Globalists bankrolled a 10-fold potency increase aimed at your children. And after I read all this, I regretfully gave up my occasional quarter gummy at bedtime.
I greatly appreciate the praise that I've gotten for this episode and the time my readers have taken to comment, even the negative ones. I wasn't sure it would resonate, but as you see, the vast majority of comments are positive.
After working on this thing and reading about all these problems over and over, I have resolved not to let any of this stuff into my body ever again. It's just too dangerous; it's filled with pesticides and sometimes adulterants, the quality is uneven, and it's just too damn strong. We have thousands of therapeutic herbs and medications, and I just can't see spending any time with one that has all these side effects.
My alcohol post is already written and I will drop it within a couple of weeks.
Hope you did your own research and thinking this time.
Alcohol is easy. It is truly addictive, not habit forming like weed
It kills people, causes cancer, weed doesn't - 6 million a year dead from alcohol.
It kills brains cells, weed create brain cells
Men attack their wives when drinking.
Men attack the fridge when smoking weed.
Weed helps you sleep and it indicated as treatment for over 20 different physiological conditions.
Alcohol ? Every blackout is a measurable neurotoxic event. Hippocampal encoding shuts down. That is why blackout memories do not form — not because you forgot them, but because the hippocampus was too chemically suppressed to encode them in the first place. The cells were not doing their job because the toxin load was too high.
Chronic alcohol use produces documented hippocampal volume reduction, white matter degradation, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome from thiamine depletion, and cerebellar atrophy. All structural. All measurable on imaging. All progressive with continued use.
Where is your head at, trying to equate weed with that?
Right. So much conversation here on why it's better than alcohol. The two drugs could hardly be more different. Yes, alcohol can have incredibly bad effects, not limited to blackouts, violence, dangerous driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, a destroyed life/family and cirrhosis of the liver.
Cannabis is more subtle, at least in the beginning. But many people of my generation started smoking it in the sixties and never stopped. It is a daily habit for lots of folks; some use it several times a day. I have seen lives detrimentally altered by its chronic addictive use. Amotivational syndrome (lack of motivation) is a real and serious effect. It is difficult for some so-affected to pursue a career or even hold a job. Plus there are adverse health effects, some of which are not well known.
total bullshit. typical of the < average I.Q.. person, they think whatever prejudiced opinion they have in their brain, must be true. I smoke it every day. 40 plus years. I have an IQ in the top 3% of the population, with a POI, or pattern recognition in the top 1%. Tested by pros. I am 63 years old, can do 160 pushups in 5 minutes, hang from a bar for 2 minutes 30 seconds. I am a licensed legal professional., have a trade license, and write meta research in my spare time.
Nope, your ignorance is not fact. It is total bullshit. Claude rips you a new one, based on the evidence of fact I found to debunk Yoho’s bullshit..
"The two drugs could hardly be more different."
Correct. They couldn't. One is a confirmed neurotoxin that suppresses hippocampal function at recreational doses, causes structural brain damage with chronic use, and kills approximately 95,000 people per year in the US alone. Marijuana activates the CB1→ERK→BDNF→neurogenesis chain. (That means brain cell creation, proven in science) Yantra accidentally made our argument.
"Alcohol can have incredibly bad effects — blackouts, violence, dangerous driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, destroyed life/family, cirrhosis."
Also correct. Every item on that list is a documented neurotoxic or systemic toxic outcome. Fetal alcohol syndrome is permanent, irreversible, structural brain damage in a developing human. It is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability in the Western world. Yoho never mentions it. Yantra mentions it and then pivots to cannabis anyway.
"Cannabis is more subtle, at least in the beginning."
This is the tell. "At least in the beginning" implies escalating harm over time. No mechanistic basis is offered. No citation. It is an impression dressed as an observation.
"Many people of my generation started smoking it in the sixties and never stopped."
Anecdote. Not evidence. Survivorship bias cuts both ways — those same people also lived through leaded gasoline, widespread pesticide use, unregulated food additives, and the beginning of municipal fluoridation. Attributing their outcomes to cannabis requires controlling for everything else. Yantra does not. Nor does Yoho.
"Amotivational syndrome is a real and serious effect."
Amotivational syndrome as a discrete cannabis-caused clinical entity has been contested in the literature for decades. The primary studies supporting it fail to control for pre-existing depression, socioeconomic stress, and — critically — the same neurotoxic confounder stack we have documented throughout this rebuttal.
What is documented: chronic heavy cannabis use in individuals with pre-existing low dopaminergic tone may reduce motivation. What is not documented: that cannabis causes amotivational syndrome as a universal or even common outcome in adult users. The Canadian Government Commission (1972) documented the opposite phenomenology — enhanced energy, creativity, and interpersonal engagement — in typical adult users.
Furthermore: alcohol-induced anhedonia and motivational collapse following chronic use is extensively documented, neurobiologically explained by dopaminergic downregulation, and orders of magnitude more prevalent in the clinical population. Yantra does not mention it.
"I have seen lives detrimentally altered by its chronic addictive use."
Clinical observation without confounders is anecdote. People whose lives are detrimentally altered by heavy daily cannabis use typically present with pre-existing anxiety, trauma histories, socioeconomic instability, and concurrent alcohol or other substance use. Isolating cannabis as the causal variable from a clinical observation is not methodology. It is pattern-matching under confirmation bias.
"There are adverse health effects, some of which are not well known."
This is a content-free statement. Every substance has adverse health effects. Water has adverse health effects at sufficient dose. The relevant questions are: what are the effects, at what dose, in what population, compared to what baseline, controlling for what confounders. Yantra answers none of these.
META-LEVEL:
Yantra correctly identifies that alcohol and cannabis are very different drugs, lists alcohol's documented harms accurately, and then pivots to cannabis concern without applying the same evidentiary standard to either substance. The comment is a demonstration of the asymmetric scrutiny the rebuttal documents throughout. Cannabis gets clinical suspicion. Alcohol gets a list of harms and a shrug.
That is not analysis. That is cultural bias with a medical vocabulary attached.”
true Erin. i am not saying pot has no upsides. in fact i copied some of the cannabis cancer-cure info to save. my point was to counter the drumbeat of "booze is so much worse than pot" here, when in fact the two substances have almost nothing in common other than their ability to alter the mind (which they also do in wildly divergent ways). and you're right. anything can be abused, or used responsibly.
Thank you for explaining that. The reason we talk about alcohol is that it's a useful comparison for people who don't understand toxicity of various substances. I figure that since we humans have learned to navigate a substance like alcohol, we can surely learn it with cannabis.
Sure I use it to make my tinctures and clean my wounds. Doesn’t change the fact it is a brain damaging killer when used for an addiction.. Look everyone gets their choice. Want to help yourself into dementia? Drink a case of beer a day. Your call. I don’t care. But I do not stand for anyone feeding bullshit in order to front their own prejudice.
Alcohol cleans the veins of plaque... and the French are said to overcome the effects of their rich sauces by a glass or two of wine every day. A little alcohol before bed boosts GABA and helps sleep. And alcohol can be a nice mood boost and social lubricant. I avoid black and white thinking wherever I can.
Wrong again. You boozers sure like to frost over the harm huh :P I think your phrase should have been " I avoid thinking about uncomfortable truths".
""Alcohol cleans the veins of plaque"
This is the resveratrol argument in disguise. The claim originates from observational studies showing lower cardiovascular mortality in moderate drinkers. The mechanism proposed was HDL elevation and mild anticoagulation.
What the literature actually shows: the resveratrol content in a glass of wine is pharmacologically trivial. You would need hundreds of glasses to approach therapeutic resveratrol doses. The cardiovascular "benefit" in observational studies is now largely attributed to the sick quitter effect — heavy drinkers and sick people stop drinking, making abstainers look unhealthy by comparison. Mendelian randomization studies, which control for this, show no cardiovascular benefit from alcohol at any dose.
The American Heart Association, the WHO, and the NTP all currently state there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for cancer risk. The "cleans veins" claim is a 1990s finding that did not survive methodological scrutiny.
==============
"The French paradox"
The French paradox — high saturated fat diet, low cardiovascular disease — has been attributed to wine consumption since Serge Renaud's 1991 work. It has since been explained by: underreporting of French cardiovascular deaths, Mediterranean dietary patterns, lower ultra-processed food consumption, and smaller portion sizes. Wine is not the variable. It was never isolated as the variable. The French paradox as an argument for alcohol benefit has been largely abandoned in the cardiology literature.
=======================
"A little alcohol before bed boosts GABA and helps sleep"
Mechanistically half-true and functionally false.
Alcohol does potentiate GABA-A receptors — that is why it produces sedation. It does help people fall asleep faster. That is where the benefit ends.
Alcohol suppresses REM sleep. REM is when memory consolidation, emotional processing, and neural repair occur. Alcohol-induced sleep is neurologically non-restorative. Users fall asleep faster and wake feeling unrefreshed because the sleep architecture is disrupted throughout the night as blood alcohol drops and the rebound effect kicks in. The rebound — glutamate surge as GABA suppression lifts — causes fragmented sleep in the second half of the night.
Chronic use as a sleep aid produces tolerance, dependence, and progressive sleep architecture degradation. This is not sleep medicine. It is CNS depression being mistaken for rest. (It also damages your brain.)
====================
"Alcohol can be a nice mood boost and social lubricant"
Accurate description of acute effect. Not a health claim. Cocaine is also a mood boost and social lubricant. The acute phenomenological experience of a substance is not evidence of its safety profile.
( I dont need a social lubricant: while I don't recommend brain damage, or cancer or liver issues in order to feel comfortable around people.. )
The mood boost is dopaminergic and GABAergic disinhibition. It is real. It is also followed by a corresponding rebound — the well-documented "hangxiety" effect — as neurochemistry corrects. Chronic use downregulates the dopamine system, producing anhedonia and baseline anxiety that require increasing doses to temporarily resolve. That is the addiction mechanism.
(And it doesn't erase the cancer, the dementia, the dead brain cells...)
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"I avoid black and white thinking wherever I can"
This is deployed as a sophistication signal — implying that anyone who questions alcohol's benefits is being reductive. It is a rhetorical move, not an argument. The claim that alcohol has some benefits does not neutralize the mechanistic evidence of its toxicity. Nuance requires acknowledging both. Erin acknowledges the benefits and waves at the harms without engaging them.
===================
ABOUT NOD'S COMMENT:
""Solid.
"Want to help yourself into dementia? "
Drinking alcohol MODERATELY is associated with measurable hippocampal volume reduction. Topiwala et al. (2017, BMJ) showed no safe threshold for hippocampal atrophy. Even moderate drinkers showed greater hippocampal shrinkage than abstainers. Accurate neurotoxicity framing.
"I do not stand for anyone feeding bullshit in order to front their own prejudice"
— that is the methodological position of the entire rebuttal stated in one sentence.""
===================
META-LEVEL:
Erin is doing what the rebuttal documents throughout: applying generous interpretive charity to alcohol's evidence base .
The resveratrol claim is weak. The cannabis neurogenesis claim is not.
The sleep claim is demonstrably false at the mechanistic level.
The social lubricant claim is an acute effect observation, not a health argument.
Cannabis activates CB1→ERK→BDNF→neurogenesis. Alcohol suppresses hippocampal encoding, disrupts REM architecture, and at chronic doses produces structural brain damage."
Dr. Yoho: it's kind of funny that every time someone replies to my comment(s) on this post, whether they are pro or con, angry or equanimous, their reply comes into my inbox proclaiming "New comment on 419. Marijuana stays in your body for weeks, kills IQ points, causes addiction, psychosis, and permanent brain damage—and it was engineered that way." pretty ironic, especially when the person writing is vociferously making the opposite point. Yet in posting their views, they are promulgating the very message they wish to decry.
It’s true. I see the vape oils with 80-90% THC and am disgusted that the U.S. has allowed this to happen. I took one hit off a vape pen and hallucinated and had a migraine the rest of the night. I have tried the dispensary weed and if I’m sober for months and take few hits, I start throwing up within the hour. Something is wrong with that stuff, and I don’t trust the people selling it to tell me if it’s laced with pesticides and fungicides.
Also, nearly three years ago, our daughter arrived to visit us in full psychosis after using a high concentrate THC pen. She spent a week in a psychiatric hospital followed by months of therapy. She’s still not the same. She is still drawn to it.
I’m not a prude, but I am very careful about what goes into my body. I’m not going to trust the same people who pushed opioids on us to tell me it’s safe.
yeah, and who knows if those vape oils are polluted with something worse than just pesticides and fungicides - like maybe even with fentanyl (or other devious drugs), as Dr Y mentioned.
When the vape oils first came on the market, we know a woman in her 40s who lost her legs below the knees because of the Vitamin E Acetate they were then using as a preservative in the oils. If they were not smart enough to know what damage that would do to users when inhaled, why would they be any smarter about other chemicals they are using today?
Oklahoma, ironically, was infiltrated by Chinese cartels and the state has a hazardous waste mess to clean up when they left town, all while operating under the nose of local law enforcement.
wow, so sorry to hear about all this mayhem with yourself, your daughter and the other woman. i guess maybe it comes down to "when in doubt, don't". but i get it that everyone is so stressed and dysregulated these days that naturally we are all looking for something to help us cope. i think a big factor is the totally unregulated (and govt, media and big-telecom-driven) wireless radiation everywhere, including very close-range devices like cellphones & wifi.
My daughter also went into schizophrenia after taking up the habit and full blown panic attacks and still has mental disturbances 30 years later. Is it worth the risk of life long ruin? no
Good essay, and yes the current scene is a nationwide disaster. The addictiveness of the modern stuff is clear. The old 4 - 8% stuff was an entirely different beast - "Poems, Prayers and Promises" by John Denver covers it pretty well. There was more CBD in those also, with the synergy enabling a lot of precious bonding and easy laughter, rarely seen today.
The saddest part I think is the loss of its tremendous medical potential including massive benefits to conditions ranging from cancer to PTSD to Parkinson's. In right dosage, the increase in interoception and insight alone is powerful. Unfortunately, that dose has morphed from a couple (shared) tokes to the impossible 1/4 toke - and as you point out, that is only if one is lucky enough to find a strain not infinitely hybridized and chemicalized into poison.
I would add that we are also in extreme societal times where sacred plant medicines, used wisely, can still open up one's awareness to more agentic, holistic, transformational, and Earth-honoring possibilities than the online A I control grid being implemented by rich warmongering covid-foisting pedophiles at the wheel. Am I being paranoid? Naive? I still do think that even a few "stolen" moments of freedom remain priceless.
Having said this, everything you have written is true. And this makes it all a very ugly, complex situation demanding great care.
Where I end up is looking to other transformational technologies as more primary sources of self-unfoldment: ceremony, spirituality, shadow work circles, yoga, breathwork, meditation, nature immersions, hard work, fitness, empathic relationships, etc. The underlying need for self-actualization, for journeying, for transcendence (for literally being able to imagine a future at all!) should not be overlooked in the conversation. Finding strategies to meet this primal human need more directly with less cost - especially for youth whose souls are being neglected in so many ways - offers a healing path forward.
Here in north Florida we were right in the middle of all the wild west sort of doings that were the marijuana trade in the 1960s, 70s and up to today.
There was great camaraderie among smugglers, growers and users, which I would now list as another part of the addictive nature, social validation.
"Best friends" from the past would no longer speak to me once I quit growing weed, getting high, and smuggling in the early1980s.
This was also about the time the cocaine guys showed up in force and these were not laid back hippie types like everyone in the weed scene. They were cold blooded killers intent on capturing the market over a pile of dead bodies.
The reasons I quit getting high were that I was building my first scrap metal business and it was glaringly obvious I was screwing up by having my decision making severely impaired by smoking weed.
The second motivator was the draconian confiscation laws put in place about the same time. Get caught with weed and they could automatically take everything you owned.
I didn't want to lose my property and business assets.
Not to mention doing time.
I had quit growing just in time.
Within the next year the black helicopters with infrared scanners showed up and a whole lot of growers were busted.
Learning now that so much of the counterculture was fabricated by the feds to stop the anti war movement makes me thankful I quit when I did without having life long consequences.
I would never go back to doing drugs if only for the reason mentioned here that they were a tool to fill the prisons with the people the system didn't like.
All of these hyped scare stories. Not so scary for those of us around in the 70's. Reefer Madness is still showing. People demand anu laws be set for those scary exceptions and it it were the rule.
How many quibblers lined up for their warp speed clot shots? Essentially ALL of the Physicians and researchers and experts and their "studies" CLAMOURED over their "professional" resources said "safe and effective".
Here's one: This just in from more "experts": MJ is Baaaaad...VERY bad, you didn't know this because you are not wearing a while lab coat with a god complex...
The biotech company cannabis science has been using cannabis to cure cancer for years now. It also promotes neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells. After smoking it for 20 years, mensa told me my IQ was in the 96th percentile. It also promotes apoptosis which is how it cures cancer. Indoor growing doesn't increase the level of thc at all, selective breeding does.
We have thc receptors so our metabolism does use it for certain purposes. If your body doesn't need it anymore you stop reaching for it. It's not physically addictive and it was even announced on the radio in 1975 in the usa that it cures cancer. Growing your own is the safest way. You have certainly not researched this very well and seem to be quoting only govt sources. It's like you've been programmed to avoid lots of research on cannabis. I'd suggest you go to the cannabis science website and look at their success in curing the worst kinds of cancer. Rick Simpson in cannabis who was an ex chemist and then a farmer, cured his whole town in Canada with it. There's a documentary on it which documents the research you've failed to find. It's also been known since the 70s that it's good for epileptics. I used to have epilepsy. Sorry Robert, but this article is a load of bollocks because it is missing so many sources like you've been pushed to miss the research on benefits. Looks like you've been captured by the government to promote that it causes harm to stop people finding out the huge health benefits.Cannabis is also not physically addictive compound. Cannabis indica makes you sleepy, while sativa makes you talkative and energetic as you say.
Wherever you got your information, you've been fooled into missing the huge body of research that proves its benefits.
It's best to grow yourself so you don't have to use pesticides and can grow it organically without water contaminated with aluminium. You certainly haven't researched this well at all. Cannabis has also been shown to. The Dsm5 says a lot of things which are false. Cannabis users get use disorder because of the type of people they are, not because of cannabis use. Cannabis is proven to cause a lot of healing, especially cancer. In 1975 it was announced it cures cancer by govt scientists. Rick Simpson cured his whole town of cannabis. It's great for nausea too. Grow. Your own and your safe.
Promoting neurogenesis and apoptosis is a good thing. I had to smoke it every day for years due to chronic health issues which have now resolved and I no longer reach for it during the day. It is far safer and causes less social problems than alcohol as it doesn't cause violence like alcohol does.
There is no evidence it's physically addictive. It looks like you've been had.
Robert can write anything he wants. He is also entitled to change his mind about things in the future, but that gives you no reason to treat him with such disrespect.
Where did Erin ever say he could not? Nowhere. For some reason, people seem to love to inject something never said to change the subject to have a conversation with themselves.
Erin also attacked Robert(not the argument) by suggesting he has priors he isn't mentioning. Do you see now how you've made a fool of yourself because you failed to fact check and read all Erin's comments. Opening yourself up to ridicule with your lack of understanding is not a good look
It seems you're a bit confused about what ad hominem means. Perhaps you should actually find out the definition of ad hominem as Erin got it back to front, and you fell for it hook line and sinker, without checking.
Ad hominem, short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than the substance of the argument itself.
So ad hominem doesn't mean you are attacking the argument, it means you are attacking the person.
Looks like you need to do something about increasing your IQ so you aren't so gullible
I don't care who you wrote the comment to. There is something very wrong with your thought processes. I am a good friend of Roberts and the disease his wife suffered from would very likely not have been reversed without my knowledge and coaching
I’d actually like to hear a well reasoned debate- I think we all can agree that substances in developing brains is harmful but my friend group is full of intelligent , motivated, high achieving people that regularly (almost daily) consume THC as adults in some way - and they don’t drink alcohol — and they are all very fit as well, it’s hard to believe that this is a cut and dry “pot makes you lazy and stupid”. I’d love a good debate with sourced studies !
You are guessing? That's pretty foolish and defamatory. There is certainly no hope for you. I've already provided the link you've requested. Perhaps you should just read it
My ex-husband is 73 and has been smoking pot since he was 14 yrs old. He worked very hard and never showed any side effects of his pot smoking but on the other hand, it was not easy, nor fun, to live with this. I think some people are wired differently and pot does not affect them in the same way as most others. He always remained focused and full of energy and ambition, etc. I smoked at that time, long ago now, and wanted to stop as it did affect me and I could not function well on it. I quit and never smoked it again. I am against it, as it is something all people use to alter their reality. That alone signifies immaturity and lack of ability to make good decisions for your life. I see these old users as very immature in many ways. They do not grow and mature like people should. That alone is why I hate the USE of marijuana on the scale it is used today. I see nothing good about any of it. The only use I see is when someone uses it to control nausea when they are very ill and from side effects of life saving drugs.
Usually the only people who advocate or like pot are the ones using it. They LOVE it. They never see the pitfalls and don't care about growth and maturity being halted. Thus, addiction is real.
I'm sure it's like other things, if you're using it every single day, it's best to take a look at yourself. If you use it irregularly it's an entirely different matter. I have orthopedic pain, and when I REALLY need a good night's sleep, I'll have some and sleep like a baby.
YES, A NEED FOR USING IT THERAPUETICALLY IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. It is not then abuse of a substance. My neighbor's son has cystic fibrosis and is on life saving drugs but they make him not able to eat as much as he should so he smokes a little pot which gives him an appetite. But most pot users are just getting high, as we all know.
I am against drug use if not necessary for health or pain issues. Just sharing my experience and what I have found to be true regarding pot smoking. The world is in a bad place and using drugs will never help.
I won’t disagree with the points you have raised in this essay but you have failed to mention many aspects which have value: cannabis is very helpful to those with spasticity and muscle tension, nothing works better with fewer side effects. You mention the effect of additives such as fertilisers and sprayed on fentanyl etc and yet these are not quantified and are very relevant to the scientific analysis. You conflate the problems of smoking (burning) along with vaping and yet these two consumption methods are very different. Many of the people who have problems perceived to be caused by cannabis use already had mental illness problems and were looking to self medicate. In short, this is an interesting essay but woefully biased especially referencing the American market.
I suggest you go find a podcast or Youtube about how China has taken over the Marijuana growing trade in Maine and what the Chinese liberally spray all over the plants, fully unmonitored and unregulated. Things have changed. Its Russian roulette, and the wrong cocktail has life-altering consequences. God requires us to value the gift of life in every way. We dont poison our lungs with burning plants or take unnecessary risks.
I appreciate that cannabis is being grown and sold in an unhealthy way but that doesn’t mean the plant itself should be demonised. It’s very easy to grow in the garden and so you know the provenance. The audience for Robert’s Substack is multi national so confining it to a discussion of what happens in the American market and then extrapolate that to cannabis generally is as I said, biased.
I have seen many ads for seeds from Canada. But it takes skill to grow from seed. When you say sale of seeds is carefully controlled, what do you mean?
In Colorado, small plants that are cloned female, are available for purchase in some dispensaries. And for those who are concerned about how cannabis is grown, there are many dispensaries that sell what they grow, and will show you. Cannabis is an amazingly sturdy, hardy plant, insects and diseases rarely bother it outdoors, all it needs is water.
I haven’t smoked weed since I was a teen in the 70’s-80’s. Back then you could buy a lid for $10 and it had tons of seeds. I am a gardener I think it would be fun to grow. I grew it high school and it was easy. My husband has smoked weed for decades. He hasn’t found seeds in his weed since it became legal. So that is what I mean about it being controlled.
STH, cannabis is called weed because it grows so easily! You just need to make sure it’s organically grown so you don’t have chemicals in the bud. Growing from seed is simple and nearly always works and the reason you don’t find seeds anymore is because the seeds you buy now are feminised so they don’t produce seeds unless you have a male plant - that’s where the control comes in because you definitely don’t want a male plant as it doesn’t produce the bud which is the strongest part of the plant. If you’ve grown tomatoes from seed then you can grow cannabis.
While there may be some merit in some of the author's comments, I have to strongly disagree with the premise that marijuana is bad. I have interviewed nearly 500 people on my Cannabis Health Radio podcast and many of those people were given only months to live primarily with a serious cancer diagnosis. In nearly 30 interviews with people who had brain tumors they all used cannabis and all but two of them are alive today. They didn't smoke cannabis or vape or consumed edibles. they used cannabis oil either orally or by suppository to avoid the psychoactive effect. To date, there have been 57,000 studies of cannabis. It's easy to cherry pick a study to support one's argument but to condemn a plant that has been used for thousands of years for health benefits is, to me, disingenuous.
I appreciate this article and the research behind it. Thanks doc. However, one also needs to look at the benefits of the plant itself, outside of the industry skulduggery.
I am in Canada, where cannabis is legal, right or wrong, there it is. The perps credited with making cannabis criminal - Carnigie, Anslinger, Rockefeller and the like were hell bent on besmirching its name in order to ring in the age of pharma. Apparently, these perps took one of God’s herbs that was used medicinally (as you mentioned), ruined its name, gave it a new name, “marijuana” (racist against Mexicans) and cleared out the competition for their new pharma products. The war against hippies was also in full swing.
One or more of them had a hand in that ridiculous fear porn movie, later called “Reefer Madness”, in order to dupe the public into thinking cannabis would cause you to murder your neighbour. And we all know how influential TVs can be. As you say, always about the money.
While cannabis may have some issues with the newer high THC strains and the developing brains of the young, its biggest side effect, in my experience, is a wild case of the giggles and wondering where the chips are. Of course, responsible folks would only partake after a long day when the potential of couch-lock would not be an issue. Nothing wrong with sleeping on a cloud either. Much better than popping sleeping pills. And as for being lazy, absolutely not if used properly, i.e., not for breakfast.
Who did those studies saying cannabis was harmful? The NIH was mentioned. Maybe it was Fauci? 🧐 Are we trusting anything that came out of there? Ditto for all the other mainstream agencies. What were their interests? Who paid for the studies? If they are saying this is bad, then I’m filling up my vape with fresh herb and pressing on. (Not those nasty e-vapes, a real vape, easy on the lungs.) I’ve also read that real tobacco, not with the additives in cigarettes, is also a miracle plant. I can see the same pattern here.
And what about those with cancer, when an appetite would be a miracle? What about the work of Rick Simpson (RSO) at curing cancer? He claimed the medicine was in the THC. Of course, used as a suppository, the TCH provided no high, which worked well for many. He also witnessed some with schizophrenia become well, while taking the herb. Did anyone study that, I wonder? If it was not that great, why did they run him out of Canada when he offered his cure, perhaps naively, to the cancer board?
So much skullduggery behind a medicinal herb, all at the hands of a perverted generation. I’m not buying it. There are those who grow cannabis organically in their yards, completely legal in Canada and elsewhere, to take the edge off of their anxiety in the evening. I also find CBD to be a miracle indeed. Fresh herb, juiced, has been known to be excellent for Crohn’s and colitis.
It may have some problems, if any of these studies are real and true, but its benefits cannot be denied. I once read that one would have to consume 1500 lbs of cannabis at once in order for it to kill them. Compare that to iatrogenic deaths and it’s looking quite good. A good giggle or two is well-needed these days anyway. 😉
That's a great comment and I appreciate it, but we have many medicinal options. And my opinion remains after doing all this work that the hazards and problems of cannabis outweigh the benefits. But again, thank you for the effort you put into your response, and it's another point of view.
The only way to kill someone with pot is to drop a bale of it from the roof on their head. Alcohol? Drink a smallish bottle of strong liquor all at once, and chances are huge you'll drop dead on the spot.
I think she is referring to RSO, aka Rick Simpson Oil, taken by the back door method. He has 2 books (poorly written, but he was not an author, so good on him for making this info public). There was also a documentary, pre-Covid times, following a woman with brain cancer. She was taking RSO but at the last minute caved to traditional treatment which in the end killed her (surprise). Apparently, when they checked for the cancer, not sure at what stage, it was already gone. Sorry, I can’t remember much more but this might still be found online. They sell RSO by syringe for the protocol in Canada (online) for about $1200 CAD.
Dr. Ethan Russo is also a prestigious scientist involved with Cannabis. I found the book: The Survivor's Guide to Medical Cannabis by Regina Nelson, PhD
I discovered by accident that THC is a bronchodilator. Some athletes use it pre workout to boost their endurance. It probably saved a vacation we took to hike in CO as a family member couldn't comfortably breathe due to the altitude and nearly had panic attacks. Next day we took 1/2 2.5 edibles and were hiking like the locals with minimal (or no high). The only situation I would advocate using it... for me. I don't like the feeling and the new strains are so unpredictable I refuse to drop $60-100 for an experiment that's likely going to fail. Marijuana anonymous is a fairly new thing and growing! Pharma ultimately gets another pay out as they probably get those addicted on some form of antipsychotic to "treat" their dependency.
On your last point, thats exactly how the rehab centers work, and it becomes a wicked cycle for addicts in and out of rehab clinics until all their resources, or more often, their family's are drained.
Thank you, Dr. Yoho, for this deep dive into the history behind cannabis!
When I first opened it, I thought I would just skim over a little bit and move on to the next email. As I started, it became so intriguing and interesting that I couldn’t move on!
I’m over 54 years in recovery and hadn’t realized how dangerous the simple pot that I smoked in my teens had become. Now I know how and why it is damaging our youth.
I will be passing this along to my children, who don’t use drugs, for the benefit of my grandchildren. I hope and pray that anyone else who reads this does the same!
THANKS Rob foe this reminder! It is incredible that such an OLD plant which gave humanity food, clothing, fuel and so much more, is being used to, according to this title, turn people well, into idiots.. I'm not familiar with the details of temperature influence on the THC level, but that alone is totally scary:
This is a shocking hatchet job, Robert, damaging trust in other things you evaluate. You dwell on the negatives; there is no section of your article that lists the positives which have been heavily documented, from being an effective anti-emetic for cancer patients for whom the usual ondansetron pills et al quit working, to neuropathic pain, to anti-epilepsy, all the way to sleep aids. A whole book could be written about the good effects.
You rehash the argument from the 80s drug warriors -- omg, the stuff is stronger! Well, if it's stronger, you need less of it. Which is good news for the users, esp. if they smoke it. Always has been. It needs care in its use -- of course it does. But it will never poison you or kill you like alcohol, which needs a lot more care in its use.
That said, I am against any use by kids. Alcohol, tobacco, pot, or pharma pills.
Edit: All the more shocking since there seems to be visual documentation that pot helps substantially in Parkinson's tremors. Interested? Look it up on YT.
Thanks for your comment, Erin. I don't find it convincing, but I appreciate the effort you've taken, and of course, I've seen those Parkinson's improvements on YouTube, and I have tried smoking pot, and it doesn't work for me. Best and wait for what I do to alcohol in a few weeks.
Your argumentation sucks, Robert. That is my overall point. Pot is stronger? People use less. Stays in the body for a bit? So does ginseng, valerian, echinacea and St John's Wort. So what? Dispensaries next to schools? Not in Colorado. Triggers psychosis? So does alcohol. So do many forms of stress. And so on and so on.
You have nothing. Just a rehash of the old drug warrior nonsense. And apparently no interest to engage on the substance.
Sorry to hear it does not help the tremors in your case.
When we were pitched the legalization of marijuana in CA, I was thinking it would be the stuff from the 80s and 90s. Those that pushed for the legalization must have known it was already lethal. As Dr. Yoho writes, follow the money. I know kids whose futures were derailed by doing weed in high school. Schizophrenic episodes are real. A young guy who should be at Yale is going to community college because of his mental instability. Luckily, my kid, like me, didn't like weed because it caused anxiety. At our local dog park, young guys think nothing of vaping/smoking in the morning. Can you imagine if someone were popping open a beer that early?
What about CBD oil ... the full or broad spectrum ones. I see several cancer protocols (including Joe Tippens original protocol) that use CBD oil, so just curious. Thanks.
I greatly appreciate the praise that I've gotten for this episode and the time my readers have taken to comment, even the negative ones. I wasn't sure it would resonate, but as you see, the vast majority of comments are positive.
After working on this thing and reading about all these problems over and over, I have resolved not to let any of this stuff into my body ever again. It's just too dangerous; it's filled with pesticides and sometimes adulterants, the quality is uneven, and it's just too damn strong. We have thousands of therapeutic herbs and medications, and I just can't see spending any time with one that has all these side effects.
My alcohol post is already written and I will drop it within a couple of weeks.
well done Dr. Yoho. and afaic, a real public service.
Thank you, Y!
Hope you did your own research and thinking this time.
Alcohol is easy. It is truly addictive, not habit forming like weed
It kills people, causes cancer, weed doesn't - 6 million a year dead from alcohol.
It kills brains cells, weed create brain cells
Men attack their wives when drinking.
Men attack the fridge when smoking weed.
Weed helps you sleep and it indicated as treatment for over 20 different physiological conditions.
Alcohol ? Every blackout is a measurable neurotoxic event. Hippocampal encoding shuts down. That is why blackout memories do not form — not because you forgot them, but because the hippocampus was too chemically suppressed to encode them in the first place. The cells were not doing their job because the toxin load was too high.
Chronic alcohol use produces documented hippocampal volume reduction, white matter degradation, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome from thiamine depletion, and cerebellar atrophy. All structural. All measurable on imaging. All progressive with continued use.
Where is your head at, trying to equate weed with that?
Seriously irrational prejudice
Can’t it just be weed is not good for you, neither is alcohol.
Right. So much conversation here on why it's better than alcohol. The two drugs could hardly be more different. Yes, alcohol can have incredibly bad effects, not limited to blackouts, violence, dangerous driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, a destroyed life/family and cirrhosis of the liver.
Cannabis is more subtle, at least in the beginning. But many people of my generation started smoking it in the sixties and never stopped. It is a daily habit for lots of folks; some use it several times a day. I have seen lives detrimentally altered by its chronic addictive use. Amotivational syndrome (lack of motivation) is a real and serious effect. It is difficult for some so-affected to pursue a career or even hold a job. Plus there are adverse health effects, some of which are not well known.
total bullshit. typical of the < average I.Q.. person, they think whatever prejudiced opinion they have in their brain, must be true. I smoke it every day. 40 plus years. I have an IQ in the top 3% of the population, with a POI, or pattern recognition in the top 1%. Tested by pros. I am 63 years old, can do 160 pushups in 5 minutes, hang from a bar for 2 minutes 30 seconds. I am a licensed legal professional., have a trade license, and write meta research in my spare time.
Nope, your ignorance is not fact. It is total bullshit. Claude rips you a new one, based on the evidence of fact I found to debunk Yoho’s bullshit..
"The two drugs could hardly be more different."
Correct. They couldn't. One is a confirmed neurotoxin that suppresses hippocampal function at recreational doses, causes structural brain damage with chronic use, and kills approximately 95,000 people per year in the US alone. Marijuana activates the CB1→ERK→BDNF→neurogenesis chain. (That means brain cell creation, proven in science) Yantra accidentally made our argument.
"Alcohol can have incredibly bad effects — blackouts, violence, dangerous driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, destroyed life/family, cirrhosis."
Also correct. Every item on that list is a documented neurotoxic or systemic toxic outcome. Fetal alcohol syndrome is permanent, irreversible, structural brain damage in a developing human. It is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability in the Western world. Yoho never mentions it. Yantra mentions it and then pivots to cannabis anyway.
"Cannabis is more subtle, at least in the beginning."
This is the tell. "At least in the beginning" implies escalating harm over time. No mechanistic basis is offered. No citation. It is an impression dressed as an observation.
"Many people of my generation started smoking it in the sixties and never stopped."
Anecdote. Not evidence. Survivorship bias cuts both ways — those same people also lived through leaded gasoline, widespread pesticide use, unregulated food additives, and the beginning of municipal fluoridation. Attributing their outcomes to cannabis requires controlling for everything else. Yantra does not. Nor does Yoho.
"Amotivational syndrome is a real and serious effect."
Amotivational syndrome as a discrete cannabis-caused clinical entity has been contested in the literature for decades. The primary studies supporting it fail to control for pre-existing depression, socioeconomic stress, and — critically — the same neurotoxic confounder stack we have documented throughout this rebuttal.
What is documented: chronic heavy cannabis use in individuals with pre-existing low dopaminergic tone may reduce motivation. What is not documented: that cannabis causes amotivational syndrome as a universal or even common outcome in adult users. The Canadian Government Commission (1972) documented the opposite phenomenology — enhanced energy, creativity, and interpersonal engagement — in typical adult users.
Furthermore: alcohol-induced anhedonia and motivational collapse following chronic use is extensively documented, neurobiologically explained by dopaminergic downregulation, and orders of magnitude more prevalent in the clinical population. Yantra does not mention it.
"I have seen lives detrimentally altered by its chronic addictive use."
Clinical observation without confounders is anecdote. People whose lives are detrimentally altered by heavy daily cannabis use typically present with pre-existing anxiety, trauma histories, socioeconomic instability, and concurrent alcohol or other substance use. Isolating cannabis as the causal variable from a clinical observation is not methodology. It is pattern-matching under confirmation bias.
"There are adverse health effects, some of which are not well known."
This is a content-free statement. Every substance has adverse health effects. Water has adverse health effects at sufficient dose. The relevant questions are: what are the effects, at what dose, in what population, compared to what baseline, controlling for what confounders. Yantra answers none of these.
META-LEVEL:
Yantra correctly identifies that alcohol and cannabis are very different drugs, lists alcohol's documented harms accurately, and then pivots to cannabis concern without applying the same evidentiary standard to either substance. The comment is a demonstration of the asymmetric scrutiny the rebuttal documents throughout. Cannabis gets clinical suspicion. Alcohol gets a list of harms and a shrug.
That is not analysis. That is cultural bias with a medical vocabulary attached.”
Claude
Anything can harm you. Even water in excess can kill. That some people use pot badly is no argument against an herb that can be so healing.
true Erin. i am not saying pot has no upsides. in fact i copied some of the cannabis cancer-cure info to save. my point was to counter the drumbeat of "booze is so much worse than pot" here, when in fact the two substances have almost nothing in common other than their ability to alter the mind (which they also do in wildly divergent ways). and you're right. anything can be abused, or used responsibly.
Thank you for explaining that. The reason we talk about alcohol is that it's a useful comparison for people who don't understand toxicity of various substances. I figure that since we humans have learned to navigate a substance like alcohol, we can surely learn it with cannabis.
Good to hear back from you!
Alcohol too has its benefits. It just needs to be used with care.
Sure I use it to make my tinctures and clean my wounds. Doesn’t change the fact it is a brain damaging killer when used for an addiction.. Look everyone gets their choice. Want to help yourself into dementia? Drink a case of beer a day. Your call. I don’t care. But I do not stand for anyone feeding bullshit in order to front their own prejudice.
Alcohol cleans the veins of plaque... and the French are said to overcome the effects of their rich sauces by a glass or two of wine every day. A little alcohol before bed boosts GABA and helps sleep. And alcohol can be a nice mood boost and social lubricant. I avoid black and white thinking wherever I can.
Wrong again. You boozers sure like to frost over the harm huh :P I think your phrase should have been " I avoid thinking about uncomfortable truths".
""Alcohol cleans the veins of plaque"
This is the resveratrol argument in disguise. The claim originates from observational studies showing lower cardiovascular mortality in moderate drinkers. The mechanism proposed was HDL elevation and mild anticoagulation.
What the literature actually shows: the resveratrol content in a glass of wine is pharmacologically trivial. You would need hundreds of glasses to approach therapeutic resveratrol doses. The cardiovascular "benefit" in observational studies is now largely attributed to the sick quitter effect — heavy drinkers and sick people stop drinking, making abstainers look unhealthy by comparison. Mendelian randomization studies, which control for this, show no cardiovascular benefit from alcohol at any dose.
The American Heart Association, the WHO, and the NTP all currently state there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for cancer risk. The "cleans veins" claim is a 1990s finding that did not survive methodological scrutiny.
==============
"The French paradox"
The French paradox — high saturated fat diet, low cardiovascular disease — has been attributed to wine consumption since Serge Renaud's 1991 work. It has since been explained by: underreporting of French cardiovascular deaths, Mediterranean dietary patterns, lower ultra-processed food consumption, and smaller portion sizes. Wine is not the variable. It was never isolated as the variable. The French paradox as an argument for alcohol benefit has been largely abandoned in the cardiology literature.
=======================
"A little alcohol before bed boosts GABA and helps sleep"
Mechanistically half-true and functionally false.
Alcohol does potentiate GABA-A receptors — that is why it produces sedation. It does help people fall asleep faster. That is where the benefit ends.
Alcohol suppresses REM sleep. REM is when memory consolidation, emotional processing, and neural repair occur. Alcohol-induced sleep is neurologically non-restorative. Users fall asleep faster and wake feeling unrefreshed because the sleep architecture is disrupted throughout the night as blood alcohol drops and the rebound effect kicks in. The rebound — glutamate surge as GABA suppression lifts — causes fragmented sleep in the second half of the night.
Chronic use as a sleep aid produces tolerance, dependence, and progressive sleep architecture degradation. This is not sleep medicine. It is CNS depression being mistaken for rest. (It also damages your brain.)
====================
"Alcohol can be a nice mood boost and social lubricant"
Accurate description of acute effect. Not a health claim. Cocaine is also a mood boost and social lubricant. The acute phenomenological experience of a substance is not evidence of its safety profile.
( I dont need a social lubricant: while I don't recommend brain damage, or cancer or liver issues in order to feel comfortable around people.. )
The mood boost is dopaminergic and GABAergic disinhibition. It is real. It is also followed by a corresponding rebound — the well-documented "hangxiety" effect — as neurochemistry corrects. Chronic use downregulates the dopamine system, producing anhedonia and baseline anxiety that require increasing doses to temporarily resolve. That is the addiction mechanism.
(And it doesn't erase the cancer, the dementia, the dead brain cells...)
============================
"I avoid black and white thinking wherever I can"
This is deployed as a sophistication signal — implying that anyone who questions alcohol's benefits is being reductive. It is a rhetorical move, not an argument. The claim that alcohol has some benefits does not neutralize the mechanistic evidence of its toxicity. Nuance requires acknowledging both. Erin acknowledges the benefits and waves at the harms without engaging them.
===================
ABOUT NOD'S COMMENT:
""Solid.
"Want to help yourself into dementia? "
Drinking alcohol MODERATELY is associated with measurable hippocampal volume reduction. Topiwala et al. (2017, BMJ) showed no safe threshold for hippocampal atrophy. Even moderate drinkers showed greater hippocampal shrinkage than abstainers. Accurate neurotoxicity framing.
"I do not stand for anyone feeding bullshit in order to front their own prejudice"
— that is the methodological position of the entire rebuttal stated in one sentence.""
===================
META-LEVEL:
Erin is doing what the rebuttal documents throughout: applying generous interpretive charity to alcohol's evidence base .
The resveratrol claim is weak. The cannabis neurogenesis claim is not.
The sleep claim is demonstrably false at the mechanistic level.
The social lubricant claim is an acute effect observation, not a health argument.
Cannabis activates CB1→ERK→BDNF→neurogenesis. Alcohol suppresses hippocampal encoding, disrupts REM architecture, and at chronic doses produces structural brain damage."
Claude
No it cannot be so. Fact says otherwise.
FAKE NEWS!! 50 YEAR'S AND STILL PUFFING!!! FU!!!
It is more potent, so you consume less.
What are your thoughts on cbd oil? I do understand they can be in varied thc %’s…
Dr. Yoho: it's kind of funny that every time someone replies to my comment(s) on this post, whether they are pro or con, angry or equanimous, their reply comes into my inbox proclaiming "New comment on 419. Marijuana stays in your body for weeks, kills IQ points, causes addiction, psychosis, and permanent brain damage—and it was engineered that way." pretty ironic, especially when the person writing is vociferously making the opposite point. Yet in posting their views, they are promulgating the very message they wish to decry.
It’s true. I see the vape oils with 80-90% THC and am disgusted that the U.S. has allowed this to happen. I took one hit off a vape pen and hallucinated and had a migraine the rest of the night. I have tried the dispensary weed and if I’m sober for months and take few hits, I start throwing up within the hour. Something is wrong with that stuff, and I don’t trust the people selling it to tell me if it’s laced with pesticides and fungicides.
Also, nearly three years ago, our daughter arrived to visit us in full psychosis after using a high concentrate THC pen. She spent a week in a psychiatric hospital followed by months of therapy. She’s still not the same. She is still drawn to it.
I’m not a prude, but I am very careful about what goes into my body. I’m not going to trust the same people who pushed opioids on us to tell me it’s safe.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Quite telling.
yeah, and who knows if those vape oils are polluted with something worse than just pesticides and fungicides - like maybe even with fentanyl (or other devious drugs), as Dr Y mentioned.
When the vape oils first came on the market, we know a woman in her 40s who lost her legs below the knees because of the Vitamin E Acetate they were then using as a preservative in the oils. If they were not smart enough to know what damage that would do to users when inhaled, why would they be any smarter about other chemicals they are using today?
Oklahoma, ironically, was infiltrated by Chinese cartels and the state has a hazardous waste mess to clean up when they left town, all while operating under the nose of local law enforcement.
wow, so sorry to hear about all this mayhem with yourself, your daughter and the other woman. i guess maybe it comes down to "when in doubt, don't". but i get it that everyone is so stressed and dysregulated these days that naturally we are all looking for something to help us cope. i think a big factor is the totally unregulated (and govt, media and big-telecom-driven) wireless radiation everywhere, including very close-range devices like cellphones & wifi.
Crack cocaine w hunter biden and Charlie sheen is another alternative?
My daughter also went into schizophrenia after taking up the habit and full blown panic attacks and still has mental disturbances 30 years later. Is it worth the risk of life long ruin? no
Uh huh, had to be that, no other possible reason(s). Case closed. Go have a Budweiser to celebrate noodling that out.
Good essay, and yes the current scene is a nationwide disaster. The addictiveness of the modern stuff is clear. The old 4 - 8% stuff was an entirely different beast - "Poems, Prayers and Promises" by John Denver covers it pretty well. There was more CBD in those also, with the synergy enabling a lot of precious bonding and easy laughter, rarely seen today.
The saddest part I think is the loss of its tremendous medical potential including massive benefits to conditions ranging from cancer to PTSD to Parkinson's. In right dosage, the increase in interoception and insight alone is powerful. Unfortunately, that dose has morphed from a couple (shared) tokes to the impossible 1/4 toke - and as you point out, that is only if one is lucky enough to find a strain not infinitely hybridized and chemicalized into poison.
I would add that we are also in extreme societal times where sacred plant medicines, used wisely, can still open up one's awareness to more agentic, holistic, transformational, and Earth-honoring possibilities than the online A I control grid being implemented by rich warmongering covid-foisting pedophiles at the wheel. Am I being paranoid? Naive? I still do think that even a few "stolen" moments of freedom remain priceless.
Having said this, everything you have written is true. And this makes it all a very ugly, complex situation demanding great care.
Where I end up is looking to other transformational technologies as more primary sources of self-unfoldment: ceremony, spirituality, shadow work circles, yoga, breathwork, meditation, nature immersions, hard work, fitness, empathic relationships, etc. The underlying need for self-actualization, for journeying, for transcendence (for literally being able to imagine a future at all!) should not be overlooked in the conversation. Finding strategies to meet this primal human need more directly with less cost - especially for youth whose souls are being neglected in so many ways - offers a healing path forward.
Thank you for this important essay.
lovely note
Excellent article.
Here in north Florida we were right in the middle of all the wild west sort of doings that were the marijuana trade in the 1960s, 70s and up to today.
There was great camaraderie among smugglers, growers and users, which I would now list as another part of the addictive nature, social validation.
"Best friends" from the past would no longer speak to me once I quit growing weed, getting high, and smuggling in the early1980s.
This was also about the time the cocaine guys showed up in force and these were not laid back hippie types like everyone in the weed scene. They were cold blooded killers intent on capturing the market over a pile of dead bodies.
The reasons I quit getting high were that I was building my first scrap metal business and it was glaringly obvious I was screwing up by having my decision making severely impaired by smoking weed.
The second motivator was the draconian confiscation laws put in place about the same time. Get caught with weed and they could automatically take everything you owned.
I didn't want to lose my property and business assets.
Not to mention doing time.
I had quit growing just in time.
Within the next year the black helicopters with infrared scanners showed up and a whole lot of growers were busted.
Learning now that so much of the counterculture was fabricated by the feds to stop the anti war movement makes me thankful I quit when I did without having life long consequences.
I would never go back to doing drugs if only for the reason mentioned here that they were a tool to fill the prisons with the people the system didn't like.
"they were a tool to fill the prisons with the people the system didn't like."
They sure were. That's drug war for ya.
All of these hyped scare stories. Not so scary for those of us around in the 70's. Reefer Madness is still showing. People demand anu laws be set for those scary exceptions and it it were the rule.
How many quibblers lined up for their warp speed clot shots? Essentially ALL of the Physicians and researchers and experts and their "studies" CLAMOURED over their "professional" resources said "safe and effective".
Here's one: This just in from more "experts": MJ is Baaaaad...VERY bad, you didn't know this because you are not wearing a while lab coat with a god complex...
The biotech company cannabis science has been using cannabis to cure cancer for years now. It also promotes neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells. After smoking it for 20 years, mensa told me my IQ was in the 96th percentile. It also promotes apoptosis which is how it cures cancer. Indoor growing doesn't increase the level of thc at all, selective breeding does.
We have thc receptors so our metabolism does use it for certain purposes. If your body doesn't need it anymore you stop reaching for it. It's not physically addictive and it was even announced on the radio in 1975 in the usa that it cures cancer. Growing your own is the safest way. You have certainly not researched this very well and seem to be quoting only govt sources. It's like you've been programmed to avoid lots of research on cannabis. I'd suggest you go to the cannabis science website and look at their success in curing the worst kinds of cancer. Rick Simpson in cannabis who was an ex chemist and then a farmer, cured his whole town in Canada with it. There's a documentary on it which documents the research you've failed to find. It's also been known since the 70s that it's good for epileptics. I used to have epilepsy. Sorry Robert, but this article is a load of bollocks because it is missing so many sources like you've been pushed to miss the research on benefits. Looks like you've been captured by the government to promote that it causes harm to stop people finding out the huge health benefits.Cannabis is also not physically addictive compound. Cannabis indica makes you sleepy, while sativa makes you talkative and energetic as you say.
Wherever you got your information, you've been fooled into missing the huge body of research that proves its benefits.
It's best to grow yourself so you don't have to use pesticides and can grow it organically without water contaminated with aluminium. You certainly haven't researched this well at all. Cannabis has also been shown to. The Dsm5 says a lot of things which are false. Cannabis users get use disorder because of the type of people they are, not because of cannabis use. Cannabis is proven to cause a lot of healing, especially cancer. In 1975 it was announced it cures cancer by govt scientists. Rick Simpson cured his whole town of cannabis. It's great for nausea too. Grow. Your own and your safe.
Promoting neurogenesis and apoptosis is a good thing. I had to smoke it every day for years due to chronic health issues which have now resolved and I no longer reach for it during the day. It is far safer and causes less social problems than alcohol as it doesn't cause violence like alcohol does.
There is no evidence it's physically addictive. It looks like you've been had.
Mark is my friend, so I will refrain from rebutting his viewpoint.
And you are mine of course
Mark saved my wife's life.
And it was a pleasure to do so, and built up my treasures in heaven a little bit more I'm sure.
Robert, I am betting 10 bucks against a potato you couldn''t, rebut anything Mark says about pot, given that you believe what you wrote above.
But it's nice to see you hold no grudges. :-)
Robert can write anything he wants. He is also entitled to change his mind about things in the future, but that gives you no reason to treat him with such disrespect.
Mark, I have no disrespect for Robert. If a piece of writing is terrible, I do say so sometimes. If I care enough. Here, I do.
I follow the ad hominem fallacy advice: attack the argument, not the person. Can you see the difference?
Erin, the biotech company curingsome of the worst kind of cancers is www.cannabisscience.com
I appreciate the link, Mark. Will check them out.
Where did Erin ever say he could not? Nowhere. For some reason, people seem to love to inject something never said to change the subject to have a conversation with themselves.
Erin also attacked Robert(not the argument) by suggesting he has priors he isn't mentioning. Do you see now how you've made a fool of yourself because you failed to fact check and read all Erin's comments. Opening yourself up to ridicule with your lack of understanding is not a good look
Right. Ask questions and get the shart-snark. Another apparent dimension of why the host won't bother.
It seems you're a bit confused about what ad hominem means. Perhaps you should actually find out the definition of ad hominem as Erin got it back to front, and you fell for it hook line and sinker, without checking.
Ad hominem, short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than the substance of the argument itself.
So ad hominem doesn't mean you are attacking the argument, it means you are attacking the person.
Looks like you need to do something about increasing your IQ so you aren't so gullible
More ad hominems. Another dimension on why your resident friend here won't bother commenting. Have a great day.
I don't have to rebut anything he says. It's already been rebutted by scientific research, and what an absolutely ridiculous comment you've made
What? I was talking to Robert. I'll go amend my comment. Sorry for the confusion, your stuff is right on.
I don't care who you wrote the comment to. There is something very wrong with your thought processes. I am a good friend of Roberts and the disease his wife suffered from would very likely not have been reversed without my knowledge and coaching
I’d actually like to hear a well reasoned debate- I think we all can agree that substances in developing brains is harmful but my friend group is full of intelligent , motivated, high achieving people that regularly (almost daily) consume THC as adults in some way - and they don’t drink alcohol — and they are all very fit as well, it’s hard to believe that this is a cut and dry “pot makes you lazy and stupid”. I’d love a good debate with sourced studies !
yet you say nothing when I scientifically debunk your whole article.
Mark, I am guessing Robert has priors he is not telling us about. Sad. But he is a sharp guy and so there is hope for him.. :-)
Thanks for the cancer info. Do you have a really good link on that?
You are guessing? That's pretty foolish and defamatory. There is certainly no hope for you. I've already provided the link you've requested. Perhaps you should just read it
My ex-husband is 73 and has been smoking pot since he was 14 yrs old. He worked very hard and never showed any side effects of his pot smoking but on the other hand, it was not easy, nor fun, to live with this. I think some people are wired differently and pot does not affect them in the same way as most others. He always remained focused and full of energy and ambition, etc. I smoked at that time, long ago now, and wanted to stop as it did affect me and I could not function well on it. I quit and never smoked it again. I am against it, as it is something all people use to alter their reality. That alone signifies immaturity and lack of ability to make good decisions for your life. I see these old users as very immature in many ways. They do not grow and mature like people should. That alone is why I hate the USE of marijuana on the scale it is used today. I see nothing good about any of it. The only use I see is when someone uses it to control nausea when they are very ill and from side effects of life saving drugs.
Usually the only people who advocate or like pot are the ones using it. They LOVE it. They never see the pitfalls and don't care about growth and maturity being halted. Thus, addiction is real.
I'm sure it's like other things, if you're using it every single day, it's best to take a look at yourself. If you use it irregularly it's an entirely different matter. I have orthopedic pain, and when I REALLY need a good night's sleep, I'll have some and sleep like a baby.
YES, A NEED FOR USING IT THERAPUETICALLY IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. It is not then abuse of a substance. My neighbor's son has cystic fibrosis and is on life saving drugs but they make him not able to eat as much as he should so he smokes a little pot which gives him an appetite. But most pot users are just getting high, as we all know.
Oh noes.
Oh wow!!! Thank you for that deep and knowledgeable response.
Well fantastic... but what about the 1.65 billion other humans who didn't experience 🤔 ex husbands fortunate ways.
I mean since 1946 there's been some awful things happening in the world to users of Zthc . Especially recently last 7 yrs ...
And add fuel to the fire but..
Just fyi
The mass causality shootings ..96% are from pharmA scripts..
Just not only may cause heart attack stroke erectile dysfunction and loss of hair. But I sychisosis phy s .. and other..
Buyer beware..
Drugs?
Not mustard on this hot dog please
I am against drug use if not necessary for health or pain issues. Just sharing my experience and what I have found to be true regarding pot smoking. The world is in a bad place and using drugs will never help.
Ty!!! well said well put!!
I won’t disagree with the points you have raised in this essay but you have failed to mention many aspects which have value: cannabis is very helpful to those with spasticity and muscle tension, nothing works better with fewer side effects. You mention the effect of additives such as fertilisers and sprayed on fentanyl etc and yet these are not quantified and are very relevant to the scientific analysis. You conflate the problems of smoking (burning) along with vaping and yet these two consumption methods are very different. Many of the people who have problems perceived to be caused by cannabis use already had mental illness problems and were looking to self medicate. In short, this is an interesting essay but woefully biased especially referencing the American market.
I suggest you go find a podcast or Youtube about how China has taken over the Marijuana growing trade in Maine and what the Chinese liberally spray all over the plants, fully unmonitored and unregulated. Things have changed. Its Russian roulette, and the wrong cocktail has life-altering consequences. God requires us to value the gift of life in every way. We dont poison our lungs with burning plants or take unnecessary risks.
I appreciate that cannabis is being grown and sold in an unhealthy way but that doesn’t mean the plant itself should be demonised. It’s very easy to grow in the garden and so you know the provenance. The audience for Robert’s Substack is multi national so confining it to a discussion of what happens in the American market and then extrapolate that to cannabis generally is as I said, biased.
If you can find seeds? They are carefully controlled.
I have seen many ads for seeds from Canada. But it takes skill to grow from seed. When you say sale of seeds is carefully controlled, what do you mean?
In Colorado, small plants that are cloned female, are available for purchase in some dispensaries. And for those who are concerned about how cannabis is grown, there are many dispensaries that sell what they grow, and will show you. Cannabis is an amazingly sturdy, hardy plant, insects and diseases rarely bother it outdoors, all it needs is water.
I haven’t smoked weed since I was a teen in the 70’s-80’s. Back then you could buy a lid for $10 and it had tons of seeds. I am a gardener I think it would be fun to grow. I grew it high school and it was easy. My husband has smoked weed for decades. He hasn’t found seeds in his weed since it became legal. So that is what I mean about it being controlled.
Oh so you mean quality control? That makes sense, most people don't want to pay for seeds.
Isn't it amazing how much one plant produces? The old Marin County pot growers had a gold mine.
STH, cannabis is called weed because it grows so easily! You just need to make sure it’s organically grown so you don’t have chemicals in the bud. Growing from seed is simple and nearly always works and the reason you don’t find seeds anymore is because the seeds you buy now are feminised so they don’t produce seeds unless you have a male plant - that’s where the control comes in because you definitely don’t want a male plant as it doesn’t produce the bud which is the strongest part of the plant. If you’ve grown tomatoes from seed then you can grow cannabis.
Yup! I grew tons when I was a 15yo
While there may be some merit in some of the author's comments, I have to strongly disagree with the premise that marijuana is bad. I have interviewed nearly 500 people on my Cannabis Health Radio podcast and many of those people were given only months to live primarily with a serious cancer diagnosis. In nearly 30 interviews with people who had brain tumors they all used cannabis and all but two of them are alive today. They didn't smoke cannabis or vape or consumed edibles. they used cannabis oil either orally or by suppository to avoid the psychoactive effect. To date, there have been 57,000 studies of cannabis. It's easy to cherry pick a study to support one's argument but to condemn a plant that has been used for thousands of years for health benefits is, to me, disingenuous.
I appreciate this article and the research behind it. Thanks doc. However, one also needs to look at the benefits of the plant itself, outside of the industry skulduggery.
I am in Canada, where cannabis is legal, right or wrong, there it is. The perps credited with making cannabis criminal - Carnigie, Anslinger, Rockefeller and the like were hell bent on besmirching its name in order to ring in the age of pharma. Apparently, these perps took one of God’s herbs that was used medicinally (as you mentioned), ruined its name, gave it a new name, “marijuana” (racist against Mexicans) and cleared out the competition for their new pharma products. The war against hippies was also in full swing.
One or more of them had a hand in that ridiculous fear porn movie, later called “Reefer Madness”, in order to dupe the public into thinking cannabis would cause you to murder your neighbour. And we all know how influential TVs can be. As you say, always about the money.
While cannabis may have some issues with the newer high THC strains and the developing brains of the young, its biggest side effect, in my experience, is a wild case of the giggles and wondering where the chips are. Of course, responsible folks would only partake after a long day when the potential of couch-lock would not be an issue. Nothing wrong with sleeping on a cloud either. Much better than popping sleeping pills. And as for being lazy, absolutely not if used properly, i.e., not for breakfast.
Who did those studies saying cannabis was harmful? The NIH was mentioned. Maybe it was Fauci? 🧐 Are we trusting anything that came out of there? Ditto for all the other mainstream agencies. What were their interests? Who paid for the studies? If they are saying this is bad, then I’m filling up my vape with fresh herb and pressing on. (Not those nasty e-vapes, a real vape, easy on the lungs.) I’ve also read that real tobacco, not with the additives in cigarettes, is also a miracle plant. I can see the same pattern here.
And what about those with cancer, when an appetite would be a miracle? What about the work of Rick Simpson (RSO) at curing cancer? He claimed the medicine was in the THC. Of course, used as a suppository, the TCH provided no high, which worked well for many. He also witnessed some with schizophrenia become well, while taking the herb. Did anyone study that, I wonder? If it was not that great, why did they run him out of Canada when he offered his cure, perhaps naively, to the cancer board?
So much skullduggery behind a medicinal herb, all at the hands of a perverted generation. I’m not buying it. There are those who grow cannabis organically in their yards, completely legal in Canada and elsewhere, to take the edge off of their anxiety in the evening. I also find CBD to be a miracle indeed. Fresh herb, juiced, has been known to be excellent for Crohn’s and colitis.
It may have some problems, if any of these studies are real and true, but its benefits cannot be denied. I once read that one would have to consume 1500 lbs of cannabis at once in order for it to kill them. Compare that to iatrogenic deaths and it’s looking quite good. A good giggle or two is well-needed these days anyway. 😉
That's a great comment and I appreciate it, but we have many medicinal options. And my opinion remains after doing all this work that the hazards and problems of cannabis outweigh the benefits. But again, thank you for the effort you put into your response, and it's another point of view.
The only way to kill someone with pot is to drop a bale of it from the roof on their head. Alcohol? Drink a smallish bottle of strong liquor all at once, and chances are huge you'll drop dead on the spot.
You do not mention how Cannabis oil with high THC has been shown to cure cancers. This does not create the "high" if given via suppository.
Supply references.
I think she is referring to RSO, aka Rick Simpson Oil, taken by the back door method. He has 2 books (poorly written, but he was not an author, so good on him for making this info public). There was also a documentary, pre-Covid times, following a woman with brain cancer. She was taking RSO but at the last minute caved to traditional treatment which in the end killed her (surprise). Apparently, when they checked for the cancer, not sure at what stage, it was already gone. Sorry, I can’t remember much more but this might still be found online. They sell RSO by syringe for the protocol in Canada (online) for about $1200 CAD.
A number of years ago a 7 year old had lymphoma in her chest. Chemo did not touch it. However RSO cured her and quickly.
Wow. That’s amazing.
I have read his book and watched his video. They are both very informative.
Look up Dr. Robert Melamede. There are several doctors in Israel who have verified this.
Dr. Ethan Russo is also a prestigious scientist involved with Cannabis. I found the book: The Survivor's Guide to Medical Cannabis by Regina Nelson, PhD
I read the above book and it was quite interesting.
https://www.cannabisscience.com/
Here's the references
I discovered by accident that THC is a bronchodilator. Some athletes use it pre workout to boost their endurance. It probably saved a vacation we took to hike in CO as a family member couldn't comfortably breathe due to the altitude and nearly had panic attacks. Next day we took 1/2 2.5 edibles and were hiking like the locals with minimal (or no high). The only situation I would advocate using it... for me. I don't like the feeling and the new strains are so unpredictable I refuse to drop $60-100 for an experiment that's likely going to fail. Marijuana anonymous is a fairly new thing and growing! Pharma ultimately gets another pay out as they probably get those addicted on some form of antipsychotic to "treat" their dependency.
On your last point, thats exactly how the rehab centers work, and it becomes a wicked cycle for addicts in and out of rehab clinics until all their resources, or more often, their family's are drained.
Oh I know from experience! It's a wicked system. I pushed back hard and hopefully was part of the reason the medical director was fired.
Yes, it's been shown to counter the effects of tobacco use. Best is 15-20% THC which can be calculated with a formula
Thank you, Dr. Yoho, for this deep dive into the history behind cannabis!
When I first opened it, I thought I would just skim over a little bit and move on to the next email. As I started, it became so intriguing and interesting that I couldn’t move on!
I’m over 54 years in recovery and hadn’t realized how dangerous the simple pot that I smoked in my teens had become. Now I know how and why it is damaging our youth.
I will be passing this along to my children, who don’t use drugs, for the benefit of my grandchildren. I hope and pray that anyone else who reads this does the same!
THANKS Rob foe this reminder! It is incredible that such an OLD plant which gave humanity food, clothing, fuel and so much more, is being used to, according to this title, turn people well, into idiots.. I'm not familiar with the details of temperature influence on the THC level, but that alone is totally scary:
- https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/the-rise-of-gmo-hemp-the-latest-approval-by-the-usda-on-badger-g-with-0-thccbd
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajherrington/2022/06/22/new-gene-technology-allows-growers-to-boost-thc-levels-in-cannabis/
- https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/cjb-2023-0084
genetic modifications of anything NATURAL will end up cancerous..
This is a shocking hatchet job, Robert, damaging trust in other things you evaluate. You dwell on the negatives; there is no section of your article that lists the positives which have been heavily documented, from being an effective anti-emetic for cancer patients for whom the usual ondansetron pills et al quit working, to neuropathic pain, to anti-epilepsy, all the way to sleep aids. A whole book could be written about the good effects.
You rehash the argument from the 80s drug warriors -- omg, the stuff is stronger! Well, if it's stronger, you need less of it. Which is good news for the users, esp. if they smoke it. Always has been. It needs care in its use -- of course it does. But it will never poison you or kill you like alcohol, which needs a lot more care in its use.
That said, I am against any use by kids. Alcohol, tobacco, pot, or pharma pills.
Edit: All the more shocking since there seems to be visual documentation that pot helps substantially in Parkinson's tremors. Interested? Look it up on YT.
Thanks for your comment, Erin. I don't find it convincing, but I appreciate the effort you've taken, and of course, I've seen those Parkinson's improvements on YouTube, and I have tried smoking pot, and it doesn't work for me. Best and wait for what I do to alcohol in a few weeks.
Your argumentation sucks, Robert. That is my overall point. Pot is stronger? People use less. Stays in the body for a bit? So does ginseng, valerian, echinacea and St John's Wort. So what? Dispensaries next to schools? Not in Colorado. Triggers psychosis? So does alcohol. So do many forms of stress. And so on and so on.
You have nothing. Just a rehash of the old drug warrior nonsense. And apparently no interest to engage on the substance.
Sorry to hear it does not help the tremors in your case.
Thanks for being here and I appreciate what you have to say despite disagreeing.
You are so correct!
When we were pitched the legalization of marijuana in CA, I was thinking it would be the stuff from the 80s and 90s. Those that pushed for the legalization must have known it was already lethal. As Dr. Yoho writes, follow the money. I know kids whose futures were derailed by doing weed in high school. Schizophrenic episodes are real. A young guy who should be at Yale is going to community college because of his mental instability. Luckily, my kid, like me, didn't like weed because it caused anxiety. At our local dog park, young guys think nothing of vaping/smoking in the morning. Can you imagine if someone were popping open a beer that early?
What about CBD oil ... the full or broad spectrum ones. I see several cancer protocols (including Joe Tippens original protocol) that use CBD oil, so just curious. Thanks.
harmless
Thank you for the reply.
A lot of CBD will have a small amount of THC.