The truth about marijuana is finally being revealed. Even the liberal New York Times has been forced to reverse its position on marijuana.
The New York Times editorial board just published an opinion called “It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem.” The editorial board admitted it has long supported marijuana legalization and even published a six-part series comparing the federal ban on marijuana to the prohibition of alcohol, advocating for the ban to be repealed.
Marc Tamasco, writing for Fox News, says the Times admitted “Much of what we wrote then holds up – but not all of it does.” At the time, supporters of legalization predicted that it would bring few downsides. In our editorials, we described marijuana addiction and dependence as ‘relatively minor problems.’ Many advocates went further and claimed that marijuana was a harmless drug that might even bring net health benefits. They also said that legalization might not lead to greater use.”
Despite these prior claims, the Times argued that it is “now clear that many of these predictions were wrong,” and that the legalization of the drug “has led to much more use.” The outlet cited data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which suggested that approximately 18 million Americans have used marijuana almost daily, or about five times a week, in recent years, up from about 6 million in 2012 and less than 1 million in 1992.
This dramatic uptick in marijuana consumption in the United States has “caused a rise in addiction and other problems,” according to the Times.
“Each year, nearly 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which causes severe vomiting and stomach pain. More people have also ended up in hospitals with marijuana-linked paranoia and chronic psychotic disorders. Bystanders have also been hurt, including by people driving under the influence of pot,” the outlet pointed out.
Professor Bertha Madras of Harvard University, in a letter to The Wall Street Journal, tells us cannabis use disorder, or CUD, is neither rare nor benign. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the prevalence of CUD among adolescents and young adults (15.8%) is comparable to that of alcohol use disorder (14.4%)—even though the number of alcohol users exceeds the number of marijuana users and the proportion of the population affected by CUD far exceeds that of other illicit substance use disorders. An estimated 25% to 30% of users develop CUD, with adolescents doing so at roughly twice the adult rate.
Research published in the journal Psychological Medicine found that a shocking 30% of schizophrenia cases among men aged 21 to 30 could have been thwarted if they had averted cannabis use disorder (CUD). Scientists examined recent cases of schizophrenia, an abnormal interpretation of reality resulting in hallucinations, delusions or disordered thinking. The study’s authors stated that in 2021, CUD played an integral role in 15% of cases occurring in men aged 16 to 49, and in 4% of cases affecting women in the same age range. This new study examined data concerning 6.9 million people ages 16 to 49 collected in Denmark from 1972 to 2021.
The truth is the cannabis being used today is not your cannabis of the hippie era in the 1960s. The concentration of THC is roughly 20 times that of the marijuana in the hippie era.
This is not news to those who have been reading my blog. Previous posts on this subject include High-THC Cannabis Linked to DNA Changes, Marijuana and Violence, Marijuana and Traffic Deaths, and Cannabis and Schizophrenia. These articles can be viewed by using the search engine for my archives.
