South Dakotans have been to the ballot box on multiple occasions over the past few decades regarding recreational marijuana legalization. It nearly passed during my time in the Legislature back in the 1990’s, took a hiatus for a while then passed, along with medical marijuana, a couple of elections back only to be fought in the courts by Governor Noem. This past election recreational marijuana was back on the ballot and narrowly failed to pass. There’s talk of it being back on the ballot again soon.
As the last election approached, the City of Mitchell and other South Dakota municipalities were gearing up for the advent of legal wacky weed. Now that it is only medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription, the allure of owning and running a dispensary has worn off. The Shopko building, which was to be a dispensary, has been sold to Krohmer Plumbing which intends to use it as their new corporate headquarters and perhaps a commercial showroom. The former Runnings building was to be a marijuana dispensary, but the rumor mill has it because recreational legalization didn’t go through, that building is now shortly to be for sale again.
Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University did a twenty-year study (2000-2020) on cannabis use by teens and adolescents in this country. They found that cannabis use among youngsters increased by 245% in that twenty-year span largely due to legalization efforts throughout the country. Boys outnumbered girls in terms of regular usage 58% to 42% and 80% of the marijuana consumption took place between the ages of 13 and 18. Legalization in many states made the drug more available and accessible much like cigarettes and alcohol are legal for adults and, while not legal, acquirable for kids currently.
In a study by the University of Washington in conjunction with the Washington State Health Care Authority shows the potency of pot, since legalization, has jumped from 4% to 15%. The increased potency of pot has led to uncontrollable vomiting, paranoia and panic attacks in some people. For everyone, that level of potency is the equivalent to consuming 190 proof alcohol, according to that same Washington study. Researchers also say that level of potency brings more health hazards including the increased risk of addiction for all and for those under the age of 30 much greater risks of psychiatric disorders and psychiatric “breaks” lasting a lifetime.
In 2017, the National Academy of Medicine released a report called “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids” and concluded; “Cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.” The study also suggests that adolescents that use marijuana increase their risk of developing schizophrenia as much as six times more than teens who never use marijuana. Crime data shows that men with schizophrenia are five times more likely to commit violent crime. In addition, the National Academy of Medicine tested the efficacy of cannabis in the treatment of disease and found no evidence, other than a placebo effect, that the drug has any useful application as a therapy and in some cases may make the condition it’s supposed to treat worse.
Research published in 2020 by the National Health Service in Britain, called the Genetics and Psychotic Disorder study, has found that frequent marijuana use causes psychosis. It’s like lung cancer in smokers. One doesn’t immediately have lung cancer due to smoking; it develops over time until “suddenly” one has cancer. The same is true for psychosis and marijuana. By the way, smoking marijuana is worse for your lungs than tobacco cigarettes. Mental illness, impaired cognitive and motor skills, lung and potentially other cancers all for a mere placebo effect of pain relief.
Another study published in a 2013 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that teens who used marijuana (but not alcohol as well) were three times more like to be physically aggressive than non-users and teens that used both marijuana and alcohol were six times more likely to be physically aggressive. Marijuana legalization, even for medical reasons, is a terrible idea.
President John F. Kennedy was a basket case medically. The man suffered from an adrenal gland deficiency known as Addison’s Disease. He had a congenital back condition from birth, aggravated but not caused by his service in World War II. He had the Last Rites of the Catholic Church three times as he lingered at Death’s door due to his poor health at various times in his life. He received Last Rites the fourth time as he lay on the gurney being worked on by surgeons at Parkland Hospital in Dallas after he was shot twice by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. In earlier, happier times when Kennedy was gearing up for reelection the Secret Service was making plans to install ramps into the White House knowing that President Kennedy would be disabled in some way by his various maladies before his second term concluded. Kennedy took care to project a youthful, healthy, athletic image to the American public. To that end, he sought care to help him maintain his “vigor” as he like to put it, even if he couldn’t actually improve medically.
One of the doctors to treat him was Dr. Max Jacobson, whom the Secret Service dubbed “Dr. Feel Good”. Dr. Jacobson treated Kennedy with a mixture of amphetamines, steroids and “secret ingredients”. Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy’s younger brother and Attorney General, swiped some of the secret elixir and had it analyzed by the Food and Drug Administration. Robert told John that he couldn’t take it anymore, based on the ingredients in the concoction, to which President Kennedy replied, “I don’t care if it’s horse piss. It makes me feel better.”
People today have much the same reaction to marijuana. Smoking it is worse for you than smoking cigarettes in terms of what it does to one’s lungs. The impact of its use is the same as abusing alcohol. Medically, marijuana really does nothing for you in terms of curative treatment. It is dangerous for adolescents’ long term mental health. It increases impairment, at work and on the road, leading to death and injury. Why is it legal at all and why are we continually interested in pursuing recreational legalization, expanding access and endangering children and others?
When most people quote John Kennedy, it is from his Inaugural Address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” When marijuana legalization advocates quote John Kennedy it is this, “I don’t care if it’s horse piss. It makes me feel better.”
Modern medicine can do better than marijuana and it has; let’s stick with that instead of quack cures supported solely by anecdotal testimonials, backed only by those hoping to make beaucoup bucks.