Recently, I’ve seen so many new articles about the bad health effects of cannabis.
Someone is obviously trying to turn the public against it. Probably to encourage the public to demand or accept prohibition again.
It isn’t going to work on me, even if I believed all the articles (which I don't). And I don't even use it.
I know heroin has lots of bad health effects, and I’m still against prohibition and punishment for heroin users and addicts.
"Use" doesn't equal "abuse".
And...
Drug abuse is stupid, but prohibition is evil.
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Well, here's the thing: For decades, the war on drugs suppressed honest discussion and analysis of the real health impacts of cannabis.
ReplyDeleteThe drug war supporters insisted that the devil weed would turn you into a schizophrenic jazz fan who raped women when not running people over with cars.
Cannabis advocates talked up its health BENEFITS, while it was hard to really pin down its health RISKS, because nobody was going to go to the emergency room with symptoms and say "yeah, I smoke an ounce of pot a week."
Are there health risks? Yes. An obvious one is emphysema if you smoke a lot of it. That's never been controversial.
My wife used cannabis for chronic pain and it helped a lot. Then she ended up in the ER twice in a couple of months with uncontrollable nausea, bradycardia, etc.
She was open with the doctors that she was a cannabis user, but they couldn't figure out what was going on. She did: Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome. As soon as she stopped using cannabis, she stopped vomiting (and her heart rate came back up, although the low heart rate probably wasn't STRICTLY related -- she's always had a fairly low heart rate and low blood pressure).
I stopped my (minimal anyway) cannabis use for the same reason I don't swill bourbon in front of people I know are trying to quit drinking. I certainly don't support prohibition of any kind, nor does she (she used to be chair of a local NORML organization, do the math). Hopefully as the silencing effects of prohibition drain away we'll know more about the actual health concerns.
It's probably like anything else: Moderation in all things.
DeleteUnless someone has an allergy or something like that.
I agree. We've been using it since before we figured out wine, beer, etc. -- and pretty much without controversy until about 100 years ago. Freaking out about its GENERAL health implications is about as justified as doing the same thing with potatoes or cabbage.
ReplyDeleteI've been smoking marijuana daily for the past 37 years. In that time I quit drinking alcohol, I eventually quit smoking tobacco, I learned three different programming languages, have had a steady job for the past 23 years in a hospital finance department and then got promoted into IT. I have had some nausea in the past couple of years, but that is minor and can be attributed to the chemo drugs for my prostate cancer. Since pot was legalized in Michigan a few years ago, I've let my doctors all know that I smoke it; none of them have expressed any concern over it.
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