Ann,
I smoked marijuana nearly every day for 15 years. Stopped in 19xx when our child was born. Back then, the THC content was 3.5-5.0%. Sometimes we found hashish (very prevalent in Europe) that bumped the potency to 7.0%.
The end of 20xx through early spring of 20xx+1 I had three surgeries, two considered to be emergency, to rectify life threatening conditions. Mid-way through recovery from the second one, the pain-relieving opioids I was taking began to interfere with my recovery from the first surgery.
My doctors recommended taking me off the opioids and trying medical marijuana for pain relief. I was hesitant about doing this, but I was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had to do something to permit my body to heal from the abdominal surgery I had the end of 20xx, while attempting to find some relief from a spinal fusion.
After obtaining my ID card, I went to a local ‘clinic’. I looked at their ‘menu’ and was immediately intimidated. Most of the pot was around 26.0-27.0% THC, and I could not fathom this concentration of psychoactive ingredients. I procured a small quantity of several strains; also some THC in liquid form.
I found that smoking was impossible – the high THC content was extremely irritating to my lungs. I now understand why people who consume it this way use a water pipe as a conduit. The liquid form tasted like diesel fuel. It was certainly not regulated by any federal agency that might prevent consumption of a product that appeared to be contaminated as such.
When mixed with milk, it was almost palatable. At the dosage required to relieve pain, I was bound to a chair for 8+ hours due to the extreme hallucinogenic properties of the drug. I could not move my head, lest the spinning of the room would literally knock me from my chair. My wife was at work, so I endured this alone.
Once the effects subsided, I destroyed everything I had purchased, changed doctors, and found a less intrusive, non-narcotic pain reliever to help me through the next few months. Regardless of what I did in my youth, I was unable to comprehend how anyone in their right mind would subject themselves to drugs this powerful.
Before marijuana was ‘legalized’ here in X, I read statistics that indicated that the average age of a ‘medical marijuana’ user was 24. It would of course be naïve to conclude that we were having a severe health crisis among young people.
The hybridization of pot to multiply its potency is now reaping the psychological trauma that has unfolded, and, is being dutifully ignored by those who intend to benefit by continued efforts to provide this drug to more people.
One: In 7th grade our (public) school brought the coroner in to give a talk on drugs and alcohol. It was so graphic it impacted me the rest of my life. Looking back, if he were to repeat this talk today I’m sure he’d go to jail. He told us several things about weed: it makes you paranoid, it makes you crazy sometimes forever, and it gets into your reproductive organs and makes your kids stupid. I remember him posting a slide of some dude with his head blown off. It was a death scene pic and the guy had been smoking weed before he shot himself. That stuck with me.
Two: fast forward to undergrad nursing school. During my psych rotation we learned about how marijuana literally alters brain chemistry and sometimes that it’s permanent. It was, we were told, the leading cause of paranoid schizophrenia. I did a clinical rotation in inpatient psych and sure enough, the new onset/newly diagnosed schizophrenics all had one common denominator: pot smoking.
Three: my spouse did it once in Amsterdam when in college. It made my spouse uncontrollably paranoid and my spouse still remembers it. My spouse said (they) were terrified and the friends (they) were with were laughing because my spouse was literally hanging on their clothes and screaming “don’t leave me”.
All that being said, I’m 99% certain today’s medical and nursing students are NOT being told this. It’s amazing how the medical profession has gone from evidence based science to political propaganda.
Here are two very articulate, clean-cut German drug dealers describing in perfectly explicit candor to potential investors their plan to use Cannabidiol, CBD, AS A GATEWAY DRUG TO MARIJUANA WITH FULL MALICE AFORETHOUGHT in the European market. They say they will use CBD as an interstitial market pre-preparation for and as a gateway to Marijuana/Cannibis when the laws in Germany and the EU in general catch up with the Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine full recreational legalization.
One thing I have noticed is that very bad people tend to tell people EXACTLY what they are up to, and what their future plans and intentions are. It is part of the whole “getting away with it” rush that such people feel. It is the diabolical inverse of confession. Folks, when bad people tell you in no uncertain terms about their crimes and future plans, and even brag about it, TAKE THEM AT THEIR WORD. Ironically, it’s just about the only thing you CAN take them at their word about.
Given the testimonies above, I do not think it is at all inappropriate to ask people if they have ever used any sort of marijuana or cannabis ever in their lives. If this stuff does the permanent damage and brings on psychotic and schizoid behavior, I think people have a right to know, or at least ask the question. And for the record, no I have never used ANY cannabis or marijuana product of any kind ever, and furthermore I have never so much as SEEN it in drug form. I remember as a child once being shown a single wild marijuana plant growing on a Kansas ranch whilst cutting thistles. The landowner I was with destroyed the plant as if it were a thistle.