Legalize It

Disclaimer: Yes, I blazed regularly for several years. Yes, I still smoke on occasion today. No, I never really enjoyed it. I’ve never identified as a stoner or planned my life around getting high. Why would I engage in behavior I don’t particularly enjoy when it is expensive, among other downsides? The obvious answer is that marijuana is an evil, addictive drug. This is the problem with drug policy and propaganda. Oh, well I know a kid who started smoking a lot of pot and pretty much dropped out of life. Ignore that the drug was a facilitator, not a cause. That it happened despite preexisting illegality. That if it wasn’t weed it would have been something else. That it is not indicative of the overwhelming majority of responsible users. Why tackle complexity when we can settle on an easy answer then hit the bars.

Before you read anything I have to say, I want you to sit back, relax, and read the text of this speech titled “The History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States.” I read it every few months like one might a favorite book. If I could force every person to read one thing, it would be this speech. Do it. I read it again, just now. Several times I jumped out of my chair and paced angrily.

Never Trust the Media on Pot

A Huffington Post debunking of the suggested marijuana-schizophrenia link that made rounds through the media recently. It does a much better, and more succinct, job than my own personal debunking. I suggested studying links between increasing marijuana use and what would have to be increasing rates of schizophrenia if such a link were true. Blogger Maia Szalavitz took care of that:

Second — and this is where virtually all of the coverage falls flat — if marijuana produces what seems like such a large jump in risk for schizophrenia, have schizophrenia rates increased in line with marijuana use rates? A quick search of Medline shows that this is not the case — in fact, as I noted here earlier, some experts think they may actually have fallen. Around the world, roughly 1% of the population has schizophrenia (and another 2% or so have other psychotic disorders), and this proportion doesn’t seem to change much. It is not correlated with population use rates of marijuana.

Since marijuana use rates have skyrocketed since the 1940’s and 50’s, going from single digit percentages of the population trying it to a peak of some 60% of high school seniors trying it in 1979 (stabilizing thereafter at roughly 50% of each high school class), we would expect to see this trend have some visible effect on the prevalence of schizophrenia and other psychoses.

When cigarette smoking barreled through the population, lung cancer rose in parallel; when smoking rates fell, lung cancer rates fell. This is not the case with marijuana and psychotic disorders; if it were, we’d be seeing an epidemic of psychosis.

And that, friends, is why you never trust the media on pot.

POT: ‘RISK IN ONE JOINT’ …

Drudge headlines always get me riled up. Developing . . .

A UK government-funded study has found that “a single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent.” I tend to distrust any study that plays up the negative effects of illegal drugs, especially when that study is funded by the government. Researchers are not beyond finding what they’re supposed to, and they’re supposed to find reasons to keep the War on Drugs intact – even in the UK. A claim like this deserves some more research on my end.

Here’s some disclosure: I’m not a big fan of marijuana. I have smoked in the past and at times enjoyed it, and other times not. I no longer smoke frequently, but when I do I tend to get self-critical and embarrassed about things I have done recently (and have no reason to be embarrassed about). Not incredibly enjoyable, and I’ve never enjoyed being in social situations while high. I have no love for those who “have to” smoke before doing anything, after doing anything, and generally use it as a default. Which is strange, because the two people I know who smoke the most don’t fall into this category for me, because they don’t smoke before and after activities… they smoke all the time. It’s the difference between a “stoner” and being Bob Marley, but I don’t know how to explain so I’ll leave it at that.