Marijuana is risky medicine
Much of what advocates and the media have told you for decades about the health effects of marijuana is wrong.
Drowned out by an alliance of recreational marijuana users, libertarians, and corporate America’s love of lucrative new markets, marijuana’s serious medical consequences are being ignored, even in conservative Utah.
Piggybacking on a small number of chronic pain sufferers, Utah’s cannabis bandwagon convinced voters that medical marijuana was a compassionate response to their plight.
Advocates were quick to criticize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for opposing Proposition 2. When the church called for caution, favoring additional testing and verifiable health benefits, it became a convenient whipping boy.
Blaming the church allowed the cannabis crowd to distract attention from the Utah Medical Association’s clear, reasoned, and science-based opposition to Proposition 2.
Was the UMA brow-beaten by Utah’s supposed theocracy? Hardly. Psychiatrists and epidemiologists around the world have thoroughly documented marijuana’s risks in peer-reviewed journals for decades.
Read what medical professionals have to say.
Marijuana does not keep people off opiates
A January 2018 paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed that people who used cannabis in 2001 were almost three times as likely to use opiates three years later, even after adjusting for other potential risks.
Cannabis use increases the likelihood of mental illness
The National Academy of Medicine found in 2017 that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.”
More marijuana smokers are becoming heavy users, those most at risk
In 2006, about three million Americans reported using cannabis at least 300 times a year, the standard for daily use. By 2017, that number had nearly tripled to eight million. And today’s marijuana is far more potent than 20 years ago.
Mental illness directly attributable to marijuana is growing rapidly
A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry shows that consuming marijuana on a daily basis increases the odds of a psychotic incident. Cannabis accounted for 12 percent of all psychosis cases in Colorado emergency rooms in 2016, triple the number in 2006.
Marijuana, psychosis, and violence are connected
A study reported in Schizophrenia Bulletin found that 27 percent of people with schizophrenia had been diagnosed with cannabis use disorder in their lives. Despite its reputation for making users relaxed and calm, cannabis appears to provoke many of them to violence.
Additional peer-reviewed findings of marijuana’s link to psychosis and violence can be found in Austria and Australia and in the unmistakable jump in violent crime in the four states in this country that legalized recreational marijuana.
Even marijuana’s use as a pain reliever is in doubt, despite proponents’ claims. A large four-year study of patients with chronic pain in Australia instead showed cannabis use was associated with greater pain over time. More study is needed after all.
The burgeoning cannabis industry promotes the drug as a cure-all while downplaying its dangers. Dr. Erik Messamore, a Northeast Ohio Medical University psychiatrist, states the obvious: “You can’t trust the people who sell the drugs to be upfront with the risk.”
Remember when cigarettes’ health benefits were attested by complicit doctors no less? The fact that a bare majority of Utahns, misled by Proposition 2’s media campaign, voted to legalize cannabis-based medications does not make the drug safe.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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Thanks for the laugh. If Americans can handle big pharma poison, hard drugs like alcohol, severely addictive drugs like tobacco, and AR-15’s I think we can handle legal weed. You reefer mandess true believers are living in fantasy land.
Lol whoever wrote this is an idiot. I have seizures in my sleep and marijuana brings me back down to earth to feel human again the next day after having one. There’s no risk I would’ve noticed. Only benefits the people who need it
Howard, your screed is utter hogwash.
Toodles!
This article is joke. Very disappointing that it made it this far.
Howie, you know how I can tell you’re a paid propagandist? Because anyone that actually lived with the level of fear and paranoia that you show based on the opinions that you share would have imploded a long time ago. But WTH, I’ll play. I heard from a friend’s cousin’s step brother, who is a doctor, that eating too much sugar is bad for you. So I arranged to have the Swat Team raid your house to make sure you don’t have any sweets. If you do, they’re going to kidnap you, lock you in a cage and extort money from you. But don’t worry, it’s for your own good. See how stupid that sounds? Instead, how about you get to decide what you put into your body and everybody else gets to do the same thing? Because you don’t have the right to make those decisions for anyone other that yourself.
Here’s the truth. Any substance used in excessive amounts can pose danger. Not all human physiology is the same and we all respond differently to medicine. However if you compare marijuana to synthetically produced anti anxiety/ anti depressant / PTSD treating pharmaceuticals, Howard, you get a different story. Marijuana is psychologically addicting, but go research what happens when you try and stop taking what big pharma has to offer. Write that article. Marijuana is not synthetic, rather an organic substance that has a track record from at least 2500 BC. Do your homework- Howard, see what the UK did in regards to anti depressants and children. Hmmmm. Marijuana does not lead to suicide!!! Doesn’t make your hair fall out either. Doesn’t lower your labido. Does it work? You know that answer. Is it safer than alcohol? In many cases, the answer is absolutely affirmative. Ask yourself one more question, would you rather have a father that is an alcoholic or pot addict? YOUR PREACHING TO THE MORMONS!
Ooops. I meant PREACHING TO THE CHIOR. OR maybe the .Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Lol.
In the immortal words of Rex Tillerson, Howard, you are a “f*cking moron.”
I don’t like how the author attempts to paint the LDS church as a victim here. Calling them a “convenient whipping boy”. But here in Utah, as an entity they choose to be heavily involved in policy and politics. They do not need to be defended. They are the ones that chose to put themselves in the position they’re in. Don’t make excuses for them. Encourage them to keep to prayers and service, leaving policy and politics to policymakers and politicians.