Testimony #2: “Our State Created My Son’s Addiction”
(Read our first medical marijuana testimony)
As soon as my son turned 18, he got his own medical marijuana card. I am not sure what the condition, but that “is between the patients and their doctors.” Since he was an adult we couldn’t stop it. Who are these doctors who prescribe it for $35, sometimes on the phone, without even seeing the patients?
My son is an addict. My son says he started using weed at 11. To our surprise he was already using before we ever had that first talk about drugs. I never caught him until age 15. He was an expert at hiding it. Until then, I thought we were dealing with alcohol, but he used pot before he ever used alcohol.
He got the pot from the mom of a friend at school who had medical marijuana card. This parent shared the marijuana with her children. Oh right, they tell us medical marijuana is a privacy issue between the patient and the doctor. Oh, it would be more accurate to say it’s outright fraud.
He also used alcohol, but only on weekends. He used pot daily and during school. At first we had no idea what was happening and why he was so difficult. His grades were still ok.
By the time he got his medical marijuana card, he was already addicted. He couldn’t attend college classes and had to drop out after one quarter. He began making butane hash oil, and tried the pot edibles. He even began to use other drugs. He became psychotic and manic and unstable. He still insisted on having his medical marijuana, and it was the only way he would agree to come with us, if we let him have it. Even during psychosis, the dispensary gave him the marijuana. He smoked a ton of this pot on the way home and the next day he was full blown psychotic.
He ended up in the psych ward where the doctor told us he needed to stop using drugs before we could figure out if he had a mental illness or it was just drug-induced. He went into rehab, but that didn’t really work.
Every song he listened to glorified weed. He sold weed, wanted to grow weed, write about weed, lost girlfriends and sports, lost college. Yet he still believed that pot was not addictive. No counseling or treatment that we tried dislodged this weed addiction from his mind–until the heroin addiction. That’s what worked to get him to stop weed–heroin.
Finally after cycles of escalating drug use he has been sober for almost a year. It appears that his mental problems were entirely because of his drug addiction. But our son lost so much in the process. He is now 23 and has a job. I don’t know if he will ever get his mind back fully.
I have seen countless news articles about kids getting arrested for large and small crimes with one common factor–they are high on a some drug or another, usually marijuana. Medical marijuana was extremely easy for kids to get in California as is alcohol. But marijuana is easier to hide than alcohol. It is also decriminalized and no one gets arrested unless pulled over for a traffic violation, stealing or using in school. It is virtually legal and rampant. Given that medical marijuana is available to anyone over 18 in CA, including addicts and the mentally ill, it’s clear the problems will only get worse if pot is legalized.
We know others from his school who had manic and psychotic episodes. They ‘re either in recovery struggling with addiction or mental illness, or, even worse, some of them are already dead.
Parents, get this: Once your kids are into to drugs, all control is gone. It’s lost. The whole family is at the mercy of the drug, and at the mercy of the addiction. You may be thinking–my kid would never use drugs–but I thought that too. I hope your kid does not do weed, but chances are he or she will. Will our younger son be lost too? We ignored him and spent too much time dealing with the other son. Let’s hope he learned a lesson from his brother.
A California mother shares heartbreaking testimony about her son’s drug addiction –thanks to the easy accessibility of a medical marijuana card leads to more drug abuse by teenagers. Classifying marijuana as “medical” is the entryway to get marijuana into younger hands. Marijuana is a mind-altering drug, but the danger is greatest for those under 25 and it begins earlier where there are medical pot programs.
I was rolling along in that state of dishonesty and hypocrisy when suddenly my cousin, a lifelong marijuana user, shot himself to death, leaving behind a beautiful family, a successful business, and a trail of pain and sorrow. I quit cold turkey when I learned that a psychologist had previously told him to stop using marijuana because it was causing psychosis.
