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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 1
It’s Just ‘Weed’ — Or Is It?
By Dr. David Lange, Genesis Primary Care April 2024 I have been wanting to write this article for some time. I have just not been sure where I wanted to publish it. With the State Legisla- ture’s recent failed bill on “medical marijuana,” it is important to get this
most of the CB 2 receptors. THC stimulates CB 1. This explains a lot, when looking at all the bad things, neuropsychologically, that happen to people using marijuana. Alex Berenson wrote a book “Tell Your Children, The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Vio- lence,” copyright 2019. I would highly recommend it.
ably higher than baseline. It was argued in the past, that marijuana was not a gateway drug. Well, guess what... That is not true ei- ther. Maybe this ties into the mental health issues above. If someone develops schizophrenia as a result of their marijuana use, they commonly start to use more substances of any sort.
Cannabinoids of all sorts have been shown to inter- act with numerous medications. This may increase the levels of the medication in the blood, or may in- crease the amount of the cannabinoids in the blood stream. It increases the effects of warfarin, making that person more prone to bleeding. Of course, this isn’t unique to THC, many pharmaceuticals and OTC natural products are known to interact with each other to increase or decrease the effects of one another, but to tell someone marijuana is harmless is criminal. Car accidents are on the rise with marijuana use. A review of emergency room use in Ontario showed that from pre-legalization to post legalization the rate of motor vehicle accidents related to marijuana use rose from 0.18/1000 to 1.01/1000 visits. I am sure that over time, more bad than good will be discovered from the use of marijuana. I am hopeful that history won’t repeat itself before sanity returns to this discussion. Medical textbooks clearly showed the relationship of disease to tobacco, yet it took more than 60 years for the surgeon general to issue the first statement warning about the dangers of tobacco. Sixty years on, we are still plagued by this scourge. As I read the articles on marijuana with the dramatic headlines about its dangers, the authors always hedge their way through the conclusions about need- ing more research, how small the studies are and any number of excuses as to why they cannot make a more definitive statement about the dangers of this product. All of that is probably true, but are we going to get the answers that government and industry want or are we going to get the truth? On a hopeful note, we know that there are two re- ceptors which have powerful biological activity. I be- lieve that these should be researched to see if there are safe compounds that can be devised to take ad- vantage of what they do without the serious conse- quences of marijuana. I have finally written that article that I wanted to write. It is now off the bucket list. Certainly it is not of schol- arly caliber, but hopefully it gives some impetus to re- mind those we love and those we have elected to be educated about the consequences of their decisions and not pursue this foolishness simply for the sake of a few dollars. GenesisPrimaryCare.com Please see the display ad on Page 23 of this issue of Wisconsin Christian News).
Mr. Berenson does a good job explaining the re- search that was available to him at the time. He is pretty even handed and dispassionate about the subject. But research on marijuana had been pretty limited for a couple of rea- sons. First, it is a Schedule 1 controlled substance and that limits the ability of researchers to access it and use it on humans. Second, the approved strain of marijuana that has been available for re- search is limited to a small parcel of land in a single
I have seen its use en- couraged for cancer pa- tients who have chemotherapy induced nausea. One of the more common complications of its use, though is nausea and hyperemesis.
out there. I realize that this is likely not the crowd that needs convincing of the foolishness of pursuing “le- galization” of marijuana, but maybe there are enough influencers out there to discuss this with their legisla- tors to help them understand why this foolishness should be avoided. To say that it is disappointing that our conservative legislators would propose such a bill is an understate- ment. Maybe the requirement for the State to be the only legal dispensary was a brilliant poison pill, but how long before that is stripped and the next bill gains support? Make no mistake about it, the only reason to legalize marijuana is financial. A new taxable prod- uct class doesn’t come along all that often. If less is spent on law enforcement, courts and jails, the gov- ernment benefits. But all of the rest of us lose. While I will not dive too deeply into the social studies aspect of this, one needs to simply look at the pioneering states to see what a disaster this has been. I would simply ask the politicians, “Do we really want to be like our neighboring states?” Since I’m a physician, let me stick to something that I’m more familiar with. Researchers have been very busy studying the biochemistry of the receptors that respond to THC and the other cannabinoids (also known as CBD). The biochemical pathways of what is happening when we use these substances is rea- sonably well worked out. Humans have two receptors (CB 1 and CB 2) that can be affected by THC and the other cannabinoids. Humans have at least two classes of chemicals that can stimulate these recep- tors, but there are likely many more that have yet to be characterized. Stimulation of the receptors causes a reduction in neurotransmitters, the chemicals that move from one nerve to the next one to cause the next one to do whatever it is that it does. The brain has most of the CB 1 receptors and the body has
Physicians have placed great hope in the use of marijuana to stop the opi- oid crisis that this country has been in for a couple of decades. Unfortunately that is not reality either. Both compounds have unique receptors and mechanisms of action. There is no similarity or crossover so I have no idea why anyone would have thought that. Inhaling burning vegetable matter, irrespective of the form, is not good for us. Asthma rates are higher among users. Cancer rates are also higher among users. Lung cancer is just one of at least four types of cancer that are higher in marijuana users. The list also includes head and neck cancers, oral cancers and testicular cancer. The amount of marijuana smoked that is needed to see these changes was just one marijuana cigarette per day for 10 years. While I have no love for tobacco, tobacco studies use some- thing called “pack years,” which is defined as one pack a day for a year. There has been a big push to have everyone vaccinated against HPV. HPV is as- sociated with several cancers, especially head and neck and oral cancers, but maybe the issue is made worse by marijuana. Heart disease rates are higher in marijuana smokers than in nonsmokers. One study found that there was a 34% increased risk of developing congestive heart failure. Stroke risk is also higher. This is across all age brackets but is clearly worse in the older adult.
approved location, using a legacy strain of marijuana with a THC content of about 5%. Today’s strains av- erage 60% and the edibles can achieve 100% THC. As states have decriminalized marijuana, more ob- servational research has been done. These studies show just what a disaster this has been. I have copies of the research papers that may be referenced in the remaining space I have, but since the bibliography is long, I cannot include it here for space considerations. So where do I start? One of the most concerning aspects of THC is its ability to in- duce psychosis. One paper noted that a single use is all it takes in some to send one down the path of schizophrenia. Young male users are more likely to have this happen than female users. The rates of anx- iety, depression and bipolar are all rising at an alarm- ing rate. THC raises the risk some 2-4x for the development of these diagnoses. We just came through a “teen mental health month” and I heard not a mention of this. The human brain is not mature until age 26, and while the risk of these mental health di- agnoses due to use of marijuana does drop if one starts using marijuana as an adult, it is still consider-
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