Podcast Are Higher THC Percentages Causing Serious Mental Health Problems?

[RUC4]

Lethal Pot: It's not your mama's weed
(with Laura Stack)

The Michael Savage Show (episode #493)
11 November 2022

excerpts:

"Emergency rooms nationwide are seeing a shocking rise in hospitalizations due to high potency THC. Laura Stack joins Savage to warn about the dangers of modern day marijuana and how she lost her 19-year-old son, Johnny, in a marijuana related death. Hear about the hospitalizations, doobie boobies, and other horror stories caused by this so-called "harmless" drug."

Michael Savage interviews Laura Stack about the suicide of her 19-year-old son, which she believes was caused by smoking products with high percentages of THC. They lived in the state of Colorado, but she talks about a similar situation happening in California, and other states that was made marijuana legal. She says her son started vaping THC at the age of 14. He went on to smoke dabs of THC and CBD, although the day of his suicide he was only smoking CBD. She says her son was incredibly gifted and intelligent, working hard in school to earn good grades, but when he started smoking THC/CBD, his brain was affected negatively. He started having metal health issues. He was increasingly paranoid, thinking the FBI was watching him and sending him special codes. The day he killed himself, by jumping off the 6th floor in a parking garage, he thought the FBI sent him a code of numbers that indicated he would not be hurt when he jumped, so he jumped as if he could fly and lost his life.

She goes on to discuss how the percentages of THC in products has gone up from 3-5% (in the 1950's-70's), to 20 something even up to 40% pure THC. She thinks the rising percentages of THC are the reason for the substantial increase in suicides among 18-24-year-old males in Colorado. Suicide is now the leading cause of death in the state, she claims. She goes on to talk about the rising number of emergency room visits from THC-related illnesses, mental health issues being the largest portion. Psychosis, hallucinations, and even violent behavior are the result of consuming large amounts of THC. She also believes you can overload certain cannabinoids receptors in the brain causing death or loss of brain function.


Does anyone here in DPMC agree with her opinion? Are the super high THC/CBD percentages becoming a problem? Is it simply coincidence in this case; would her son have struggled with mental illness regardless of smoking anything? Do current high percentages of THC/CBD cause brain issues and mental health decline?

 

[Cream Gravy?]

She also believes you can overload certain cannabinoids receptors in the brain causing death or loss of brain function.

She thinks the rising percentages of THC are the reason for the substantial increase in suicides among 18-24-year-old males in Colorado.

It couldn't POSSIBLY be that the world is in a shit state of existence and young people see no future for themselves as a result. No. It must be the mary jane!!!

If I was a teen right now, I'd have very little hope that I'd live to be 70 years of age. I'd be suicidal just looking at climate change if I was them. I'm 30 so way I figure when shit gets real bad in 50 or so years, I'll just be dead. So it's the next gen's problem... poor young people I used to recycle plastic hardcore, sorted and cleaned it and all. Then I read the other day that over 90% of plastics sent to be recycled never end up being recycled so... now I just throw it in the trash unless it's a number 5. I try not to buy plastic but it's everywhere.

So yeah. How can anyone blame fuckin' cannabis for teens being depressed? They have no future, no prospects. They are rapidly approaching a future with no rights or liberties and a world on fire. I really feel for them.

Also some of the most well adjusted, contented people I know smoked as early as twelve years old, and one in particular had connections through his family to the dankest weed I've ever had. He's a correctional officer now with a paid off truck, good salary, dirt bike for weekends, and has no debt. Yep, weed surrrre did fuck his life up!

 

[RUC4]

Also some of the most well adjusted, contented people I know smoked as early as twelve years old, and one in particular had connections through his family to the dankest weed I've ever had. He's a correctional officer now with a paid off truck, good salary, dirt bike for weekends, and has no debt. Yep, weed surrrre did fuck his life up!

If you’re referring to someone who has been smoking since they were 12 and are now grown, that’s not what she’s talking about. She’s talking about what people are smoking now. She’s saying the percentages in weed now are so high they are causing serious mental health issues.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

If you’re referring to someone who has been smoking since they were 12 and are now grown, that’s not what she’s talking about. She’s talking about what people are smoking now. She’s saying the percentages in weed now are so high they are causing serious mental health issues.

But that’s what I mean. My buddy who started at twelve had access to better weed than any kids in Colorado do today. His connections went high up in a place where good, very strong weed flowed freely and we would smoke several grams daily. Strong weed didn’t just spring up with legalization, it was here since maybe the late 90s.

 

[G_Chem]

Yea I’ve honestly been smoking cannabis that’s just as good as it is today… Since I was 15. I’ll be hitting 2 decades of pretty much non-stop smoking here soon. The weed has not honestly changed that much, if anything it just feels like the terpenes have gotten better.

One of my uncles was also a rural farm guy who had been working with genetics that hadn’t changed much since at least the 80’s. I’ve smoked genetics that people have been able to isolate and retain to the best of their ability. And while the taste/flavor was bland compared to many modern strains, the high was intense and unique actually. I miss that weed…

On top of this pretty much my entire family has started smoking young and been smoking. My dad started around 12, he’s in his late 60’s and claims the weed nowadays while good still is missing something the old Columbian Gold had. My two brothers, etc.

Unfortunately like many eye opening drugs, cannabis can bring forth already hidden within mental illnesses. For gods sakes the kid wasn’t even high on actual THC the day he supposedly got the codes, his mental illness would likely have come about regardless.

I know one person who lost their shit in a very similar manner. If you were to look from the outside in you too would look at it like this case. Poor kid did too many drugs and became a schizophrenic. But for someone like me who watched this kid grow up, the signs were there. When all the kids would play fight, he’d always become overtly violent to the point where us older kids would have to break him up and hold him down until his anger faded. He’d bite, scratch, hurt you in any way he could, we called him a wild animal. Once he got into middle school normalcy kicked in until he started using drugs in early high school. Then it all unraveled.

I feel for this woman but also tired of these (often times women unfortunately) folks that lose a kid and then instead of seeing the facts for what they are, go on life long mission to demonize something else in an effort to relieve their own emotions around it all. They can’t accept maybe there was just something wrong with their “brilliant perfect child.”

The only thing I’ll say is different about weed now is accessibility. The sheer quantity and price of it is like never before, not the potency. It’s like our current meth problem. Got folks smoking a gram of day and it costs them peanuts on the dollar then wonder why they can’t get high on this neurotoxic substance they’ve been consuming like water.

-GC

 

[RUC4]

But that’s what I mean. My buddy who started at twelve had access to better weed than any kids in Colorado do today. His connections went high up in a place where good, very strong weed flowed freely and we would smoke several grams daily. Strong weed didn’t just spring up with legalization, it was here since maybe the late 90s.

Yes of course strong weed has been around for a long time. But people just recently started messing with the chemicals to isolate certain cannabinoids and increase them.

For example, now I can buy a disposable vape with 98% THC. There has never been a time in history a plant produced percentages that high, maybe 40-something percent.

 

[RUC4]

I feel for this woman but also tired of these (often times women unfortunately) folks that lose a kid and then instead of seeing the facts for what they are, go on life long mission to demonize something else in an effort to relieve their own emotions around it all. They can’t accept maybe there was just something wrong with their “brilliant perfect child.”

Exactly. He could have been doing all kinds of drugs. We don’t know. There isn’t enough information for causation, and I think it’s very possible that different people respond differently to different things.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

Even when looking at concentrates, I just don’t think THC can cause these problems. People are quick to blame drugs, “Oh my brother took lsd when he was 17 so he became schizophrenic. And by the way I’m not gonna talk about the fact that our grandad and his grandad were schizophrenic. Nope, must’ve been the acid!”

I just don’t buy it. Cannabinoids are by and large safe as fuck.

 

[G_Chem]

At the end of the day this is only a couple isolated cases, aspirin kills 3000 people a year and no one says a word. It’s all relative. Here’s a UK study..

From 1998-2020..

“Death following cannabis use alone was rare (4% of cases, n = 136/3455). Traumatic injury was the prevalent underlying cause in these cases (62%, n = 84/136), with cannabis toxicity cited in a single case.”

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02698811221115760

Theres no two ways around it, cannabis is a very safe drug.

-GC

 

[xtcgrrrl]

I'd be suicidal just looking at climate change if I was them.

Can confirm. I have already taken one kid to the ER for suicide so far. The other teenager won’t even talk to me about climate change; she just doesn’t wanna hear it. My fucking TEN YEAR OLD told me he felt suicidal, last year, during COVID. This is some real shit.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

If you're dumb enough to go to the hospital for weed they should just euthanize you on the spot.

 

[Pissed_and_messed]

while that's not the harshest ableist shit, I consider that rather nasty and narrow-minded and it slightly pisses me off because it is not funny either

 

[Fire&Water]

At the end of the day this is only a couple isolated cases, aspirin kills 3000 people a year and no one says a word. It’s all relative. Here’s a UK study..

From 1998-2020..

“Death following cannabis use alone was rare (4% of cases, n = 136/3455). Traumatic injury was the prevalent underlying cause in these cases (62%, n = 84/136), with cannabis toxicity cited in a single case.”

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02698811221115760

Theres no two ways around it, cannabis is a very safe drug.

-GC

Yah, they gave up warning that you can't take more than 60-80 mgs a day
200 + keeps their customer base flowing

 

[arrall]

If you’re referring to someone who has been smoking since they were 12 and are now grown, that’s not what she’s talking about. She’s talking about what people are smoking now. She’s saying the percentages in weed now are so high they are causing serious mental health issues.

There is no scientific evidence that THC percentages have increased significantly in the past few decades.

This is a myth that has unfortunately been widely perpetuated without any concrete evidence.

 

[BourbonMac]

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence, but it's true that you could probably get weed around 15% THC even in the 70s. It would just look like shit, the stuff from high times magazine looks like dead rats. I'm sure a lot of landrace strains had naturally higher percentages, but I'm sure a lot about growing properly was not well known or equipment to do so was not as easy to come across or available for good indoor growing. People just learned how to grow better really. It seems most people just went with hash in those days since it was basically as potent as the most potent bud nowadays.

As for mental health problems, that's really on the individual. If it's causing their mental health to go badly they shouldn't smoke it and probably have a pre-existing condition, or they simply smoke/vape too much with no tolerance. That can cause anyone to get bad anxiety but it should only last during the high.

Statistically a lot of people get anxiety/paranoia while high, but most of them that would go away if they simply consumed less gradually until they build a tolerance. Either way, it just isn't for some people. I don't think higher THC percentage matters at all.

 

[G_Chem]

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence, but it's true that you could probably get weed around 15% THC even in the 70s. It would just look like shit, the stuff from high times magazine looks like dead rats. I'm sure a lot of landrace strains had naturally higher percentages, but I'm sure a lot about growing properly was not well known or equipment to do so was not as easy to come across or available for good indoor growing. People just learned how to grow better really. It seems most people just went with hash in those days since it was basically as potent as the most potent bud nowadays.

As for mental health problems, that's really on the individual. If it's causing their mental health to go badly they shouldn't smoke it and probably have a pre-existing condition, or they simply smoke/vape too much with no tolerance. That can cause anyone to get bad anxiety but it should only last during the high.

Statistically a lot of people get anxiety/paranoia while high, but most of them that would go away if they simply consumed less gradually until they build a tolerance. Either way, it just isn't for some people. I don't think higher THC percentage matters at all.

Yea it may look better today but looks aren’t everything. The strains I tried which had be retained for decades looked like shit too. They had no color, mostly brown. Not a huge amount of trichromes either, but the flower and hash got me high as fuck.

When I go into a shop I looks are only half of it for me, smell is the biggest indicator. Usually a higher terpene content means more cannabinoids too. I also don’t shop by percentages either. I’ve had times where I’ll get a 12% and a 21% and the 12% hits harder and better. Cannabis is a complex assortment of various compounds that come together in a beautiful way.

I think if anything weed back then probably wasn’t as reliably good, I’m assuming there were folks that smoked ditch and folks that smoked fire. Now it’s all fire, in the US at least.

-GC

 

[The Shadow Self]

Marijuana-related ER visits rising dramatically, edibles sparking particular concerns

ER visits tied to marijuana have risen dramatically in Colorado since legalization and people using edibles suffered toxic reactions – including cardiac and psychiatric problems – at much higher rates than those smoking marijuana, according to a groundbreaking new study from researchers at the...

www.uchealth.org

"Warning Network (DAWN) from a report issued on February 22, 2013, there were 455,668 ER visits related to use of marijuana in the past year The only illicit drug that had a higher number of visits was cocaine, with just over half a million. Among people aged 12 to 24, marijuana was by far the top drug sending people to emergency rooms."

Old numbers, from about 10 years ago above.

https://medshadow.org/marijuana-cannabis-legalization-er/

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-28/odds-for-emergency-room-visits-rise-with-pot-use

San Diego ERs seeing up to 37 marijuana cases a day — mostly psychosis

Absent regulations on THC, legal marijuana products are leading to more medical emergencies — namely, psychosis — and even death.

nypost.com

Emergency Room visits or hospitalizations increased by 22% in marijuana users, compared to non-users, CNN reports

“The Truth About Marijuana” free booklet gives valuable information for teachers, youth, parents, and grandparents to help avoid unnecessary medical issues

www.einnews.com

Marijuana Statistics | Cannabis Use Disorders Facts & Figures

About 24 million people currently use marijuana, making it the most popular illicit drug in America.

www.orlandorecovery.com

2022 Teens and Drug-Related Emergency Room Visit Rates and Statistics

Statistics on Emergency Room visits due to teen drug abuse and read about the most commonly abused drugs treated in the ER.

www.therecoveryvillage.com

Recreational Marijuana Legalization Tied to More Pediatric ED Visits

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Legalization of commercial cannabis edibles was associated with a significant increase in the frequency and severit

consumer.healthday.com

Today's Marijuana is "More Potent" and May be More Dangerous, Says New Research

Experts explain what to know about high potency cannabis and damaging side effects that could happen as a result of taking it.

www.eatthis.com

Marijuana users more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization, study finds

Story at a glance Cannabis users were 22 percent more likely than those who don’t use to land in the emergency room or become hospitalized for any reason, suggesting use of the drug may be ass…

thehill.com

"Some research suggests using cannabis at a younger age could increase the risk of psychosis.
According to several older studiesTrusted Source, people who begin using cannabis in adolescence are more likely to experience symptoms of psychosis or receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia later in life. Cannabis use could also factor into the age you begin to experience symptoms of psychosis.
A 2011 reviewTrusted Source of 83 studies found support for a link between cannabis use and earlier onset of psychosis. In other words, experts believe regular cannabis use could trigger an earlier development of schizophrenia or other mental health conditions that involve psychosis.
Research from 2013Trusted Source also suggests a link between cannabis use and onset of psychosis: Study participants who used high-potency cannabis on a daily basis developed symptoms of psychosis, on average, 6 years earlier than those who didn’t use cannabis at all."

Just some info.

 

[G_Chem]

Marijuana-related ER visits rising dramatically, edibles sparking particular concerns

ER visits tied to marijuana have risen dramatically in Colorado since legalization and people using edibles suffered toxic reactions – including cardiac and psychiatric problems – at much higher rates than those smoking marijuana, according to a groundbreaking new study from researchers at the...

www.uchealth.org

"Warning Network (DAWN) from a report issued on February 22, 2013, there were 455,668 ER visits related to use of marijuana in the past year The only illicit drug that had a higher number of visits was cocaine, with just over half a million. Among people aged 12 to 24, marijuana was by far the top drug sending people to emergency rooms."

Old numbers, from about 10 years ago above.

https://medshadow.org/marijuana-cannabis-legalization-er/

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-28/odds-for-emergency-room-visits-rise-with-pot-use

San Diego ERs seeing up to 37 marijuana cases a day — mostly psychosis

Absent regulations on THC, legal marijuana products are leading to more medical emergencies — namely, psychosis — and even death.

nypost.com

Emergency Room visits or hospitalizations increased by 22% in marijuana users, compared to non-users, CNN reports

“The Truth About Marijuana” free booklet gives valuable information for teachers, youth, parents, and grandparents to help avoid unnecessary medical issues

www.einnews.com

Marijuana Statistics | Cannabis Use Disorders Facts & Figures

About 24 million people currently use marijuana, making it the most popular illicit drug in America.

www.orlandorecovery.com

2022 Teens and Drug-Related Emergency Room Visit Rates and Statistics

Statistics on Emergency Room visits due to teen drug abuse and read about the most commonly abused drugs treated in the ER.

www.therecoveryvillage.com

Recreational Marijuana Legalization Tied to More Pediatric ED Visits

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Legalization of commercial cannabis edibles was associated with a significant increase in the frequency and severit

consumer.healthday.com

Today's Marijuana is "More Potent" and May be More Dangerous, Says New Research

Experts explain what to know about high potency cannabis and damaging side effects that could happen as a result of taking it.

www.eatthis.com

Marijuana users more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization, study finds

Story at a glance Cannabis users were 22 percent more likely than those who don’t use to land in the emergency room or become hospitalized for any reason, suggesting use of the drug may be ass…

thehill.com

Just some info.

Yes, unnecessary ER visits..

Cannabis is known the world over to induce some very strong anxiety in some people at some times. I’ve had it happen to me, I thought someone slipped Salvia in the bowl on one occasion it was so bad. I fell to the bathroom floor and curled into a ball.

I can see people viewing those moments as necessary for an ER visit, but they weren’t. People should not be going to the ER unless it is life or limb, just because you think it is doesn’t make it so.

On the other hand, complications with cocaine can be very dangerous.

I feel it necessary to also point out just as you did that this was a decade ago. Right when cannabis first became legal, there was a learning curve as to be expected.

-GC

 

[The Shadow Self]

Well, yeah. But they are still ending up there, whether anyone disagrees with it or not. And there is definitely a connection being made in many studies between the onset of psychotic episodes and other MH disorders in younger, vulnerable populations. So in the end, the trips to the ER, either way, are going to more likely be a psychiatric admission versus a proper "medical crisis" that puts people at risk for death. This is happening in ERs all across the country and it is not a secret at all. People go to ERs for psychiatric assessments all the time, which are not "life or limb" decisions, per se. Not in the traditional sense.

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

if i was selling the weed, then i'd be the one causing mental issues....but since it's the state selling it now, it's no big deal