OPINION: Be happy you’re not growing cannabis

Two years ago, Joseph Hudek boarded a plane in Seattle destined for Bejing. Like so many, he thought marijuana, or cannabis, just made you happy, sleepy and hungry. So he bought several 10-milligram THC (cannabis’s active mind-altering ingredient) edibles. He figured that if he gobbled them down, he would sleep the entire journey and wake up in China. One hour into the flight he was still awake and went to the washroom. Two minutes later he burst open the door and screamed. He wanted off the plane and tried to open the cabin door as flight attendants and passengers tackled him. Hudek fought back and a flight attendant broke a wine bottle over his head. They put zip-tie cuffs on him and the pilot returned the plane to Seattle. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Canada is about to make cannabis-laced edibles legal. Health Canada has gone out of its way to ensure us that children will be safe because the edible gummie bears and cookies won’t have pretty colours. We all know that when there are no bright red gummie bears in the room, a child has the self-control to keep his hands off the grey muffin, preferring to wait for a better offer.

I’m not so sure that our government is that interested in children because the case against using cannabis in the first place is stunningly strong.
The Hudek case is a one-off, you might say. Sadly, cannabis use is under reported when it comes to violent crimes. In 2014, a Denver man with back pain decided to buy a piece of Karma Kandy Orange Ginger that contained 100-milligrams of THC. He ate about half of it and two hours later began hallucinating. His wife called 911. He said he loves his wife, always has. But before police arrived, he found his pistol and shot her in the head. He is now sitting in prison. Experts tell us that only psychopaths kill for no reason. Also people on drugs, particularly cannabis.

The cases of violence connected to cannabis use are seemingly endless. Last year, Blair Ness, of Texas, smoked cannabis and then threw his one-year-old son down on concrete and stabbed him to death in front of horrified neighbours. Also, last year, Camille Balla, of Florida, who had a history of mental illness, smoked a joint then killed her mother and gouged out her eyes. A Cleveland man last year tested positive for marijuana (there was no other drug in his system) after walking up to a complete stranger and shooting him in the head. A British man who called himself “the biggest stoner in the world” smoked pot, then dismembered his girlfriend, flushed some body parts down the toilet and made a necklace from her teeth.
If you want more cases, many, many more cases, they are in New York Times reporter Alex Berenson’s compelling 2019 book Tell Your Children: The truth about marijuana, mental illness and violence.

Berenson makes a slam-dunk case against legalizing marijuana. Too late for Canada (too bad our governments tend to use the precautionary principle on things they want to ban but conveniently forgot to use this argument for cannabis) but farmers can be grateful they didn’t get sucked into growing our next crisis. Berenson argues governments now need to research the devastating effects of marijuana to understand that it is far worse than alcohol. In 2006, he writes that in the United States there were 30,000 emergency room diagnoses of psychosis with marijuana use alone. By 2014, that number was 90,000 cases of psychosis (typically hallucinations) all caused by cannabis.

Citing hundreds of studies, he says the connection between cannabis and psychosis has been proven. And so has the link between cannabis use leading to violence. He writes that “a 2013 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that in a study of 12,400 American high school students, those who used marijuana — but not alcohol — were more than three times as likely to be physically aggressive as those who abstained from both.”

Three separate studies (from Sweden, Holland and New Zealand) also revealed a strong link between cannabis and mental illness. But that didn’t end the debate because “the marijuana industry is increasingly powerful and well financed,” Berenson wrote. They boast long on the benefits but are short on research.

The truth is that cannabis isn’t even much of a pain killer. In fact, in the United States, medical marijuana use after 2010 correlates with an increase in prescription deaths, not a decrease.

Studies also conclude that marijuana is addictive and that heavy users tend not to marry or find meaningful work. In short, heavy use ruins people’s lives. It’s helpful to point out that a joint in the 1970s might have had 2 per cent THC content but has 25 per cent THC content today. Edibles can have a much higher THC content.

As our country continues to hurl itself down the road to perdition, parents should follow Berenson’s advice: Tell your children.