Guns and Cannabis: The Insidious Creep of Tyranny

I can remember reading accounts from an emergency room doctor who lives in Colorado who posts on Free Republic. Her experiences with people having psychotic episodes after ingesting pot laced “edibles” were identical to what I have seen. She and others also described the decline of areas surrounding places that sell marijuana.

Of course marijuana advocates have no interest in the difficulties their favored recreational drug causes others. Saying that those of us who have dealt directly with these issues have “conformational bias” is a misuse of the term. Pot causes roughly the same issues everywhere it is heavily consumed. Legalization increases consumption multiple times even in areas where the police have been turning a blind eye for decades.

I grew up in an area where most of the people that I knew used pot, including close friends and family members. It is pretty easy over a period of several decades to recognize patterns of behavior, health and psychological issues especially with those who have been long time heavy users. Those who claim it is harmless or even good for you can only be described either as either delusional or willfully ignorant. The incidence of mental health issues in long term users is extremely high among those that I have known and even loved.

My first true love has been a heavy user since she was in high school. She was one of the brightest and most promising young women that I ever met. Her mom was an RN and her dad was a full bird colonel in the Air Force. One of her brothers is an engineer, the other is a doctor. Her sister is an RN and was a high ranking officer in the navy. They are all still my friends. She has been living in her car now for as long as I can remember. She does not beg, but she has difficulty holding onto a job and has mental issues. She doesn't drink, but she refuses to give up pot even though she acknowledges that it is likely the root of her problems.

My last serious girlfriend before I met my wife and got married was also a pot user. She also came from a highly successful family. Politically she was very conservative and she was the easiest woman to get along with that I ever met. She was beautiful and we had such great times together. She didn't drink and she kept her pot smoking secret from me for the first few months. When the prospect of marriage became very likely she told me that she would give up anything for me but marijuana. At first this did not seem like something that was extremely important, but I was concerned that she was hooked on a recreational drug which she said that she would never give up. While I appreciated her honesty, it was the reason that we split up.

Again she is a local woman and over the years people I know have told me how she is doing. She married another guy about the same time that I married and had children and the last I heard, like me she was still married. But I am told that she too has been plagued with health and mental issues related to her pot use.

My wife's little sister is a particularly tragic example. She is only 61 and literally on her last legs. We had to push her around in a wheelchair when she was here visiting. And her primary interest was puffing on her “medical marijuana” vaping device. It is a bizarre thing when people are allowed to claim that the substance that is primarily responsible for their difficulties is “medicine”.

But it is not just the women I dated, my cousin once was a young up and comer businessman who was active in local politics and was a city councilman, has been a long term heavy pot smoker. And we have watched his decline into mediocrity as well. I have known so many promising people who have made messes out of their lives with marijuana. Most of them have been able to shed their other demons, but never the pot.

I know very well that I am completely wasting my time relating these first hand experiences to you. But I feel it is good to let other people know about them. They are “only the tip of the iceberg”. I could literally write a book, but it is doubtful that it would do much to counterbalance the misinformation we are bombarded with everyday about how harmless marijuana is.

I've seen accounts, some on FR, stating the opposite - and you probably have too, but didn't find them congenial ... "con·fir·ma·tion bi·as is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses."

If one foolishly far exceeds the dosage recommendations for edibles, one will have problems. That may be an argument for stricter regulation of that form of marijuana; it is no argument for a blanket ban.

Saying that those of us who have dealt directly with these issues have “conformational [sic] bias” is a misuse of the term. Pot causes roughly the same issues everywhere it is heavily consumed.

Misses my point and begs the question.

Legalization increases consumption multiple times

Federal statistics say otherwise; at most, legalization may concentrate consumption in certain areas.

Those who claim it is harmless

"Harmless" is rarely if ever claimed - that's largely a straw man of the Reefer Madness brigade. Few things are harmless - not marijuana, nor alcohol, nor tobacco, nor bacon double cheeseburgers.

or even good for you

Marijuana has some established medical benefits - which have been exaggerated by some proponents. Feel free to argue with them; I've never claimed that marijuana is broadly "good for you."

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