This post is going to be uncharacteristically short considering the seriousness of the issue, because I’m going to just get angrier and sadder the longer I think about it.
A new Columbia University study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), analyzed data from more than 68,000 teens surveyed by National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The researchers found that using marijuana while not being addicted to it was “significantly associated” with psychiatric disorders. Obviously teens addicted to pot had even worse outcomes, but those who use cannabis recreationally were two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression and to have suicidal thoughts than those who don’t use pot at all. The researchers also found a link between cannabis use and poor academic performance, skipping school and getting in trouble with the law.
This comes as approximately as much of a surprise to me as the revelation that tobacco caused lung cancer. I figured out when I was still in high school that a little-researched drug that you inhaled and that made you instantly inarticulate and stupid was doing something to your brain, and shouldn’y be used no matter how many “friends” and celebrities told you it was “cool” and that you were a weenie for not toking up. Fortunately, being the son of a lawyer and decorated veteran who believed laws should be obeyed, the fact that pot was illegal was enough for me, as it was for most people until the revolting Sixties. That was when the Left jumped the rails and started opposing laws generally (“Steal This Book” was an Abbie Hoffman hit. Abbie was also big pot fan. And he killed himself…)
The full force of popular culture was employed to sell the idea that pot was as harmless as bubble gum despite all evidence to the contrary. Then “medical marijuana” punched a hole in coherent enforcement; state governments, as they did with gambling, decided that they would rather make money than keep the public healthy, and now a big, ugly genie is out of the bottle for good. I totally failed in my efforts to fight this damaging cultural wave: a young man who is very dear to me began using weed in his teens, and had, and continues to have, all of the problems the Columbia researchers associated with pot use.
The arrogance, foolishness, lack of responsibility and defiance of common sense that created this societal malady—as if we didn’t have enough of them already—was unforgivable, and I’m not going to forgive it, ever. Screw you all, NORMAL, Cheech and Chong, John, Paul, George and Ringo, the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, Hollywood, Barack Obama, Timothy Leary, and all the other rich and privileged pot users who didn’t care what endorsing illegal drug use would do society, kids, and especially poor and minority communities.
This wasn’t hard to see coming, but you valued your little daily highs more. Well, I’m stuck living in the dumber, less healthy and more chaotic world you created. Congratulations.
Ethics Alarms 