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Abstract
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The stigma once attached to marijuana has vanished. Nineteen states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, and politicians of both parties increasingly treat it as harmless. Asked during the 2020 presidential campaign about her pot use in college, Kamala Harris giggled and said marijuana "gives a lot of people joy" and "we need more joy in the world." But the public needs an honest discussion of its social and public-health risks, which include violence and mental illness.
Alex Berenson, author of Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, pointed out that the New York Times had curiously removed from an article about the Uvalde school shooter a former coworker's recollection that he complained about his grandmother not letting him smoke weed. The Times didn't append a correction to the story as it might be expected to do when fixing a factual inaccuracy.
Assuming the elided detail was accurate, it would fit a pattern. Mass shooters at Rep. Gabby Giffords's constituent meeting in Tucson, Ariz. (2011), a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. (2012), the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (2016), the First Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas (2017), and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (2018), were reported to be marijuana users. It could be a coincidence, but increasing evidence suggests a connection.
Isn't pot supposed to make you mellow? Maybe if you smoke only a joint on occasion. But youth nowadays are consuming marijuana more frequently and in higher doses than their elders did when they were young.
This is leading to increased addiction and antisocial behavior. THC, the chemical that causes a euphoric high, interacts with the brain's neuron receptors involved with pleasure. Marijuana nowadays on average is about four times as potent as in 1995. But dabs--portions of concentrated cannabis--can include 20 times as much THC as joints did in the 1960s. It's much easier for young people to get hooked. One in six people who start using pot while under 18 will develop an addiction, which doctors call "cannabis use disorder." As they use the drug more frequently to satisfy cravings, they develop psychological and social problems...
Language: en |