Saving Our Youth from the Harms of Marijuana
Guest post by Erik Messamore, MD, Johnny’s Ambassadors Scientific Advisory Board member
This article was originally published on Dr. Messamore’s blog.
PSYCHOSIS IS ONE OF THE OLDEST AND BEST-DOCUMENTED RISKS OF CANNABIS USE.
Associations between cannabis use and psychosis appeared in the medical literature soon after cannabis was introduced into Western medical practice in the 1850s.… Read the rest
Excerpt from The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story (Freiling Press, July 10, 2021)
My cell phone rang at 3:00 a.m. It was Johnny. I got up to leave the bedroom so I wouldn’t wake John.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
Around 2010, marijuana hash oil products appeared, and dispensaries began to carry early versions of budders, saps, and waxes. They weren’t common when voters voted to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado in 2012. But by 2015, these new-fangled high-potency waxes and extracts started appearing in high schools.… Read the rest
Guest post by Heidi Anderson-Swan
Two states, Colorado and Washington, have pending bills to cap the THC concentrates at 15% and 30%, respectively. I applaud these efforts because their success will lower the rates of psychosis. However, it’s important to understand marijuana use is still an environmental risk factor for schizophrenia, even when the THC potencies are between merely 2-8%. … Read the rest
By Laura Stack
Despite evidence to the contrary, many marijuana users choose to believe their favorite drug works as a viable medicine for all kinds of ailments, physical and mental. Pro-marijuana web sites love to promote marijuana as an “alternative medicine,” good for whatever ails you, just as their Big Tobacco and snake oil predecessors did with their products.… 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
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
By Laura Stack
My last article on Cannabis Use Disorder garnered a lot of shares on social media, so I wanted to continue that thread and discuss what experts say about your child recovering and healing from a Cannabis Use Disorder.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
Let’s be blunt, shall we? In the short term, marijuana doesn’t have the overdose potential of heroin and cocaine. Clearly, hard narcotics are very dangerous to your health, with readily visible outcomes. Marijuana seems tame by comparison—in the short term, anyway.… Read the rest
By Jill Perry
In April of 2019, I had the opportunity to travel to Denver with my husband on a business trip. We stayed in a hotel in Lone Tree, CO, and during the week I tried to busy myself while my husband worked.… Read the rest