The United States has been taken over by a tsunami of marijuana legalization efforts–even though drug overdoses and drug-related deaths are the country’s biggest problem at this time. We began in 2015 to help push back on marijuana in California. We are still focused more on California than elsewhere, but we’re extending our reach to other states.
All states that legalize marijuana have a grow problem. If you want to organize to keep marijuana growers and businesses out of your community, we highly recommend you reach out to Calmusa.org. (Citizens Against the Legalization of Marijuana). They have experience organizing and winning against the marijuana drug industry.
At this time, 8 states and Washington, DC have voted to legalize recreational marijuana, even though it is against federal law. With young adults ages 25-34 dying at an alarming rate from drugs, life expectancy in the United States went down for the first time in 2015.
America is on the brink of the abyss, threatened by a domestic disease that kills, destroys and inflicts more social and economic harm on America than all acts of terror or war in modern history. Drugs! Each day, approximately 150 Americans die of a drug overdose, most of who began their drug use with marijuana. That is more every 8 weeks than all Americans lost in Afghanistan and Iraq in 14 years, and tragically, overdose is only about 1/4th the total of all drug-related deaths. Almost all of the young people who died of drug overdose — those below age 40 — started their drug journey with pot. Also it can happen by starting with opiate pain pills, the pain pills are not driving this current overdose epidemic.
But overdose isn’t the only cause of death, nor the only adverse outcome of marijuana.
The potency of today’s marijuana is off the chart. In the 60s and 70s, the THC (psychoactive ingredient) was ½ to 2%. Today, marijuana averages about 15%. Smoked forms of marijuana in Washington and Colorado measure 22-28%, and as high as 38% THC. In the form of Marijuana “Hash” or “Honey ” Oil (also called “BHO,” “wax,” “dabs” and other nicknames), it can be as high as 90% THC. The British, reacting to the surge in psychotic episodes leading to violence, murders, suicides and traffic fatalities, named pot with 15% THC or better as Skunk, because of its rank odor and harmful effects on the human brain. The Dutch outlawed it, and in 2016, when Coloradans tried to put a ballot to cap the THC in marijuana sold in dispensaries at 16%, the marijuana industry bought off the ballot. HIGH -THC marijuana is here to stay, because it’s a competition among sellers to create the most potent pot. Thus the brain damage from pot is exponentially higher than it was 30 years ago.
A longitudinal study in New Zealand, tracking marijuana users from adolescence to age 38, showed a drop in IQ of 8 points. Numerous studies have shown marijuana can cause structural, irreversible brain damage before the brain is fully developed at roughly age 25, especially during adolescence. America has already declined to 24th in the world academically, with a 1/3rd dropout rate. Skunk diminishes the capacity of young people to learn, remember what they have learned, produce at their full potential or lead a long, healthy and productive life. America cannot retain a position of leadership and competitiveness in this dangerous, global society if 1/4th to 1/3rd of our people are stoned or mentally incompetent, dependent on the government for their livelihood … and that is the direction we are headed.
Stop Pot where we will bring you factual information on the harms of marijuana, information you won’t hear from the press. We are closely aligned with Californians Against Legalizing Marijuana or CALMusa.org and Parents Opposed To Pot or poppot.org, both good resources as well. Moms Strong and the Other Side of Cannabis are excellent resources, too. MomsStrong.org has the stories of youth, mainly from California, who have lost their lives from marijuana.
If you are already part of the 8-12 % of Americans who smoke pot, or sell it for money or power, having a rational discussion with you on the issue may be difficult. If you are part of the ~ 90% who don’t use pot, you are encouraged to follow us and help fight this battle to save our youth. If we continue to allow people to self-destruct, they have no future … nor do we as a nation.
Reminder: If you need help keeping marijuana out of your community, we highly recommend you reach out to CALMusa.org. They have experience organizing and winning against the marijuana drug industry.
120 Americans die every day just of overdose. This fact could be true, but not because overdosing cannabis. You can’t overdose cannabis and die from it. Or could you post an official statistic? Your informations are placed the way, that they are quite misleading. It’s rather alcool, tobacco and heroin who is most responsible of drug deaths. Do you make a campaign against cannabis or drugs? Not all drugs harm the same. Like alcool & tobacco are not less harmfull and you still don’t report about this accepted drugs. It’s sad that you spread misleading information. Please inform yourself more about the topic of drugs and especially to the topic of cannabis.
All of us who have children that overdose started their drug use with marijuana. Marijuana dependency can lead to opiate and heroin dependency. The trouble is that children are told it’s a harmless herb, and that it’s not addictive. These statements are lies they often believe.
The only reason that marijuana SOMETIMES leads to abuse of harder drugs, is that it is obtained thru the “black market”. If marijuana was sold and regulated exactly the way alcohol is, pot smokers wouldnt be exposed to situations where they have access to drugs like heroin and meth.
Amen! If kids weren’t lied to and told that Marijuana is a harmful dangerous drug, then forced to buy from shady dealers while in university they would not even consider the hard drugs. However when you perpetuate the lie the Cannabis is evil you are doing more damage then good. Think of it this way, almost all teens will try marijuana regardless of what they’re being told about it, so once they try it and learn more about it they realize that they’ve been lied too about pot being dangerous and then they start to wonder if the information they’ve learned about hard drugs is also a lie. As a healthcare professional I can tell you flat out that if Cannabis was treated like alcohol in regards to regulation, and education on the dangers of overuse and abuse our kids would not feel lied too and would also have no reason to visit the shady people who peddle in the harmful life destroying drugs.
That’s quite a statement. No one forces shady dealers. In California, you can pay $25 to get medical marijuana while never seeing a doctor. The publications throughout the world that show that marijuana causes psychosis and schizophrenia are too numerous to quote. If you don’t know of these publications, you probably need to go back to school.
What a joke your comment is. There is so much opioid abuse in Colorado and in Oregon. Those two states have the most off-label use of pain medications; those states have also legalized marijuana and still have black markets.
Nice to see some pro and con dialogue here!
Regarding “… once they try it and learn more about it they realize that they’ve been lied too about pot being dangerous and then they start to wonder if the information they’ve learned about hard drugs is also a lie. As a healthcare professional…”
Though I do believe Dr Paul above is sincere, I do hope he can understand we (as in those most concerned about marijuana acceptance) already understand his viewpoint very well. It’s not that we can’t comprehend past exaggerations about the harms of marijuana, it’s just we are actually noticing real harms today and becoming alarmed with what we see and observe. Understand Dr Paul, in this world there seldom if ever is a ‘free lunch’. Anything we do has consequences. We are the ones looking at this giant marijuana movement and witnessing very adverse effects as in a sevenfold increase in schizophrenia, addiction, acceptance of other, harder drugs, and this odd link between past marijuana abuse and random senseless homicides all over.
We are being open-minded and inquisitive and suggestive. And sure, maybe I for instance sound over-alarmed at times, but it really is folks like you and the general pot lobby that are the close-minded ones.
And that is because we are suggesting so many observable harms, yet the pot lobby is in complete denial. Do you see the irony here? We are suggesting and wondering and suspicious, whereas the pot lobby is proclaiming there is little or no harm. And that bias in large part derives from the affect of marijuana on the mind. The brain rewires as shown scientifically from MRI imaging, and it seems this rewiring engenders those individuals with pro marijuana bias!
Plus, being a doctor, I find your attitude shameful! How do you know marijuana does not have the potential to cause harm to the brain? Come on now.
And regarding loss of IQ points, I just learned some very interesting information this morning. Of course we all saw the studies correlating marijuana abuse with lower IQ scores, and it appears that marijuana use is what is lowering cognitive ability. Could be, but as with all studies there are confounding factors.
And one is maybe those who are not so bright are more likely to be lured to use marijuana. Fair enough, we can’t proclaim for sure, but there certainly is an interesting correlation between pot use and lower intelligence, and interestingly too, the pot users really do have smaller brains on average!
And then many of us also heard about the contrary IQ test results with twin studies. Very interesting work which I recommend reading via PNAS website to get the gist of it.
Identical twins were compared with sibling twins (not identical I guess) at ages about 12 and then about 17-20 years old. They were questioned about marijuana use and then tested for IQ. From that study no link with marijuana use and lower IQ could be established.
Yet be careful! These studies only add to our knowledge. One does not debunk the other. The twin studies are also ripe for inconsistencies and confounding factors too. For one, not all 12 year olds, or older teenagers for that matter, are going to be totally honest about their drug habits!
But the other interesting thing found was that though a correlation was not established, the twins and siblings of marijuana using households ALL showed lower IQ!
Anyway please read up on this to see for yourself in case I botched some of the details. The most salient point is the twin studies did not necessarily debunk anything, as has been blasted all over the internet. Instead they added to our body of information with this giant puzzle in front of us.
Like I said earlier, marijuana is tricky as the devil!
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/young-stoners-run-risk-of-lower-iq/
There are plenty of studies. Also check out Prof Amelia Arrias of U of Maryland.