Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Marijuana … Not All Good


Years ago when a sign of the times was to pass laws legalizing marijuana, I thought that the passing of these laws was a mistake.

I said that primarily because there wasn’t a test to determine whether or not someone was driving “under the influence.” As best I can tell there is still no test like there is for alcohol, mainly because of the long half-life of marijuana in the body’s tissues … in other words tests for marijuana cannot identify the timing of when this drug was taken (mostly smoked).

In a similar vein because marijuana is a drug, it was only going to be a matter of time, before more and more of this drug’s side-effects were going to become manifest.

What follows is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as side effects:

A study, published Monday in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research, looked at national health records data for over 30,000 Ontario, Canada, residents between the ages of 12 and 65 over a six-year period.

When compared with people who did not use marijuana, cannabis users were 22% more likely to visit an emergency department or be hospitalized, the study revealed.

Respiratory problems from smoking weed was the second leading reason users seek emergency care, the study found.

The finding held true even after adjusting the analysis for over 30 other confounding factors, including other illicit drug use, alcohol use and tobacco smoking.

A number of studies have shown an association between marijuana use and injury, both physical and mental.

Heavy use of marijuana by teens and young adults with mood disorders — such as depression and bipolar disorder — has been linked to an increased risk of self-harm, suicide attempts and death,according to a 2021 study.

Another 2021 study found habitual users of cannabis, including teenagers, are increasingly showing up in emergency rooms complaining of severe intestinal distress that’s known as “cannabis hyperemesis syndrome,” or CHS.

The condition causes nausea, severe abdominal pain and prolonged vomiting “which can go on for hours,” Dr. Sam Wang, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist and toxicologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, told CNN in a prior interview.

A review published earlier this year looked at studies on over 43,000 people and found a negative impact of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, on the brain’s higher levels of thinking.

For youth, this impact may “consequently lead to reduced educational attainment, and, in adults, to poor work performance and dangerous driving. These consequences may be worse in regular and heavy users,” coauthor Dr. Alexandre Dumais, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal told CNN in a prior interview.

Now while I am not consciously implying that the liberal politicians who were pushing for laws to okay marijuana usage knew of these various side-effects, I am implying that they just didn’t care!  

7/20/22

Californiacontrarian

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