Posted on 08/04/2021 8:03:24 AM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
"People who take cannabis to treat PTSD are like a man who uses a cane. This prevents them from moving on to psychotherapy," Professor Yifrah Kaminer, a senior Israeli physician who has studied the effect of drugs on society, warns. Kaminer, who lives in the US, has tried for many years to put a mirror in front of us so that we won't fall into the trap of legalizing marijuana, despite the growing trend to decriminalize recreational use.
Kaminer, whose expertise on this topic extends three decades, has seen how the drug can affect people. He believes that if you prescribe it to people suffering from mental issues just so they could use it as a walking cane, this would ultimately backfire and worsen their situation, and adversely impact society.
Kaminer has witnessed the results in his own eyes in the US, where about 20 states have already legalized recreational use, including his home state of Connecticut.
"We have seen how teens in junior high school use this drug, and the younger the starting age is, the greater the risk of developing serious issues down the road, including psychosis," he warned in an interview with Israel Hayom.
"The second group is people who suffer from depression and anxiety, which comprises some 15-20% of the population. Studies show that using cannabis may help them in the short term, but then it begins to give them repeated depressive episodes that only get worse; we have seen a dramatic increase in suicidal tendencies [in the wake of legalization]."
According to Kaminer, the voice of those two groups – teens and those with mental struggles – has been drowned out by the pro-legalization camp, in part because of interest groups that eye windfall profits.
"I have been studying the treatment of adolescent substance abuse for over 30 years. I have studied more than 2,000 teens over the course of my research and what I see is that the age is getting lower and lower. And my colleagues have also noticed that teens are becoming more psychotic at a younger age, even without any familial history of psychosis," he laments.
Not like cigarettes
Kaminer adds that many have overlooked the big difference between cigarettes and marijuana because they don't realize that it's a matter of concentration of the substance. Legalization would make it part of people's daily lives and in high concentrations. Many also believe the drug can help cope with mental issues, but the effect has not been proved.
"A study conducted among US veterans who were using the drug to deal with PTSD shows that those who believed that it was helping them, saw gains in the short term. Those who said they did not believe it could help them, did not see this. But both groups had experienced the same kind of PTSD, so it's very much a placebo effect. Also, those who truly believe this is a magic bullet cannot easily transition into psychotherapy and can't properly function without cannabis, and this is one of the challenges facing the healthcare professionals," he said.
Kaminer believes that approving the recreational use of marijuana has unintended consequences. "When you smoke a cigarette, the amount of nicotine is about 0.5%. As for cocaine, the ranchers in the Andes chew on leaves that have only about 0.5% of the drug, which does not lead to addiction. But cocaine on the market is about 30% or even 60%. This is what is beginning to happen with cannabis. Cannabis products on the street can have a concentration of about 20%, which can lead to a euphoric state of mind. In oils and pastes, this can be as high as 80% or 90%. Teens who use this get psychotic."
Just recently, with the swearing-in of a new government in Israel, the effort to legalize marijuana has picked up steam. A new Knesset committee is about to be formed on this matter and even though the coalition has failed to muster enough votes in the Knesset plenum, the proposed legislation has been moving forward and could result in people being able to sell and use the drug in small quantities. Kaminer believes that there is not enough data that would justify such a measure, especially in light of the effect this could have on at-risk populations such as adolescents.
"To slow this train, I tell lawmakers: Before you pass such legislation, add a few amendments to control the concentration of the substance in products and to ensure vendors can only sell it at a safe distance from public buildings. Also, add a mechanism that would help keep it away from teens. It's like having a new road paved in a neighborhood but without any traffic lights, asphalt, or speed limits and then asking the public to cross it at their own risk. That is just beyond the pale.
"If the Knesset proposal sees the light of day, we have to include various amendments that would impose certain restrictions and allocate resources for enforcement of road traffic violations. In Washington and Colorado the number of deaths among drivers who had been using marijuana has doubled since legalizations in those states," he said.
Kaminer is a psychiatrist and a senior physician at the University of Connecticut and has been at the forefront of the effort to counter the growing trend in the US to legalize the substance, and even around the world. He believes that ultimately it is the American taxpayer who would have to pay the price for the adverse effects of the move because it would hurt the development of youngsters and because it would only make PTSD patients feel worse in the long run.
Kaminer believes that marijuana is not a gateway drug. "Those who are going to cash in from all this are the stockholders and former officials who are eager to make money off of this," he warned.
Kaminer stresses that those who want to adopt the Dutch liberalization model of cannabis use are misguided because the substance is only legal in regulated "Coffee Shops" and generally banned in the Netherlands. About 60% of cases of drug-addiction therapy in that country are a result of cannabis use.
Those who believe the legalization train has already left the station claim that Kaminer is out of step with the global trend, but he believes that things are not as clear-cut. He notes that not a single country in Europe has legalized recreational use nationwide. He and others have been sounding the alarm on the impact on teens, stressing that there are not enough studies on this. "Lab mice's teenhood is just two weeks," he says. This, he claims, makes it all but impossible to extrapolate findings on human teens.
Kaminer is on the board of the Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), an advisory group that seeks to inform lawmakers of the ramifications of legalization. Its experts, including Kaminer, testified in the Connecticut State Senate and most likely helped water down some of the provisions of the law they recently passed, by imposing restrictions on the how and where the drug can be sold. For example, some of the restrictions deal with keeping it away from schools or on how it can be advertised.
As an Israeli, his focus now is on making sure Knesset members hear expert advice before moving forward with legalization. "Every such bill must include a budgetary estimate on the cost this could have on the economy and how to fund it, and I believe this could total some NIS 4 billion ($1.3 billion).
"We must take into account the expected rise in car accidents and the collateral damage: loss of days of work, treatment for psychiatric disorders that could come up or get worse, including psychosis, more enforcement, and prevention efforts that would target children as early as elementary schools."
He is particularly interested in having limits imposed on the concentration of the substance on the products that would be sold if cannabis is approved, especially food products. He also seeks to close the loophole on the use of substances in vaping. "The work is cut out for us; we must engage in rigorous planning and preparations so that we don't make an unwise dash toward legalization," he warns.
There are many things that promote psychosis in people other than just ONE item. teens and pre-teens who have never did pot are depressed to the point of suicide from the hysteria surrounding Covid. To blame one item on a complex issue is not credible.
“even worse subversives than communists”
Maybe dial back the hyperbole a little bit if you want anyone to take you seriously. Just a thought. Pot’s not lining anyone up against the wall and shooting them.
It’s not just drugs.
For the last 25 or so years, children have been subjected to chaotic environments in their homes and mind-bending imagery in media.
After I retired from the AF in 1999, I worked around some younger airmen who’d come into the service around this time period. One day, I walked into the office (as a contractor) and three airmen were talking about their legal mood enhancement drugs that they were being prescribed. The three had gotten ‘noted’ around the late 1990s while in high school, and the AF was continuing their prescriptions.
None of this made any sense to me. Each of the three had behavioral problems that led me to think they couldn’t act on their own, or make logical decisions.
All reports agree that the current stuff is significantly stronger than what was sold, say, 40 years ago. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see why, at the very least, they wouldn't sell a variety of strengths. Not everyone needs to be hit with a sledgehammer. To me, this seems like all the beer companies selling an ice-cold refresher in a 12 oz can which is full of 200 proof beer. Does anyone really want that? (and yes, I know, 200 proof is pure alcohol, not a beer).
You forget the mass shooters who overwhelmingly have histories of marijuana use.
Oh, the Free Republic pot dealers aren’t going to like this story.
...depressed to the point of suicide from the hysteria surrounding Covid.
___________________
Add to that communist and homsexual indoctrination in schools, it’s no wonder that kids are so screwed up. Then start pumping them with psychotic drugs, and the problem is compounded ten-fold.
Article is total and complete BS.
Put down the bong and be the person God wanted you to be.
Of all the stop posts youve produced this might be the dumbest.
My thoughts exactly! The digital devices that allow us to be connected 24/7 are especially agents of chaos. It’s obvious and I would advocate for children under 10 years old to be banned from owning them. They are mind altering at a physiological level.
Correlation does not equate causation. Was bullying involved? Sex abuse at a young age? Parents divorced? No direction at home? But you have all of the answers, right? It’s gotta be the pot. Reefer Madness in your DVD?
Kids today worship their “mental health” and talk about it constantly. They all want therapists and meds for their “anxiety”. They have PTSD from “bullying” about dying their hair pink in 8th grade.
We reap what we sow...
The Democrat party’s insanity is driving children nuts.
Another day another Right Wing Vegan hit piece.
Yep. Essentially every time some wacko starts shooting because he thinks that radio waves are being beamed into his head or some similar paranoid delusion, the toxicology screen will show cannabis use. Two and half years ago, a guy named Kevin Limbaugh in Davis, CA, left a note complaining about the “sonic waves” that police were controlling him with... before he went out and shot and killed a cop. At the time, I predicted here on FR that I’d put the chances he was using marijuana at 100%. I received a lot of blowback from the pro-pot crowd, “How can you say that?” “You don’t know that” “You’re talking out of your @$$.” And then 2 months later the tox report came out, proving me right.
No reason for me to doubt that young kids are facing a perfect storm - sure there is the insanity of “social” media, the insanity of covid, less human contact, economic stressors *and* pot could *also* be playing a role.
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