend told me about his experience about a decade ago in gross anatomy lab during medical school. One of their cadavers was a 70+ year old smoker who died of lung cancer. Another of the cadavers was a man in his 30's who died in a traffic accident but had a history of marijuana use. The lungs of the marijuana user looked as bad, if not worse, than the elderly smoker. As he told me, a lot of those med students left the lab "scared straight" and their attitude about marijuana use was forever changed. Nothing like irrefutable evidence to change someone's mind.
Johnny’s Ambassadors is a great organization to learn about the tragic harms of high THC cannabis on our young people.