Yep, there it is, the first reference to cannabis use by Salvador Ramos, the Texas elementary school killer. In the New York Times.
Took 24 hours, give or take.
And Ms. Rodriguez recalled he would often talk about how much he despised his mother and grandmother, whom he told her did not let him smoke weed or do what he wanted.
Nikolas Cruz, the Florida high school shooter, was a heavy user and told the police detective who interviewed him that he heard voices. Devin Patrick Kelley - who shot up a Texas church and killed 26 people in 2017 before blowing his head off - had THC in his system when he died. (Kelley had anti-anxiety drugs too; a lot of heavy cannabis users wind up using Xanax or Klonopin to try to tamp down their paranoia.) Darrell Brooks Jr., last seen allegedly racing through the Waukesha Christmas Parade, is a self-described stoner.
Meanwhile, cities like Portland, Oregon have suffered an explosion in violence following the legalization of cannabis. Portland had 16 murders in 2013, the year before voters in Oregon approved full legalization. Last year it had 90. It’s on pace to have even more in 2022. It has gone from being one of the safest medium-sized cities in the United States to one of the most dangerous. Denver has seen a similar trend.
Obviously, the legalization of cannabis is not the only or even the main driver of this new American violence wave - broader criminal justice “reform” and the way Democratic politicians have undercut and discouraged the police are probably even larger factors - but its role is increasingly obvious to anyone who cares to look.
Cannabis causes psychosis, and psychosis causes violence.
Alcohol. Aka "ethanol" is naturally occurring in food. In fact, it is part of our culinary practices and has been since human history. A fruit or grain falls to the ground, enzymes turn the starches into sugars and yeast eat the sugars and produce ethanol and other alcohols. Most people can metabolize it fine. Like anything it can be abused.
However, cannabis has a psychotic effect for heavy and long-term users. It is not a food... it is only a recreational drug. It has some beneficial properties... mostly the CBD... but it is also a dangerous drug at the high concentration levels of THC produced today. I know several young men that have been hospitalized with psychotic issues after heavy and consistent use.
Speaking from observation, smoking too much weed does have a deleterious long term effect on the brain.. the odd spliff is fine, but regular heavy use is best avoided.
To quote you..."false, the majority of long-term heavy users do not experience psychotic effects"..
Duh - we are not talking about the majority here - we are talking about the cases where it DOES induce psychotic issues and those issues turn into violent actions.
You are playing Russian roulette with weed - you don't know if/when your system will react to the cannabis with psychotic behavior. If you are one of those folks - your life is ruined. Now your life can be ruined with Alcohol too, I'm not making a distinction - except that the "rare" psychotic behavior often does express itself in violent and deadly behavior.
remembering that native americans, some eastern euros like serbs and indigenous japanese lack the enzyme to metabolize alcohol, making it addictive, mind-bending and poisonous to the brain.
Went to college with a full blooded Sioux from South Dakota.
I can attest to the above.
It was eye opening how little it took for him to get plastered and at the same time could drink all night unable to stop until the body basically blacked out.
There is no next day with the guys laughing about the events the night before because he do not remember anything that happen the night before...
...and the behavior while drunk goes way beyond what ordinarily occurs when people are intoxicated...
The issue with cannabis gets into so many swampy weeds with agriculture, transport, contamination with other substances, etc, etc it’s simply not a great stabile platform to argue much from. Especially on mental illness. We are suffering a huge on swell of anger and failure to cope. This feeds instability. We have many unstable who are more likely to turn to drugs of all sorts to dull the pain. We have an epidemic of narcissistic personality disorder due to social media selecting for it. We have predatory governments, corporations, institutions feeding off our families and communities. We have an epidemic of mass hysteria and frank stupidity as the information blackout and intense propaganda continue. Wow!
Is that just your expert opinion or do you actually have proof of that claim. I assumed you are an expert but perhaps with your proof of that claim you can verify your expert status as well.
Any good drug will supply the perfect psychic storm to make it more convenient to come face to face with truth. Some will break in the face of this. Erich Fromm had much to say on this. Even laughing gas the dentist provides may trigger this. State Fascism will also trigger this among the severely damaged.
Alcohol is generated by a natural process that is common. Enzymes that convert starches to sugars are generally in and on the fruit, vegetable, grain, etc. This is how a starchy green banana turns yellow and sweet. Yeast are also in abundance everywhere. Cultured yeast is a relatively recent process. Before that the fermentation process was simply to allow the organic substrate to ferment itself with access to the open air. Yes, bacteria and molds can also do that job... in some cases both the enzymatic breakdown of starches and the conversion of the sugars into alcohol. Koji mold for example is uses in many Asian rice alcohol beverages. Lactobacillus is a common bacteria used in cheese making. These are all naturally occurring and part of the natural lifecycle of almost all non-meat food products.
Yes, alcohol exists naturally in food. If you have a fruit tree, pick up a very ripe fruit from the ground after it falls from the tree and eat it. You will generally be consuming alcohol.
Alcohol is produced when produce ferments on the ground, like blueberries. I witnessed drunk Cedar Waxwings on Gregory Bald in the Smokys in the 90's. We process it further to boast concentrations past the point that it would kill the yeasts.
I agree with most of your comment, except "its only a recreational drug". I believe there's no such thing as a recreational drug! All drugs are for sick people!
Interesting perspective. Not sure I wrap my head around that given the history of drugs being consumed for recreational purposes. Steven Tyler just admitted to having spent $6 million on cocaine.
You can't generalise everyone is different and react to things differently. If everything was so cut and dried wouldn't health be so much easier to work out and I imagine doctors would have all the answers which they don't by a long way.
it is suicide to intimacy with yourself and being in touch with your heart. Total segway away from connection with others on any level of intimacy or truth. I can see it clearly and I still use alcohol knowing full well that it has 0% help or usefullness to my spirit life. Never used pot more than 10x and it was always b/c I was inebriated on alcohol or I never would have done it. Same thing with unprotected sex! Always drunk. There's no fixing it looking at all of the negative, we can only get into the Word and seek God daily. It is the empty void and lack of relationship knowledge of God that drives ppl to act like satan.
Boy howdy, & Praise Jesus. All things exist to glorify the Son of God! Return to The Word would alleviate all worries & anxieties at fraction of the cost of some meds. Can’t make cabbage when copy right laws aren’t in our favor. But the Word will not return void! Isa 55:11
No prude, me. Live and let live I say. But I see what drugs do to people and find it sad that they have so little of interest to do that they derive entertainment from poisoning themselves.
I see lots of people who vigorously defend their drug habits as “harmless fun”. They’re usually the ones who know the harm they are doing to themselves but childishly think that by pretending they’re not will make it so.
This is the definition of prude: Knowing everything, reading minds, a feeling of superiority for no reason. People smoke pot to keep people like you away.
I say calling people prudes is. Is it are or are it is? I am now a prude, but once had a partying, fun filled alcohol and drug fueled life of debauchery. That was hollow. I am now filled by the Grace of GOD. Free yourself. JESUS is knocking. Will you answer and let Him in?
Tea and coffee are drugs. I know fora fact that ten cups of strong coffee turn anyone into a crazy wide-eyed loon: lets stay calm and keep a sense of perspective.
Yeah, that worked well. He's so toasted, he heard a song and wanted to do a cover of it. The other guys had to tell him that it was them playing the song.
Alcohol is a downer. However, there is evidence that cannabis use can exacerbate underlying mental issues, in particular bipolar issues. Legalizing marijuana may create a major problem for the US.
Alex is wrong and has been readng propaganda. Pot is good for everyone. The US Dept of Health even has a patent for pot, Pat No. 6630507, saying its a neuroprotectant and antioxidant. Everyone needs neuroprotection and more antioxidants even just for all the poisons government puts in the air, food, water and injections. Th most successful people use pot daily, as do the most unsuccessful.
People smoke pot, legal or not and it's decriminalized almost everywhere. So legalization is meaningless. This whole post hoc logic argument is stupid because pot use has been rampant for many years while it's been illegal.
And we've had an increase in mental health issues... I know there's lots of factors involved but cannabis use could be one, particularly in people with a genetic propensity for mental health issues. .
I have three kids with bipolar disorder and one had been diagnosed schizophrenic. He was the one most negatively affected by pot but the real issue for them isn't pot, it's stimulants. They all want the stimulants because of the dopamine. It's what bipolar people seem to gravitate toward, that which will produce dopamine. Cigarettes are a problem with all three. The youngest recently quit smoking and has gone off all stimulants and no longer smokes pot. He went through a full treatment plan that lasted almost a year to get him off meth. That's where the stimulants got him. So my feeling is that pot is the least of the worries but that it certainly may have been a contributor to the overall toxic mix.
My youngest son no longer has the delusional thought process and psychotic behavior because most of that was produced by the stimulants and then the meth. I am way more concerned about that drug than pot or alcohol.
Another bad one that is legal and which my middle daughter has gone completely crazy on is kratom. That stuff has a terrible effect on her, she goes completely batshit crazy on it.
I agree. However, tobacco has also been used for hundreds of years. We strongly discourage it in this country and highlight all the negative health effects. We could do the same with marijuana, but people enjoy marijuana so they resist any criticism and defend its use.
You know they could open up cultivation and the strength would go down along with the price. The stuff does mess up your head. I know frompersonal experience.
Not everyone who drinks gets drunk. I never smoked any pot I would buy that didn't have me in lala land in a few minutes. I think it doesn't allow many people to solve their problems and problems make people angry.
Stop with the straw man argument. That’s like saying beating your spouse is bad, and responding “let’s talk about how beating your kids is bad.” Two destructive habits don’t negate each other as worthy of discussion, and addiction, like violence, takes more than one form.
The problem with this argument is also that we DO warn kids from a young age about alcoholism. Alcoholism is destructive and lends itself towards domestic abuse, child abuse, and even correlated to porn addictions.
We DO NOT warn our kids about pot addictions - which often leads to laziness, celibacy, and detachment issues at best, and poor mental health desensitized to humanity in the extremes.
My father’s parents were poor, abusive alcoholics. The cops were at their house numerous times a week. He graduated at 17 and immediately left for Marine corp boot camp and Vietnam. He carries more survivors guilt from leaving his little siblings in that home (and he has it from both). Growing up my parents seldom drank in front of my brother and I, or much at all (they’ve caught up as empty nesters 😂), and taught us the warning signs for alcoholism from the time we were toddlers.
Conversely, my mom’s siblings are 80-year old pot heads. 25% of their children became heroine addicts and another 25% haven’t had real jobs 4-5 decades into life. They all had weird sex issues and 1 divorce from porn addiction. Despite great careers (including as a physician) they are around 80 and completely broke because of poor decision making and inability to plan long term.
While I’ve usually steered clear of pot, even in my wild party days, because I noticed the correlation even as a kid between their terrible mental health/ immature decision making, never once did my parents harp on the issues associated with pot. They didn’t bat an eye when they did catch me smoking pot at 14. I definitely didn’t steer clear of drugs and alcohol in my party days, but it was shortly after I tried pot a few times at 14 that I connected the dots between my very misguided extended family and their pot habits.
It’s not about “which is worse.” That is very dependent on the individual. It IS sn issue that people act like pot is “no big deal” and any pushback is met with straw man arguments about alcohol. Legal or not, the excessive consumption of either destroys lives, families, futures, mental health and relationships. Stop pretending like the harms of alcohol that we often discuss are justification to deflect from conversations about the harms from pot. Denial doesn’t change reality.
This is very good and your words are strong medicine. Strawman arguments about comparing alcohol use really resonated with me. The pro-pot crowd is a club, and they are always trying to recruit new members, including myself. I think the THC deceives its users into thinking they are someone they are not and their arguments are mostly weak intellectually. Take the ultimate pothead poster boy, Joe Rogan. He and all his MMA buddies all use THC before fights and they say it improves their abilities. I like Joe but his skills of debate, especially about pot use are weak minded. And by the way I'm intimately acquainted with 2 young men who have spent time in a psych ward due to already existing mental issues and mega pot consumption on top of that. But the pro pot crowd doesn't see any problems here with adolescents consuming today's high THC weed. To quote Levon Helm playing the old sniper back in the woods (Shooter) , "Things aren't always what they seem are they gunnie?"
Does anyone forget these young kids are doped, drugged and vaxxed up, eating genetically modified fake foods and literally learning everything wrong to do in life???
A strawman argument misrepresents the other side's argument to make arguing against it easier. A tu quoque is "whataboutism". People saying "what about alcohol?" are making a tu quoque argument.
That’s like saying “ Reefer Madness!” as a response to this higher THC plant that’s selling now. Absolute ignorance at its best. Alcohol is to today’s pot, like Tylenol is to Fentanyl. Yah, there’s higher doses of Tylenol, even prescription, but it doesn’t touch the effects of Fentanyl. Plus, it hasn’t been studied long term because people are dying! Or we can just ignore this connection & keep pushing high THC pot to our youth. Let’s just wait & see what happens. Great idea.
I guess if I increased my subscriptions and podcasts like you, I’d never have time to ponder loneliness. There’s more red in this state than you think. BTW, are you paid for your responses? It seems the new trend for Dem.s to troll sites & get paid. Good for you. 👍
He argues with everyone throughout this thread and is an admitted stoner. That's why he is defensive of anything negative said about marijuana. His argument? He smokes it and even though he gets "amnesia" once in a while, it hasn't made him psychotic. Case closed.
Only a few go through each day drunk. Many MJ users dose themselves every hour or less from Wake and bake, to Put me to sleep. That is addiction, and the THC stays in the body for a very long time even after you quit.
98% seems exaggerated but drinking like you lay out is definitely the healthy way to do it. People drink all the time in France and starting young. But it is small amounts with meals and it seems to have no ill effects. Maybe even good ones.
must agree with you this time Elagabalus... if it were 98% then there wouldn't be so many bars and dives out there that don't server food but dish out the booze.
Yep. Alcohol is responsible for how many deaths, broken homes, medical costs, etc? Not to mention it affects EVERY cell in our bodies, so probably the worst drug put there overall. Bern arrested twice in my early life, both were in a drunken rage. Since my last arrest in 85 I haven't touched the shit. Made the front page of both the new haven times and Bridgeport Post due to the injuries I caused the guy that started it.
Oh, jury, NOT GUILTY on all charges thankfully. Again the booze or I woulda laughed at the jerk and walked away.
Your escapade didn't make the New Haven Register? 😝 Just teasing. I used to live 20 minutes from New Haven. Born and raised in CT, couldn't afford to retire there. Congrats on your sobriety.
Like it or not, alcohol is part of our diet and our culture, and always has been. It's never going away and it never will. Moreover, unlike marijuana, alcohol is easily metabolized and doesn't stay in your system affecting your judgment and perceptions of the world for over 48 hours
If the prohibition Karen's had existed during Medieval times, humans would likely be extinct as the discovery of alcohol sanitizing water would not been put to use.
but nobody is telling youth and people alcohol is safe and no big deal. the awareness is out
but to be honest alcohol and guns have been around forever you know what’s new is the anti-depressant the anti-anxiety combined with increased marijuana use I guarantee you this is the biggest problem combined with broken families isolation depression in general kids should be out playing they should be playing sports exercising not being put on prescribed drugs that aren’t even tested on people under 18 to begin with. and it’s the increase in the THC with the new wave pot shops and available marijuana that’s the problem people figure it out it’s causing psychosis and violence like no other you’re the one saying weed mellows people out that’s why we’ve got to get the word out that’s not true anymore that it’s no longer 8% THC it’s up to 80% in some cases with oils and vapes
Agree, it’s all bad. Definitely a combination of abuse in different areas. Mental health is a huge challenge, especially for parents, and prescribing physicians. It’s easy to say “ get your kids into sports, let them play outside,” when reality is that parents work a lot and kids unattended for too long create a problem. It’s just reality. And gov. is moving to approve pot nationally. That only increases black market because of lower prices. Mix in the fentanyl issue & our kids are looking at some serious hardship. Maybe not all that try it, but 1/6 will develop psychosis from heavy pot use. Our country is already struggling to keep our kids in school & succeed.
The only way to win this is to get the kids to understand they’re being “played”. Their addiction for profit pawns & their money is lining pockets of uncaring souls by using pot, vapes, & edibles w/ high THC. Plus, the regulations with cannabis growers & pesticides is a joke. They are basically self- governing. We are understaffed in Wa. & probably everywhere else in this industry. Decriminalizing is also opening door for more black market. Look at Cali. They can’t close fake stores fast enough to keep up w/ new ones popping up. They don’t even have to sell on the streets anymore. It’s a mess. Colorado is best state for documenting their downfall. More crime, more homeless, more traffic fatalities, more kids addicted, more negative everything since pot was approved. Coincidence? ALL of it? That’s not what residents there say. Not even close.
I find it incomprehensible that whilst millions of people use alcohol responsibly, in the US you can drive a car, get married, become a parent and everything else grown ups do BUT you can't drink alcohol until twenty-one!
We humans ENJOY being stimulated with stuff so what else are the kids going to do but - drugs?
Prohibition was GREAT for organised crime - seems the current policy is still working, especially for the young.
Many things in life are bad for us in excess (tobacco, food, sex, gambling, power...) whilst often a little of what you fancy does you good, physically and mentally.
Whatever subject you can think of there will always be a minority who respond badly, so should we all do absolutely nothing at all, just in case?
I do think prohibitions tend to make problems worse. The part I’m concerned about is the lack of education, or outright encouraging destructive behaviors. This applies to all the things you mention - drugs, alcohol, sex, food, gambling, tobacco, power. In the US we do a pretty good job of acknowledging tobacco and, for adults alcohol, and even gambling. In Europe kids are taught responsible alcohol habits from a young age, and because access is always there, being the driver or only drinking a reasonable amount is easier - there will still be alcohol tomorrow if your 16 or 18.
We do a horrendous job of the others here. Obese women are on the pages of every fitness magazine and pointing out being obese is not healthy results in hostile accusations of “fat shaming.” We are sexualizing little kids, detaching them from reality, pushing “affirmative care” which is a gentler way of saying child sterilization and genital mutilation, discouraging healthy committed sexual relationships while encouraging teenagers to watch a bunch of porn with all its violence and unrealistic approach to sex.
With pot we don’t educate, we present it as a “better” alternative to alcohol (which it’s not). Many literally believe there is no downside to daily consumption of weed or edibles.
We shouldn’t do nothing, but we should stop approaching every destructive behavior or habit as falling into some good v evil category. It detached people from reality and sends them into spirals of denial about cause and effect. This applies to dangerous big pharma subscription plans as well.
By science we know that the frontal lobe of young people does not fully develop until after the teenage years. The frontal lobes is responsible for reason and decision-making. The lack of a fully developed frontal lobe is why 20-something people make great soldiers but it takes 30 and 40-something people to make effective senior officers.
For this reason I am not in favor of the drinking age being lowered. And I would prefer that the voting age also be raised to 21.
True Frank. But what evidence is there that having a beer as a teen causes any lasting or negative effect on the brain? We are pretty resilliant.
And as for voting, most people do not have a Scooby Doo about what they are voting for! If it made any difference at all to the real powers it would matter! It doesn't, so they allow it, as a fig leaf to give the illusion we are in charge. We're not!
Alcohol. Aka "ethanol" is naturally occurring in food. In fact, it is part of our culinary practices and has been since human history. A fruit or grain falls to the ground, enzymes turn the starches into sugars and yeast eat the sugars and produce ethanol and other alcohols. Most people can metabolize it fine. Like anything it can be abused.
However, cannabis has a psychotic effect for heavy and long-term users. It is not a food... it is only a recreational drug. It has some beneficial properties... mostly the CBD... but it is also a dangerous drug at the high concentration levels of THC produced today. I know several young men that have been hospitalized with psychotic issues after heavy and consistent use.
I spent the last 6 years of my police career as a homicide detective where I was the lead investigator or assisting on close to a hundred homicides, countless suicides and accidental overdose deaths. In the homicides, most victims and suspects were black males in their teens and early twenties. The most common cultural trait among the majority of the cases was heavy marijuana use. In many of the cases the suspects admitted during interviews that they had just "smoked a blunt" (a blunt is a tobacco cigar wrapper stuffed with marijuana) before the murder occurred. Alcohol use is also prevalent, but the daily, continuous use of marijuana is ubiquitous in black gang culture. I have not read Alex's book, but based upon my personal experience, I find correlation and causation.
Can you elaborate? Do we know when he started on drugs, what age? His mother apparently has been using them for a long time, so wouldn't surprise he started at a young age. One report mentioned a middle school friend who said he was a nice young man until eighth grade, when he changed-- usually a tell-tale sign of drug use.
Others were saying he was getting into fights since middle school and he was bullied for a lisp. In short, he was never properly socialized. That seems like more of an obvious contributor than he smoked weed.
Did you miss the point entirely about it being a larger contributing factor than smoking weed? When was the last time the popular kid shot up a school? I would bet you 1000 bucks right now 95% of people could pick mass shooters out of a lineup with perfect accuracy... Weed smokers, not so much....
Further to the point, I bet every popular kid at the HS he went to has smoked weed. Yet it just happened to be the weird as fuck kid who was socially outcast who shot up a school.
I’ve been fortunate to never have a strong craving or addiction to drugs/alcohol. My personal experience with cannabis is hyper-paranoia, anxiety, coupled with a foul mood. Obviously many people have a different experience, however I can’t believe that these are beneficial in anyway. I do not think it helps cognitive ability, motivation, ambition, physical training. People like to do it so make it more available, period. Unfortunately I do think pot had a direct impact on his actions. Psychologically unstable mixed with cannabis can spell trouble.
So now because of this evil dude, we have to give up guns and the herb?? Everyone's chemistry is different and yours did not respond well to the type you consumed. There are many different cultivars that have a multitude of terpine and cannabinoid profiles which affects everyone differently. Just because this kid had it in his system, didn't mean it caused the event. His mental health or spiritual take over from a demonic being would be my first choice. Get to the root of the issue.
Yet: All you presented were anecdotes. Spooner MD Makes a fair point. Presumably, in your book you present the data and metadata? Deeply explore it?
PS: Many if these shootings have happened in the morning. Therefore we should ban school before noon. That’s the kind of idea mere anecdotal evidence produces. Anecdotes should be used to create hypotheses to explore, which MAY result in solid evidence.
Because reality exists for those who enjoy pot, and have with so many others, and not once seen it. But we see it routinely after friends drink alcohol. And we see lots of depressed and anxious children because we've created a world of anti-liberty, never-ending wars and violence done to "protect our interests" in other people's countries, and use debt and inflation to rob us of our wealth, our prior desire to be charitable rather than dependent on government handouts, etc.
alcohol makes people do bad things and it still legal? the law was not implemented to put people in boxes so they cant hurt themselves. its not even plausible to put people in prison for using plants. in fact its a waste of money. give me any possible way for police to stop people from using plants and ill retract my statements. ok law cuck
Well I personally don't have to read the book because I have seen it first hand myself. Its a drug and just like any drug there are positive and negative aspects. The LD50 for cannabis is exceptionally high (Benno Hartung et al. (2014) report that the lethal half dose (LD50) for THC in humans is estimated to be around 30 mg/kg)
I still think it should be federally legal for informed consenting adults, nothing in the constitution about what people are and are not allowed to consume. This power is reserved to the states, or the people.
This is the same argument at the core of vax mandates: you either own your person or you are property of the state. And don't even public health me; if that was the case cigarettes would have been banned 30 or more years ago. And that's without starting in on the damage Alcohol abuse causes, or prescription painkillers.
Yet you don't present any. A reason to trust, e.g. John Thompson (who I don't know) over you. I'm *asking* for a data, and yet I'm insulted and accused of 5 things including *ignoring* it. Batty arguments out bullshitters. Their credibility is a wet patty.
“Studying this relationship for 40 years”? So you’re saying there is a direct relationship to the smoking of cannabis and the killing of individuals? This board-certified neurologist would love to read a couple of the papers that would support your contention.
Well, as a psychiatry provider, working in the prison, This board certified gal can tell you there is a very direct link to drugs and crimes to include murder. There would be nare be a need for prisons if drugs were eradicated. People are dangerous on drugs and it changes the brain..not talking occasional use. Try the once great state of Oregon..now a disaster, crime increased. Mostly drugs related.
Alex, usually I appreciate your critical thinking skills. In this case they are lacking. I spent a twenty-six-year career as a mental health professional. I helped care for many thousands of mentally ill patients. Not one of them was ever diagnosed with a cannabis induced psychosis. At worst some previously diagnosed psychotic patients were noted to have poor reactions to smoking cannabis, but this was similar to the poor results from consuming alcohol. Interesting how you will dismiss studies that show glowing results for mRNA vaccines but seem eager to accept these studies to which you now refer. They are at odds with the numerous studies that do not lead to this conclusion. A logical conclusion from those who understand mental illness is that the mentally ill nearly universally have a tendency to self-medicate, which raises the question whether the cannabis led to the psychosis or was the individual's way of dealing with a pre-existing underlying psychosis. Just blaming the pot is far too simplistic and is a hallmark of the misinformed or the idealogue.
Anyone rational enough to reject this Reefer Madness Redux should check LewRockwell.com today.
Richard White points out the unconstitutional and evil intent of prohibition of substances, and the historic disasters that result from such totalitarian crapola.
Did you know that in 17th century Constantinople a second offense for coffee possession earned a Death Sentence?
Here is a clue for everyone: regardless if it is Pot or actual narcotics, no one's usage is any of your concern. Mind your own business.
More Americans died last year from Fentanyl than in the entire Viet Nam. conflict.
Rather than seek a return to the Golden Years of Reefer Madness when one could spend years in prison for smoking a green cigarette instead of a brown one, why not do something positive for America and vote the sick and twisted Leftys that are destroying our country with Pharma and Marxism?
Amazing to me that anyone aware enough to read Substack doesn't know all this unadulterated crapola about pot is just distraction from the reality that the common denominator in these shootings is psychiatric drugging, and NOT pot smoking..
I have known pot smokers since I was a teen, I am 66 now, and I have yet to meet my first pot freak out.
It's possible to get way too high on any intoxicant, but it is not a significant problem, it is a significant distraction.
Such boneheaded ignorance. The " Social Costs" come from criminalization, and no, there is no point at which your inability to mind your own business becomes a virtue.
People steal to support their habit because criminalization supports 20,000 percent mark ups for the criminal, who is encouraged by the obscene overvaluation to adulterate and create increasingly addictive versions like Crack and Fentanyl, and the overdoses that inevitably follow when drugs are insufficiently adulterated and users take their regular dose which is really many times the normal dose.
It will be a boon to mankind if people like you ever learn to clean up your own backyard.
There is no point at which your inability to mind your own business becomes a virtue, regardless of your self righteous self delusion.
Well, that does not seem to be the case as decriminalization data is rolling in. https://www.westernjournal.com/state-officials-admit-drug-decriminalization-massive-failure-overdoses-increasing-drastic-rates/. If society wants to limit something it should first ridicule it, then shame it, then make a law against it if the first two do not work. Legalizing something harmful always increases it. Increases in pot use are also fueling the woke nightmare because very liberal people, many of whom are mentally ill already are much more likely to abuse cannabis. The social costs from pot use are harming my family.
Yes. My comments said similar stuff but was not so eloquent. I did provide a link to another substack writer who said very similar things as you do. Thanks for speaking out.
You're welcome, Greg. I don't often comment anymore as too many seek to only foist their views on others without actually listening to other's points of view. But the undercurrent of rather foolish noise attempting to link the recent shooter to cannabis use as a source of causality has prompted my response. This person obviously had far deeper problems than an affinity for smoke. To suggest otherwise is nothing short of absurd and has zero consensus within the scientific or medical communities.
I did not say that I believed these glowing results, simply pointed out that Alex was touting some studies while harpooning others. I am a very big skeptic of mRNA vaccines until they have been furthered tested and shown to be safe in reality and not only in the land of wishing.
The simple fact you did not understand the article you attacked. he had to use small words in his reply to maybe get you to understand what he was actually saying. And then your continued use of your "pop quiz". Annoying to say the least.
Since the 70's, psychiatrists have opined of a connection between pot and psychoses. The limited explanation was that it was thought to induce psychosis is susceptible persons. I witnessed a psychotic break in a person who was smoking to excess when I was 21. Maybe the street pot was laced with a hallucinagenic.
Amazing how you punch drinkers always come back to a useless shot that is not a vaccination. You have no idea what these kids are smoking today for THC. Maybe you should get another booster OR educate yourself on what the professionals are saying.
You have less than no idea what I know. You also aren't even intelligent enough to read through an entire thread before making a fool out of yourself. Nowhere in my comment did I endorse the jab, and in a subsequent comment I clarified for another with similar reading comprehension deficiencies to yourself, not that it was necessary for anyone with even average English skills.
You are quite incapable of incurring any wrath from me with your feeble taunts. My career helped many thousands of the most hurting and forgotten in society, with hardly a word of thanks from any in "our country" to those of us who served in one of the toughest fields on Earth.
I suppose if you're a sativa fan, then you might argue that case. But there is not a definitive "best" strain. That completely depends on the individual and how that person reacts to the unique compound signature of each strain. Sour Diesel is good, GMO is better. But that is completely subjective.
Alex makes s big to do over NYT removing the unproven pot claim. That might have something to do with the shooters grandfather's insistence that as a convicted drug felon, he knows what it looks like and his grandson was not a pothead.
The universal common denominator of mass shooters is Shrink Dope, not weed.
That is where the real devastation comes from.
Ever heard a preacher lie and say smoking weed is sorcery?
Sorcery is using drugs to control someone else, i.e. Shrink Dope.
I am also a mental health professional, since 1989. I have seen a gradual shift in how doctors and therapists perceive marijuana use from problem behavior to normalization. This occurs with many social maladies in our do your own thing culture. Doctors aren't going to diagnose marijuana induced psychosis because it requires one to presume linear causality. I would never make such a diagnosis myself. I have seen dozens of teens over the years that got messed up from pot and they were always also caught up in a myriad of other problems. Some of those kids had psychotic episodes. Almost all of the teens with these kind of drug and behavioral problems had marijuana use in their repertoires. We treat the whole person and the family from the perspective of multi-causality, so I believe this OP has offered a red herring argument.
I recently had a grandparent sharing her medical pot with her grandchild who later stole it and brought it to school via brownies that got people sick. I had a guy with long term a-motivational syndrome that was affected by pot and I found out his enabling parent was using with him then complaining the guy would not do anything. The parent had a "It's just marijuana" attitude he brought with him from his 1970's lifestyle. Unfortunately, that attitude has now permeated the culture. I had a young guy, reclusive and abusive toward him mom, using pot at home because mom was liberal and thought it was "just pot".
I did not know Alex was a cannabis realist until I read this article. I do know he is a narrative buster. Thankfully there are a few left.
1. Did they run double blind control trials to check if administering THC makes people *commit crimes*?
2. Did they control the amount of drug intake in both arms 24h/day?
(and just to clarify, I am only curious: Even if they did, there is no moral justification to criminalize pre crime. So there is no moral justification to criminalize drugs. *ANY* drugs.)
Try working in mental health in Oregon and see the effects of drug use. It is so horrific there no one can even tolerate it. If you don't think heroin and meth should be criminalized, your opinion, but a very wrong one.
I am not saying that drugs are good or advisable. I don't even do drugs. All I am saying is that it requires an abject amount of authoritarianism to send the police to possibly kill other adults just because these other adults chose to consume a given substance that a "know-all" little tyrant does not like. My point is: Who are you to tell other people how to live their own lives?
Alex, don’t confuse correlation with cause-and-effect.
Yeah, I don't. And neither do the psychiatrists and researchers who have been studying this relationship for 40 years.
You should be rallying against alcohol if your going to go down this route.
Drugs (alcohol is a drug) mess with you. Lots of drugs mess with you lots.
Drug use is a sign of an empty, hollow life and is suicide on the installment plan, whether users want to admit it or not.
Alcohol. Aka "ethanol" is naturally occurring in food. In fact, it is part of our culinary practices and has been since human history. A fruit or grain falls to the ground, enzymes turn the starches into sugars and yeast eat the sugars and produce ethanol and other alcohols. Most people can metabolize it fine. Like anything it can be abused.
However, cannabis has a psychotic effect for heavy and long-term users. It is not a food... it is only a recreational drug. It has some beneficial properties... mostly the CBD... but it is also a dangerous drug at the high concentration levels of THC produced today. I know several young men that have been hospitalized with psychotic issues after heavy and consistent use.
> cannabis has a psychotic effect for heavy and long-term users.
false. the vast majority of long-term heavy users do not experience psychotic effects.
> It is not a food
false, it is a food, and a very healthy one at that.
> it is only a recreational drug.
false. it is a useful therapeutic for many purposes.
> a dangerous drug at the high concentration levels of THC produced today.
false
> I know several young men that have been hospitalized with psychotic issues after heavy and consistent use.
And I know several more who have not.
What the hell have you been smoking to write all that!?
Speaking from observation, smoking too much weed does have a deleterious long term effect on the brain.. the odd spliff is fine, but regular heavy use is best avoided.
To quote you..."false, the majority of long-term heavy users do not experience psychotic effects"..
Duh - we are not talking about the majority here - we are talking about the cases where it DOES induce psychotic issues and those issues turn into violent actions.
You are playing Russian roulette with weed - you don't know if/when your system will react to the cannabis with psychotic behavior. If you are one of those folks - your life is ruined. Now your life can be ruined with Alcohol too, I'm not making a distinction - except that the "rare" psychotic behavior often does express itself in violent and deadly behavior.
Would it be fair to characterize you as a regular user or some would say an abuser?
remembering that native americans, some eastern euros like serbs and indigenous japanese lack the enzyme to metabolize alcohol, making it addictive, mind-bending and poisonous to the brain.
True that some lack the enzymes. I lack them to digest wheat. But the Japanese and Chinese drink a lot.
Went to college with a full blooded Sioux from South Dakota.
I can attest to the above.
It was eye opening how little it took for him to get plastered and at the same time could drink all night unable to stop until the body basically blacked out.
There is no next day with the guys laughing about the events the night before because he do not remember anything that happen the night before...
...and the behavior while drunk goes way beyond what ordinarily occurs when people are intoxicated...
The issue with cannabis gets into so many swampy weeds with agriculture, transport, contamination with other substances, etc, etc it’s simply not a great stabile platform to argue much from. Especially on mental illness. We are suffering a huge on swell of anger and failure to cope. This feeds instability. We have many unstable who are more likely to turn to drugs of all sorts to dull the pain. We have an epidemic of narcissistic personality disorder due to social media selecting for it. We have predatory governments, corporations, institutions feeding off our families and communities. We have an epidemic of mass hysteria and frank stupidity as the information blackout and intense propaganda continue. Wow!
when overwhelmed there's always the bible KW. 2 Colossians 7:14
Many first psychotic breaks are triggered by pot.
Is that just your expert opinion or do you actually have proof of that claim. I assumed you are an expert but perhaps with your proof of that claim you can verify your expert status as well.
Any good drug will supply the perfect psychic storm to make it more convenient to come face to face with truth. Some will break in the face of this. Erich Fromm had much to say on this. Even laughing gas the dentist provides may trigger this. State Fascism will also trigger this among the severely damaged.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erich-Fromm
It's a LOT more of a food than alcohol, which is a toxin, and is also not particularly older in human culture.
Any abused substance is a problem.
Speaking of food, overindulge there and death awaits.
You really should not offer opinions so detached from reality. It weakens Alex's already tissue thin argument.
if I overindulge in food - the death awaiting is only my own... can't say that for weed and alcohol.
I have seen this first hand.
Calling it a food is a stretch. It is effective at lysing cell walls as we learned in honors biology. It does occur naturally, but is a toxin.
Calling it a toxin is part of the woke indoctrination project. You should seek some help.
Alcohol does not natural exist in food. It is created by yeast or certain bacteria through a process called fermentation.
Alcohol is generated by a natural process that is common. Enzymes that convert starches to sugars are generally in and on the fruit, vegetable, grain, etc. This is how a starchy green banana turns yellow and sweet. Yeast are also in abundance everywhere. Cultured yeast is a relatively recent process. Before that the fermentation process was simply to allow the organic substrate to ferment itself with access to the open air. Yes, bacteria and molds can also do that job... in some cases both the enzymatic breakdown of starches and the conversion of the sugars into alcohol. Koji mold for example is uses in many Asian rice alcohol beverages. Lactobacillus is a common bacteria used in cheese making. These are all naturally occurring and part of the natural lifecycle of almost all non-meat food products.
Yes, alcohol exists naturally in food. If you have a fruit tree, pick up a very ripe fruit from the ground after it falls from the tree and eat it. You will generally be consuming alcohol.
Alcohol is produced when produce ferments on the ground, like blueberries. I witnessed drunk Cedar Waxwings on Gregory Bald in the Smokys in the 90's. We process it further to boast concentrations past the point that it would kill the yeasts.
I agree with most of your comment, except "its only a recreational drug". I believe there's no such thing as a recreational drug! All drugs are for sick people!
caffeine is a drug. technically so are chocolate and sugar. Are they only for sick people? Didn't know that.
Interesting perspective. Not sure I wrap my head around that given the history of drugs being consumed for recreational purposes. Steven Tyler just admitted to having spent $6 million on cocaine.
There's no such thing as a recreational drug!
you are a liar.
You can't generalise everyone is different and react to things differently. If everything was so cut and dried wouldn't health be so much easier to work out and I imagine doctors would have all the answers which they don't by a long way.
That is certainly true.
it is suicide to intimacy with yourself and being in touch with your heart. Total segway away from connection with others on any level of intimacy or truth. I can see it clearly and I still use alcohol knowing full well that it has 0% help or usefullness to my spirit life. Never used pot more than 10x and it was always b/c I was inebriated on alcohol or I never would have done it. Same thing with unprotected sex! Always drunk. There's no fixing it looking at all of the negative, we can only get into the Word and seek God daily. It is the empty void and lack of relationship knowledge of God that drives ppl to act like satan.
Boy howdy, & Praise Jesus. All things exist to glorify the Son of God! Return to The Word would alleviate all worries & anxieties at fraction of the cost of some meds. Can’t make cabbage when copy right laws aren’t in our favor. But the Word will not return void! Isa 55:11
Segue, not segway.
That's the alcohol speaking 😉
Being a prude is a sign of an empty hollow life.
No prude, me. Live and let live I say. But I see what drugs do to people and find it sad that they have so little of interest to do that they derive entertainment from poisoning themselves.
I see lots of people who vigorously defend their drug habits as “harmless fun”. They’re usually the ones who know the harm they are doing to themselves but childishly think that by pretending they’re not will make it so.
This is the definition of prude: Knowing everything, reading minds, a feeling of superiority for no reason. People smoke pot to keep people like you away.
Cringe
I say calling people prudes is. Is it are or are it is? I am now a prude, but once had a partying, fun filled alcohol and drug fueled life of debauchery. That was hollow. I am now filled by the Grace of GOD. Free yourself. JESUS is knocking. Will you answer and let Him in?
Tea and coffee are drugs. I know fora fact that ten cups of strong coffee turn anyone into a crazy wide-eyed loon: lets stay calm and keep a sense of perspective.
That's why I add Irish cream (Bailey's, Molly's, Ryan's etc...)
a good recipe for hypertension, but to each their own ;-)
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
yep and fair haired son Hunter B was spending 200k per month
He had two choices:
1. End up like Beau
2. Travel the world hustling millions while doing drugs and banging hookers
Smart man.
Working on a new book.
"Hunter Biden: The Man, The Myth, The Legend"
Here's a sneak peak: https://tenor.com/view/the-man-the-myth-the-legend-famous-nice-to-meet-you-gif-16682483
He had two choices:
1. End up like Beau
2. Travel the world hustling millions while doing drugs and banging hookers
Smart man.
And there he is, the picture of health.
74 years old, quadruple vaxxed and still sniffing coke and banging hookers...
If only we all could be so lucky
Which he had every right to do.
Yeah, that worked well. He's so toasted, he heard a song and wanted to do a cover of it. The other guys had to tell him that it was them playing the song.
I'm sorry this is happening to you.
It's my right to do whatever the hell I want as long as I'm not bothering others...
Alcohol is a downer. However, there is evidence that cannabis use can exacerbate underlying mental issues, in particular bipolar issues. Legalizing marijuana may create a major problem for the US.
No doubt that why it was legalized. More taxes. And the government probably spikes the pot sold in the shops
Alex is wrong and has been readng propaganda. Pot is good for everyone. The US Dept of Health even has a patent for pot, Pat No. 6630507, saying its a neuroprotectant and antioxidant. Everyone needs neuroprotection and more antioxidants even just for all the poisons government puts in the air, food, water and injections. Th most successful people use pot daily, as do the most unsuccessful.
People smoke pot, legal or not and it's decriminalized almost everywhere. So legalization is meaningless. This whole post hoc logic argument is stupid because pot use has been rampant for many years while it's been illegal.
pot is up 90%...but so is everything else....no, it's the pot
And we've had an increase in mental health issues... I know there's lots of factors involved but cannabis use could be one, particularly in people with a genetic propensity for mental health issues. .
I have three kids with bipolar disorder and one had been diagnosed schizophrenic. He was the one most negatively affected by pot but the real issue for them isn't pot, it's stimulants. They all want the stimulants because of the dopamine. It's what bipolar people seem to gravitate toward, that which will produce dopamine. Cigarettes are a problem with all three. The youngest recently quit smoking and has gone off all stimulants and no longer smokes pot. He went through a full treatment plan that lasted almost a year to get him off meth. That's where the stimulants got him. So my feeling is that pot is the least of the worries but that it certainly may have been a contributor to the overall toxic mix.
My youngest son no longer has the delusional thought process and psychotic behavior because most of that was produced by the stimulants and then the meth. I am way more concerned about that drug than pot or alcohol.
Another bad one that is legal and which my middle daughter has gone completely crazy on is kratom. That stuff has a terrible effect on her, she goes completely batshit crazy on it.
I agree. However, tobacco has also been used for hundreds of years. We strongly discourage it in this country and highlight all the negative health effects. We could do the same with marijuana, but people enjoy marijuana so they resist any criticism and defend its use.
You know they could open up cultivation and the strength would go down along with the price. The stuff does mess up your head. I know frompersonal experience.
Barry?
Alcohol is a desensitizer, while pot is a sensitizer. Sensitizers enhance your current mood, so not everyone is "happy," when using pot.
Not everyone who drinks gets drunk. I never smoked any pot I would buy that didn't have me in lala land in a few minutes. I think it doesn't allow many people to solve their problems and problems make people angry.
Stop with the straw man argument. That’s like saying beating your spouse is bad, and responding “let’s talk about how beating your kids is bad.” Two destructive habits don’t negate each other as worthy of discussion, and addiction, like violence, takes more than one form.
The problem with this argument is also that we DO warn kids from a young age about alcoholism. Alcoholism is destructive and lends itself towards domestic abuse, child abuse, and even correlated to porn addictions.
We DO NOT warn our kids about pot addictions - which often leads to laziness, celibacy, and detachment issues at best, and poor mental health desensitized to humanity in the extremes.
My father’s parents were poor, abusive alcoholics. The cops were at their house numerous times a week. He graduated at 17 and immediately left for Marine corp boot camp and Vietnam. He carries more survivors guilt from leaving his little siblings in that home (and he has it from both). Growing up my parents seldom drank in front of my brother and I, or much at all (they’ve caught up as empty nesters 😂), and taught us the warning signs for alcoholism from the time we were toddlers.
Conversely, my mom’s siblings are 80-year old pot heads. 25% of their children became heroine addicts and another 25% haven’t had real jobs 4-5 decades into life. They all had weird sex issues and 1 divorce from porn addiction. Despite great careers (including as a physician) they are around 80 and completely broke because of poor decision making and inability to plan long term.
While I’ve usually steered clear of pot, even in my wild party days, because I noticed the correlation even as a kid between their terrible mental health/ immature decision making, never once did my parents harp on the issues associated with pot. They didn’t bat an eye when they did catch me smoking pot at 14. I definitely didn’t steer clear of drugs and alcohol in my party days, but it was shortly after I tried pot a few times at 14 that I connected the dots between my very misguided extended family and their pot habits.
It’s not about “which is worse.” That is very dependent on the individual. It IS sn issue that people act like pot is “no big deal” and any pushback is met with straw man arguments about alcohol. Legal or not, the excessive consumption of either destroys lives, families, futures, mental health and relationships. Stop pretending like the harms of alcohol that we often discuss are justification to deflect from conversations about the harms from pot. Denial doesn’t change reality.
Very well said
This is very good and your words are strong medicine. Strawman arguments about comparing alcohol use really resonated with me. The pro-pot crowd is a club, and they are always trying to recruit new members, including myself. I think the THC deceives its users into thinking they are someone they are not and their arguments are mostly weak intellectually. Take the ultimate pothead poster boy, Joe Rogan. He and all his MMA buddies all use THC before fights and they say it improves their abilities. I like Joe but his skills of debate, especially about pot use are weak minded. And by the way I'm intimately acquainted with 2 young men who have spent time in a psych ward due to already existing mental issues and mega pot consumption on top of that. But the pro pot crowd doesn't see any problems here with adolescents consuming today's high THC weed. To quote Levon Helm playing the old sniper back in the woods (Shooter) , "Things aren't always what they seem are they gunnie?"
Love comedy......
Does anyone forget these young kids are doped, drugged and vaxxed up, eating genetically modified fake foods and literally learning everything wrong to do in life???
Then just teach kids about pot like alcohol. Problem solved. Regulation doesn't work.
It's not a strawman. It's a tu quoque.
You are a strawman.
Or woman.
Not sure of the gender.
Don't think so.
A strawman argument misrepresents the other side's argument to make arguing against it easier. A tu quoque is "whataboutism". People saying "what about alcohol?" are making a tu quoque argument.
That’s like saying “ Reefer Madness!” as a response to this higher THC plant that’s selling now. Absolute ignorance at its best. Alcohol is to today’s pot, like Tylenol is to Fentanyl. Yah, there’s higher doses of Tylenol, even prescription, but it doesn’t touch the effects of Fentanyl. Plus, it hasn’t been studied long term because people are dying! Or we can just ignore this connection & keep pushing high THC pot to our youth. Let’s just wait & see what happens. Great idea.
You MUST be the last Republican in Seattle. Lonely much?
I guess if I increased my subscriptions and podcasts like you, I’d never have time to ponder loneliness. There’s more red in this state than you think. BTW, are you paid for your responses? It seems the new trend for Dem.s to troll sites & get paid. Good for you. 👍
He argues with everyone throughout this thread and is an admitted stoner. That's why he is defensive of anything negative said about marijuana. His argument? He smokes it and even though he gets "amnesia" once in a while, it hasn't made him psychotic. Case closed.
Codeine to Fentanyl might be a better analogy.
Thank you, agreed. I guess my case for prescription was the Tylenol w- codeine . Thanks again!
If you reversed the places.
Anyone so thick as to think alcohol is the lesser evil shouldn't touch anything, their grip on reality is too tentative already.
Only a few go through each day drunk. Many MJ users dose themselves every hour or less from Wake and bake, to Put me to sleep. That is addiction, and the THC stays in the body for a very long time even after you quit.
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Alcohol is water soluble. It’s absorbed in the blood.
Marijuana and other drugs are fat soluble; they are absorbed by the brain and sex organs.
They are not the same.
now don't go gettin' scientific with these pot guys - their brains don't work that way ;-)
Every pothead I know is hopeless. THC seems to create paranoia and irrational reactions.
This is false...
Viewing Strangers that Tell A Vision creates stupidity lessening the ability to think..
alcohol is a poison and CNS depressant. It's a dangerous substance to put in your body and damages your liver and kidnehys.
The Queen Mother loved her gin : and lived to well over 100.
True and so is weed.
you are a retard.
All the stupid crap most people do is alcohol related. Booze still warps the brain function days later when physically sober but not mentally sober.
Come up Seattle pot head. 98% of the people that consume alcohol do it with their meals and it is just part of their food scene.
98% seems exaggerated but drinking like you lay out is definitely the healthy way to do it. People drink all the time in France and starting young. But it is small amounts with meals and it seems to have no ill effects. Maybe even good ones.
There are studies that moderate drinking improved health outcomes.
must agree with you this time Elagabalus... if it were 98% then there wouldn't be so many bars and dives out there that don't server food but dish out the booze.
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Are you comparing Cocaine used by a millionaire to cannabis psychosis? Just checking..
I'll do whatever the hell I want buddy.
Also, thanks for checking in on me.
#BlessYourHeart
Yep. Alcohol is responsible for how many deaths, broken homes, medical costs, etc? Not to mention it affects EVERY cell in our bodies, so probably the worst drug put there overall. Bern arrested twice in my early life, both were in a drunken rage. Since my last arrest in 85 I haven't touched the shit. Made the front page of both the new haven times and Bridgeport Post due to the injuries I caused the guy that started it.
Oh, jury, NOT GUILTY on all charges thankfully. Again the booze or I woulda laughed at the jerk and walked away.
Your escapade didn't make the New Haven Register? 😝 Just teasing. I used to live 20 minutes from New Haven. Born and raised in CT, couldn't afford to retire there. Congrats on your sobriety.
So let's add loco weed to the mix, it's all over anyway.
Like it or not, alcohol is part of our diet and our culture, and always has been. It's never going away and it never will. Moreover, unlike marijuana, alcohol is easily metabolized and doesn't stay in your system affecting your judgment and perceptions of the world for over 48 hours
If the prohibition Karen's had existed during Medieval times, humans would likely be extinct as the discovery of alcohol sanitizing water would not been put to use.
but nobody is telling youth and people alcohol is safe and no big deal. the awareness is out
but to be honest alcohol and guns have been around forever you know what’s new is the anti-depressant the anti-anxiety combined with increased marijuana use I guarantee you this is the biggest problem combined with broken families isolation depression in general kids should be out playing they should be playing sports exercising not being put on prescribed drugs that aren’t even tested on people under 18 to begin with. and it’s the increase in the THC with the new wave pot shops and available marijuana that’s the problem people figure it out it’s causing psychosis and violence like no other you’re the one saying weed mellows people out that’s why we’ve got to get the word out that’s not true anymore that it’s no longer 8% THC it’s up to 80% in some cases with oils and vapes
Agree, it’s all bad. Definitely a combination of abuse in different areas. Mental health is a huge challenge, especially for parents, and prescribing physicians. It’s easy to say “ get your kids into sports, let them play outside,” when reality is that parents work a lot and kids unattended for too long create a problem. It’s just reality. And gov. is moving to approve pot nationally. That only increases black market because of lower prices. Mix in the fentanyl issue & our kids are looking at some serious hardship. Maybe not all that try it, but 1/6 will develop psychosis from heavy pot use. Our country is already struggling to keep our kids in school & succeed.
The only way to win this is to get the kids to understand they’re being “played”. Their addiction for profit pawns & their money is lining pockets of uncaring souls by using pot, vapes, & edibles w/ high THC. Plus, the regulations with cannabis growers & pesticides is a joke. They are basically self- governing. We are understaffed in Wa. & probably everywhere else in this industry. Decriminalizing is also opening door for more black market. Look at Cali. They can’t close fake stores fast enough to keep up w/ new ones popping up. They don’t even have to sell on the streets anymore. It’s a mess. Colorado is best state for documenting their downfall. More crime, more homeless, more traffic fatalities, more kids addicted, more negative everything since pot was approved. Coincidence? ALL of it? That’s not what residents there say. Not even close.
I find it incomprehensible that whilst millions of people use alcohol responsibly, in the US you can drive a car, get married, become a parent and everything else grown ups do BUT you can't drink alcohol until twenty-one!
We humans ENJOY being stimulated with stuff so what else are the kids going to do but - drugs?
Prohibition was GREAT for organised crime - seems the current policy is still working, especially for the young.
Many things in life are bad for us in excess (tobacco, food, sex, gambling, power...) whilst often a little of what you fancy does you good, physically and mentally.
Whatever subject you can think of there will always be a minority who respond badly, so should we all do absolutely nothing at all, just in case?
I do think prohibitions tend to make problems worse. The part I’m concerned about is the lack of education, or outright encouraging destructive behaviors. This applies to all the things you mention - drugs, alcohol, sex, food, gambling, tobacco, power. In the US we do a pretty good job of acknowledging tobacco and, for adults alcohol, and even gambling. In Europe kids are taught responsible alcohol habits from a young age, and because access is always there, being the driver or only drinking a reasonable amount is easier - there will still be alcohol tomorrow if your 16 or 18.
We do a horrendous job of the others here. Obese women are on the pages of every fitness magazine and pointing out being obese is not healthy results in hostile accusations of “fat shaming.” We are sexualizing little kids, detaching them from reality, pushing “affirmative care” which is a gentler way of saying child sterilization and genital mutilation, discouraging healthy committed sexual relationships while encouraging teenagers to watch a bunch of porn with all its violence and unrealistic approach to sex.
With pot we don’t educate, we present it as a “better” alternative to alcohol (which it’s not). Many literally believe there is no downside to daily consumption of weed or edibles.
We shouldn’t do nothing, but we should stop approaching every destructive behavior or habit as falling into some good v evil category. It detached people from reality and sends them into spirals of denial about cause and effect. This applies to dangerous big pharma subscription plans as well.
By science we know that the frontal lobe of young people does not fully develop until after the teenage years. The frontal lobes is responsible for reason and decision-making. The lack of a fully developed frontal lobe is why 20-something people make great soldiers but it takes 30 and 40-something people to make effective senior officers.
For this reason I am not in favor of the drinking age being lowered. And I would prefer that the voting age also be raised to 21.
True Frank. But what evidence is there that having a beer as a teen causes any lasting or negative effect on the brain? We are pretty resilliant.
And as for voting, most people do not have a Scooby Doo about what they are voting for! If it made any difference at all to the real powers it would matter! It doesn't, so they allow it, as a fig leaf to give the illusion we are in charge. We're not!
Well. It is a mind altering drug and makes people do stupid things. But I guess as a society we accept the risk.
Same conversation should be had for weed.
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
exactly.
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Just look at him - perhaps the coke explains his wild wardrobe and face?
I'm partially blind. Can you describe 'his wild wardrobe and face?'
K thanks bye
you are spamming. stop it.
What are you a broken fucking record?! For Steven Tyler 6 million bucks to drop in the bucket so what’s your fucking point?!
VIDEO RESPONSE:
https://tenor.com/view/are-you-talking-to-me-i-know-youre-not-not-talking-to-me-gif-15422519
Why?
BS. Says a likely potter.
Alcohol. Aka "ethanol" is naturally occurring in food. In fact, it is part of our culinary practices and has been since human history. A fruit or grain falls to the ground, enzymes turn the starches into sugars and yeast eat the sugars and produce ethanol and other alcohols. Most people can metabolize it fine. Like anything it can be abused.
However, cannabis has a psychotic effect for heavy and long-term users. It is not a food... it is only a recreational drug. It has some beneficial properties... mostly the CBD... but it is also a dangerous drug at the high concentration levels of THC produced today. I know several young men that have been hospitalized with psychotic issues after heavy and consistent use.
Spoken like a true millennial…
I spent the last 6 years of my police career as a homicide detective where I was the lead investigator or assisting on close to a hundred homicides, countless suicides and accidental overdose deaths. In the homicides, most victims and suspects were black males in their teens and early twenties. The most common cultural trait among the majority of the cases was heavy marijuana use. In many of the cases the suspects admitted during interviews that they had just "smoked a blunt" (a blunt is a tobacco cigar wrapper stuffed with marijuana) before the murder occurred. Alcohol use is also prevalent, but the daily, continuous use of marijuana is ubiquitous in black gang culture. I have not read Alex's book, but based upon my personal experience, I find correlation and causation.
Next you'll be blaming it on the rap music!
See what I mean?
Judging by what we know of the guy his problems started long before he even knew what weed was...
shhh don't disrupt the narrative
Can you elaborate? Do we know when he started on drugs, what age? His mother apparently has been using them for a long time, so wouldn't surprise he started at a young age. One report mentioned a middle school friend who said he was a nice young man until eighth grade, when he changed-- usually a tell-tale sign of drug use.
Others were saying he was getting into fights since middle school and he was bullied for a lisp. In short, he was never properly socialized. That seems like more of an obvious contributor than he smoked weed.
Yeah... getting bullied for a lisp will make you shoot your GMA in the face and then go do the same to little kids.
Did you miss the point entirely about it being a larger contributing factor than smoking weed? When was the last time the popular kid shot up a school? I would bet you 1000 bucks right now 95% of people could pick mass shooters out of a lineup with perfect accuracy... Weed smokers, not so much....
Further to the point, I bet every popular kid at the HS he went to has smoked weed. Yet it just happened to be the weird as fuck kid who was socially outcast who shot up a school.
Drug use or “psychosis” from drug use.
How bout woke culture induced psychosis? Weed and guns been around for a long time without this many school shootings. Cant say the same of wokism.
I’ve been fortunate to never have a strong craving or addiction to drugs/alcohol. My personal experience with cannabis is hyper-paranoia, anxiety, coupled with a foul mood. Obviously many people have a different experience, however I can’t believe that these are beneficial in anyway. I do not think it helps cognitive ability, motivation, ambition, physical training. People like to do it so make it more available, period. Unfortunately I do think pot had a direct impact on his actions. Psychologically unstable mixed with cannabis can spell trouble.
So now because of this evil dude, we have to give up guns and the herb?? Everyone's chemistry is different and yours did not respond well to the type you consumed. There are many different cultivars that have a multitude of terpine and cannabinoid profiles which affects everyone differently. Just because this kid had it in his system, didn't mean it caused the event. His mental health or spiritual take over from a demonic being would be my first choice. Get to the root of the issue.
VIDEO RESPONSE
https://tenor.com/view/chuu-gun-loona-girlboss-girl-gif-20619222
Fortunate?!? You crazy brah.
"Steven Tyler just said he’s Spent $6 Million on Cocaine in his Lifetime"
https://ragnarforseti.substack.com/p/steven-tyler-says-hes-spent-6-million?r=hjhbr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Agree. Using common sense.
Yet: All you presented were anecdotes. Spooner MD Makes a fair point. Presumably, in your book you present the data and metadata? Deeply explore it?
PS: Many if these shootings have happened in the morning. Therefore we should ban school before noon. That’s the kind of idea mere anecdotal evidence produces. Anecdotes should be used to create hypotheses to explore, which MAY result in solid evidence.
All of these shootings took place in gun free zones. Perhaps there is a correlation.
They are also drug free zones.
But were they psychosis free zones?
I recommend reading the book! Lots of studies and data in it!
This happens every single time Alex makes a marijuana post
The potheads whine and gnash their teeth and ignore the argument made in the book. They’re never gonna read it.
I guess the point of stirring up this controversy occasionally is to pique the interest of those who aren’t potheads
Because reality exists for those who enjoy pot, and have with so many others, and not once seen it. But we see it routinely after friends drink alcohol. And we see lots of depressed and anxious children because we've created a world of anti-liberty, never-ending wars and violence done to "protect our interests" in other people's countries, and use debt and inflation to rob us of our wealth, our prior desire to be charitable rather than dependent on government handouts, etc.
alcohol makes people do bad things and it still legal? the law was not implemented to put people in boxes so they cant hurt themselves. its not even plausible to put people in prison for using plants. in fact its a waste of money. give me any possible way for police to stop people from using plants and ill retract my statements. ok law cuck
Well I personally don't have to read the book because I have seen it first hand myself. Its a drug and just like any drug there are positive and negative aspects. The LD50 for cannabis is exceptionally high (Benno Hartung et al. (2014) report that the lethal half dose (LD50) for THC in humans is estimated to be around 30 mg/kg)
I still think it should be federally legal for informed consenting adults, nothing in the constitution about what people are and are not allowed to consume. This power is reserved to the states, or the people.
This is the same argument at the core of vax mandates: you either own your person or you are property of the state. And don't even public health me; if that was the case cigarettes would have been banned 30 or more years ago. And that's without starting in on the damage Alcohol abuse causes, or prescription painkillers.
Yet you don't present any. A reason to trust, e.g. John Thompson (who I don't know) over you. I'm *asking* for a data, and yet I'm insulted and accused of 5 things including *ignoring* it. Batty arguments out bullshitters. Their credibility is a wet patty.
“Studying this relationship for 40 years”? So you’re saying there is a direct relationship to the smoking of cannabis and the killing of individuals? This board-certified neurologist would love to read a couple of the papers that would support your contention.
Well, as a psychiatry provider, working in the prison, This board certified gal can tell you there is a very direct link to drugs and crimes to include murder. There would be nare be a need for prisons if drugs were eradicated. People are dangerous on drugs and it changes the brain..not talking occasional use. Try the once great state of Oregon..now a disaster, crime increased. Mostly drugs related.
"Caffeine is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. You have used these drugs. Therefore you're a murderer."
-an argument as (il-)logical as Jacqueline's
I have Alex's book. Extremely unconvincing.
If you are indeed a "board certified neurologist" I'm sure you are familiar with the connection between mental health issues and heavy cannabis use.
Alex, usually I appreciate your critical thinking skills. In this case they are lacking. I spent a twenty-six-year career as a mental health professional. I helped care for many thousands of mentally ill patients. Not one of them was ever diagnosed with a cannabis induced psychosis. At worst some previously diagnosed psychotic patients were noted to have poor reactions to smoking cannabis, but this was similar to the poor results from consuming alcohol. Interesting how you will dismiss studies that show glowing results for mRNA vaccines but seem eager to accept these studies to which you now refer. They are at odds with the numerous studies that do not lead to this conclusion. A logical conclusion from those who understand mental illness is that the mentally ill nearly universally have a tendency to self-medicate, which raises the question whether the cannabis led to the psychosis or was the individual's way of dealing with a pre-existing underlying psychosis. Just blaming the pot is far too simplistic and is a hallmark of the misinformed or the idealogue.
Anyone rational enough to reject this Reefer Madness Redux should check LewRockwell.com today.
Richard White points out the unconstitutional and evil intent of prohibition of substances, and the historic disasters that result from such totalitarian crapola.
Did you know that in 17th century Constantinople a second offense for coffee possession earned a Death Sentence?
Here is a clue for everyone: regardless if it is Pot or actual narcotics, no one's usage is any of your concern. Mind your own business.
"Here is a clue for everyone: regardless if it is Pot or actual narcotics, no one's usage is any of your concern. Mind your own business."
It would be if the user was on an island or isolated from others. But we all have to interact in the public sphere. And therein lies the rub.
Here is a more important clue:
Tomorrow is election day.
More Americans died last year from Fentanyl than in the entire Viet Nam. conflict.
Rather than seek a return to the Golden Years of Reefer Madness when one could spend years in prison for smoking a green cigarette instead of a brown one, why not do something positive for America and vote the sick and twisted Leftys that are destroying our country with Pharma and Marxism?
Amazing to me that anyone aware enough to read Substack doesn't know all this unadulterated crapola about pot is just distraction from the reality that the common denominator in these shootings is psychiatric drugging, and NOT pot smoking..
I have known pot smokers since I was a teen, I am 66 now, and I have yet to meet my first pot freak out.
It's possible to get way too high on any intoxicant, but it is not a significant problem, it is a significant distraction.
Only a certain segment of society finds minding their own business an abrasive expectation.
Until the increased use has social costs. Then it is our business.
Such boneheaded ignorance. The " Social Costs" come from criminalization, and no, there is no point at which your inability to mind your own business becomes a virtue.
People steal to support their habit because criminalization supports 20,000 percent mark ups for the criminal, who is encouraged by the obscene overvaluation to adulterate and create increasingly addictive versions like Crack and Fentanyl, and the overdoses that inevitably follow when drugs are insufficiently adulterated and users take their regular dose which is really many times the normal dose.
It will be a boon to mankind if people like you ever learn to clean up your own backyard.
There is no point at which your inability to mind your own business becomes a virtue, regardless of your self righteous self delusion.
Well, that does not seem to be the case as decriminalization data is rolling in. https://www.westernjournal.com/state-officials-admit-drug-decriminalization-massive-failure-overdoses-increasing-drastic-rates/. If society wants to limit something it should first ridicule it, then shame it, then make a law against it if the first two do not work. Legalizing something harmful always increases it. Increases in pot use are also fueling the woke nightmare because very liberal people, many of whom are mentally ill already are much more likely to abuse cannabis. The social costs from pot use are harming my family.
Yes. My comments said similar stuff but was not so eloquent. I did provide a link to another substack writer who said very similar things as you do. Thanks for speaking out.
You're welcome, Greg. I don't often comment anymore as too many seek to only foist their views on others without actually listening to other's points of view. But the undercurrent of rather foolish noise attempting to link the recent shooter to cannabis use as a source of causality has prompted my response. This person obviously had far deeper problems than an affinity for smoke. To suggest otherwise is nothing short of absurd and has zero consensus within the scientific or medical communities.
Zero proof he ever smoked a joint, denial from his grandpa.
Damn. Well said wow.
Thank you, Jacob. I am a fan of actual science, not the cherrypicked study variety.
"Glowing results for mRNA vaccines'...
BREAKING UPDATE from Sparta:
https://tenor.com/view/gtfo-300-gif-5494186
I did not say that I believed these glowing results, simply pointed out that Alex was touting some studies while harpooning others. I am a very big skeptic of mRNA vaccines until they have been furthered tested and shown to be safe in reality and not only in the land of wishing.
Pop Quiz: When was the first person ever injected with mRNA on US soil?
I know that the first human to be injected with an Mrna vaccine was reported to be in 2013. Where it occurred doesn't really concern me. Your point?
Reading comprehension on the low side?
I sorry to hear that Greg.
Oh you're asking me?
What do you consider low?
The simple fact you did not understand the article you attacked. he had to use small words in his reply to maybe get you to understand what he was actually saying. And then your continued use of your "pop quiz". Annoying to say the least.
Since the 70's, psychiatrists have opined of a connection between pot and psychoses. The limited explanation was that it was thought to induce psychosis is susceptible persons. I witnessed a psychotic break in a person who was smoking to excess when I was 21. Maybe the street pot was laced with a hallucinagenic.
Amazing how you punch drinkers always come back to a useless shot that is not a vaccination. You have no idea what these kids are smoking today for THC. Maybe you should get another booster OR educate yourself on what the professionals are saying.
You have less than no idea what I know. You also aren't even intelligent enough to read through an entire thread before making a fool out of yourself. Nowhere in my comment did I endorse the jab, and in a subsequent comment I clarified for another with similar reading comprehension deficiencies to yourself, not that it was necessary for anyone with even average English skills.
Always so angry but never surprising. More insults always help our country. Do you!!
You are quite incapable of incurring any wrath from me with your feeble taunts. My career helped many thousands of the most hurting and forgotten in society, with hardly a word of thanks from any in "our country" to those of us who served in one of the toughest fields on Earth.
he/she/they/it need to smoke a joint a chill the f out..
I bet you don't know what the 'Best Marijuana Strain' is?
(It's Sour Diesel)
I suppose if you're a sativa fan, then you might argue that case. But there is not a definitive "best" strain. That completely depends on the individual and how that person reacts to the unique compound signature of each strain. Sour Diesel is good, GMO is better. But that is completely subjective.
'Quotations' used as this is merely a matter of opinion...
(Basically fact tho)
Better still, learn to mind your own business. The " professionals" are shills, and their ravings are devoid of value.
Shit's fantastic, right?
(Stuff the kids are smoking)
Not so fantastic for the adults that have to watch them derail but you do you.
Alex makes s big to do over NYT removing the unproven pot claim. That might have something to do with the shooters grandfather's insistence that as a convicted drug felon, he knows what it looks like and his grandson was not a pothead.
The universal common denominator of mass shooters is Shrink Dope, not weed.
That is where the real devastation comes from.
Ever heard a preacher lie and say smoking weed is sorcery?
Sorcery is using drugs to control someone else, i.e. Shrink Dope.
Damn straight I'll do whatever the hell I want.
(Thank you for the advice, it's appreciated)
https://youtu.be/bI2PdskxE_s
I am also a mental health professional, since 1989. I have seen a gradual shift in how doctors and therapists perceive marijuana use from problem behavior to normalization. This occurs with many social maladies in our do your own thing culture. Doctors aren't going to diagnose marijuana induced psychosis because it requires one to presume linear causality. I would never make such a diagnosis myself. I have seen dozens of teens over the years that got messed up from pot and they were always also caught up in a myriad of other problems. Some of those kids had psychotic episodes. Almost all of the teens with these kind of drug and behavioral problems had marijuana use in their repertoires. We treat the whole person and the family from the perspective of multi-causality, so I believe this OP has offered a red herring argument.
I recently had a grandparent sharing her medical pot with her grandchild who later stole it and brought it to school via brownies that got people sick. I had a guy with long term a-motivational syndrome that was affected by pot and I found out his enabling parent was using with him then complaining the guy would not do anything. The parent had a "It's just marijuana" attitude he brought with him from his 1970's lifestyle. Unfortunately, that attitude has now permeated the culture. I had a young guy, reclusive and abusive toward him mom, using pot at home because mom was liberal and thought it was "just pot".
I did not know Alex was a cannabis realist until I read this article. I do know he is a narrative buster. Thankfully there are a few left.
Afroman (multimillionaire) chimes in via VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/WeYsTmIzjkw
Out of curiosity:
1. Did they run double blind control trials to check if administering THC makes people *commit crimes*?
2. Did they control the amount of drug intake in both arms 24h/day?
(and just to clarify, I am only curious: Even if they did, there is no moral justification to criminalize pre crime. So there is no moral justification to criminalize drugs. *ANY* drugs.)
Try working in mental health in Oregon and see the effects of drug use. It is so horrific there no one can even tolerate it. If you don't think heroin and meth should be criminalized, your opinion, but a very wrong one.
I am not saying that drugs are good or advisable. I don't even do drugs. All I am saying is that it requires an abject amount of authoritarianism to send the police to possibly kill other adults just because these other adults chose to consume a given substance that a "know-all" little tyrant does not like. My point is: Who are you to tell other people how to live their own lives?
Does this under the quote "if it feels good do it?"
Well I got a ways to go to get to 40 years of studying but the first 25 or so have been fantastic. You're welcome.
I am in the field. Drugs damage the brain. See it every day THC, alcohol included.
What kinda field? Baseball? Cornfield?
If you want to get rescued you we're gonna need you to be more specific.
Outfield. Been there my whole life. No weed needed.
Nobody 'needs weed' you imbecile...
Grow up.
Be better.
No more mistakes.
No more excuses.
Actually maybe I'm wrong... I kinda need some right now...
Let's check with an expert
https://tenor.com/view/cause-we-need-it-snoop-dogg-cameo-its-vital-its-essential-gif-18006776
Don't send her to the cornfield, PLEEZ!!