Advocates for the legalization of cannabis across the country offer all sorts of comforting assertions about how harmless pot is. “Weed isn’t addictive,” or “Pot users aren’t violent,” they assure us. Neither of those claims is true, however.
Pot pushers also like to compare weed favorably to alcohol, which has been legal for nearly a century. “Unlike alcohol, there is no lethal dose of cannabis,” advocates say. That may be true: it’s unheard of to die from one individual use of pot. But on the other hand, a drunk can get sober tomorrow, whereas a cannabis user can induce severe mental illness in himself that will handicap him for the rest of his needlessly miserable lifetime.
The results of a study five decades in the making and including nearly seven million people were reported this month. Researchers from the Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health concluded that young men who are heavy cannabis users suffer a markedly increased incidence of serious, life-altering psychosis, such as schizophrenia.
Of course, we’re supposed to believe that cannabis isn’t addictive, so the pot addicts in the study are referred to as victims of “cannabis use disorder” (CUD). But if there’s one thing we should have learned by now from the whole transgender craze, it’s that Big Psychology will play with terminology to redefine whatever is politically expedient. Powerful interests want marijuana to be legalized, so legalized it shall be, and no contrary statistics will interfere.
The study is titled “Association between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia stronger in young males than in females.” It reaches the conclusion, “Young males might be particularly susceptible to the effects of cannabis on schizophrenia. At a population level, assuming causality, one-fifth of cases of schizophrenia among young males might be prevented by averting CUD.” This figure reaches nearly one-third for young men aged 21-30. Considering that each one of those cases is a life-altering tragedy for the victim and his family, it’s inexcusable for pot pushers to keep telling young people the stuff is “harmless.”
“Previous studies indicate that rates of daily or near daily cannabis use, cannabis use disorder, and new schizophrenia diagnoses are higher among men than women, and that early, frequent cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia,” remarks NIDA in a report on the study.
“For young men aged 21-30, they estimated that the proportion of preventable cases of schizophrenia related to cannabis use disorder may be as high as 30%. The authors emphasize that cannabis use disorder appears to be a major modifiable risk factor for schizophrenia at the population level, particularly among young men (emphasis added).” So maybe we should slow our roll toward national legalization and institutionalization of a cannabis market? Ya think?
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The study reinforces another reason for the increase in pot-induced mental illness, especially in young heavy users: “This study also adds to existing evidence suggesting that the proportion of new schizophrenia cases that may be attributed to cannabis use disorder has consistently increased over the past five decades. The authors note that this increase is likely linked to the higher potency of cannabis and increasing prevalence of diagnosed cannabis use disorder over time.”
The Washington Times spoke with an emergency department physician, Karen Randall, in Colorado, one of the original states to legalize weed a decade ago. Dr. Randall has seen some things:
Karen Randall, an emergency physician in Colorado, says “scromiting” cases were rare several years ago. Now she is seeing at least one per day.
Scromiting is shorthand for scream-vomiting, a condition that inflicts patients who use marijuana with high concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the psychoactive substance in cannabis.
The condition is much what it sounds like: screaming from nausea and vomiting at the same time.
Scromiting is a symptom of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition befalling “chronic users of marijuana with a high THC content.” This is according to a special advisory issued in 2019 by the U.S. Surgeon General.
“Marijuana, or cannabis, is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. It acts by binding to cannabinoid receptors in the brain to produce a variety of effects, including euphoria, intoxication, and memory and motor impairments,” warned the surgeon general. And not only that but “These same cannabinoid receptors are also critical for brain development. They are part of the endocannabinoid system, which impacts the formation of brain circuits important for decision making, mood, and responding to stress.”
Recall that the human brain, especially in young men, isn’t fully mature until around 25 years of age. Thus, the increasing number of young people who regularly use today’s highly potent marijuana is producing an epidemic of brain-damaged citizens. “These harms are costly to individuals and to our society, impacting mental health and educational achievement and raising the risks of addiction and misuse of other substances…” said the 2019 advisory. This goes a long way towards explaining the growing army of homeless deranged addicts terrorizing America’s cities.
Colorado’s Dr. Randall, who has a cannabis science and medicine certification, confirms, “The psychosis, that’s so profoundly real.” She sees sufferers of all ages, with the youngest at seven years old. “They’re very violent, very paranoid,” Randall says.
“Increases in the legalization of cannabis over the past few decades have made it one of the most frequently used psychoactive substances in the world, while also decreasing the public’s perception of its harm,” said Carsten Hjorthøj, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and an associate professor at the Danish Mental Health Services. Fabulous. “This study adds to our growing understanding that cannabis use is not harmless and that risks are not fixed at one point in time.”
Nonetheless, Big Left’s “liberal” policies are encouraging young men to literally break their brains by getting hooked on an unprecedented variety of hyper-potent drug.
Add this army of psychopathic young men to the throngs of illegal aliens, mutilated gender patients, struggling single-parent families, and generally disaffected, internet-addicted adults — liberal policies are deliberately turning the once-great United States into a deeply dysfunctional and unsustainable society that is ripe for collapse.
We are headed for bad times indeed. And the evil Left is using dangerously potent weed to destroy the future strong men who would otherwise be able to bring us out of them.
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