On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the changes to marijuana in recent years.

The article reports:

“Fifteen years ago, the idea that people would be having psychotic episodes and psychotic breaks just from THC was unfathomable—audio and visual hallucinations, and intense anxiety,” says Ben Cort.

On a recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek sat down with Cort to discuss a multibillion-dollar industry that he says has turned a once-natural, relatively harmless plant into a highly addictive, psychosis-inducing narcotic. Cort is the CEO of the Foundry Treatment Center and author of “Weed, Inc.: The Truth About the Pot Lobby, THC, and the Commercial Marijuana Industry.”

Jan Jekielek: Weed or marijuana is not something you typically associate with psychosis. What’s going on?

Ben Cort: Ten years ago, we rarely saw psychosis and cannabis use together.

But recently, I’ll bet we’re seeing 30 cases of THC-induced psychosis for every amphetamine case. THC is the language I’ll use for marijuana, because that’s the chemical inside the cannabis plant that gets you high. Traditionally, drug-induced psychosis was associated with amphetamines, cocaine, and methamphetamine, but in the past few years, THC has really taken that over because of how strong it has gotten.

The best study for this shows that in 2012, addiction rates to THC were about 10 percent, but that in 2020, they had gone up to 30 percent.

The authors of this study said, “It’s our belief that this is THC potency.” Until recently, the idea of physical addiction to cannabis was laughable. Now, not only can you get physically dependent on it, but withdrawal from cannabis is a really big deal, and something I see every single day working in treatment.

Fifteen years ago, the idea that people would be having psychotic episodes and psychotic breaks just from THC was unfathomable—audio and visual hallucinations, and intense anxiety.

Yet every week, I hear of a young person who has dismantled every electronic device in the house, smashed their phone, taken out all the light bulbs to check for listening devices, because they are so paranoid that they’re being spied on. It’s behavior consistent with amphetamine use, but it’s the THC.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The potency of today’s marijuana is very different from the potency of the marijuana of the 1960’s. Legalizing marijuana for any reason is putting our children and young adults at risk. There are better ways to deal with the medical problems that medical marijuana is supposed to solve.

On October 4th, The Epoch Times posted the following headline:

Sharp Rise in Marijuana-Related Psychosis: American Board of Pain Medicine President

The article reports:

As drug legalization groups and the cannabis industry lobby to legalize cannabis across the United States, with initiatives to legalize marijuana on the November ballot in five more states, many experts warn this will only increase the physical and mental harm from the unregulated, high-potency cannabis.

President of the American Board of Pain Medicine and a vice president of the International Academy on the Science and Impacts of Cannabis, Dr. Ken Finn, said high potency cannabis use is being linked to poisonings in young children, as well as psychosis and schizophrenia in an increasing number of regular users.

“A lot of my colleagues that work in psychiatry and emergency medicine are seeing a sharp rise in marijuana-related psychosis,” Finn told NTD’s The Nation Speaks in an Oct. 1 interview.

Data from Europe ties these mental health problems to high levels of the THC chemical in cannabis that causes people to feel high, Finn said.

“The European data shows that there’s a fivefold increase risk of first-episode psychosis with what they described as high potency THC, which generally is about 10%. So we are really in uncharted waters here [in Colorado, with THC potencies of between 40 to 60 percent], with all these states going down this pathway.”

The article notes that the marijuana industry is increasing the levels of THC in their product because existing users have developed a tolerance for the product. Marijuana is a drug, and people who take a drug over a period of time develop a tolerance for that drug and need higher doses to get the same result.

The article notes:

“They’ve so supercharged it [cannabis products] and changed fundamentally what it is, it’s become a really significant issue,” he (Ben Cort, author of “Weed, Inc.: The Truth About the Pot Lobby, THC, and the Commercial Marijuana Industry) said.

While cannabis-induced psychosis won’t affect most people after they halt their use, for some, it can persist for weeks or months before things return to normal, Finn said. “So this is potentially a very dangerous product, particularly if there’s a young person that is exposed.”

There just aren’t enough placements available for the mental health care needed, he said.

“And in a very rare circumstance, sometimes [the psychosis] doesn’t reverse at all,” he added. “There’s a very strong correlation to cannabis use of high potency with schizophrenia, although it the link of a causal effect has not clearly been proven but it’s strongly suspected.”

Please follow the link to the article for further details. Legalization of marijuana is a threat to everyone not only because of the effect it has on its users, but also because of the people who remain involved in the illegal distribution of the drug even after it is available legally.