Marijuana has been proved to be linked to serious mental health disorders.
The trends are very concerning. We are at a 30 year high for youth marijuana use. This is what the industry wants and is counting on. And the drug is much different this time around.
Prevention education will be more critical than ever for this drug. Sound drug policy, law and messaging should be driving use rates down, not up.
That will be the measure of success.
Here is an interesting infographic about youth marijuana use.
Some criminologists fancy pot legalization as a magical scheme to get control of the black market for this drug, simple economics easily predicted what is actually occurring when states legalize and “regulate” pot. The black market thrives in the midst of expensive and aggressive “legitimate” pot markets.
Washington State’s pot consultant said in 1978:
“If we legalize marijuana or any other drug, either we will have a
private industry whose profits depend on creating addicts. Or we have a public beauracracy whose revenues depend on creating and maintaining addicts. Somebody’s going to get the revenue stream; whoever gets that revenue stream is going to try to maximize it.”
“This dynamic presents a much bigger threat to America’s Public Health picture that the legalizers seem to appreciate.”
Now we seem to be on a mad trajectory of proving in policy practice what we already knew in theory.
Our children are the canary in the coal mine of marijuana legalization.
Coal mines were/are dangerous places. Fumes can leak in undetected. Mining tragedies were not uncommon. Many miners were killed in explosions, asphyxiations or poisonings before they were aware that a hazardous substance had leaked into their midst.
But a tiny bird became their warning signal. A canary in a cage in the mine shaft, with its delicate constitution, would succumb to the hazard long before the men would sense it was there. When the canary showed signs of illnes, the miners new it was time to get out.
Continue reading Our Kids are the Canary in the Legal Marijuana Coal Mine
This video from a self-described “nerd” with no dog in the fight of legalization, takes a careful look at peer reviewed literature to address the many myths that are being perpetrated by the pot-lobby and marijuana proponents. Here are the YouTube notes and the bibliography:
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This video deals exclusively with the documented negative health consequences of recreational cannabis use.
I used data from over 140 papers in the process of preparing this video. I’ve done my best to document sources. Below are some key papers for reference. Continue reading Video: Peer-Reviewed Publications on Negative Marijuana Health Effects
Hooray for Alan Berkenwald, M.D., who practices in Northampton, MA.
We need more bold medical professionals willing to speak out about the realities of these laws. What actually happens when medical issues are put to popular vote? We are boxed in by laws that were written to deceive the people, after outside funders paid over $1 million to promote their position and their product through sly — yet effective — propaganda to an unsuspecting public. No mention of risks or harms associated with using this drug. That is clearly not medicine.
Over 90% of the families of young opiate/heroin addicts that we’ve spoken to this year say that their children started with marijuana — a practical finding that bares out the science on how, far too often, the brain becomes primed for progressive addiction.
Continue reading Why I won’t prescribe medical marijuana — Dr. Alan Berkenwald
From Bluepic Studios and wait21.org, this video is a great primer on addiction.
Why does the body crave a drug over more healthy options?
Why does exposure to alcohol, marijuana , tobacco, and other drugs before age 21 dramatically increase the odds of addiction?
Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:
Myth No. 1: “Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive”
No, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but calling it harmless or non-addictive denies very clear science embraced by every major medical association that has studied the issue. Scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some 5–6 times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, and some strains are upwards of 10–20 times stronger than in the past—especially if one extracts THC through a butane process. This increased potency has translated to more than 400,000 emergency room visits every year due to things like acute psychotic episodes and panic attacks.
Continue reading Time for Reefer Sanity — Marijuana is Harmful
Is marijuana addictive? Yes. Period.
And the marijuana industry, like the tobacco industry, is counting on it.
Organizations like Marijuana Anonymous are founded for a reason.
They are founded to address a need. The need is coping with and recovering from marijuana addiction, also referred to as marijuana dependence syndrome.
Fueled by an aggressive profit motive backed by billionaires, and with the goal of creating and profiting from the next big addiction-based industry, marijuana addiction as a substance use disorder is rapidly growing. Continue reading Am I a Marijuana Addict? Weed, Addiction & Legalization
“To open Pandora’s box” means to perform an action that may seem small or innocent, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching consequences. [1]
The recent death of a student who jumped to his death in Colorado after ingesting a marijuana cookie is waking many up to what is really being unleashed in the misguided pursuit of marijuana legalization.
In her article in the LA Times, Jenny Deam sees a precautionary tale in the recent death last week of a student who jumped of a balcony after the effects of eating a marijuana cookie kicked in.
Many of her statements reflect the narrative of those who are looking beyond civil liberties, beyond nostalgia, beyond the false dichotomies of justifying another addiction-based vice industry with the evils of two others — tobacco and alcohol — to the downstream realities of legalized marijuana.
“The case has become a grim exhibit in a growing case file as Colorado health officials wonder whether, in the rapid rollout of legalized marijuana, adequate attention was paid to potential health risks of its use”
Continue reading Public Health and Pot’s Pandora’s Box — Death Raises Questions
Dr. Adi Jaffe is just the latest to expose the underlying lie in the pro-pot playbook of Big Marijuana. Yes, marijuana is addictive. And Big Marijuana is counting on it.
Just like Big Tobacco before them today’s Pied Piper’s of Pot are selling a carefully crafted lie on which their industry is based. The reality is that they need to hook our youth in order to reap their profits. Continue reading Is Marijuana Addictive? Bet Your Heroin on it.
“Is there a familiar aroma emanating from your kid’s room? Do you shake your head and ignore it thinking, “Hey, I got high when I was a teen and I turned out OK, right?” Well, think again.”
The research on 21st Century Pot and its health effects is pouring in, and the news is not good.
Continue reading Latest News on Teen Marijuana Use from Psych Today
Massachusetts, get some updated youth behavior risk data — locally — from the Metrowest Health Foundation. And new evidence of physical and mental health harms associated with this drug is mounting.
This is not a benign drug.
Continue reading Youth use rates in Massachusetts have been rising each year since decrim.
“Many suffering people are being further harmed by the very ones that are supposed to help them – their own doctors.”
Continue reading Marijuana dangerous for treatment of psychiatric problems