It happened again the other day…and I absolutely know better than to open my mouth…but I did anyway.
I was an observer to a conversation about the vast and varied benefits of cannabis. I was trying my damnedest not to participate, but one of the two people in the conversation decided to point out that I’m an expert in the field of alcohol and other drugs…or something. That did not dissuade the speaker from extolling the virtues of cannabis over everything. “Cannabis is good for anxiety, pain, better than prescriptions, so many good things.”
So I asked what the therapeutic level is. Like, how many weed brownies do I need to eat to relieve my pain? How many tokes do I have to take to alleviate my anxiety? And then I made the fatal mistake of pointing out that cannabis feels good because the user is high, just like opioids feel good. All pain goes away…until use stops.
Wrong move.
“That’s what you think. Fine. At least it doesn’t have any negative long-term effects.”
Ummmm, yes, it does. The speaker did admit that it affects memory. So there’s one. But I went on to explain it also has negative effects on the heart. By the way, there’s evidence that it also causes strokes (NIH) and negatively affects brain health, mental health, and lung health (CDC).
“OK. That’s what you believe. At least it’s not addictive.”
Stop it. Please. I’m begging you. Are we still really pretending that cannabis isn’t addictive?
Just for starters, there is NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING that I ingest that would cause me to get into an argument about it. NOTHING. I love seafood. Pizza. Pasta. Candy. Chocolate. Good coffee drinks. So many things. But I don’t sit around and extol the virtues of any of them. I like them. That’s enough for me. The fact that you want to argue that a drug you use, which, in the state of Wisconsin, where I live, is still fully illegal, is completely safe, seems a bit off to me.
But I can’t even pretend that some of the things I like aren’t addictive. Sugar is. Caffeine is. Pretty much anything can be, if a person has no “control over doing, taking, or using something to the point where it could be harmful” (NHS). So why do people still deny that cannabis is addictive? It seems to me that thou “dost protest too much.”
But why? I know lots of people who are addicted to alcohol, and none of them say it’s not addictive. They may say THEY don’t have addiction, but even they know others who do! What’s the deal with cannabis?
I contend that we see the deadly results of addiction to alcohol and other drugs and think that, since cannabis doesn’t kill folks quickly and rarely kills them at all, it must be fine. That’s a forced choice logical fallacy, making it wrong, but I think that’s the rationale.
Sugar also doesn’t kill people quickly, but we know it’s addictive. Heck, even alcohol doesn’t kill MOST users, and no one argues that it’s not addictive.
I wish I could say this conversation was a one-off, but it wasn’t. I’ve had similar conversations with elected officials, those who work in the field of alcohol and other drugs, and family members. And, goodness, the people on the internet who’ve ardently supported their wrong idea that cannabis isn’t addictive is mind-blowing. I understand that no one wants to have addiction. I fully understand denial for an individual diagnosis. What I don’t understand is how so many people have convinced themselves that, since a drug isn’t deadly, that means it’s harmless.
Dr. George Koob and Dr. Nora Volkow define drug addiction as a “‘chronically relapsing disorder’ marked by […] loss of control in limiting intake, and the emergence of a negative emotional state when access to a drug is prevented” (NCBI).
“Loss of control in limiting intake” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but if I only plan to have one toke and take five or plan to eat one brownie and eat two or plan to only use on weekends but decide that Thursdays really are part of the weekend, then I have a “loss of control in limiting intake.” I don’t have to get wrecked. I don’t have to get to the point where I’m physically sick. I just have to exhibit a “loss of control in limiting intake.”
And what does “negative emotional state when access to a drug is prevented” mean? I need not be homicidal or suicidal. I can just be in a really bad mood, and that’s a “negative emotional state.”
But here’s the thing: even if it’s not me…even if I only use cannabis occasionally, safely, without negative consequences that would indicate that I have addiction (I don’t, by the way!), that absolutely positively doesn’t mean that OTHERS aren’t addicted.
Our silence may not be killing them, but it surely isn’t helping them.
References
https://www.cdc.gov/cannabis/health-effects/index.html
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/addiction-what-is-it/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6223748/
Guided by Guida 
Leave a reply to Joe Jones Cancel reply