Saving Our Youth from the Harms of THC
On August 14, 2018, my son, Kevin, died by suicide. He was 29 years old. Kevin suffered from depression and cannabis-induced psychosis, (a diagnosis in the DSM-5).
Kevin told my wife and me about his cannabis use at 15
He agreed to get help.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
The wave of decriminalization/legalization of marijuana keeps marching across the land in 2021. Businesses providing marijuana and its paraphernalia are proliferating like fire ants. Serious marijuana users remain a relatively small American minority, but they have powerful allies in business.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
It’s been over a century since some savvy businessmen took tobacco out of the hands of roll-your-own, everyday joes and started producing cheap cigarettes in bulk. Aside from making the product affordable to almost anyone, their most profitable innovation lay in using milder and better-cured tobacco with smoke that was more palatable and easier to inhale deeply.… Read the rest
My son was at a rehab in December after being admitted three times to a mental hospital for weed induced psychosis. Each time he was diagnosed as Bipolar and put on antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. Nobody on either side of my son’s family is bipolar.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
In my writing, I often focus on the mental effects of marijuana use, since it caused psychosis in my son, Johnny, and ultimately destroyed his life. A recent 2020 study in the journal Addictive Behaviors indicates that people who use cannabis have a 1 in 5 risk of developing a CUD.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
Like all Substance Use Disorders, Cannabis Use Disorder comes with a suite of telltale withdrawal symptoms. Indeed, Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome (CWS) is a clinical indicator of CUD, and it’s one of the factors that’s convinced most health care professionals marijuana is, in fact, addictive.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
In recent years, we’ve seen gradual increases in marijuana use among the younger segments of the population, including adolescents and tweens. This may be linked to the increased legalization and decriminalization of marijuana across the United States, and the associated perception that it’s not an especially dangerous drug.… Read the rest
My son Daniel was a wonderful boy. Growing up, he was everything you can ask for in a child. Sadly, after my divorce it affected him, he started using marijuana sometime in 2018. We didn’t find out about the THC oils until he had a breakdown.… Read the rest
Today’s potent marijuana is a nasty drug. Due to selective breeding and post-harvest processing, the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), can comprise upwards of 40% of herb marijuana and more than 90% of shatter, wax, and other Butane Hash Oil (BHO) products.… Read the rest
One result of the abuse of an addictive substance can be a Substance Use Disorder, or SUD. SUDs are primarily psychological ailments, though they may have physical effects if the user’s brain has suffered damage from the substance abused. A SUD can prove harder to recover from than a physical injury, and though they usually can’t be seen, the scars they leave are real and often permanent.… Read the rest